The Hindu Editorial Analysis | 28th October ’21 | PDF Download

Let’s Aim for Zero by 2060 | ET

• India should commit itself to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2060 — not as surrender to blackmail or pressure, not as a concession, but as an expression of responsible global citizenship, technological prowess and growth ambition.

• The world is already warmer than pre-industrial levels by 1.09° C and witness to the damage warming can cause.
• Much of the South Asian coastline is at risk of sea erosion, if not outright submergence.
• If a chunk of Bangladesh or Mumbai goes under water, the resultant loss, migration and chaos can well be imagined.

• Combating climate change is a global challenge.
• Under the Paris climate agreement of 2015, rich nations are supposed to transfer climate-friendly technology to poor ones, along with funds.
• India represents one-sixth of humanity and has the largest cohort of young people who can be trained in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and the creative arts, whose imaginative, innovative combination alone can halt, if not reverse, climate change.

• New technology is called for in mitigation.

• Developing new varieties of crops – altered climatic conditions
• Fortification
• Developing green ways to stay cool or stave off freezing

• Silicon Valley is the product of American defence forces’ new tech requirements, post World War 2, their willingness to fund projects that held promise and Stanford University’s readiness to turn research into business and bright students into entrepreneurs.
• Capital in bounteous amounts is now available, unlike in Silicon Valley’s beginnings.
• The institutional framework for growing and recycling capital — spanning angel funds, venture funds, private equity public markets and suitable regulation and taxation — is way more developed.
• Good ideas, seed funding and young entrepreneurs are what we need.
• Nuclear energy, fusion as well as fission, is clearly a big part of the clean energy solution.
• India must speed up its fastbreeder plans that make use of indigenously available thorium.
• Various bits of both kinds of nuclear energy call for startup solutions.
• Storage batteries, stored hydel and hydrogen are mainstream answers to the intermittency of renewables.
• The net zero world is full of opportunity.
• That apart, India cannot ask the rich world to adopt net negative, removing carbon from the air in proportion to their contribution of the stuff, without undertaking net zero, either.

A credible probe | TH

• The Supreme Court order instituting an independent probe into the possible use of Israeli spyware Pegasus is an effective intervention to protect citizens from unlawful surveillance, as well as a stern rebuff to the Government’s attempt to cover up the issue by using the bogey of ‘national security’.
• Revelations that nearly 300 of some 50,000 phone numbers allegedly identified for surveillance belonged to Indians.

1. Surveillance, or even the knowledge that one could be spied upon, affects the way individuals exercise their rights, warranting the Court’s intervention
2. There is no omnibus prohibition on judicial review merely because the spectre of national security is being raised

• Intrusive surveillance not only violates the right to privacy but also has a chilling effect on the freedom of the press.
• When damning revelations emerged that many phones of journalists, activists and even doctors and court staff were targets of military-grade spyware designed not only to grab data but also take control of devices, the Government ought to have responded, as some nations did, with alarm and alacrity.
• Instead, it resorted to a bald claim that illegal surveillance is not possible in India, and that the disclosure of whether or not a particular software suite was used by its agencies would compromise national security.
• What is quite appalling is that the Government was unwilling even to disclose what action had been taken after it admitted in Parliament in 2019 that it was aware of some WhatsApp users being targeted by Pegasus.
• The Court-supervised panel appears to have the required expertise and independence, but its success in unravelling the truth may depend on how much information it can extract from the Government and its surveillance agencies.

Right to marry | Pioneer

• The Union Government is unlikely to support legal sanctions to same-sex marriages.
• Its stand in the Delhi High Court hearing a bunch of cases to approve such marriages is consistently against them.
• Solicitor General Tushar Mehta explained the Government’s stand in the Court once again this week.
• For him, a spouse means husband and wife, as in a heterosexual couple.
• In the same case this February, the Centre said marriage depends on “age-old customs, rituals, practices, cultural ethos and societal values”.
  1. It is for the legislature, not judiciary, to enforce “social morality” based on “Indian ethos” that sanctions marriage
  2. Marriage happens between two individuals and does not fall under an individual’s domain of privacy
  3. Marriage is a public recognition of a relationship and statutory rights and obligations are attached to it
  4. Same-sex individuals living together is incomparable with the concept of “Indian family unit” which means husband, wife and child
• The Centre insists that the marriage of same-sex individuals can neither be a fundamental right nor can the right to privacy be extended to it.
• The Centre’s argument draws strength from what the Supreme Court did not say in its landmark 2018 judgment in the Navtej Singh Johar vs Union of India case.
• The Court struck down section 377 of the IPC that criminalised consensual sex between same-sex individuals.
• It said the Section “prohibits LGBT persons from expressing their sexual orientation and engaging in sexual conduct in private….”
• The Court decriminalised such consensual sex in ‘private’ but did not legalise ‘public’ actions like marriages between such couples.
• Homosexuals, by extending the same logic, cannot be deprived of the reality of falling in love, getting married and living just like heterosexual couples.
• The rights and choices of the individual matter more than gender.
• Glass ceilings are being broken by women and now by members of the LGBT community.
• Adoption of children is as legal as natural procreation.
• Live-in relationships may be considered immoral by some but that they are not an offence in the eye of law.
• Society is made up of all kinds of individuals with exclusive rights to none. And no tradition is ever written in stone.

A world minus ads | Pioneer

• In a land of matchless diversity, where 138 crore people live, it is perhaps not surprising that social conflicts run along several lines including caste, class, gender, language and religion.
• In the case of Fabindia, people protested against the use of the words “Jashn-e-riwaaz” for a new collection of clothes ahead of Deepavali.
• The brand later clarified that all its products in “Jashn-e-riwaaz” are “a celebration of Indian traditions” and that its Deepavali collection was yet to be launched.
• #NoBindiNoBusiness – protest against the models in the ad without bindis
• Dabur’s Fem brand had to pull out a Karwa Chauth ad which showed a same-sex couple observing the rituals.
• If advertising is about selling a product, no company will willingly put out a campaign that may hurt its brand.
• The messaging must be sensitive, and that comes when a marketing team has its ear to the ground.
• It is nothing unusual for some ad campaigns to fail.
• But, worryingly, many brands have had to withdraw their campaign material after manufactured social media outrage that was fed by intolerance of progressive values and religious bigotry of the worst order.

How Air India fell short of the runway | Pioneer

• The plight of Air India would not have dipped so low had a 1983 advice given in a national daily been followed.
• The company might be Government owned but three or four, preferably six or seven or more financial institutions beginning with LIC, Unit Trust, IDBI and nationalised banks should have held Air India through share.
• They would be entitled to dividends, if any.

• The company would be a member of the stock exchanges as well as chambers of commerce.
• Their senior representatives would attend the shareholders’ meetings et al.
• The premier airline was a business and it should have been run as such and not like a zamindari.
• Companies owned and run by the Government are euphemistically called “public sector” without the realisation that it is an appendix of State capitalism.
• Another set of contributors to the sickness of Air India was the VIPs and ministers, whose recommendations had to be implemented.
• People in Government seldom appreciate that overheads can bring down companies.
• As soon as UPA-I came to power in 2004, a minister took off to Europe and bought a large number of aircraft.
• He repeated his performance soon thereafter by flying to the USA to acquire Boeing aircraft for Air India.
• The earlier lot of Airbus planes were for Indian Airlines.
• To top up his exploits, he had both the airlines amalgamated.
• The bitter Air India experience need not forever condemn public money being invested in industry.
• In the liberal days of Indira Gandhi onwards, it was easy to borrow money from the bigger banks.
• PM Modi re-affirms India’s focus on a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific; Addresses 16th East Asia Summit virtually
• Home Minister Amit Shah says projects initiated by PM Modi contributed to development of all sectors in country
• Government launches operational guidelines of Swachh Bharat Mission – Urban 2.0 and AMRUT 2.0
• Campaigning comes to an end for by-elections to three LS seats, 30 Assembly seats in 14 states; voting on Saturday
• Ministry of Education notifies Four Year ITEP; Registrations begin from academic session 2022-23
• More than 103 crore 53 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered; Recovery rate stands at 98.19 pct
• Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya releases Krishi UDAN 2.0
• Union Health Mansukh Mandaviya interacts with state health ministers in New Delhi
• Our government is focused on enhancing combat capability of soldiers, says Defence Minister
• India successfully test-fires surface-to-surface ballistic missile Agni-5
• Hiroshima nuclear bomb attack survivor, Sunao Tsuboi dies at 96 in Japan
• African Union suspends Sudan after military coup
• Glasgow to host COP-26 summit from Oct 31
• India expresses concern over China’s unilateral decision to bring border legislation

Q.) Which country will hold next round of regional discussion on the future of Afghanistan?

• Iran
• Iraq
• India
• China

Q.) Mullaperiyar dam is located in which state?

• Tamil Nadu
• Kerala
• Karnataka
• Andhra Pradesh

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