The Hindu Editorial Analysis | 30th October ’21 | PDF Download

Women Can Tech | ToI

• Nykaa’s Falguni Nayar becomes the first woman in charge of a unicorn.
• This ‘first’ says much about gender imbalance in startups, and it applies to both founders and funders.
• An RBI survey showed that just 5.9% of all startups had ‘only female’ founders.

• Certainly, many more women are starting tech companies now – there were only 26 women-led startups between 1990 and 2010, but 75 more by 2014, and 184 more by 2019 with at least one woman founder.
• But women-led startups got less than 5% of total funding between 2018 and 2020, according to YourStory Research.
• The pandemic worsened this: Funding for women-run startups fell 24% in the first half of 2020, found a Makers India study.
• There are clearly institutional hurdles.
• The RBI survey found that women had raised about 42.9% of their funds from friends and family, rather than angel investors, incubators or venture capital firms.
• For instance, Israel doubled the number of women tech founders in two years after finding out in 2019 that only 8% of its startups were women-led.
• Female-run startups have a ripple effect, they tend to hire more women too.

Live-in all about personal autonomy, says HC | FPJ

• The Allahabad High Court has stated that “live-in relationships have become part and parcel of life and need to be viewed from the lens of personal autonomy rather than notions of social morality.”
• While disposing of two separate petitions filed by interfaith live-in couples, a division bench comprising Justices Pritinker Diwaker and Ashutosh Srivastava observed, “Live-in relationships stand approved by the apex court and should be viewed from the lens of personal autonomy arising out of the right to life and personal liberty as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution, rather than notions of social morality.”
• Therefore, the court in its order, directed that in the event of petitioners approaching police with complaints of threat to life and liberty, police shall perform their duties under law.
• The two couples had filed separate petitions alleging that the families of girls were interfering in day-to-day life of petitioners.
• The court underscored that the right to life enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution is liable to be protected at all costs and held that police were obligated to protect the rights of the petitioners.
• The court order comes after the Delhi High Court pulled up the Uttar Pradesh Police for harassing a young adult couple.

Is India ready for a world where electric vehicles will dominate transportation? | IE

• On January 29, 1886, Carl Benz, a German engineer applied for and was granted patent number 37435 for his “vehicle powered by a gas engine”.
• In a few months, the commercial production of the Benz motor car started.
• This is by most accounts the beginning of commercially-produced vehicles using gas engines.
• Interestingly, in 1880, a few years prior to Benz’s patent, William Morrison, a chemist from Iowa, United States, helped bring to life, a six-seater electric vehicle.
• By 1900, electric cars accounted for over one-third of the vehicles sold in the US.
• The forward march of electric cars was stopped by the mass production of the very reasonably priced Ford automobile, owned by John Ford.
• A reasonably priced car along with the cheap prices of gasoline in the early 1900s meant that the world as we now live in came to be, with fossil fuel-dependent vehicles — cars and bikes — thronging our streets.
• The petrol and diesel fumes of our cities and in our blood can trace their origins to these key moments in the early 1900s.
• With the dependence of humanity on fossil fuels, a new international power order also emerged — countries that exported oil.
• As the human species settled into fossil-fuel-based transportation, a late awareness emerged of how this nature of combustion engine contributes to polluting our planet.
• What is an EV?
• An EV operates on an electric motor instead of an internal combustion engine and has a battery instead of a fuel tank.
• In general, EVs have low running costs as they have fewer moving parts and are also environmentally friendly.
• In India, the fuel cost for an EV is approximately 80 paisa per kilometre.
• In India, we have had sputtering starts to our investment in EVs.
• In 2013, the Government of India formulated the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan that committed to ensuring that by 2030, at least 30 per cent of vehicles on our streets would be electric.
• The more recent Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme in 2019, commits to providing incentives in terms of subsidies and supporting technology to encourage the manufacturing and purchase of electric vehicles.
• With a budget of around $1.5 billion, FAME provides a mixture of road and registration tax subsidies for EV purchasers.
• The private sector has appreciated the inevitability of the dominance of the EV.
• Companies like Amazon, Swiggy, Zomato and Ikea are deploying EVs for deliveries.
• Car manufacturers like Mahindra are partnering with consumers like Ola, while Tata Motors is partnering with Blu Smart Mobility in moves that will ensure more EV delivery and ride-hailing services.
• The EV market in India is projected to reach $700 million in 2025, a dramatic jump from $71 million in 2017 — a 10-fold increase in under a decade.
• EVs are typically powered by lithium-based batteries.
• These batteries need to be charged usually every 200-250 kilometres or so for a car.
• So, you need a dense proliferation of charging points.
• It takes up to 12 hours for a full charge of a vehicle at the owner’s home using a private light-duty slow charger.

• To compound this technological problem of slow charging at home, there are only 427 charging stations around the country.
• This is woefully inadequate in a country as large and densely populated as ours.
• To survive in the new world of EVs, grand old American car companies like General Motors and Ford are busy establishing factories that will make EV batteries.
• The largest suppliers of lithium-based EV batteries are reported to be the Chinese company — Contemporary Amperex Technology and the South Korean company LG.
• If this is so, then a new global order is emerging to replace OPEC.
• One in which those who make and charge EVs will dominate the transportation world.
• India must plan for its place in this order — with better-charging infrastructure, battery-making factories and smart incentives for car companies and consumers to go electric.
• Most importantly, we must have an uninterrupted electricity supply.
• For, the next revolution in transportation is electric and it’s already underway.

NEWS

• PM Modi meets Presidents of European Council, European Commission in Rome
• India to highlight need to address climate change issues comprehensively at COP-26 World Leaders’ Summit, says PM
• DGCA extends ban on international passenger flights until November 30
• Over 105.37 crore doses of COVID vaccine administered in the country so far
• All preparations in place for smooth conduct of Bye-Election for 3 Lok Sabha, 30 Assembly seats tomorrow
• Kannada Film star Puneeth Rajkumar passes away due to cardiac arrest
• IITF 2021 to be held from November 14-27 at Pragati Maidan
• Vice President says efforts are on to promote regional languages
• G-20 nations have endorsed India’s position that extensive COVID immunization is a global public good: Piyush Goyal
• UPSC declares result of Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2021
• US president Joe Biden arrives in Europe ahead of climate summit
• Kemerovo fire: Jail terms for bosses over Russian mall disaster
• Bangladesh Naval Chief visits Western Naval Command at Mumbai
• India, Bangladesh review progress of Line of Credit projects
• India hands over 3 life support ambulances to Bangladesh
• Das Gets Another Term to Lead RBI
  • The Centre has reappointed Shaktikanta Das, Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) governor since December 2018, for another three-year term to ensure continuity in policy direction as Asia’s third-biggest economy seeks to consolidate a fledgling recovery from pandemic-induced shrinkage.
  • The decision to reappoint Das, 64, was announced late Thursday after the proposal was approved by the appointments committee of the Cabinet.
• Fast Moving Consumption Growth
  • The senior global management of several large consumerfacing companies said their India businesses have recovered rapidly after the second wave of the pandemic.
  • A number of these companies, including Apple, Unilever, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Visa, Pernod Ricard, Hershey, Kimberly-Clark and Yum Brands, whose performance indicates consumer sentiment, have posted strong year-on-year growth in India sales in the July-September quarter.
• Adani Group Picks up Stake in Cleartrip
  • The Adani Group has acquired a significant minority stake in Flipkart-owned travel app Cleartrip, giving India’s biggest airports operator a foothold in the fast-growing online travel space.
  • The development comes just months after the group inked a strategic partnership with Walmart-owned Flipkart for a logistics hub and a data centre.
  • According to Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani Group, the investment is an ‘essential part’ of its broader SuperApp plans.
• Core Sector Industries’ Output Grows at 7-Mth Low in Sept

• India’s infrastructure industries grew at a seven-month low as growth in most industries eased, official data released on Friday showed with economists expecting semiconductor shortages to impact industrial growth.
• Core sector rose 4.4% in September against 11.5% in August and 0.6% in the year-ago period.
• The Index of Core Industries measures the output of eight infrastructure sectors: coal, steel, cement, fertiliser, electricity, natural gas, refinery products and crude oil.

• Fiscal Deficit Hits 4-yr Low of ₹5.26 L Cr or 35% of BE
  • The Centre’s fiscal deficit hit a four-year low of ₹5.26 lakh crore, or 35% of the budget estimates, at the end of the first half of FY22, helped by buoyant tax revenues.
  • At the same stage last year, the fiscal deficit was ₹9.1 lakh crore or 114.8% of budget estimates.
  • The government managed to collect over 60% of the budgeted revenue receipts in the first six months of the fiscal ending September, data released Friday showed, the highest ever H1 collection.
  • The comfortable government finances are expected to keep bond yields soft and allow the government spending freedom to support the economic recovery.

Q.) Which state government has imposed a complete ban on the sale and bursting of fire crackers ahead of Diwali celebrations?

1. Maharashtra
2. Tamil Nadu
3. Uttar Pradesh
4. West Bengal

Q.) Which state received the highest amount in lieu of GST compenstation among all eligible states/Uts in India?

1. Karnataka
2. West Bengal
3. Orissa
4. Tamil Nadu

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