Press Information Bureau (PIB Analysis For UPSC)

Table of Contents

President’s Secretariat

The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind in his message on the eve of Milad-un-Nabi has said: –
“On the auspicious occasion of Milad-un-Nabi, the birthday of the Holy Prophet, I offer my greetings and good wishes to all my fellow citizens, especially my Muslim brothers and sisters in India and abroad.”

President of India inaugurates Hornbill Festival and State Formation Day celebrations of Nagaland.
President said that the Hornbill Festival is the perfect showcase of rich Naga culture and traditions, preserved over the years in the form of music, dance and food.
The Hornbill Festival at Kisama and the International Music Festival represent the diversity of Naga society.
After years of insurgency, there is hope.
He expressed confidence that a final agreement – one that is fair to all and meets the expectations and aspirations of all – will be reached soon.
The strength of the state lies in its organic farm produce, flowers and fruits. Nagaland has rare medicinal plants and herbs that can help create jobs and boost the economy.
He mentioned Naga jolokia, called King Chilli locally, one of the hottest chilli peppers of the world, and said we need to bottle it into one of the hottest selling sauces of the world.
He stated that Nagaland has also the potential to be an attractive tourist destination, offering a unique blend of heritage and culture and spectacular natural beauty.
Nagaland and the Northeast are central to the India story.

Cabinet

Union Cabinet has approved setting up of National Nutrition Mission: Maneka Gandhi
The NNM, as an apex body, will monitor, supervise, fix targets and guide the nutrition related interventions across the country.
Government is committed to ensure that every child and pregnant woman and lactating mother gets adequate nutrition to eliminate malnutrition and stunting.
The NNM will strive to reduce the level of stunting, under nutrition, anemia and low birth weight babies.
It will create synergy, ensure better monitoring and issue alerts for timely action.
Ms Gandhi said, food which is being served to children will be monitored by the Ministry.
She said, the government will encourage states/ UTs to perform, guide and supervise the line Ministries and states/ UTs to achieve the targeted goals.
She said, results of setting up National Nutrition Mission will show up within a year.
The Women and Child Development Ministry has already designed a real-time monitoring system ‘ICDS -CAS’ to track nutrition goals and Anganwadi functionality.

Member States of BIMSTEC ( Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation ) met in New Delhi this week to discuss modalities for promoting coastal shipping in the region.
In this first meeting of the Working Group on 27th and 28th of November, member countries discussed the draft text of BIMSTEC Coastal Shipping Agreement drafted by the Ministry of Shipping, Government of India.
The objective of the above agreement is to facilitate coastal shipping in the region, thereby giving a boost to trade between the member countries.
The agreement would apply to coastal shipping, that is shipping within 20 nautical miles of the coastline.
The requirements for movement of vessels in this part of the sea are different from standard requirements of deep sea shipping.
Coastal ship movements require smaller vessels and lesser draft, and therefore, involve lower costs.
Once the agreement is ratified by the member countries and becomes operational, a lot of cargo movement between the member countries can be done through the cost effective, environment friendly and faster coastal shipping route.

McKinsey Global Institute (MGI)
Warned about the alarming potential loss of jobs to robots and other forms of artificial intelligence (AI)
30-40% of jobs in many sectors
Financial Express reported, on the same MGI study, “benefits may outweigh costs”; that is, while a lot of jobs would be lost, a lot more would get created.

Destroyed 3.5 million jobs in the US, but also created 19.3 million in 1970-2015, destroyed 0.6 million jobs in the US

Looking at previous episodes of automation going back to the first industrial revolution in the late 1700s
MGI says that “in many respects, the impact of automation on employment today is not likely to be different than in the past”.
MGI: between now and 2030

created 7.5 million new ones
MGI also talks of new opportunities for 390-590 million jobs in the normal course—automation.
It estimates, will raise productivity by 0.8-1.4 ppt per annum, so there will be a surge in demand due to this—and another 165-300 million jobs if fresh investment is made in areas like.
Those who lose jobs are able to retool themselves and find new jobs.