18th June 2018- The Hindu Editorial Complete Analysis

Table of Contents

Parched(सूखा) or polluted

 According to the Composite Water Management Index developed by Niti Aayog, 70% of the water resources are identified as polluted.

 If the water accessible to millions is contaminated, the problem is infinitely worse than that of availability.

 This is based primarily on data supplied by States for calculating the index.

 Urgent reforms are needed to deal with the acute water stress in most of India

 India’s water crisis is clear and present, with implications for health of the entire population.

 The system of ratings for States is based on infrastructure, providing rural and urban drinking water, and encouraging efficient agricultural use.

 What emerges from the early assessment is that States such as Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh,
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab and Telangana have initiated reforms
for judicious water use, while populous ones such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have failed to re
spond to the challenge.

 Committee on Restructuring the Central Water Commission and the Central Ground Water B
oard, chaired by Mihir Shah, has called for a user-centric approach to water management,
especially in agriculture.

 State river disputes… As the Cauvery issue- State governments – judicial intervention

 Groundwater extraction patterns need to be better understood through robust data collection; less than 5% of about 12 million wells are now under study

 Steady urbanisation calls for a new management paradigm, augmenting sources of clean drin
king water supply and treatment technologies that will encourage reuse.

 Pollution can be curbed by levying suitable costs.

 These forward-looking changes would need revamped national and State institutions, and updated laws.

 A legal mandate will work better than just competition and cooperation; it would make
governments accountable.

Change in Mexico?

Shujaat Bukhari, a warrior for peace

 He was a man of great discipline and clear sight when it came to the interests of Kashmiris

 His last days were spent in underlining the grave situation in the Valley

 He was a passionate Kashmiri nationalist who brought the Kashmiri language back to the Valley’s literary and educational establishments.

 He sought to build bridges with Jammu and Ladakh as well as across the Line of Control, with New Delhi as well as Islamabad

 Between 1997 and 2012 he was a correspondent for The Hindu in Srinagar.

 Editor of Rising Kashmir, a Srinagar-based newspaper.

 Bukhari was also the President of Adbee Markaz Kamraz, a cultural and literary organisation in Kashmir.

 Lawyer and diplomat Parmeshwar Narain Haksar, PNH, took over as Secretary to PM Indira Gandhi on May 6, 1967, when the economy was in crisis and her Cabinet “hardly cohesive”.

 He emerged as her “ideological compass and moral beacon from May 1967 to January 1973”.

 Haksar guided Mrs. Gandhi through “

 Nationalisation of banks,

 Coal and oil refineries,

 The abolition of privy purses,

 The victory over Pakistan in the war of Dec 1971,

 The creation of an independent Bangladesh and

 Subsequent agreements to bring durable peace to the subcontinent”,

 before drifting apart from her by “bravely opposing the Emergency from the inside,” writes

Prelims Focus Facts-News Analysis

 Page-1-PM renews call for debate on simultaneous polls

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday again called for widespread consultation
on simultaneous elections in the country during the fourth governing council
meeting of the NITI Aayog. The meeting was attended by the Chief Ministers of 23
States, the Lieutenant-Governor of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and senior Union Ministers.