The Hindu Editorial Analysis | 16th September ’21

Table of Contents

Yet another Nirbhaya | Tribune

A seriously injured woman breathing her last in a hospital a day after being raped and assaulted on her private parts with an iron rod on a Mumbai road.
We have repeatedly failed our girls
We have failed in instilling in boys the value of respect for women
Things are back to square one
Take the Hathras and Unnao cases.
Unless the media raises a hue and cry or an outraged civil society protests, the tendency is to downplay the gruesome crime.
Last month’s Mysuru gang-rape is the latest example of a minister caught pointing fingers at the victim.
Sadly, few people on seats of authority assert themselves to lessen the victims’ pain or quicken the pace of investigation or justice.
India-China relations – lowest ebb in living memory.

Hardly the India-China century Deng envisioned | TH

China’s “all-weather” alliance Pakistan
Dalai Lama – fled Tibet in 1959
India: trade relations with China (now worth close to $100 billion) to flourish
Strategic autonomy
Ironically, before Galwan, 2020 was supposed to be a landmark year for the two countries’ bilateral relations.
In October 2019 in Mahabalipuram, at their 18th meeting in nine years, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had grandly pledged to take relations between their two countries to “greater heights”.
Sino-Indian cooperation

The two countries had indeed developed multiple avenues of engagement.
From negligible levels till 1991, trade with China had grown to become one of India’s largest trading relationships.
Prime Minister Modi, an early enthusiast, had lifted residual restrictions on bilateral Chinese investment in strategic sectors of the Indian economy (notably ports, airports, power generation and telecoms technology), so that by 2020, Chinese investment (current and planned) stood at about $26 billion with infrastructure projects accounting for about half the total.
BRICS
RIC
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
New Development Bank
The People’s Liberation Army has used the seemingly benign situation to repeatedly undertake “minor” military incursions, inflict small-scale military setbacks on India, take a few square kilometres of territory along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) for local tactical purposes, and then declare peace.
Mutual disengagements are duly announced, both sides claim the crisis is over, but China establishes and fortifies its new deployment.
Each incident establishes a new “normal” on the LAC.
After the recent incursions, the Chinese now reportedly control over 900 square kilometres of area in Ladakh along the LAC.
Whereas Deng Xiaoping had told then-Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1988 that the 21st century would be “India and China’s century”, the current Chinese leadership has no patience for such pablum.
They believe — indeed believe they know — that it is destined to be China’s century alone, and are all too happy to show India its subsidiary place in the pecking order.
India is far too dependent on China for other vital imports — such as pharmaceuticals, and even the active ingredients to make them, automotive parts and microchips, all needed by Indian manufacturers — that many in New Delhi fear it would be shooting itself in the foot if it acted too strongly against China.
Imports from China have become indispensable for India’s exports to the rest of the world.

Transient easing | TH

Latest retail inflation data – price pressures have begun to moderate
CPI showing inflation having slowed for a second straight month to a 5.3% pace, after July’s 5.59%
Price trends among the constituents of the Consumer Price Index and the latest Wholesale Price Index-based inflation, however, show that it would be premature to drop the guard on price gains.
Meat and fish, dairy and oils and fats posting significant accelerations
Edible oils have been on a tear for months now
Inflation in two other vital protein sources, eggs and pulses, also continued to remain a cause for concern.
A persistent and wider deflation in vegetable prices was the main positive contributor to the easing in overall food and beverages inflation last month.
The pace of inflation in fuel and light, clothing and footwear, health as well as household goods and services all ratcheted up last month.
Policymakers are only too well aware that ultimately, inflation is not just about a point reading but far more about consumers’ and businesses’ expectations of the trend in prices.
Fears of future high inflation dampen sentiment and thus retard economic activity.
Cutting fuel taxes is a sure-shot way to address a major component of price pressures.

NEP schools: the future | TH

Had there been no pandemic, the use of digital technologies in education would not have been so rampant.
The essential role of schools and teachers in caretaking and the mental/physical/cognitive development of a child would not have been so permanently established.
The need to overcome the digital divide would not have been felt so acutely.
The schools of the future and the future of schooling are now both subject to intense debate, especially with the coming in of the National Education Policy 2020.
1. Physical infrastructure towards digital and virtual requirements
2. Traditional face-to-face modes of learning in schools that will continue to be the greatest equaliser in education
3. Skill-building – great significance
4. Accelerated and even differentiated instructional interventions will be required to overcome and reverse the impact of the pandemic.
5. More pressure on the government schooling system to expand its intake
Four qualities will define the schools of the future

Schools will encourage extended networks rather than remain as closed classroom communities.
Schools will be pro-active innovators
Routine jobs will become scarce.
schools will forge stronger and more trusting engagement with families and communities.

NEWS

Centre announces major reforms in Telecom, Automobile & Drone sectors; PM Modi describes them a watershed moment
PM to inaugurate Defence Offices Complexes in New Delhi today
Two-day meeting of GST council to begin today at Lucknow
Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel to expand his cabinet today
President Kovind to be on a four-day visit to Himachal Pradesh beginning today
India’s COVID-19 vaccination coverage crosses 76 crore mark
Air India receives financial bids for its disinvestment
India emerging as World Space Hub for cost-effective launch of satellites: Dr Jitendra Singh
NITI Aayog to launch report on ‘Reforms in Urban Planning Capacity in India’
US, UK and Australia announce formation of AUKUS- a new trilateral defence & security partnership for Indo-Pacific
French forces kill head of Islamic State in Greater Sahara
China remains non-committal on facilitating visas to Indians
Chinese ambassador to UK barred from attending British Parliament

Q.) Name the NGO that has taken the government to court for suspending its FCRA licence, and won temporary relief in the Delhi High Court in allowing it to access 25% of its funds.

European Climate Foundation
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
Omidyar Network International
Humanity United

Q.)The Supreme Court on Monday called for reforms in the grounds for divorce and said the legislature has so far been reluctant to introduce __________ as a ground for divorce because marriage is considered “sacramental” and is supposed to be an “eternal union of two people” under the Hindu Law.