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Table of Contents

Pongal

Thai Pongal is a harvest festival dedicated to Sun God.
It is a four-day festival which according to the Tamil calendar is usually celebrated from Jan 14 to Jan 17
Animal Welfare Board of India v. A. Nagaraja, where the practice of jallikattu was found to off•end the PCA Act
Community‟s cultural right under Article 29
Fundamental duties contained in Article 51A
Article 21 a right to life.
These enumerated rights, however, do not explicitly reco gnise animals as persons
What must the Supreme Court do when a community‟s right to cultural freedom comes into conflict with values of animal welfare?

Expanding horizons

 West Asia engagement & India‟s „Act East‟ policy
 India‟s „Look West‟ policy too is evolving rapidly.
 Mr. Modi‟s •fith visit to West Asia in the last three
 Mr. Modi‟s Palestine visit — and the •first visit by an Indian Prime Minister coming just weeks
after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‟s high profile visit- India
 India‟s credentials as a “very respected country in the international arena
 Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had called for a potential Indian role in the West Asian peace process.
 India- six agreements worth around $50 million with the Palestinian Authority that include
 Setting up of a super speciality hospital in Beit Sahur,
 A centre for empowering women,
 Procurement of equipment and machinery for the National Printing Press
 Significant investment in the education section
 Mr. Abbas also conferred the „Grand Collar of the State of Palestine‟
 India hopes for Palestine to soon emerge a sovereign and independent country
 India‟s robust engagements with the Arab Gulf states are a part of this dynamic, with Mr.
Modi visiting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the second time in the last three years
 India-UAE relationship
 Offshore oil
 There is also growing convergence between the two countries on tackling terrorism.
 Oman has been a long-standing partner of India in West Asia
 Indian Ocean becoming a priority focus area for New Delhi, Oman‟s significance
 China‟s expanding footprint in the Indian Ocean Region
 Naval cooperation has already been gaining momentum with Muscat
 India and Oman have not only made military cooperation more expansive during the Modi
visit but also made an attempt to take the relationship to other domains:
 By enhancing cooperation in the •field of health, tourism and peaceful uses of outer space.
 India‟s engagement with West Asia should now focus on delivering on its commitments
and strengthening its presence as an economic and security partner.
 China and India, as two emerging powers, are yet to articulate a clear road map for the region

Rethinking trafficking

 India protested against the release of a report, „Global estimates of modern slavery:
 forced labour and forced marriage‟, a collaborative effort of
 1)- International Labour Organisation (ILO),
 2)- Walk Free Foundation, and
 3)- International Organisation for Migration.
 The report estimated that there were
 1)- 40.3 million “modern slaves” worldwide in 2016,
 2)- 24.9 million in forced labour and
 3)- 15.4 million in forced marriages
 17,000 interviews had been conducted in India, and 61.78% of the “modern slaves”
were in Asia and the Pacific.
 Registering its protest with the ILO, India vowed to undertake its own surveys.
 The Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, and member of NITI
Aayog, Bibek Debroy.
 Report forms the baseline for achieving Sustainable Development Goal 8.7
(eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking, and end child labour by
2025), and since NITI Aayog is the body entrusted with the task of overseeing implementation
of the SDGs in the country, India‟s desire to protect its international image by measuring
“more” and “better” is wholly inadequate.
 India has a complex patchwork of antitraffciking laws, ranging from the Indian Penal Code an
d the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act (ITPA), 1986, to social welfare legislation on contract
and bonded labour, and interstate migrant work
 Section 370 of the IPC
 It creates a plethora of new institutions with unclear roles, capacious powers (including
for surveillance) and no accountability
 What should India do?
 Robust implementation of labour laws; a universal social protection •oor; self-organisation of
workers; improved labour inspection, including in the informal economy; and corporate
accountability for decent work conditions

Prelims Focus Facts-News Analysis

 Page-1,10- Russia seeks •125 cr. to carry out repairs on INS Chakra
 Russian authorities have demanded over $20 million for rectifying the damage suffered by nuclear submarine INS Chakra, which was dry docked last week
 •Fixing the front portion, which was damaged while the submarine was entering the harbour
in Visakhapatnam
 Page-1-Naidu is richest, Manik poorest: ADR
 TDP leader, with declared assets of •177 crore, is 680 times richer than Tripura CM
 Extreme inequality in India is evidently not restricted to the general population,
going by an analysis of the assets of Chief Ministers
 Page-11- India, Oman agree to isolate sponsors of terror
 Countries acknowledge the „inter-linkage‟ between the stability of the West Asian region and
the Indian subcontinent
 Open to talks with N. Korea, says Mike Pence
 Comments by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence suggest that the United States may be looking more favourably at diplomatic engagement with North Korea
 Victorious Rajapaksa seeks snap polls
 Pakistan to get •first woman Hindu MP