The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 25 May 2023

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis for UPSC

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 24 May 2023

The Hindu Editorial Today

Can accommodate more parliamentarians
The new building, which sits next to the existing Parliament House, will be able to accommodate 888 parliamentarians in the Lok Sabha and 300 in the Rajya Sabha, up from the existing 543 and 250, respectively.
The new building does not have a Central Hall like the one in the existing Parliament, instead the Lok Sabha chamber will be used for joint sessions.

Known as Sengol — derived from the Tamil word “Semmai”, meaning “Righteousness”, according to an official document — the sceptre is a “significant historical” symbol of Independence as it signifies the transfer of power from the British to the Indians, Shah told the media.
According to the official document, just before Independence, Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India, asked Nehru about “the ceremony that should be followed to symbolise the transfer of power from British to Indian hands”.
The soon-to-be prime minister went to consult C Rajagopalachari, the last Governor-General of India, who told him about a ceremony performed during the Chola dynasty, in which the transfer of power from one king to the other was sanctified and blessed by high priests.
How was the Sengol made?
Once Nehru agreed to perform the suggested ceremony, Rajagopalachari, also known as Rajaji, was tasked with the responsibility of arranging a sceptre. Subsequently, he reached out to Thiruvaduthurai Atheenam, a well-known mutt in Tamil Nadu’s Tanjore district, for help and its leader commissioned the manufacturing of the Sengol to Chennai-based “Vummidi Bangaru Chetty” jewellers, as per the official document.
Constructed by two men — Vummidi Ethirajulu and Vummidi Sudhakar, both are still alive and remember making it — the sceptre measures five feet in length and has a ‘Nandi’ bull on top, symbolising justice.

The 32nd Arab League Summit held in Jeddah was unique in multiple ways. After 12 years, all 22 Arab states got together again, with 17 of them represented at the head of state or government level.
The summit readmitted Syria and heard the Ukrainian President, a special invitee. The post-summit “Jeddah Declaration” was moderate in political optics and showed realism for the contemporary socio-economic challenges facing the Arabs.
By reconciling with Iran through Chinese mediation, but without a U.S. nod-and-wink, Riyadh has asserted its diplomatic autonomy. The move seriously undermined Washington’s attempt to demonise Tehran and its nuclear programme and put into question the rationale of its economic sanctions regime. Direct ties with Iran have also reduced the importance of Qatar, Iraq, Oman and Pakistan as intermediaries.
In this ongoing quest for Arab supremacy, Saudi Arabia has the advantage of its economic heft: in 2022, its GDP grew by 8.7% to reach $1,108 billion, more than twice as large as the second-placed United Arab Emirates (UAE). Already the world’s largest oil exporter, Saudi oil income grew by 51% to reach a record $228 billion, giving it a sway over both the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and OPEC+, much to the West’s chagrin.
India has well-known high stakes in the Arab world, particularly in the neighbouring West Asian region. We, therefore, need to acknowledge the importance of this incipient geo-political shift, watch the developments very carefully, realign our strategy accordingly and vigorously pursue our national interests.
Although we enjoy cordial and substantive ties with Saudi Arabia, these are still below the potential and need periodic upgradation.
What is the Arab League?
About:
Arab League, also called League of Arab States (LAS), is an intergovernmental pan-Arab organisation of all Arab states in the Middle East and North Africa.
It was formed in Cairo, Egypt on 22nd March 1945, following the adoption of the Alexandria Protocol in 1944.
Members:
Currently, there are 22 Arab countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
Objective:
It aims to strengthen and coordinate the political, cultural, economic, and social programs of its members and to mediate disputes among them or between them and third parties.

n what was their sixth such meeting in the past year, the announcements from the Modi-Albanese meet included opening an Australian consulate in Bengaluru and an Indian consulate in Brisbane, an agreement on Migration and Mobility, and the finalisation of terms of reference for an India-Australia Green Hydrogen Task Force.
Defence and security ties, cooperation on renewable energy, and critical minerals were also part of the substantive agenda, as was the need to sign a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement by December.
On international issues, despite their differing stances on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and western sanctions, they found continuing and common cause on maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific, and dealing with an aggressive China.

One argument is that a note of such high denomination is used only by a miniscule section of the population. The other is that it will ensure that black money hoards will be extinguished.
In 2016, the government amended the RBI Act of 1933 to redefine monetary policy as the control of inflation.
People undertake economic activity with a view to incurring a gain, whether in the form of profits or wages. When some part of the currency in circulation is suddenly withdrawn for no convincing reason, it has a dampening effect, for economic actors are kept guessing about the money value of their future earnings.

India’s exports and imports further weakened in April this year, in continuation of the declining trend that has been observed since June last year. Imports declined more than exports in April, narrowing the trade deficit.
The decline in exports was widespread, affecting most of the major items. The decline in imports was also recorded across all major commodities. But more importantly, the fall in imports and exports was not limited to India. Many nations have recorded similar declines, pointing to a slowing global demand.
The recent decline in exports is a global phenomenon.
Due to internal demand slowdown and external geopolitical tensions, both imports and exports of many developed and developing nations have been contracting in 2023.

The Supreme Court has held that the independence of district judiciary is part of the basic structure of the Constitution and judicial independence from the executive and the legislature requires the judiciary to have a say in matters of finances.
“The independence of the district judiciary must also be equally a part of the basic structure of the Constitution. Without impartial and independent judges in the district judiciary, justice, a preambular goal, would remain illusory. The district judiciary is, in most cases, also the court which is most accessible to the litigant,” a three-judge Bench of Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Justices V. Ramasubramanian and P.S. Narasimha observed in a judgment.
The Kesavananda Bharati judgment introduced the Basic Structure doctrine which limited Parliament’s power to make drastic amendments that may affect the core values enshrined in the Constitution like secularism and federalism. The verdict upheld the power of the Supreme Court to judicially review laws of Parliament. It evolved the concept of separation of powers among the three branches of governance — legislative, executive and the judiciary.
The parliament’s unlimited power to amend the constitution is subject to only one restriction i.e it should not dilute or violate the basic structure of the constitution.
Or the effects of the amendment should not be abrogating or disturbing in nature towards the basic structure.

India is set to dramatically scale up its supercomputing prowess and install an 18-petaflop system over the course of this year, Earth Sciences Minister Kiren Rijiju said on Wednesday.
Flops (floating point operations per second) are an indicator of processing speed of computers and a petaflop refers to a 1,000 trillion flops. Processing power to such a degree greatly eases complex mathematical calculations required, for, among other things, forecasting how the weather will be over the next few days all the way up to two or three months ahead.
Currently India’s most powerful, civilian supercomputers — Pratyush and Mihir — with a combined capacity of 6.8 petaflops are housed at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, and the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), Noida, respectively. They were made operational in 2018 at an investment of ₹438 crore. Both these organisations are affiliated to the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).
The new supercomputers, yet to be named, are imported from French corporation, ATOS — an information technology service and consulting company. The Narendra Modi government had signed a deal in December 2018 with France to procure high-performance computers worth ₹4,500 crore by 2025.
The fastest high-performance computing system in the world is currently the Frontier-Cray system at Oakridge National Laboratory, United States. This has a peak speed of one exa-flop (or about 1,000 petaflops).
The top 10 other systems, based on speed, range from about 400 petaflops to 60 petaflops.

For the second time in a decade, the UN-recognised Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) deferred the accreditation of the National Human Rights Commission, India (NHRC-India) citing objections such as political interference in appointments, involving the police in probes into human rights violations, and poor cooperation with civil society.
The GANHRI’s letter to the NHRC also cited lack of diversity in staff and leadership, and insufficient action to protect marginalised groups, as reasons for the deferment of the accreditation.
Adopted in 1991 Paris Principles set out six main criteria: mandate and competence; autonomy from government; independence guaranteed by a statute or constitution; pluralism; adequate resources; and adequate powers of investigation.
The NHRC, India has been set up under the Protection of Human Rights Act, passed by Parliament in 1993. It has been accredited as an ‘A’ Status NHRI since the beginning of the accreditation process for NHRIs in 1999, which it retained in 2006, 2011 and in 2017 also after a deferment.
Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions, GANHRI
It accesses the NHRIs through a rigorous process of review across the world for 5 years before giving ‘A’ grade accreditation.
UN Human Rights acts as secretariat for the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI)
The Accreditation confers international recognition and protection of the NHRI.
‘A’ status accreditation grants participation in the work and decision-making of
the GANHRI, as well as
the work of the Human Rights Council and other UN mechanisms.