Important excerpts from The Hindu: The government has decided to put off a proposed visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Ankara as part of a number of measures showing its displeasure over Turkish President Recip Tayyip Erdogan’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) last month, in which he criticised its move on … Continue reading India-Turkey Relations

Important excerpts from The Hindu: The NPR links biometric and demographic details of any ordinary resident, thus making it a comprehensive database of residents. It helps in tracking criminal activities. Helps in better planning and execution of government schemes. The NPR links biometric and demographic details of any ordinary resident, thus making it a comprehensive … Continue reading National Population Registry

Important Excerpts from The Hindu: Global economy is witnessing “synchronised slowdown” which will result in slower growth for 90% of the world this year, in contrast to two years ago when nearly 75% of the world witnessed accelerated growth. In July, the IMF cut its FY 2020 growth forecast for the Indian economy by 30 … Continue reading World Economy

Important excerpts from The Hindu: Relevance - Transport workers strike in Telengana. Most of the government run transport department are loss making entities; enterprise of public transport in most urban centres is a difficult proposition economically; bus transport has been beset by problems such as ageing fleets and high operational costs largely due to high … Continue reading Public Transport

The Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 was enacted to provide for the constitution of a National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) and the Human Rights Courts for protection of human rights. The recent amendments to the act include: NHRC and SHRC will become more compliant with Paris Principals with … Continue reading Protection of Human Rights (Amendment) Act, 2019

Important excerpts from The Hindu and NY Times (with inputs): Turkey invaded a Kurdistan held territory in northern Syria in October 2019. While Turkey has been active in the eight-year-old civil war in Syria, its recent military incursion significantly ups the ante on the conflict. Its egregiously named ‘Operation Peace Spring’ aims to create a … Continue reading Turkey-Syria Conflict.

Excerpts from The Hindu (with inputs): Indian soils are poor in organic matter content. About 59% of soils are low in available nitrogen; about 49% are low in available phosphorus; and about 48% are low or medium in available potassium. Indian soils are also varyingly deficient in micronutrients, such as zinc, iron, manganese, copper, molybdenum … Continue reading Soil Health in India

As defined by the UN,census is "the total process of collecting, compiling and publishing demographic, economic and social data pertaining, at a specified time or times to all persons in a country or delimited territory." Census provides an instantaneous photographic picture as it was of a community, which is valid at a particular moment of … Continue reading Challenges and Utility of Census

Important excerpts from The Hindu (with inputs): Some data – ‘Global Disinformation Order’ – a study by Oxford University shows evidence of organised social media manipulation campaigns that have taken place in 70 countries, up from 48 countries in 2018 and 28 countries in 2017. In each country, there is at least one political party … Continue reading Digital Space and Democracy

Important excerpts from The Hindu (with inputs): China-India relations assume “global and strategic significance” beyond just the bilateral dimension. Only two major developing countries with a population of over one billion and important representatives of emerging economies, China-India relations transcend the bilateral dimension and assume global and strategic significance. General Issues: China and India continue … Continue reading India-China – IR dimensions.