The Hindu Editorial Analysis | 28th August '21

Table of Contents

Near and present | TH

Suicide bombing at Kabul airport – 100 lives
Shattered optimism of peaceful Afghanistan
Attack claimed by the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K)
Attack took place despite key intelligence inputs
Haqqani Network has carried out attacks with the IS-K in the past
Acknowledge and prepare for the threats to India
Diplomacy – UN where India will have a salient role
UN’s most powerful body does not appear helpless
Need to ensure that the Haqqani group, including its chief Sirajuddin Haqqani who is the Deputy to Taliban chief Haibatullah Akhundzada, is not included in the official power structure.
Haqqani attacks Indian consulates and the Embassy in 2008-09
Travel, funds access and weaponry sanctions should stay intact
India’s position on the Afghan situation and its impact on Indian security are articulated strongly.
MEA: Wait and Watch Policy
The UN General Assembly (UNGA)’s accreditation committee must also decide on whether to allow a future Taliban-led government to occupy Afghanistan’s seat.
PM Modi’s visit to the U.S. later in September
Quad summit

India’s Tuition Pandemic | ToI

China – educational tuition sector
Private tutoring businesses have to restructure as non-profit companies
Banned from listing on the stock market or raising foreign capital
Report schools and teachers who make extra income through private tutoring
India – overemphasis on tuitions is an issue
Tuition classes have existed in India for decades.
The carrot-cutting aunty was a tiny enterprise, where she essentially helped us focus to do our homework.
Today’s education companies are massive.
Even in India, there are some with billion-dollar-plus valuations.
School is no longer enough. Schoolteachers aren’t sufficient.
We already have the Kota factory phenomenon.
Gone are the evenings spent playing in the parks or relaxing on weekends.
Sports, musical instruments, dramatics, art, elocutions, debates – anything that doesn’t feature in entrance tests or board exams will be cut out.
Many of these tuitions cost lakhs. How many Indians can afford that?
We need to make a cultural shift.
We also need more good colleges.
No reputable person wants to open one, and many shady guys have entered the field.
Incentivise good people to open colleges, grant prime land and create more world-class institutions.
Many of these companies provide excellent services, such as making people job-ready, upgrading skill-sets or teaching different vocations.
China’s massive crackdown is about how the tuition-obsession combined with tech can go too far.
We need to fix this here before it is too late.

Legally Raped? | ToI

Chhattisgarh high court discharged a man accused of sexual assault of his wife
Exception 2 in Section 375 IPC grants immunity to a husband for sex with an unwilling wife.
In 1860, the exemption may have been based on the premise that a woman upon marriage became her husband’s “property”.
In 2013, the Justice JS Verma committee recommended its removal, saying relationship with a victim cannot justify sexual assault.
Kerala HC observed: “Spouses in marriage are treated as equal partners … Treating wife’s body as something owing to husband and committing sexual act against her will is … marital rape.”
SC and HCs have done stellar work in reading down laws that have no place in the modern society India strives to be – such as decriminalising adultery or homosexuality.
The judiciary should not wait for the legislature to bring about the amendment that will remove the damaging immunity to sexual abusers, but should simply outlaw the exemption.

Edible oils | Ind Exp

India produced 93.18 lakh tonnes (lt) of vegetable oils in 2020-21 (November-October), as against 85.38 lt and 76.87 lt in the previous two years.
But despite this record output, as estimated by the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India, the country will end up importing some 133 lt, from the 155.49 lt of the 2018-19 oil year.
India imports anywhere from nearly 60 per cent to over two-thirds of its vegetable oil requirement
Annual foreign exchange outgo of $10-11 billion
National Mission on Edible Oils-Oil Palm
The scheme aims at increasing the total area under oil palm from the current 3.5 lakh hectares (lh) to 10 lh by 2025-26.
Growers would be entitled to a minimum “viability price” for their fresh fruit bunches (FFB) production, which is 14.3 per cent of the last five-year-average crude palm oil (CPO) price adjusted for wholesale inflation.
It is a crop that can yield 20-25 tonnes of FFBs per hectare, translating into 4-5 tonnes of CPO.
Mustard and groundnut yields aren’t more than 2-3 tonne per hectare and the oil recovery from that only at 35-40 per cent.
No realistic plan of reducing import dependence in edible oils — to, say, 30-40 per cent from the existing 60-70 per cent — is possible without recognising the role of oil palm.
Out of India’s annual 130-150 lt vegetable oil imports, 80-90 mt is accounted for by palm oil alone.
India is anyway producing too much rice and any diversification must be welcomed.
But the focus should, for now, be on states already cultivating oil palm.
Farmers there have had a mixed experience with the crop that takes at least five years to grow and start yielding 20-25 tonnes of FFB/hectare.
An assured “viability price”, protecting against fluctuations in global edible oil markets, should instil confidence among farmers in these states.
Let them expand acreages first before others in more ecologically fragile regions.

NEWS

PM Modi to dedicate to nation renovated complex of Jallianwala Bagh Smarak at Amritsar in Punjab this evening
India administered over 1 crore doses of Covid vaccine in single day; Prime Minister hails it as momentous feat
Centre asks Kerala govt to adopt five-point strategy following sharp rise in Covid cases in state
President Ram Nath Kovind to lay foundation stone of Uttar Pradesh’s first Ayush University in Gorakhpur today
Majority of Indians have been evacuated from Afghanistan: Government
Govt to run Know Your Constitution campaign soon, says I&B Minister Anurag Thakur
Central govt’s flagship financial inclusion programme, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana completes seven years today
PM Modi, Italian counterpart Mario Draghi discuss recent developments in Afghanistan
N S Tomar says, BRICS countries are well-positioned to take leading role in helping to achieve objectives of 2030 Sustainable Development Goals
India hosting International Climate Summit 2020-21 on Sep 3, 2021
BRICS Environment Ministers adopt New Delhi Statement aimed at furthering spirit of cooperation in environment among BRICS Nations
US military uses drone strike to kill Islamic State member in Afghanistan
Bangladesh a role model in birth control- Health Minister Zahid Maleque
Senegal: Up to 48 people missing after boat carrying around 60 people capsizes

ANS

Q.) Which Supreme Court verdict declared that ‘creamy layer’ in a backward community should be excluded from reservation so that the more deserving were able to come up?