The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 8 September 2023

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis for UPSC

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 7 September 2023

• As world leaders gather in Delhi on Friday ahead of the G-20 Summit, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is on a mission to revive the Black Sea Grain Initiative (BSGI or BSI), in talks on the sidelines of the summit. The deal that facilitates export of grain from Russia and Ukraine lapsed in July.
• Among those in Delhi, Turkey President Recep Erdogan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as well as leaders of the European Union and UN officials will be trying to work out a compromise that will give assurances to Russia, for an exchange that will allow grain export from blockaded Ukrainian ports to restart at the earliest, sources told The Hindu.
• Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) officials said they were unaware of any meetings on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit, but underlined India’s position in support of the initiative.
• The BSI, which was signed to avert massive shortages of wheat, sunflower oil, and other commodities due to the Ukraine conflict, lapsed on July 17 after Russia refused to renew the deal citing “unkept promises” by Western countries.

Black Sea Grain Initiative

• The Initiative eased Russia’s naval blockade and saw the reopening of three key Ukrainian ports.
• The UN and Turkey brokered the deal in July 2022, allowing cargo ships to travel between Ukrainian ports and undergo inspections to ensure they were not carrying arms.
• The deal has been extended twice but expired on July 17, 2023.
• The agreement created procedures to safely export grain from certain ports to attempt to address the 2022 food crisis.
• It provides a safe maritime humanitarian corridor for Ukrainian exports (particularly for food grains) from three of its key ports: Chornomorsk, Odesa and Yuzhny/Pivdennyi in the Black Sea.

• The African Union (AU) is set to join the G-20 as negotiators agreed on clearing its membership, according to sources privy to the discussions at the Sherpa meeting at a resort on the outskirts of Delhi.
• This will mean the 55-member AU will join the European Union as the only two regional bodies in the G-20.
• While it still unclear whether the G-20 will be renamed as the “G-21” after the induction of the AU, Indian officials said the announcement would help “leave a lasting imprint” of the work the Indian Presidency has done in bringing in the Global South’s ambitions to the economic grouping.
• The African Union (AU) is a continental body consisting of the 55 member states that make up the countries of the African Continent.
• It was officially launched in 2002 and replaced its predecessor, the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which was founded in 1963.
• Primary Objective: To promote unity, cooperation, and development among African nations while advancing the continent’s interests on the global stage.
• It aims to strengthen political, economic, and social integration among African countries, with a vision of achieving an integrated, prosperous, and peaceful Africa.
• Headquarters: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

• An estimated 7,000 distinct languages are spoken as a mother tongue across the world. But these languages are shrinking rapidly.
• Mother tongues of about half the people in the world belong to a pool of 10 most spoken languages; language diversity faces a grave threat. Today, English is the most widely spoken language of the world. British colonial rule helped spread the language.

• Language is not only a vehicle for communication to express ideas and emotions but it also carries cultural values and indigenous knowledge. The extinction of languages will only result in shrinking cultural diversity and an increase in cultural homogenisation.
• According to a report published by UNESCO in 2018, 42 languages are heading towards extinction in India.
• These were spoken by less than 10,000 people.
• According to the norms set by UNESCO, any language spoken by only 10,000 people is potentially endangered. Most dying languages are from the indigenous tribal groups spread across India.

• United States, Japan, and the Republic of Korea (ROK)
• India and ROK commemorate the 50th year of their diplomatic relations
• Along with Japan and the U.S., ROK has the potential to emerge as a key piece in India’s Indo-pacific strategy.
• One of the most significant developments in the region has been the South Korea-Japan-U.S. trilateral meeting in the U.S. or the Camp David summit last month.
• This could, along with AUKUS (the U.S, the United Kingdom, Australia), the Quad (India, Japan, Australia, the U.S.), or CHIP 4 Alliance (the U.S., Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea) lead to a strengthened U.S.-led alliance structure — though dispersed to reflect the multipolar urges of the contemporary international system — in East Asia.
• India currently has 2+2 dialogues with the U.S., Japan, Australia and Russia
• Defence, nuclear reactors as focus areas

• India’s big moment as host of the G-20 Summit will arrive this weekend, as world leaders gather in New Delhi for the main event marking the year of its presidency.
• India’s G-20 moment is already memorable, but the days ahead will be crucial in cementing its legacy.
• That legacy hinges on ensuring a truce among its fractious members, that allows for a consensus over the vision of “One Earth, One Family, One Future” in the next few days.

• The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has finally shown the courage to call out the junta in Myanmar for the ongoing violence and its failure in implementing the Five-Point Consensus that was reached between the two sides, aimed at addressing the post-coup crisis in the country.
• Myanmar has seen a security and economic decline ever since the military ousted the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.
• Now, with the ASEAN move, it is evident that the regime stands isolated, while the domestic situation remains untenable. It is not clear whether a tough stance by ASEAN will have any immediate meaningful impact on the regime’s behaviour.

• Despite India posting impressive economic growth numbers, employment has not seen a commensurate increase.

• Beyond the immediate outcomes of the G-20 Summit, one key takeaway with longer-term implications is the positioning of India as a key bridge to the “Global South” for Japan and the West, in the view of Japanese experts.
• “Japan sees a rivalry over the leadership of the ‘Global South’ between India and China, and it is in the interest of Japan and the G-7 that India plays a leading role in the ‘Global South’, not China,” said Hiroyuki Akita, Tokyo-based strategic affairs commentator at Nikkei, in an interview with The Hindu.
• Akita said that was one of the key issues for Japan in the lead-up to this year’s G-20, so much so that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the May meeting of the G-7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S.) in Hiroshima.

• The draft guidelines have defined dark patterns as “any practices or deceptive design patterns using user interface or user experience interactions on any platform; designed to mislead or trick users to do something they originally did not intend or want to do; by subverting or impairing the consumer autonomy, decision making or choice; amounting to misleading advertisement or unfair trade practice or violation of consumer rights.”
• The dark patterns include “forced action”, which forces a user into taking an action that would require the user to buy additional goods; “subscription trap”, or the process of making cancellation of a paid subscription impossible or complex; “interface interference”, the design element that manipulates the user interface; and “bait and switch”, the practice of advertising a particular outcome based on the user’s action.

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