PESTEL

What Was Included In The Atlantic Charter?  The Atlantic Charter included eight common principles.  This includes:   1. The United States and Britain agreed not to seek territorial gains from the war, and they opposed any territorial changes made against the wishes of the people concerned.   2. To support the restoration of self-government to those nations who had lost it during the war.   3. People should have the right to choose their own form of government. 

  THE ONGOING GLOBAL HEALTH EMERGENCY HAS PARALYSED ECONOMIES WORLDWIDE AND REVEALED THAT THE HEALTH SYSTEMS IN MOST COUNTRIES ARE UNDER-PREPARED TO COPE WITH ANY MAJOR HEALTH EMERGENCY. It has posed large-scale health challenges as millions of people (172,430,557 as on 3 June 2021) have been infected and lakhs of casualties (3,706,682 as on 3 June 2021) have occurred. The importance of public health does not need elucidation as the pandemic has revealed that inadequate attention to public health can have disastrous consequences on the masses. High-income countries such as Canada, Sweden and Germany, despite their exceptional public health systems, have had to struggle to contain the pandemic by experimenting with a number of uncertain alternatives. Understandably, the struggle for middle and low-income countries, having weak public healthcare systems, limited finances and large populations has been grim.   India too, has been grappling with the pandemic and the ...

The fifth generation mobile network, or 5G, is the next level of mobile network that will shape the Fourth Industrial Revolution, or Industrial 4.0, quality of service delivery, innovation, etc. by facilitating smarter and developing societies. Commercial 5G networks began to be deployed in 2020 and are expected to reach 12% of world mobile connections (1.1 billion) and generate revenues up to U.S.$1.3 trillion by 2025 for operators. The technology that 5G uses will improve data transfer speed at unexpected higher levels — almost 100 times more — and reduce latency times helping mission-critical services. Thus, 5G is essential but are we ready for it? Some roadblocks India’s telecom sector, which has revolutionised the digital space and facilitated services-led growth and quality of life, has been estimated to be one of the top performers globally for several years; but it has also been in doldrums for the last few years. Moreover, the Supreme Court of India’s r...

 If lack of data was an impediment to roll out action plans against antimicrobial resistance (AMR), now that excuse has been yanked off.  The recent publication of The Lancet’s global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance — an elaborate and studied estimate validated by using counterfactual analysis for the first time — comes at a time when the world, weary with battling COVID-19, seems to have lost steam to mount a robust AMR policy. But the report makes it clear that no slacking can be allowed on this front any longer; it estimated that 4.95 million deaths were associated with bacterial AMR in 2019 alone. It also identified the pathogens and pathogen-drug combinations that cause such resistance. Bacterial AMR occurs when the drugs used to treat infections become less effective, as a result of the pathogens becoming resistant to the drugs. This happens due to indiscriminate use of antibiotics, availability of antibiotics over the counter, poor hygiene an...

At the time it was presented, and in the context of the Assembly elections in five States — now underway in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa https://sites.google.com/view/insightsdev/home  the Union Budget was expected to contain measures to boost consumption expenditure. But the Government chose instead to focus more on capital expenditure. There were no major announcements on agriculture or rural development. Given the recent turmoil as a result of the farmers’ protests and the repeal of the farm laws, this was a little surprising. However, a closer look at the Budget presents a different picture. Allotments, key subsectors It is important to look at the budgetary allocations for agriculture from the perspective of agricultural growth and farmers’ income. Agriculture has registered a robust performance during the COVID-19 pandemic and has clocked decent growth rates of 4.3% and 3.6% during 2019-20 and 2020-21. Growth is projected to be about 3.9% i...

It is my conviction that expression in one’s mother tongue lies at the heart of an individual or community’s cultural identity.  For centuries,  India has been home to hundreds of languages and thousands of dialects, making its linguistic and cultural diversity the most unique in the world. In fact, our linguistic diversity is one of the cornerstones of our ancient civilisation. As I always emphasise, it is our mother tongue that lends expression to our vision and aspirations, our values and ideals, as also our creative and literary endeavours. In a speech some years ago, the former UNESCO Director-General, Koïchiro Matsuura, underscored the importance of mother tongue when he remarked that “the language we learn from our mothers [mother tongue] is the homeland of our innermost thoughts.” He aptly described each language to be “as valuable and distinct as every irreplaceable human life”. Vanishing languages While languages are among the key bridges that ensure cult...

India has a population of about 135 crore people. It is the sixth largest economy in the world with a high growth potential. But this growth potential cannot be achieved without giving equal opportunity to every State. Do all States get equal opportunities? The low-income States (LIS) are deprived on many fronts. They have low accessibility to credit, low investments, low power availability and accessibility, and high energy costs. The high-income States (HIS), on the other hand, have a big share in industry and commerce because they are not deprived on the same fronts. The six HIS (Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana) together account for 56.4% of factories and 54.3% of the net value added to the country, while their share in population is only 32.3%. Among other reasons, this is because they have higher credit and financial accessibility (55% of total institutional credit and 56% of total industrial credit went to these five HIS) at th...

  The Centre is working on a national policy on synthetic biology, an emerging science that deals with engineering life forms for a wide range of applications from making designer medicines to foods. The 70-page ‘compilation’ document, as it is called, lays out the state of synthetic biology internationally with respect to research and development and the involvement of the private sector, globally, in dealing with synthetic biology. “Though it is not customary to elaborate the principles of international law and policies, as presented in this compilation, it is important to consider these elements while developing the national policy, especially since the science and regulatory framework related to use of the science is driven by global considerations and decisions,” the experts note. As part of the 12th Five-Year Plan, India had set up a task force on systems biology and synthetic biology research in 2011. This body underlined the potential benefits from synthetic bio...

 After a fast tracked three month negotiation between India and UAE, both countries on February 18 signed an FTA pact, during a virtual summit. The CEPA is a bilateral trade pact that will cover over a period of time 90% of India’s exports as well as services which is expected to boom by $15 billion in the coming five years. The deal also has strong anti-dumping measures and rules of origin clauses. The India-UAE economic relation at present is shaped by remittances. The remittances are expected to rise with full economic recovery of the UAE’s post-pandemic economy. The FTA will also help in increasing remittances as Indian investments in UAE will bring more Indian employees into the Gulf country. Kallol Bhattacherjee The story so far: On February 18, 2022, India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) inked a trade pact, Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) during a virtual summit led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Moha...

  The draconian PMLA of 2002 has evolved as the Government’s “hatchet” law in recent years, considering the series of raids and arrests of politicians, their relatives, and activists, most of them who are critical of the ruling regime. The unease about the law has become so rife that a bunch of petitions filed by people across the country have questioned the almost blanket powers given to the ED through this law. The Act was enacted in a 2002 response to India’s global commitment (including the Vienna Convention) to combat the menace of money laundering, stemming from the trade of drugs and narcotics and the organised crime that goes with it. Lawyers argue that the PMLA is invoked against a political rival or a dissenter, because the “process is itself the punishment”. They point out that the ECIR, an equivalent of the FIR, is considered an “internal document” and not given to the accused. Which means that, pursuant to the registration of the ECIR, as the ED begins to...

The debate about whether the decennial Census should collect data on caste from individuals who fall into the administrative categories of ‘General’ and ‘Other Backward Classes’ (OBCs) has been argued by public intellectuals, politicians, and government administrators for decades. As the Census currently only collects data on ‘Scheduled Castes’ (SCs) and ‘Scheduled Tribes’ (STs), it fails to provide comprehensive data on India’s graded caste hierarchy. In the run-up to the 2011 Census, the political leadership agreed to include a full caste count in the Census. It later prevented a caste-wise enumeration in the Census. The suppression of caste-wise data took place then because of two interconnected dynamics which are likely to reoccur unless they are collectively challenged. The importance of caste data First, caste elites generally believe that caste no longer matters in shaping opportunities and outcomes in the 21st century. This caste blindness, or castelessness, ...

India will achieve net zero emissions latest by 2070, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the COP26 summit in Glasgow on Monday. Until Monday, India was the only major emitter that had not committed to a timeline to achieve net zero, or a year by which it would ensure its net carbon dioxide emissions would be zero. By 2030, India will ensure 50% of its energy will be sourced from renewable sources. India also committed to reduce its carbon emissions until 2030 by a billion tonnes. India will also reduce its emissions intensity per unit of GDP by less than 45%. India would also install systems to generate 500 gigawatt of renewable energy by 2030, a 50 GW increase from its existing target, the Prime Minister said. He added that in the spirit of climate justice, rich developed countries ought to be providing at least $1 trillion in climate finance to assist developing countries and those most vulnerable.  

Etiology (pronounced alternatively: aetiology or ætiology ) is the study of causation or origination. The word is derived from the Greek( aitiología ) "giving a reason for" ( aitía , "cause"; and -logia ). More completely, etiology is the study of the causes, origins, or reasons behind the way that things are, or the way they function, or it can refer to the causes themselves. The word is commonly used in medicine(pertaining to causes of disease) and in philosophy, but also in physics,psycology,government geography , spatial analysis , theology , and biology , in reference to the causes or origins of various phenomena . In the past, when many physical phenomena were not well understood or when histories were not recorded, myths often arose to provide etiologies. Thus, an etiological myth, or origin myth , is a myth that has arisen, been told over time or written to explain the origins of various social or natural phenomena. For example, Virgil 's Aeneid is a...

Swiss gold exports rose last year to their highest since 2018 as demand for bullion in China and India, the biggest consumer markets, recovered from a collapse early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Swiss customs data showed.    The coronavirus crisis upended the bullion market in 2020, hammering jewellery sales while triggering a rush among investors to stockpile gold, which is traditionally seen as a safe place to store wealth. Switzerland is the world’s largest gold refining centre and transit hub. Its trade data showed a 2020 plunge in exports to Asia, where most gold is sold as jewellery, and huge shipments to the U.S. and Britain, where investors cluster. In 2021, exports to India surged to 507 tonnes, up from 148 tonnes in 2020 and the most since 2015. Shipments to mainland China reached 275 tonnes, up from 30.5 tonnes in 2020 and the highest since 2018. Exports to Hong Kong rose to 79 tonnes, up from 27 tonnes in 2020 and the highest since 2018. The data suggests...

  There are three major components of the Budget —expenditure, receipts and deficit indicators. Depending on the manner in which they are defined, there can be many classifications and indicators of expenditure, receipts and deficits. Total expenditure can be further be divided into capital and revenue expenditure. Similarly, the receipts of the Government also have three components —revenue receipts, non-debt capital receipts and debt-creating capital receipts while fiscal deficit means the difference between total expenditure and the sum of revenue receipts and non-debt receipts. Since different components of expenditure and revenue can have different effects on income of different classes and social groups, the Budget has implications for income distribution as well. In India the fiscal rule is guided by the recommendations of the N.K. Singh Committee Report. Allowing for some deviations under exceptional times, it has three policy targets —maintaining a specific l...