Prashant Mavani, is an expert in current affairs analysis and holds a MSc in Management from University of Surrey (U.K.). Above all he is a passionate teacher.

www.studyiq.com

www.studyiq.com

The agency lifted the country’s rating to Baa2 from Baa3, the latter being the lowest investment grade rating, and changed its rating outlook to stable from positive as “risks to its credit profile were broadly balanced”.

• Moody’s decision to upgrade India’s sovereign credit rating by a notch after a gap of almost 14 years is undoubtedly a welcome recognition of the country’s enormous economic potential.

• Driven by some of the recent structural reforms — including the implementation of a long-delayed nationwide goods and services tax (GST), and moves to address the logjam of mounting bad loans in the banking sector through an Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

• These are expected to help ensure a healthier enabling environment to realise this potential over the longer term.

• The ratings agency has said the reforms undertaken until now would “advance the government’s objective of improving the business climate, enhancing productivity, stimulating foreign and domestic investment, and ultimately fostering strong and sustainable growth.”

• At 68% of its GDP in 2016, general government debt in India is significantly higher than the 44% median for other similarly ranked economies, according to the New York-based agency, which sees the debt-to-GDP ratio widening by about 1 percentage point this fiscal year to 69%.

www.studyiq.com

www.studyiq.com

www.studyiq.com

• Moody’s cites “the large pool of private savings available to finance government debt”, the steps taken to enlarge the formal economy by mainstreaming more and more businesses from the informal sector, and measures aimed at improving spending efficiency through better targeting of welfare measures, as all broadly supportive of a gradual strengthening of the fiscal metrics over time.

• For the economy to capitalise on this upgrade, the political leadership must stay the reform course, electorally alluring temptations to resort to populism notwithstanding.

www.studyiq.com

www.studyiq.com

• The coalition ranged against the screening of Padmavati.

• The Uttar Pradesh government has joined the ranks of the Karni Sena,

• Lucknow has written to the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry requesting that the Central Board of Film Certification be alerted of the “public sentiment” about distortion of “facts” in the film.

• Its release, the U.P. government has said, could disrupt law and order in the State, especially with the administration’s energies focussed on the municipal elections in end-November.

• By harping on the question of “historical facts” in connection with a film based on a work of fiction, the government is tacitly endorsing random groups

• Over in Rajasthan, a Minister, Kiran Maheshwari, has intemperately railed against the film.

• Governments are expected to enforce law and order, not buckle down in the face of threats — whether perceived or real.

• As the Supreme Court observed in S. Rangarajan vs. Jagjivan Ram, a mere threat to public order cannot be a ground to suppress freedom of expression.

www.studyiq.com

• And the Karni Sena, which vandalised the sets on location in Rajasthan earlier this year and on Friday blocked entry into the Chittorgarh fort where the story is set, freely hands out threats to the life and well-being of those associated with Padmavati, especially Deepika Padukone, its lead actor.

• Leave aside the fact that the story draws from a 16th century Sufi poem, ‘Padmavat’, and has over the centuries been retold across north India, and that there is no historical record of Padmavati’s existence, the insistence on demanding accuracy in period dramas is anyway an infringement on creativity.

• Fictionalising the past is a longstanding way of understanding it, from K. Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam to Oliver Stone’s JFK.

• That Alauddin Khilji, the Delhi Sultan who wages war in the story to try to win the beautiful Padmavati, could be humanised obviously disturbs the Hindutva narrative about ‘evil invaders’.

• In this, it is not just that the film is fuelling such worries: the film is being used to heighten such anxieties and consolidate a regressive and intolerant world view.

www.studyiq.com

Censor board returns Padmavati

• The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has sent the Sanjay Leela Bhansali-directed Padmavati back to the makers as the application for the certification was “incomplete.”

• According to the CBFC, the movie, which has triggered protests by several Rajput groups, will be reviewed as per the set norms once it is sent back to the board.

• “The film was submitted for certification last week. We examined the documents, as we normally do. It was conveyed to the makers that their application was incomplete. We will view it when it comes back to us,” a source in the CBFC told PTI.

• The source, however, refused to divulge details of the “deficiency in the application.”

• Asked about the date for screening of the film, the source said, “When it comes back to us we will put it in queue and see when the turn comes. There will be no exception (in case of Padmavati).”

www.studyiq.com

www.studyiq.com

• The term populism has acquired considerable currency these days, and is widely used to describe a distinctive mode of politics.

• Though populist leaders are democratically elected, they betray scant respect for the procedures and institutions of democracy, civil liberties, and dissent.

Standing up to ‘big men’

• Jawaharlal Nehru had steered the party to impressive victories in the first three elections to Parliament after Independence.

• This gave the government an edge over the party leadership.

• Nehru’s death in 1964 restored power to the ‘big men’ in the Congress.

• They were more than familiar with political strategies, and were adept at manoeuvring their way through the thickets of politics.

• They decided to put Indira Gandhi, who had acquired a fair deal of popularity, in her place. She was also referred to as a ‘goongi gudiya’ (dumb doll).

• She was sworn in as the first woman Prime Minister of India on January 24, 1966. From the late 1960s to her assassination in 1984, the same woman who had been regularly belittled by her male colleagues dominated the party as well as the country.

• The story of Prime Minister Gandhi’s ascent in politics begins in the 1967 elections, when she campaigned for the party across the country.

• Slogan ‘garibi hatao’ (remove poverty)

• She nationalised 14 commercial banks in 1969, and abolished the privy purses of the erstwhile royals

• Mrs. Gandhi became the undisputed leader of the dominant wing of the party.

www.studyiq.com

• Conversely her disdain for procedures and parliamentary proprieties led to the rapid decline of democratic institutions.

• Prime Minister Gandhi changed the rules of Indian politics by calling for a committed judiciary and a committed bureaucracy.

• Above all, she changed the Congress party. As her stature rose in the eyes of Indians, her party declined dramatically.

• The same Congress that had specialised in addressing, negotiating, and resolving demands of different groups within the framework of its organisation became captive to the leader.

• This was at a time when popular expectations of parties and of the government had escalated.

• Mrs. Gandhi imposed an internal emergency from 1975 to 1977 in response.

• By the mid-1970s she had become suspicious of everyone, and could rely on no one except her son Sanjay.

• The decision to storm the Golden Temple was a historic blunder.

• The Prime Minister who moved the hearts and minds of millions would die at the hands of her own guards in 1984.

• The country paid heavily for political populism in the form of personalised power, neglect of institutional propriety, disdain for procedures that contain the otherwise unabashed exercise of power, and the reduction of ministerial colleagues to courtiers.

• Have we learnt anything from this history of the rise and fall of one of the most admired leaders of Indian politics?

www.studyiq.com

• The Kazipally well, along with ditches, lakes and rivers around the pharmaceutical cluster, receives large doses of antibiotics, along with the traditionally monitored pollutants.

• When these antibiotics come in contact with pathogenic bacteria (which cause disease in humans), the latter learn to resist the former, making human infections by these pathogens extremely hard to treat.

• Antibiotic resistance is arguably the biggest threat to global health in the 21st century. In 2014, around 700,000 people across the world died due to infections that evaded antibiotics, a number that is estimated to touch 10 million by 2050.

• What India needs to keep in mind, though, is that the cost of antibiotic resistance will be enormous for both the country and the world.

www.studyiq.com

• Lucas Chancel and Piketty (2017), in ‘Indian income inequality, 1922-2014: From British Raj to Billionaire Raj?’

www.studyiq.com

SC to hear NRI plea on Aadhaar-bank link

• The Supreme Court on Friday allowed a UAE-based professional to approach the Bench, expected to be set up to hear the petitions challenging the Aadhaar scheme, with his plea to exempt NRIs from linking their bank accounts with Aadhaar.

• A Bench, led by Justice A.K. Sikri, took note of the plea by Femin Panikkassery Subramaniyan as the law allows only resident Indians to enrol for Aadhaar.

• Mr. Subramaniyan referred to the Prevention of Money-laundering, Second Amendment Rules, 2017, to submit that non-linking would lead to indefinite blocking of his bank accounts and he would be robbed of his hard-earned money for no fault of his.

www.studyiq.com

LeT poster boy gives up the gun

• A fresh Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) recruit, Majid Khan, who was fast turning into a poster boy of militancy, on Friday “returned home and gave up the gun” in the wake of repeated appeals made by the family and friends on social media.

• The 20-year-old was a local football star.

• “The brave boy decided himself to give up violence and get back into the mainstream. We ensured he safely returned after we came to know about an opportunity (of his return) on Thursday. No charges will be pressed against him so that he pursues his career and sporting passion,” said General Officer Commanding (GOC), Victor Force, Maj. Gen. B.S Raju.

• GOC Raju also offered a surrender option to those militants involved in crimes but intend to return. “They may have to face the law of the land. But we will ensure their return to the mainstream,” he said.

• Mr. Khan — who was mentally disturbed after the killing of his close friend Yawar Nisar in an encounter in August this year — joined the LeT two weeks ago.

www.studyiq.com

SC for nationwide ban on furnace oil, pet coke

• The Supreme Court on Friday requested all States and Union Territories to move forward towards a nationwide ban on the use of pet coke and furnace oil to power up industries, in a bid to fight pollution.

• The Environment Bench of the Supreme Court had already ordered a ban on the industrial use of pet coke and furnace oil in the States of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan on October 24.

• This ban specifically came after an Environment Pollution Control Authority Report recommended the ban on sale, distribution and use of furnace oil and pet coke in the National Capital Region (NCR). Their use is already prohibited in Delhi.

• However, senior advocate and amicus curiae Harish Salve submitted that such a prohibition would only partly solve the pollution problem in these States. He said the actual source of these pollutants should be stopped. For this, the very sale of pet coke and furnace oil for use as fuel should come to an end in U.P., Haryana and Rajasthan.

• On October 24, the apex court also imposed a fine of Rs2 lakh on the Ministry of Environment for not fixing any emission standards for industries using pet coke and furnace oil in the NCR.

www.studyiq.com

Allow Kambala races without cruelty, Centre tells SC

• The Centre on Friday supported the cause of having Kambala races in Karnataka, provided steps are taken to avoid cruelty to the participating bulls.“Unless cruelty is involved, Kambala should be permitted,” Attorney General K.K. Venugopal told a three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.

• When asked why the Karnataka government is “so bothered” about Kambala that it has to promulgate an ordinance, Mr. Venugopal said “all State governments have to appease popular sentiments”.

• The AG invited the court to lay down objective conditions so that there is no unnecessary pain or suffering caused to the bulls.

• People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which has moved the Supreme Court, said the ordinance violates the Animal Welfare Board of India versus A. Nagaraja verdict of the Supreme Court which made illegal any practice or activity inflicting bovine animals with unnecessary pain and suffering as “inherent cruelty”. The court posted the case for further hearing on November 20.

www.studyiq.com

India, France to boost ties in counter-terror, trade

• Gravely concerned over growing terrorism, India and France on Friday decided to strengthen counter-terror cooperation, and asked the international community to oppose countries which are financing, sheltering and providing safe havens to terrorists.

• External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj held wide-ranging talks with her French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian, during which they also decided to strengthen cooperation in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), a development which comes barely days after India held quadrilateral talks with Japan, Australia and the U.S. in Manila on the sidelines of India-ASEAN Summit.

• The two Ministers held discussions on key regional and international issues as well as the proposed visit of the French President to India next year. “We expressed grave concern on growing terrorism and decided that we need to fight the evil together. We appealed to all countries to oppose those financing, sheltering and providing safe havens to terrorists,” Ms. Swaraj said at a joint press event with the French Minister. She said they also discussed concrete measures to expedite operations at the Jaitapur nuclear power project.

• The French Minister said he was here to lay the groundwork for the visit of the French president which would take place early next year during the summit of the International Solar Alliance.

www.studyiq.com

Ready to alter economic corridor route: China

• China may consider alternative routes through Jammu and Kashmir to address India’s concerns regarding the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

• In an interaction with experts on Chinese affairs and students, Beijing’s envoy Luo Zhaohui suggested the alternative routes, and said he was keen on accomplishing a bilateral friendship and trade treaty during his stint in India.

• “We can change the name of CPEC [China Pakistan Economic Corridor]. Create an alternative corridor through Jammu and Kashmir, Nathu La pass or Nepal to deal with India’s concerns,” said the envoy in a speech at the Centre for Chinese and South-East Asian Studies in the School of Language, JNU, on Friday.

• The Ambassador made a detailed presentation of the expectations on both sides and said that while the Dalai Lama’s presence and activities remain an issue for China, Beijing recognised that India’s expectations on the CPEC and Masood Azhar were also issues that both sides need to be deal with.

• “President Trump sealed $250 billion worth of trade deals with China. Would that be possible if China was a threat,” he asked, arguing that China and India as growing economies must cooperate with each other.

• “One of my goals is to have a treaty of friendship and free trade with India,” he said, elaborating that both sides need to find more areas to collaborate like the Delhi smog. “Beijing also has smog and two sides can jointly deal with this issue.”

www.studyiq.com

Why haven’t electric cars caught on in India, asks SC

• The Supreme Court on Friday wondered why big automobile companies are not investing in solar-powered and battery-operated cars in India as much as they do abroad.

• A Bench led by Justice Madan B. Lokur orally pointed out that solar and battery cars have become popular across the world for their clean energy. The court said efforts should be made to drive the market up for such cars in public interest and for a clean environment.

• The car manufacturers, meanwhile, said they would meet the April 2020 deadline for achieving BS-VI emissionnorms.

• The court directed the Union to respond to an application filed by its amicus curiae and senior advocate Harish Salve to ensure sufficient supply of gas in the National Capital Region so that it can be used as the principal fuel. The court asked the Centre to respond to Mr. Salve’s application to “direct the Union to oversee measures to strengthen the distribution of electricity in the NCR to ensure that there is no shortfall in the availability of electricity”.

• The Centre, represented by Additional Solicitor General A.N.S. Nadkarni, has sought some time to respond to the court.

www.studyiq.com

www.studyiq.com

Pride of place President Ram Nath Kovind presents a silver trumpet and banner to the President’s Bodyguard, an elite cavalry regiment of the Indian Army during a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Friday.

www.studyiq.com

www.studyiq.com

www.studyiq.com

Answers

1) Southern Rhodesia

2) One Vision One Identity One Community

3) False: Found in waters of Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal.

Questions

1) Name the event that will find a place in the history books as “First War of Independence” ?

2) Name 5 famous rulers of Delhi Sultanate in post Rajput and Pre Mughal era.

3) Which language was the official language of Delhi Sultans?

www.studyiq.com

• Need lecture notes? Get it from www.studyiq.com or Telegram: https://t.me/Studyiqeducation

•Subscribe

•Share

•Like

•Comment

•Jai Hind