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'Israel’s multi-layered air defence system has defended the country from a major attack, with Iran launching over 300 armed drones and long-range missiles.' The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) said the Iranian attack was thwarted and only a few missiles landed in its territory, causing minimal damage to an airbase in southern Israel and injuring a child. Iran had launched the attack in retaliation to an Israeli strike on its consulate in Damascus, Syria, earlier this month, killing several Iranian military commanders. It includes systems such as Arrow 2 and Arrow 3, David’s Sling (Stunner), Iron Dome, Patriot Advanced Capability-2, PAC-3 and advanced fighter jets operated by the country’s air force.

Reforms needed in the voting process

Polity & Governance

'The Supreme Court has decided to hear petitions seeking 100% cross-verification of the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with the vote count as per Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).' The EVM was introduced on a trial basis in 1982 in the Assembly constituency of Paravur in Kerala. They were deployed in all booths during the Assembly elections of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry and West Bengal in 2001. The Supreme Court in various judgments has upheld the validity of using EVMs in elections. Countries like England, France, The Netherlands and the U.S. have discontinued the use of EVMs, for national or federal elections, after trials in the last two decades.

Navigating life as a consumer with disability

Economy

'Every year, March 15 is celebrated as World Consumer Rights Day to create awareness about the rights of consumers.' One section of consumers who might remain invisible in these celebrations or even in the discourse around consumer rights is consumers with disabilities. Every single day, persons with disabilities face this struggle of seeking help for the most basic human activities, and the consequent loss of dignity, independence, and privacy. The pervasive inaccessibility that they encounter as consumers not only undermines their right to lead an independent life but also prevents them from equally participating in society as others. Persons with disabilities are also empowered by laws that safeguard their rights and interests as consumers. The primary legislation in this regard is the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPWDA), 2016.

Ayushman Bharat Scheme

Schemes & Policies

'Recently,Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promised to expand its Ayushman Bharat Health Insurance scheme to cover senior citizens.' Launched in September 2018, Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) — is the world’s largest Government-funded health insurance scheme. Currently, beneficiaries are identified from the 2011 Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC), based on specific deprivation and occupational criteria across both rural and urban areas. Initially covering 10.74 crore families, states implementing AB-PMJAY have broadened their reach to encompass 13.44 crore families (65 crore people). The population over the age of 60 years will nearly triple from 103 million in 2011 to 319 million in 2050.

How are hydrocarbons extracted from under the ground?

Economy

'Over millennia, mighty geological processes in the earth’s crust heated and compressed together pieces of life-forms that had been dead for a while.' Eventually, this mulch of organic matter accumulated as hydrocarbons inside rock formations. The two Industrial Revolutions were the result mainly of people finding a way to extract these hydrocarbons and using them to drive many and great engines, whose foul breath polluted the air and water and eventually gave us global warming. The most common forms in which these hydrocarbons exist in subterranean rock formations are natural gas, coal, crude oil, and petroleum.

Tamil Nadu’s decentralised industrialisation model

Economy

'Tamil Nadu, which votes on April 19, is India’s No.1 state in terms of economic complexity, measured by the diversity of its gross domestic product (GDP) and employment profile.' Gujarat is more industrialised than TN, with the factory sector generating 43.4% of the state’s GVA and engaging 24.6% of its workforce (as against the latter’s 22.7% and 17.9% respectively). But Gujarat also has agriculture accounting for a higher share of its GVA (15.9%) and workforce (41.8%) than the corresponding 12.6% and 28.9% for TN. That makes its economy less diversified and balanced vis-à-vis TN. About 45.3% of TN’s farm GVA comes from the livestock subsector, the highest for any state and way above the 30.2% all-India average.

Space tourism

Science & Tech.

'Entrepreneur and pilot Gopi Thotakura is set to become the first Indian to venture into space as a tourist on the NS-25 mission of Blue Origin — a company founded by Jeff Bezos, who is also the founder of Amazon.' Thotakura has been selected as one of the six crew members for the mission, whose launch date is yet to be announced. If the mission is successful, Thotakura would be the second Indian to go into space. The first one was Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, who flew to the Salyut 7 space station on a Soviet spacecraft in 1984. In recent years, space tourism has grown by leaps and bounds. According to media reports, in 2023, the space tourism market was valued at $848.28 million.

Defence & Security, Infrastructure

The strategic importance of Andaman and Nicobar Islands

'The transformation of India’s Look East policy into a robust Act East policy, a realisation of the critical importance of ocean power,' And the rapid enhancement in the capabilities of the Chinese PLA Navy, have brought a degree of seriousness to the imperative of developing Indian island territories in general, and the Andaman and Nicobar group in particular. The recent thrust on developing strategic infrastructure, both civilian and military, on the islands is welcome — and decades overdue. The neglect of this strategic island group betrays a lack of strategic maritime vision in the decades since Independence.

Decoding the judgment on Jim Corbett

Ecology & Environment

15 Apr 2024

'In its ruling in March, the Supreme Court brought to light the unholy nexus of politicians, forest officials, and local contractors responsible for the felling of 6,000 trees in the Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand.' This state of affairs underlines one fact clearly: despite conservation goals receiving priority through policies and laws including the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, Project Tiger, and the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, the state’s main interest remains increasing revenue. The illegal destruction of trees in Jim Corbett can be seen in contravention of the Supreme Court judgment in Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra vs. State of Uttar Pradesh, which said that “economic growth cannot be achieved at the cost of environmental destruction and people’s right to healthy environment.”

Fixing India’s VVPAT-based audit of EVMs

Polity & Governance

15 Apr 2024

'The Election Commission of India (ECI) has attracted criticism for reducing the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) based audit of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) to an exercise in tokenism and for its lack of transparency in the matter.' The uniform sample size of “five EVMs per Assembly constituency” prescribed by it for all Assembly constituencies and States does not conform to the fundamental principles of statistical sampling and leads to high margins of error. At the same time, the ECI’s critics are also guilty of demanding arbitrary, non-statistical sample sizes like “25 per cent samples” and “50 per cent samples” for VVPAT-based audit of EVMs, under the mistaken impression that a “bigger percentage” guarantees greater accuracy of results.