Category: Featured Editorials

Context: The Terms of References (ToR) of the 15th Finance Commission has raised considerable criticism Finance Commission: The Finance Commission is appointed every five years by the President of India under Article 280 of the constitution. Functions of the Finance Commission: It is required to make recommendations to the President of India on the following… Continue reading Terms of References of 15th Finance Commission: A Critical Appraisal

Context: The 2018 Revision of World Urbanization Prospects, released by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs,  projects India’s urban population to rise to 52.8% in 2050. Major Highlights of the Report: Future increases in the size of the world’s urban population are expected to be highly concentrated in few countries:Together, India, China and Nigeria… Continue reading Urbanization in India: An Analysis

Context: Swaraj Abhiyan has filed a Public Interest Litigation in Supreme Court concerning the violation of various provisions of the MGREGA. What is MGNREGA? The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is a employment guarantee act It was introduced in 2005 through the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005. In 2010, NREGA renamed… Continue reading Critical Analysis of MGNREGA

Context: A report by McKinsey Global Institute states that India has a huge potential to create jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities for women in the growing market of Renewable Energy. The Scope: The government of India has committed to install 175 GW of Renewable Energy by 2022. Several of these installations will be in rural areas,… Continue reading Creating jobs for women: Renewable energy sector

Context Recently Ministry of Culture had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Dalmia Bharat group for the restoration of Delhi’s Red Fort under ‘Adopt a Heritage’ scheme   What is Adopt a Heritage Scheme? The ‘Adopt a Heritage: Apni Dharohar, Apni Pehchaan’ scheme is key initiative of the Ministry of Tourism, in collaboration with… Continue reading Adopt a heritage: An overview

Context Centre government has announced that the country has achieved 100% of village electrification. Then and Now At the time of India’s Independence only 0.5% of India’s villages were electrified. It is contrary to most developed country which completed their electrification in 1950s. In Constituent Assembly debate K. Santhanam, a member of the Constituent Assembly,… Continue reading 100 % village electrification – A critical analysis

Context On 11th may India marked 20 years of the Pokhran-II Nuclear test. Background On 11th May 1998 India conducted a series of nuclear bomb test explosion at Pokhran, Rajasthan which was popularly known as Pokhran II. Pokhran-II was India’s second nuclear test popularly known as Operation Shakti. ( Watch upcoming John’s Movie – PARMANU)… Continue reading India nuclear regime after Pokhran-II Nuclear test

Context: President Donald Trump has announced that the US will withdraw from the nuclear deal and reimpose the sanctions against Iran. The Timeline of Iran Nuclear Deal: 1967- Iran received technical assistance for nuclear technology under the US Atoms for Peace Programme 1979– Assistance ended with Iranian Revolution ( Islamic revolution which over threw Pahlavi… Continue reading US withdrawal from Iran-Nuclear Deal

Context Scientists have created a substance capable of “eating” plastic that could help tackle the world’s pollution problem. The substance and its advantage The substance is based on an enzyme – a “biological catalyst”(Ideonella sakaiensis) – first produced by bacteria living in a Japanese recycling centre that researchers suggested had evolved it in order to… Continue reading Plastic pollution: An overview