GS: 1
Society and women related issues:
Protecting the girl child(The Hindu Opinion)
The courage of a group of Dawoodi Bohra women, who were subject to female genital mutilation (FGM) and recently began speaking about it publicly, has “shone a light” upon the often debilitating, secretive process in India, like never before.
Dealing with hijacking(The Hindu Opinion)
The hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 in 1999 and the 9/11 attacks in the U.S., in which aircraft were used as missiles, were wake-up calls for India to tighten the 1982 vintage anti-hijacking law. The need was also felt to make hijacking punishable with death penalty.
You value a rape at ₹6,500, ‘shocked’ SC asks M.P. govt.(The Hindu)
Are you doing charity by paying ₹6,500 to a rape victim, asked the Supreme Court on Thursday after going through an affidavit filed by the Madhya Pradesh government on the compensation given under the Nirbhaya Fund scheme.
A deepening crisis(The Hindu Opinion)
The more necessary it seems, the less likely it gets. That is the story of public spending on education. In 1966, the Kothari Commission had said in its voluminous report that India should aim at spending 6% of its GDP on education. More than half a century later, we are spending less than 3% of our GDP on education. D.S. Kothari’s .
GS: 2
International relations:
Change of guard: On Jacob Zuma’s ouster(The Hindu Opinion)
Jacob Zuma’s exit as South Africa’s President must lead to an institutional clean-up
Making up for lost time(The Hindu Opinion)
India and Canada must use Justin Trudeau’s visit to take a long-term view of bilateral ties
China slams Modi’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh(The Hindu)
China has slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh on Thursday, saying it was not helpful in creating “enabling conditions” for boundary talks and improvement of Beijing-New Delhi ties.
Rouhani to push for investment(The Hindu)
Indian investment in Iran including billions of dollars in connectivity, infrastructure and oil projects topped the agenda as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani arrived for a three-day visit to India on Thursday.
Nepal gets new Communist Prime Minister: K P Sharma Oli sworn in for second time
CPN-UML Chairman K.P. Sharma Oli was on Thursday sworn in as the 41st Prime Minister of Nepal, 69 days after the elections of the Federal and Provincial Assemblies.
Indian Constitution and Polity:
We are autonomous,’ Prasar Bharati rejects Ministry’s directives(The Hindu)
Aggressively defending its autonomy, public broadcaster Prasar Bharati has rejected a range of “directives” coming from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, saying they constituted “contempt” of the Prasar Bharati Act.
Cauvery water dispute: Supreme Court to deliver verdict on February 16(The Hindu)
A Special Bench of the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, on February 16 will pronounce the verdict on appeals filed by Tamil Nadu Karnataka and Kerala against the final award of the Cauvery Waters Tribunal in 2007 on the allocation of water to them.
Should Supreme Court proceedings be live-streamed?(The Hindu Opinion)
As Kautilya said in the Arthashastra, and during that time, when judges delivered a judgment, they did so in an open court. From then until now, the visual setting of the justice delivery mechanism hasn’t changed much. While the Indian legal system is built on the concept of open courts, which means that the proceedings are open to all members of the public, the reality is different. On any given day, only a handful of people can be physically present and are allowed in the courtroom.
GS: 3
Economy:
PNB fraud: Diamond, gold jewellery worth ₹5,100 crore seized from Nirav Modi premises(The Hindu)
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Thursday that Punjab National Bank fraud–accused jewellery designer Nirav Modi was not part of the Prime Minister Modi’s delegation at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “He was part of the CII [Confederation of Indian Industry] delegation,” he asserted.
Gem of a scam: On PNB fraud(The Hindu Editorial)
The PNB fraud must be speedily investigated to restore faith in the banking system.
PNB, Nirav Modi and a fraud that went undetected for 7 years(The Hindu)
Preliminary investigation into the alleged fraudulent transactions worth ₹11,500 crore has revealed a complete breakdown of supervision and auditing mechanism in Punjab National Bank’s Mumbai branch and overseas branches of the other banks concerned.
PNB fraud: ED suspects similar frauds in other banks(The Hindu)
The Enforcement Directorate may soon write to all the banks to report any fraudulent transaction, similar to those detected in the Punjab National Bank case, for speedy action against those involved.
Parliamentary Panel seeks FinMin report(The Hindu)
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance on Thursday questioned finance ministry officials about the $1.77 billion fraud in the state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) and asked them to submit a report on it.
Trade deficit widens to $16.3bn in Jan.(The Hindu)
The country’s goods trade deficit widened to $16.30 billion in January 2018 from $9.9 billion in the same month a year ago and $14.88 billion in the previous month owing to imports outpacing exports, data released by the commerce ministry on Thursday showed.
Boost for women’s cooperatives(The Hindu)
Women’s cooperative societies in Rajasthan will get loans for dairy and animal husbandry works at 5.50% interest rate from cooperative land development banks. These cooperative bodies are at present making transactions worth Rs. 1,100 crore.
Environment:
Week-long tiger census begins in Odisha today(The Hindu)
The Odisha government will employ 900 cameras during its week-long annual tiger census beginning Friday.
Yesterday’s current affairs material by Forum IAS
7 PM Editorial brief: India targets only electric vehicles by 2030
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