Must Read News Articles – February 4th, 2019

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GS 2

Centre’s crackdown hits Greenpeace

Greenpeace has been forced to close two of its regional offices and “considerably” reduce its staff in India because of a government crackdown on allegedly unlawful foreign funding of NGOs.

Legitimacy of the basic structure

The doctrine may be derived from the abstract. But it exists within the Constitution itself

Afghanistan at a crossroads

Any agreement between the Taliban and the U.S. at the expense of the Afghan government and people is doomed to fail

Standard deviations

Delay in releasing key employment data has undermined the credibility of data officialdom

Hawkish move

The U.S.’s unilateral withdrawal from a nuclear treaty threatens to kick-start a new arms race

Imagining alternative futures

The ‘Young India Adhikar March’ is a representation of over 40 youth organisations demanding, among other things, an end to fee hikes, gender discriminatory laws, a syllabus free of “saffron” taints, alongside the guarantee of employment and academic, intellectual freedoms of teaching and learning.

Taliban to meet Afghan Opposition in Moscow

The Taliban said on Sunday that it will send a delegation to Russia for a rare meeting with Afghan Opposition leaders, just days after peace talks with the U.S. that excluded the Kabul government.

GS 3

A booster dose for consumption, investment

After three years of prudence, the NDA government slipped on the fiscal deficit target in fiscal 2018, and then again in 2019. For fiscal 2020, in the Interim Budget, it has pencilled in fiscal deficit at 3.4% of GDP, or 30 basis points (bps) more than envisaged under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act.