Category: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL & SOCIAL

Context The ‘None Of The Above’ (NOTA) option will remain on the ballot paper in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections. Plea to get rid of NOTA A Bench of Justices Dipak Misra, Amitava Roy and A.M. Khanwilkar rejected the Gujarat Congress’s plea to freeze the NOTA option for elections to the three Rajya Sabha seats… Continue reading NOTA to stay as an option for Rajya Sabha elections

Context: Even after sixty years of independence, the hierarchical view of society in India holds their opinions in the defence of caste and reassertion of categories like pure and impure. Historical background of Caste system: Origin of the caste system: Earlier, the caste of a person in India used to define his or her occupation… Continue reading The ambiguous sugar coating of caste system

Context: Supreme Court on 2nd August, 2017 directed that mining companies and leaseholders, who have engaged in mining activities without forest or environmental clearance, will have to pay the public exchequer a compensation equivalent to 100% value of the minerals they extracted illegally. Illegal mining in various states of India: Statistical Data: Himachal:  During 2016-17… Continue reading Illegal mining in India draws headlines

Context: Before coming to the conclusion that women misuse the law, the court ought to have called for expert evidence and requisitioned the services of women’s studies centres which exist in all universities. Instead, the Supreme Court relied on (National Crime Records Bureau) NCRB data. Explanation: The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, which is… Continue reading A sensitive dimension of domestic violence on women

Context The adoption of the historic United Nations pact to ban nuclear weapons underscores a paradigm shift in the discourse on global disarmament. The pact The universal goal of total elimination of these weapons of mass destruction has been disentangled from the narrow focus on the maintenance of a deterrent by the nuclear weapons states… Continue reading To live in a Nuclear free world

Context Opening a new front for collaboration in anti-piracy operation in Eastern Africa, India and Somalia signed an agreement for transfer of sentenced convicts. The visit of the Foreign Minister of Somalia The entire scope of India-Somalia bilateral relations, including the issue of piracy and maritime security, were discussed between the two sides during the… Continue reading India’s stand on Anti-Piracy remains strong

Context In the middle of India’s standoff with China, Sri Lanka, after much internal wrangling, handed over the Hambantota port, sitting astride the sea lines of communication of the Indian Ocean, to a Chinese consortium. India-Sri Lanka relations The changing contours of Bay of Bengal Similarly, in Myanmar, despite many political anxieties about economic over-dependence… Continue reading The power gap between India and China is worrisome for India

Context: The Union government has ordered State-run oil companies to raise the prices of subsidized cooking gas(LPG) by Rs 4 a cylinder every month to eliminate all subsidies by March next year. Background: The government had previously asked Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum to raise rates of subsidized domestic LPG by Rs 2… Continue reading The government aims to end all subsidies by March 2018

Context: As observed by the intelligence agencies, in the recent times, drug runners have been using the vast seas off India and Pakistan for running their rackets. Routes across the seas: For the past many years there have been several confrontation, occasional seizures and significant suspicious boat movements to reaffirm the intelligence assessment about the… Continue reading The menace of drug trafficking

Introduction India and Thailand have historical and cultural roots that reach back much beyond our 70 years of diplomatic relations. Both countries have been shaped and remain linked by the great forces of history and culture that span thousands of years. Thai academics have found that our close historical and cultural ties somehow seem to… Continue reading Changing Contours of India – Thailand relations