What you should be reading from today’s news paper..
The Hindu
National
- The Union government’s decision to give a Rs. 6,000-crore interest-free loan to the sugar industry to help it clear arrears to farmers does not go down well with the industry body
- It had also waived excise duties on ethanol in the next sugar season to further incentivise ethanol supplies for the blending program. This would enhance the ex-mill price of ethanol and help to improve the liquidity of the industry, sources said.
- India’s sugar production is estimated to cross 28 million tonnes during the 2014-15 marketing year (October-September), against 24.3 million tonnes in the previous year.
- The total annual demand is put at 24 million tonnes.
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Science and Tech/Environment
- Songbird turns victim of hunting
- Hybrid device combines solar, wind energy
- India richer by 349 new species
- Sanctioning cruelty in the name of faith? –Central theme: “In India, several animals are deemed ‘holy’. This has led in a major part to unsustainable practices”. The Environment Ministry’s proposal to allow the hunting of some animals on cultural grounds will set a dangerous precedent that encourages poaching
Economy
International / World Affairs
Africa
Central theme:
1.The deal on the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) caps five years of negotiations to set up a framework for preferential tariffs easing the movement of goods in an area home to 625 million people.
- The deal will integrate three existing trade blocs — the East African Community, the Southern African Development Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) — whose countries have a combined Gross Domestic Product of more than $1 trillion
USA/Europe
South Asia/East Asia
- ‘No PLA hand in Manipur ambush’
- Pak. warns India against ‘misadventure’
- India, Pakistan raise pitch in war of words
- Modi invited for Nepal donor meet
- Pak. executes inmate convicted as minor– Pakistan has lifted seven year of moratorium
- Inside Myanmar, in hot pursuit –Central theme: 1. if the intention is to be surgical and engage in long-term anti-militancy operations, the Modi government and the BJP should desist from chest-thumping.
- While India makes it clear that as a nation it would not take attacks such as this lying down, the Myanmar operation sends its own signal to the rest of South Asia.
- It would be contextual to recall that even a major operation in end-2003 against anti-India separatist groups that were based in Bhutan was conducted by the Bhutanese army with support from India.
Editorial/Opinion ( Issues of National & International Importance )
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Bills that don’t match promises –Central theme:
- The various pieces of legislation the government is contemplating give lie to its claims of being anti-corruption and pro-poor
- The Black Money Bill provides an escape route to the ‘smart’ hoarders, the GST Bill will marginalise the small producer, while the Whistleblowers Bill will silence the whistle
Central theme:the worst budget cuts have been applied to the most vulnerable segments — women, children, agriculture, irrigation, Panchayati Raj, education, health, and scheduled castes and tribe. Government did yet to take clear stand on what compel them to take such unjustifiable decisions because whatever be the intension of government, it would push landless poor into a debt trap, depress rural wages, and make them ever more dependant on government charity
Indian Express – Opinion /Columns
- Empires of poppiesImportant points.
- Myanmar’s drug boom is worrying. Insurgents in the Northeast could tap into it
- Intelligence reports also suggest new cultivation areas are opening up in Sagaing, adjoining Myanmar’s borders with Manipur and Nagaland.
- An Untenable Posture –
- Important points.
- Constitution and legal precedent give individuals the right to say no to yoga.
- Any health-building tradition of India, however historic or beneficial, or any religious practice, however widely prevalent in society, cannot be imposed on unwilling individuals or communities in violation of the clear provisions of Articles 25 and 28
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