Newspaper Must Read Articles of The Day– 21 October 2015

The Hindu

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‘Protect Tibet from global warming’: Tibet, the world’s largest and highest plateau, is often called the “third pole” because it stores more freshwater in the form of glaciers than any region on Earth, except the North and South poles.The region is warming at twice the global average, leading to accelerated melting of tens of thousands of glaciers that feed seven major rivers flowing through India, Bangladesh, China and Southeast Asia. (Geography-GS Paper I)

Gap widening between rural and urban India: Consumption data from the NSSO suggests that rural India’s fuel mix is more geared toward domestically produced firewood, chips and biogas inputs, which are not a part of the global deflation cycle. On the other hand, fuel products more widely used in urban India, such as LPG, petrol, have benefited from lower global prices. (Economic development- GS Paper III)

ONGC targets $10-12 billion investments outside India: Africa and Latin America are likely to be the hotspots for new investment with some companies financially stressed due to high capex and low oil prices. (Economic development- GS Paper III)

Resume the engagement: The latest escalation of violence in East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank has led to the question whether a third intifada is on the way. Intifada is a term used for tremor which persisted in the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The first intifada lasted from 1987 to 1993, and the second began in 2000. (International Relations – GS Paper II)

Time to refresh Afghan relationship: India played a pivotal role in the resistance against the Taliban through the Northern Alliance, two decades earlier. Now, India needs to re-establish contact not just with the old friends in the region but also factions within the Taliban and the anti-Taliban forces in the south, to help Afghanistan gain strategic autonomy. (International Relations – GS Paper II)

An invented primacy: On October 16, the Supreme Court held that the Constitution (99th Amendment) Act, 2014, which authorised the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, was unconstitutional. SC’s NJAC verdict is an innovation to preserve the judiciary’s power to appoint its own.(Indian Constitution , Judiciary/Supreme Court/High Court – GS Paper II)

Expanding An Old Friendship – The third India-Africa Summit will be held in New Delhi. This is going to be the Modi government’s biggest diplomatic outreach involving delegates from a large number of African nations.(International Relations – GS Paper II)

Replacing food with cash: The current government is ideologically opposed to large public spending for social welfare. Government is deeply committed is to substitute subsidised wheat and rice supplied through the public distribution system (PDS) with direct cash transfers into bank accounts of targeted households. (Government Policies- GS Paper II)

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