“We have created a world record for launching 104 satellites simultaneously from the same spacecraft. We will soon register India`s presence on the Moon through the Chandrayaan-2 campaign.”-Narendra Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has decided to reserve 10% of seats in government colleges and 10% of government jobs for people who are not well off. This will be for those whose families earn less than `8 lakh a year or own less than five acres of land. To make this a law, the Constitution of India has to be changed and India's Parliament approved the change recently. Who will this help? People from families that are not well educated and those who sit on the back benches of society already get 50% of seats and jobs. The new move will help those who are‘backward’ when it comes to what they earn.
Rival political parties of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party have accused him of making this move in order to get votes in the elections that will take place this summer. They point out that the reservation will help caste groups like the Jats and Marathas, who don’t qualify for existing reservations, to get government jobs and seats in colleges. These are people who have traditionally supported Modi and this is his way of ensuring that they continue to do so, his rivals say.
Shock change at RBI
In a surprising move earlier this month, the governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Urijit Patel resigned from his post. The government was quick to replace him with Shaktikanta Das who previously worked for the government.
Over the past many weeks, it had become clear that the Government and the RBI under Patel were disagreeing on many issues. For one, the government wanted the RBI to release money that the bank was holding in reserve. The government’s argument was that increasing the money flow would improve India’s economy and help businesses do better. The RBI in turn wanted to keep money in reserve in case there was an emergency of any kind.
In other words, it was the differences between Patel and the government that drove the RBI Governor out. The new RBI governor is expected to have friendlier relations with the government.
KAMALA HARRIS TO RUN FOR US PRESIDENT
Kamala Harris, an American politician with Indian roots, has announced that she will be running for US President in the 2020 elections. Born to an Indian mother and Jamaican father, Harris will be the first person of Indian origin to take a serious shot at US presidency. She is a Democrat and her first challenge will be to win the nomination of the Democrats. The United States has a two political party system consisting of the Democrats and the Republicans. The current President Donald Trump is a Republican. There will be other candidates also vying to be nominated as the Democrat’s candidate and Harris has a tough nomination race ahead of her. If she manages to earn the Democratic nomination sometime in 2019, then the race to the White House (the home of the US President) will begin.
Onward in the fight against climate change
Men and women representing 196 countries of the world came together in Katowice, Poland to agree on a rule book which spells out the kind of steps countries need to take to reduce global warming. The meeting, nicknamed COP 24, is a follow-up to the Paris Agreement of 2015 when countries first agreed to keep the increase in Earth’s temperature well below 2 degrees Celcius as compared to average temperatures before 1900 when there weren’t so many vehicles or factories.
Global warming is the direct result of the increase in motor vehicles and factory activity that produce the greenhouse gases which in turn drive up temperatures. The Paris Agreement spelt out the steps countries needed to take to fight climate change. The rulebook finalized in Poland tells the countries how they need to go about things and how to report all the actions taken. This will enable the world to keep track of how well the promises made at Paris are being kept.
For example, the Paris Agreement asks every member nation to submit information about their greenhouse gas emissions every two years. The rulebook spells out which gases to measure, the means of measuring them and the kind of information each country has to submit.
What didn’t COP 24 achieve?
At Paris, countries decided that they needed a report that would update the data on global warming. The result was a report released by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change which said that countries should keep the temperature increase to 1.5°C, instead of aiming at 2°C. Sadly, countries gathered in Poland failed to agree on this. Worse the United States and Saudi Arabia (the first, one of the biggest greenhouse gas emitters in the world and the second, the world’s largest producer of oil) didn’t even welcome the report. Accepting the IPCC report may have given the planet a better shot at beating climate change, but sadly that did not happen.
MARY KOM WINS HISTORIC WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP GOLD
Chungneijang Mary Kom Hmangte, more famously known as Mary Kom, won her sixth gold at the Boxing World Champions in late November, becoming the first female boxer in the world to achieve the feat.
35 year old Kom, who is the mother of three boys, has now set her sights higher-she says she wants to win a seventh world championship and also a gold for India at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Kom boxes in the 48kg category.
Despite her tremendous success at the World Championship, a well-deserved Olympic gold medal has proved elusive for Kom. In 2012, she could only win a bronze in the London Olympics. Interestingly, the latest world championship gold medal for Kom has come after a gap of eight years.
Thanks to her sporting achievements, the Indian government has made Kom a member of the Rajya Sabha.
Born into a poor farmer family in Manipur, Kom switched full-time to boxing only in 2000, largely inspired by the success of fellow Manipuri Dingko Singh, who won a gold medal in the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok. Kom is also an animal rights activist, which means she speaks out to prevent cruelty to and mistreatment of animals.
A bridge for the Brahmaputra
A new bridge across the Brahmaputra connecting Assam and Arunachal Pradesh was opened last month. Called the Boghibeel Bridge, it is India’s longest rail-road bridge and as well as the second longest bridge in all of Asia. The bridge will make it easier for people to travel in and out of Arunachal Pradesh, which is quite poorly connected with the rest of the country now. With a rail line also part of the bridge, it is the first step towards the building of a major railway link across Arunachal Pradesh. The Bogibeel bridge is constructed at an estimated cost of `5,900 crore. The bridge has a two-line railway track on the lower deck and a three-lane road on the top deck. For the first time for Indian Railways, the girder has A steel floor system for railway tracks and concrete for road. The bridge, which was a part of the Assam Accord and sanctioned in 1997-98, is also likely to play a crucial role in defence movement along the IndiaChina border in Arunachal Pradesh.
ICC crowns ‘King Kohli’
You may have always believed that Virat Kohli was the king of cricket, but the International Cricket Council (ICC) just made it official. In its annual awards for 2018, the ICC chose Kohli as ‘ICC Cricketer of the Year, ‘Test Cricketer of the Year’ and ‘ODI Cricketer of the Year’. Kohli is the first cricketer ever to win all three awards in one year. He was also named the captain of the ICC Test and ODI teams of the year. “Not only is Kohli the first player to win these three major ICC awards together but he has also been named the captain of the ICC Test and ODI teams of the year for a fabulous run in international cricket,” the ICC said in a statement.
Kohli scored 1,322 runs at an average of 55.08 in 13 Tests with five hundreds during the calendar year while in 14 ODIs he amassed 1202 runs at an astonishing average of 133.55 with six centuries. He also scored 211 runs in 10 T20Is. “It’s a reward for all the hard work that you do throughout the calendar year. Having recognition at the global level from the ICC is something you feel proud of as a cricketer because you understand that there are many players playing the game,” Kohli was quoted as saying by the world body in a release. Three players each from India and New Zealand feature in the ICC's Test team of the year, while four each from India and England are part of the ODI side of the year 2018.
Sheikh Hasina wins in Bangladesh
The people of Bangladesh have voted Sheikh Hasina back to power. Her partythe Awami League-won a huge majority in the recent elections. She has come back as Prime Minister for the third time in a row. Under Sheikh Hasina, Bangla-desh’s wealth has grown steadily and having the same person in charge for a long period has also given the country some stability. She has also been a friend of India, and has helped India nab terrorists who were basing themselves in Bangladesh and operating in the north-eastern states. However, her critics have said that the elections were not held in a fair manner and are calling for re-elections. However with Sheikh Hasina’s main rival-the former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia-in prison, there seems little chance that that will happen.This was the first time since 2008 that the two major parties, Awami League and BNP, contested the elections. In 2014, the main Opposition BNP boycotted the elections, and 153 out of 300 candidates were elected without a contest. Hasina, who faced antiincumbency after being in office since 2009 was pitted against a united opposition fighting under the banner of Jatiya Oikya Front (JOF) led by jailed ex-premier Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
SABARIMALA: LAW OR FAITH?
There has been a lot of unrest in Kerala over the past few days due to fights between different groups in the state over the entry of women into the temple of Sabarimala located in the mountains of the Western Ghats. Following an order of the Supreme Court in 2018, women of all ages have begun entering the temple, angering certain groups. The protests over the entry of women into the temple became very violent and normal life came to a halt last week.
The Sabarimala crisis is another interesting debate between laws and faith. It concerns the entry of women of all ages into the temple of the Brahmachari (unmarried) God Ayappa. It isn’t clear when women between the ages of 10 and 50 were prevented from going to the temple. Some say it has been this way for centuries. Others say it was made an unwritten law in the 1970s after some male devotees complained and then laid down as law in a 1992 judgement of the Kerala High Court.
Whatever the status, some people complained to the Supreme Court about this and in September last year, the court said women of all ages could enter the temple, and at all times. People have protested against this and later in January, the court will hear their petitions on why this should not be done.
Meanwhile, devotees have been trying to prevent women from entering the temple. They were successful till early January when two women entered the temple with the support of the state government and the police, both of which have to follow the order of the Supreme Court. This has made devotees very angry and many political parties have also taken their side. There have been protests, some of them violent, in Kerala over this. Interestingly, some of the most active protestors are women devotees, all of whom say they are willing to wait till they are over the age of 50 to see their favorite deity
Hopefully, the court will solve the problem later this month but it is a tough decision-what matters more, law or faith? And do laws even apply when it comes to such matters of faith?
Federer, Serena out of Australian Open
By the time you read this, we may know the winner of this year’s Australian Open, the year’s first Grand Slam tournament. But this year’s edition will also be remembered for early exits of star players who were favourites to win.
Roger Federer was defeated in the fourth round by Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas while Serena Williams lost to Karolina Pliskova in the quarter finals. Had she won the tournament, Williams would have equaled Margaret Court’s all time record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles. The early shock came from Andy Murray who lost his first round match. Later he revealed how much a hip injury was troubling him and announced that he would probably retire in 2019, possibly at Wimbledon, his favourite tournament.
However, to keep the ‘Old is gold’ proverb ringing true, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal continued to do well, making it to the semi-finals.
US government in shutdown mode
Flowers, fruits and vegetables are rotting away at the port of Miami in the southern United States. The reason-due to a partial shutdown of US government, there are fewer inspectors to check the goods coming in. The shutdown has been caused by a fight between US President Donald Trump and the US Congress over the building of a wall between the US and Mexico.
Trump has been asking Congress, to include money for a border wall between the US and Mexico in the budget. The Congress has refused, sparking the fight. The President will not approve the budget unless it includes money for a wall and the Congress, which is dominated by the Democrats, a political group that opposes Trump and his Republican party, has refused to include it.
Trump wants the wall to keep people from Mexico from illegally crossing over into the US. The Democrats have said that the wall isn’t a good idea. But with neither budging, there was no approved budget under which the government could function. Unable to pay salaries to many employees, the government went into a partial shutdown on December 22. Some services like US Post, schools and airports continue to function.
The shutdown is hurting government workers who are staying at home minus a salary. They are queuing up for free food and loans and in some cases, even looking for other jobs.