EC Gyanesh Kumar new poll panel chief; LoP files dissent

The President appointed Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar as the next Chief Election Commissioner and Haryana Chief Secretary Dr Vivek Joshi as Election Commissioner. Joshi, a 1989 batch IAS officer of Haryana cadre, has been serving as Haryana Chief Secretary since November last year. Prior to that, he was Secretary of the Department of Personnel and Training at the Centre. 

As Qatar Amir starts visit, trade, energy & tech ties on table

As the Amir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, began his two-day state visit to India. Modi and the Amir are expected to discuss India-Qatar ties related to trade, investment, energy and technology at their meeting on Tuesday. The Amir, who is on his second state visit to India after March 2015, will also meet President Droupadi Murmu. The Amir's visit will provide "further momentum to our growing multifaceted partnership", the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. Indians form the largest expatriate community in Qatar, and are "appreciated for positive contribution in the progress and development of Qatar", the MEA said. 

CPCB report shows high faecal levels in Prayagraj during Maha Kumbh

The National Green Tribunal was informed, through a CPCB report, that various locations in Prayagraj during the ongoing Maha Kumbh were not conforming to the primary water quality for bathing with respect to the level of faecal coliform. Faecal coliform (FC), a marker of sewage contamination, has a permissible limit of 2,500 units per 100 ml, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). "The water quality was not con-forming to the primary water quality for bathing with respect to FC... A large number of people bathe at Prayagraj...on auspicious bathing days, eventually leading to an increased faecal concentration," the report said.-

A new era of trade

The Recent Meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump addressed wide-ranging issues, including the setting of ambitious tar-gets for bilateral trade. The meeting took place against the backdrop of growing apprehensions over heightened global uncertainty, caused, in part, by the disruptive actions of the US President. In order to take forward the idea of "Mission 500", India and the US have agreed to go in for a multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) by the fall of 2025, keeping in view the broader framework of COMPACT (Catalysing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce and Technology). The countries are poised to move to a "mega partnership for prosperity" as emphasised by PM Modi. But to achieve the ambitious $500-billion trade target by 2030, substantive efforts will be required. While India is trying its best to adjust to the new normal in trade and investment frameworks, the same may not be the case with the rest of the world, as most other countries have been trading on a most-favoured nation (MFN) basis with all those with whom they do not have any specific trade deal. Changes brought in by Trump actually have serious implications for existing global arrangements. Through the idea of MFN, WTO members extend any trade advantage granted to one trading partner to all other partners. 

OPENING A DOOR

Kerala's Left Democratic Front-led government to ratify a draft bill that would permit private universities to operate in the state has the potential to change this predicament, stem the outflow of students and, going forward, perhaps even transform the state into an education hub. The draft bill marks a welcome shift in policy, especially in light of the CPM's historical opposition to opening up the higher education sector to private players. The issue has, indeed, long been contentious. There have been massive protests against previous attempts to open up higher education, most notably in 1995 when, during an agitation against the Congress-led United Democratic Front government's opening of a medical college in the co-operative sector, five Democratic Youth Federation of India workers were killed in police firing.-

'Raising insurance cover for depositors above 5 lakh under active consideration'

The Government is considering increasing the insurance cover limit on bank deposits from the current Rs 5 lakh per depositor. The announcement comes in the wake of the recent clampdown on Mumbai-based New India Cooperative Bank by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The regulator imposed several re-strictions on the bank in the wake of certain supervisory concerns, and also superseded its Board of Directors for 12 months, citing "poor governance standards". The deposit insurance coverage limit has been enhanced six times since 1962, from Rs 1,500 per depositor held in the same right and same capacity at all the branches of insured bank to Rs 5 lakh since February 4, 2020. At present, 97.8 percent of the total number of deposit accounts are fully protected. Of the remaining 2.2 percent of accounts, deposits are insured up to the limit of Rs 5 lakh. In terms of value, 43.1 per-cent of the deposits were insured as of March 2024.-

Renewed Indo-US nuclear cooperation: A diplomatic upside with 3 clear gains

The Announcement on renewed nuclear cooperation with the US marks a significant diplomatic upside for India, in what was otherwise a rather concessionary first interaction for Indian government officials with the tariff-obsessed new administration in Washington, DC. The commitment stated by both sides to "fully realise" the US-India 123 Civil Nuclear Agreement is a realistic admission of the lack of progress so far, and of the need to leverage the gains of the Indo-US nuclear deal. The focus of this new pact specifically indicates the intent to transfer technology from the US and manufacture equipment locally in India for projects being set up here, which is against the grain of what Washington has generally been pushing for-bringing manufacturing back to the US. 

The dawn quake in Delhi

Delhi lies in what is known as the Aravalli-Delhi Fold Belt, a seismically-active geological belt extending from southern and eastern Rajasthan to Haryana and Delhi. This region is characterised by the presence of deformed layers of rock that have been folded or bent due to geological processes hundreds of millions of years ago. These deformities have created stress which is sometimes released in the form of earthquakes. The Himalayan region has been witnessing the subduction of the Indian tectonic plate under the Eurasian plate - one pushing against the other - which results in a lot of stress building up.

The Aravalli-Delhi Fold Belt was much more seismically active in the past than it is now. Over the years, the tectonic activity in the region has slowed down considerably, leading to greater geological stability. But some faults still remain, which give rise to occasional mild earthquakes. 

Bacteria-made Band-Aid for plants? What study found

Bacterial Cellulose can be used as a bandage to significantly improve healing and regeneration in plants, researchers reported in a study published last week in the journal Science Advances. Botanist Núria Sánchez Coll of the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics in Barcelona was testing bacterial cellulose patches to prevent infections in wounded plants when she noticed that the patches also helped plants heal faster. Subsequently, small cuts were made on the leaves of two lab plants. Patches were applied to only half the wounds. Sánchez Coll and her colleagues found that more than 80% of the treated wounds had healed after a week, compared to less than 20% of the untreated ones. The team also found the patches enhance vegetative propagation, a process used in to grow a genetically identical new plant using cuttings. Bacterial cellulose is a natural polymer produced by certain bacteria. It has thus far been widely used in human medicine, often for wound healing. 

As US position on Ukraine-NATO shifts, a recall - and why it matters

US President Donald Trump rejected as "impractical" the possibility of Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the 32-member transatlantic military alliance in which an attack on any member is considered an attack on all. The possibility of Ukraine becoming part of NATO has been Moscow's declared casus belli. Though the US and its European allies have never committed to when Ukraine might join the alliance, the statements by Trump and Hegseth mark a fundamental shift in America's Ukraine policy. In 1990, James Baker, President George H W Bush's Secretary of State, assured Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet leader who oversaw the dissolution of the USSR, that "not an inch of NATO's present military jurisdiction will spread in an eastern direction", according to the transcript of the conversation preserved in the Gorbachev Foundation Archive. But in fact, NATO continued to expand steadily eastward, adding former Soviet allies and satellites as members. -