WAR AND POLITICS

As the Prussian military strategist Carl von Clausewitz famously said, war is merely the continuation of politics by other means. Nearly a million people have been killed or wounded in Ukraine and Russia, making this the bloodiest European war since World War II. Ukraine's cities have been devastated by relentless Russian air and missile strikes over the past three years. While Russia might want to declare victory in a war it initially believed would be over in a week, the costs of its territorial ambitions have been immense - thanks to Western sanctions and the loss of crucial economic and political partnerships with the West.

A RIVER MUST FLOW

THE YAMUNA IN Delhi has suffered long because of the accumulation of untreated sewage, industrial effluents and domestic trash. Though only about 22 km of the 1,400-km river flows between Wazirabad and Okhla in Delhi, the national capital accounts for 75 per cent of the pollution load on the Yamuna. The river is not even fit for bathing in its Delhi stretch, except for Palla, the point where it enters Delhi. At some places, the concentration of pollutants is more than 700 times the desired level. The L-G's plan to clean the river over the next three years was, therefore, long overdue. The project does tick a few right boxes. It aims to clean the riverbed, overhaul the sewage treatment plants and empty out effluents from the city's drains. However, similar plans have run out of steam in the past. The river suffered in the last 10 years because Delhi's elected government was not on the same page with the L-G. The Delhi government could also never summon the political will to engage the NCR's neighbouring states in its river rejuvenation endeavours. Delhi generates about 790 million gallons of sewage every day (MGD). On paper, its STPs can treat a little more than 700 MGD

STEPPING IN, WITH EMPATHY

A PRIMARY AGENDA of the Donald Trump administration is the erosion of transgender rights. Soon after taking office, the US president issued an executive order declaring that the federal government would recognise only two sexes, impacting federal IDs like passports. Another executive order banned federal funding for gender-affirming care for transgender individuals under 19 years of age, depriving them of vital life-saving services such as puberty blockers and hormone-replacement treatments. Trump also reinstated a ban on transgender individuals serving in the military and on transgender women and girls from participating in women's sports in federally-funded schools. He even mandated that transgender individuals be housed in detention according to their sex assigned at birth, posing significant risks of physical and sexual violence. We need strict implementation of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights Act) 2019 and Rules 2020, inclusion of trans healthcare services in medical curricula, training of doctors in specialised transgender surgeries, professional guidelines, strengthening of services in the public healthcare system.

Doing the right thing

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has been the cornerstone of this democratic process, ensuring electoral integrity. However, the appointment process of election commissioners (ECS) has been questioned for years, raising serious concerns about the autonomy and impartiality of this vital institution. On March 2, 2023, the Supreme Court, in the case of Anoop Baranwal vs Union of India, observed that despite the constitutional provision under Article 324(2), which expected that Parliament would en-act a law detailing the appointment procedure for these positions, no such legislation had been passed in over seven decades. The Court directed that until Parliament enacted a relevant law, the appointment of the CEC and ECs should be made by the President based on the recommendations of a committee comprising the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and the Chief Justice of India. On February 19, 2025, the new CEC and an EC joined the Commission who, by the way, are brilliant officers with excellent records. But that is beside the point. The hearing initially scheduled for February 19 was adjourned without a new date, prolonging the uncertainty surrounding the legitimacy of the current appointment process.

India to face US pressure to reduce tariffs on agri products in trade deal negotiations

WHILE NEW Delhi is considering a range of items for tariff reductions on US products, Washington, DC is particularly keen on exporting more agricultural goods to India and is seeking a reduction in tariffs in this traditionally high-protection sector. Discussions on agricultural tariffs are set to arise during negotiations for the India-US bilateral trade agreement. Early indications suggest that agricultural exports are an "offensive interest" of the new Donald Trump administration, which is looking to boost US ex-ports, a person aware of the development said. The American farming community in mid-Western states has been a key voter base for Trump since 2016. In the recent election, he managed to increase his support among farming-dependent counties, with more than 100 of agri focused counties backing him with at least 80 per cent of their vote, according to an Investigate Midwest report.

India, UK proposed FTA talks set to resume today after 8 months

AFTER A gap of eight months, India and the UK will resume negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) under the shadow of Trump tariffs that have plunged the world into un-certainty. Prior to the opening of the 15th round of negotiations, UK Secretary of State for Business and Trade Jonathan Reynolds will hold a bilateral meeting with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal. Reynolds' visit to India comes amid the personal storm he faces at home over allegedly falsifying his legal career. The FTA negotiations were paused in May 2024 because of the general elections in both India and the UK. The subject of tariffs that the US is talking of imposing on the countries with which it has a trade deficit could be a part of discussions in the bilateral meeting be-tween Goyal and Reynolds, he added. Since the last round of talks, India has on its own brought down import duties on cars, motorcycles and even select bourbon whiskey, which is produced in the US. 

What a government study reveals about the state of our panchayats

A government report published this month reveals the challenges confronting panchayats in India and analyses how each state has performed when it comes to the devolution of powers and responsibilities to these bodies. The 2024 index that the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj has published based on a study by the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) has seen Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu topping the index and Uttar Pradesh and Bihar recording the biggest improvement. The IIPA studied 172 panchayats in 68 districts across India to measure the performance of the panchayat system on six parameters: framework, functions, finances, functionaries, capacity building, and ac-countability. Using these, the IIPA developed the Panchayat Devolution Index (PDI) that scored states on a scale of 0 to 100. The index was last published in 2014 and, over the past decade, the national average score rose from 39.92 to 43.89.

Why Microsoft's claims of quantum computing breakthrough matter

MICROSOFT LAST week claimed a break-through in quantum computing, an eagerly awaited technology much like artificial intelligence (Al), that holds the promise of performing tasks beyond the capabilities of current technologies. The company said it had been successful in creating a new chip that would fast-track the development of a meaningful quantum computer from decades to a few years. Quantum computers are not just the next generation of superfast computers. They are designed to utilise the very special properties that tiny particles, smaller than an atom, exhibit. In traditional computers, data are stored and processed through billions of small transistors that can each handle only one bit of in-formation (0 or 1) at a time. Quantum computers use electrons or other similar particles to process data. Superposition allows these particles, or qubits, to be in both 0 and 1 state at the same time. In fact, they can exist in every combination of 0 and 1 simultaneously.

HOW HIV SELF-TESTING CAN BECOME A GAME-CHANGER FOR MIZORAM

A STUDY by Pune-based Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Translational Virology and AIDS Research (formerly NARI) and Mizoram University has highlighted how HIV self-testinghas helped many young people in Mizoram get tested for the first time. The state has the highest HIV prevalence in the country. Human immunodeficiency virus or HIV attacks the body's immune system. The virus is transmitted via contact with infected body fluids, often through sexual contact or contaminated needles. An estimated 25.44 lakh people live with HIV in India. Among all states, Mizoram has the highest prevalence of HIV in the adult population. According to Sankalak (2024), the flagship publication of the National AIDS Control Programme, 2.73% of all adults in the state are infected with HIV-13 times the national average. According to the National AIDS Control Organisation's 'HIV Sentinel Surveillance Technical Brief 2016-17', 19.8% of individuals in Mizoram who inject drugs were infected with HIV, as were 24.7% of female sex workers - also highest in India.

Melting glaciers caused 2 cm sea level rise this century: the likely impact

MELTING ICE from glaciers worldwide has led to almost 2 cm of sea level rise in this century alone, a study published in the journal Nature has found. While There are two primary reasons why sea levels are currently rising. FIRST is the global warming-driven melting of glaciers (accumulation of ice and snow that slowly flows over land) and ice sheets (glaciers that cover more than 50,000 square km of land). According to the latest study, since 2000, glaciers have lost between 2% and 39% of their ice regionally, and about 5% globally. This is equivalent to losing 273 billion tonnes of ice each year - 30 times the annual water consumption of Earth's entire population - for the last 25 years. Overall, glacier mass loss is about 18% larger than the loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet, and more than twice that from the Antarctic Ice Sheet in the same period, the study said. While the Green-land ice sheet has been melting at an average rate of about 150 billion tonnes per year, the Antarctic ice sheet has been losing about 270 billion tonnes per year since 2002, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).