India and China make 'progress' on pending LAC issues in eastern Ladakh

India and China are learnt to have made "significant progress" in narrowing their gap on pending issues along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. 

This includes exploring the contours of a possible solution that factors in their respective pre-April 2020 positions while agreeing to address existing issues in Arunachal Pradesh.

Disengagement one part of problem, main issue is patrolling: Jaishankar

The India-China relationship would influence the future of the entire world, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said while making it clear that peace needed to be restored on the border first for bilateral ties to move forward. 

Addressing an event hosted by the Asia Society and the Asia Society Policy Institute, Jaishankar noted India's "difficult history" with China and said the "parallel rise" of the two countries presented "a very, very unique problem".-

TERMS OF PROTECTION

The Supreme Court judgment on sexual exploitation of minors signals a necessary broadening of the conversation. 

In a landmark ruling, it said that viewing, possession and storage of sexually explicit materials involving minors constitute a crime under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Information Technology (IT) Act, whether or not it is shared or transmitted further. 

The ruling overrides a January order by the Madras High Court that had held that "mere possession" or storage of child pornography was not an offence under Section 67-B of the IT Act. 

But this expansion of the ambit of legal action against such exploitation also raises a question about guard rails, and about whether harsher laws are better deterrents.

The job lags and gaps

Data On Employment growth in India reveals contrasting trends. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI's) Capital, Labour, Energy Materials, Services (KLEMS) data reports a 6 per cent increase in job growth for FY24, a significant rise from the 3.2 per cent growth in FY23. 

However, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) offers a less optimistic view: The unemployment rate climbed to 9.2 per cent in June 2024 from 7 per cent in May, with the annual rate for FY24 at 8 per cent. 

According to Citigroup Research, India needs to create about 1.2 crore jobs every year over the next decade to absorb the number of new entrants to the labour market. 

However, with a 7 per cent growth rate, the country can generate around 80-90 lakh jobs annually, a deficit of around 30-40 lakh jobs. 

As per the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), the unemployment rate in urban areas decreased from 6.8 per cent to 6.7 per cent between January to March 2023 and January to March 2024 for persons 15 years and above. 

Two years of Project Cheetah: Status report and the road ahead

Project Cheetah, which saw the introduction of the African sub-species of the big cat in India, completed two years on September 17.

The ambitious project has two overarching objectives. First, to establish a stable, breeding population of cheetahs in central India. Two, to use cheetahs as an umbrella species to restore open natural ecosystems such as scrubs, savannahs, grasslands, and degraded forests. 

Clause 6 of Assam Accord

After a meeting with representatives of the All Assam Students' Union (AASU), Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma set the ball rolling for the implementation of 52 recommendations of the Justice Biplab Sarma Committee regarding Clause 6 of the Assam Accord, as announced by the Assam government.

This comes more than four years after the Centre-appointed high-level committee finalised its report in February 2020.

Notably, 15 key recommendations of the committee will not be implemented for the time being.

Deendayal Upadhyaya's Integral Humanism, 'basic philosophy' of the BJP

The 108th birth anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya (1916-1968). 

Upadhyaya, who was fondly referred to as "Panditji" by his associates and followers, was among the tallest thinkers of India's right wing. In 1964-65, Upadhyaya propounded his main political and social idea, Integral Humanism. 

The doctrine of Integral Humanism was born from Upadhyaya's desire to have "uniquely Indian" ideas guide the journey of the newly independent nation, as opposed to the many Western 'isms'.

Upadhyaya's philosophy

At its core, Integral Humanism is about unity and harmony among the various components that make up an individual, and among individuals and society as a whole. 

Integral Humanism sees an individual as made up of body, mind, intelligence, and soul, and considers the development and fulfillment of each as important.-

China conducts rare ICBM test, launches it into Pacific Ocean

China said that it had successfully conducted a rare launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean, a move likely to raise international concerns about the country's nuclear build-up.

The ICBM, carrying a dummy warhead, was launched by the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force and "fell into expected sea areas," the Chinese defence ministry said in a statement, adding that it was a "routine arrangement in our annual training plan" and not directed at any country or target.

China "informed the countries concerned in advance," асcording to a separate Xinhua report, which did not clarify the path of the missile or where in the "high seas of the Pacific Ocean" it fell.

To push clean energy transition, India joins US-led Minerals Security Finance Network

India is now formally a part of the Minerals Security Finance Network, a US-led initiative aiming to strengthen cooperation among members to secure supply chains for critical minerals. The announcement, made by the US State Department on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly on September 23, involved a pact entered by 14 countries and the European Union. 

The Minerals Security Finance Network (MSFN) is a new initiative that stems from the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP), a framework established by the US in 2022. India was inducted to the MSP in June 2023.