The Hindu PDF 10 October 2023 Analysis

The Hindu PDF Newspaper is considered an important source of news and information for UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) aspirants in India. This The Hindu Epaper PDF newspaper covers a wide range of topics that are relevant to the UPSC exam, including politics, economics, international relations, governance, and social issues.

The Hindu PDF Analysis 10 October 2023 for UPSC

Israel imposes total siege on Gaza; death count rises (Page 1)

• Israel imposed a total siege on Gaza.
• Cut off water supply to Gaza.
• Responding to a Hamas surprise assault.
• Israeli media reported more than 900 people killed.
• Hamas launched multi-pronged attacks on Israel’s south.
• In Gaza, 560 people reported dead.
• Hamas continued launching rockets towards Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
• Hamas claimed Israeli airstrikes killed four captives.
• Israel called up 300,000 army reservists for “Swords of Iron” campaign.
• Israel moved tanks to the south to dislodge Hamas fighters.
• Defence Minister announced a complete siege on Gaza.
• This would mean no electricity, food, water, or gas for Gaza’s 2.3 million people.
• Israel’s goal is to defeat Hamas and liberate hostages.
• Israel Prime Minister warned civilians to stay away from Hamas sites.
• Tensions spiked in West Asia, with Iran and Hezbollah supporting Hamas.
• Hamas called on resistance fighters to join “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” in the West Bank and Arab/Islamic nations.
• The military operation is ongoing, with no negotiation currently possible.

Claudia Goldin wins 2023 Economics Nobel Prize for research on workplace gender gap (Page 1)

• Claudia Goldin won the 2023 Economics Nobel Prize.
• Her research focuses on the gender gap in the labor market.
• She is the third woman out of 93 economics laureates to win the prize.
• Goldin’s research spans 200 years of women’s participation in the workplace.
• Despite economic growth, women’s pay hasn’t consistently caught up to men’s.
• She emphasizes the need to address the intersection of family, home, and employment.
• Goldin’s research identifies the source of the gender pay gap and how it has changed over time.
• Policymakers can use her work to tackle the issue.
• Women often take jobs that allow them to balance work and home responsibilities, leading to lower pay.
• Achieving gender equality requires addressing issues in both the workplace and the home.
• Young girls’ career decisions are influenced by their mothers’ experiences.
• The slow change in labor market gender gaps is due to generational learning and evaluation of prospects as times change.

Mental health and the floundering informal worker (Page 6)

• World Mental Health Day theme for 2023: “mental health as a universal human right.”
• Informal workers often overlooked in mental health discussions.
• International Labour Organization (ILO) study: 15% of working-age adults globally have a mental disorder.
• Decent work positively influences mental health, while unemployment, unstable employment, discrimination, and unsafe working conditions can harm it.
• In India, over 90% of the workforce is informal, facing precarious conditions, discrimination, and lack of social protections.
• Gender disparities are pronounced, with over 95% of working women engaged in low-paying, precarious employment.
• Youth unemployment is high in India, impacting mental health negatively.
• Young workers shifting to precarious and informal work due to desperation.
• Unemployment rate increases with educational levels, particularly for educated young women.
• India’s aging population lacks social security, impacting their mental health.
• Elderly people working post-retirement in informal jobs face economic dependency and poor access to healthcare.
• Informal workers face mental distress due to debt and rising healthcare costs.
• Employment guarantee programs can improve mental health outcomes.
• India’s Code on Social Security 2020 lacks clear goals for universal social security.
• Budgetary allocation for mental health in India is less than 1% of the total health budget.
• Strengthening community-based care and human rights-oriented care is crucial for mental health.
• Proactive policies are needed to address mental health, aligning with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on good health and decent work.

The end of the two state solution (Page 7)

• Historically, the two-state solution, dividing the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea into two countries, was considered the most viable solution to the Jewish-Arab conflict.
• Jews generally accepted partition, while many Arabs rejected it.
• In recent decades, the situation has seemingly reversed, with support for a two-state solution from some Palestinian leadership, the Arab world, and the West, while Israel has hesitated.
• The key stakeholder in this conflict is the Israeli public because their agreement is necessary for any solution.
• The recent attacks by Hamas on Israel have raised questions about whether this will push the Israeli public to support the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state.
• Some believe that the trauma of these attacks will make Israelis see a Palestinian state as a prerequisite for peace, while others fear that it may lead Israelis to conclude that an independent Palestine would threaten Israel’s security.
• Hamas’s stance is that it does not recognize Israel’s right to exist and seeks its destruction.
• The recent attacks were directed at Israel’s very existence as a Jewish state.
• The Palestinian Authority’s support for Hamas has heightened Israeli fears that a two-state solution might lead to a single Palestinian state, rather than two states living side by side.
• The central obstacle to a two-state solution has been Palestinians’ inability to convince Israeli voters that they would leave the Jews in peace if given sovereignty.
• A radical Israeli fringe once marginalized is now part of the ruling coalition, reflecting growing distrust among Israeli voters of Palestinians as peace partners.
• Palestinians have hoped that Israeli civilians would share their pain to force an end to the occupation, but from the Israeli perspective, violence has made them less likely to consider ending the occupation.
• Hamas’s recent attacks will further increase Israeli suspicions about Palestinian intentions with sovereign state power.
• Palestinians need to convince Israeli voters that a future Palestine will coexist peacefully with Israel, but the challenge is immense.
• The only way forward is for Palestinian leadership to credibly signal to Israelis that they won’t use their freedoms to harm Israel, but the prospects for this seem dim.

The state of India’s Scheduled Areas (Page 8)

• India has 705 Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities, constituting 8.6% of the population, living in 26 States and 6 Union Territories.
• Article 244 of the Indian Constitution is crucial for STs and provides for the administration of Scheduled and Tribal Areas.
• Scheduled Areas cover 11.3% of India’s land area and exist in 10 states.
• However, despite demands from Adivasi organizations, many villages in these Scheduled Areas and other states with ST populations are left out, denying them rights under laws applicable to Scheduled Areas.
• The President of India notifies Scheduled Areas, and states with Scheduled Areas must establish a Tribal Advisory Council to advise the Governor on ST welfare.
• The national government can give directions to the states regarding the administration of Scheduled Areas, and the Governor can make regulations for these areas.
• The identification of Scheduled Areas is an executive function, and there are no specific criteria in the Constitution or laws.
• The guiding norms for declaring an area as a Scheduled Area include tribal population, compactness, administrative viability, and economic backwardness.
• PESA (Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas Act) in 1996 empowered gram sabhas in Scheduled Areas for self-governance.
• The FRA Act (Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Act) adopted similar definitions, expanding the concept of a village.
• Demarcation of traditional or customary boundaries is essential for effective governance.
• Expanding Scheduled Areas to include habitations with ST majorities and demarcating customary boundaries is needed for effective governance.
• A reevaluation of geographical limits for revenue villages, panchayats, talukas, and districts is necessary to ensure full coverage of Scheduled Areas.

What is multimodal artificial intelligence and why is it important? (Page 9)

• Multimodal AI systems allow users to engage with AI through various modalities, such as images, sounds, videos, and text.
• Multimodal AI aims to mimic human cognition by incorporating multiple modes of information processing.
• OpenAI has enabled its GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 models to study images and analyze them in words, along with adding speech synthesis to its mobile apps for full-fledged conversations.
• Google is also developing a multimodal large language model called Gemini, leveraging its extensive image and video database.
• Multimodal AI combines different modalities, like text and images, to generate outputs based on user input.
• Examples of multimodal AI models include DALL.E, which generates images from text prompts, and Whisper, an open-source speech-to-text translation model used for voice processing.
• Applications of multimodal AI include automatic image caption generation, hate speech detection in social media, predicting dialogue lines in videos, and medical image analysis.
• Future multimodal AI systems may incorporate additional sensory data, like touch, smell, and brain signals, for more immersive experiences.
• Industries like autonomous driving, robotics, medicine, and speech translation benefit from multimodal AI systems.
• Meta’s ImageBind is an example of an open-source AI multimodal system that integrates text, visual data, audio, temperature, and movement readings.

Smart fence along Myanmar border in the pipeline: govt. (Page 10)

• Advanced smart fencing system of 100 km along Myanmar border planned to strengthen surveillance.
• Ethnic violence in Manipur partly attributed to unfenced border and unregulated migration from Myanmar.
• In 2022, 137 insurgency-related incidents out of 201 were registered in Manipur.
• Manipur affected by various insurgent groups, with 23 outfits under Suspension of Operation (SoO) pact since August 2008.
• Free Movement Regime (FMR) exists between India and Myanmar, allowing certain border residents to cross with a border pass.
• Manipur suspended FMR since 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Manipur Chief Minister requested the cancellation of FMR and completion of fencing along the Myanmar border.
• India shares a 1,643 km border with Myanmar, with 1,472 km already demarcated.

Urban unemployment rate drops to 6.6% in QI (Page 12)

• Urban unemployment rate decreased from 7.6% in April-June 2022 to 6.6% in April-June 2023 for persons aged 15 and above.
• For men, unemployment rate decreased from 7.1% to 5.9% during this period.
• For women, unemployment rate decreased from 9.5% to 9.1%.
• Labour force participation rate (LFPR) in urban areas increased from 47.5% in April-June 2022 to 48.8% in April-June 2023.
• LFPR for men remained around 73.5%, while for women, it increased from 20.9% to 23.2%.
• Worker-population ratio (WPR) in urban areas increased from 43.9% in April-June 2022 to 45.5% for persons aged 15 and above.
• For men, WPR increased from 68.3% to 69.2%, and for women, it increased from 18.9% to 21.1% during this period.
• Key labor market indicators in urban areas have improved compared to the pre-pandemic period, with a higher LFPR, WPR, and lower unemployment rate.
• LFPR ranged from 46.2% to 47.8% in the pre-pandemic period and is now 48.8%.
• WPR ranged from 41.8% to 44.1% before the pandemic and is now 45.5%.
• Unemployment rate in the latest survey (6.6%) is lower than the rates observed in the pre-pandemic period.

Sri Lanka to take over as Chair of Indian Ocean Rim Association (Page 14)

• Sri Lanka is set to take over as the Chair of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA).
• The IORA Council of Ministers meeting will be held in Colombo on October 11, 2023, with the participation of several foreign ministers, including those from India, Bangladesh, Mauritius, Iran, Malaysia, and South Africa.
• Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Ali Sabry will chair the Council for the next two years, succeeding Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister, who is the current Chair.
• The Council will discuss cooperation in six priority areas identified by the IORA: Trade and Investment, Maritime Safety and Security, Fisheries Management, Disaster Risk Management, and Blue Economy.
• The IORA is an intergovernmental organization of states located around the Indian Ocean, with 23 member states and 11 dialogue partners.
• Sri Lanka’s participation in the IORA is significant, given its strategic location in the Indian Ocean Region and its involvement along with other regional countries like Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Afghanistan.
• There are reports of a possible visit by the Chinese research vessel Shi Yan 6 to Sri Lanka, which has raised concerns from India and the U.S., and Sri Lanka’s government is yet to clear the visit.
• India and Sri Lanka are launching a long-pending ferry service to enhance connectivity, connecting Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu with Kankesanthurai in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka.

Source: The Hindu Epaper

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