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Approaching the misinformation storm (Mint)

Mains Paper 3: Security  
Prelims level: Fake News in India

India-Myanmar Bilateral Ties and Cooperation (Mint)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations 
Prelims level: India-Myanmar Bilateral Ties and Cooperation

Call Social Media to Account (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: Governance  
Prelims level: 

Making AI Work for India (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: Science and Tech
Prelims level: Raise 2020

The cost of political posturing (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations 
Prelims level: Political posturing

Gig work and its skewed terms (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Governance 
Prelims level: Gig workers 

Four for one: On Quad, India and the U.S. (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations 
Prelims level: Quadrilateral Strategic Dialogue

Uniting to combat COVID-19 (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations 
Prelims level: Not much 
Mains level: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests

Context:

• With the pandemic showing no signs of abating, growth prospects for the world’s fastest-growing region, South Asia, appear grim.
• In April, the World Bank predicted that growth in the region would be 1.8%-2.8% this year.
• Governments in South Asian countries have responded in varying degrees to counter the health and economic crises.
• India resumed its economic activities on a limited scale following a strict lockdown imposed in late March and lasting through April.
• Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka did the same after an extended lockdown.
• Bhutan and the Maldives have managed to largely contain community transmission and avoid prolonged lockdowns due to a higher testing rate.
• This is consistent with the hypothesis that countries that have conducted more tests have been more successful in containing the pandemic.
• According to Worldometer, in South Asia, the Maldives has the highest number of tests per million population followed by Bhutan.
• Countries facing a surge in cases, such as India, could have flattened the curve by increasing the number of tests.

The Future of Work(Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: Governance 
Prelims level: Industry 4.0 framework
Mains level: Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability

Context:

• The pandemic is hurtling the world into a Technology 4.0-transformed “future of work” much earlier than anticipated in the ILO’s Centennial Declaration of 2019.
• India’s global significance in mastering the future of work through technology-adaptive and high-productivity human capital employing the largest global cohort of 820 million youth is huge.
• Along with declining fertility rates and women’s empowerment, this could yield a large demographic dividend of high growth rates for decades, despite short-term shocks.

Ministry of Happiness(Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: International 
Prelims level: World Happiness Report 2020 
Mains level: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests

Context:

• Happiness economics has finally received global recognition.
• It implies that economic indicators such as the gross national product, per capita income, healthcare facility, employment and wealth must be related with national happiness.
• The World Happiness Report, 2020 has ranked 156 countries by happiness of their citizens based on six key variables — income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust and generosity.
• Finland, despite not having the highest GDP, tops the list due to its social safety, personal freedom and a work-life balance while materially superior countries are ranked lower.
• The results mean that growth in happiness is not always accompanied by growth in economic prosperity.

What labour needs (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: Polity 
Prelims level: Labour Bills 

Seeing dystopia in India’s democracy

Mains Paper 2: Polity 
Prelims level: International day of democracy
Mains level: Indian Constitution- historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure

Context:

• The United Nations has declared September 15 ‘International Day of Democracy’.
• An entry on its website states that this “provides an opportunity to review the state of democracy in the world”. To review the state of democracy in India would be timely given the times we are living through.
• As India meets fresh challenges almost daily, for us to do so is arguably more important than to celebrate independence from colonial rule, which we do out of habit annually.
• But to review the state of democracy in India we would need to adopt a suitable criteria.

Right code for labour (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Polity 
Prelims level: Labour code Bills
Mains level: Key provisions of the labour code bills 

The wrong answer(Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: Governance 
Prelims level: Bindas Bol programme

Piercing the veil (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: International 
Prelims level: Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
Mains level: Important International institutions, agencies and fora, their structure, mandate

Context:

• An ongoing investigation has revealed how financial transactions by Indian citizens and firms have been red-flagged to the top US financial watchdog, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), for possible money laundering, financial fraud or drug dealing.

E-learning in India, a case of bad education(The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Education 
Prelims level: E-learning
Mains level: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Education

Context:

• Equality of opportunity to all is one of the basic principles of our Constitution.
• From an educational point of view, John Dewey, American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer, strongly argued that-
• A) “[A]n environment in which some are limited will always in reaction create conditions that prevent the full development even of those who fancy they enjoy complete freedom for unhindered growth.”
• Another point he makes equally strongly is that for good education, one must lead the child’s current interests and abilities organically to logically organised human knowledge.
• This second point is an indicator of the quality of education.

A new world order: On UN reforms(The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations 
Prelims level: United Nations organisation 
Mains level: Important International institutions, agencies and fora, their structure, mandate

Context:

• At a special session marking 75 years of the United Nations on Tuesday, PM called for reform of its “outdated structures”, pointing out that in the absence of comprehensive changes, the world body today faces a “crisis of confidence”.
• While the words appear harsh given the occasion, they can hardly be faulted.

Self-Reliance for Self Esteem(Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: Governance 
Prelims level: Atmanirbhar Bharat 
Mains level: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors

Context:

• COVID-19 took very little time to spread across the world economy.
• International trade has been constricted and global supply chains have, by and large, been disrupted. Each nation has been left to fend for itself.
• India’s dependence on other countries has been exposed in several areas. The country should now refocus on manufacturing, and be self-reliant.

Towards tolerance (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations 
Prelims level: Israel and Gulf countries relations 
Mains level: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Indian diaspora

Context:

• As the world’s Jewish communities celebrated Rosh Hashanah, the traditional New Year, over the weekend, greetings came from an unexpected quarter — the Arab Gulf.
• The foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain — which recently normalised ties with Israel under the so-called Abraham Accords — tweeted their best wishes in Hebrew and English.
• This simple gesturemarks an important moment in the Middle East.

Great power, little responsibility(The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: International 
Prelims level: International Day of Peace