- THE GREAT ELECTION OVER, THE VIEW FROM WASHINGTON
- Bipartisan Consensus on India: Both Biden and Trump administrations have prioritized strong ties with India, reflecting a rare area of bipartisan agreement in Washington.
- Despite some critics, the U.S. sees India as a crucial partner, especially in countering China’s influence.
- Impact of Lok Sabha Elections: The BJP’s reduced seat count in the recent Lok Sabha elections may alter Washington’s perception of Modi’s dominance in Indian politics.
- The U.S. might start considering a future relationship with India that is less centered around Modi and more on broader strategic interests. Strategic Reassessments:
- The U.S. has reassessed its relationship with India, especially in light of India’s stance on the Russia-Ukraine conflict and allegations of an assassination plot on U.S. soil.
- Despite these issues, the U.S. continues to engage with India, as evidenced by the sale of Predator drones.
- Global South Outreach: The U.S. views India as a key player in the Global South, crucial for balancing China’s influence.
- India’s strategic importance is underscored by its size and potential to rival China. Differences Between Trump and Biden: Trump: Focused on a transactional relationship, less concerned with democratic values, and more unpredictable in his foreign policy. Biden: Seeks a more stable and incremental partnership, emphasizing democratic values but also pragmatic in dealing with India.
2. HEALTH MINISTRY REWORKS PROTOCOL AS COUNTRY’S TB ELIMINATION DRIVE PLATEAUS
- Current TB Burden: TB remains a significant health crisis in India, with an estimated 4,80,000 deaths annually, translating to over 1,400 deaths per day.
- There are more than a million ‘missing’ TB cases each year, which are either undiagnosed or inadequately diagnosed and treated, particularly in the private sector.
- Historical Context: India has been engaged in TB control activities for over 50 years, yet the disease continues to pose a severe health challenge. Need for Reworking Protocols:
- The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is considering reworking the TB treatment protocol, including medication and its duration, to rejuvenate the TB-free initiative.
- The goal is to eliminate deaths, disease, and poverty resulting from TB. Technological Advancements: New technologies are available that aid in early detection and effective treatment of TB.
- Advanced interventions and technologies for diagnosis, treatment, and care are now better prepared to address TB.
- Government’s Stance: The Health Ministry acknowledges the need for more aggressive measures to drastically reduce TB incidence in India.
- There is a recognition that despite the availability of new technologies, more needs to be done to achieve the goal of TB elimination by 2025.
3. SERVICE SECTOR SLOWDOWN
- Service Sector Slowdown: Activity in India’s services sector dropped to a five-month low in May.
- The HSBC India Services Business Activity Index fell slightly to 60.2 from 60.8 in April.
- Despite the decline, a reading above 50 still indicates expansion.
- Factors Affecting Growth: Competition, price pressures, and a severe heat wave impacted growth in new orders and output. International Demand Surge:
- New orders from international markets grew at the fastest pace in nearly a decade.
- Strong demand was noted from Asia, Africa, Europe, West Asia, and the U.S.
- Optimism and Hiring: Business optimism among surveyed firms reached an eight-month high.
- Hiring activity increased significantly, with firms hiring more junior and mid-level workers, marking the highest hiring increase since August 2022. Rising Input Costs:
- Firms reported higher costs for labour and materials, including meat, vegetables, and packaging. The growth in India’s services sector slowed down in May due to competition, rising prices, and a heat wave.
- Despite this, international demand for services surged, and businesses remained optimistic about future prospects. Hiring activity increased notably, although firms faced higher costs for labour and materials
4. DARK MATTER
- Dark Matter: Definition: An invisible substance proposed to account for the additional gravity needed to prevent galaxies from flying apart.
- Not directly observed, inferred from gravitational effects on visible matter.
- Role in the Universe: Helps explain why galaxies rotate faster than expected based on visible matter alone.
- Integral to the Standard Model of particle physics, though particles constituting dark matter remain unidentified. MOND (Modified Newtonian Dynamics):
- Theory Origin: Proposed by Israeli physicist Mordehai Milgrom in 1982.
- Suggests that the discrepancies in galactic rotation are due to a breakdown of Newton’s laws at low accelerations, rather than the presence of dark matter.
- Key Postulate: Gravity behaves differently than Newton’s expectations at very low accelerations, especially at the edges of galaxies where gravity is weak.
- Testing MOND: MOND predicts different gravitational effects at large distances from a galaxy.
- Tests have included analyzing the orbits of planets and spacecraft in the Solar System, such as the Cassini mission to Saturn. Findings from Cassini Mission:
- Cassini’s Contribution: Orbiting Saturn between 2004 and 2017, provided data to test gravitational theories.
- Measured gravity near the Sun to see if MOND effects could be detected.
- Results : The data showed that the gravity measured by Cassini closely matched Newtonian predictions, not supporting the changes predicted by MOND.
- Challenges and Implications: MOND’s Limitations : Struggles to explain gravitational effects in dense regions like galaxy centers and clusters.
- Requires modifications to work consistently across different scales and conditions.
- Dark Matter’s Dominance: Despite MOND’s intriguing aspects, the lack of consistent empirical support means dark matter remains the more widely accepted theory.
- The search for dark matter particles continues, with current models providing a better fit for the observed data.
5. FIRST FATAL HUMAN CASE OF H5N2 BIRD FLU IDENTIFIED
- World Health Organization said a person in Mexico had diedin the first confirmed human case globally of infection with the H5N2variant of bird flu
- H5N2 cases affected poultry in the state of Michoacan, with other outbreaks identified in the State of Mexico.
- But it said establishing a link between the human case and the poultry infections was so far impossible, estimating the risk to people as “low”
- A different variant of bird flu, H5N1, has been spreading for weeks among dairy cow herds in the United States, with a small number of cases reported among humans
ONE LINER
- Under Green Tamil Nadu Mission, TN government is looking at using treated water for greening efforts in urban areas.
- India – Norway cooperation to witness manifold increase – May – Elin, Ambassador of Norway of India
