CURRENT AFFAIRS

The Union Budget for 2023-24 announced an initiative for mangrove plantation along the coastline and on salt pan lands, under MISHTI (Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats & Tangible Incomes).

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and other health crises, the focus on public health in foreign policy around the world appears to have shifted from ‘low politics’ (humanitarian endeavour) to ‘high politics’ (national and international security concerns).

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the Pradhan Mantri-PVTG Development Mission to focus on improving the overall socio-economic conditions of 75 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups across the country.

The Economic Survey that was placed in Parliament before the presentation of the Budget for 2023-24 has laid emphasis on the point that India has staged a remarkable broad-based recovery to reach the level of income that existed before the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The 2023 Union Budget shines special attention on laboratory-grown diamonds (LGD) as the sector has “high employment potential”.

INS Vagir, the fifth of the Kalvari-class submarines under Project-75, has been commissioned into the Indian Navy at a time when China is making forays into the strategically important Indian Ocean region.

Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar’s recent public criticism of the judiciary and remark that courts cannot dilute “parliamentary sovereignty” sparked a debate on the separation of powers, bringing the focus back to the “basic structure” doctrine of the Constitution.

The Central government has constituted a committee headed by Amarjeet Sinha to review the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme, especially to assess the programme’s efficacy as a poverty alleviation tool.

The Supreme Court recently announced that it would examine whether minor girls, as young as 15 years, can marry on the basis of custom or personal law when such marriages are considered an offence in statutory law.

The Army has begun the process for selection of women officers for command postings in the rank of Colonel, which has so far been the domain of male officers.