Significant progress in SDGs on
clean energy, health: NITI index
India saw significant improvement in the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) related to clean energy, urban development and
health in 2020, according to
the NITI Aayog’s 2020 SDG
Index. However, there has
been a major decline in the
areas of industry, innovation
and infrastructure as well as
decent work and economic
growth.
Although the index shows
improvement on the inequality SDGs, the NITI
Aayog has omitted key economic indicators used to
measure inequality in income and expenditure last
year and given greater
weightage to social indicators instead.
Kerala retained its position at the top of the rankings in the third edition of
the index, with a score of 75,
followed by Tamil Nadu and
Himachal Pradesh, both
scoring 72. At the other end
of the scale, Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam were the
worst performing States. However, all the States showed
some improvement from last
year’s scores, with Mizoram
and Haryana seeing the biggest gains.
Developed by a global
consultative process on holistic development, the 17
SDGs have a 2030 deadline.
The NITI Aayog launched
its index in 2018 to monitor
the country’s progress on
the goals through datadriven assessment and to foster
a competitive spirit among
the States and Union Territories in achieving them.
In March, an assessment
by the UN of the impact of
COVID19 on the SDGs said
the region India is part of
may see rising inequality
due to the pandemic.
The NITI Aayog Index
shows some improvement in
the SDG on inequality, but a
look at the indicators used to
assess this goal shows that
the think tank has changed
the goalposts.
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‘Journalists need
protection against
sedition charges’
The Supreme Court on
Thursday quashed a sedition case registered against
senior journalist and Padma
Shri awardee Vinod Dua for
his critical remarks against
the Prime Minister and the
Union government in a YouTube telecast, underscoring
its 59yearold verdict that
“strong words” of disapproval about the ruling regime
did not amount to sedition.
A Bench, led by Justice
U.U. Lalit, upheld the right
of every journalist to criticise, even brutally, the measures of the government
with a view to improving or
altering them through legal
means. The free speech of a
journalist should be protected from charges of sedition.
The time is long past
when the mere criticism of
governments was sufficient
to constitute sedition. The
right to utter honest and
reasonable criticism is a
source of strength to a community rather than a weakness, the judgment said.
It upheld the spirit and
intent of the 1962 Kedar
Nath Singh verdict, which
said, “Commenting in
strong terms upon the measures or acts of government,
or its agencies, so as to ameliorate the condition of the
people or to secure the cancellation or alteration of
those acts or measures by
lawful means, that is to say,
without exciting those feelings of enmity and disloyalty which imply excitement
to public disorder or the use
of violence is not sedition”.
Justice Lalit declared,
“Every journalist is entitled
to protection under the Kedar Nath Singh judgment.”
The 1962 judgment said
Section 124A of the Indian
Penal Code (sedition) was
intended only to punish
subversion of a lawfully established government
through violent means.
- Delhi govt. preparing for 45K
daily cases during third wave
- Kannada as answer to a query
in Google on ugliest language
in India sparked an outrage on
Thursday and the Karnataka
government said it would
issue a legal notice to the
tech leader, while that reply
appeared to be a gaffe.
Google quickly removed
Kannada “as the ugliest
language in India” and
apologised to the people
saying the search result did
not reflect its opinion.
- Thousands of people living on
the islands of Lakshadweep
will observe a 6 a.m. to 6
p.m. hunger strike on June 7
in protest against the string
of laws being pushed by the
Union Territory administration
unilaterally. A decision to go
on a hunger strike was taken
at the maiden meeting of the
Save Lakshdweep Forum in
Kochi on Wednesday.
Strong policies on black carbon can sharply cut glacier melt: World Bank study
Black carbon (BC) deposits
produced by human activity
which accelerate the pace of
glacier and snow melt in the
Himalayan region can be
sharply reduced through
new, currently feasible policies by an additional 50%
from current levels, a study
by World Bank (WB) specialists has said.
The research covers the
Himalaya, Karakoram and
Hindu Kush (HKHK) mountain ranges, where, the report says, glaciers are melting faster than the global
average ice mass. The rate of
retreat of HKHK glaciers is
estimated to be 0.3 metres
per year in the west to 1.0
metre per year in the east.
BC adds to the impact of climate change.
Full implementation of
current policies to mitigate
BC can achieve a 23% reduction but enacting new policies and incorporating them
through regional cooperation among countries can
achieve enhanced benefits,
the WB said in the report titled “Glaciers of the Himalayas, Climate Change, Black
Carbon and Regional Resilience” released on Thursday.
- NASA announced two new
missions to Venus on
Wednesday that will launch
at the end of the decade and
are aimed at learning how
Earth’s nearest planetary
neighbour became a
hellscape while our own
thrived. “These two missions
both aim to understand how
Venus became an inferno-like
world, capable of melting
lead at the surface,” said Bill
Nelson, the agency’s newly confirmed administrator.
Indian official kits for Tokyo Games unveiled
Indian officials expect at
least 25 more athletes to
qualify for the Tokyo Olympics by the end of June and
the contingent to return with
at least 10 medals from the
Games.
So far 100 athletes have
qualified, including the two
hockey teams.
“We are estimating to
touch 125 to 135 by the time
the qualification process is
over. This means the Indian
contingent, including officials and support staff, is
likely to be around 190,” IOA
president Narinder Batra
said during a virtual unveiling of the Indian sports and
ceremonial uniforms for the
event.
It also marked the 50 day
countdown to the Games,
scheduled to open on July
23. Only a handful of qualified athletes were present
physically on the occasion —
including Neeraj Chopra,
Bajrang Punia, Ravi Dahiya,
Sumit Malik and Seema Bisla.
The sports kits are sponsored by Li Ning while the
ceremonial kits are by
Raymonds.
Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju assured of full support
from the ministry and SAI in
accelerating the vaccination
programme for the qualified/ probable athletes in
time for their departure to
Tokyo.
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