CURRENT AFFAIRS UPSC

  PM Modi’s France visit: Shaping a multipolar world While India has more than 30 strategic partnerships with various countries , it would be misleading to say that they all are of the same significance. Two questions are crucial in this context. One, is it a full-spectrum strategic partnership? Two, has the strategic partnership in question stood the test of time? Measured against these two criteria, the Franco-Indian strategic partnership comes out on top. The Franco-Indian partnership spans the full spectrum of what may be considered strategic — defence, space, climate change, critical technologies and people-to-people ties . More importantly, France has stood by India through thick and thin from the time the strategic partnership was first established in 1998. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has just concluded a hugely significant visit to France . For once, words like “unprecedented” and “historic” used are not just hyperbole. This was after all France, so of course, there w...

  India is aiming to make the rupee a global currency . Internationalization is a process that involves increasing the use of the rupee in cross-border transactions. It involves promoting the rupee for import and export trade and then other current account transactions, followed by its use in capital account transactions . These are all transactions between residents in India and non-residents . The internationalisation of the currency, which is closely interlinked with the nation’s economic progress, requires further opening up of the currency settlement and a strong swap and forex market. More importantly, it will require full convertibility of the currency on the capital account and cross-border transfer of funds without any restrictions. India has allowed only full convertibility on the current account as of now. Currently, the US dollar, the Euro, the Japanese yen and the pound sterling are the leading reserve currencies in the world . China’s efforts to make its currency re...

 Escalating the ongoing ‘chip war’, China on July 3 put curbs on the exports of germanium and gallium, two niche metals used in the manufacturing of semiconductors and electronics. Days earlier, the Netherlands had imposed, in consultation with the United States, new restrictions on the export of the Dutch manufacturer ASML’s advanced chips machinery to Beijing. China’s Ministry of Commerce and Administration of Customs said the two metals will be subject to export restrictions in a bid to “safeguard national security and interests” , Semiconductors lie at the heart of the tech war between the West, led by the US, and China . These tiny chips are today’s ‘new oil’ , What are semiconductors? Also known as microchips or integrated circuits , semiconductors are made from silicon , and consist of millions or billions of transistors that act like miniature electrical switches that flip on and off to process data such as images, radio waves, and sounds. In his book ‘Chip Wars’, econo...

 There are renewed concerns over the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the largest in Europe, which was seized by Russian troops early in the war. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday (July 5) said the Russians have placed what appear to be explosives on the roofs of several power units at the plant, The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear watchdog, said on Wednesday that it had so far not seen any indications of mines or explosives, but “with military tension and activities increasing in the region…our experts must be able to verify the facts on the ground ”. Where is the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant? Zaporizhzhia is the administrative centre of the Ukrainian oblast of the same name, located to the southeast of the country on the banks of the Dnipro river as it winds its way to the Black Sea. The plant in Zaporizhzhia, one of four nuclear power stations in Ukraine , was built through the 1980s by the erstwhile Soviet Union. The plan...

  The United States has decided to send cluster munitions to Ukraine to help its military push back Russian forces entrenched along the front lines. The move will likely trigger outrage from some allies and humanitarian groups that have long opposed the use of cluster bombs . Proponents argue that Russia has already been using the controversial weapon in Ukraine and that the munitions the US will provide have a reduced dud rate , meaning there will be far fewer unexploded rounds that can result in unintended civilian deaths. WHAT IS A CLUSTER MUNITION? A cluster munition is a bomb that opens in the air and releases smaller “bomblets” across a wide area. The bomblets are designed to take out tanks and equipment, as well as troops, hitting multiple targets at the same time . . The US last used its cluster munitions in battle in Iraq in 2003 , and decided not to continue using them as the conflict shifted to more urban environments with more dense civilian populations. WHY PROVIDE ...

 Move over SCO and BRICS! Goldman Sachs, the global investment bank that talked of “dreaming with the BRICs” two decades ago, has a new idea now — “ swing states ” that will shape the global balance of power . Unlike BRICS and SCO, whose salience can only dim in the Indian strategic calculus, “swing states” are beginning to loom larger in Delhi’s strategic priorities . The concept of BRICs — Brazil, Russia, India, and China — was about Goldman Sachs drawing investor attention to the economic potential of the four nations at the turn of the millennium. But the idea acquired a political life of its own. Like the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation that was formed in 2001, the idea of the BRICS was a simple one — to limit American power in the unipolar moment of the 1990s . The Russians, who were looking for a way to reclaim their global position after the collapse of the Soviet Union, found BRICs a useful platform to counter the West . The Russia-India-China (RIC) forum — the so-called...

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi is hosting the virtual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) today, which is likely to see the participation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The meeting comes at a crucial time, with India’s ties with neighbours Pakistan and China tense and war raging in Europe. India is hosting the SCO meeting, which Putin is expected to attend, as the Russia-Ukraine war drags on. What is the significance of the meeting at such a time? We can look at the significance of the meeting fr om the point of view of India as well as Russia. As far as Russia is concerned, I think President Putin will be able to see that the influence and the relevance of Russia has declined because of the war . This was apparent at the last SCO meeting in Samarkand in September 2022 too, and I think 10 months down the line, Putin will be able to see that for the Central Asian countries, Russia’s im...