Today Editorial.....

The demonetisation drive is likely to push up food prices, particularly the non-grain part. Here is why. In terms of value, vegetables, fruit, fish, milk and its by-products like cheese and paneer are 65 per cent of farming. Even prior to demonetisation, a goodly share of this valuable produce used to rot(सड़न), before reaching any market. Today, as vegetable and fruit growers grumble(बड़बड़ाना), there is no cash to pay people who will harvest the vegetables and fruit on your plate. A drop in supply and rise in vegetable, and food, prices are highly probable.

Now, the harvesting of grain — rice and wheat — which will begin soon, has been mechanised. Harvesters will do the job that needed many person-hours at the rate of Rs 400 per day before demonetisation. But how will people pay for harvesting machines in a time of acute cash scarcity(कमी)? From Bengal to Punjab, we hear tales of acute farm distress.

 But these states also grow much of vegetables, fruit and other edibles that we cannot do without. Unlike grain, whose harvesting can be mechanised, the plucking of vegetables, fruit, fish farming, dairying and poultry rearing is highly labour-intensive. Some estimates say 90 per cent of the total cost of horticulture and other non-grain produce is the cost of wages that need to be paid to mainly migrant or seasonal workers. With cash drying up, there are reports of a large outmigration of jobless workers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Bengal and Odisha from the plush farms of Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.

Deprived(वंचित) of money, the main dairy, pisciculture(मछली पालन) and vegetable and fruit cultivating areas of India will also be deprived of workers. It is anybody’s guess how this cash to worker to output shortage will contribute to food price inflation. It will be tragic(दुखद) for the poor. It might also affect you, dear reader.

1)Rot meaning is corrosion, disintegration, decay

2)Grumble meaning is murmur, rumble, complain, carp

3)Scarcity meaning is deficiency, dearth, drought, lack 

4)Pisciculture meaning is fish farming

5)Deprived meaning is impoverished, destitute, disadvantaged

6)Tragic meaning is catastrophic, very bad, appalling, awful

Today Editorial.....

The government has declared an incentive package to encourage non-cash payments for fuel, new insurance policies from public sector firms, train tickets and highway toll, among other things. For credit and debit card transactions up to Rs.2,000, the Reserve Bank of India has relaxed its stringent(कठोर) two-factor authentication requirement, and service tax stands waived(माफ कर दी). Taken together, these moves to encourage cashless payments are significant not just because they can alleviate(कम करना) the cash crunch(की कमी) following the demonetisation of high-value notes. They could spur(प्रेरणा) a change in spending habits in an economy where cash has served as the basis of around 95 per cent of all transactions. From those between traders and farmers to settling a restaurant bill, the use of cash creates a window to escape the tax net. Shopkeepers routinely ask buyers if they would like a bill or not, and those who opt for the latter to save some rupees are often left with little recourse if the goods prove to be substandard. By contrast, cashless payments can be captured electronically through the settlement mechanisms, bringing more revenue to the government and ensuring consumer rights. Given India’s abysmal(निराशाजनक) tax base, this nudge(टहोका) to cashless payments could be a game-changer, with the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax.

A nudge to move people away from cash, especially in the rural economy, first came in Yashwant Sinha’s 1998-99 Budget, with the issue of Kisan credit cards to farmers. Around 15 years later, RuPay cards were introduced with an eye on lowering payments to service providers such as Visa or Mastercard. By November this year, 29 crore such cards had been issued, 19 crore of them linked to Jan Dhan accounts. The Narendra Modi Cabinet approved a two-year action plan to encourage digital and card payments this February. If some of the proposed measures, such as rationalising the merchant discount rate on card transactions, had been implemented before the demonetisation announcement, perhaps the current pain due to a tight supply of cash could have been ameliorated(सुधारना) somewhat. With new payments banks coming up, along with mobile wallets and banking applications, India’s transaction ecosystem could see a paradigm(मिसाल) shift provided the government puts in place effective monitoring systems and ensures interoperability(अंर्तकार्यकारी) between these alternatives. An estimated Rs.18,000 crore is spent to maintain ATMs, and if even a quarter of ATM withdrawals are cut by the switch to cashless payments, banks could use the savings to reach the unbanked millions and still lower digital transaction.

1)Stringent meaning is rigid. tight,harsh.
2)Waived meaning is give up, let go, grant.
3)Crunch meaning is crucial point, difficult, crisis.
4)Spur meaning is incitement, stimulus.
5)Abysmal meaning is  great extent, immeasurable, bottomless
6)Nudge meaning is bump, elbow,push.
7)Ameliorate meaning is alleviate, lighten, make or become better
8)Paradigm meaning is example, chart
9)Interoperability meaning is the ability to exchange and use information (usually in a large heterogeneous network made up of several local area networks)

Today Editorial......

The massive pollution cloud enveloping northern India every year is a good example of the disconnect between official policy and ground realities. It has been known for long that burning of agricultural waste in the northern States significantly contributes to the poor air quality in large parts of the Indo-Gangetic Basin, with local and cascading(प्रपात की तरह गिरता हुआ) impacts felt from Punjab all the way to West Bengal. Harmful fine particulate matter measuring 2.5 mm in diameter (PM2.5) is among the pollutants released. Punjab responded to the issue with a prohibition(रोक) on the burning of paddy straw(भूसा), and the launch of initiatives aimed at better utilisation of biomass, including as a fuel to produce power. Yet, there is no mission mode approach to the annual crisis. The efforts do not match the scale of agricultural residues(अवशेष) produced, for one, and fail to address farmers’ anxiety(चिंता) to remove the surplus from the fields quickly to make way for the next crop. The national production of crop waste is of the order of 500 million tonnes a year, with Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and West Bengal topping the list. Again, 80 per cent of straw from paddy is burnt in some States, impacting air quality and depriving croplands of nutrients.

It is an irony that the national capital and several other cities suffer crippling(गंभीर) pollution in the post-monsoon and winter months partly due to biomass burning, when demand for fodder is rising and the surplus material could be used productively. Pilot projects to produce power using biomass demonstrated in Rajasthan, and mechanised composting and biogas production units of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute could be scaled up, and farmers given liberal support to deploy such solutions. Given the twin benefits of pollution abatement(कमी) and better productivity, conservation agriculture needs to be popularised. This would encourage farmers to use newer low-till seeding technologies that allow much of the crop residues to remain on site, and curb the release of a variety of pollutants. Burning residues add greenhouse gases that cause global warming, besides pollutants such as carbon monoxide, ammonia, nitrous oxide and sulphur dioxide that severely affect human health. Sustained(निरंतर) work is called for, given that higher agricultural productivity to meet food needs is inevitable(अनिवार्य), with a cascading increase in biomass volumes. The challenge is to identify measures to utilise it. By one estimate, if India can reach its own air quality standards for fine particulate matter from all sources, annual premature(समय से पूर्व होनेवाला) deaths can be cut by almost 10 per cent. A programme to cut pollution from waste-burning would be a good start.

1)Cascading meaning is fall in a rush, descend, gush.

2)Prohibition meaning is ban, forbidden, constraint, prevention.

3)Straw meaning is hay, fodder.

4)Anxiety meaning is angst, worry, tension, apprehension.

5)Residues meaning is leftover part, debris, slag.

6)Crippling meaning is disable, make lame, debilitate.

7)Abatement meaning is decline, decrease, lessening.

8)Sustained meaning is maintained, constant, continued.

9)Inevitable meaning is cannot be avoided, certain, impending,imminent.

10)Premature meaning is earlier in occurrence than anticipated, immature.

Today Editorial.......

Exchange of fire between Indian and Pakistani forces on the Line of Control and the International Boundary has rendered(प्रदान की गई है) the 2003 ceasefire ever more fragile(नाज़ुक). On October 29, the Army said it had destroyed four Pakistani posts in Keran sector along the LoC and inflicted(दण्ड देना) heavy casualties. This came a day after Sepoy Mandeep Singh was killed in the Machhal sector and his body mutilated(क्षत-विक्षत) by a terrorist who fled across the LoC thereafter. In a social media post, the Army’s Northern Command had warned that the atrocity(क्रूरता) would invite an appropriate response, and the reprisal(प्रतिशोध) followed. This represents a major escalation in the ongoing exchange of fire. Ceasefire violations have become a daily occurrence since the terrorist attack on the Army camp in Uri in September and the subsequent “surgical strikes” by the Army. The use of 82 and 120 mm mortars in addition to small arms and light machine guns has become routine, a significant scale-up during peacetime. The firing has also spread to the IB, especially a 192-km stretch in Jammu that Pakistan refers to as the working boundary. In 2014, about 430 incidents of ceasefire violation were reported along the IB; in 2015 this dropped to 253. In contrast, till mid-October only four incidents had been reported along the IB — but that calm has been broken since the Uri attack. After the surgical strikes, there have been 60 ceasefire violations.

The brunt of these exchanges is borne(सेहन ) by the civilian population in the border villages. Hundreds have been shifted to shelters and bunkers for safety. The density of civilian settlement is much higher on the Indian side in comparison to Pakistan’s. As a result, the increased firing across the border creates more pressure on India. In fact, after the two countries agreed to a ceasefire in 2003, the resultant calm had won the confidence of local residents. Villagers began farming right up to the fence(घेरा), tourism picked up, and even informal border trade increased. The current spiral of violence threatens(धमकाना) this peace dividend. After the surgical strikes, the security forces retain a free hand in responding to infiltrations and instances of firing. No senior government functionary has publicly addressed the issue. Pakistan too is playing the incidents in large part on domestic considerations. However, the latest incident underscores the need for an urgent political initiative to prevent the cycle of brutality(निर्दयता) and reprisal from acquiring its own momentum, as happened in the early 2010s. It is time the government gathered the reins to address the issue politically and have peace restored on the border.

1)Rendered meaning is contribute, distribute, provide.

2)Fragile meaning is breakable, feeble, dainty.

3)Inflicted meaning is impose something, exact, expose.

4)Mutilated meaning is disfigured, mangled, dismembered.

5)Atrocity meaning is outrageous behavior, barbarity, enormity.

6)Reprisal meaning is revenge, retaliation, vengeance.

7)Borne meaning is carried, tolerated, endured.

8)Fence meaning is barricade, block, rail.

9)Threatens meaning is warn, pressure, intimidate.

10)Brutality meaning is cruelty, inhumanity, barbarism.

Today Editorial.........

Pushed to a corner owing to lack of political will on the part of countries with a high burden of tuberculosis, the World Health Organisation has called for the first United Nations General Assembly session on the disease. The fight against TB cannot be won as long as the high-burden countries, particularly India which has the highest TB burden in the world, do not galvanise(प्रेरित करना ) their government machinery effectively. While the number of deaths caused by TB and the incidence rate had been consistently dropping from the historical highs globally, there has been a recent uptick(इजाफा ) that is much larger than previously estimated. The primary reason is the sharp increase in the incidence estimate from India — from 2.2 million cases in 2014 to 2.8 million in 2015. Ironically, the revised disease burden estimate for India is an “interim” one; the actual burden, which could be much higher, will be known only when the national TB prevalence(प्रसार ) survey that is scheduled to begin next year is completed. The number of estimated deaths caused by TB more than doubled from 220,000 in 2014 to 483,000 in 2015. As in the case of incidence(घटना ), the revised estimate for deaths could also be an underestimation.

The increase in incidence owes to a 34 per cent rise in case notifications by health-care providers in the private sector between 2013 and 2015. Yet, in 2015 notifications by doctors in the private sector comprised only 16 per cent of the total. Though notification was made mandatory in 2012, only 1.7 million incident TB cases in the public and private sectors were notified in 2015. Thus the fate(किस्मत ) of 1.1 million patients is simply not known: they have fallen off the radar. For an effective fight against TB, the control programme needs to be aware of every single patient diagnosed, and offer treatment to all. If there are only about 50 per cent of the patients approaching the private sector who successfully complete treatment, a recent study has shown that in 2013 only about 65 per cent of the 1.9 million who approached the public sector completed the treatment regime. The crisis has been aggravated(भड़काना ) with the disease becoming more expensive and difficult to treat and the number of people with drug-resistant(प्रतिरोधी ) forms increasing. The national TB control programme is behind schedule with respect to critical programmes including the expansion of the GeneXpert pilot programme, scaling up of drug sensitivity testing, and the introduction of a child-friendly paediatric(बाल चिकिस्ता ) TB drug. Only sustained(निरंतर ) action on several fronts can help bring TB under check. The global war will not be successful till India wins the battle within its own boundaries first.

1)Tuberculosis meaning is an infectious bacterial disease characterized by the growth of nodules (tubercles) in the tissues, especially the lungs.

2)Galvanise meaning is inspire, stimulate. energize.

3)Uptick meaning is a small increase or slight upward trend.

4)Prevalence meaning is the fact or condition of being prevalent; commonness, predominance. 

5)Incidence meaning is the occurrence, rate, or frequency of a disease, crime, or other undesirable thing.

6)Fate meaning is destiny, chance, predetermined course.

7)Aggravated meaning is cause to become worse, annoy, irritate.

8)Resistant meaning is antagonistic, impervious, opposing.

9)Paediatric meaning is branch of medicine dealing with the health and medical care of infants, children, and adolescents from birth up to the age of 18.

10)Sustained meaning is keep-up, maintain, endure.

Today Editorial...

The challenges of a rapidly(तेजी से ) urbanising world and of providing people with equal opportunities in cities were the central themes at the just-concluded UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, Habitat III, in Quito, Ecuador. As a once-in-a-generation event, the Habitat conference sets a guiding compass(दिशा सूचक यंत्र ) for member-countries for the next 20 years, and attracts wide governmental and civil society participation. Yet, the process has to be strengthened to evaluate how countries have fared(प्रदर्शन ) since the two previous conferences on issues such as reducing urban inequality, improving access to housing and sanitation, mobility, and securing the rights of women, children, older adults and people with disability. Moreover, as services come to occupy a dominant place in the urban economy, the divide between highly paid professionals and low-wage workers, the majority, has become pronounced. All these trends are relevant to India, where 31 per cent of the population and 26 per cent of the workforce was urban according to Census 2011, with more people moving to cities and towns each year. Urban governance policies, although mainly in the domain of the States, must be aligned with national commitments on reduction of carbon emissions under the Paris Agreement, and to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 11.

India’s ambition(महत्वाकांक्षा) to harness(साज़) science and data for orderly urbanisation is articulated(स्पष्ट)in a set of policy initiatives, chiefly the Smart Cities Mission and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation. There is little evidence so far that these could achieve the scale needed to address the contradictions(विरोध) of building 21st century cities for 20th century industrial technologies. Today, these conflicts(संघर्ष ) are reflected in the lack of adequate parks and public spaces, suitable land for informal workers who offer services in a city, egalitarian(समानाधिकारवादी) and non-polluting mobility options and new approaches to low-cost housing. In the national report prepared for the Quito conference, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation identified subsidised redevelopment of slums (which represented 17 per cent of urban households in 2011) involving private agencies, and low-cost, disaster-resistant, prefabricated(बना हुआ ) constructions as key to the ‘Housing for All’ policy. This important programme should be pursued with a vigorous annual review that ranks States on the basis of performance. The Centre should also take its own National Urban Transport Policy on developing cities around mobility networks seriously, and liberate cities from the tyranny(उत्पीड़न ) of traffic. UN Habitat plans to review country-level progress on its New Urban Agenda in Kuala Lumpur in 2018. India’s performance on improving the quality of life in its cities will be watched.

1)Rapidly meaning is briskly, immediately, promptly. 

2)Compass meaning is direction, cynosure, focus.

3)Fared meaning is fare, itinerate, proceed and get along.

4)Ambition meaning is aspiration, desire,vanity

5)Harness meaning is  make use of, utilize, spend.

6)Articulated meaning is clear , apparent, straightforward.

7)Contradiction meaning is incongruity, paradox, denial. 

8)Conflict meaning is lack of agreement or harmony, dissonant, dissent, discord.

9)Prefabricated meaning is ready, prepared.

10)Tyranny meaning is harassment, oppression, enormity.

Today Editorial.........

The outcomes of the latest meeting of the Council tasked with steering( परिचालक ) the Goods and Services Tax regime are worrying. For one, it leaves the Centre hard-pressed to meet its intended deadline for the new indirect tax regime, April 1, 2017. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had set a November 22 target to resolve all operational issues with State representatives in the Council so that the rates and implementation modalities(तौर तरीकों ) could be codified into law and passed by Parliament in the winter session. When it met for the first time in late September, things appeared to be on track, with the Council agreeing almost unanimously(सर्वसमति से ) on technicalities such as the turnover thresholds for firms to be covered under the GST and the division of administrative control over tax assessees between the Centre and the States. A time-bound road map to finalise remaining details, such as the tax rates, compensation(नुक्सान भरपाई ) for States in case of revenue loss under the new system, as well as the legislative actions required in Parliament and the State Assemblies, was also agreed upon.

As the winter session approaches, that spirit of cooperation has evaporated: the Council has agreed on precious(कीमती ) little, including the tax rates proposed by the Centre. Worse, the pact reached earlier on administrative control of manufacturing sector assessees has unravelled(सुलझाया ) with States raising fresh concerns. The proposal to subsume in the GST all cess(टैक्स ) levies, several of them introduced by the present NDA government, has been discarded. This was a critical part of the official GST pitch and was backed by the Council in September. But now the Finance Ministry is keen on an additional cess on ultra-luxury and ‘sin’ goods to fund compensation for States losing revenue. It has suggested a cess may be better than the 40 per cent slab for demerit goods, mooted by a committee led by Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian along with two other slabs of 12 per cent and 17-18 per cent. With a four-tier GST rate structure, a 4 per cent tax on gold (in line with the CEA’s advice), in addition to some exemptions(छूट ) that would be granted as tax refunds, topped with the new cess to compensate States, the new regime could well just be old wine in a new bottle, from the taxpayers’ perspective. Mr. Jaitley has explained that the rate proposals are meant to prevent a spurt(उछाल ) in retail inflation. But to bring about convergence(अभिसरण ) with States at the Council’s next meetings in November and bring its showcase reform item back on track, the government needs to return to the drawing board.

1)Steering meaning is guide, direct on a course,escort.

2)Modalities meaning is method, approach, process, procedure.

3)Unanimously meaning is collectively, commonly, of one mind.

4)Compensation meaning is repayment, rectification, allowances. 

5)Precious meaning is favorite, rare, expensive.

6)Unravelled meaning is solve, untangle, unfold

7)Cess meaning is tax

8)Exemption meaning is freedom from responsibility, discharge, immunity.

9)Spurt meaning is burst of activity, erupt, surge.

10)Convergence meaning is union, concurrence, confluence.

Today Editorial....

A video released by film-maker Karan Johar pledging(वचन)  not to work with “talent from the neighbouring country” is obviously a last-ditch attempt to salvage(नुकसान होने से बचना ) his forthcoming production, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. With the effect of a Rorschach test, Johar’s pitch can be read in divergent ways. At one level, as an outright capitulation(संधिपत्र ) to the mob, angrily led in Mumbai by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, as well as to a wider audience currently consumed by a low-grade intolerance(असहिष्णुता ) of anything Pakistani. At another, as a cleverly coded defence of a film starring Pakistani actor Fawad Khan by drawing attention to the labour of “300 Indians” on the project who face unfair rejection. Either way, the larger issue is the ease with which a boycott(बहिष्कार ) of people from a particular country is enforced, so that everyone is intimidated into falling in line to a Tebbit-like test. Mumbai has, of course, long kept Pakistani sportspersons at bay. Three years ago, the Pakistani women’s cricket team at the World Cup had be shifted out to Cuttack, diminishing not just Mumbai, but India itself for the failure to uphold the spirit of sport essential to a liberal democracy. Last year, even Pakistani umpires and television commentators were compelled(मजबूर ) to pull out of their duties at an international match in Mumbai. It’s not Mumbai alone. In 2013, for instance, no team fielded Sri Lankan cricketers in Indian Premier League matches in Chennai.

But the current, post-Uri rash of objections to Pakistani artists is widespread — concerts have been cancelled from Gurgaon to Bengaluru, and the airwaves crackle regularly with some film or sport personality averring(सिद्ध करना ) to keep apart from his Pakistani counterparts. However, it would be under-reading the challenge to India’s syncretic(समधर्मी ) legacy if the political silence around such boycotts was not highlighted. It is not enough for officials at the Centre to say that there is no change in the visa policy for Pakistani citizens. When the political leadership — in government and in Opposition — does not take the lead in persuading the silent majority that barriers to cultural and academic exchange are undemocratic and represent a closure of the Indian mind, it renders vulnerable(चपेट में ) the scattered individuals who are willing to stand up to bullying. On Pakistan, the ambivalent(उभयभावी) attitude to snapping cultural ties highlights important foreign policy questions. Do we use India’s incredible soft power to win over Pakistanis and others to the ideals of democracy, liberalism, secularism, syncretism for the greater good of the neighbourhood? Or do we reduce all people-to-people contact to unrelenting enmity?

1)Pledging meaning is word of honor, promise, sign of good faith, guarantee.

2)Salvage meaning is save, rescue, recover.

3)Capitulation meaning is giving in, submission, yielding

4)Intolerance meaning is lack of willingness to tolerate, bigotry.

5)Boycott meaning is ban, refrain from using, exclude, avoid.

6)Compelled meaning is force to act, impel, enforce.

7)Averring meaning is affirm, assert, maintain.

8)Syncretic meaning is the attempted reconciliation or union of different or opposing principles,practices or parties, as in philosophy or religion.

9)Vulnerable meaning is accessible, weak, open to attack, unsafe.

 10)Ambivalent meaning is conflicting, contradictory, doubtful.

Today Editorial

The Centre’s categorical stand that personal laws should be in conformity with the Constitution will be of immense(अत्यधिक) assistance to the Supreme Court in determining the validity of practices such as triple talaq and polygamy(बहुविवाह ). By arguing that such practices impact adversely on the right of women to a life of dignity, the Centre has raised the question whether constitutional protection given to religious practices should extend even to those that are not in compliance(अनुपालन ) with fundamental rights. The distinction between practices essential or integral to a particular religion, which are protected under Article 25, a provision that seeks to preserve the freedom to practise and propagate(फैलाना  ) any religion, and those that go against the concepts of equality and dignity, which are fundamental rights, is something that the court will have to carefully evaluate while adjudicating(निर्णायक ) the validity of the Muslim practices under challenge. From the point of view of the fundamental rights of those affected, mostly women, there is a strong case for these practices to be invalidated. The idea that personal laws of religions should be beyond the scope of judicial review, and that they are not subject to the Constitution, is inherently abhorrent. The affidavit in which the All India Muslim Personal Law Board sought to defend triple talaq and polygamy is but an execrable(घिनौना ) summary of the patriarchal notions(विचार ) entrenched(मोरचा  करना ) in conservative sections of society.

This is not the first time that aspects of Muslim personal law have come up for judicial adjudication. On triple talaq, courts have adopted the view that Islam does not sanction divorce without reason or any attempt at reconciliation(सुलाह ), and that talaq would not be valid unless some conditions are fulfilled. There are judgments that say the presence of witnesses during the pronouncement of talaq, sound reasons for the husband to seek a divorce and some proof that an attempt was made for conciliation are conditions precedent for upholding a divorce. The present petition(याचिका ) before the Supreme Court seeks a categorical ruling that talaq-e-bidat — an irrevocable(स्थिर ) form of triple talaq that is permitted but considered undesirable in Islam — is unconstitutional. There are many who contend that instant divorce is not allowed, and that the triple talaq has to be spread over a specified time period, during which there are two opportunities to revoke it. Only the articulation of the third makes it irrevocable. It should be possible for the court to test these practices for compliance with the Constitution.

1)Immense meaning is extremely large, boundless, enormous.

2)Polygamy meaning is plural marriage, having more than one spouse at a time.

3)Compliance meaning is agreement, conformity, consent.

4)Propagate meaning is spread, inseminate, reproduce, proliferate.

5)Adjudicating meaning is formally judge, arbitrate.

6)Execrable meaning is horrible, sickening, abominable.

7)Notion meaning is belief, idea, assumption.

8)Reconciliation meaning is compromise, harmony, accord, agreement.

9)Petition meaning is appeal, plea, request.

10)Irrevocable meaning is fixed, unchangeable, immutable, irreversible.

Today Editorial...

                                Only about terrorism?

Over a period of 48 hours, India hosted leaders of the five-nation BRICS as well as the seven-nation BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation), which together represent two-thirds of humanity and more than a quarter of the world’s growth. While BIMSTEC has geographical moorings(घाट ), BRICS is a unique organisation of countries that came together in 2006 not because of geography, history or wealth, but because of their promise as key “emerging economies”. While the promise has faded(फीका ), their ability to grab the world’s attention and challenge the “old order” is still unmatched, as Russia, India, China, Brazil and South Africa remain leaders in their respective regions. What they say on financial systems, development initiatives, sharing of resources like water, oil, precious minerals and land, as well as battling(जूझ ) climate change and poverty has a wide-ranging impact. It is, therefore, unfortunate that the outcome of the BRICS summit and the outreach to BIMSTEC countries has been popularly condensed into what they had to say on a single issue: terrorism, with only a few paragraphs out of the 109-para Goa Declaration dominating the discourse. The domestic context is partially responsible. Even before the Uri attack, New Delhi had embarked on a diplomatic mission to “isolate Pakistan” by raising the issue of terrorism emanating(चलाई ) from its soil at international fora — the campaign escalated(तना हुआ ) after the deaths at the Uri Army camp. As a result, India’s interventions at the G-20 summit in China, the ASEAN summits in Laos, the UN General Assembly, the Non-Aligned Movement meet in Venezuela, and elsewhere resounded with outrage(उल्लंघन ) with Pakistan’s continued cross-border adventurism.

Given this success, New Delhi would have done better to bring the spotlight in Goa back to its own declared goals of building economies and bringing prosperity(समृद्धि ) in the region. A united message to the rich world on a more equitable distribution of global resources, deployment of the New Development Bank and climate change was in order. However, in his speech on the outcomes of the BRICS deliberations(विवेचना ), Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose to anchor his remarks on concerns about cross-border terrorism that weren’t entirely reflected in the final Goa Declaration. Officials may well explain it away as a lack of consensus(आम सहमति ) in the grouping, suggesting that China influenced the moderation of the eventual text. However, the single-issue focus also reflects a failure on the part of the Centre in forging(बनाना ) a larger, more broad-based narrative to match the scale of the gathering hosted in Goa.

1)Mooring meaning is landing, dock, harbor.

2)Faded meaning is bleached, used, shabby, reduce in strength.

3)Battling meaning is fight, struggle, clamor.

4)Emanating meaning is come forth, give off, emit.

5)Escalated meaning is increase, expand, grow. 

6)Outrage meaning is atrocity, violation, shock, evil.

7)Prosperity meaning is affluence, good fortune, boom, wealth.

8)Deliberation meaning is serious thought, discussion.

9)Consensus meaning is general agreement, accord, consent.

10)Forging meaning is make something, counterfeit, produce.

Today Editorial

                     Triumph of the troubadour

Over the last century, the Nobel Prize in 

Literature  has sprung(उछला) its fair 

share of surprises. In 1950, for instance, 

the prize went to the philosopher 

Bertrand Russell, who quickly 

followed this up with two books of  

awkward(भद्दा )  and 

astoundingly(चौकाने )  pedestrian(पैदल यात्री ) short stories, 

written and published almost as if they were intended to justify the 

award. The trend has since persisted(कायम ), with the Swedish 

Academy picking writers across genres and geographies. They 

include Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer in 2011, the oft-banned 

Chinese Mo Yan in 2012, Canadian short story writer Alice 

Munro in 2013, French novelist Patrick Modiano in 2014 and 

Belarusian journalist Svetlana Alexievich, who has mined oral 

histories extensively for her non-fiction work on life in the Soviet 

Union, last year. Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, a long shot in the 

Nobel sweepstakes for years, is this year’s delightfully  

idiosyncratic(विशेष स्वभाव का ) choice, for “having created new 

poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.

While the purists might be aghast(भौचक्का ), what possibly 

clinched it for the 75-year-old is that he isn’t just another musician 

with a five-decades-plus career. His lyrics — almost bordering on 

the philosophical when he asks some weighty questions about 

peace and war in his 1962 hit, ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ — chronicled 

Sixties America’s angst, marking him out as a counterculture icon 

although Dylan himself would later deny having lent his voice to a 

generation. Like his contemporary Leonard Cohen, Dylan also 

wrote in a manner that made listeners, almost contradictorily, both 

engage and distance themselves from the music. In his hands the 

music and the lyrics merged and separated, urging us to respond to 

his songwriting as melody and rhythm, at one level, and as sheer 

poetry at another. His role as an influential modern ‘English poet’ 

has been underrated(काम आंकना ), despite his  profoundly(गहरा )  

personal odes about war, peace, love and closure. So has been his 

contribution to the evolution of modern music forms — few, for 

instance, would trace rap music’s seeds in Dylan’s 51-year-old 

classic advisory for young adults, ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’. 

With every passing decade, he has reinvented himself with a 

unique ability to stir hope in listeners even while plumbing the 

depths of darkness in his themes. If Dylan’s body of work were to 

be compared to any one piece of art, Pablo 

Picasso’s Guernica perhaps comes closest. Like the beam of 

sunlight on a  solitary(अकेला )  flower in a slain soldier’s hands in 

the depressing scene of the Spanish town destroyed by war, Dylan 

still brings hope in a world going increasingly awry. And that’s 

worth a Nobel.

1)Sprung meaning is jump, skip, bounce.

2)Awkward meaning is clumsy, inelegant, amateurish.

3)Astoundingly meaning is amazing, surprising, shocking.

4)Pedestrian meaning is everyday, banal, mundane, dull.

5)Persisted meaning is carry on, carry through, continue,prevail.

6)Idiosyncratic meaning is peculiar, distinctive.

7)Aghast meaning is horrified, very surprised.

8)Underrated meaning is underestimate, undervalue.

9)Profoundly meaning is intellectual, thoughtful, deep.

10)Solitary meaning is alone, single, unsociable.