Content:
EC to Remove All Duplicate Voter ID Numbers
Centring Care in India’s Economic Policy
Women in South India, Delhi, Punjab Have Higher Levels of Obesity
Jobs Rising but Salaries Not Keeping Pace with Inflation’
In a First, Private U.S. Spacecraft Lands Upright on Lunar Surface
Euclid Space Telescope Discovers New ‘Einstein Ring’ in Nearby Galaxy
EC to remove all duplicate voter ID numbers
Election Commission’s Stand
Acknowledged reports of identical voter ID numbers across different states.
Clarified that while some numbers may match, other details (demographics, constituency, polling booth) remain unique.
Stated that a voter can only vote in their designated polling station in the enrolled state/UT.
Relevance : GS 2 (Polity, Elections)
Cause of Duplication
Resulted from manual and decentralised processes used before digitization.
Some State/UT CEO offices used the same EPIC series, leading to identical numbers across states.
ERONET (Election Roll Management System) was later introduced for better electoral roll management.
Steps Taken by the EC
Commitment to assign unique EPIC numbers to each voter.
ERONET 2.0 update planned for seamless rectification of duplicate IDs.
Ensuring transparency and voter roll integrity ahead of future elections.
Political Controversy
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee alleged that:
BJP is manipulating voter rolls with EC’s support.
Duplicate EPIC numbers are used to add out-of-state voters to Bengal’s list.
EC dismissed allegations, calling it an issue of past administrative practices.
Implications
Trust in electoral process: Ensuring unique IDs strengthens credibility.
Political ramifications: Opposition parties may continue raising concerns over electoral transparency.
Upcoming elections: Resolution of this issue is crucial before the 2026 West Bengal Assembly polls.
Centring care in India’s economic policy
Record Allocation: ₹4,49,028.68 crore allocated to the Gender Budget (GB), a 37.3% increase from FY24.
Percentage of Total Budget: GB constitutes 8.86% of the total Union Budget 2025.
Primary Driver: Increase due to inclusion of PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (24% of GB), rather than investments in care infrastructure or gender-responsive schemes.
Missed Opportunity: Despite emphasis on care economy in Economic Surveys 2023-24 and 2024-25, tangible investments in care infrastructure remain absent.
Relevance : GS 2(Social Issues) , GS 3(Indian Economy)
Unpaid Care and Domestic Work (UCDW) – A Gendered Burden
Global Average: Women spend 17.8% of their time on unpaid care and domestic work.
India’s Disproportionate Burden: Indian women shoulder 40% more UCDW than their counterparts in South Africa and China.
Labour Force Impact:
53% of Indian women remain out of the workforce due to care responsibilities, compared to 1.1% of men (ILO data).
Women in low-income households juggle 17–19 hours of daily tasks, leading to ‘time poverty’ and deteriorating well-being.
Structural Challenges in the Global South
Broader Scope of UCDW: Involves household care, farm work, water and fuel collection, cleaning, cooking.
Time Burden:
Women spend five hours daily collecting water vs. 1.5 hours for men.
73% of their time spent on unpaid work due to poor infrastructure.
Climate Change Impact:
Water-related unpaid labour in India projected to cost $1.4 billion by 2050 (high-emissions scenario).
Exacerbated by low public investment and rigid social norms.
Proposed Solutions & Policy Imperatives
Recognise Care Work
Economic Survey 2023-24:
Public investment equivalent to 2% of GDP could create 11 million jobs while reducing care burden.
‘Three R Framework’: Recognise, Reduce, Redistribute, Represent.
Time-Use Survey 2019:
Revealed women spend 7 hours daily on UCDW.
Solution: Integrate Time-use modules into existing household surveys.
Reduce UCDW Burden
Infrastructure & Technology:
Time-saving technologies and expanded access to affordable care services.
Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM):
Extended till 2028 to achieve 100% potable water coverage.
Challenges: 4.51% decline in budget allocation; only half of villages have functional tap connections.
Need for stronger implementation and water sustainability measures.
Expansion of childcare centres, eldercare support, and assistive technologies to boost women’s workforce participation.
Redistribute Care Work
From Home to State & Market:
Urban Challenge Fund (₹1 lakh crore) → ₹10,000 crore allocated for FY 2025-26.
Can finance up to 25% of bankable projects in urban redevelopment, water, sanitation.
Smart Cities Mission: Leverage funds to scale up pilot care models like Bogotá’s Care Blocks (centralised care hubs).
Strengthen Women’s Representation
Policy Inclusion: Women’s participation in decision-making increases effectiveness by 6-7 times.
Need for Gender-Sensitive Economic Strategy:
India must move beyond symbolic ‘Nari Shakti’ rhetoric.
Budget must prioritise care work as a central pillar of inclusive economic growth.
Women in South India, Delhi, Punjab have higher levels of obesity
Key Findings from NFHS (2019-21)
About 25% of men and women in India were overweight or obese, marking a 4 percentage point increase from 2015-16.
Obesity is more prevalent among women in South Indian states, Delhi, and Punjab.
The rate of increase in obesity among men was higher than that among women.
The proportion of thin individuals (BMI below 18.4) declined significantly in both genders.
Relevance : GS 2(Health)
BMI Trends and Gender-Wise Changes
BMI Increase (2015-16 to 2019-21):
Men: Increased by 0.6 points (from 21.8 to 22.4).
Women: Increased by 0.5 points (from 21.9 to 22.4).
Overweight & Obesity:
Overweight women: Increased from 15.5% to 17.6%.
Overweight men: Increased from 15.9% to 18.9%.
Obese women: Increased from 5.1% to 6.4%.
Obese men: Increased from 3% to 4%.
Thinness Decline:
Mildly thin women: Dropped from 13.3% to 11%.
Mildly thin men: Dropped from 12.2% to 9.6%.
Moderately/severely thin women: Dropped from 9.6% to 7.7%.
Moderately/severely thin men: Dropped from 8% to 6.6%.
Regional Trends
Women’s obesity rates were highest in Delhi, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Telangana.
Men’s obesity rates were also highest in Delhi and South Indian states.
Dietary Patterns Linked to Obesity
Over 40% of men and women consume fried foods regularly.
Aerated drinks consumption:
16% of women
25% of men
Government Awareness & Call for Action
PM Modi, in Mann Ki Baat, warned against rising obesity, particularly among children.
Recommended reducing oil consumption by 10% per month for a healthier lifestyle.
‘Jobs rising but salaries not keeping pace with inflation’
Employment Growth:
According to NITI Aayog member Arvind Virmani, jobs in India have been increasing steadily.
PLFS (Periodic Labour Force Survey) data indicates that the worker-population ratio (WPR) has increased from 34.7% in 2017-18 to 43.7% in 2023-24, outpacing population growth
Relevance : GS 3(Economy)
Stagnation in Real Wages:
While jobs are increasing, real wages for regular salaried jobs have not kept pace with inflation over the past seven years.
This stagnation in wages is more prominent in formal employment.
Skill Deficiency as the Main Cause:
Lack of skilled workers is cited as the primary reason for stagnant real wages.
The gap in skilled labor lowers productivity, affecting wage growth.
Need for Skilling Initiatives:
Emphasis on improving the quality of education, training, and skill development to address the wage stagnation issue.
Government efforts are in place, but states and districts also need to enhance skilling programs.
Implications
Positive Employment Trend: The rising worker-population ratio signals an expansion in job opportunities, countering claims of job stagnation.
Challenges in Wage Growth: The failure of wages to keep up with inflation can lead to reduced purchasing power, affecting overall economic growth and consumption.
Urgency for Skill Development: Addressing skill gaps is crucial to boosting productivity and improving real wages, ensuring sustainable wage growth alongside job creation.
Decentralized Approach Needed: Skilling initiatives must go beyond central schemes and be implemented effectively at the district level, where job creation is more localized.
In a first, private U.S. spacecraft lands upright on lunar surface
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 successfully landed on the Moon on March 3, 2025, at Mons Latreille in the Mare Crisium region.
This marks the second private moon landing and the first to land upright.
The mission is part of NASA’s Artemis program, aimed at reducing costs and supporting future crewed missions to the Moon.
Relevance :GS 3(Science and Technology)
Mission Details
The lander, nicknamed “Ghost Riders in the Sky”, launched on January 15, 2025, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The spacecraft autonomously navigated a rocky lunar surface before slowing down from thousands of miles per hour to just 2 mph for touchdown.
Unlike the previous private moon lander (February 2024), which landed sideways, Blue Ghost landed stable and upright.
Scientific Objectives & Payload
The lander, about the size of a hippopotamus, carries 10 scientific instruments, including:
Lunar soil analyzer to study the composition of the Moon’s surface.
Radiation-tolerant computer to test long-term electronics survival.
Navigation experiment using Earth’s satellite system to determine feasibility for future lunar missions.
Upcoming Observations
March 14, 2025: Blue Ghost will capture high-definition imagery of a total solar eclipse, when Earth blocks sunlight from the Moon.
March 16, 2025: The lander will record a lunar sunset to study how dust levitates above the Moon’s surface—phenomenon first observed during the Apollo missions.
Significance
Strengthens public-private partnerships in space exploration under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS).
Provides critical data to support future Artemis missions and crewed Moon landings.
Demonstrates advancements in autonomous navigation and lunar surface exploration.
Euclid space telescope discovers new ‘Einstein ring’ in nearby galaxy
Background:
Discovery: The Euclid space telescope (ESA) spotted an Einstein ring in the galaxy NGC 6505, 590 million light-years away.
Significance: Only five other gravitational lenses at similar distances have been found. The ring is composed of distorted images of a galaxy 4.5 billion light-years away.
Discovery Process:
First noticed by astronomer Bruno Altieri in September 2023 in an unfocused image.
Confirmed after Euclid’s systems were fully operational.
Relevance : GS 3(Science and Technology)
Scientific Background:
Gravitational Lensing: Massive objects like galaxies bend light, acting as cosmic lenses.
Einstein’s Prediction: In his General Theory of Relativity, Einstein predicted that mass curves spacetime, altering the path of light.
Einstein Ring: A special case of strong gravitational lensing where the background object, lens, and observer are nearly perfectly aligned, forming a ring-like structure.
First Einstein Ring: Discovered in 1998, over 80 years after Einstein’s prediction.
Scientific and Astronomical Impact:
Testing General Relativity: Einstein rings provide experimental validation of relativity.
Understanding Dark Matter: Can help trace dark matter distributions, which remain undetectable otherwise.
Cosmic Expansion: Offers insights into the universe’s expansion rate and distant galaxy evolution.
Euclid’s Mission & Future Prospects:
Launched by ESA in July 2023. Began full-scale scanning on February 14, 2024.
Goal: Expected to discover 100,000 new gravitational lenses.
Limitations: Finding another Einstein ring as close as Altieri’s is unlikely due to the limited observable volume near Earth.
Conclusion:
The discovery of Altieri’s Ring underscores Euclid’s potential in advancing astrophysics, especially in understanding dark matter and cosmic structures.
Future observations may refine knowledge of gravitational lensing and the universe’s large-scale structure.
