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New investments slowed again - Page No.1, GS 3
The Israel-Hamas conflict and Nusseibeh's analysis - Page No.6 , GS 2
The world needs to stop taking water for granted - Page No.6, GS 3
Closing the gender pay gap in the workforce - Page No.7 , GS 3
Centre likely to raise age of retirement of scientists to 65 - Page No. 12, GS 2

New investments slowed again - Page No.1, GS 3

Fresh investment announcements in the July-to-September quarter, the second quarter of 2023-24, have dropped to 76.9 lakh crore, 13% lower than in the first quarter, and 21.5% down from a year ago, driven by a sharp dip in proposed outlays by the Union government and foreign investors, and a broad-based contraction across the manufacturing, mining, infrastructure, and electricity sectors.
The decline in investment commitments during Q2 comes on the back of a 45.8% sequential decline recorded in the first quarter, as per Projects Today's latest investment survey.
A total of 2,238 new projects with an aggregate investment intention of 76.88 lakh crore were announced in Q2, as against 2,745 new projects worth ₴7.91 lakh crore in Q1, with the projects' tally contracting 18.5%.

The Israel-Hamas conflict and Nusseibeh's analysis - Page No.6 , GS 2

Balfour Declaration:

The seeds of the conflict were laid in 1917 when the then British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour expressed official support of Britain for a Jewish "national home" in Palestine under the Balfour Declaration.

Creation Of Palestine:

Unable to contain Arab and Jewish violence, Britain withdrew its forces from Palestine in 1948, leaving responsibility for resolving the competing claims to the newly created United Nations.
The UN presented a partition plan to create independent Jewish and Arab states in Palestine which was not accepted by most of Arab nations.

Arab Israel War (1948):

In 1948, the Jewish declaration of Israel's independence prompted surrounding Arab states to attack. At the end of the war, Israel controlled about 50 % more territory than originally envisioned by the UN partition plan.
Six-Day War: In 1967 war, Israeli forces seized the Golan Heights from Syria, the West Bank & East Jerusalem from Jordan and Sinai Peninsula & Gaza strip from Egypt.

Camp David Accords (1978):

"Framework for Peace in the Middle East" brokered by the U.S. set the stage for peace talks between Israel and its neighbors and a resolution to the "Palestinian problem". This however remained unfulfilled.

Emergence of Hamas:

1987: Founding of Hamas, a violent offshoot of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood seeking to fulfill its agenda through violent jihad.
Hamas- It is regarded as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. In 2006, Hamas won the Palestinian Authority's legislative elections. It ejected Fatah from Gaza in 2007, splitting the Palestinian movement geographically, as well
1987: Tensions in the occupied territories of West Bank and Gaza reached boiling point resulting in the First Intifada (Palestinian Uprising). It grew into a small war between Palestinian militants and the Israeli army.

Way Forward:

The world at large needs to come together for a peaceful solution but the reluctance of the Israeli government and other involved parties have aggravated the issue more. Thus a balanced approach would help to maintain favorable relations with Arab countries as well as Israel.
The recent normalization agreements between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco, known as the Abraham Accords, are the steps in the right direction. All regional powers should envisage peace between the two countries on line of Abraham Accords.
India's role in multilateral organizations requires "strenuous efforts in cooperation with all related parties to achieve security and stability in the Middle East and West Asia".

The world needs to stop taking water for granted - Page No.6, GS 3

The theme for World Food Day (October 16) this year - 'Water is Life,
Countries face severe challenges such as drought, floods, unseasonal rains and prolonged dry spells.
With less than seven years left to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) - the UN's food agencies - lay stress on the need to adopt innovative and collaborative approaches for improved management, conservation and availabilitv of scarce water resources.
Water availability affects every aspect of human life, especially food and nutrition securitv.
Decades of poor water management, misuse and pollution, and the climate crisis have degraded freshwater supplies and ecosystems, adding to the vulnerability of small-scale producers to climate shocks and land degradation in some of the world's most fragile ecosystems.
About 40% of the planet's total land area is degraded, leaving farmers with less productive land.
Extreme weather events and variability in water availability are severely affecting agricultural production, changing agro-ecological conditions and shifting growing seasons. Changes in rainfall and higher temperatures also affect crop productivity, reducing food availability.

What is the Food and Agriculture Organization?

FAO is a specialised agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger.
World Food Day is celebrated every year around the world on 16th October. The day is celebrated to mark the anniversary of the founding of the FAO in 1945.
It is one of the UN food aid organisations based in Rome (Italy). Its sister bodies are the World Food Programme and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Flagship Publications:

The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA).
The State of the World's Forests (SOFO).
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI).
The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA).
The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets (SOCO).

Closing the gender pay gap in the workforce - Page No.7 , GS 3

When women were missing from the labour force, that was because they were home caring for children; when they were paid less than men, that was because they had lower education than men. Or so said the economic orthodoxy, including theories popularised by the 1992 Nobel Prize winner Gary Becker.
Claudia Goldin, the 2023 Economics Nobel Prize winner, has spent half a century giving a name and voice to their problems.
Parental responsibilities make it difficult for women to take on jobs requiring long hours and irregular work schedules.
While increased male participation in household work and childcare would help, we must also find ways of reshaping both the work and social environment so that they are conducive to developing a work- life balance for both men and women.

Centre likely to raise age of retirement of scientists to 65 - Page No. 12, GS 2

The Science and Technology Ministry is working on a proposal to increase the retirement age of scientists to 65.
Its larger purpose, sources suggest, is to stem the flight of its top senior scientists to universities and the Indian Institutes of Technology, where the retirement age is 65, The Hindu has learnt.
At present, scientists in most wings of the government retire at 60, while those working at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) retire at 62.
This is not the first time that the government has mooted raising the retirement age of scientists.
A draft Cabinet note in 2015, led by the Ministry, had said the move would bring parity in service conditions of research scientists working in different arms of the government.

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