Daily Hindu Editorials

👉 Petroleum ministry to observe Ujjwala Diwas on April 20 The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) has decided to celebrate April 20, 2018 as the Ujjwala Diwas, as a part of the as a part of the ‘Gram Swaraj Abhiyan’. Around 15000 LPG Panchayats will be organized across the country to promote learning through peer group interaction – ‘Kuch seekhein, Kuch Sikhayein’. 👉 Home Expo India 2018 to be inaugurated on Apr 16 The seventh edition of Home Expo India 2018, organised by Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH), will be inaugurated on 16th April at India Expo Centre & Mart, Greater Noida. Union Minister of Textiles Smriti Irani will inaugurate the fair, while Ajay Tamta, Minister of State for Textiles, will be the guest of honour. Home Expo India 2018 is expected to generate business deals for direct import. EPCH is the nodal export promotion body for handicrafts in India. 👉Maharashtra govt launches centre for tribal development

💥 Daily Word Bytes - 1  from editorial  - War for war: On U.S. strikes on Syria  💥 escalate (verb)  – intensify, heighten, make serious. Hindu Editorial usage :  With missile strikes, the United States has irresponsibly escalated the Syrian conflict. make good (phrase)  – succeed, be successful, do well. Hindu Editorial usage :  By launching a missile attack on Syria, U.S. President Donald Trump has made good on his threat to use force if chemical weapons are used in the civil war-stricken country devastating (adjective) -  shocking, traumatic, distressing Hindu Editorial usage :  he has also escalated the devastating, multi-sided conflict. cruise missile (noun)  –  it is a guided missile that flies with constant speed to deliver a warhead at specified target over long distance with high accuracy. Hindu Editorial usage :  U.S. fired 59 cruise missiles at an airbase of President Bashar al-Assad. join hands (phrase)  – work together. Hindu Editorial usag

💥Getting the Centre, States and district administrations to work in tandem is crucial The 115 Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) conceived by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is radical not because this is the first time that a government in India has focussed on India’s most backward districts but because the exercise envisages a serious re-imagination of government and governance, and deepens cooperative federalism. The programme is informed by the failures of the past and therefore has a more contemporary vision of how public services are best delivered to those who need them most. 👉Aspirational districts The 115 districts were chosen by senior officials of the Union government in consultation with State officials on the basis of a composite index of the following: deprivation enumerated under the Socio-Economic Caste Census, key health and education performance indicators and the state of basic infrastructure. A minimum of one district was chosen from every St

💥The terms of reference of the 15th Finance Commission raise questions about constitutional propriety It is not without reason that the presidential terms of reference (ToR) of the Fifteenth Finance Commission have raised questions, and the recent conclave of Finance Ministers of the southern States to discuss contentious issues in the ToR is only the beginning. In the months ahead more debate on this is likely. But the line by the media that this conclave was about concerns over the directive to use population data in the ToR from the 2011 Census, and not the 1971 Census that was used earlier, is an exaggeration. To be fair, the meeting was called to discuss all contentious issues. Of course, for the southern States the issue of population was a point of concern and provided a common meeting point for the Ministers. But this was not the only area. 👉Using population data Conceptually, general purpose transfers to States by way of tax devolution and grants are meant

👉With missile strikes, the United States has irresponsibly escalated the Syrian conflict. By launching a missile attack on Syria, U.S. President Donald Trump has made good on his threat to use force if chemical weapons are used in the civil war-stricken country, but he has also escalated the devastating, multi-sided conflict. This is the second time Mr. Trump has ordered a missile attack on Syria. Last year, after a chemical attack in Idlib province, the U.S. fired 59 cruise missiles at an airbase of President Bashar al-Assad. This time, after a suspected chemical attack in Douma near Damascus, the U.K. and France joined hands with the U.S. to punish Mr. Assad’s regime. On Friday night, over 100 missiles targeted three regime facilities; with this, the Pentagon said, Syria’s chemical weapons programme has been gutted. While the use of chemical agents against civilians cannot and must not go unpunished, the manner in which the U.S. and its allies have acted raises serious questions

👉Indian athletes make a mark in diverse sports at the Commonwealth Games. The Olympics has a global allure and the Asian Games basks in its continental spread. Compared to these two, the Commonwealth Games may look like an unflattering vestige of Britain’s colonial past. Yet there is no denying the CWG’s relevance as a stepping stone to greater sporting glory. For India, the relatively limited competition means it remains a frontrunner. This was underlined over the last fortnight at the Gold Coast in Australia, where India won 66 medals and improved on the haul of 64 from the 2014 edition at Glasgow. Importantly, the number of golds rose from 15 to 26. In wrestling, weightlifting, shooting, boxing, badminton and particularly table tennis, India dominated. There were world-class efforts from the Indians. Five-time world boxing champion Mary Kom, two-time Olympic medallist wrestler Sushil Kumar, world champion weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, 2016 world junior javelin champion Neeraj Cho

👉Dinesh Karthik has earned his right to play alongside Dhoni as a specialist batsman. When Dinesh Karthik pulled off an incredible heist with his 29 off 8 balls in the Nidahas Trophy final against Bangladesh, his restrained jubilation after bludgeoning the final ball for a six was in the quintessential style of M.S. Dhoni, a man for whom he has been a stopgap replacement through his career. Karthik wasn’t underplaying his feat. His subdued celebration was an expression of supreme confidence in his ability as a batsman. Karthik has repeatedly stressed that he is a batsman-wicketkeeper, and not the other way around, as he has probably been perceived by several selection committees in his 14-year career. Such were the standards set by Dhoni that having an additional wicketkeeper in the XI would only be a surplus to the team’s needs. Hence, Karthik has essentially been below Dhoni in the pecking order. He would have to make himself indispensable as a batsman alone to sea