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Modifications proposed for Agnipath recruitment to the Indian armed services include full healthcare benefits and pension benefits for the scheme. The government has presented a fact vs. myth explanation to provide a clear understanding of the intent of the scheme to reflect a younger population and integrated India without the regimental bias towards caste and region present since British times. Job security is always a concern in India. The better technically trained and better financed Agniveer recruit would have more opportunities for education and training after 4 years and become an attractive asset for the private and public sector. A program of this kind was the GI Bill in the US that Franklin Roosevelt signed in 1944 and the Veteran Act of 2008 that continued educational benefits for free college. These programs have resulted in benefit of great value to the US economy and to the military veterans who used these benefits. In India's fast growth period after 2025 the Indian economy would be 50% larger and be easily able to take in these graduates from the armed services with technical training and advanced courses just as the US economy did decades ago. During the days following the pandemic there is a sense of pessimism in some sections and the government can enhance the package with added pension benefits and healthcare and still keep the financial aspects in good shape. ...

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Indian federalism is promoted by the Inter State council. This report in Indian Express shows how Tamilnadu has benefited from discussions with the federal government before bills are placed in parliament allowing agreement on many issues relating to the bills. India's rapid development in a diverse country benefits from these aspects of inter state relations.

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The Indian Express offers this UPSC Essentials that reviews questions for the UPSC exams in India that prepare Indians for the Indian Administrative Service, the Indian Civil Service.

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With the aggressive actions taken along the 1600 kilometre border in eastern Ladakh by China's People's Liberation Army, India needs a younger soldier to protect the border at high altitudes in below freezing temperatures. The entire 3500 kilometre border in the high Himalayan regions from east to west need technology driven surveillance with soldiers fit and ready for such duty. Agnipath's goal is to bring down the average age in the army from 32 years to 26 years to better reflect the youthful population in India. A tighter better disciplined force with high tech is needed. Bringing in more and new recruits is intended. Both the 25% of recruits retained after 4 years benefit and the 75% benefit. The 25% will have opportunities to move up the ranks. The 75% who come back out of the military will have the advanced technical training and courses, certification, that would make them attractive to the public and private sector companies in 2026 and beyond when India's economy will be 50% larger than today at growth rates of 10-12%. This is already seen in the way technologically trained military recruits from World War II in the US Army, Navy and Air Force were quickly absorbed at high salaries in the high growth period of America 1950-1970, with incentives like the GI Bill. Modifications that could be discussed- The 25% retained after 4 years. There is no magic number it could be raised to 30 or 40% during these post pandemic years and then lowered to 25% as the economy grows rapidly by 2025, or kept at 30% without changes, a number of options could be open.The financial aspect of the training can be modified where the 25% retained could have these 4 years added to their years for calculating pensions. The 75% are given 1.2 million rupees and even this can be adjusted upwards so that they could start businesses as entrepreneurs or have the time to pursue higher education before taking up for example with free education to enhance their education in areas of interest as was given by the GI bill to Americans in the armed services after World War II in 1946. Ideas from the GI Bill signed by president Franklin Roosvelt in 1944- Adding one year of unemployment payments, low interest loans to start a farm or business, full tution and living expenses for college. In 2008 the Veterans Act in the US continued support for education of servicement by making eduction free at a public college or university.  The Roosevelt GI bill benefited about 7.8 million servicemen in the US armed services. 2.2 million went to college, 7.6 million took training programs. It was an impressive achievement. No scheme is perfect there are budgetary constraints such as how to manage pensions to give the armed services the best possible funding including the training and course capabilities that also need good financing and the higher pensions for armed services. Every political party  government around the world without exception will have to face these budgetary constraints and the goal is to do right by the armed services providing the income and opportunities they deserve. Was a decent effort made with the right goals set? This is how these matters of national interest for India and the Free World that includes South East Asia, Africa and Latin America, should be discussed.    ...

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Overseas travel from Russia is cut down significantly as US and European Union restrict Russian planes from flying over their airspace. Many Russian planes in Europe were grounded after the invasion of Ukraine. The UAE and Central Asia, Turkey are frequent destinations for Russian planes following the invasion and the response of the US and the EU. Dubai is the single most frequent destination say the NYT.

During the pandemic China reduced overseas travel significantly. Fewer Americans and Europeans are traveling to China with the lockdowns and zero covid policies. The result is that people living in China and Russia have significantly less contact in 2022 with the outside world compared to 2019 the year before the pandemic. The flow of information is also affected with the state controlling more of the information that people see in Russia and China.

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Life in Quintero one of Chile's industrial zones only 100 miles from Santiago with thermal power plants, heavy industry and harmful contamination of air and water.

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In a major move president Biden backs suspending IP protection for Covid vaccines, therapeutics and tests. In fall 2020 India and South Africa submitted a resolution to WTO to suspend IP protection for Covid vaccines, therapeutics and tests, From the Indian perspective this decision comes a bit late when India has already vaccinated over 1 billion people using the Astra Zeneca Oxford vaccine. The Oxford vaccine was made available to Indian manufacturing companies to make locally in a way the could be done at low cost to meet needs of over 1 billion people in India. From the perspective of pharmaceutical companies this is giving away technology even if this was a public health emergency, as shown in this editorial from WSJ.

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The WSJ offers this profile of a son of German immigrants who accumulated timber lands in Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Pacific Northwest of the US. George Weyerhaeuser's company made the diapers for store brands across America. He says he was shocked at seeing the land when the timber was taken and the area cleared and started the practice of reforestation now a major goal set by COP26 in Glasgow.

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Under an obscure rule called "deminimis" any packages less than $800 coming from China or other Asian countries are not counted in official trade statistics, This could easily understate imports from China by about $50 billion as 800 million such packages enter the US annually mostly from China. When this and other corrections are made and with the surge in imports during the pandemic the US trade deficit may not bave budged much even after Mr. Trump made this Priority No.1, says this report in the WSJ. At stake are manufacturing jobs in America, factories and workplaces all across America that made it what it was and whose fracturing has led to the fracturing of America.

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You didn't have to be poor to be frugal. American frugality was a way of life on the prairies and farms of America for most of the eighteenth, nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century. It was only after 1950's that piles of consumer products were discarded to pile up in rubbish mountains somewhere in the Atacama desert in Chile by 2020. The over use of plastic contaminated the land and the oceans. The consumer debt led to money sent overseas that could be invested in America so that workers could have good jobs and American manufacturing could hold its place in the world as second to none.

As old habits are revived some areas in America from upstate New York to upstate Michigan still cling to the old values as shown in this report by Claire Ansberry in the WSJ.