April 7, 2023: Important Current Affairs

 

Government releases pre-draft of National Curriculum Framework for schools, seeks feedback

• The Ministry of Education released a pre-draft version of National Curriculum Framework for School Education on April 6, 2023, and has sought feedback from various stakeholders, including students, parents, teachers, teacher educators, experts, scholars and professionals.
• The pre-draft covers the framework of curriculum for age groups 3 to 18 years. 
• A key part of the document is inclusion of values and its “rootedness” in India. The pre-draft says, “It is deeply rooted in India. This is in content and learning of languages, in the pedagogical approaches including tools and resources and in philosophical basis — in the aims and in the epistemic approach.”
• It leans towards making students acquainted with true sources of knowledge, which have been a philosophical preoccupation of ancient Indians. 

These sources focus on six  pramanas:  

1. pratyaksa, interpreted as perception through five senses;  
2. anumana, which uses inferences to come to new conclusions;  
3. upamana, which is knowing through analogy and comparison;  
4. arthapatti, which involves knowing through circumstantial implication,  
5. anupalabdhi, which includes perception of non-existence, and  
6. sabda, which the document explains is “something an individual can only directly know a fraction of all reality through direct experience and inference but must rely on other experts was acknowledged thousands of years ago”.

Moral development

• A part of the document focuses on the moral development of a child through panchakosha vikas or five-fold development. This concept is an ancient explanation of the importance of the body-mind link in human experience and understanding. 
• The pre-draft recommends developing moral values for the child through a balanced diet, traditional games, yoga asanas, as well as a wide variety of stories, songs, lullabies, poems, prayers to develop a love for cultural context.
• The pre-draft says that for Grade 10 certification, students will have to take two essential courses from humanities, maths and computing, vocational education, physical education, arts education, social science, science and interdisciplinary areas. 
• In Grade 11 and 12, students will be offered choice-based courses in the same disciplines for more rigorous engagement.
• Arts education will include music, dance, theatre, sculpture, painting, set design, scriptwriting, while inter-disciplinary areas will include knowledge of India, traditions and practices of Indian knowledge systems.
• For Class 11 and 12, the document states, “Modular Board Exams will be offered as opposed to a single exam at the end of the year and final result will be based on cumulative result of each exam.”

The document focuses on the importance of questioning by giving examples of the Upanishads, and includes examples from Katha Upanishad. It terms debates between Adisankara and Mandana Misra as legendary.

Japan has been purchasing oil from Russia at a price above the $60 per barrel price cap imposed by the West, according to reports this week. This has led to speculation that Japan may be breaching an agreement reached last year to cap the price of Russian oil.

• The G-7 countries, the EU, and Australia imposed a $60 per barrel price cap on oil purchased from Russia starting in December. 
• The move was part of the wider economic sanctions imposed by the West to punish Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. 
• The West wants to restrict the amount of money that Russia can make by selling its oil, but without severely affecting global oil supply. 
• Since Russia contributes about 10% of global oil supply, any significant reduction in Russian oil supplies could send oil prices soaring. 
• It is estimated that it costs Russia about $20-$45 to produce a barrel of oil. So, the West believes that, at $60 per barrel, Russia would still keep its oil output steady.

• In the first two months of the year, Japan purchased about 750,000 barrels of oil from Russia at a price of about $70 per barrel. 
• Japan’s oil import contributes very little to Russia’s overall oil production, which was about 10.7 million barrels per day last year, and thus does not significantly subvert the West’s efforts to restrict the Kremlin’s oil revenues. 
• However, Japan’s decision to purchase oil above the price cap once again brings to the fore the strong incentives facing countries to subvert the West’s $60 per barrel price cap. 
• It should also be noted that, even when the price cap was first imposed last December, Japan had won an exception to purchase Russian oil from Sakhalin-2 in Russia’s Far East to protect its energy security.

• Japan is not the only country that is undermining the West’s $60 price cap on Russian oil. Countries such as India, for instance, are believed to be paying more than $60 per barrel to purchase oil from Russia. 
• As oil prices rise, the chances of a rift developing even among signatories to the oil price cap arrangement grow higher. When buyers are willing to pay more than $60 per barrel to secure supplies, oil traders will likely be happy to subvert sanctions and deliver supplies from Russia. 

OPEC and Russia decided to cut their oil output by 3.66 million barrels per day, sending oil prices soaring 6%. Russian urals, the flagship crude oil sold by Russia, also soared above $60 per barrel, thus breaching the West’s price cap. When the West first imposed its price cap, it had no effect on Russia’s oil output or revenues as Russian urals were trading well below $60 per barrel. But now with urals trading above $60 per barrel.

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