• Where now: In Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur, at least eight people were charred to death at New Life Multi-speciality Hospital, a private hospital. Visuals of the fire tragedy showed huge plumes of smoke billowing from the hospital building.
• Who: The police said five of the deceased were patients, and three were hospital staff. More than a dozen were injured. The death toll may rise. The fire was put out and the police rescued all the people trapped inside the hospital. More here
• Hospital catching fire: The Jabalpur hospital fire is yet another instance raising serious concern over the fire safety standards maintained by hospitals, both government and private. An analysis of hospital fires found that at least 122 people died in hospital fires between August 2020 and April 2022. Recently, a patient died in Delhi’s hospital in a fire-related incident that cut off oxygen supply to the ICU.
• Why: A 2020-study, published in the International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health, found 78% of the 33 analysed fire mishaps in the Indian hospitals between 2010 and 2019 were happened due to electrical short-circuits or similar problems. A majority of these fire mishaps happened in government hospitals (25). The study found that only 19 of the 33 hospitals had a functional firefighting system.
• The way forward: The county has adopted a National Building Code of India, which puts hospitals under the C1 category — buildings required to have special infrastructural arrangements for fire safety. Observers say most hospitals do not follow the fire safety standards prescribed under the National Building Code.

• A breakthrough: It was anticipated that Monday could bring Parliament back to business, at least partially. The day began with usual disruptions in both the houses. But by the afternoon, an agreement was reached and the suspension of four Lok Sabha MPs was revoked. But this came only after Speaker Om Birla secured an assurance that the opposition members would not bring placards to the house.
• In the Rajya Sabha, the suspension of 20 MPs was for the last week only while the four Lok Sabha members — Manickam Tagore, Jothimani, Ramya Haridas and TN Prathapan (all from the Congress) — had been suspended for the entire session.
• Inflation debated: One of the demands of the opposition was to debate rising prices. It happened in the Lok Sabha on Monday. The Rajya Sabha will debate it today. Congress MP Manish Tewari initiated the debate. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman replied to the debate. The arguments were on expected lines.
• Prices, real concern: The annual retail inflation for June climbed to 7.01% — up from 6.26% in June 2021. This is higher than what RBI describes as the tolerance level of 2-6%, for the sixth consecutive month.
• Contentions galore: While Lok Sabha had an extended day, the Rajya Sabha saw more sloganeering and ruckus. The arrest of Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut by the ED did not let the opposition tempers subside in the upper house.
• Sanjay Raut, sent to ED custody till August 4, was arrested on Sunday for alleged money laundering in a real estate case linked to Patra Chawl in Mumbai. The ED says Sanjay Raut and his wife are direct beneficiaries of the alleged money laundering that involves his friend Praveen Raut, whose firm is at the centre of a multi-agency probe.

• High jump: Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection for the month of July rose to its second highest level ever, with a total of Rs 148,995 crore — making it the fifth consecutive month when GST collection crossed the Rs 1.4 lakh crore mark. Year-on-year, last month’s GST collections were a 28% improvement over the GST collections of July 2021.
• Quickened pace: It wasn’t just the GST collections which went zooming up last month — India’s manufacturing activity, as measured by the S&P Global India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), grew at its fastest pace in eight months. Buoyed by both strong demand and a boost in sales, the manufacturing index rose to 56.4 in July, compared to 53.9 in June. A figure of 50 and above implies expansion while anything below 50 indicates contraction.
• Bounceback? The BSE Sensex reclaimed the 58,000 mark on Monday, rising nearly a percentage point to settle at 58,115.50 while the broader 50-share NSE Nifty rose 1.06% to settle at 17,340.05 points. The rally was led by buying in autos, metals, financials and of course Reliance Industries, which gained 2.64% to close at Rs 2,575.
• Welcome cut: Not everything was on its way up though and those that went down brought a cheer as well. Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) saw its steepest ever cut of 11.75%, as prices of jet fuel were slashed by Rs 16,232.36 per kilolitre to Rs 121,915.57 per kilolitre. This follows on the back of a 2.2% — Rs 3,084.94 per kilolitre — cut in ATF on July 16, which could be a harbinger of cheaper air tickets soon. Commercial LPG prices too were cut by Rs 36 to Rs 1,976.50 per 19-kg cylinder — making it the fourth cutback in LPG rates since May.
• Bountiful: The Centre earned a total of Rs 150,173 crore from the 5G spectrum auction which concluded on Monday after seven days and 40 rounds of intense bidding. This is the highest amount earned from telecom spectrum auction since 2010 — beating the previous high of Rs 113,932 crore earned in 2015.
• So, no worries? Finance Minister Nirmala Sithraman, speaking in parliament, stressed that there is no question of India getting into stagflation or recession and that the country’s economy will “remain as fastest growing” despite the downgrades by various rating agencies, she added.

Parliament on Monday passed a bill which seeks to ban funding of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and also empower the Centre to freeze, seize or attach financial assets and economic resources of people engaged in such activities.

What are WMDs?

• According to the UN, WMDs constitute a class of weaponry (nuclear, chemical and biological) with the potential to produce in a single moment an enormous destructive effect capable to kill millions of civilians, jeopardize the natural environment, and fundamentally alter the lives of future generations through their catastrophic effect.

Indian law

• The Weapons of Mass Destruction and their Delivery Systems (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities) Act, passed in 2005, only banned manufacture of weapons of mass destruction.
• The amendment Bill, piloted by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, was passed with a voice vote in the Rajya Sabha on Monday. It was approved by the Lok Sabha in April.
• The Bill seeks to insert a new Section 12A in the existing law which states that “no person shall finance any activity which is prohibited under this Act, or under the United Nations (Security Council) Act, 1947 or any other relevant Act for the time being in force, or by an order issued under any such Act, in relation to weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems.”

Global curbs

• India is a signatory to the Biological Weapons Convention, 1972, and Chemical Weapons Convention, 1992, which put comprehensive bans on such weapons.

Just days after Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia informed the parliament that there is “a marginal shortage of commanders on certain types of aircraft”, Air India (AI) on Monday announced that it would give select pilots en extension till the age of 65 as against the current retirement age of 58.

The plane truth

• While Scindia had conceded to a shortage of commanders and added that there was no shortage of pilots, AI said the decision was being taken “considering the future expansion plans for our fleet.” It cited the DGCA regulations which allow pilots to fly till the age of 65 years — a practice, AI said, was followed by most airlines in the industry.

So, who’s eligible?

• A screening process, which will take two years to kick in, will select pilots who would get an extension of 5 years, extendable up to the age of 65 years — the criterion for selection being an unblemished flight safety, discipline and vigilance record of the pilots.
• The pilots so shortlisted will be given a letter of intent one year before their superannuation at 58 offering them a post-retirement contract which will be reviewed annually based on their performance, conduct and flight safety record.

Twin objectives?

• The modus operandi of giving extensions rather than raising the retirement age enables AI to prune its workforce and also retain experienced pilots. Moreover, granting them extension on a contractual basis, rather than retaining them as employees could possibly lead to substantial cost savings in employee benefits that are usually not available to those working on contractual basis.

Myanmar’s military-led government, which has unleashed a reign of terror in the Southeast Asian nation in the past one year, on Monday announced the extension of its mandate to rule for another six months in preparation for an election it has said will be held next year.

Bizarre logic

• Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, head of the ruling State Administration Council, argued that the state of emergency was extended because time was needed “to continue working to return the country to the path of a peaceful and disciplined multiparty democratic system”.
• The army seized power on February 1 last year overthrowing a democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, which sparked unprecedented protests.
• The military cited alleged fraud in the November 2020 general election, which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party had won in a landslide while the military-backed party did poorly. Independent election observers found no evidence of substantive irregularities.

New poll schedule

• The military originally declared that new polls would be held a year after its takeover, but later said they would take place in 2023.
• There is considerable doubt they will be free and fair, because most of the leaders of Suu Kyi’s party have been locked up, and there is a large chance the party itself will be dissolved by the pro-military courts.
• UN experts and rights groups are more critical of government repression, which is reliably reported to include arbitrary arrests and killings, torture, and military operations.
• Recently, four democracy activists have been executed by Myanmar’s military, drawing global condemnation.

Tamil Nadu governor RN Ravi on Sunday launched a scathing attack on the erstwhile UPA government headed by Manmohan Singh for signing a joint communique with Pakistan on terrorism within months of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks in 2008, stating “both countries were victims of terrorism”.

On Maoist violence

• Ravi, a former special director of the Intelligence Bureau, also claimed that during the UPA rule, “the serious threat to our internal security was the Maoist violence”.
• Addressing a session on ‘Contemporary Challenges to Internal Security’ in Kochi, he said left-wing extremism (LWE) “had spread to over 185 districts across central India…Today, their presence is limited to less than 8 districts and that too at a much-reduced pace”.

MHA data

• According to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), 46 districts reported Maoist violence in 2021 as compared to 96 districts in 2010.
• The incidents of LWE violence have reduced by 77% from an all-time high of 2258 in 2009 to 509 in 2021, MHA informed the Rajya Sabha on March 23, 2022.

In a bid to possibly effect an image makeover, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee disclosed that she will be doing a cabinet reshuffle tomorrow as “there are several departments which have no one at the helm.”

New faces

• The cabinet reshuffle comes in the wake of the arrest of former minister and Trinamool leader Partha Chatterjee in a school recruitment scam. Chatterjee was handling four ministries, including industry, commerce and enterprises, IT and electronics, parliamentary affairs and public enterprises, and industrial reconstruction — all of which are currently being handled by Banerjee.
• Together with Chatterjee’s portfolio, Banerjee has 11 ministries under her and she conceded that she “alone cannot shoulder the responsibilities of all these departments.” Dismissing reports of dissolving the cabinet, Banerjee informed that she “will introduce four to five new faces in the cabinet.”

New districts

• Banerjee also announced the formation of seven new districts in the state, taking the total count to 30 districts. The seven new districts will be Sunderban, Ichhemati, Ranaghat, Bishnupur, Jangipur and Behrampur while one district will be named in Basirhat.
• The state’s average population per district was 4 million as per Census 2011, with some, like South 24-Parganas and North 24-Parganas, spread over 10,000 sq km and 4,000 sq km respectively having a population of 8 million and 10 million respectively. Having smaller districts makes governance easier — while at the same time also bestowing electoral benefits to the party in power.