TIMES TOP10: Baba is MIA

Crackdown

• The Uttar Pradesh Police on Thursday arrested six persons, including two women, who had organised the religious gathering in Hathras district, where a stampede on Tuesday killed 121 persons and injured several others.
• The incident took place at a gathering convened by religious preacher Narayan Saakar Hari, popularly known as Bhole Baba, at Fulrai village in Sikandra Rao tehsil.

In the dock

• Aligarh Inspector-General of Police Shalabh Mathur said that all six were members of the event’s organising committee and worked as “sevadars [volunteers]”, according to ANI.
• “When the stampede occurred the six servitors who are now arrested had run away from the site,” he added.
• The police officer also announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh for information leading to the arrest of Devprakash Madhukar, who is the chief sevadar and the main accused person in the case. “Soon, a non-bailable warrant will be issued against him,” added Mathur.
• Mathur said that the bodies of all 121 victims had been identified and their post-mortems completed. “We will also investigate if this incident occurred due to a conspiracy,” he said.

Deflection

• On Wednesday, a lawyer representing the preacher claimed that the stampede was caused by “anti-social elements”.
• The FIR and a report by a local sub-divisional magistrate said that the incident took place when several of the leader’s followers rushed towards him as he was leaving the venue.
• The devotees were trying to get a closer glimpse of Hari and collect his “charan raj”, or soil from the ground where he had walked.
• The first information does not name the Baba, who is currently said to be missing.

Meanwhile

• A closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage has emerged showing volunteers standing on both sides of the road as Bhole Baba’s convoy crosses during the stampede.
• Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday said there cannot be a conspiracy behind the Hathras stampede but it can definitely be a conspiracy that the government wants to run away from its responsibility on this matter.

Tit for tat

• Congress on Thursday struck back at BJP, which had made a string of accusations against Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi during the House session that ended Wednesday.
• Large parts of Rahul’s Lok Sabha speech were expunged.
• The main Opposition party, in a letter sent to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party MP Anurag Thakur had made misleading statements in the House.

Seeking action

• Congress MP Manickam Tagore sent the letter to Birla on his party’s behalf.
• He invoked provisions of Direction 115(1) to request action against the PM.
• This rule prescribes that an MP wishing to highlight an inaccurate statement made by another MP in Parliament must first write to the Speaker.

PM’s ‘mistakes’

• Tagore’s letter points out four mistakes in the PM’s speech, made in the Lok Sabha, on Tuesday.
• It says the PM’s claim that Congress had not fulfilled its promise of paying women Rs 8,500 per month was misleading as “it was a promise (to be fulfilled) on victory and government formation”.
• It also disputes Modi’s claim that “Congress vote share has gone down in 16 states which it contested alone”.
• Modi’s statement that the army was not provided bulletproof jackets in Congress’s time is “grossly misleading”, it says.
• The last inaccuracy has been pointed out in Modi’s charge that the army was not given fighter jets under Congress.

On Thakur

• Tagore’s letter mentions three mistakes in Thakur’s Lok Sabha speech from Monday.
• It says Thakur had made the same claim about the army not getting arms and fighter jets under UPA rule.
• Thakur’s claim that the NDA government had brought 25 crore people out of poverty has also been termed inaccurate.
• Lastly, on the claim that Modi never took a single holiday, Tagore has asked: “Which category of leave is taken for election campaigns?”

What

• The death toll from India’s air pollution is elevated even in cities previously thought to have relatively clean air, underscoring how the problem extends beyond mega cities such as Delhi, according to The Lancet Planetary Health.
• The study reveals that even air pollution levels below India’s current standard of 60 micrograms per cubic metre are causing an increased number of deaths.

Deaths

• The study analysed air quality in 10 major Indian cities — Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Shimla, and Varanasi.
• It found that approximately 33,000 deaths each year in these cities could be attributed to PM2.5 levels exceeding the WHO guideline of 15 micrograms per cubic metre.
• Delhi was the hardest hit, with approximately 12,000 annual deaths attributed to air pollution during the study period.

Study period

• For the study, the researchers used data on PM2.5 exposure in the 10 cities and daily mortality count between 2008 and 2019.
• The study was conducted by researchers from academic institutions in India (Sustainable Futures Collaborative, Ashoka University, Centre for Chronic Disease Control), Sweden (Karolinska Institutet) and USA (Harvard University, Boston University).

Exposure to PM2.5

• During the study period, 7.2% of all deaths (33,000 annually) in the 10 cities were linked to short-term PM2.5 exposure above WHO guidelines.
• Delhi had the highest proportion at 11.5%, while Shimla had the lowest at 3.7%, or 59 deaths per year between 2008 and 2019.

Local air pollution

• The study revealed that for every 10 micrograms per cubic metre increase in PM2.5 over a two-day period, daily mortality rose by 1.4%.
• When researchers used a causal modelling approach to isolate the impact of local pollution sources, this estimate nearly doubled to 3.6%, underscoring the significant role of local pollutants from sources such as transport and waste burning.

Current policies

• The research said that current policy instruments such as Graded Response Action Plans largely focused on pollution extremes and had to be recalibrated to focus on year-round action.
• The study’s findings point to the need for immediate action to improve air quality management strategies. More here

All-time highs

• Indian markets closed at all-time highs on Thursday.
• The BSE Sensex scaled the 80,000 mark to close at 80,049.67 while Nifty50 closed at 24,302.15.
• Both indices rose even higher in intra-day trade, with the Sensex approaching 80,400 and Nifty50 crossing 24,400.
• However, 27 of the Nifty50 stocks ended the day in the red.
• The rupee closed marginally stronger against the US dollar at 83.49, as against 83.53 on Wednesday.

Other indices up

• Most other Asian indices also gained on Thursday.
• Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.83%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 0.28% and Singapore’s FTSE Straits Times Index 0.71%.
• However, China’s Shanghai Composite declined 0.83%.
• In Europe, UK’s FTSE (0.70%), Germany’s DAX (0.29%) and France’s CAC 40 and Stoxx 600 (0.72%) also gained.

Heady pace

• After a sharp fall on June 4, when Lok Sabha results showed BJP had lost the majority, the Sensex has risen rapidly, gaining almost 4,000 points in a month.
• In percentage terms, the Nifty50 has grown even faster.

CJI cautions SEBI

• With the markets showing no sign of slackening their pace, Chief Justice DY Chandrachud on Thursday cautioned market regulator SEBI and the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) to exercise caution.
• “The more you see the surge in the stock market, the greater the role, I believe, for SEBI and SAT, as institutions which will exercise caution, celebrate the successes, but at the same time ensure that the backbone is stable,” he said.
• The CJI said new SAT benches should be set up because increasing transactions and newer regulations would increase the workload.

Clue 1: She debuted at age 10 with the Bengali film, ‘Sandhya’
Clue 2: She worked in the Hindi, Bengali and Marathi film industries
Clue 3: She retired after marrying movie director SD Narang in 1960

Scroll below for answers

Going down

• Yet another bridge collapsed in Bihar’s Saran district, marking the 10th such incident in the state over just a little more than two weeks.
• According to District Magistrate Aman Samir, the latest bridge collapse, the third in Saran within 24 hours, involved a 15-year-old structure over the Gandaki river that served as a crucial link between Saran and Siwan villages.
• Just a day earlier, Saran experienced the collapse of two other small bridges: one in the Janta Bazar area and another in the Lahladpur area.

Statewide pattern

• Across Bihar, 10 bridges have collapsed in the last 16 days, affecting districts like Siwan, Madhubani, Araria, East Champaran, and Kishanganj.
• On March 24, the first major bridge collapse of the year involved India’s longest under-construction bridge (10 km), over the Kosi river, valued at Rs 1,700 crore, part of the Bharatmala project.

Govt response

• CM Nitish Kumar on Thursday instructed the Road Construction Department (RCD) and Rural Works Department (RWD) to promptly survey all the state’s old bridges and identify those needing urgent repairs.

Why are they collapsing?

• Chaitanya Prasad, additional chief secretary of the WRD, said that some sections of the bridges and causeways that collapsed in Siwan and Saran on Wednesday are quite old.
• Both bridges that fell in Siwan district on Wednesday were located on the Gandaki rivulet in Maharajganj block. One was built in 1982-83, while the other was constructed in 1998.
• Residents suggest that the heavy rainfall over the past few days may have played a role in the collapse of these small bridges.

Blame game

• Senior RJD leader, Tejashwi Yadav, expressed concern on social media, commenting, “Four bridges collapsing in Bihar in one day! The chief minister and both deputy chief ministers have remained silent on this issue…”
• In response, RWD Minister Ashok Choudhary countered by blaming the RJD and Tejashwi Yadav, noting their previous oversight of the department during the ministry’s 18 months tenure.

Meanwhile

• A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Bihar government to undertake a structural audit and set up an expert committee to identify bridges that can be either strengthened or demolished based on the findings.

Burning a hole

• The world’s costliest cities for expats in 2024 are Hong Kong, Singapore and Zurich, as per Mercer’s Cost of Living City rankings.
• The cities retained their positions from last year, while Islamabad, Lagos and Abuja ranked lowest in terms of living costs.
• In India, Mumbai ranks the highest while being 136th globally — up 11 spots from last year.
• This makes Mumbai the costliest city in India for expats while Delhi is at 165th position in the world- moving up four points.

Other Indian cities

• Chennai slipped five points, and Bengaluru slipped six points to 189 and 195, respectively.
• Hyderabad is at 202, Pune is at 205 and Kolkata is at 207 in the list of the world’s most expensive cities for expats.

Analysis

• The Mercer’s Cost of Living City Ranking 2024 list analysed 226 cities in the world to provide information on global mobility.
• The list assessed costs of over 200 items like housing, transport, food, clothing, and entertainment.
• The base city for the survey was New York City and as per the survey multiple factors contributed to the increase in the cost of living like inflation, exchange rate variations, economic as well as geopolitical volatility and increasing conflicts.

Top rankers

• For cities like Hong Kong, the high cost of living is because of expensive housing, high transportation costs, and costly goods and services, the survey showed.
• European cities largely feature in the top 10 most expensive cities to live in.
• London ranks 8th, Copenhagen (11), Vienna (24), Paris (29), and Amsterdam (30).
• Dubai is the costliest city in the Middle East for international employees at 15th rank.
  In South America, Uruguay is the most expensive place for international workers at 42nd rank.
• In North America, New York City tops the list at 7th rank.

Voting begins

• Britons on Thursday voted in an ongoing parliamentary election, which is widely expected to bring Keir Starmer’s Labour Party to power.
• This could signal the end of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives administration after 14 years.

Desire for change

• Opinion polls indicated a significant victory for Starmer, reflecting a public desire for change driven by internal strife within the Conservative Party, which has seen five prime ministers in eight years.
• This shift could place Starmer, a 61-year-old former human rights lawyer, in office with a substantial agenda but without overwhelming support or financial resources to address it.
• “Today, Britain can begin a new chapter,” Starmer told voters in a statement. “We cannot afford five more years under the Conservatives. But change will only happen if you vote Labour.”

Too soon?

• Having called the election months earlier than expected, Sunak recently shifted his campaign focus.
• He moved from advocating for a fifth consecutive Conservative victory to warning about the risks of an unchecked Labour majority in parliament.
• “They will do lasting damage to our country and our economy – just like they did the last time they were in power,” Sunak said. “Don’t let that happen.”

Predictions

• Pollsters predict Labour may secure one of the largest election victories in British history, potentially surpassing majorities achieved by Tony Blair or Margaret Thatcher.
• However, a high number of undecided voters and potentially low turnout may impact the outcome.
• Such a result would have been unimaginable during the 2019 election when Boris Johnson achieved a significant Conservative victory.
• Predictions then suggested the Conservatives would govern for at least a decade, with Labour seemingly in ruins.