NMA recommends 2 sites connected to Ambedkar to be declared as monuments of national importance

• Culture Ministry said, Sankalp Bhumi Banyan tree campus in Vadodara, where Dr. Ambedkar had taken a resolve to eradicate untouchability on 23th September, 1917 be declared as Monument of National Importance.
• This place is more than hundred years old and a witness to the beginning of social respect revolution heralded by Dr. Ambedkar.
• The National Monuments Authority has also recommended a place in Satara in Maharashtra where Dr Ambedkar received his primary education in Pratap Rao Bhosle High School to be declared as monument of National importance.

Reach out to deprived and weaker sections among minorities as well

• A Persian word, ‘Pasmanda’, means the ‘ones left behind’, and is used to describe depressed classes among the Muslims, while underlining their deliberate or conscious exclusion.
• Pasmanda has become an umbrella identity used by backward, Dalit, and tribal Muslims to push back against caste-based discrimination against them within the community.
• The term ‘Pasmanda Muslims’ was first used in 1998 by Ali Anwar Ansari when he founded the Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz. The Sachar Committee in its report put the number of OBC and SC/ST Muslims at 40% (all India 2004-05).

Are Muslims divided along caste lines?

• Muslim society in India consists of several status groups or biradaris that are broadly sorted in three categories: the Ashrafs (the ‘noble’ elite or the ‘honourable ones’), the Ajlafs (backward Muslims), and the Arzals (Dalit Muslims).
• While Islam does not mandate the creation of such groups, these caste categories are a lived reality for Muslims across the country.

Govt. exempts excise on ATF for overseas flights

• In a clarification, the Ministry said the special additional duty on exports for ATF would not apply “when such goods are cleared for exports or supplied as fuel to foreign-going aircraft”.
• Domestic airlines had demanded the rollback of the duty after Indian Oil Corp. started levying 11% basic excise duty on ATF used to fuel aircraft operating international flights following the government notification imposing the special additional duty on the export of petroleum products, including ATF, starting July 1.

Meghalaya tribal council to revisit Instrument of Accession

• Meghalaya is divided into three regions dominated by as many matrilineal communities — the Khasis, Garos and Jaintias. The Khasi hills straddle 25 Himas or States that formed the Federation of Khasi States.
• Titosstarwell Chyne, the chief executive member of the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) agreed that the Instrument of Accession and Annexed Agreement signed with the Dominion of India between December 15, 1947 and March 19, 1948, should be studied.
• The treaty was signed by Governor General of India, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, on August 17, 1948.

India defence exports at record ₹13,000 crore

• The U.S. was a major buyer, as also nations in Southeast Asia, West Asia and Africa.
• The private sector accounted for 70% of the exports, while public sector firms accounted for the rest. Earlier, the private sector used to account for 90% but now the share of defence public sector units had gone up.
• While India’s defence imports from the U.S. have gone up significantly in recent years, Indian companies have been increasingly becoming part of the supply chains of U.S. defence companies.
• In January, India signed a $374.96-million deal with the Philippines, its single biggest defence export order, for the supply of three batteries of shore-based anti-ship variant of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile.