Sengol a symbolic gesture

GS Paper - 2 (Polity)

Sengol is the Tamil word for sceptre which in medieval and pre-medieval times used to be presented to the kings during their coronation by the high priests. In 1947, during the time of transfer of power from the British to India, it was used as a symbolic gesture to show a ceremonial transfer of power from the British to Indians.

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1. The Thiruvavuduthurai Adheenam, one of the oldest Shaivite institutions, officiated the ceremony.
2. Chennai-based jewellers Vummidi Bangaru Chetty and Sons had made the Sengol in 1947. It was later kept in a museum in Allahabad.
3. On 28 May 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi received the Sengol from the 24 Adheenam heads and it is placed near the Speaker’s Chair in the new Parliament building. It is a symbolic act reminiscent of the transfer of power in 1947.

What is the history of the Sengol? 

1. According to reports, Lord Mountbatten, the last British Viceroy of India, asked Jawaharlal Nehru on the ceremonial aspects of the formal transfer of power from the British to the Indians. Rajaji (C Rajagopalachari) is reported to have advised Nehru on this ceremonial transfer power tradition that existed in the medieval Tamil kingdoms.
2. There is documented evidence of this practice of during the Sangam era and even during the Chola period in the medieval era.
3. According to reports, on 14 August 1947, the Deputy High Priest of the Thiruvavaduthurai Adheenam Nagaswaram player Rajaratnam Pillai and a traditional temple singer (Oduvar) took the Sengol and presented it to Lord Mountbatten.
4. It was taken back from him and purified with holy water from the river Ganga and taken to Nehru’s residence in a procession and handed to him marking the symbolic transfer of power from the British to the Indians. A special song was also rendered on the occasion.

‘Disease X’ cause a ‘deadlier pandemic’

GS Paper - 3 (Health and Diseases)

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that COVID-19 was no longer a global health emergency, marking an end to the pandemic that claimed millions of lives, experts fear that “Disease X” can lead to an “even deadlier” pandemic. According to the WHO, “Disease X represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease.” The term, which was coined in 2018, is on WHO’s shortlist of ‘priority diseases’.

What is Disease X?

1. Last year in June, health experts in Britain had warned the UK government to be ready for ‘Disease X’ amid reports of cases of poliovirus being found in sewage samples of London, and also monkeypox, Lassa fever, and bird flu in recent years, according to Reuters.
2. The WHO first published a list of pathogens that could cause a ‘deadly pandemic’ in 2017.
3. Currently, the list includes COVID-19, Ebola virus disease, Marburg virus disease, Lassa fever, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Nipah, and Zika, with its latest entry being Disease X.
4. However, according to a 2012 article in the journal Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, “The possibility of an engineered pandemic pathogen also cannot be ignored.”

G7 strategy against China

GS Paper - 2 (International Relations)

In a statement issued at the end of the leaders’ summit in Hiroshima, Japan, G7 countries said they would build economic resilience for themselves, based on a strategy of “diversifying and deepening partnerships and de-risking, not decoupling”. The word “de-risking” was again used in the statement to describe the G7 countries’ stance towards China on economic matters.

What does “de-risking” mean?

1. The US State Department describes de-risking as “the phenomenon of financial institutions terminating or restricting business relationships with clients or categories of clients to avoid, rather than manage, risk”.
2. Simply put, de-risking is to move business away from areas that are considered risky in terms of the returns they could generate.
3. Back in 2016, the World Bank had said that global financial institutions were increasingly terminating or restricting business relationships with smaller local banks in some regions in order to “de-risk”, as it is often perceived that such banks would not be able to pay back loans.
4. In the context of China, de-risking can be interpreted as a reduction of the reliance on China in the economic sphere — for the supply of materials or as a market for finished goods — so that potential risks to trade and disruption of supply chains are reduced.
5. In the G7 statement, the countries said, “Our policy approaches are not designed to harm China nor do we seek to thwart China’s economic progress and development. A growing China that plays by international rules would be of global interest.”
6. The statement clarified, “We are not decoupling or turning inwards. At the same time, we recognize that economic resilience requires de-risking and diversifying.
7. ‘Decoupling’ is used here as an alternative to an economic boycott. In 2018, the Trump administration raised tariffs on China’s aluminium and steel exports to improve the balance of trade with China, which resulted in a trade war after China retaliated by imposing tariffs worth hundreds of billions of dollars on US products.