Rush Hour: Centre forms panel to study ‘abnormal demographic change’, India-US mineral deal & more

The Union government set up a high-level committee on demographic change to study changes in population patterns allegedly “arising from illegal immigration and other abnormal reasons”. Union Home Minister Amit Shah claimed that “unnatural demographic change” caused by alleged “infiltration” and other reasons constitutes a big challenge for the country.

The committee will be headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar. The other members will be the Census commissioner, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra, former Bureau of Police Research and Development chief Balaji Srivastava and economist Shamika Ravi.

The panel will analyse the “patterns of abnormal population changes at the level of religious and social communities” and will present solutions to address the problem, Shah said. Read on.

India and the United States announced a framework to cooperate in ensuring a steady supply of critical minerals amid concerns about China’s export controls on rare earth elements. The framework was signed on Tuesday by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Delhi.

It aims to deepen bilateral cooperation in supply chains of critical minerals and rare earths, including mining, processing, recycling and related investments. The minerals are essential for manufacturing advanced technology products and defence equipment.

On Tuesday, the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue...

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