Targeting UPSC CSE

  O n the other hand,  stronger winds  in  ‘ El Niño ’  years   can  slow down the planet’s spin , extending the day by a fraction of a millisecond , according to NASA.  The name 'El Niño' is used to describe the warming of sea surface temperature that occurs every few years.

 a lso known as the Chandler variation of latitude, the “Chandler Wobble” is a natural shifting of the Earth’s axis due to the planet not being perfectly spherical, and could be linked to the spinning speeds, three scientists wrote in The Conversation.

  a white flag or cloth used as a symbol of surrender, truce, or a desire to parley

  One Day State Mourning on December 17, 2023 as a mark of respect on the passing away of His Highness Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the Amir of the State of Kuwait .

  The Indian Navy remains committed to being a first responder in the region and ensuring the safety of merchant shipping, along with international partners and friendly foreign countries Savior:  The Indian Navy Distress:    the vessel — MV Ruen   Issue:  the hijacking of a Malta-flagged vessel with 18 crew members on board. How:  the Indian Navy diverted its naval maritime patrol aircraft undertaking surveillance in the area and its warship on anti-piracy patrol in the Gulf of Aden to locate and assist MV Ruen

A certificate course on innovative construction technologies named NAVARITIH (New, Affordable, Validated, Research Innovation Technologies for Indian Housing) 

  Express Cargo  as a product is the fastest way of transporting all your valuable  cargo  in the quickest possible time, let goods move at optimal speed and efficiency along the supply chain under the surveillance of expert team.

 Ensures speedy clearance and distribution. Central Board of Indirect Tax and Customs, CBIC amended regulations to facilitate import and export of COVID vaccines through courier where Express Cargo  Clearance System (ECCS) is operational ECCS is an automation programme to carry out clearance process under the Courier Imports and Exports (Electronic Declaration and Processing ) Regulations, 2010

The court ruled that  an abandoned wife and children will be entitled to ‘maintenance’ from the date she applies for it  in a court of law. Usually maintenance cases have to be settled in 60 days, but they take years in reality owing to legal loopholes. It outlined specifics, including “reasonable needs” of a wife and dependent children, her educational qualification, whether she has an independent source of income, and if she does, if it is sufficient, to follow for family courts, magistrates and lower courts on alimony cases. Significant  Judgment providing comprehensive Guidelines Court laid down that while women can make a claim for alimony under different laws, including the  Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005  and Section 125 of the CrPC, or under the  Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 , it “would be inequitable to direct the husband to pay maintenance under each of the proceedings”, urging civil and family courts to take note of previous set...

 The WHO established its emergency use listing ( EUL) process to help poorer countries without their own regulatory resources, quickly approve medicines  of new diseases like Covid19,which otherwise could lead to delays. The UN health agency, with the GAVI Vaccine Alliance and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), are spearheading a global effort called COVAX to secure and distribute vaccines to poorer countries , to ensure shots don't go only to wealthy nations. COVAX alliance has agreements for nearly 2 billion doses, with first deliveries due in early 2021.

 Covid Causing indirectly Brain Damage Recent Study by US National Institute of Health (NIH) on brain of Covid patient shows damages to the tissue of Brain caused by thinning and leaking brain blood vessels , may be caused by body's inflammatory response to virus.  The scans revealed that both olfactory bulbs and brainstems regions had an abundance of bright spots (called hyperintensities) that often indicate inflammation, and dark spots (called hypointensities) that represent bleeding.Found spots that  were surrounded by T cells from the blood and the brain’s own immune cells called microglia . Although Covid-19 is primarily respiratory disease, patient soften experience neurological problems including headaches, delirium, cognitive dysfunction, dizziness, fatigue, and loss of the sense of smell. The disease may also cause patients to suffer strokes. Several studies have shown that the disease can cause inflammation and blood vessel damage. Covid patients may be sus...

    Article 15(3), which states ‘nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any special provision for women and children’, read together with Article 39, which directs state policy towards equal pay and opportunities for both men and women, and protecting the health of women and children, are two key constitutional safeguards.  

  Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve, famed for the one-horned Indian rhinoceros. UNESCO World Heritage sit e, usually remains closed between June and September because of the annual floods and reopens in November. park authorities could successfully restrict rhino poaching with only two rhinos poached in the year 2020 In September 2020 , the Assam gov ernment had approved the seventh, eighth and ninth additions to the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve . Each addition increased some hectares of land to it.  As a part of the water conservation in 2020, five additional wetlands - Chirakhowa, Potahi, Deosur, Haldhibari and Banderdubi - were created which are huge and serve as habitats. Source : The Hindu

  Fee has been reduced to 8% of Adjusted Gross Revenue, after setting off service tax, as opposed to 10% on Gross Revenue now.     India has which 6 crore  television sets  operate on DTH  out of   18 crore .   The I&B Ministry claimed that the revised guidelines would help in fair degree of stability and bring in new investments. Since the DTH sector was a highly employment intensive sector, these changes would increase employment opportunities DTH's Beliefs: N o pricing powers since New Tariff Orders (NTO) for television.. Any high fee would, therefore, be anomalous, in their view. The broadcasters, on the other hand, have approached the courts against the amended NTO issued in January, which increased the available channels for a mandated network capacity fee paid to platforms like DTH, reduced the maximum price of pay channels in bouquets, and curbed price rigging using bouquet arrangements. These are measures that strike a blow for the c...

 Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum for cooperation and development aspect of Arctic. It consist of 8 Arctic States, 6 Permanent Participants ( representing indigenous groups), working groups and Observer States. Source About Arctic Home to 40 different indigenous groups , whose economic, cultural and way of life is in danger of being swept away. Increasing Human encroachment will also upset the region. Large parts of it are under the sovereignty of the 5 Littoral states — Russia, Canada, Norway, Denmark (Greenland) and the US Issues Navigation conditions are dangerous and restricted to the summer. Lack of deep-water ports, a need for ice-breakers, shortage of workers trained for polar conditions, and high insurance costs add to the difficulties. Mining and deep-sea drilling carry massive costs and environmental risks. Unlike Antarctica, Arctic isn't a global common and there is no overarching treaty that governs it, only the UN Convention of Law of the Sea(UNCLOS).  C...

Only 11% could attend live online classes. source

RBI has constructed a composite Digital Payments Index (DPI) to capture the extent of digitisation of payments across the country.  March 2018 as the base period. DPI indicates appreciable growth in DPI 2020 (207.84 ) from DPI 2019 (153.47). RBI-DPI compromise FIVE Broad Categories Payment Enablers Payment infrastructure  Demand and supply side factors Payment performance Consumer Centricity

 The Satyameva Jayate programme would cover five points -- what is wrong information; why they are spreading fast; what precautions have to be adopted while using the content of social media; how those who spread fake news make profit; and what steps can be initiated by citizens.

 Social jet lag -  A block of 5 hours good sleep better than 8 hours of broken sleep - coined by German researcher, Till Roenneberg, in 2006

 There are only three other occasions when the Rajya Sabha met for fewer than 50 sittings in a year — 48  in 1999 and 46 each in 2004 and 2008.

Six Light House Projects (LHP) consisting of about 1,000 houses each with physical & social infrastructure facilities is being constructed at six places across the country over a period of 12 months. Modern construction practices from countries such as France, Germany and Canada would be adopted. Component 1 : Grand Expo and Conference on Alternative and Innovative Construction Technologies Component 2 :  Identifying and Mainstreaming Proven Demonstrable Technologies for the construction of Lighthouse Projects  Component 3 : Identifying Potential Future Technologies for Incubation and Acceleration Support through ASHA - India (Affordable Sustainable Housing Accelerators)  Source:  GHTC  

 The requests came during the exchange of the lists of civilian prisoners and fishermen by both countries on the first day of every calendar year as part of a practice under the framework of a 2008 agreement.

  Two DRDO laboratories were involved in the development of SAHAYAK-NG container along the industry partner M/s Avantel for GPS integration. SAHAYAK-NG is an advanced version of SAHAYAK Mk I. The newly developed GPS aided air dropped container is having the capability to carry a payload that weighs upto 50 kg and can be dropped from heavy aircraft. Sahayak-NG has a Satellite-based Reporting Terminal (SBRT ), which provides its precise GPS location enabling the ship in distress to pick up critical stores

Report is published by BPR&D, annually, since 1986 . Police personnel on duty surpass sanctioned strength by 35% . No. of people getting police protection across India , reduced by 8% in 2019 as compared to 2018. West Bengal, Punjab, Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir have the maximum numbers of people getting police protection.

Foundation stone laid down Virtually on 29/12/2020.  Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, has sanctioned ₹135 crore to IIT-H under National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems to set up a Technology Innovation Hub on Autonomous Navigation and Data Acquisition Systems (UAVs and RoVs). The Technology Innovation Hub on Autonomous Navigation Systems for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Remotely Operated Vehicles at IIT-H, known as ‘TiHAN Foundation’ was incorporated as a Section-8 company in June 2020.

 GAVI is a   public - private global health partnership with the goal of increasing access to immunization in poor countries GAVI has Observer Status at World Health Assembly. He will represent South East Area Regional Office (SEARO) / Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO) constituency representing India from 1-Jan-2021 until 31-Dec-2023.

Inaugurated by Video conferencing by Dr. Harsh Vardhan. It will provide forecast for important tourist places like    Nubra, Changthang,  Pangong Lake, Zaskar, Drass,  Dha-Baima (Arakan Valley), Khalsi among others. Need: Ladakh region having lofty mountains with high slopes, no vegetation, face various natural hazards like Cloud Burst of 2010, Avalanche, Flash Floods, Glacial Lake Outbursts etc. source:  pib

 Established At District Ri-Bhoui in Meghalaya   in 2004 and remained non functional for many years . Revived by North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation NERAMAC, a PSU under aegis of  Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region ( Mininstry of DoNER)

It is the process of occurrence of a natural ‘electrical discharge of very short duration and high voltage   b etween a cloud and the ground   or within a cloud’ , accompanied by a bright flash and sound, and sometimes thunderstorms. Inter cloud or intra cloud (IC) lightning which are visible and are harmless. It is cloud to ground (CG) lightning, which is harmful as the ‘high electric voltage and electric current’ leads to electrocution. Indian Scenario: State specific disaster. Every lightning strikes around a fixed period and almost similar geographical locations in similar patterns. Compensation to victims of natural disaster is 4 Lakh from 2015 by Center. Lightning strikes originate from Chotanagpur Plateau – the confluence of Odisha, West Bengal and Jharkhand—and extended to Bangladesh to Patkai plateau of Meghalaya affecting other North eastern states. Although forecasts and warnings are made available through mobile text messages, it is not available in all regions....

A ccording to a report prepared by Climate Resilient Observing Systems Promotion Council (CROPC) on lightning incidents in India. Odisha had 11.20 lakh plus lightning strikes , the highest in the country. 1 lakh plus lightening strikes in Cyclone Fani itself. CROPC is a non profit organisation working closely with IMD along with Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Indian Meterorological Society IMS and World Vision India to disseminate early lightening forecasts. Note: Most states and GOI not notified Lightening as a Disaster which cause fatalities to both Human and Animals

  The IOSCO works closely with the G20 nations and the Financial Stability Board (FSB), in setting up the standards for strengthening the securities markets as Global Standard setter for Securities sector IOSCO is the international organisation bringing togeher World's Securities Regulators, covering more than 95% of worlds's securities markets. SEBI  is a  member  of the  IOSCO  Board, the governing and standard-setting body of the  IOSCO , which is comprised of 34 securities regulators.

Project "Deepening and Optimisation of inner Harbour Facilities including Development on Western Dock" mode: Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis under PPP Mode  Paradip Port: Paradip Port Trust (PPT), a Major Port under Government of India and administered under the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963. Commissioned in 1966 as a mono commodity port for export of iron ore . It is a natural, deep-water port on the East coast of India in Jagatsinghpur district of Odisha .  It is situated at confluence of the Mahanadi river and the Bay of Bengal.

 Comprehensive Action report aims at creating sense of Scientific Social Responsibility. TIFAC, founded in 1988, an Autonomous body under Department of Science and Technology

 Governor can promulgate an ordinance only when State legislation is not in session, and he is satisfied that circumstances exist where he has to take necessary immediate action. However, there is no established practice which required the governor to state the circumstanced required for the promulgation of ordinance. It can be misused by political parties to play the blame game. Therefore it would be better to have a convention wherein  preamble to any ordinance should state the immediacy for promulgating it when the Legislature is not in session. This would greatly enhance transparency in legislation, but, more importantly, enable legislators to understand why they are, in a sense, by-passed and why a debate and discussion in the Legislature could not be awaited. Positive step of providing 4 page justification for immediate action in case of    "Commission of Air Quality Management Ordinance"

 U.K. regulator granted emergency use authorisation of AstraZenca's Vaccine on 30.12.20  It is based on weakened Adenovirus , i.e. a common cold flu virus  which contains genetic material of spike protein . Can be stored and transported at 2°- 8°. less costly then mRNA Vaccines like that of Pfizer and Moderna. Showed 62% efficacy when 2 full strength dose administered 4 weeks apart, as per published report.

According to the OECD, Bill and Keep is defined as "A pricing scheme for the two-way interconnection of two networks under which the reciprocal call termination charge is zero - that is, each network agrees to terminate calls from the other network at no charge"

 Interconnection Usage Charge (IUC) is charge paid by a telecom operator to another on whose network subscriber's voice was completed. Progressive step that removed the need to monitor call termination data and make IUC payments (6 Paise per minute since 2017). It should spur an expansion of high capacity networks, going beyond 2G and 3G. Indian Telecom market is dense and poised for growth, yet as per Economic Survey 19-20, in Telecom sector, intense competition reduced no. of private players. Telecom providers must focus on reliable call quality and competitive tariffs policy. TRAI, now introduced Bill and Keep Arrangement . Challenges for Telecom Sector Ensuring consumer welfare as well as keeping Telecoms remunerative. Badly prices spectrum, which could lead to auction failures lack of genuine competition and, providing cost effective quality services.

 Covishield, vaccine candidate by Pune-based Serum Institute of India, approved by a Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI)  It is the variant of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine that is being manufactured under licence in India by SII

Fighting erupted in 2011 after brutal repression of government protests. Deadliest year was 2014, more than 76K people died. Syria is a unitary republic. Bashar al-Assad - Syrian President.

 Fiscal Deficit shoots up to 135% of budgetary target of 20-21. Revenue Deficit crossed 140% of budgetary target of 20-21.

 IndiGo servers were hacked.

 75% of districts in India, home to over half the population, were vulnerable to extreme climate risks . While India witnessed 250 extreme climate events between 1970 and 2005, the country recorded 310 extreme climate events after 2005 alone. The intensity of floods increased eightfold, landslides and heavy rainfall increased over 20 times since 1970. Drought affected district increased by yearly average of 13 times over the last two decades. Frequency of cyclone doubled. 40% of district shows swapping trend i.e. flood prone district turn drought prone and vice versa. Therefore we need to build climate resilience by Creating Environment and Health De-risking mission - having special focus on indigenous traditional climate resilient practices. Preparing Comprehensive Climate Risk Atlas - would help in climate proofing of critical infrastructure. To finance climate action at scale, risk financing instruments and risk retention and identification tool supplemented with Contingency a...

 The original Special Marriage Act was enacted in 1872 ,  enacted following a campaign launched in 1860  by Brahmo Samaj, especially Keshab Chandra Sen , for simpler marriage ceremonies.      But had one problem: it required two people of different faiths who wish to get married must re nounce their respective religions.  SMA 1954  replaced SMA 1872 and requirement to renounce religion was removed. SMA 1954 provisions and issues: Those going for an interfaith marriage, as well as others, could register under the SMA. A religion's personal laws won't apply on persons with marriage registered under SMA. Gave the right to divorce by mutual consent Section 29 of the SMA, cannot file divorce within 1 year of marriage except in extreme hardships. If marriages are civil contract, and if the married couple thinks they are incompatible and can't live together, then the restriction is meaningless.  SMA is often used when people are going abroad....

The report ‘ Status of leopards in India, 2018 ’ distinctly mentions that the the figures is the ‘minimum number’, the way it was launched has depicted that the country has 12,852 leopards.   In 2014, the study estimated a minimum leopard population of 7,910 individuals from 18 States covering a study area of 92,164 square kilometers.  In 2018 , the study was expanded to 21 States  with a study area of 121,337 square kilometers, which shows a spatial increase in the size of the study area  by 25%.  Even n umber of camera trap locations has increase d by nearly threefold.

  a remarkable or auspicious year.

 Philosophy is a process of constant questioning that takes the form of dialogue - Plato

 Nothing gives a person a sense of purpose than a distinct understanding of what she does.

 The purpose of life is to be happy  - Dalai Lama

 First reported to WHO on December 14. Increased Virulence. India needs mass genomic surveillance for that India has formed a consortium of leading genomics labs to make genome surveillance a routine continuous exercise which can shore up India's defenses against this pandemic and those of future.

  The Taiwan Strait, also known as the Formosa Strait. S trait separating the island of Taiwan and continental Asia .

  Indian Air Force Mi17V5 Helicopter used to tame the wildfire. It has a popular trekking destination along Manipur Nagaland Border.

One km radius area was declared a “zero mobility zone” in Rajasthan’s Jhalawar town , after over 50 crows were found dead because of avian influenza. Also, Mass death of crows also reported from Jodhpur . A rapid response team will also ensure strict compliance with the Avian Influenza Action Plan 2015   by Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying  under  Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying  and collect nearby poultry farms and shops.

MTP Act 1971: It stipulates a ceiling of 20 weeks, for termination of pregnancy. This Law requires amendment to extend the ceiling and scope because of the following issues: In the first 5 months, some women realize with delay, the need for an abortion. Fetal anomaly scan is done during 20 - 21st week of pregnancy and delay in the scan or result, if shows lethal anomaly, could result in spur of industries providing unsafe termination and can lead to mother's death if she chose to opt for unsafe abortion services. Can lead to unnecessary psychological trauma to the mother who has no option to discontinue the pregnancy. If a women takes the legal route to get formal permission of termination after 20th week, it becomes stressful and painful both physically, financially and psychologically, for a mother who is already going distress because the baby's condition. Vulnerable women including rape or incest victims,  differently abled and minors should get the freedom to choose. Legis...

  The  Eight Core Industries  comprise 40.27 per cent of the weight of items included in the  Index  of Industrial Production (IIP). The  eight core industries   include coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilizers, steel, cement and electricity. The Index of Eight Core industries - by Office of Economic Adviser in  DPIIT . Fertilizer remains the only sector to have recorded growth in first 8 months of 2020-21 amid pandemic.

 renewed push to take forward military modernisation plans amid a number of territorial and maritime disputes. its second aircraft carrier, the Shandong , which was the first indigenous aircraft carrier. It is already been deployed in the Taiwan Straits and in the South China Sea, where tensions with the U.S. have flared and is likely to be combat ready next year. Shandong joined  Liaoning, a  retrofitted soviet era cruiser and commissioned in 2012. Two larger aircraft carriers are being built at the Jiangnan Shipyard near Shanghai, likely to be launched in 2021.

 Four separate surveys  migrant workers domestic workers, employment generated by professionals, transport sector. To be done from Mar-Oct 2021. the four labour Codes being implemented by the government would protect the workers’ interest and lead to increasing productivity. Labour Bureau had conducted the first of its kind Quarterly Employment Surveys of enterprises that would be relaunched in a new format soon.

 The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, approved three infrastructure proposals estimated at  ₹7725 Crore for setting up greenfield industrial cities with connectivity to major transport corridors ( such as Eastern Western Freight corridors, Expressways and National Highways. The three projects, proposed by the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, include  construction of various trunk infrastructure components for the Krishnapatnam Industrial Area in Andhra Pradesh , Tumakuru Industrial Area in Karnataka,   a multimodal logistics  hub (MMLH) and multimodal transport hub (MMTH) at Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh.  CCEA approved ₹ 3,004.63crore project to enhance the facilities at Paradip Port , including the development of a Western dock to accommodate the larger cape size vessels the MMTH located  near the already existing railway station of Boraki will act as a transport hub with provisioning of rail and road.  It will h...

Cabinet approved modified scheme for interest subvention for Ethanol production, expanding scheme   to include grain based distilleries along with molasses based ones. It will encourage production using grains like barley, corn, maize, rice. It would boost production and distillation capacity to 1,000 crore litres and help in meeting the goal of 20% ethanol blending with petrol by 2030. The government would bear interest subvention for first five years including one year moratorium against the loan availed by project proponents from banks at 6% pa or 50% Rate of interest charged by bank , which ever is lower.

 As part of effort to boost Defence Export, Cabinet approved export of the indigenously developed and manufactured Akash short range Surface to Air Missile (SAM) system. The Akash missile has a  range of 25 km and can  engage multiple targets. Besides Akash, there was interest coming in for other major platforms such as the Coastal  Surveillance System, radars and air platforms.

 It was upgraded to Dibru Saikhowa National Park from Dibru Saikhowa Wildlife Sanctuary in 1999. It houses few wild horses.  It is  located in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts.  Dodhia and Lyka villages located inside Dibru-Saikhowa tiol Park have been inhabited by people mainly from the Mising community. It saw an blowout in OIL gas well in the vicinity, since 27 may 2020. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has asked the State’s Forest and Revenue departments to p ermanently rehabilitate the indigenous forest dwellers of the Dibru Saikhowa National Park within January 31. The affected persons belong to Mising community.

 The opening of the missions will help expand India’s diplomatic footprint, deepen political relations, enable growth of bilateral trade, investment and economic engagements, facilitate stronger people to people contacts, bolster political outreach in multilateral fora and help garner support for the foreign  policy objectives.

 CrPC was amended in 2018 and the period of investigation was reduced from 90 to 60 days for all cases of rape. Andha pradesh's Disha Bill 2019: temporarily down. clause investigation to be completed within a week. Maharashtra's Shakti Act 2020 : investigation to be completed within 15 days the time of investigation depends on  the severity of the crime,  the number of accused persons and agencies involved.  It includes examination of the scene of crime by the investigating officer IO and forensic expert; recording the statement of the victim (by the IO and the judicial magistrate) and witnesses; medical examination of the victim (at a place where a female doctor is available) and accused persons; collecting documents relating to age from parents, local bodies and school (in case of child victim and delinquents); DNA findings of the forensic science lab (FSL); test identification parade of accused persons (if not initially named); seizing weapons of offence, arr...

 In a study of 120 unique variants reported in literature based on genome sequencing of the SARSCoV2 virus, the team found that 86 were genetic variants associated with immune escapes.  Of the 86 variants, nine had over 1% frequency in the respective countries. Variant N440K : frequency of 2.1% in India, Prevalence in A.P. Identified in UK, Denmark, Australia.an example of Homoplasy. found in healthcare worker, who was reinfected. N501Y : independently emerged in UK, then in South Africa. Made virus more transmissible.

Homoplasy is the ability of a mutation/variant to emerge independently in different genetic linkages. Ex. N440K variant of novel Corona Virus found in India, UK, Denmark, Australia.

Launched, Coordinated by Department of Biotechnology along with MoH&FW , ICMR, CSIR. A im is to monitor the genomic variations in the SARS-CoV-2 on a regular basis through a multi-laboratory network. It is c omprising 10 labs namely DBT-NIBMG Kalyani, DBT-ILS Bhubaneswar, ICMR-NIV Pune, DBT-NCCS Pune, CSIR-CCMB Hyderabad, DBT-CDFD Hyderabad, DBT-InSTEM/ NCBS Bengaluru, NIMHANS Bengaluru, CSIR-IGIB Delhi, and NCDC Delhi. the preliminary  study indicates that the variant is unlikely  to cause increased risk of reinfection,  the new variant might not spread wildly here  due to difficulty in finding susceptible persons since 40-50% of urban India particularly in Tier 1 & 2 cities and about 30% people across India would have already been infected. India has so far sequenced around 6300 genomes of this virus in contrast UK has nearly 157000 genome sequenced even when their cases are around quarter of cases in India. It will help in boosting  India's Defe...

 Catastrophic climate events including major bushfires in Australia, US. Tropical cyclones devastating floods in India, China, Nepal, Japan - washing miles of fertile soil, displacing livelihood ex. Bihar floods Climate Change Outbreaks of violence Persian gulf crisis deepens with killing of Iranian General & Iraqi Commander by US Drone attack in January. Assassination of Iranian Nuclear Scientist Bloody civil wars in Afghanistan, Armenian-Azerbaijan, Central African Republic of Congo, Syria, Iraq, and in Ethiopia between Ruling Government and TPLF ( Tigray People Liberation front) Rohingya Muslims fleeing their home in fear of ethnic cleansing, Wuhan Virus spread, COVID 19 and its mutants pandemic unplanned Lockdowns across world, Abrogation to special status of Jammu and Kashmir, and its bifurcation, Shaheen bagh Protest  against Indian Citizenship Amendment Act, mass protest in US against Racial killing by police amids pandemic, Farmers agitation amids pandemic at Delhi...

Whether the government should be using the taxpayers’ money to provide subsidies to the farming community in this country. 1. why have successive governments used the exchequer to provide farm subsidies. 2. How large is India’s spending on farm subsidies as compared to those of other countries having substantial interests in agriculture? In 1950 -51                    Seven decades later agriculture’s share in GDP                     45% below 16% the share of dependent workforce nearly 70% almost 50% Farmers consistly faced adverse terms of trade vis-a-vis non farmers. There is a lack of meaningful investment in agriculture which would not only ensures efficient use of resources but could be a crucial step to boost farm incomes. Total investment undertaken in country fell from 18% in 1950s to around 11% by 1980s. More recent data from 2014-15 to 2018 -2019 shows the avera...

December 20 : Nepal PM K.P. Sharma Oli’s decision to dissolve Parliament and call for elections. China:  a senior delegation of the Communist Party of China to Kathmandu within days of  Oli’s controversial decision.

  The  Narcotics Control Bureau   was set up as apex  drug  law enforcement agency with view to coordinate actions of various central/state agencies in the matters related with  drug  law in the country.   NCB under the Ministry of Home Affairs , Government of India.  The agency is tasked with combating drug trafficking and the use of illegal substances under the provisions of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act 1985. The National Policy on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances is based on the Directive Principles, contained in Article 47 of the Indian Constitution, which direct the State to endeavour to bring about prohibition of the consumption, except for medicinal purposes, of intoxicating drugs injurious to health. India is a signatory to the single Convention on Narcotic Drugs 1961, as amended by the 1972 Protocol, the Conventions on Psychotropic Substances, 1971 and the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic...

 the creation of a special wing in the Odisha State police to deal with offences against women and children announced by CM.

 There are currently 16 different facial recognition tracking system FRT in active utilization across India for surveillance, security, or authentication of identity.  Another 17 are in possess of utilization for various government departments. There are no specific guidelines to regulate this potential invasive technology. In 2018, Delhi police became first law enforcement agency to use this in country. Police got permission to use the FRS by an order of the Delhi High Court for tracking missing children. AFRS, automatic facial recognition system is an ambitious pan India project under the Home Ministry which will be used by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and various States’ law enforcement departments. The basis of the AFRS is a Cabinet note of 2009. Issue: legal experts say, it poses a huge threat to the fundamental rights to privacy and freedom of speech and expression because it does not satisfy the threshold the Supreme Court had set in its landmark pri...

 A function creep happens when someone uses information for a purpose that is not the original specific purpose.

 Four issues De-criminalisation of stubble burning Safeguarding Power subsidy Repeal of 3 farm market laws Legal Guarantee of MSP for farm produce Government agreed to not to penalise stubble burning and to safeguard power subsidies. Government should also take in consideration that : Subsidised power and lopsided incentive structures have built cropping patterns that are no longer sustainable.  Large sections of farmers meanwhile continue to languish in debt and fear.  Farmer concerns are not uniform across India. Reforms are necessary to ensure that India has a productive, sustainable and remunerative agriculture sector. The r eports of the National Commission on Farmers , chaired by Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, and other government committees have suggested solutions.  The Centre must engage with the farmers, political parties and States on the economic and  environmental issues at stake.

  The rapid decline in growth rates (2018-19 and 2019-20) triggered the rise in unemployment, the pandemic made it worse and the unplanned lockdowns exacerbated the situation. 130 million persons lost their jobs or livelihoods. The abiding lesson of 2020 is that a nation will suffer if there is a decline in three measures — work, wealth and welfare. work is pleasurable, enhances esteem, earns rewards and determines one’s standing among peers and in the society-at-large. By last count, the unemployment rate in India was 8.7 % (CMIE, December 22, 2020) . In between, there are people who do not wish to join the work force and there are people who are home workers who are not counted as part of the work force.  If the GDP grows, wealth is enhanced, and the average share of a citizen in the pie (per capita income) is larger. A combination of unemployment and slow (or negative) growth will impact welfare.  Food, healthcare and social security are indeed important, but welfare g...

 Government Procures farm produce at MSP through Food Cooperation of India. FCI is mandated to procure any amount of  produce (notified by CACP), which meets the standard set by government, from the farmer. Issues with procurement: Financial Burden on Government: They incur loss during buying and selling at less cost combined with financial expenses of storage and transportation.  Food wastage. Reduced supply in market due to procurement, causing increase in food inflation which in turn effect customers. Human resource required to man and provide services in FCI godowns. Leakages during transportation from FCI Godowns and PDS outlets. How to deal with the losses when these government-procured stocks are unloaded in the market, as they will invariably incur losses. And if stocks keep piling up, as is the case with wheat and rice today, how do we correct this imbalance in demand and supply?  In that case, either limit the size of procurement or go for price deficiency ...

L aunched in June 2020 amid the  pandemic . It is a micro-credit facility that provides street vendors a collateral-free loan of Rs 10,000 with low rates of interest for a period of one year. the scheme – part of the AtmaNirbhar Bharat package – has received 31,64,367 applications from across the country (except from S ikkim, which is officially not taking part in it). Why Launched?   nationwide lockdown left daily wage workers and  street vendors  out of work.   In the long term , it aims at establishing a credit score for the vendors as well as creating a digital record of their socio-economic status , so that they can avail the Central government schemes later. The scheme also attempts to  formalise the informal sector of the economy and  provide them safety nets and  a means of availing loans in the future. This loan charges below 12% rate of interest, and creates a credit score of the vendors, so that if they repay the loan on ...

  Our farmers always want a higher price for their produce, but higher food prices can also bring pains to poor consumers. The art of policymaking is to balance the interest of producers and consumers within reasonable financial resources.  In such a charged environment, rationality often becomes victim to anger and hatred, which does not serve anyone’s purpose, including the farmers’ therefore it is required to look for corrections without repealing all together. A major study at ICRIER conducted with OECD showed that over the period 2000-01 to 2016-17, Indian agriculture was implicitly taxed to the tune of almost 14% of its value, primarily due to restrictive trade and marketing policies, ranging from export controls and stocking limits to the restrictive mandi system. The way to improve farmers’ price realisation, therefore, was to liberate agriculture from these various controls. This has been a long-standing demand of one of the tallest farmer leaders, the late Sharad Jos...