Targeting UPSC CSE

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.