To the Point Current Affairs: Magazine February 2022

To the Point Current Affairs: Magazine February 2022

To The Point Current Affairs: February 2022

The Hindu, PIB, IE and Others

Index

A) Agriculture, Geography, Environment and Biodiversity

1. Reintroduction of Cheetahs in India (TH)

2. Crisis a chance for India to export more wheat (TH)

3. Brick Kilns (DTE)

4. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC)–Transport Initiative

for Asia (TIA) (PIB)

5. Torres Strait (TH)

6. Underground Water and Aquifers (DTE)

7. Green Hydrogen Policy (TH)

8. All About Pollinators (TH)

9. Gobar-Dhan (Bio-CNG) (PIB)

10. What are Energy Compacts? (PIB)

11. Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) (PIB)

12. Riverbed Sand Mining: Environmental and Physical Impacts

(TH)

13. Australia has listed koalas as endangered species (IE)

14. Global Environment Facility (GEF) (PIB)

15. Bali Islands in Sunderbans (PIB)

16. Sea of Galilee (TH)

17. Basai Wetlands (TH)

18. Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) (TH)

19. Iceland Announces Plan to End Whaling in 2024 (TH)

20. Golden Langur (TH)

21. Wetlands in India highest for any country in South Asia (IE)

B) Economic Developments: India and World

22. India’s Export of Fresh Fruits (PIB)

23. Grants to Urban Local Bodies (PIB)

24. Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication

(SWIFT) (TH)

25. Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) in Detail (TH)

26. What is an IPO? (IE)

27. Japanese Industrial Townships (JITs) in India (PIB)

28. Agriculture Infrastructure Development Cess (AIDC) (PIB)


30. Retail Inflation (TH)

31. Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 (TH)

32. Index of Industrial Production (IIP) (TH)

33. Threats to Cryptocurrency and How it works? (TH)

34. Understanding the Policy Stances of the RBI (TH)

35. Asian Clearing Union (ACU) (TH)

36. Defence Exports from India (TH)

37. What's crowding out effect in Economics (TH)

38. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) (TH)

39. Government subsidies to decline by 39% (TH)

C) International Relations

40. Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project (TH)

41. Russian Aggression on Ukraine and International Law (TH)

42. Indus Water Treaty (IWT)_Updated (TH)

43. Golan Heights (TH)

44. Russia to Recognise Ukraine Rebel Regions (TH)

45. Minsk II Ceasefire Agreement (TH)

46. Military Takeover in Mali (TH)

47. Falkland Islands (IE)

48. Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) (TH)

49. Munich Security Conference (TH)

50. MCC Development Compact (TH)

51. 35th African Union Summit (TH)

52. Indo-Pacific Strategy Document (TH)

53. EU joins chips race with €43-billion bid to rival Asia (TH)

54. United Nations World Food Program (TH)

55. Fishing in Troubled Waters: The Palk Strait Dispute (TH)

56. India’s Rising Imports from China (TH)

57. U.S. Restores Sanction Waiver to Iran (TH)

58. African Union (AU) and Israel’s Accreditation (TH)

59. New Era Relations between China and Russia (TH)

60. Islamic State (TH)

61. Uighur Muslims (TH)

62. Amnesty International (AI) (TH)

63. Africa Union suspends Burkina after coup as envoys head for

talks (TH)

64. Minsk Agreement and the Normandy Process (TH)

D) Polity, Bills, Acts and Judgments

65. Official Secrets Act (TH)

66. Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) (TH)

67. Fundamental Duties (TH)

68. President’s Fleet Review (IE)

69. Who are Star Campaigners? (TH)

70. Development Coordination & Monitoring Committee (DISHA)

Committee (PIB)

71. Constitutional Provisions Regarding the Relationship Between

the Governor and the Chief Minister (TH)

72. Public Order: A Constitutional Provision for Curbing Freedoms

(IE)

73. 102nd and 105th Constitution Amendment Acts (TH)

74. Oath or Affirmation to the Judges of Supreme Court and the

High Courts (TH)

75. Relations between the Centre and the States (TH)

76. Constitutional Validity of the Laws That Limit Employment for

Citizens from Outside the State (TH)

77. What is State Mourning (TH)

78. Bru-Reang Refugees (TH)

79. Can a Private Member's Bill Amend the Preamble to the

Constitution? (TH)

80. Essential Commodities Act (TH)

81. Common Electoral Roll (TH)

82. Comparing Veto Powers of President and Governor (TH)

83. Relationship Between the Governor and the Chief Minister (TH)

E) Science and Technology, Defence, Space

84. National Science Day 2021 and Other important National Days

(IE)

85. The Concept of Airspace (TH)

2 Daily MCQs uploaded@7 pm on our Website and Telegram Channel Website@https://vijethaiasacademy.com Telegram@upscgs2020forum

86. Graveyard Orbit: What Happens When Artificial Satellites Die?

(TH)

87. What is Quantum Cryptography (or Quantum Key

Distribution)? (TH)

88. Decommissioning the International Space Station (TH)

89. National Supercomputing Mission (NSM): India emerging a

leader in supercomputing (PIB)

90. MILAN 2022: Indian Navy’s Biggest Maritime Exercise (TH)

91. Indian Neutrino Observatory (INO) (TH)

92. All About Stem Cells (TH)

93. Japanese Encephalitis (PIB)

94. National Maritime Security Coordinator (NMSC) (TH)

95. What is Lassa Fever? (IE)

96. Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) and Priority Pathogens (TH)

97. 54th flight of the PSLV and EOS-04, INSPIREsat-1 and INS-2TD

(IE)

98. What is Doxxing? (TH)

99. What is ModifiedElephant? (IE)

100. Origami Metamaterials (TH)

101. Erratus sperare (TH)

102. Proxima d, Exoplanets, Goldilocks Zone and Tidal Locking

(TH)

103. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Tagging and Radio

Waves (TH)

104. International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) (TH)

105. What is an mRNA Vaccine? (TH)

106. Understanding Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) (TH)

107. Role of Primers in COVID-Testing (TH)

108. Solar Storms and Cosmogenic Radionuclides (TH)

109. Vande Bharat Trains (TH)

110. Chandrayaan-3 Mission (TH)

111. Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) (PIB)

112. Von Neumann Architecture (PIB)

113. Perovskite Solar Cells (PIB)

F) Schemes, Policies, Initiatives, Awards and Social Issues

114. Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) (TH)

115. Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) (PIB)

116. Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries

(SFURTI) (PIB)

117. Bhasha Certificate Selfie (PIB)

118. Sustainable Cities India Program (PIB)

119. Draft India Data Accessibility & Use Policy, 2022 (TH)

120. National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship (NMMSS) (PIB)

121. Ramanujan Prize for Young Mathematicians (PIB)

122. Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan) (TH)

123. Academic Bank of Credits (ABC) (TH)

124. Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure

Mission (PM-ABHIM) (PIB)

125. Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP)

(PIB)

126. Green Hydrogen/ Green Ammonia Policy (PIB)

127. Several Operations Under Different Names Launched by the

RPF (PIB)

128. Eat Right Campus Initiative and Eat Right India Movement

(TH)

129. Scheme for Economic Empowerment of De-notified, nomadic

and semi-nomadic communities (SEED) (TH)

130. Annual Meeting of the Indo-German Working Group on

Quality Infrastructure (PIB)

131. Capacity Development (CD) Scheme (PIB)

132. New India Literacy Programme (NILP) (PIB)

133. SVAMITVA Scheme (TH)

134. Modernisation of State Police Forces (MPF Scheme) (TH)

135. Organic Farming in India (PIB)

136. National Rail Plan (NRP) (PIB)

137. Support for Marginalised Individuals for Livelihood and

Enterprise Scheme (PIB)

138. Government Banned the Import of Drones With Immediate

Effect (TH)

139. Financial support to Unorganised Sector (TH)

140. Scheme for Economic Empowerment for DNTs (SEED) (PIB)

141. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act

(MGNREGA) (TH)

142. Curative Petition (TH)

143. Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) (TH)

144. All About PM CARES Fund (TH)

145. Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programme for welfare of

Minority Communities (PIB)

146. Nai Roshni Scheme (PIB)

147. Parvatmala: National Ropeways Development Programme

(PIB)

148. Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO) (TH)

149. Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (TH)

150. Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) (TH)

151. Welfare of Women Belonging to Economically Weaker Section

(PIB)

152. Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) Scheme (PIB)

153. One Nation, One Ration Card Scheme (PIB)

154. Atmanirbhar Bharat Centre of Design (ABCD) Project (PIB)

155. National Initiative for Design Innovation (NIDI) (PIB)

156. Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM) (PIB)

157. Technology Development Fund (TDF) (PIB)

158. Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana (PIB)

159. SMILE Scheme (PIB)

160. Housing for All (TH)

161. Services e-Health Assistance and Teleconsultation (SeHAT)

(PIB)

162. India National Tech Excellence Award for Women 2022 (PIB)

163. Fortification of Rice & its Distribution under Public

Distribution System (TH)

164. Indian Coast Guard (ICG): Mission and Duties (PIB)

G) Indices, Reports, Surveys, Committees and Organisations

165. International Court of Justice (TH)

166. Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) (PIB)

167. Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM)

(TH)

168. Human Rights Watch (TH)

169. Scientific What? Group (SAG) (TH)

170. Global Innovation & Technology Alliance (GITA) (PIB)

171. Group of 20 (G20) (PIB)


172. East Asia Summit and Marine Pollution (PIB)

173. National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) (PIB)

174. Agricultural Products Export Development Authority (APEDA)

(PIB)

175. CRUSHED Report 2021 (TH)

176. Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) (TH)

177. Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) and INCOIS (TH)

178. National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) (PIB)

179. Agriculture Orientation Index (AOI) and India (TH)

180. Centrally Protected Monuments and the ASI (TH)

181. United Nations Commission on International Trade Law

(UNCITRAL) (TH)

H) Art, Culture and History

182. Contributions of Indian Mathematicians (PIB)

183. Khajuraho Temples (TOI)

184. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and the Maratha State (PIB)

185. Guru Ravidas: Teachings and Literary Works (PIB)

186. Medaram Jathara (PIB)

187. Hippocratic Oath and Charak (IE)

188. Ramanujacharya (IE)

189. Dvaita Vs Advaita Vs Vishishtadvaita (PIB)

190. Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya (PIB)

191. The Sufi Movement (PIB)

192. All About Winter Olympics (TH)

193. National War Memorial (PIB)

I) Miscellaneous

194. Fifth Generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA)

(TH)

195. Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) (TH)

196. Glycogen Reserves (TH)

197. Devastation in Spring (TH)

198. Time Dilation Clocked (TH)

199. Multi-nation air exercise cancelled (TH)

200. Fallen soldiers not ‘martyrs’, says Army (TH)

201. Same species of tree had different patterns of carbon dioxide

storage (TH)

202. Forest cover outside the recorded forest area (TH)

203. Employment Outlook of India (PIB)

204. Meet the Champions Initiative (PIB)

205. Ombudsperson App (PIB)

206. SPARSH Initiative (PIB)

207. Meiteis (TH)

208. One Rank, One Pension (OROP) (TH)

209. Desert Kites or Mass Traps (TH)

210. Vigyan Sarvatra Pujyate (PIB)

211. EU Ministerial Forum on Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific (TH)

212. SEA-ME-WE-6 Undersea Cable Consortium (TH)

213. Living With Covid Campaign (TH)

214. What is Co-location (TH)

215. Western Quad (TH)

216. International Mother Language Day (PIB)

217. Australia banned far-right extremist group (TH)

218. Freedom 2 Walk & Cycle Challenge (PIB)

219. Darkathon-2022 (TH)

220. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar as Young Entrepreneur (PIB)

221. The Wild Oranges of India (TH)

222. Y-Shaped Seat Belt (TH)

223. Poshan Tracker (TH)

224. Patriot Missile Defence System (TH)

225. NITI Aayog, USAID to collaborate in healthcare (TH)

226. Sri Lanka to launch its own ‘Aadhaar’ (TH)

227. Kodiyal Theru (TH)

228. Marital Rape (TH)

229. Waqf Properties in India (PIB)

230. Satkosia Tiger Reserve (STR) (TH)

231. Havana Syndrome (TH)

232. Separate Agriculture Budget (TH)

A) Agriculture, Geography, Environment and Biodiversity

1. Reintroduction of Cheetahs in India (TH)

• Why? The Indian government is planning to introduce the now

extinct cheetah in India.

What?

• The action plan states that a cohort of 10-12 young cheetahs that

are ideal for reintroduction would be imported from Namibia or

South Africa as a founder stock during the first year.

• The proposed site for introduction is the Kuno Palpur National

Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh. The Kuno National Park was also

supposed to be a site for the Asiatic Lion that is now confined to

Gir.

o The Nauradehi and Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuaries in

Madhya Pradesh, Velavadar National Park in Gujarat and Tal

Chapar sanctuary and Shahgarh Landscape in Rajasthan

have also been declared potentially suitable for the

reintroduction of the cheetah.

• In 1952, the cheetah was officially declared extinct from India.

o It is the only large mammal to have been declared extinct in

our country in recorded history, mainly by over-hunting in

India in historical times.

• Today, the cheetah is found only in the arid regions of eastern Iran

in Asia, and in isolated populations in Africa.

• Cheetahs are genetically fragile and lose cubs in a litter

prematurely, affecting the establishment of a viable population.

African Cheetah and Asiatic Cheetah

• Before Namibia, India had approached Iran for Asiatic cheetahs,

but had been refused.

• The Asiatic cheetah is classified as a “critically endangered”

species by the IUCN Red List (African cheetah is vulnerable),

and is believed to survive only in Iran.

• Physically, there are barely any differences between the Asiatic

and African sub-species of cheetahs.

Why does National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) want to

reintroduce cheetahs?

• Reintroductions of large carnivores have increasingly been

recognised as a strategy to conserve threatened species and

restore ecosystem functions.

• Just as the tiger is the flagship species of the forest, the cheetah is

the flagship species of the grasslands, scrublands and open

forests.


o Therefore, with the reintroduction of the cheetah, these

dryland ecosystems of India will have a chance to return to

their natural state.

• While the cheetah has a soft coat of fur with a unique spotted

pattern which makes it a target for some poachers, there is no

demand for the cheetah’s body parts like there is for the tigers.

o Thus, unlike the tiger, the cheetah does not have a huge

price on its head and poaching is much less of a threat.

• Cheetahs are a non-aggressive species that do not attack humans.

Among large carnivores, cheetah present the lowest level of conflict

with human settlements, as they prefer wild game and are thus

unlikely to threaten large livestock.

Vanishing wildlife: Species that have gone extinct in India

• According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a

new study has shown that since 1750, more than double the

number of plants have disappeared from the wild than birds,

mammals and amphibians combined.

• India is home to 11.5% of all flora and about 6.49% of all the fauna

species in the world.

• One of the most notable species of plants that has gone extinct

is Lastreopsis wattii.

• Among mammals, the cheetah and the Sumatran rhinoceros are

considered extinct in India.

• The pink-headed duck is feared extinct since 1950 and the

Himalayan quail was last reported in 1876.

• Factors like “competition, predation, natural selection, and human

induced factors like hunting, habitat degradation” are some of the

important reasons that have led to these extinctions.

2. Crisis a chance for India to export more wheat (TH)

• Why? The Russia-Ukraine crisis might give India an opportunity to

export more wheat in the global markets.

What?

• India’s central pool stood at 24.2 million tonnes, twice more than

the buffer and strategic needs.

• More than a quarter of the world’s wheat export comes from

Russia and Ukraine.

• Russia is the world’s largest exporter of wheat, accounting for

more than 18% of international exports. Egypt, Turkey and

Bangladesh bought more than half of Russia’s wheat.

• Egypt is the world’s biggest importer of wheat, spending more

than $4 billion annually. Russia and Ukraine cover more than 70%

of Egypt’s imported wheat demand.

• Turkey is also a big spender with 74% of its imports worth $1.6

billion coming from Russia and Ukraine in 2019.

3. Brick Kilns (DTE)

• Why? The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate

Change (MoEF&CC) came up with stringent standards for brick

kilns.

• Brick kilns are recognized as one of the largest stationary sources

of black carbon which, along with iron and steel production,

contributes 20% of total black carbon emissions

What?

• The salient features of the notification are:

o Standard for particulate matter (PM) emissions — 250

milligram per normal cubic metre (mg / Nm3).

o Existing brick kilns shall be converted to either zig-zag

technology or vertical shaft or use of PNG as fuel in brick

making within a period of one year in case of kilns located

within a 10 km radius of non-attainment cities and two years

for other areas (older technology like Fixed Chimney Bull’s

Trench Kiln (FCBTK) has not been banned but allowed if run

on PNG as the fuel).

o All brick kilns shall use approved fuel such as PNG, coal, fire

wood and / or agricultural residues. Use of pet coke, tyres,

plastic, hazardous waste shall not be allowed in brick kilns.

o Brick kilns shall construct permanent facility for port hole and

platform according to the norms laid down by the Central

Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

o Brick kilns shall follow fugitive dust emission control

guidelines as prescribed by concerned SPCBs.

o The brick kiln owners shall ensure that the roads utilised for

transporting raw material or bricks are paved.

❖ The disappointing factor is that here is no mention of

unconventional and polluting clamp type kilns which are

prevalent from western to southern India. The Policy is

silent on ‘shift to commercial clamps to cleaner

technology.’

Pollution from Brick Kilns

• Soot or black carbon is the second biggest global warming

pollutant after carbon dioxide.

• It affects health and visibility and accelerates the melting of

Himalayan snow and ice.

• Brick kilns are one of the biggest emitters of soot.

• Carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, black carbon, sulphur

dioxide, nitrogen oxides and fine particulate matter are the

pollutants released by the brick kilns.

• According to a recent NASA study, South Asia has the highest soot

emissions in the world and most of this is emitted by the 150,000

plus brick kilns in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal.

Brick Kiln Initiative and Zig Zag Technology

• The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development

(ICIMOD) has started Brick Kiln Initiative.

• Under the initiative, ovens are redesigned and the bricks are

stacked in a zig-zag pattern.

• The new design became popular with brick kiln owners as the

technique improved brick quality and reduced coal consumption

considerably.

• In the new kilns, the bricks to be baked are arranged in a zigzag

pattern, allowing hot air to cover a longer path. Zig-zag technology

basically enhances energy efficiency of brick making.

o As the air takes this zigzag path, it improves the heat transfer

to the bricks, thus making the operation more efficient.

• Besides, the mixing of air and fuel in the new kilns allows for

complete combustion, thus reducing coal consumption by about

20 per cent. The new kilns also use fans to regulate air.

• In new technology, less ash is produced.

• Agricultural waste can also be used in zigzag brick kilns.

Do you know?

• The Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) to Reduce Short-Lived

Climate Pollutants (SLCPs) is a voluntary global partnership of


governments, intergovernmental organizations, business, scientific

institutions and civil society.

• It specifically targets brick klins urging them to adopt new

technologies.

• It is committed to substantial action to reduce SLCPs (including

methane, black carbon and many hydrofluorocarbons).

4. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC)–Transport Initiative

for Asia (TIA) (PIB)

• Why? NITI Aayog and World Resources Institute (WRI), India,

conducted a virtual consultation workshop on ‘Financing for

Decarbonization of Transport’ as part of the Nationally Determined

Contributions (NDC)–Transport Initiative for Asia (TIA) project.

What?

• With the aim to promote a comprehensive approach to decarbonize

transport in India, Vietnam, and China, NDC–TIA is a joint

programme, supported by the International Climate Initiative (IKI)

of the German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation

and Nuclear Safety (BMU).

• NITI Aayog is the implementing partner for the India component of

the project.

• India has the world’s second-largest road network, which

contributes to maximum greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through

all means of transportation.

5. Torres Strait (TH)

• Why? Australia has said a Chinese naval vessel that pointed a

laser at an Australian military aircraft was so close to Australia’s

coast that it possibly could have been seen from the shore, and has

called for a full Chinese investigation.

What?

• A Chinese guided missile destroyer and an amphibious transport

dock were sailing east through the Arafura Sea between New

Guinea and Australia at the time of the incident, and later passed

through the narrow Torres Strait.

• Torres Strait is a passage between the Coral Sea, on the east, and

the Arafura Sea, in the western Pacific Ocean. To the north lies

New Guinea and to the south Cape York Peninsula (Queensland,

Australia).

6. Underground Water and Aquifers (DTE)

• Why? Punjab Assembly Election campaigns completely ignored

the groundwater depletion problem.

• The groundwater level in most parts of the state has fallen to

dangerous levels. Paddy cultivation in the state is the

fundamental cause of this problem.

What?

What is groundwater?

• Water that has travelled down from the soil surface and collected in

the spaces between sediments and the cracks within rock is called

groundwater.

• Groundwater is fed by precipitation and can resurface to replenish

streams, rivers, and lakes.

Saturated Vs Unsaturated Zones

• The saturated zone is the layer below the earth where the

groundwater fills in all the empty spaces underground, till it reaches

an impenetrable layer of rock.

• The top of the saturated zone is called the water table, and sitting

above the water table is the unsaturated zone, where the spaces

in between rocks and sediments are filled with both water and

air.

• Water found in this zone is called soil moisture, and is distinct

from groundwater.

Artesian Wells vs Borewells

• Artesian wells are those from which water flows under natural

pressure without pumping.

o Pressure from the water’s weight (hydrostatic pressure)

forces water to the surface of a well drilled down into the

aquifer.

• Borewells are basically vertical drilled wells, bored into an

underground aquifer to extract water for various purposes using

electrical pumps.

What is an Aquifer?


• An aquifer is a body of rock and/or sediment that holds

groundwater.

• There are two general types of aquifers: confined and unconfined.

• Confined aquifers have a layer of impenetrable rock above

them, while unconfined aquifers lie below a permeable layer of soil.

• Note: Aquifers are not to be confused with underground rivers

or lakes. While groundwater can seep into or out of aquifers

due to their porous nature, it cannot move fast enough to flow

like a river.

• The rate at which groundwater moves through an aquifer varies

depending on the rock’s permeability.

7. Green Hydrogen Policy (TH)

• Why? Ministry of Power has notified Green Hydrogen/ Green

Ammonia Policy.

What?

What are ‘green hydrogen’ and ‘green ammonia’?

• Green Hydrogen refers to the hydrogen produced through any

process that does not emit greenhouse gases.

• In contrast, the production of grey hydrogen results in GHG

emissions, mainly carbon dioxide, because typically, hydrogen is

separated from a hydrocarbon like methane (CH4), releasing the

carbon.

• ‘Blue hydrogen’ is produced through a similar process, but the

emitted GHG is captured and sequestered—not let out into the

atmosphere.

• Ammonia is produced by forcing nitrogen to combine with

hydrogen. Again, the hydrogen is obtained in the conventional

methods by separating it from methane.

• If ‘green hydrogen’ is used instead for making ammonia, what you

get is ‘green ammonia’.

• Truly, however, for ammonia to be labelled green, not only should

the hydrogen be green, but also the electricity used in the Haber-

Bosch process, in which nitrogen and hydrogen are forced to

combine at very high temperatures and pressure, should also have

come from renewable sources.

What are the salient features of the Green Hydrogen policy?

• The policy has essentially made it easier and cheaper for green

hydrogen (GH) manufacturers to get renewable electricity. Here

are its promises:

o if a GH manufacturer wants to put up his renewable energy

plant (solar, wind), permissions will be easier to get

o the GH manufacturer can ‘bank’ any surplus power with the

utility for 30 days—that is, put the power into the utility’s grid

and take it back within 30 days

o if the manufacturer wishes to buy RE power from a third party

(and not the utility, like Tata Power, BSES, Tangedco),

permission for such ‘open access’ shall be given in 15 days

of application

o if the RE power supplier to the GH plant is in another state,

no inter-state transmission charges shall be levied for 25

years.

❖ Notably, the notification does not speak about ‘cross-subsidy

charges’, which is in the states’ domain, but it is expected

that the government would prevail upon the state

governments to waive these charges for GH

o if a ‘distribution licensee’ (power supplier) needs to buy RE to

supply to GH manufacturers, the utility will sell the RE power

at concessional rates

Why does the notification mention ‘green ammonia’ alongside

‘green hydrogen’?

• Ammonia is a key chemical for fertiliser manufacture and a raw

material for several other industries such as water purification,

explosives, textiles and plastics.

• But since India does not have much natural gas, it imports ammonia

around 15-17 million tonnes a year.

• Also, ammonia production is a significant carbon dioxide emitter, no

matter where it is produced, accounting for 1.6 per cent of global

GHG emissions.

• Now, the availability of domestically produced green hydrogen

provides India with an opportunity to wean itself away from

imports and make its own ammonia.

• An ammonia plant linked to a green hydrogen gives a ready market

for hydrogen.

8. All About Pollinators (TH)

• Why? Moths are vital to pollination in the Himalayan ecosystem of

northeast India, reveals a recent study.

• The results assume significance as a majority of the pollination-

related studies are based on diurnal pollinators (bees and

butterflies) and the role of nocturnal pollinators have so far received

less scientific attention.

What?

• As sedentary organisms, plants usually must enlist the services of

external agents for pollen transport. In flowering plants, these are

(roughly in order of diminishing importance) insects, wind,

birds, mammals, and water.

• Birds, bats, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, wasps, small

mammals, and most importantly, bees are pollinators.

• Somewhere between 75% and 95% of all flowering plants on the

earth need help need pollinators to reproduce.

o Self-fertile (sometimes called “self-pollinating” or “self-fruitful”)

plants include: Beans, Eggplants, Peas, Peppers,

Strawberries, Tomatoes etc.

Agents of Pollination

• Plants use two abiotic (wind and water) and one biotic (animals)

agents to achieve pollination.

• Majority of plants use biotic agents for pollination. Only a small

proportion of plants use abiotic agents.

• Pollination by wind is more common amongst abiotic pollinations.

• Wind pollination also requires that the pollen grains are light and

non-sticky so that they can be transported in wind currents.


o They often possess well-exposed stamens (so that the

pollens are easily dispersed into wind currents) and large

often-feathery stigma to easily trap air-borne pollen grains.

o Wind-pollination is quite common in grasses.

• Pollination by water is quite rare in flowering plants and is mostly

limited to monocotyledons.

• Water is a regular mode of transport for the male gametes among

the lower plant groups such as algae, bryophytes and

pteridophytes.

o It is believed, particularly for some bryophytes and

pteridophytes, that their distribution is limited because of the

need for water for the transport of male gametes and

fertilisation.

• Some examples of water pollinated plants are Vallisneria and

Hydrilla which grow in fresh water and several marine sea-grasses

such as Zostera.

• Not all aquatic plants use water for pollination.

o In a majority of aquatic plants such as water hyacinth and

water lily, the flowers emerge above the level of water and

are pollinated by insects or wind as in most of the land plants.

• Both wind and water pollinated flowers are not very colourful and do

not produce nectar.

• Majority of flowering plants use a range of animals as pollinating

agents. Bees, butterflies, flies, beetles, wasps, ants, moths, birds

(sunbirds and humming birds) and bats are the common pollinating

agents.

• Among the animals, insects, particularly bees are the dominant

biotic pollinating agents.

• Even larger animals such as some primates (lemurs), arboreal

(tree-dwelling) rodents, or even reptiles (gecko lizard and garden

lizard) have also been reported as pollinators in some species.

• Often flowers of animal pollinated plants are specifically adapted for

a particular species of animal.

• Majority of insect-pollinated flowers are large, colourful, fragrant

and rich in nectar.

• When the flowers are small, a number of flowers are clustered into

an inflorescence to make them conspicuous.

• Animals are attracted to flowers by colour and/or fragrance.

o The flowers pollinated by flies and beetles secrete foul

odours to attract these animals.

o To sustain animal visits, the flowers have to provide rewards

to the animals. Nectar and pollen grains are the usual floral

rewards.

• Continued self-pollination result in inbreeding depression.

Flowering plants have developed many devices to discourage self-

pollination and to encourage cross-pollination.

o In some species, pollen release and stigma receptivity are

not synchronised. Either the pollen is released before the

stigma becomes receptive or stigma becomes receptive

much before the release of pollen.

o In some other species, the anther and stigma are placed at

different positions so that the pollen cannot come in contact

with the stigma of the same flower. Both these devices

prevent autogamy.

o The third device to prevent inbreeding is self-

incompatibility. This is a genetic mechanism and prevents

self-pollen (from the same flower or other flowers of the same

plant) from fertilising the ovules by inhibiting pollen

germination or pollen tube growth in the pistil.

o Another device to prevent self-pollination is the production

of unisexual flowers.

❖ If both male and female flowers are present on the same

plant such as castor and maize (monoecious), it prevents

autogamy but not geitonogamy.

❖ In several species such as papaya, male and female flowers

are present on different plants, that is each plant is either

male or female (dioecy). This condition prevents both

autogamy and geitonogamy.

The Importance of Bees: Pollination

• When a bee collects nectar and pollen from the flower of a plant,

some pollen from the stamens—the male reproductive organ of

the flower—sticks to the hairs of her body.

• When she visits the next flower, some of this pollen is rubbed off

onto the stigma, or tip of the pistil—the female reproductive

organ of the flower.

• When this happens, fertilization is possible, and a fruit, carrying

seeds, can develop.

How Do Plants Attract Bees?

• Bees are drawn to plants with open or flat tubular flowers with

lots of pollen and nectar.

• A flower's scent can have particular appeal to bees, and its bright

colours may lure the bees in.

Effects of Bees on Fruit

• Flowers that are visited more often by bees will produce larger and

more uniform fruit than those visited less often.

Types of Pollinators

• Bees share the job of pollinating.

• Some plants are pollinated by other animals, wind or water.

Birds

• The plants that attract birds are generally brightly coloured, with

red, orange or yellow flowers, but are often odourless, since

birds have a poor sense of smell.

• The flowers are often long and tubular, with lots of nectar, and are

sturdy enough for perching on.

Other Animals

• Many animals that pollinate plants, such as bats, are nocturnal,

meaning "active at night," and so the flowers that need to attract

them often have a strong smell, but may not be too colourful.

Do you know?

• Carnivorous plants have been known to employ a variety of

techniques like nectar, smell, colour, ultraviolet florescence and

carbon dioxide to lure and capture prey.

• Most plants absorb enough nitrogen from nitrates in the soil.

Carnivorous plants live in bogs, where nitrates are in short supply,

so they need to obtain their nitrogen by digesting prey instead.

9. Gobar-Dhan (Bio-CNG) (PIB)

• Why? The Prime Minister of India inaugurated “Gobar-Dhan (Bio-

CNG) Plant” in Indore through video conferencing.

What?

• Wet urban household waste and waste from cattle and farm is

Gobar Dhan.


• Bio-CNG is basically Compressed Natural Gas produced from

biogas.

• Bio-CNG is produced from various bio-mass / waste sources

including agricultural residue, municipal solid waste, sugarcane

press mud, distillery spent wash, cattle dung and sewage treatment

plant waste.

o The other waste streams viz. rotten potatoes from cold

storage, rotten vegetables, dairy plants, chicken/ poultry litter,

food waste, horticulture waste, forestry residues and

industrial Effluent Treatment Plants (ETPs) treating organic

waste can be used in the generation of biogas.

Biogas vs Bio-CNG

• Biogas is a product from the process of degradation of organic

matter by anaerobic bacteria.

• Organic matter needs to be digested by a consortium of micro-

organisms in the absence of oxygen (anaerobic bacteria)

• The biogas generation process consists of four subsequent

chemical and biochemical reactions i.e. Hydrolysis reaction,

Acidogenesis reaction, Acetogenesis reaction and

Methanogenesis reaction.

• The biogas produced contains approximately 55% to 60% methane,

40% to 45% carbon dioxide and trace amounts of hydrogen

sulphide, ammonia, oxygen, carbon monoxide, nitrogen etc.

o The proportion of these trace components depends on

the source of the biomass.

o The presence of water vapor, H2S, and CO2 make biogas

very corrosive and unsuitable to be used as fuel.

• Bio-CNG is the purified form of biogas from which all the unwanted

gases are removed to get about 92-98 % of pure methane gas,

also called biomethane.

• In its composition and energy potential it is exactly similar to the

commercially available compressed natural gas (CNG).

• Presence of carbon-dioxide in the bio-gas reduces its calorific

value. Hence the Bio-CNG needs to be purified to get CNG grade

fuel is necessary in order to utilize in automotive vehicle or supply

for generation of electricity or production of enriched organic

fertilizer.

o As Bio-CNG has a high calorific value it also finds its use in

blast furnaces.

• Biomethane can also be compressed and bottled into cylinders/

transported through pipelines and it is called Bio-Compressed

Natural Gas (Bio-CNG) or simply Compressed Bio-Gas (CBG).

• The low emission levels of Bio-CNG also make it a more

environment-friendly fuel than biogas.

• Bio-CNG is exactly similar to the commercially available natural gas

in its composition and energy potential.

• Given the abundance of biomass in the country, compressed

biogas has the potential to replace CNG in automotive, industrial

and commercial uses in the coming years.

• The Bio-CNG process also produces enriched organic manure

which can be used as fertiliser.

Do you know?

• Calorific value of Bio-CNG and LPG are nearly the same.

• LPG takes up more Oxygen against Bio-CNG.

• LPG is heavier than air hence, settles down and is a potential fire

threat.

o Bio-CNG being lighter gets dispersed in the air

preventing any dangerous situation.

• Bio-CNG is cleaner than LPG and does not leave any soot deposit.

• Bio-CNG is more economical than commercial LPG.

Disadvantages of Bio-CNG

• Using bio-CNG without proper purification can lead to erosion of

metal parts in vehicles. Purifying of bio-CNG leads to increased

cost.

• Refuelling stations are more complicated than conventional ones

since high pressure is required to be maintained for certain

components.

• Global adoption of bio-CNG depends on several economic,

environmental and other technical factors.

• The capital cost for installing a Bio-CNG is expensive.

• Preliminary processes like collection, transportation, and

segregation may also limit the adaptation.

• It can be installed only where waste generation is abundant.

GOBAR-DHAN

• The Department of Drinking Water & Sanitation, Ministry of Jal

Shakti, has launched the GOBAR-DHAN (Galvanising Organic Bio-

Agro Resources) scheme in 2020 to convert cattle dung and solid

waste in farms to Compressed Bio-Gas (CBG) and compost.

• The programme will be funded under Solid and Liquid Waste

Management (SLWM) component of Swachh Bharat Mission-

Gramin (SBM-G) to benefit households in identified villages through

Gram Panchayats.

• The objective of the scheme is to increase rural income, rural jobs

and to keep villages clean through solid waste management.

• Accordingly, this scheme aims to positively impact the Gram

Panchayats with 3Es, which are as following:

o Energy: Self-reliance with respect to energy through

utilization of agricultural and animal waste to generate bio-

energy through bio-gas plants.

o Empowerment: Engaging rural people, especially women

self-help groups in construction, management and day to day

operations of biogas plants.

o Employment: Generating jobs among the rural youth and

women through collection of waste, transportation to

treatment plants, management of treatment plant, sale and

distribution of biogas generated, etc.

• The scheme is intended to manage and convert cattle dung and

solid waste in farms to compost, bio-slurry, bio-gas and bio-CNG.

10. What are Energy Compacts? (PIB)

• Why? Twenty two energy compacts were submitted from India by

PSUs, corporates and smart cities in addition to the national

compact submitted by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy,

Government of India.

• A global Energy Compact Action Network by UN-Energy is

expected be launched on 22 March 2022 in order to achieve SDG7

by 2030.

• These Energy Compacts have been developed as a key feature of

the UN High-level Dialogue on Energy.

What?

What are Energy Compacts?

• Energy Compacts are a set of voluntary commitments from

stakeholders i.e. UN Member States and non-state actors to


accelerate achievement of clean, affordable energy for all by

2030 and net zero emissions by 2050.

• These stakeholders commit to an Energy Compact that includes

specific targets and timelines to drive the progress on the

achievement of SDG7, to accelerate action for clean, affordable

energy for all.

• Submission of energy compacts is open to all relevant stakeholders

including member states and non-state actors, such as

companies, regional/local governments, NGOs and others.

• Actions defined in an Energy Compact can be directly linked to

Nationally Determined Contributions considered as SDG

Acceleration Actions.

• Several stakeholders can also work together actions in a joint

Energy Compact.

• The actions detailed in Energy Compacts can be aligned to

countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris

Agreement.

• It does not conflict with separate commitments by UN member

nations made as part of the COP26 process.

• Energy Compacts also include a reporting mechanism that

tracks the incremental progress of stakeholders.

What is the difference between Energy Compacts and the

Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)?

• NDCs address Member States’ national climate ambitions and

targets that are legally required under the Paris Agreement.

• Energy Compacts include a variety of voluntary commitments,

actions, initiatives, and partnerships focused specifically on

the energy system and SDG7.

• They will cover the SDG7 targets, including those that are not

reflected in a country’s NDCs, such as clean cooking access. Thus,

Energy Compact commitments are complementary to the

NDCs.

Why do we need Energy Compacts?

• Energy is key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and

the Paris Agreement on climate change.

• However, current actions on SDG7 are insufficient, too fragmented,

and lack accountability.

• There is no platform to bring together current or new SDG7- related

commitments from all stakeholders.

• Bringing together all commitments onto the same platform will allow

us to take stock of where greater ambition and action is needed for

delivering SDG7.

• UN-Energy will support all stakeholders to define their

commitments and will facilitate connecting Member States with

other organizations

All about UN-Energy

• UN-Energy is the United Nations' mechanism for inter-agency

collaboration in the field of sustainable energy.

• Its aim is to accelerate the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for

Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement.

• UN-Energy seeks to support countries in achieving SDG7 and the

broader SDG agenda.

11. Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) (PIB)

• Why? Renewable Energy Purchase Obligation (RPO) is part of

International Commitment made by countries globally to carry out

Energy Transition from fossil fuels to non-fossil fuel sources.

What?

What are RPOs?

• Under the Electricity Act 2003 and the National Tariff Policy 2006,

Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO), is a mechanism by which

the obligated entities are obliged to purchase certain percentage of

electricity from Renewable Energy sources, as a percentage of the

total consumption of electricity.

• RPO is being implemented throughout the country to create

demand for renewable energy.

• The concept was introduced in 2003, as part of the Electricity Act

2003.

• RPO is of two categories – (a) Solar & (b) Non-solar (wind,

biomass, cogeneration and small hydro).

• The Ministry of Power in July, 2018 notified the Long Term growth

trajectory of Renewable Purchase Obligations (RPOs) for Solar as

well as Non-solar, uniformly for all States/ Union Territories,

reaching 21% of RPO by 2022 with 10.5% for solar based

electricity.

Who are the Obligated Entities?

• Obligated entities are defined by the SERCs and are in most, if not

all, cases:

o Electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOMS)

o Open Access (OA) Consumers

❖ Consumers of power with a connected load of more than 1

MW who purchase conventional (non-renewable sources

such as thermal, gas, diesel, exchange) power on the open

market rather than from the local DISCOM.

o Captive Power Plant (CPP) Consumers

❖ Consumers who have invested in their own conventional

power plants (non-renewable sources such as thermal, gas,

diesel) to satisfy their electricity demand.

• Applicable regulations also provide for purchase of renewable

energy certificates (RECs) in lieu of purchasing renewable power

by obligated entities from the National Load Dispatch Centre.

Renewable Energy Certification (REC)

• RECs are aimed at addressing the mismatch of renewable energy

resources in the States and their RPO requirements. Obliged

entities can fulfil their RPOs by purchasing RECs.

• RECs are traded on the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) and the

Power Exchange of India Ltd (PXIL).

• In line with RPOs there are two categories of RECs – Solar & Non-

Solar.

• Solar RECs include both PV and CSP technologies.

• Non-solar RECs include renewable energy technologies such

as biomass, wind, biofuel, cogeneration & small hydro.

• Solar RECs are traded once a month – last Wednesday of every

month.

• In order to provide a minimum of certainty on REC prices, Central

Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) usually fixes a floor and

forbearance price for which the REC can be traded (floor price is

the minimum price at which an REC can be traded on a power

exchange; forbearance price is the ceiling price).

• Penalty for non-fulfillment of RPO will be the forbearance price.

Enforcement of RPO Targets

• Enforcement of RPO targets, despite availability of RECs, is poor.


• Considering this, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy

(MNRE) recently launched the RPO Compliance Cell.

• As per the notification, the Cell is to coordinate with states, central

electricity regulatory commission (CERC) and state electricity

regulatory commissions (SERCs) on matters relating to RPO

compliance, including for monthly reports on compliance, and to

take up non-compliance related issues with appropriate authorities.

• However, it appears that the Cell has no powers of enforcement

and its advice or directions would be non-binding.

• Failure to meet RPO targets could result in direction from relevant

SERCs to deposit RPO regulatory charges and forbearance price

as determined by the relevant SERC into a separate fund.

In News: August 2019

• Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has approved a proposal

to declare ocean energy (such as tidal, wave, ocean thermal energy

conversion etc.) as Renewable Energy and made it eligible for

meeting the non-solar Renewable Purchase Obligations (RPO).

• The Gulf of Cambay and the Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat on the west

coast have the locations in the country where tidal energy potential

exists.

• Ocean thermal energy conversion, or OTEC, uses ocean

temperature differences from the surface to depths lower than

1,000 meters, to extract energy. A temperature difference of only

20°C can yield usable energy.

12. Riverbed Sand Mining: Environmental and Physical Impacts

(TH)

• Why? Rajasthan allowed legal mining of bajri (riverbed sand) more

than four years after the Supreme Court banned the sand mining

activities in riverbeds until a scientific replenishment study was

completed.

What?

• Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has issued

Sustainable Sand Mining Management Guidelines, 2016.

• The salient features of the Guidelines in this regard are as follows

(only the important ones and not the obvious ones):

• Grant of Environment Clearance for minor minerals, including sand

and gravel, for mining lease of area up to 5 hectare will be done by

the District Environment Impact Assessment Authority headed by

the District Collector/District Magistrate.

o This decision to delegate powers to the DEIAA was

challenged in the National Green Tribunal and was finally set

aside.

o The NGT directed public hearings and EIA for minor mineral

mines with 5 to 25 ha area.

o It added state environment impact assessment authority

would evaluate smaller mines of up to 5 ha instead of district

environment impact assessment authorities which lack

scientific expertise.

• Removal of sand accumulated on the agricultural field after

cessation of flooding will not be considered as mining operation and

its removal and selling can be allowed without the requirement of

environment clearance till it is done only to the extent of reclaiming

the agricultural land.

• Mine lease renewal will take place every five years for all sand and

other aggregate extraction.

• It suggests that mining should be restricted to a depth of three

metres or 10 per cent of the river width, whichever is less, from the

banks.

o For hilly terrain, the depth has been fixed at two metres from

river bed level and not less than one metre from the water

level of the river channel, whichever is reached earlier.

• They have also called for a complete stop to any kind of sand

extraction from riverine areas during monsoon months (July, August

and September).

Geological Survey of India Guidelines on Sand Mining:

• Abandoned stream channels and inactive floodplains may be

preferred for mining.

• Mining below subterranean water level should be avoided.

• Large rivers and streams whose periodic sediment replenishment

capacity are larger, may be preferred than smaller rivers.

• Segments of braided river system should be used. Scraping of

sediment bars above the water flow level in the lean period may be

preferred for sustainable mining.

Harmful effects of sand mining

• Ecological Impacts:

o reduced light penetration.

o reduced primary production.

o reduced feeding opportunities.

o adversely impacting the habitat of micro-organisms.

• Physical Impacts:

o erosion of channel bed and banks.

o increase in channel slope.

o the undercutting and collapse of river banks.

o upstream erosion as a result of an increase in channel slope

and changes in flow velocity.

o downstream erosion due to increased carrying capacity of the

stream.

o saline water may intrude into the fresh water-body.

o drop in groundwater table.

o forces the river to change its course (sand and boulders

prevent the river from changing the course and act as a

buffer for the riverbed).

Sand is a Minor Mineral

• In India, the minerals are classified as minor minerals and major

minerals.

• According to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation)

Act, 1957 “Minor Minerals” means building stones, gravel,

ordinary clay, marble, ordinary sand, mica, gypsum, dolomite

etc.

• Major minerals are those specified in the first schedule appended in

the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957

(MMDR Act 1957) and the common major minerals are Lignite,

Coal, Uranium, iron ore, gold etc.

o It may be noted that there is no official definition for “major

minerals” in the MMDR Act.

o Hence, whatever is not declared as a “minor mineral” may be

treated as the major mineral.

• The major-minor classification has nothing to do with the

quantum /availability of these minerals, though it is correlated

with the relative value of these minerals.


• Further, this classification is based more on their end use, rather

than level of production, level of mechanization, export and import

etc.

• The power to frame policy and legislation relating to minor minerals

is entirely delegated to the State Governments while policy and

legislation relating to the major minerals are dealt by the Ministry of

Mines under Union /Central Government.

• However, the central government has the power to notify “minor

minerals” under the MMDR Act, 1957.

• On the other hand, State Governments have complete powers

for making Rules for grant of concessions in respect of extraction of

minor minerals and levy and collection of royalty on minor

minerals.

District Mineral Foundation (DMF)

• District Mineral Foundation (DMF) is a trust set up as a non-profit

body, in those districts affected by the mining works, to work for the

interest and benefit of persons and areas affected by mining related

operations.

• It is funded through the contributions from miners.

• Its manner of operation comes under the jurisdiction of the relevant

State Government.

• Setting up of District Mineral Foundations (DMFs) in all districts in

the country affected by mining related operations was mandated

through the Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation)

Amendment Act, (MMDRA) 2015.

• Further, using the funds generated by this contribution, the DMFs

are expected to implement the Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra

Kalyan Yojana (PMKKKY), launched for the welfare of mining areas

and affected population.

• Under the Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the

Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA), natural resources (including forest

produce, water sources and minor minerals) are to be managed

and owned by the Gram Sabha.

NGT overruled the Environment ministry’s notifications

• Recently, the NGT has overruled the Environment ministry’s

notifications that exempted mining of minor minerals like sand in

upto 25 hectare area from EIA. The NGT directed public hearings

and EIA for minor mineral mines with 5 to 25 ha area.

• It added state environment impact assessment authority would

evaluate smaller mines of up to 5 ha instead of district environment

impact assessment authorities which lack scientific expertise.

13. Australia has listed koalas as endangered species (IE)

• Why? Once found in abundance, Australia’s much-loved koalas

have now been officially classified as ‘endangered’ after

widespread bushfires, drought and land clearing destroyed much of

their eucalyptus-rich habitat.

What?

• The koalas can only be found in the wild on the southeast and

eastern sides of Australia.

• Koalas live in the eucalyptus forests of southeastern and eastern

Australia. They rely on the eucalyptus tree for both habitat and

food.

• The size, colour and shape of koalas differs slightly across eastern

Australia.

• Koalas have strong arms, and sharp claws suitable for climbing

trees.

• Koalas are not bears—they’re marsupials.

o Marsupials include opossums, Tasmanian devils, kangaroos,

koalas, wombats, wallabies, bandicoots, and the extinct

thylacine.

• Koalas are arboreal (tree dwelling) mammals, however, they do

climb down to the ground and walk to move between trees.

o They Cannot jump through trees like monkeys.

• They consume only eucalyptus leaves (herbivores) and also

obtain most of their water requirements from the leaves.

• Koalas can sleep for up to 20 hours a day, due to their low energy

diet (The leaves are also very low in energy comprising only 5%

sugars and starches on average), and the intense amount of energy

required to break down toxic leaves.

o Eucalyptus leaves contain many toxic compounds similar to

that of cyanide, which most animals cannot eat.

o The koala has an intestinal pouch where a symbiotic

bacteria degrade the tannins and other toxic and complex

substances abundant in eucalyptus.

o Koalas are not born with this bacterium in their system and

need to acquire it from their mother when they are young.

• It’s because the leaves are so low in nutrients that koalas need

more sleep than most animals which basically helps them conserve

energy.

• Koalas are mostly active at night (nocturnal).

• Many koala populations are vulnerable to Chlamydia (bacterial

disease) that can cause blindness, infertility and sometimes death.

Threats to survival

• Habitat loss due to deforestation, land clearing and bushfires.

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

• The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List

of Threatened Species, also called IUCN Red List, is one of the

most well-known objective assessment systems for classifying the

status of plants, animals, and other organisms threatened with

extinction.


• The IUCN system uses a set of five quantitative criteria to assess

the extinction risk of a given species. In general, these criteria

consider:

o The rate of population decline

o The geographic range

o Whether the species already possesses a small population

size

o Whether the species is very small or lives in a restricted area

o Whether the results of a quantitative What? indicate a high

probability of extinction in the wild

• It is important to understand, however, that a species cannot be

classified by using one criterion alone; it is essential for the scientist

doing the assessment to consider all five criteria when determining

the status of the species.

• After a given species has been thoroughly evaluated, it is placed

into one of several categories. (The details of each have been

condensed to highlight two or three of the category’s most salient

points below.)

• In addition, three of the categories (CR, EN, and VU) are contained

within the broader notion of “threatened.” The IUCN Red List of

Threatened Species recognizes several categories of species

status:

o Extinct (EX), a designation applied to species in which the

last individual has died or where systematic and time-

appropriate surveys have been unable to log even a single

individual.

o Extinct in the Wild (EW), a category containing those

species whose members survive only in captivity or as

artificially supported populations far outside their historical

geographic range.

o Critically Endangered (CR), a category containing those

species that possess an extremely high risk of extinction as a

result of rapid population declines of 80 to more than 90

percent over the previous 10 years (or three generations), a

current population size of fewer than 50 individuals, or other

factors.

o Endangered (EN), a designation applied to species that

possess a very high risk of extinction as a result of rapid

population declines of 50 to more than 70 percent over the

previous 10 years (or three generations), a current population

size of fewer than 250 individuals, or other factors.

o Vulnerable (VU), a category containing those species that

possess a very high risk of extinction as a result of rapid

population declines of 30 to more than 50 percent over the

previous 10 years (or three generations), a current population

size of fewer than 1,000 individuals, or other factors.

o Near Threatened (NT), a designation applied to species that

are close to becoming threatened or may meet the criteria for

threatened status in the near future.

o Least Concern (LC), a category containing species that are

pervasive and abundant after careful assessment.

o Data Deficient (DD), a condition applied to species in which

the amount of available data related to its risk of extinction is

lacking in some way. Consequently, a complete assessment

cannot be performed. Thus, unlike the other categories in this

list, this category does not describe the conservation status of

a species.

o Not Evaluated (NE), a category used to include any of the

nearly 1.9 million species described by science but not

assessed by the IUCN.

IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature)

• It is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government

and civil society organisations.

• It is the only environmental organisation with official United

Nations Observer Status.

• Member organisations meet every four years at the IUCN World

Conservation Congress to set priorities and agree on the Union’s

work programme.

• IUCN is the first global environmental Union.

• Data from The IUCN Red List are used as indicators for the United

Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 15:

Life on Land.

• The IUCN Red List Categories define the extinction risk of species

assessed.

• Nine categories extend from NE (Not Evaluated) to EX (Extinct).

• Critically Endangered (CR), Endangered (EN) and Vulnerable (VU)

species are considered to be threatened with extinction.

• The IUCN Red List Index is used by the Convention on Biological

Diversity (CBD) to monitor progress towards achieving the Aichi

Targets.

• Do you know: The year 1500 is the cut-off date for recording

extinctions on the IUCN Red List.

14. Global Environment Facility (GEF) (PIB)

• Why? The Integrated Management of Wetland Biodiversity and

Ecosystems Services (IMWBES) project is funded under Global

Environment Facility (GEF) Trust Fund.

• The three wetlands included in the project are Sasthamcotta Lake

in Kerala, Harike Lake in Punjab and Kabartal in Bihar.

What?

• The GEF Trust Fund was established to help tackle our

planet’s most pressing environmental problems.

• It was established on the eve of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit to help

tackle our planet’s most pressing environmental problems.

• The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is a Financial

Mechanism for 5 major international environmental conventions:

o The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

Change (UNFCCC);

o The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity

(UNCBD);

o The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants

(POPs);


o The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification

(UNCCD);

o The Minamata Convention on Mercury.

• GEF funds are available to developing countries and countries

with economies in transition to meet the objectives of the

international environmental conventions and agreements.

• Through the projects they undertake with support of GEF, these

countries achieve global environmental benefits and fulfill

their commitments under the main environmental conventions.

• GEF funding to support the projects is contributed by donor

countries.

o These financial contributions are replenished every four years

by the 40 GEF donor countries.

o Both developed and developing countries are or have been

donors to the GEF Trust Fund.

o Note: India is also a donor country to the GEF.

o The World Bank serves as the GEF Trustee, administering

the GEF Trust Fund (contributions by donors).

• GEF brings together 184 member governments in addition to civil

society, international organizations, and private sector partners.

• The GEF administers two trust funds i.e. Least Developed

Countries Fund (LDCF) and Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF).

• It also provides secretariat services for the Adaptation Fund.

• The SCCF operates in parallel with the Least Developed Countries

Fund (LDCF). Both funds have a mandate to serve the Paris

Agreement.

Do you know?

• The LDCF is enabling Least Developed Countries to prepare for a

more resilient future.

• LDCF funding helps recipient countries address their short-,

medium- and long-term resilience needs and reduce climate

change vulnerability in priority sectors and ecosystems.

• In 2001, the 194 parties to the United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) set out to address this

challenge by establishing the Least Developed Countries Fund

(LDCF) – the only facility exclusively dedicated to helping these

countries adapt to new climate realities.

• The Special Climate Change Fund is one of the world’s first

multilateral climate adaptation finance instruments, was

created at the 2001 Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United

Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to

help vulnerable nations to address these negative impacts of

climate change.

• SCCF financing is open to all vulnerable developing countries and

supports a wide spectrum of adaptation activities, including

innovative tools that can be scaled for impact.

• The SCCF’s main goal is to facilitate the creation of strong, climate-

resilient economies and communities by helping countries.

15. Bali Islands in Sunderbans (PIB)

• Why? Bali island in the dense mangrove thickets of Sunderbans

which was totally disconnected from the mainstream of

development since Independence, is now bustling with Khadi

activities- a result of efforts by Khadi and Village Industries

Commission (KVIC).

What?

• Bali island, Sundarbans is in West Bengal.

• Tora is a Mangrove species found here and in Japanese TORA

means “Tiger”.

• The island with about 37000 inhabitants has fishing, honey

collection as their main occupation.

Sunderbans

• India has designated Sundarban Wetland as a Wetland of

International Importance.

• The Indian Sunderbans, considered to be an area south of the

Dampier Hodges line, is spread over 9,630 sq. km., of which the

mangrove forests are spread over 4,263 sq. km.

o Dampier Hodges line is an imaginary line, passing through

24 Parganas South and North districts, which indicates the

northern-most limits of estuarine zone affected by tidal

fluctuations.

• The Indian Sunderbans comprise almost 43% of the mangrove

cover in the country according to a 2017 Forest Survey of India

report.

o The Bhitarkanika mangrove ecosystem in Orissa is the

second largest mangrove forest of India mainland.

• Ramsar tag makes Indian Sunderbans the largest protected

wetland in India (earlier it was Vembanad-Kol Wetland).

• The Sunderbans is already a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

• The Sundarban Tiger Reserve is situated within the Site and part

of it has been declared a “critical tiger habitat” under national law

and also a “Tiger Conservation Landscape” of global

importance.

• Sundarban Biosphere Reserve has been constituted under Man

and Biosphere Program.

• Sundarbans are the only mangrove habitat which supports a

significant population of tigers, and they have unique aquatic

hunting skills.

o The Site is also home to a large number of rare and globally

threatened species such as the critically endangered

northern river terrapin, the endangered Irrawaddy dolphin,

and the vulnerable fishing cat.

o Two of the world’s four horseshoe crab species are also

found here.

• Threats to the survival of the Sunderbans: climate change, sea

level rise, widespread construction and clearing of mangrove

forests for fisheries, coal-based thermal power plant in the vicinity

etc.

Do you know?

• Out of the 102 islands at Sunderbans, 54 are inhabited.

• Sunderbans has a highly humid climate.

• The Sunderbans is the largest mangrove swamp, the largest delta

and the largest Estuarine National Park in the World.

• This delta is also among the largest Tiger Reserves in the world.

16. Sea of Galilee (TH)

• Why? In October 2021, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar

visited Israel ahead of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of

formal diplomatic relation between India and Israel.

• A trip to Israel is incomplete without visiting some of the ancient

locations and archaeological and natural wonders like the Sea of

Galilee.


What?

• The Sea of Galilee in northern Israel—one of the lowest-lying

bodies of water in the world—has long been a source of religious

inspiration and intrigue.

• It was along the shores of this shallow freshwater lake where the

Christian gospels say Jesus performed some of his ministry and

certain miracles.

• Some underground springs drain into the lake, but most of its water

arrives through the Jordan River, which flows from Lebanon in the

north to Israel and Jordan in the south.

• The Sea of Galilee (sometimes called Lake Tiberias or Lake

Kinneret) lies within the Jordan Rift Valley (part of the East African

Rift System), a narrow depression that began forming tens of

millions of years ago as the Arabian plate tore away from Africa.

17. Basai Wetlands (TH)

• Why? The Basai wetlands in Gurugram, Haryana, has shrunk to a

quarter of its original size over the years.

What?

• Home to 300-plus species of rare, common and migratory birds,

Basai is recognised as a key biodiversity area by the

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the

Wildlife Institute of India and the BirdLife International, a global

network of NGOs that work to protect bird habitats.

• Given the accelerated expansion of the city of the future, the

wetland continues to disappear under newly laid roads, modern

housing constructions and other infrastructure development.

• An upcoming expressway, cutting through the terrain here, has

majorly impacted the flyway of thousands of migratory birds from

Europe and Central Asia.

18. Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) (TH)

• Why? With the onset of summer, the seasonal migration of wild

animals has begun from the adjacent wildlife sanctuaries in

Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary

(WWS).

• Mammals such as elephants and gaurs migrate to the sanctuary

from the adjacent Bandipur and Nagarhole national parks in

Karnataka and the Mudumalai national park in Tamil Nadu in

search of food and water.

What?

• The Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary Division covers parts of the

Wayanad Plateau (about 3000 km2) situated at the confluence of

three biologically distinct and diverse regions- the main Western

Ghat Mountains, the Nilgiri Hills and the Deccan Plateau.

• The protected areas in WWS share their boundaries with the

protected area network of Nagarhole and Bandipur Tiger

Reserves of Karnataka in the northeast and Mudumalai Tiger

Reserve of Tamil Nadu in the southeast and thus due to ecological

and geographical contiguity offers natural corridors for the

seasonal migration of long ranging animals within the greater

conservation unit.

• The sanctuary is a component of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve

(5,520 km2) and of the Elephant Reserve No. 7 of South India.

• The habitat of Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary along with other forest

regions in elephant reserve No.7, shelter world's largest

recorded population of Asian Elephants and Tigers.

• It is the only sanctuary in Kerala where sightings of four-horned

antelope (Ullaman) are reported.

o The four-horned antelope or chousingha which is known as

'ullaman' in Malayalam, is a small antelope found in India and

Nepal.

o This antelope has four horns which distinguish it from most

other bovid, which have two horns.

o It is included in schedule I of Wildlife Protection Act (1972)

and categorized as Vulnerable by the International Union

for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

• The most remarkable thing about the sanctuary is that it is the only

remaining habitat of the critically endangered vulture

population in Kerala.

o Two species of vultures, viz., Red-headed and white-backed

vultures are a common sight in the sanctuary.

• Kuruma, Paniya, Kattunaicka, Urali, Kurichiar and Adiyar are some

of the tribal communities that inhabit this area.

• Interestingly, it was from here that Pazhassi Raja fought valiantly

against the British.

19. Iceland Announces Plan to End Whaling in 2024 (TH)

• Why? Iceland will bring an end to its commercial whaling practices

by 2024 due to dwindling economic benefits.

What?

• Iceland is one of the only countries that allow commercial whaling,

along with Norway and Japan.

• The practice frequently draws the attention and anger of

environmentalists and animal rights activists.

• One of the favored targets, the fin whale — which is only second in

size to the blue whale — is an endangered species.

• Icelandic whalers have seen little activity in the past three years,

with only one whale being killed during that timeframe.

• Japan's return to whaling in 2019, after a 30-year hiatus, decreased

the demand for Icelandic-caught whales in the Asian country.

• The loss of this key market meant Iceland's whalers have found it

increasingly difficult to justify the costs of an expedition.


• A no-fishing coastal zone has also meant that the few boats that

still make the trip are having to travel further into the Atlantic

Ocean, raising costs.

• Norway has had a similar experience, with fewer whalers and

smaller catches.

• At the same time, Iceland has seen a boom in its tourist industry as

hundreds of thousands flock to witness the creatures swim in the

waters off the Atlantic Island.

20. Golden Langur (TH)

• Why? Neighbours of a golden langur habitat in western Assam’s

Bongaigaon district have opposed a move by the State government

to upgrade it to a wildlife sanctuary.

What?

• Kakoijana Reserve Forest is one of the better-known homes of the

golden langur (Trachypithecus geei) found only in Assam and

Bhutan and a Schedule-I species under the Wildlife Protection Act

of 1972.

• It is listed as among the world’s 25 most endangered primates.

In News: June 2020

Golden Langurs suffer forced abortion, infanticide (The Hindu)

• An endangered species of monkey, found only in Assam and parts

of Bhutan, has a far-from-golden trait — forced abortion.

• The Gee’s golden langur, endemic to the semi-evergreen and

mixed-deciduous forests straddling India and Bhutan, induce

stillbirth of babies killed inside the womb of females, besides

practising infanticide.

• Forced abortion and infanticide happen when a new male takes

over. He often kills the baby of a lactating female or hits the

abdomen of a female impregnated by the deposed male till the

point of abortion.

• Chakrashila is India’s first wildlife sanctuary with golden langur as

the primary species.

21. Wetlands in India highest for any country in South Asia (IE)

• Why? On the eve of the World Wetlands Day (February 2), the

Ramsar Convention on Wetlands designated Khijadia Bird

Sanctuary near Jamnagar in Gujarat and Bakhira Wildlife

Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh as wetlands of international

importance.

What?

• Ramsar Convention on Wetlands defines wetlands as “areas of

marsh, fen, peat land or water, whether natural or artificial,

permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh,

brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which

at low tide does not exceed six meters.”

• However, the Indian government’s definition of wetland excludes

river channels, paddy fields and other areas where commercial

activity takes place.

• The Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017

notified by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate

Change define wetlands as “area of marsh, fen, peatland or water;

whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that

is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine

water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six meters,

but does not include river channels, paddy fields, human-made

water bodies/ tanks specifically constructed for drinking water

purposes and structures specifically constructed for

aquaculture, salt production, recreation and irrigation

purposes.”

Ramsar Convention

• The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance

especially as Waterfowl Habitat is a treaty for conservation and

sustainable use of such sites.

• Ramsar Convention is formally known as Convention on Wetlands

of International Importance.

• It was signed on 2 February 1971 at the Iranian city of Ramsar

(located on the shores of the Caspian Sea).

o That date is celebrated as World Wetland Day now.

• The Ramsar Convention is one of the oldest inter-governmental

accord signed by members countries to preserve the ecological

character of their wetlands of international importance.

• Wetlands declared as Ramsar sites are protected under strict

guidelines of the convention.

• The Ramsar Convention has been ratified by most of the world’s

nations, including the U.S., China and India, and has designated

more than 2,300 sites of international importance.

o Ramsar secretariat is hosted by IUCN World Conservation

Union in Gland, Switzerland.

• This treaty is not a legal binding treaty and is not a part of UN

& UNESCO conventions.

• Ramsar Convention is the only global environment treaty dealing

with a particular ecosystem.

• Once a country joins the Convention:

o It has to designate at least one of its wetlands into the List of

Wetlands of International Importance called “Ramsar List”.

o The above designation has to be based upon criteria that

take into account the ecology, botany, zoology, limnology

(freshwater science) or Hydrology. Thus, not every wetland

becomes a Ramsar site but only those which have

significant values related to these fields.

• The Ramsar convention also makes the countries cooperate in

matters of conservation of the trans-boundary wetlands.

• The inclusion of a wetland in the List embodies the government’s

commitment to take the steps necessary to ensure that its

ecological character is maintained.

• The Convention includes various measures to respond to threats to

the ecological character of Sites.

• The world’s largest protected wetland is Llanos de Moxos,

located in Bolivia.

• The Congo Basin, one of the largest freshwater bodies in the

world, is now home to the largest transboundary Ramsar Site.


Ramsar Convention and India

• India became a contracting party to the Ramsar Convention in

October 1981 and designated Chilika Lake (Odisha) and Keoladeo

National Park (Rajasthan) as its first two Ramsar Sites.

• India’s tally of 49 designated wetlands in 18 states and 2 Union

Territories is the largest network of Ramsar Sites in South

Asia.

• Of the 49 sites, 10 are in UP (maximum), 6 in Punjab, 4 each in

Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir, 3 each in Himachal Pradesh and

Kerala, 2 each in Haryana, Maharashtra, Odisha, West Bengal,

Rajasthan and one each in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Ladakh,

Manipur, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh.

o Kerala: Ashtamudi Wetland, Sasthamkotta Lake, Vembanad-

Kol Wetland.

o Odisha: Bhitarkanika Mangroves, Chilika Lake.

o Madhya Pradesh: Bhoj Wetland.

o Himachal Pradesh: Chandertal Wetland, Pong Dam Lake,

Renuka Wetland.

o Assam: Deepor Beel

o West Bengal: East Calcutta Wetlands and Sunderbans

(2019)

o Punjab: Harike Lake, Ropar, Kanjli (Harike Wetland and the

lake are manmade and were formed by constructing the head

works across the Sutlej river, in 1953), Keshopur-Miani, Beas

Conservation Reserve and Nangal.

o Jammu & Kashmir/ Ladakh: Hokera Wetland, Surinsar-

Mansar Lakes, Tsomoriri, Wular Lake.

o Rajasthan: Keoladeo National Park, Sambhar Lake (added

to the Montreux Record)

o Andhra Pradesh: Kolleru Lake.

o Manipur: Loktak Lake. (added to the Montreux Record)

o Gujarat: Nalsarovar Bird Sanctuary and Khijadia Bird

Sanctuary.

o Tamil Nadu: Point Calimere Wildlife and Bird Sanctuary.

o Tripura: Rudrasagar Lake.

o Uttar Pradesh: Bakhira Wildlife Sanctuary, Upper Ganga

River (Brijghat to Narora Stretch), Nawabganj, Parvati Agra,

Saman, Samaspur, Sandi, Sarsai Nawar and Sur Sarovar,

also known as Keetham lake.

o Maharashtra: Nandur Madhameshwar, Lonar lake

o Bihar: Kabartal

o Uttarakhand: Asan Conservation Reserve in Dehradun.

❖ Ramsar tag makes Indian Sunderbans the largest

protected wetland in India (earlier it was Vembanad-Kol

Wetland). The Sunderbans is already a World Heritage Site.

Montreux Record under the Ramsar Convention

• It is a register of wetland sites on the List of Wetlands of

International Importance where changes in ecological character

have occurred, are occurring, or are likely to occur as a result of

technological developments, pollution or other human interference.

• It is maintained as part of the Ramsar List.

• The Montreux Record was established by Recommendations of the

Conference of the Contracting Parties (1990).

• Sites may be added to and removed from the Record only with

the approval of the Contracting Parties in which they lie.

• Currently, two wetlands of India are in Montreux record viz.

Keoladeo National Park, Rajasthan and Loktak Lake, Manipur.

• Further, Chilka lake was placed in the record but was later removed

from it due to the successful restoration of the site.

National Wetland Conservation Programme (NWCP)

• This programme was launched in 1986 and has identified some 115

wetlands for urgent protection and conservation.

• Under the Scheme, 100% assistance is provided for activities.

Global wetland outlook: state of the world’s wetlands and their

services to people 2018

• The Ramsar Convention recently issued its first-ever global report

on the state of the world’s wetlands.

• Between 1970 and 2015, inland and marine/coastal wetlands both

declined by approximately 35%, where data are available, three

times the rate of forest loss.

Wetlands

• Wetlands provide a wide range of important resources and

ecosystem services such as food, water, fibre, groundwater

recharge, water purification, flood moderation, erosion control

and climate regulation.

• Wetlands can store 50 times more carbon than rain forests, helping

to keep the heat-trapping gas that contributes to climate change out

of the atmosphere.

• Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change has prepared a

four-pronged strategy for the restoration of wetlands which

includes:

o a baseline data,

o wetland health cards,

o enlisting wetland mitras and

o preparing targeted Integrated Management Plans.

Do you know?

• The countries with the most Ramsar Sites are the United Kingdom

(175) and Mexico (142), as per the Ramsar List.

• Bolivia has the largest area with 148,000 sq km under the

Convention protection.

• Globally, wetlands cover 6.4 per cent of the geographical area of

the world.

• In India, according to the National Wetland Inventory and

Assessment compiled by the Indian Space Research

Organisation (ISRO), wetlands cover 4.63 per cent of the total

geographical area of the country.

• Of this, inland-natural wetlands account for 43.4% and coastal-

natural wetlands 24.3%.

• Gujarat is at the top (with 17.56 percent of total geographical area

of the state), or 22.7 percent of total wetlands areas of the country

thanks to a long coastline.

• It is followed by Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal

(in descending order of area covered under wetlands).

B) Economic Developments: India and World

22. India’s Export of Fresh Fruits (PIB)

• Why? India’s export of fresh fruits has witnessed considerable

growth.

What?

• Fresh Grapes is the largest exported items among all fresh

food category.


• India's major exporting destination of fresh fruits during 2020-21

were Bangladesh, Netherland, UAE, UK, Nepal etc. (in decreasing

order of the value of the export)

• The export of guavas from India sees a growth of 260% since 2013.

Agro-Climatic Requirements for Guavas

• Guava is grown in both tropical and sub-tropical regions upto 1,500

m. above mean sea level.

• It tolerates high temperatures and drought conditions prevalent in

north India in summers.

• However, it is susceptible to severe frost as it can kill the young

plants.

• An annual rainfall of about 100 cm. is sufficient during the rainy

season (July-September).

• Rainfall during the harvesting period deteriorates the quality of

fruits.

• Good quality guavas are produced in river basins.

• The crop is sensitive to water-logging.


• Why? The Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance today

released an amount of Rs. 1348.10 crore to 6 States for providing

grants to Urban Local Bodies.

What?

• The 15th Finance Commission in its report for the period from 2021-

22 to 2025-26 has divided the Urban Local Bodies into two

categories:

o (a) Million-Plus urban agglomerations/cities (excluding Delhi

and Srinagar), and

o (b) all other cities and towns with less than one million

population (Non-Million Plus cities).

• The 15th FC has recommended separate grants for them.

• Out of the total grants recommended by the Commission for Non-

Million Plus cities, 40% is basic (untied) grant and the remaining

60% is tied grant.

o Basic grants (untied) are utilised for location specific felt

needs, except for payment of salary and incurring other

establishment expenditure.

o On the other hand, tied grants for the Non-Million Plus

cities are released for supporting and strengthening the

delivery of basic services.

• Out of the total tied grant, 50% is earmarked for ‘Sanitation Solid

Waste Management and attainment of Star Ratings for Garbage

Free Cities as developed by the Ministry of Housing & Urban

Affairs (MOH&UA).

o The remaining 50% is tied to ‘Drinking water, rainwater

harvesting and water recycling’.

• The tied grants are meant to ensure availability of additional funds

to urban local bodies over and above the funds allocated by the

Centre and the State for sanitation and drinking water under various

Centrally Sponsored Schemes and provide quality services to

citizens.

24. Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication

(SWIFT) (TH)

• Why? The U.S., Europe and several other western nations are

moving to exclude Russia from the Society for Worldwide

Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), an

international network for banks to facilitate smooth money

transactions globally.

What?

What is SWIFT?

• SWIFT is a messaging network used by banks and financial

institutions globally for quick and faultless exchange of information

pertaining to financial transactions.

• Each participant on the platform is assigned a unique eight-digit

SWIFT code or a bank identification code (BIC).

o If a person, say, in New York with a Citibank account, wants

to send money to someone with an HSBC account in London,

the payee would have to submit to his bank, the London-

based beneficiary’s account number along with the eight-digit

SWIFT code of the latter's bank.

o Citi would then send a SWIFT message to HSBC. Once that

is received and approved, the money would be credited to the

required account.

• The Belgium-headquartered SWIFT is merely a platform that

sends messages and does not hold any securities or money.

• It provides standardised and reliable communication to facilitate the

transaction.

What happens if one is excluded from SWIFT?

• If a country is excluded from the most participatory financial

facilitating platform, its foreign funding would take a hit, making it

entirely reliant on domestic investors.

Are any countries excluded from SWIFT?

• Certain Iranian banks were ousted from the system in 2018.

How is the organisation governed?

• It is regulated by G-10 (eleven industrial countries) central banks of

Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands,

the United Kingdom, the United States, Switzerland, and Sweden,

alongside the European Central Bank.

• The SWIFT oversight forum was established in 2012. The G-10

participants were joined by the central banks of India, Australia,

Russia, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, the

Republic of Turkey, and the People’s Republic of China.

An Alternative to SWIFT

• During the last seven years, Russia, too, has worked on

alternatives, including the SPFS (System for Transfer of

Financial Messages) — an equivalent of the SWIFT financial

transfer system developed by the Central Bank of Russia.

• The Russians are reported to be collaborating with the Chinese on

a possible venture which will be a potential challenger to SWIFT.

25. Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) in Detail (TH)

• Why? India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a

Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

What?

What are Free Trade Agreements (FTAs)?

• FTAs are arrangements between two or more countries or trading

blocs that primarily agree to reduce or eliminate customs tariff and

non-tariff barriers on substantial trade between them.

• FTAs, normally cover trade in goods (such as agricultural or

industrial products) or trade in services (such as banking,

construction, trading etc.).


o FTAs can also cover other areas such as intellectual property

rights (IPRs), investment, government procurement and

competition policy, etc.

What is the difference between the terms such as PTA, CECA,

RTA, CEPA, Customs Union, Common Market and Economic

Union? How are these related to FTAs?

Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA)

• In a PTA, two or more partners agree to reduce tariffs on agreed

number of tariff lines.

• The list of products on which the partners agree to reduce duty is

called positive list.

• India MERCOSUR PTA is such an example.

o The Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR for its Spanish

initials) is a regional integration process, initially established

by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, and

subsequently joined by Venezuela and Bolivia* -the latter still

complying with the accession procedure.

o Venezuela's membership has been suspended for violating

the bloc's democratic principles since 2016.

o India is neither an associated state nor an observer state for

this bloc.

• However, in general PTAs do not cover substantially all trade.

Free Trade Agreement (FTA)

• In FTAs, tariffs on items covering substantial bilateral trade are

eliminated between the partner countries; however, each maintains

individual tariff structure for non-members.

• India Sri Lanka FTA is an example.

• The key difference between an FTA and a PTA is that while in a

PTA there is a positive list of products on which duty is to be

reduced; in an FTA there is a negative list on which duty is not

reduced or eliminated.

• Thus, compared to a PTA, FTAs are generally more ambitious in

coverage of tariff lines (products) on which duty is to be reduced.

Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) and

Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA)

• These terms describe agreements which consist of an integrated

package on goods, services and investment along with other areas

including IPR, competition etc.

• The India Korea CEPA is one such example and it covers a broad

range of other areas like trade facilitation and customs cooperation,

investment, competition, IPR etc.

How is CECA/CEPA different from FTA?

• A Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) or a

Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) is

different from a traditional Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on two

counts.

• Firstly, CECA/CEPA are more comprehensive and ambitious that

an FTA in terms of coverage of areas and the type of commitments.

o While a traditional FTA focuses mainly on goods; a

CECA/CEPA is more ambitious in terms of a holistic

coverage of many areas like services, investment,

competition, government procurement, disputes etc.

• Secondly, CECA/CEPA looks deeper at the regulatory aspects of

trade than an FTA.

Custom Union

• In a Customs union, partner countries may decide to trade at zero

duty among themselves, however they maintain common tariffs

against rest of the world.

• An example is Southern African Customs Union (SACU) amongst

South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland.

• European Union is also an outstanding example.

Common Market

• Integration provided by a Common market is one step deeper than

that by a Customs Union.

• A common market is a Customs Union with provisions to facilitate

free movements of labour and capital, harmonize technical

standards across members etc.

• European Common Market is an example.

Economic Union

• Economic Union is a Common Market extended through further

harmonization of fiscal/monetary policies and shared executive,

judicial & legislative institutions.

• European Union (EU) is an example.

Increasing order of economic integration

• Free Trade Area-> Custom Union-> Common Market-> Economic

Union

What is an Early Harvest Scheme/Programme (EHS) and how

different is it from an FTA?

• Early harvest scheme is a precursor to a free trade agreement

(FTA) between two trading partners.

• This is to help the two trading countries to identify certain products

for tariff liberalisation pending the conclusion of FTA negotiation.

How is tariff reduction under an FTA different from WTO tariff

negotiation?

• In an FTA tariff reduction is generally undertaken with reference to

the base rate i.e., from the applied MFN tariffs.

• However, the WTO negotiations are always based on "bound duty

rates" and not the MFN applied duties.

Why are almost all the countries signing Free Trade Agreements?

• By eliminating tariffs and some non-tariff barriers FTA partners get

easier market access into one another's markets.

• Exporters prefer FTAs to multilateral trade liberalization because

they get preferential treatment over non-FTA member country

competitors.

• Possibility of increased foreign investment from outside the FTA.

o Consider 2 countries A and B having an FTA. Country A has

high tariff and large domestic market. The firms based in

country C may decide to invest in country A to cater to A's

domestic market. However, once A and B sign an FTA and B

offers better business environment, C may decide to locate

its plant in B to supply its products to A.

What are SPS and TBT measures? Do they figure in FTAs?

• SPS measures is an acronym for “sanitary and phytosanitary”

measures and broadly includes measures for the protection of

plant, animal and human health.

o The World Trade Organisation’s (WTO’s) SPS Agreement

describes these measures in detail.

• TBT is an acronym for “technical barriers to trade” and broadly

includes standards, technical regulations and conformity

assessment procedures as defined in WTO’s TBT Agreement.

The major bilateral agreements of India are:


• India-Sri Lanka: FTA

• India-Malaysia: FTA

• India-Singapore CECA

• India-Japan: CEPA

• India-South Korea: CEPA

Tariff and Non-Tariff Barriers to Trade Tariff Barriers to Trade

• Specific Tariffs

o A fixed fee levied on one unit of an imported good is referred

to as a specific tariff.

• Ad Valorem Tariffs

o The phrase ad valorem is Latin for "according to value," and

this type of tariff is levied on a good based on a percentage of

that good's value.

o An example of an ad valorem tariff would be a 15% tariff

levied by Japan on U.S. automobiles.

Non-Tariff Barriers to Trade

• Import Licensing

• Import Quotas

o An import quota is a restriction placed on the amount of a

particular good that can be imported.

• Voluntary Export Restraints (VER)

o This type of trade barrier is "voluntary" in that it is created by

the exporting country rather than the importing one.

o A voluntary export restraint is usually levied at the behest of

the importing country and could be accompanied by a

reciprocal VER.

o For example, Brazil could place a VER on the exportation of

sugar to Canada, based on a request by Canada. Canada

could then place a VER on the exportation of coal to Brazil.

This increases the price of both coal and sugar but protects

the domestic industries.

• Local Content Requirement

o Instead of placing a quota on the number of goods that can

be imported, the government can require that a certain

percentage of a good be made domestically.

o The restriction can be a percentage of the good itself or a

percentage of the value of the good.

• Rules for the valuation of goods at customs

• Pre-shipment inspection: further checks on imports

• Rules of origin: made in ... where?

• Investment measures

• Trade documentation

• Technical barriers to trade (TBT)

• Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures (SPS) (Plant and animal

health regulations)

26. What is an IPO? (IE)

• Why? Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) is all set to bring in

country’s largest initial public offering (IPO). The union government

is currently 100% owner of the LIC.

What?

• An IPO is the process by which a privately held company, or a

company owned by the government such as LIC, raises funds

by offering shares to the public or to new investors.

• When a company offers its shares for the first time, it is called an

IPO or an Initial Public Offering. During this process, the company

offers its shares to the general public and this entire process is

carried out through the primary market.

• It simply means that through IPOs, the company collects funds

which it uses to grow the business or to pay off any heavy debts.

IPO (Initial Public Offering) is a way to invest in companies before

they get listed on the Stock Market.

• After the launch of IPO, the company gets listed on the stock

exchange.

• While coming with an IPO, the company has to file its offer

document (also called Draft Red Herring Prospectus- DRHP) with

the market regulator i.e. Securities and Exchange Board of India

(SEBI).

• The offer document contains all relevant information about the

company, its promoters, its projects, financial details, the purpose

of raising the money, terms of the issue, etc.

Which companies can come out with an IPO?

• In order to protect investors, SEBI has laid down rules that require

companies to meet certain criteria before they can go to the public

to raise funds.

• Some of the conditions are:

o The company must have net tangible assets of at least Rs 3

crore, and net worth of Rs 1 crore in each of the preceding

three full years.

o It must have a minimum average pre-tax profit of Rs 15 crore

in at least three of the immediately preceding five years.

• IPO is used to raise capital through two modes namely Fresh

Capital and Offer for Sale (OFS)

o If the issue raises fresh capital, the proceeds of the IPO go

to the company, and can be utilised for future growth,

expansion, debt reduction, etc.

o If the issue involves offer for sale by promoters or existing

investors, then the money goes to them and not to the

company.

o In the case of LIC, the issue is an offer for sale by the

government, and the IPO proceeds will go to the Government

of India.

Who fixes the price of securities in an issue?

• The per-share price of the public issue is fixed by the issuer in

consultation with the merchant banker.

• The regulator, SEBI, does not play a role in price fixation.

• Both SEBI and RBI have set guidelines for a company to follow

during IPO process.

What are the advantages of listing a company?

• While listing on the stock exchange calls for additional disclosures

by companies and stringent compliance requirements, it may help

a company raise capital, and diversify and broaden its

shareholder base.

• Listing provides an exit to existing investors of the company.

• A listed company can raise share capital for growth and

expansion in the future through a follow-on public offering or

FPO.

o When a company offers its shares for the first time, it is called

an IPO.

o On the other hand, when an already listed company raises

funds from the public again, it is called a Follow-on Public

Offer or FPO.


o A company could offer a FPO because of many reasons like

If it needs funds for a new project, or For expansion

Who can invest in an IPO?

• There are various categories of investors who can invest in an IPO.

• Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) is a category of investors

that includes foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), mutual funds,

commercial banks, insurance companies, pension funds, etc.

• All individuals who invest up to Rs 2 lakh in an issue are classified

as retail investors. Retail investors investing above Rs 2 lakh are

classified as high net worth individuals.

• You have to be 18 years of age to become an investor also a

Demat Account (Where shares are held in the dematerialised form)

is needed.

27. Japanese Industrial Townships (JITs) in India (PIB)

• Why? A Joint Meeting was held between India (Department for

Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade (DPIIT)) and Japan (Ministry

of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)) for annual review of

progress under Japanese Industrial Townships (JITs) in India.

What?

• Japan Industrial Townships (JITs) were set up pursuant to the

“Action Agenda for the India-Japan Investment and Trade

Promotion and Asia-Pacific Economic Integration” signed between

METI, Government of Japan and DPIIT, Government of India in

April 2015 to take steps to develop “Japan Industrial Townships” in

India especially in Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) and

Chennai Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (CBIC) regions in order to

facilitate Japanese investment to India.

• Japan is the only country that has dedicated country-focused

industrial townships across India.

• These Japanese Industrial Townships (JITs) offer facilities such as,

special Japan desks for translation and facilitation support, world

class infrastructure facilities, plug and play facilities, residential

clusters, and special incentives for Japanese companies.

• There are ready to move in facilities and fully developed land

available for allotment in these townships.

28. Agriculture Infrastructure Development Cess (AIDC) (PIB)

• Why? With a view to provide further relief to consumers and to

keep in check any further rise in the prices of domestic edible oils

due to rise in the prices of edible oils globally, the Government of

India has reduced the agri-cess for Crude Palm Oil (CPO).

What?

• AIDC, to be collected on specific imported and excisable goods,

was proposed by the Budget for 2021-22.

• The purpose of the new AIDC is to raise funds to finance

spending on developing agriculture infrastructure aimed at not

only boosting production but also in helping conserve and process

farm output efficiently.

• Considering that not much private investment is forthcoming for

agriculture, the Centre now seeks to raise a dedicated fund to

meet these expenses.

• The new cess will be levied on 29 products, prominent among

which are gold, silver, imported apple, imported alcohol (excluding

beer), imported pulses, imported palm oil, imported urea, and

petrol/diesel including branded ones (as an additional duty of

excise).

o Social Welfare Surcharge (SWS) would be levied on AIDC.

However, exemption from SWS on AIDC has been given on

gold and silver.

o The applicable Road and Infrastructure Cess (RIC) on

petrol/diesel remains unchanged.

o Goods imported under customs duty exemptions available

under FTA and EOU as well as under advance authorisation

schemes are exempted from AIDC.

• When customs duty or excise is replaced by cess, the pie from

which States get a share tends to shrink.

Difference between the Cess, Surcharge and Usual Taxes

Cess

• Cess is a kind of special-purpose tax which is levied over and

above basic tax rates (a tax on tax).

• A cess is a levy for a specific purpose and ought to be used for the

said purpose only.

• Generally, cess is expected to be levied till the time the

government gets enough money for the earmarked purpose

and not for any other purposes. In simple words, a cess tax is an

earmarked tax.

o If the purpose for which the cess is created is fulfilled, it

should be eliminated.

• Article 270 of the Constitution describes a cess.

• Cess may be levied by the union or state governments.

• Cess are named after the identified purpose; the purpose itself

must be certain and for public good.

• Every cess is collected after Parliament has authorised its creation

through an enabling legislation that specifies the purpose for which

the funds are being raised.

• Article 270 of the Constitution allows cess to be excluded from

the purview of the divisible pool of taxes that the Union government

must share with the States.

How many cesses does govt. levy?

• The introduction of the GST in 2017 led to most cesses being done

away with and as of August 2018, there were only seven cesses

that continued to be levied. These were:

o Cess on Exports,

o Cess on Crude Oil,

o Health and Education Cess,

o Road and Infrastructure Cess,

o Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Cess,

o National Calamity Contingent Duty on Tobacco and Tobacco

Products and

o the GST Compensation Cess.

• And in February, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced a

new cess — a Health Cess of 5% on imported medical devices —

in the Finance Bill for 2020-2021.

Surcharge

• On the other hand, ‘Surcharge’ is an additional charge or tax levied

on an existing tax imposed for the purposes of the Union.

• Unlike a cess, which is meant to raise revenue for a temporary

need, surcharge is usually permanent in nature.

• In case no tax is due for a financial year, then no surcharge is

levied.


• A surcharge is dealt with under Article 271 of the Constitution.

• Surcharges, in India, are used to make the taxation system more

‘progressive’.

o They are used to ensure that the rich contribute more to the

tax kitty than the poor.

• An example of surcharge is one where individuals earning more

than ₹1,00,00,000 annually are required to pay an extra sum

amounting to 15% on their income tax.

Following are the difference between the usual taxes, surcharge

and cess.

• The usual taxes go to the consolidated fund of India and can be

spent for any purposes.

o Surcharge also go to the consolidated fund of India and can

be spent for any purposes.

o Cess go to Consolidated Fund of India but can be spent only

for the specific purposes for which they have been created.

• The proceeds collected from a surcharge and a cess levied by the

union need not be shared with the State governments and are thus

at the exclusive disposal of the union government.

• The use of usual taxes, cess and surcharges requires

appropriation bill to be passed in the Parliament.

• Hence, it can be seen that the Constitution makes a distinction

between a cess and a surcharge and the two cannot be used

interchangeably.

From the News

March 2021: Cess, surcharge share doubles to 19.9 pc of central

taxes in FY21

• The share of cesses and surcharges in the gross tax revenue of the

Centre has nearly doubled to 19.9 per cent in 2020-21 from 10.4

per cent in 2011-12.

• Under the existing Finance Commission (FC) framework, the

cesses and surcharges collected by the Centre are not part of the

tax devolution (‘Cess and surcharge not a subject in the domain of

Finance Commission’ apart from taking adverse note of it).

• And, the massive spike in the same has forced the FC to suggest

higher grant-in-aid to the states to compensate for the low growth in

tax devolution which is pegged at 41 per cent during the operation

of the 15th FC award.

o The key reason for higher growth in grants-in-aid and lower

growth in tax devolution to the states is the increase in the

proportion of the central cess and surcharges as they are not

part of the tax devolution to the states.

• As a result, the transfer from the Centre to the states including non-

finance commission transfers declined to 48.6 per cent in 2019-20

from 53.4 per cent in 2011-12.

Dec 2020

• The Comptroller and Auditor General of India, in its report for FY

2018-19, observed that out of the total ₹2,74,592 crore received

from 35 cesses and other charges in 2018-19, merely ₹1,64,322

crore had been transferred to respective funds/boards and the rest

was detained by the Consolidated Fund of India.

• The CAG found this objectionable since cess collections are

supposed to be transferred to specified Reserve Funds that

Parliament has approved for each of these levies.

o Drawing power from Articles 270 and 271 of the Constitution,

the Centre collects cess and deposits it in the Consolidated

Fund of India.

o However, the money is then supposed to be transferred to a

segregated fund to be used for specific purpose.

• Given that the money collected through cess and surcharge are not

part of the divisible pool, from which devolution of Central

taxes takes place to the States, this increasing share of cess in

the Union government’s tax receipts has a direct impact on fiscal

devolution.


• Why? The Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance released

grants to Urban Local Bodies for the States of Andhra Pradesh,

Bihar, Gujarat and Sikkim. The grants released are meant for Non-

Million Plus cities (NMPCs) including Cantonment Boards.

What?

• The 15th Finance Commission in its report for the period from 2021-

22 to 2025-26 has divided the Urban Local Bodies into two

categories:

o (a) Million-Plus urban agglomerations/cities (excluding Delhi

and Srinagar), and

o (b) all other cities and towns with less than one million

population (Non-Million Plus cities).

• The 15th FC has recommended separate grants for them.

• Out of the total grants recommended by the Commission for Non-

Million Plus cities, 40% is basic (untied) grant and the remaining

60% is tied grant.

o Basic grants (untied) are utilised for location specific felt

needs, except for payment of salary and incurring other

establishment expenditure.

o On the other hand, tied grants for the Non-Million Plus

cities are released for supporting and strengthening the

delivery of basic services.

• Out of the total tied grant, 50% is earmarked for ‘Sanitation Solid

Waste Management and attainment of Star Ratings for Garbage

Free Cities as developed by the Ministry of Housing & Urban

Affairs (MOH&UA).

o The remaining 50% is tied to ‘Drinking water, rainwater

harvesting and water recycling’.

• The tied grants are meant to ensure availability of additional funds

to urban local bodies over and above the funds allocated by the

Centre and the State for sanitation and drinking water under various

Centrally Sponsored Schemes and provide quality services to

citizens.

30. Retail Inflation (TH)

• Why? India’s retail inflation accelerated past the 6% mark in

January to hit 6.01%, breaching the central bank’s tolerance

threshold for consumer price inflation for the first time since June

2021.

What?

Retail inflation

• Inflation means the increase in prices of certain products or

commodities compared to a base price.


• In India, the index which shows the inflation rate at retail level is

known as Consumer Price Index (CPI).

• CPI is based on retail prices and this index is used to calculate the

Dearness Allowance (DA) for government employees.

Inflation Targets

o Inflation Target: Four per cent.

o Upper tolerance level: Six per cent.

o Lower tolerance level: Two per cent.

• In case the inflation target is failed to achieve (2% higher or lower

than the set target of 4% for continuous three quarters), the RBI

has to give an explanation to the government about the reasons,

the remedial actions and the estimated time for realizing the target.

Headline Inflation

• Headline inflation is the raw inflation figure reported through the

Consumer Price Index (CPI).

• Monetary Policy Committee of the RBI uses 'headline inflation' to

take its decision.

Core Inflation

• Core inflation removes the CPI components that can exhibit large

amounts of volatility from month to month, which can cause

unwanted distortion to the headline figure.

• The most commonly removed factors are those relating to the cost

of food and energy.

31. Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 (TH)

• Why? A three-judge Bench in Supreme Court is holding back-to-

back hearings on petitions filed by people from all walks of life and

across the country complaining of the alleged subversion of the

Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by the government

and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

What?

Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002

• It is a Criminal Law which criminalises money laundering, with the

officers empowered to conduct investigations to trace assets

derived out of the proceeds of crime.

• It has provisions to provisionally attach/ confiscate these assets.

• It provides powers to arrest and prosecute the offenders found

to be involved in Money Laundering.

• All PMLA offences will be cognisable and non-bailable. Therefore,

ED officers are empowered to arrest an accused without warrant,

subject to certain conditions.

What is the legal authority to prosecute money laundering at

national level?

• The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) together

with the rules and regulations prescribed by regulators such as the

Reserve Bank of India, the Securities and Exchange Board of

India and Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of

India, sets out the broad framework for the prosecution of money

laundering in India.

• The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) is empowered by the Union

Government to investigate and prosecute money laundering.

o Directorate of Enforcement is a specialized financial

investigation agency under the Department of Revenue,

Ministry of Finance.

o ED enforces the following laws: -

❖ Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) - A Civil

Law.

❖ Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) - A

Criminal Law.

• PMLA also seeks to prevent money laundering by mandating

record-keeping and reporting obligations imposed on banks,

financial institutions and intermediaries.

What are proceeds of crime?

• Any property derived or obtained directly or indirectly by any

person:

o as a result of criminal activity;

o relating to a 'scheduled offence'; or

• Scheduled offences range from those relating to corporate fraud,

terrorism, illegal trade of arms, wildlife, narcotics to bribery of

public officials.

• A wilful attempt to evade tax under section 51 of the Black Money

(Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax

Act 2015 are also scheduled offences.

Is there any extra-territorial jurisdiction for the crime of money

laundering? or Is money laundering of the proceeds of foreign

crimes punishable?

• PMLA confers extra-territorial jurisdiction to the government to

prosecute the offence of money laundering for 'offences of cross-

border implications.'

• PMLA allows for attachment and confiscation of equivalent

assets in India or overseas whenever the asset constituting the

proceeds of crime is located abroad and cannot be forfeited.

• The offences of money laundering under the PMLA cannot be

compounded.

To what extent have anti- money laundering requirements been

applied to the cryptocurrency industry?

• RBI's circular has banned all entities regulated by RBI which include

banks, financial institutions, non-banking financial institutions,

payment system providers, etc. from dealing in, or facilitating any

dealings in, cryptocurrencies.

How money is laundered in India?

• Money Laundering refers to the conversion of money which has

been illegally obtained, in such a way that it appears to have

originated from a legitimate source.

o The term "money laundering" is said to have originated from

the mafia ownership of Laundromats in the United States.

o The mafia earned huge amounts from extortion, gambling

etc. and showed legitimate source (such as laundomats) for

these monies.

• In India, money laundering is popularly known as Hawala

transactions.

o Hawala is an alternative or parallel remittance system.

"Hawala" is an Arabic word meaning the transfer of money or

information between two persons using a third person.

o The system dates to the Arabic traders as a means of

avoiding robbery. It predates western banking by several

centuries.

• The Hawala Mechanism facilitated the conversion of money from

black into white.


o Black money refers to funds earned, on which income and

other taxes have not been paid. Black money is earned

through illegally traded goods or services.

o While the money earned through legal means on which due

taxes have been paid is referred to as white money.

• Figure 1 lays down the process followed by the Hawala operators.

Do you know?

• Out of 141 countries, India has been ranked 70th in 2020 (Data not

available for India in 2021) in the Anti Money Laundering (AML)

Basel Index 2020.

• Published by the Basel Institute on Governance since 2012, it

provides risk scores based on data from 17 publicly available

sources such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF),

Transparency International, the World Bank and the World

Economic Forum.

• AML Basel index is country risk ranking which focuses on money

laundering/terrorist financing risk.

• Higher the rank - It shows the country is very vulnerable to money

laundering activities and is a high-risk zone.

Foreign Exchange Management Act,1999 (FEMA)

• It is a Civil Law, with officers empowered to conduct investigations

into suspected contraventions of the Foreign Exchange Laws and

Regulations.

• It can impose only financial penalties on those adjudged to

have contravened the law.

32. Index of Industrial Production (IIP) (TH)

• Why? India’s industrial recovery slowed sharply in December, with

factory output growing just 0.4% year-on-year and manufacturing

shrinking 0.1% in the month, as per quick official estimates for the

Index of Industrial Production (IIP).

What?

• IIP measures the short-term changes in the volume of production

of a basket of industrial products during a given period with respect

to that in a chosen base period.

• It is computed and published by the Central Statistical

Organisation (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme

Implementation, on monthly basis (with a time-lag of 6 weeks as

per the norms of IMF).

• It is a composite indicator that measures the growth rate of industry

groups classified under,

o Broad sectors, namely, Mining, Manufacturing and

Electricity;

o Use-based sectors, namely Basic Goods, Capital Goods

and Intermediate Goods.

• Currently IIP figures are calculated considering 2011-12 as base

year with around 407 items.

• The monthly figure of production value is first deflated by the

Wholesale Price Index (WPI) of the corresponding categories,

released by the Office of the Economic Adviser, Ministry of

Industry.

• The scope of the IIP as recommended by the United Nations

Statistical Office (UNSO) includes mining, manufacturing,

construction, electricity, gas and water supply. But due to

constraints of data availability, the IIP compiled in India has

excluded construction, gas and water supply sectors.

• Following are the three sectors of the IIP as per the revision based

on 2011-12 series.

o (i) Mining (1 item, about 14.3% weight),

o (ii) Manufacturing (405 items, about 77.6% weight), and

o (iii) Electricity (1 item, about 7.9% weight).

• Electricity generation from renewable energy sources has been

included under the ‘Electricity’ sector.

• Weights are rationalised to appropriately to reflect the actual

value addition of each sector incorporating effects of subsidies.

• The all-India IIP data is used for estimation of Gross Value

Added of Manufacturing sector on quarterly basis.

• The industries are divided into six use-based sectors, in descending

order of their weights:

o Primary goods (weight 34%),

o Intermediate goods (weight 17%),

o Consumer non-durables (weight 15%),

o Consumer durables (weight 13%),

o Infrastructure/ construction goods (weight 12%),

o Capital goods (weight 8%).

33. Threats to Cryptocurrency and How it works? (TH)

• Why? RBI Governor said that cryptocurrencies were a threat to

the country’s financial stability and had no underlying value,

not even a tulip.

• The tulip reference is to a 17th-century market bubble when

investors bet on the price of tulip bulbs.

What?

• Cryptocurrency or crypto, is any form of currency that exists

digitally or virtually and uses cryptography to secure

transactions.

• Cryptocurrencies don't have a central issuing or regulating

authority, instead using a decentralized system to record

transactions and issue new units.

• Cryptocurrency is a digital payment system that doesn't rely on

banks to verify transactions.

• It’s a peer-to-peer system that can enable anyone anywhere to

send and receive payments.

• Instead of being physical money carried around and

exchanged in the real world, cryptocurrency payments exist

purely as digital entries to an online database describing

specific transactions called Blockchain.


• When you transfer cryptocurrency funds, the transactions are

recorded in a public ledger. Cryptocurrency is stored in digital

wallets.

• Cryptocurrency received its name because it uses encryption

to verify transactions. This means advanced coding is involved in

storing and transmitting cryptocurrency data between wallets and to

public ledgers. The aim of encryption is to provide security and

safety.

• The first cryptocurrency was Bitcoin, which was founded in 2009.

How it works?

• Cryptocurrencies run on a distributed public ledger called

blockchain, a record of all transactions updated and held by

currency holders.

• Units of cryptocurrency are created through a process called

mining, which involves using computer power to solve

complicated mathematical problems that generate coins. Users

can also buy the currencies from brokers, then store and spend

them using cryptographic wallets.

• Usually, cryptocurrency is stored in crypto wallets, which are

physical devices or online software used to store the private keys to

your cryptocurrencies securely.

Advantages of Cryptocurrency:

1. Protection from inflation

• Inflation has caused many currencies to urge their value to decline

with time.

• There are only 21 million Bitcoins released within the planet. So,

because the demand increases, its value will increase but the

supply is limited, within the long run, prevent inflation.

2. Self-governed and managed

• The cryptocurrency transactions are stored by developers/miners

on their hardware, for which they get the transaction fee as a gift for

doing so.

• Since the miners have become acquired it, they keep transaction

records accurate and up-to-date, keeping the integrity of the

cryptocurrency and also the records decentralized.

3. Decentralized

• The decentralization helps keep the currency monopoly free and in

restraint, so nobody can determine the flow and the worth of the

cryptocurrency, which, in turn, will keep it stable and secure,

unlike fiat currencies which are controlled by the Government.

4. Cost-effective mode of transaction

• One of the most uses of cryptocurrencies is to send money across

borders. With the help of cryptocurrency, the transaction fees paid

by a user are reduced to a negligible or zero amount.

• It does so by eliminating the need for third parties, like VISA or

PayPal, to verify a transaction. It removes the requirement to pay

any extra transaction fees.

5. Boosting International trade

• Cryptocurrency can be bought using many currencies of different

countries

• rather than in Hard Currencies like the US dollar, European euro,

UK Pound, Japanese yen and Chinese Yuan.

6. Secure and private

• The blockchain ledger relies on different mathematical puzzles,

which are hard to decode. It makes cryptocurrency safer than

ordinary electronic transactions.

• Cryptocurrencies also don't require a bank account. They are

stored in digital wallets.

7. Easy transfer of funds

• Cryptocurrencies have always kept themselves as an optimal

solution for transactions. Transactions, whether international or

domestic in cryptocurrencies, are lightning-fast.

• It will be because the verification requires little time to process as

there are only some barriers to cross.

Disadvantages of Cryptocurrency

1. Illegal transactions

• Since the privacy and security of cryptocurrency transactions are

high, it’s hard for the government to trace down any user by their

wallet address or keep tabs on their data. Bitcoin has been used

as a mode of payment (exchanging money) during many illegal

deals in the past, like buying drugs on the dark web.

2. Risk of Data Loss

• The developers wanted to make hacking defenses, and

impenetrable authentication protocols.

• It would make it safer to position money in cryptocurrencies than

physical cash or bank vaults.

• But if any user loses the private key to their wallet, there is no

getting it back. The wallet will remain locked away along with the

number of coins inside it. It might result in the loss of the user.

3. Power lies in few hands

• Although cryptocurrencies are known for their feature of being

decentralized, the flow and amount of some currencies within the

market are still controlled by their creators and some organizations.

• These holders can manipulate the coin for enormous swings in its

price. Even hugely traded coins are at risk of these manipulations

like Bitcoin, whose value doubled several times in 2021.

5. No refund or cancellation

• If there is a dispute between concerned parties, or if someone

mistakenly sends funds to a wrong wallet address, the coin cannot

be retrieved by the sender. It might be utilized by many folks to

cheat others out of their money.

• Since there are no refunds, one can easily be created for a

transaction whose product or services they never received.

6. High consumption of Energy

• Mining cryptocurrencies require plenty of computational power and

electricity input, making it highly energy-intensive. Mining requires

advanced computers and plenty of energy. One cannot do it on

ordinary computers.

• Major Bitcoin miners are in countries like China that use coal to

produce electricity. It has increased China’s carbon footprint

tremendously.

7. Vulnerable to hacks

• Although cryptocurrencies are very secure, exchanges don’t seem

to be that secure.

• Most exchanges store the wallet data of users to figure their user ID

correctly. This data is often stolen by hackers, giving them access

to lots of accounts.

34. Understanding the Policy Stances of the RBI (TH)

• Why? The RBI has decided to keep the benchmark repo rate

unchanged at 4% and reiterated its ‘accommodative’ policy


stance in a bid to ensure the economy’s recovery from the COVID-

19 pandemic becomes durable and broad-based.

• The improving outlook for inflation gave it room to focus on growth,

the RBI added.

What?

• The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) took the view that

continued policy support — which means status quo on interest

rates and an accommodative policy stance — is warranted for a

durable and broad-based recovery.

• Leaving the Repo rate — at which RBI lends to commercial banks

— and the reverse repo rate — at which RBI borrows from

commercial banks, unchanged indicates low interest rates will

continue for the time being.

• Economists said a key reason RBI has kept the policy interest rate

at historic lows for longer is to spur a more durable rebound in

private consumption.

• Borrowers, especially home buyers, will benefit as lending rates

are unlikely to go up in the near future.

• Savers and depositors, on the other hand, will find their

interest income unchanged.

o After taking into account the 5.59% inflation in December,

depositors are making a nominal loss on one-year term

deposits. The State Bank of India offers 5.10% interest on

one-year fixed deposits.

What about debt and equity investors?

• Fund managers also believe bond yields may remain volatile, and

investors should be vigilant.

• As for equity investors, the continuing low interest rate and

accommodative stance of the monetary policy means further rise in

equity valuations for now.

• RBI’s focus on growth will likely push up equity markets further.

Policy Stances of the RBI

• Theoretically, the Indian central bank gives three main types of

forward guidance/policy stance to markets—

o accommodative (status quo on interest rates or a rate cut in

near future),

o tight (to indicate an impending rate hikes) and

o neutral (which doesn’t have any particular meaning. This

means anything can happen anytime).

• Sometimes the RBI goes a step further and mentions words like:

o ‘easing’ (meaning, double sure—the rate cut is here and

now), and

o ‘calibrated tightening’ (not sure what it means—aren’t all

policy actions ‘calibrated’ in some way?).

• But many a time this forward guidance turns out to be useless for

markets. The real events may unfold differently from what the RBI

says in its policy stance.

The joke on ‘neutral’ stance

• Since everything is dependent on data, the only rate stance that

makes any sense, and can never go wrong, is ‘neutral’.

• That’s because when in neutral stance, the policy action can swing

both ways. No complaints. But then, why we need a stated ‘neutral’

stance at all?

• The MPC will have to be neutral anyway to become flexible enough

to tweak its rate decisions as per the situation demands. In that

sense, every central bank is ‘neutral’ and will have to be ‘neutral’;

it’s implicit in their kind of work.

• It’s perhaps time the RBI does away with certain jargons, instead

goes for rate decisions depending on data, which is what it does

anyway even now.

35. Asian Clearing Union (ACU) (TH)

• Why? In January 2022, India deferred another $500 million due for

settlement from Sri Lanka to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU).

What?

What is the Asian Clearing Union (ACU)?

• The Asian Clearing Union (ACU) was established with its head-

quarters at Tehran, Iran, in 1974 at the initiative of the United

Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific

(ESCAP), for promoting regional co-operation.

• The main objective of the clearing union is to facilitate payments

among member countries for eligible transactions on a

multilateral basis, thereby economizing on the use of foreign

exchange reserves and transfer costs, as well as promoting

trade among the participating countries.

Who are the members of the ACU?

• The Central Banks and the Monetary Authorities of Bangladesh,

Bhutan, India, Iran, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and

Sri Lanka are currently the members of the ACU.

What is the unit of settlement of ACU transactions?

• The Asian Monetary Units (AMUs) is the common unit of account of

ACU and is denominated as ‘ACU Dollar’, ‘ACU Euro’ and ‘ACU

Yen’, which is equivalent in value to one US Dollar, one Euro and

one Japanese Yen respectively.

• All instruments of payments under ACU have to be denominated

in AMUs.

Main Objectives

• Asian Clearing Union (ACU) is a payment arrangement whereby

the participants settle payments for intra-regional transactions

among the participating central banks on a net multilateral basis.

The objectives of the ACU are:

• (1) To provide a facility to settle payments, on a multilateral basis,

for current international transactions among the territories of

participants;

• (2) To promote the use of participants' currencies in current

transactions between their respective territories and thereby effect

economies in the use of the participants' exchange reserves;

• (3) To promote monetary co-operation among the participants and

closer relations among the banking systems in their territories and

thereby contribute to the expansion of trade and economic activity

among the countries of the ESCAP region; and

• (4) To provide for currency SWAP arrangement among the

participants so as to make Asian Monetary Units (AMUs) available

to them temporarily.

36. Defence Exports from India (TH)

• Why? India and the Philippines signed the USD 375 million deal for

the sale of BrahMos supersonic anti-ship cruise missile recently.

• The BrahMos export order would be the biggest for the country in

this field and is likely to propel India amongst the arms exporter

countries.


What?

• Though the range of BrahMos is now being extended to over 400-

km, with India and Russia even planning to test an 800-km variant

this year, the export version will be the 290-km one.

• This is due to the Missile Technology Control Regime (prevents

proliferation of missiles over 300-km range).

• BrahMos missiles, developed jointly with Russia, has emerged as

the “precision-strike weapon of choice” for Indian armed forces.

• Beginning with an anti-ship missile, several variants have since

been developed and it can now be launched from land, sea, sub-

sea and air against surface and sea-based targets.

Other possible Defence exports from India

• From 2016-17 to 2018-19, the country’s defence exports have

registered a staggering 700% growth.

• Many countries have shown interest in the indigenously-

developed Akash missile systems, which can intercept hostile

aircraft, helicopters, drones and subsonic cruise missiles at a range

of 25-km.

• Being over 96% indigenous, there is no need to seek any third

country’s concurrence to export Akash.

• The Akash export version will also be slightly different from the one

inducted by the armed forces.

• The 100-km range air-to-air Astra missiles, now entering

production after successful trials from Sukhoi-30MKI fighters, also

have “good export potential.”

Steps taken by Indian Government

• India will have to export “bigger weapon systems” if it wants

to come anywhere near the ambitious annual target of $5

billion (Rs 36,500 crore) by 2025.

• It also set up a committee of defence minister Rajnath Singh,

external affairs minister S Jaishankar and national security advisor

Ajit Doval to “authorize subsequent exports” to various

countries in an expeditious manner.

37. What's crowding out effect in Economics (TH)

• Why? Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman urged industry to step

up investments and expand capacities, asserting that worries about

high public capital spending and borrowings crowding out private

investments were misplaced.

What?

• Crowding out effect in Economics happens when increased

borrowing by the government to meet its spending needs causes a

decrease in the quantity of funds that is available to meet the

investment needs of the private sector.

• It is characterised by higher interest rates due to government

borrowing and spending, which reduces business investment and

household consumption.

• When government conducts an expansionary fiscal policy

(increases in government spending or decreases in tax rate) it may

lead to the crowding out effect (crowding out of private investment

due to government borrowing to finance expenditures).

o Expansionary fiscal policy means an increase in the budget

deficit. The government is spending more money than it has

in income. Where does government obtain the necessary

funds to cover its increased deficit? The answer is borrowing.

o Because an expansionary fiscal policy either increases

government spending or reduces revenues, it increases the

government budget deficit or reduces the surplus.

• Higher interest rates tend to reduce private investment in

physical capital.

o The new factory that made sense when a company could

borrow the necessary funding at 5%, no longer makes sense

at an interest rate of 6%.

• If the budget deficits are increasing aggregate demand when the

economy is already producing near potential GDP, threatening an

inflationary increase in price levels, the central bank may react with

a contractionary monetary policy.

o In this situation, the higher interest rates from the government

borrowing would be made even higher by contractionary

monetary policy, and the government borrowing might crowd

out a great deal of private investment.

• On the other hand, if the budget deficits are increasing aggregate

demand when the economy is producing substantially less than

potential GDP, an inflationary increase in the price level is not much

of a danger and the central bank might react with expansionary

monetary policy.

o In this situation, higher interest rates from government

borrowing would be largely offset by lower interest rates from

expansionary monetary policy, and there would be little

crowding out of private investment.

How much crowding out occurs

• Crowding out seems to occur less during recession since banks

have savings to lend, but limited borrowers.

• The degree of crowding out also depends on the amount of private

saving and inflows of foreign financial investment.

Effects of Crowding Out

• Crowding out reduces the effects of a fiscal stimulus. If say a

$100 billion increase in government spending results in a $50 billion

decrease in private investment spending, then the net increase to

total expenditure is $50 billion instead of $100 billion.

• If crowding out causes a reduction in private investment, it also

leads to a reduction in economic growth over the long term.

o This is another reason why neoclassicals favor business tax

cuts over government spending increases since business tax

cuts tend to stimulate private investment.

• Government spending does not always lead to a crowding out of

private investment in the economy.

• Government demand for funds can compensate for the lack of

private demand for funds during economic depressions, thus

helping to increase aggregate demand.

• On the one hand, higher public investment may "crowd out" private

expenditure on capital goods, irrespective of the financing

mechanism (including through levying taxes or issuing debt).

o On the other hand, higher government spending on

infrastructure facilities (like roads, highways, and power)

and/or health and education may have a complementary

impact on private sector investment by raising the marginal

productivity of private capital.

• New highways (or other transportation networks) can raise the rate

of return on private investment by making it easier to transport


products to market. As a result, infrastructure investments can

result in increased private investment too.

• Crowding out in an economy can be avoided if government

finances its expenditure by buying overseas bonds.

38. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) (TH)

• Why? In the 2022-23 Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

had announced the introduction of India’s Central Bank Digital

Currency (CBDC).

• The digital rupee would give a ‘big boost’ to digital economy.

• She had indicated that technologies such as blockchain would

be used by the Reserve Bank of India to issue the currency,

starting 2022-23 which will propel India towards a cashless

economy.

What?

What is a Central Bank Digital Currency?

• A CBDC is no different from the cash that we hold in our wallets,

except that it exists in a digital form.

• A CBDC is a digital form of central bank money that is widely

available to the general public.

• "Central bank money" refers to money that is a liability of the central

bank.

• A CBDC would differ from existing digital money available to the

general public because a CBDC would be a liability of the central

bank, not of the scheduled commercial banks (like SBI, ICICI, PNB

etc).

• CBDC would be a legal tender issued by the Reserve Bank of India.

• A CBDC is an electronic record or digital token of a country’s official

currency, which fulfils the basic functions as a medium of exchange,

unit of account, store of value

• It is sovereign currency in an electronic form and will appear as

liability (currency in circulation) on a central bank’s balance sheet.

• CBDCs should be exchangeable at par with cash.

• The CBDC will be held in a digital wallet that is supervised by

the Central bank.

• It should be noted that the RBI’s digital rupee will not directly

replace demand deposits held in banks.

• Physical cash will continue to be used by banks, and people who

wish to withdraw cash from banks can still do so.

• But they can also opt to convert their bank deposits into the new

digital rupee.

• Central bank digital currencies are promised as reliable,

sovereign-backed alternatives to private currencies which are

volatile and unregulated.

• CBDC can offer benefits to users in terms of liquidity, scalability,

acceptance, ease of transactions with anonymity and faster

settlement.

• The development will make digital currencies more accessible

to the people just as UPI made digital cash easier to use.

Why are central banks issuing digital currencies?

• Central banks claim that there is an increasing demand for

digital currencies.

• They point to the rise of private digital currencies such as bitcoin

and also to the increasing use of digital payments as examples of

this secular trend.

• Central banks are facing the issue of dwindling usage of paper

currency (due to rise in UPI payments) seek to popularize a more

acceptable electronic form of currency, as cost of storing paper

currency for a bank is very high due to fear of theft.

• Central banks also believe that the cost of issuing digital

currencies is far lower than the cost of printing and

distributing physical cash.

• Another likely reason for the introduction of digital cash will

further bring down the use of physical cash.

• Payments using CBDCs are final and thus reduce settlement risk in

the financial system. CBDC will eliminate the need for interbank

settlement.

• CBDCs would also potentially enable a more real-time and cost-

effective globalization of payment systems. It is conceivable for an

Indian importer to pay its American exporter on a real time basis in

digital Dollars, without the need of an intermediary. (Time zone

difference would no longer matter in currency settlements)

What are the risks in adopting digital currencies issued by Central

banks?

• Many central banks fear that people may begin withdrawing money

from their bank accounts as digital currencies issued by Central

banks become more popular.

• When the digital wallet offered by the RBI can serve the same

purpose, people could very well begin converting their bank

deposits into digital cash.

• One thing that could prevent any large flight of capital from bank

accounts to digital currencies is the fact that bank accounts offer

interest on deposits whereas digital currency held in RBI’s wallet

will not offer any interest on it.

• As a result, money in savings bank account will reduce as many

people currently use bank accounts to safely store their cash.

(Capital available for the banks to offer as loan will also reduce.)

• Also, when bank customers convert their deposits into digital rupee,

the RBI will have to take these liabilities from the books of banks

and onto its own balance sheet.

What lies ahead?

• There is speculation already that Central banks will cap the amount

of money that an individual can hold in the form of CBDCs.


• This is to prevent the mass withdrawal of deposits from banks.

Some even believe that some Central banks, such as the European

Central Bank, may impose a negative penalty on their digital

currencies.

• Central banks may also have to inject fresh money into banks to

ensure that the ability of banks to create loans is not affected by

depositors’ rush to digital currencies.

Criticism of Central Bank Digital Currency

• The demand for private currencies comes primarily from people

who have lost faith in fiat currencies issued by Central banks.

• They argue that governments across the world have been debasing

(devaluing) their respective currencies by printing them in

excessive amounts, thus forcing many to switch to private

currencies whose supply is limited by design.

• Therefore, the mere digital version of a national currency like

the rupee or the U.S. dollar is unlikely to affect the demand for

private currencies.

• Unlike physical cash, which is hard to trace, a digital currency that

is monitored by the RBI can be more easily tracked and

controlled by the Central bank.

• This feature of digital currencies, however, has raised various

concerns regarding their privacy and could slow down their

adoption.

• The need for privacy has been one of the primary reasons

behind the switch to private digital currencies.

Do you know?

• CBDC is becoming common across the world.

• It is worth noting that several countries, including the United States,

those in the European Union and China, have been working

seriously towards issuing their own Central Bank Digital Currency

(CBDC) in recent years.

• In October 2020, the Bahamas launched the world’s first CBDC.

39. Government subsidies to decline by 39% (TH)

• Why? The government's subsidies on food, fertilizers and

petroleum are estimated to decline by 39% to ₹4,33,108 crore this

fiscal and fall further by 27% to nearly ₹3.18 lakh crore in 2022-23.

What?

• During the current fiscal 2021-22, the Centre has hiked the

subsidy for non-urea fertilizers several times due to a sharp rise in

global prices.

• The move was aimed at ensuring that farmers continue to get di-

ammonium phosphate (DAP) and other nutrients under the

nutrient-based subsidy (NBS) policy at a reasonable rate.

• For the next fiscal 2022-23, the government said total subsidies

were estimated to decline further to ₹3,17,866 crore.

• Under subsidy burden of the union government maximum subsidy

is spent on food items> fertilizer > fuel

• A major reason for increasing food subsidy is the Centre’s

reluctance to increase the price of highly subsidised foodgrains

supplied under the NFSA, 2013.

• Under the NFS Act, the price of rice has been kept unchanged at

Rs 3 a kilo, while that of wheat has been kept steady at Rs 2 per

kilo and of coarse grains at Rs 1 per kilo.

C) International Relations

40. Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project (TH)

• Why? The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has

protested against Canada’s decision to impose a digital services tax

of 3% on large companies that sell various services in Canada.

What?

• The issue of taxing large MNCs has always been a problem among

many governments.

o Many MNCs draw a large share of their revenue and profits

from outside their home countries, yet they pay most of their

taxes in their home country.

o These include large technology companies such as

Facebook, Apple, and Google which do business in

developing countries like India and China but pay most taxes

in the US or in tax shelters such as Ireland.

• In a meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and

Development (OECD) in October 2021, the OECD/G20 Base

Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project was agreed upon,

wherein large MNCs will have to pay tax on a certain portion of their

profits to the government of the foreign country where they do

business.

o To be particular, companies will have to allocate 25% of the

residual profits, as profits earned in the foreign country and

pay tax.

o The countries also agreed to impose a minimum corporate

tax rate of at least 15% on corporations with revenues and

profits above a certain threshold level.

• USTR has argued that Canada’s digital services tax goes against

the spirit of the BEPS agreement.

• Canada has contested that the digital services tax will not come into

effect if the BEPS framework is implemented on time.

41. Russian Aggression on Ukraine and International Law (TH)

• Why? Recently, Russia launched a full-scale invasion on Ukraine.

The Russian actions have been widely condemned and raise

several questions concerning violation of international law.

What?

How is Russia violating the UN Charter?

• The principle of non-intervention in domestic affairs is the

foundational principle on which existing international order is based.

• The principle is enshrined in article 2(4) of the UN Charter requiring

states to refrain from using force or threat of using force against

territorial integrity or political independence of any state.

o The Russian attack on Ukraine is violative of the non-

intervention principle, and amounts to aggression under

international law.

• Additionally, allowing one’s territory to be used by another state for

aggression against a third state, also qualifies as an act of

aggression. Accordingly, Belarus can also be held responsible for

aggression as it has allowed its territory to be used by Russia for

attacking Ukraine.

• Aggression is also considered an international crime under

customary international law and the Rome statute establishing the

International Criminal Court.

• Russia’s desire to keep Ukraine out of NATO is a prime reason

for its use of force against Ukraine. This is violative of Ukraine’s

political independence under article 2(4) as Ukraine being a


sovereign state is free to decide which organisations it wants to

join.

• Also, by resorting to use of force, Russia has violated article 2(3)

which requires the states to settle their dispute by peaceful means

in order to preserve international peace and security.

What about the principle of self-defence?

• The UN Charter under article 51 authorises a state to resort to

individual or collective self-defence, until the Security Council take

steps to ensure international peace and security.

o In this case, it seems implausible for the UNSC to arrive at a

decision as Russia is a permanent member and has veto

power.

• On the other hand, Russia has also claimed that it is acting in self-

defence. This claim is questionable, as there has been no use of

force, or such threats against Russia by Ukraine.

• It has been claimed by Russia that Ukraine may acquire nuclear

weapons with the help of western allies. However, the International

Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Legality of Threat of Nuclear Weapons

case held that mere possession of nuclear weapons does not

necessarily constitute a threat.

o Thus, even if Ukraine has, or were to acquire nuclear

weapons in the future, it does not become a ground for

invoking self defence by Russia.

• Further, mere membership in a defence alliance such as NATO

cannot necessarily be considered as a threat of aggression against

Russia. Thus, here too Russia cannot invoke self-defence.

• Russia can also not invoke anticipatory self defence as such

invocation according to the Caroline test would require that the

necessity of self defence was instant, overwhelming, leaving no

choice of means, and no moment for deliberation. However, this is

not the case with Russia.

United Nations Charter

• The Charter of the United Nations is the founding document of the

United Nations.

• It was signed on 26 June 1945, in San Francisco, at the conclusion

of the United Nations Conference on International Organization,

and came into force on 24 October 1945.

• The UN Charter is an instrument of international law, and UN

Member States are bound by it.

42. Indus Water Treaty (IWT)_Updated (TH)

• Why? In the upcoming session of the Indus Water Treaty (IWT),

Pakistan is likely to bring up its objections to three Indian

Hydropower projects in the Chenab basin in Jammu and Kashmir

— the 1000 Megawatt (MW) Pakal Dul project, the 48 MW Lower

Kalnai project and the 624 MW Kiru project, aside from other

smaller Hydropower units of India in Ladakh.

• Among the key points on the table was evolving a procedure to

solve differences on technical aspects governing the construction of

the Ratle run-of-the-river (RoR) project (that will need little

water storage) on the Chenab in Jammu and Kashmir.

What?

Indus Waters Treaty: key provisions

• It was brokered by the World Bank in 1960 between India and

Pakistan.

• The treaty allocated the three western rivers— Indus, Chenab and

Jhelum—to Pakistan for unrestricted use, barring certain non-

consumptive, agricultural and domestic uses by India and the three

Eastern rivers— Ravi, Beas and Sutlej — to India for unrestricted

usage.

o This means that 80% of the share of water or about 135

Million Acre Feet (MAF) went to Pakistan, leaving the rest 33

MAF or 20% of water for use by India.

• Besides, India is also allowed a minimum storage level on the

western rivers— it can store up to 3.75 MAF for conservation and

flood storage purposes.

• While Pakistan has rights over the waters of Jhelum, Chenab and

Indus, the treaty allows India to build ‘run of the river’ hydropower

projects, meaning projects not requiring live storage of water.

o It also provides certain design specifications which India has

to follow for such projects.

• It also required both the countries to establish a Permanent Indus

Commission constituted by permanent commissioners on both

sides.

o The functions of the commission include serving as a forum

for exchange of information on the rivers, for continued

cooperation and as a first stop for resolution of conflicts.

• The IWT also provides a three step dispute resolution mechanism,

under which issues can first be resolved at the commission or inter-

Government level.

o If that fails, either side can approach the World Bank to

appoint a Neutral Expert (NE). And eventually, if either party

is still not satisfied, matters can be referred to a Court of

Arbitration.

What have been the past objections raised under the treaty?

• One of the longest conflicts that arose from Pakistan’s objections to

Indian projects was over the Kishanganga Hydro Electricity Project

(KHEP). Kishanganga is a tributary of the Jhelum river.

• The IWT does not have a unilateral exit provision, and is supposed

to remain in force unless both the countries ratify another mutually

agreed pact.

• Though Indus originates from Tibet, China has been kept out of the

Treaty. If China decides to stop or change the flow of the river, it will

affect both India and Pakistan.


43. Golan Heights (TH)

• Why? Israel bombarded a Syrian town near the armistice line on

the Golan Heights with surface-to-surface missiles.

• It is the third time this month that Israel has hit targets inside Syria

as it keeps up a bombing campaign against pro-Iranian forces

supporting the Damascus government in Syria’s more than decade-

old civil war.

What?

• Golan Heights, also called Al-Jawlān, is a hilly area which was part

of extreme south-western Syria until 1967, when it came under

Israeli military occupation, and in 1981 Israel unilaterally annexed

the part of the Golan it held.

o Geographically, the Golan is bounded by the Jordan River

and the Sea of Galilee on the west, Mount Hermon on the

north, and the Yarmūk River on the south.

• On the last two days (June 9–10, 1967) of the Six-Day War, the

Israeli armed forces, after defeating Egypt and Jordan, captured

Golan heights from Syria.

• In 1967, Israel also occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank,

as well as Gaza strip and the Egyptian Sinai peninsula.

• Note: Boundary of Israel touches two seas namely Mediterranean

Sea in the North and Red Sea in the South.

44. Russia to Recognise Ukraine Rebel Regions (TH)

• Why? Russia recognised the two breakaway regions in eastern

Ukraine — Donetsk and Luhansk — as independent and have

informed the French and German leaders of his decision.

• France and Germany are mediators in the conflict between Kiev

and pro-Russia rebels in eastern Ukraine.

What?

• Since Moscow invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula in

March 2014, pro-Russia rebels in the Donbass region, comprising

the Donetsk and Luhansk, began seizing territory in Eastern

Ukraine and held a referendum to declare independence from

Ukraine.

• Since then, these predominantly Russian speaking regions (more

than 70% speak Russian) within Ukraine have been witnessing

skirmishes between the rebels and Ukrainian forces.

• This shelling has intensified since last October when Russia began

amassing troops along the borders with Ukraine.

• One way to prevent the outbreak of a war would be to implement

the Minsk agreements immediately, as Russia has suggested.

What are the Minsk Agreements?

• There are two Minsk agreements, Minsk 1 and Minsk 2, named

after the Belarussian capital Minsk where the talks were held.

• Minsk 1 was written in September 2014 by the Trilateral Contact

Group on Ukraine, i.e. Ukraine, Russia, and the Organization for

Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) with mediation by

France and Germany.

o Under Minsk 1, Ukraine and the Russia-backed rebels

agreed on a 12-point ceasefire deal, which due to violations

by both sides, did not last long.

• In February 2015, representatives of Russia, Ukraine, the OSCE

and the leaders of Donetsk and Luhansk signed a 13-point

agreement, now known as the Minsk 2 accord.

• However, the provisions under the agreement have not been

implemented because of the ‘Minsk Conundrum’.

• Russia believes that the agreement asks Ukraine to grant the

Russia-backed rebels in Donbas comprehensive autonomy and

representation in the central Government. Only when this is done

will Russia hand over control of the Russia-Ukraine border to

Ukraine.

• Ukraine, on the other hand, feels that Minsk 2 allows it to first re-

establish control over Donbas, then give it control of the Russia-

Ukraine border, then have elections in the Donbas, and a limited

devolution of power to the rebels.

• Ukraine believes the accord supports its sovereignty fully while

Russia believes it only gives Ukraine limited sovereignty.

• Thus, the Minsk 2 agreement has been rightly criticised for being

too hastily drafted, ambiguous and contradictory, making it difficult

to implement.

45. Minsk II Ceasefire Agreement (TH)

• Why? At a meeting at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)

called by Russia to discuss the Ukraine crisis, on the seventh

anniversary of the Minsk II ceasefire agreement, India called for a

diplomatic solution to the tensions.

What?

• Minsk II agreement was signed in February 2015 with an aim to

bring peace in the rebel-held regions of the Donbas region of

Ukraine.

• The agreement was signed by Russia, Ukraine, separatist leaders

and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe

(OSCE).

• Minsk II has not been fully implemented (its predecessor, Minsk I,

broke down).

46. Military Takeover in Mali (TH)

• Why? France has announced that it would withdraw its troops from

Mali over a breakdown in relations with the country’s ruling junta,

after nearly 10 years of fighting a jihadist insurgency that still poses

a major threat to the West African nation and beyond.

• The deployment has been fraught with problems for France — of

the 53 French soldiers killed serving in West Africa’s Sahel region,

48 died in Mali.

What?

• In August 2020, the military in Mali arrested the country’s president

and prime minister in a coup staged after weeks of destabilizing

protests over a disputed election, government corruption and a

violent Islamist insurgency that has lasted for eight years.


• France was deeply involved in the affairs of Mali, its former colony,

decades after the country gained independence.

• For the French forces battling Islamists in the region, Mali was part

of what some call France’s “Forever War” in the Sahel, the far-

stretching land beneath the Sahara.

• However, the coup leader said, “MINUSMA (the UN force in Mali),

(France’s) Barkhane force, the G5 Sahel, Takuba (a European

special-forces initiative) remain our partners.”

o G5 Sahel is a UN-backed initiative of the countries of the

Sahel (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger).

• The Algiers process is a 2015 peace agreement between the

Malian government and armed groups in the north of the country.

47. Falkland Islands (IE)

• Why? UK has objected to China backing Argentina’s claim to the

Falkland Islands.

What?

• In the Falklands War between the United Kingdom and Argentina,

UK wrested control of the islands.

• Argentina has maintained that the Falklands were illegally taken

from it in 1833 and invaded the British colony in 1982.

• The Falkland Islands are located off the coast of Argentina in the

south Atlantic Ocean.

• They are also called Malvinas Islands. It is an internally self-

governing overseas territory of the United Kingdom in the South

Atlantic Ocean.

• There are two main islands, East Falkland and West Falkland

• The Malvinas (Falkland) Current is a branch of the Circumpolar

Current and flows northward along the continental shelf of

Argentina until it reaches the Brazil Current offshore the Rio de la

Plata.

• It is a cold water current that flows northward along the Atlantic

coast of Patagonia where it meets Brazilian Warm current.

48. Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) (TH)

• Why? India hit out at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation

(OIC), saying it was “hijacked by vested interests”.

• The OIC recently called upon the UN and the Human Rights

Council to take “necessary measures” following reports of Muslim

students being prevented from wearing hijab in Karnataka.

What?

• The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has 57 members, 56 of

which are also member states of the United Nations, the exception

being Palestine.

• Some members, especially in West Africa and South America, are –

though with large Muslim populations – not necessarily Muslim

majority countries.

• Out of 57 members 53 countries are Muslim-majority countries,

A few countries with significant Muslim populations, such as Russia

and Thailand, sit as Observer States

• The OIC has permanent delegations to the United Nations and the

European Union.

• The official languages of the OIC are Arabic, English, and

French.

• Note: India despite having a sizable Muslim population is not a

member of OIC.

Goals

• According to its charter, the OIC aims to:

o preserve Islamic social and economic values;

o promote solidarity amongst member states;

o increase cooperation in social, economic, cultural, scientific,

and political areas;

o uphold international peace and security; and

o advance education, particularly in the fields of science and

technology.

• In March 2008, the OIC conducted a formal revision of its charter.

• The revised charter set out to promote human rights, fundamental

freedoms, and good governance in all member states.

• The revisions also removed any mention of the Cairo Declaration

on Human Rights in Islam.

o In 1990, the OIC adopted the Cairo Declaration on Human

Rights in Islam to serve as a guidance for the member states

in the matters of human rights in as much as they are

compatible with the Sharia, or Quranic Law.

• Within the revised charter, the OIC has chosen to support the

Charter of the United Nations and international law, without

mentioning the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.


49. Munich Security Conference (TH)

• Why? External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar travels to attend the

annual Munich Security Conference (MSC).

What?

• It is an annual conference on international security policy that

has taken place in Munich, Bavaria (Germany) since 1963 and has

become a venue for diplomatic initiatives to address the

world's most pressing security concerns through dialogue.

• It also publishes the Munich Security Report, an annual digest of

relevant figures, maps, and research on crucial security challenges.

• The MSC's objective is to build trust and to contribute to the

peaceful resolution of conflicts by sustaining a continuous,

curated and informal dialogue within the international security

community.

• It provides an opportunity for official and non-official

diplomatic initiatives and ideas to address the world’s most

pressing security concerns.

50. MCC Development Compact (TH)

• Why? Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s government is

facing a major challenge this month as the Biden administration has

set a deadline for the ratification of the U.S. Millenium Challenge

Corporation (MCC) development compact by February 28, 2022.

• MCC’s Nepal Compact is designed to improve the availability of

electricity and increase road maintenance to advance connectivity,

drive growth, and lay a strong foundation for new investors.

What?

MCC Development Compact

• Compacts are five-year agreements between MCC and an eligible

country to fund specific programs targeted at reducing poverty and

stimulating economic growth.

• MCC’s unique model for the development of compact programs

include the principle of country ownership, a belief that assistance is

most effective when built on a partnership (or “compact”) in which

recipient countries assume greater responsibility for their own

economic development.

Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)

• It is an innovative and independent U.S. foreign assistance agency

that is helping lead the fight against global poverty.

• Created by the U.S. Congress in January 2004, it aims to deliver

smart U.S. foreign assistance by focusing on good policies, country

ownership, and results.

• MCC provides time-limited grants promoting economic growth,

reducing poverty, and strengthening institutions.

• These investments not only support stability and prosperity in

partner countries but also enhances American interests.

• MCC grants are designed to complement other U.S. and

international development programs, as well as create an enabling

environment for private sector investment.

51. 35th African Union Summit (TH)

• Why? In the 35th African Union Summit held in February 2022 at

Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, the key concerns were the rising wave of

military coups in the continent, especially in West Africa, and the

lack of COVID-19 vaccines in the continent.

What?

• An unprecedented number of member states had recently been

suspended from the 55-member bloc — Guinea, Mali, Sudan and

most recently Burkina Faso — for military putsches that had

occurred in those countries.

• Civil conflicts, Islamist insurgencies, a rising number of military

takeovers and the COVID-19 outbreak all pose serious challenges

to the AU.

• The AU has set up institutions such as the 15-member Peace and

Security Council on the same lines as the UNSC, and empowered

them to intervene in the case of military conflicts.

African Union (AU)

• AU is a continental body consisting of the 55 member states that

make up the countries of the African Continent.

• It was officially launched in 2002 in Durban, South Africa as a

successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU, 1963-1999).

• African Union Headquarters is situated at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

• The work of the AU is implemented through several principal

decision making organs:- The Assembly of Heads of State and

Government, the Executive Council, the Peace and Security

Council and The African Union Commission.

• The AU structure promotes participation of African citizens

and civil society through the Pan-African Parliament and the

Economic, Social & Cultural Council (ECOSOCC).

Agenda 2063

• Agenda 2063 calls for greater collaboration and support for

African led initiatives to ensure the achievement of the

aspirations of African people.

52. Indo-Pacific Strategy Document (TH)

• Why? USA announced its long-awaited Indo-Pacific strategy

recently.

What?

• The document focuses on building collective capacity to deal with

challenges in the region — China’s assertiveness, the pandemic

and climate change, among others.

• The policies set out in the document have continuity with

previous administrations’ strategies.


• These include a focus on challenges from China, advancing the

U.S. relationship, a major defence partnership with India and

supporting its role as a net security provider in the region.

• There is an emphasis on working with other countries not just

from the region, but also from beyond.

• The Quad is rolling out a plan to deliver over a billion COVID-19

vaccines to the region by the end of this year.

• Responding to a question regarding India’s enthusiasm for

greater alignment with the U.S., a U.S. official said China’s action

along the Line of Actual Control (i.e., its border conflict with India)

has had a “galvanizing impact” on India.

• The strategy document says the U.S. will “continue to support

India’s rise and regional leadership,” working with India bilaterally

and through groups on a range of issues.

o It refers to India as a “like-minded partner” and “driving force”

in the Quad.

• The overall increasing focus of the U.S. on the region is due to

its increasing challenges, especially from China, according to the

strategy document.

o The PRC’s coercion and aggression spans the globe, but it is

most acute in the Indo-Pacific.

o From the economic coercion of Australia to the conflict along

the Line of Actual Control with India to the growing pressure

on Taiwan and bullying of neighbours in the East and South

China Seas, our allies and partners in the region bear much

of the cost of the PRC’s harmful behaviour.

• More broadly, the U.S. will seek an Indo-Pacific that is free and

open, connected, prosperous, secure and resilient.

• On the “free” aspect — one of the strategic actions outlined is

investing in civil society, a free press and democratic institutions.

• To advance its prosperity goal for the region, the U.S.’s strategy

includes seeking higher labour and environmental standards,

helping to establish secure supply chains and investing in clean

energy.

Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad)

• The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QSD, also known as the

Quad) is an informal strategic dialogue between the United States,

Japan, Australia and India.

• The dialogue was initiated in 2007 by Prime Minister Shinzo

Abe of Japan.

• The idea of the Quad was born in 2007, but was shelved when

former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd withdrew his country’s

participation.

• The Quad made a comeback in November 2017 with a formal

consultation meeting in Manila involving the four countries.

• The upgradation of the Quad, a consultative forum of India,

Australia, Japan and the United States, to the ministerial level is a

good move.

53. EU joins chips race with €43-billion bid to rival Asia (TH)

• Why? The EU has unveiled a plan (EU Chips Act) to quadruple

the supply of semiconductors in Europe by 2030, hoping to limit the

bloc’s dependence on Asia for a key component used in electric

cars and smartphones.

What?

• The production of chips has become a strategic priority in Europe

as well as the United States, after the shock of the pandemic

choked off supply, bringing factories to a standstill and emptying

stores of products.

• The manufacturing of semiconductors overwhelmingly takes place

in Taiwan, China and South Korea and the European Union wants

factories and companies inside the bloc to take on a bigger role.

• The highly anticipated EU Chips Act will “mobilise more than €43

billion ($49.1 billion) of public and private investments” and “enable

the EU to reach its ambition to double its current market share to

20% in 2030”, the European Commission said.

54. United Nations World Food Program (TH)

• Why? Drought conditions have left an estimated 13 million people

facing severe hunger in the Horn of Africa, according to the United

Nations World Food Program.

• People in a region including Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya face the

driest conditions recorded since 1981, calling for immediate

assistance to forestall a major humanitarian crisis.

What?

• The World Food Programme is the UN agency focused on hunger

alleviation and food security.

• It is the leading humanitarian organization saving lives and

changing lives, delivering food assistance in emergencies (from

wars to civil conflicts, natural disasters and famines)

and working with communities to improve nutrition and build

resilience.

• WFP’s efforts focus on emergency assistance, relief and

rehabilitation, development aid and special operations.

• The WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian organisation

committed towards its global goal of ending hunger by the year

2030.

• The Rome-based organisation, WFP, works closely with the other

two Rome-based UN agencies: the Food and Agriculture

Organization (FAO), which helps countries draw up policy and

change legislation to support sustainable agriculture, and the

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), which

finances projects in poor rural areas.

• In 2015, eradication of world hunger became one of the UN’s

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and WFP is the UN’s

primary instrument in achieving that goal.

o Other UN agencies that work towards providing food security

include the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture

Organisation (FAO) and the International Fund for

Agricultural Development (IFAD).

• WFP runs entirely on public donations which include

governments, corporations and individuals.

How does WFP help people?

• WFP provides food assistance in two ways, either by way of

providing food or by meeting people’s food-needs by providing

cash-based transfers.

Does WFP work in India?

• WFP has been working in India since 1963, with work transitioning

from food distribution to technical assistance since the country

achieved self-sufficiency in cereal production.

• With the Government now providing its own food distribution

systems, WFP work focuses on supporting the strengthening of


these systems to ensure they become more efficient and reach the

people who need the most.

• One-fourth of the world’s undernourished population is in India and

about 21 percent of the population live on less than $1.90 a day.

• At the moment, WFP is working to improve the government’s

targeted public distribution system (TPDS) to ensure that food

reaches those that need it the most.

• It is also working with the government to improve the nutritional

value of the Midday Meal programme and is using its own

software called the Vulnerability and What? Mapping to identify

the most food insecure groups in the country.

• Recently, WFP has partnered with the government of Uttar

Pradesh to set up over 200 supplementary nutrition production

units to support distribution under the government’s Integrated Child

Development Services (ICDS) scheme that provides nutrition

services to children below the age of six.

• Recently, the United Nations World Food Programme India and IIT-

Delhi announced that they will collaborate to combine forces to

develop solutions for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of

the government’s food safety nets through operations research.

Do you know?

• The Nobel Peace Prize 2020 was awarded to the United Nation’s

(UN) World Food Programme (WFP) for its efforts to combat

hunger and for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in

conflict-affected areas and for preventing the use of hunger being

weaponised in war and conflict.

World Food Prize

• The World Food Prize was established by Nobel Peace Prize

laureate Norman Borlaug in 1986.

• The World Food Prize is considered equivalent to the Nobel Prize in

the field of agriculture, and is awarded for improving the quality and

availability of food.

• The first recipient of this award was Indian agricultural scientist Dr

M.S. Swaminathan in 1987, regarded as the father of India’s Green

Revolution.

55. Fishing in Troubled Waters: The Palk Strait Dispute (TH)

• Why? Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu wrote to Prime Minister

Narendra Modi requesting him to secure the release of 29

fishermen and their 79 fishing boats from Sri Lanka.

• In the latest instance of high-handedness, the Sri Lankan Navy has

arrested 11 Indian fishermen and were taken to Mayilatti Naval

Base, Sri Lanka.

What?

• Notwithstanding the 1974 Indo-Lanka Maritime Boundary

Agreement, Indian fishermen tend to cross the maritime border into

Sri Lanka in the Palk Strait, which in turn leads to assaults by the

Sri Lankan Navy.

• Through the agreement, the Katchatheevu Island was ceded to Sri

Lanka by the Indian government.

o It was in the mid-1970s that two agreements were signed by

India and Sri Lanka, under which the International Maritime

Boundary Line (IMBL) came into being.

o The IMBL made Katchatheevu a part of Sri Lanka, even

though the islet was once an area under the zamindari of the

Raja of Ramanathapuram.

Why do Indian fishermen cross the maritime border despite the

obvious risks?

• Despite the agreements, there is no well-defined maritime

boundary between the two countries, leading to Indian fishermen

trespassing into Sri Lankan waters in search of a better catch.

• Between 1983 and 2009, Indian fishermen had easier access to the

rich Sri Lankan waters as the maritime boundary in the Palk Strait

was not heavily guarded.

• Since 2009, the Sri Lankan navy has tightened surveillance of its

northern maritime boundary to halt a potential return of Tamil

insurgents.

o This, in turn, has had the secondary effect of increasing the

number of arrests of Indian fishermen.

56. India’s Rising Imports from China (TH)

• Why? While many countries, including India, have spoken of the

need to reduce reliance on China particularly in the wake of

COVID-19 and disruption to supply chains, trade figures released

last month showed imports have only continued to surge in 2021,

rebounding after a fall in trade in 2020 because of the pandemic.

• This is despite the fact that in the wake of the LAC crisis starting

April 2020, the message from New Delhi was that it cannot be

business as usual while there are tensions along the border.

What?

What did India import from China in 2021?

• India’s trade with China in 2021 reached $125.6 billion.

• This was the first time that trade crossed the $100 billion mark.

India’s imports from China accounted for $97.5 billion, while exports

reached $28.1 billion, both records.

• The trade deficit, a long-term source of concern for India, is up by

22% since 2019, having declined last year.

What does the recent trend of trade figures suggest?

• Experts say India’s dependence on China for finished goods has

shown no signs of easing, which is a cause for concern.

• The rise in intermediate imports is, however, less of a concern as it

is a sign of industrial recovery and greater demand for inputs.

• While Indian exports to China have also grown, up by more than

50% in the last two years, these are mostly raw materials such as

ores, as well as cotton and seafood, and not finished products.

• The five-year trend shows the trade deficit continues to widen. The

deficit has grown from $51.8 billion in 2017 to $69.4 billion in 2021.


57. U.S. Restores Sanction Waiver to Iran (TH)

• Why? The U.S. State Department is waiving sanctions on Iran’s

civilian nuclear programme in a technical step necessary to return

to the 2015 nuclear agreement, also known as Joint

Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

What?

• The waiver allows other countries and companies to participate in

Iran’s civilian nuclear programme without triggering U.S. sanctions

on them, in the name of promoting safety and non-proliferation.

• The civilian programme includes Iran’s increasing stockpiles of

enriched uranium.

• The Vienna talks, which include Iran, the United States, Britain,

China, France, Germany and Russia, are at a key stage where the

parties have to make “critical political decisions.”

58. African Union (AU) and Israel’s Accreditation (TH)

• Why? Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh urged the

African Union to withdraw Israel’s accreditation as the 55-member

bloc opened a two-day summit in Addis Ababa.

• The dispute began in last July when Commission chair accepted

Israel’s accreditation to the bloc.

What?

• AU is a continental body consisting of the 55 member states that

make up the countries of the African Continent.

• It was officially launched in 2002 in Durban, South Africa as a

successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU, 1963-1999).

• African Union Headquarters is situated at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

• The work of the AU is implemented through several principal

decision making organs: The Assembly of Heads of State and

Government, the Executive Council, the Peace and Security

Council and The African Union Commission.

• The AU structure promotes participation of African citizens

and civil society through the Pan-African Parliament and the

Economic, Social & Cultural Council (ECOSOCC).

Agenda 2063

• Agenda 2063 calls for greater collaboration and support for

African led initiatives to ensure the achievement of the

aspirations of African people.

59. New Era Relations between China and Russia (TH)

• Why? China and Russia on Friday outlined a sweeping vision for

the future of their already close relations as their two leaders met in

Beijing in the backdrop of Beijing Olympics.

What?

• Their joint statement said both sides “remain highly vigilant about

the negative impact of the United States’ Indo-Pacific strategy on

peace and stability in the region” and called for “building an

equitable, open and inclusive security system in the Asia-Pacific

Region (APR)”. Both China and Russia do not use the term “Indo-

Pacific”.

• The two sides said they “stand against the formation of closed bloc

structures and opposing camps in the Asia-Pacific region”.

o Chinese experts have sometimes referred to the U.S., India,

Australia, Japan Quad as a “closed” group.

• The two sides said they were “seriously concerned about the

trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United

States, and the United Kingdom (AUKUS)”.

• On Taiwan, Russia said it supports “the One-China principle” and

“confirms that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and opposes

any forms of independence of Taiwan.”

• On the multilateral front, the joint statement said both sides would

deepen cooperation with India through the Russia-India-China

(RIC) framework and also work to boost the BRICS grouping.

o Russia-India-China (RIC) as a strategic grouping first took

shape in the late 1990s under the leadership of Yevgeny

Primakov as “a counterbalance to the Western alliance.”

o Primakov, a Russian politician and diplomat who was also the

prime minister of Russia from 1998 to 1999, is credited with

the idea for RIC.

o The group was founded on the basis of “ending Russia’s

subservient foreign policy guided by the U.S.,” and “renewing

old ties with India and fostering the newly discovered

friendship with China.”

• The two sides also announced a number of agreements, including

energy deals as well as an agreement to cooperate on building

complementarity between their two global satellite navigation

systems, GLONASS and BeiDou.

Navigational Systems around the globe

• GPS (Global Positioning System): US

• Glonass: Russia

• Galileo: Europe

• Beidou: China

• Japan: QZSS

• Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) or NavIC:

India

60. Islamic State (TH)

• Why? The leader of the Islamic State (IS/ISIS), Abu Ibrahim al-

Hashimi al-Qurayshi, died in a U.S. counterterrorism operation in

Idlib province, in northwestern Syria.

What?

• Though the al-Qaeda and the IS are cut from the same cloth, there

are tactical and strategic differences in their operations.

• The al-Qaeda was basically a hit-and-run organisation (until the IS

changed the landscape of terrorism).

• The group would carry out attacks and then retreat to the deserts,

caves or mountains where it was hiding.

• It did not expose itself to the conventional military might of its

enemies.


• Barring certain pockets that al-Qaeda-affiliated groups control, such

as Syria’s Idlib, the group largely remains a hit-and-run

organisation.

• The IS, however, took insurgency a step further.

• It started holding on to territories it captured, established a proto-

state in those territories and called it the Islamic State.

• While the al-Qaeda also wants to create a global emirate, the IS

took steps to implement its world-view.

• It declared a Caliphate, trying to revive an Islamic institution that

ceased to exist following the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire

at the end of the First World War.

• And by doing so, SIS’s former chief Baghdadi tried to place himself

in the long list of Islamic Caliphs, the rightful leaders of

the ummah (the global Muslim community).

Salafi-Jihadists

• The Salafist movement or Salafism is an ultra-conservative

movement within Sunni Islam.

• Salafi thinkers and theologians believe that the Islamic civilization

will be cured of all ills, and thrive and flourish again once Muslims

adopt and apply the Islamic codes, law, norms and values to their

everyday lives as they were in the 7th century during the time of the

Prophet Muhammad and his first four successors, known as Al-

Khulafa-ur-Rashidun, The Rightly-Guided Caliphs.

• The Salafis believe that the establishment of the Caliphate (a global

Islamic cultural, political, and religious entity) is a marathon

process, which has to be achieved mostly through preaching,

education, social activities, voluntarism, charity work, and political

action.

• However, unlike the Salafi affiliated organizations, in order to

implement the codes, law, and values, Salafi-Jihadists (represented

by groups like Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Islamic Jihad, etc.) call for

proactively and violently (militantly) spreading and implementing

their ideology.

• Defining features of Salafi-jihadism

o jihad (holy war),

o tawhid (the oneness of God),

o hakimiyya (true Islamic government),

o al-wala wal-bara (loyalty to divine truth and disavowal of

untruth and polytheism), and

o takfir (the naming of disbelievers). It is a controversial

concept in Islamist discourse, denoting excommunication, as

one Muslim declaring another Muslim as a non-believer

(kafir).

61. Uighur Muslims (TH)

• Why? Japan’s parliament passed a rare resolution expressing

concern about rights issues in China, including the treatment of its

Uighur Muslim population and the city of Hong Kong, days before

the Beijing Olympics open.

What?

Who are the Uighurs?

• The Uighurs are mostly Muslims, and number about 12 million in

western China's Xinjiang region.

• They see themselves as culturally and ethnically close to Central

Asian nations, and their language is similar to Turkish. Uyghurs

speak their own language and not Chinese.

• But in recent decades, there's been a mass migration of Han

Chinese (China's ethnic majority) to Xinjiang, and the Uighurs feel

their culture and livelihoods are under threat.

Where is Xinjiang?

• It's in the far west of China, and is the country's biggest region.

• As an autonomous area, it - in theory at least - has a degree of

self-governance away from Beijing.

• Xinjiang is a mostly desert region and produces about a fifth

of the world's cotton.

• This region is also rich in oil and natural gas and because of

its proximity to Central Asia and Europe is seen by Beijing as an

important trade link.

What's happening to people in Xinjiang?

• Uighur Muslims make up half of the region's total population. In the

early 20th Century, the Uyghurs briefly declared independence for

the region but it was brought under the complete control of China's

new Communist government in 1949.

• Several countries, including the US, Canada and the Netherlands,

have accused China of committing genocide - defined by

international convention as the "intent to destroy, in whole or in

part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group".

• There have been reports about Uyghurs in camps, China has

been forcibly mass sterilising Uyghur women to suppress the

population, separating children from their families, and attempting

to break the cultural traditions of the group.

China’s Stand

• China says the crackdown in Xinjiang is necessary to prevent

terrorism and root out Islamist extremism and the camps are an

effective tool for re-educating inmates in its fight against terrorism.

• It insists that Uyghur militants are waging a violent campaign for

an independent state by plotting bombings, sabotage and civic

unrest.

62. Amnesty International (AI) (TH)

• Why? Amnesty International labelled Israel an “apartheid” state

that treats Palestinians as “an inferior racial group,” joining the

assessment of other rights groups.

What?

• Amnesty International (AI) is an international nongovernmental

organization (NGO) founded in London in 1961.


• It seeks to publicize violations by governments and other entities

of rights recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human

Rights (1948), especially freedom of speech and of conscience

and the right against torture.

• It actively seeks the release of political prisoners and the relief,

when necessary, of their families.

• It also works with intergovernmental human rights bodies to

expand and enforce human rights protections in international law.

• It also promotes abolishing the death penalty to protecting sexual

and reproductive rights, and from combating discrimination to

defending refugees and migrants’ rights.

• In 1977 AI was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.

• Its logo is a burning candle wrapped in barbed wire.

Headquarters are in London.

Human Rights Day

• It is observed by the international community every year on 10

December.

• It commemorates the day in 1948 the United Nations General

Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

• The Declaration with its broad range of political, civil, social,

cultural and economic rights is not a binding document.

Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action

• Also known as VDPA, it is a human rights declaration adopted by

consensus at the World Conference on Human Rights in June

1993 in Vienna, Austria.

• The position of United Nations High Commissioner for Human

Rights was recommended by this Declaration and subsequently

created by General Assembly.

What are Human Rights?

• Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms that belong to

every person in the world, from birth until death.

• They can never be taken away, although they can sometimes be

restricted – for example if a person breaks the law, or in the

interests of national security.

• These basic rights are based on shared values like dignity,

fairness, equality, respect and independence.

• These values are generally defined and protected by law.

Paris Principles

• The Paris Principles are a set of international standards which

frame and guide the work of National Human Rights Institutions

(NHRIs). They were adopted by the United Nations General

Assembly in 1993.

63. Africa Union suspends Burkina after coup as envoys head for

talks (TH)

• Why? The African Union’s 15-member Peace and Security Council

suspended Burkina Faso a week after the volatile country suffered

its latest coup.

What?

• The move came three days after the Economic Community of West

African States (ECOWAS) suspended Burkina from its ranks and

warned of possible sanctions pending the outcome of meetings with

the junta.

• They have previously suspended and enforced sanctions

against two other members — Mali and Guinea — where coups

have unfurled in the past 18 months.

Troubled country

• In January 2022, rebel soldiers detained president Roch Marc

Christian Kabore amid rising public anger at his failure to stem

jihadist violence ravaging the impoverished nation.

• The coup is the latest bout of turmoil to strike Burkina Faso, a

landlocked state that has suffered chronic instability since gaining

independence from France in 1960.

• For more details, refer ‘Coup in Sudan & African Union’ from

Jan 2022 file.

64. Minsk Agreement and the Normandy Process (TH)

• Why? India called for quiet diplomacy and the peaceful resolution

of the Russia-Ukraine tensions.

• More than 20,000 Indian nationals – including students – live in

Ukraine.

What?

• India was one of three countries (Kenya and Gabon were the

others) that abstained from a procedural vote on whether or not

Ukraine would be discussed. China and Russia voted against the

move.

• The U.S., which initiated the meeting and nine other countries voted

to hold the discussion.

• India reiterated its support for a July 2020 ceasefire, the 2014

Minsk Agreement and the Normandy Process.

Normandy Format

• The Normandy Format refers to discussions held between Russia,

Ukraine, Germany, and France, who have met since 2014, when

Russia annexed Crimea. The four countries met in Paris on January

26 and are set to meet in Berlin in two weeks.

Minsk Agreement


• Ukraine and the Russian-backed separatists agreed a 12-point

ceasefire deal in the capital of Belarus in September 2014

which is also known as the Minsk agreements on the Ukraine

conflict.

• The deal set out a series of military and political steps that remain

unimplemented.

• A major blockage has been Russia’s insistence that it is not a party

to the conflict and therefore is not bound by its terms.

• Russia-Ukraine Conflict has been covered in detail in Jan 2022

file.

D) Polity, Bills, Acts and Judgments

65. Official Secrets Act (TH)

• Why? The Delhi headquarters of India’s currency and bank notes

manufacturer which printed the new series of notes of ₹2,000 and

₹500 denomination in 2016, has been declared a “prohibited place”

under the Official Secrets Act by the Union Home Ministry.

What?

What is the Official Secrets Act?

• OSA has its roots in the British colonial era. The original version

was The Indian Official Secrets Act (Act XIV), 1889.

• This was brought in with the main objective of muzzling the voice

of a large number of newspapers that had come up in several

languages, and were building political consciousness.

o It was amended and made more stringent in the form of The

Indian Official Secrets Act, 1904, during Lord Curzon’s tenure

as Viceroy of India.

o In 1923, a newer version was notified. The Indian Official

Secrets Act (Act No XIX of 1923) was extended to all matters

of secrecy and confidentiality in governance in the country.

• It broadly deals with two aspects — spying or espionage,

covered under Section 3, and disclosure of other secret information

of the government, under Section 5.

• Under Section 5, both the person communicating the information

and the person receiving the information can be punished.

• For classifying a document, a government Ministry or Department

follows the Manual of Departmental Security Instructions, 1994, not

under OSA.

o Also, OSA itself does not say what a “secret” document

is.

• It is the government’s discretion to decide what falls under the ambit

of a “secret” document to be charged under OSA.

• It has often been argued that the law is in direct conflict with the

Right to Information Act, 2005.

Between the RTI Act and OSA, which has primacy?

• Section 22 of the RTI Act provides for its primacy vis-a-vis

provisions of other laws, including OSA. So, if there is any

inconsistency in OSA with regard to furnishing of information, it will

be superseded by the RTI Act.

• However, under Sections 8 and 9 of the RTI Act, the government

can refuse information.

o Effectively, if the government classifies a document as

“secret” under OSA Clause 6, that document can be kept

outside the ambit of the RTI Act, and the government can

invoke Sections 8 or 9.

Has there been any effort to change provisions of OSA?

• In 1971, the Law Commission in its report on ‘Offences Against

National Security’, observed that “it agrees with the contention” that

“merely because a circular is marked secret or confidential, it

should not attract the provisions of the Act if the publication thereof

is in the interest of the public and no question of national

emergency and interest of the State as such arises”.

o The Law Commission, however, did not recommend any

changes to the Act.

• In 2006, the Second Administrative Reforms Commission

(ARC) recommended that OSA be repealed, and replaced with a

chapter in the National Security Act containing provisions relating to

official secrets.

66. Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) (TH)

• Why? A committee constituted by the Union Home Ministry in

December to study the withdrawal of the Armed Forces (Special

Powers) Act, or AFSPA, from Nagaland, slated to submit a report

within 45 days as claimed by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, is yet to

conclude its findings.

• Note: You have already prepared this topic in detail from the Jan 22

file.

67. Fundamental Duties (TH)

• Why? The Supreme Court asked the Union and the State

governments to respond to a petition to enforce the fundamental

duties of citizens, including patriotism and unity of the nation,

through “comprehensive, well-defined laws”.

What?

• The original Constitution of India contained only the fundamental

rights and not the fundamental duties.

o However, they incorporated the duties of the State in the

Constitution in the form of Directive Principles of State Polity.

• On the recommendations of the Swaran Singh Committee, the

fundamental duties of citizens were added in the Constitution by

enacting the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act in 1976.

o This amendment added a new part, namely, Part IVA to the

Constitution.

o This new part consists of only one Article, that is, Article 51A

which for the first time specified a code of ten fundamental

duties of the citizens.

• Though the Swaran Singh Committee suggested the incorporation

of eight Fundamental Duties in the Constitution, the 42nd

Constitutional Amendment Act (1976) included ten Fundamental

Duties.

• Interestingly, certain recommendations of the Committee were not

accepted by the Government and hence, not incorporated in the

Constitution. These include:

o 1. The Parliament may provide for the imposition of such

penalty or punishment as may be considered appropriate for

any non-compliance with or refusal to observe any of the

duties.

o 2. No law imposing such penalty or punishment shall be

called in question in any court on the ground of infringement

of any of Fundamental Rights or on the ground of repugnancy

to any other provision of the Constitution.

o 3. Duty to pay taxes should also be a Fundamental Duty of

the citizens.


• The Fundamental Duties in the Indian Constitution are inspired by

the Constitution of erstwhile USSR.

o Notably, none of the Constitutions of major democratic

countries like USA, Canada, France, Germany, Australia and

so on specifically contain a list of duties of citizens.

o Japanese Constitution is, perhaps, the only democratic

Constitution in world which contains a list of duties of citizens.

o The socialist countries, on the contrary, gave equal

importance to the fundamental rights and duties of their

citizens.

List of Fundamental Duties

• According to Article 51A, it shall be the duty of every citizen of

India:

o (a) to abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and

institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem;

o (b) to cherish and follow the noble ideals that inspired the

national struggle for freedom;

o (c) to uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity

of India;

o (d) to defend the country and render national service when

called upon to do so;

o (e) to promote harmony and the spirit of common

brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending

religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities and to

renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women;

o (f) to value and preserve the rich heritage of the country’s

composite culture;

o (g) to protect and improve the natural environment including

forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife and to have compassion for

living creatures;

o (h) to develop scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of

inquiry and reform;

o (i) to safeguard public property and to abjure violence;

o (j) to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and

collective activity so that the nation constantly rises to higher

levels of endeavour and achievement; and

o (k) to provide opportunities for education to his child or ward

between the age of six and fourteen years.

❖ This duty was added by the 86th Constitutional Amendment

Act, 2002.

Features of the Fundamental Duties

• Unlike some of the Fundamental Rights which extend to all persons

whether citizens or foreigners, the Fundamental Duties are confined

to citizens only and do not extend to foreigners.

• Like the Directive Principles, the fundamental duties are also non-

justiciable. The Constitution does not provide for their direct

enforcement by the courts.

• Moreover, there is not legal sanction against their violation.

However, the Parliament is free to enforce them by suitable

legislation.

Significance of Fundamental Duties

• They serve as a warning against the antinational and antisocial

activities like burning the national flag, destroying public property

and so on.

• They help the courts in examining and determining the

constitutional validity of a law.

o In 1992, the Supreme Court ruled that in determining the

constitutionality of any law, if a court finds that the law in

question seeks to give effect to a fundamental duty, it

may consider such law to be ‘reasonable’ in relation to

Article 14 (equality before law) or Article 19 (six

freedoms) and thus save such law from

unconstitutionality.

• They are enforceable by law. Hence, the Parliament can provide for

the imposition of appropriate penalty or punishment for failure to

fulfil any of them.

68. President’s Fleet Review (IE)

• Why? The President of India took part in the Indian Navy’s 12th

Presidential Fleet Review.

What?

What is the President’s Fleet Review?

• In simplest terms, it is the country’s President taking stock of the

Navy’s capability.

• Historically, a Fleet Review is an assembly of ships at a pre-

designated place for the purpose of displaying loyalty and

allegiance to the Sovereign and the state.

o In turn, the Sovereign, by reviewing the ships, reaffirms his

faith in the fleet and its ability to defend the nation’s maritime

interest.

• The President is taken on one of the Naval ships, which is called

the President’s Yacht, to look at all the ships docked on one of the

Naval ports.

o The President’s Yacht this year is an indigenously built Naval

Offshore Patrol Vessel, INS Sumitra.

Importance of Presidential Fleet Review

• A fleet review is usually conducted once during the tenure of the

President, who is the supreme commander of the armed forces.

• So far, 11 Presidential Fleet Reviews have been conducted since

Independence, of which two have been International Fleet Reviews,

in 2001 and 2016.

o The first was conducted in 1953, under Dr Rajendra Prasad.

o The next one was done not by the President but by the then

Defence Minister, Y B Chavan, in 1964.

o Since then, it has been the President reviewing the fleet.

Do all naval ships participate?

• No. The idea is to showcase not all the Navy’s ships, but every type

of ship — and the kind of capabilities it has at that time.

• The review also includes merchant ships.

69. Who are Star Campaigners? (TH)

• Why? The Election Commission of India restored the maximum

limit on the number of star campaigners a party can field in the

ongoing Assembly elections in five States, citing the fall in COVID-

19 cases in the country.

What?

• The commission had in October 2020 reduced the number of star

campaigners for recognised national and State parties from 40 to

30 and unrecognised parties from 20 to 15, in order to prevent large

crowds from gathering during campaigning.

• Section 77 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which

relates to a candidate’s election expenditure, does leave it to the

political party itself to decide who its “leaders” are and allows every


party to submit a list of such ‘star campaigners’ to the election

authorities.

• However, it should be noted that the ‘star campaigner’ status

comes with a clear privilege: the expenditure incurred on the

campaign done by those from the list of star campaigners is not

included in the expenditure of the candidate concerned.

• In effect, an order of the ECI revoking the star status is actually a

withdrawal of the right to campaign without incurring electoral

expenditure on the candidates’ account.

Guidelines to work out expenditure of star campaigners

• As per Section 77 of the Representation of Peoples Act 1951, the

expenditure incurred by leaders of a political party on account of

travel by air or by any other means shall not be deemed to be poll

expenditure of a candidate.

• A recognised political party could give a list of 40 persons and a

registered but unrecognised party a list of 20 persons to the Chief

Electoral Officer and the Election Commission of India within seven

days of the notification of the elections, and such political leaders

would be known as star campaigners.

• In the event of a public rally or meeting, if the candidate or his/her

election agent shares the dais with the star campaigner, then the

entire expenditure on that rally, other than the travel expenses of

the star campaigner, should be added to the candidate's expenses.

• If the candidate is not present on the dais but banners and posters

with the name of the candidate or the photographs of the candidate

are displayed at the venue or the name of the candidate mentioned

by the star campaigner, then the entire expenditure on the rally,

other than travel expenses of the star campaigner, would be added

to the candidate's election expenses.

• If there is more than one candidate sharing the dais or displaying

banners or posters with their names at the venue, then the

expenses on such a rally should be equally divided among all such

candidates.

• If the candidate or any of his representative or family member or

leader of a political party other than the notified star campaigner is

sharing the transport facility with the star campaigner, then 50 per

cent of the expenditure would be added to the candidate's

expenses.

• If more than one candidate is sharing the facilities then 50 per cent

of the travel expenditure should be apportioned among those

candidates.

• If a star campaigner of an allied party attends the rally and takes the

name of the candidate or shares the dais with the candidate, then

the travel expense of that campaigner of allied party up to the

constituency is not exempt and should be added to the candidate's

expenses.

70. Development Coordination & Monitoring Committee (DISHA)

Committee (PIB)

• Why? Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Dr Jitendra

Singh chaired the District Development Coordination &

Monitoring Committee (DISHA) Meeting for Ramban District.

• A key decision taken during the meeting was to commence Purple

Revolution in Ramban District by encouraging ‘Lavender

Cultivation under the CSIR-IIIM’s Aroma Mission through Ministry

of Science and Technology.

What?

• District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee

(DISHA) is being formed with a view to fulfill the objective of

ensuring a better coordination among all the elected

representatives in Parliament, State Legislatures and Local

Governments (Panchayati Raj Institutions/Municipal Bodies) for

efficient and time-bound development of districts in our country.

• These Committees could monitor the implementation of the

programmes in accordance with prescribed procedures and

guidelines and promote synergy and convergence for greater

impact.

• The DISHA supersedes the District Vigilance & Monitoring

Committee currently mandated by Ministry of Rural Development.

• The Chairperson of the DISHA Committee should be a Member of

Parliament (Lok Sabha) elected from the district, nominated by the

Ministry of Rural Development.

• The Member Secretary of the DISHA shourd be the District collector

/ District Magistrate/ Deputy Commissioner.

• Meetings of the DISHA should be held at least once in every

Quarter.

• Action Taken on the recommendations of the previous meeting

should be the first agenda item for the next meeting.

Among others the terms of Reference of the Committee are:

• Resolve matters related to provision of land and space for faster roll

out of priorities.

• Identify issues for follow up in Parliament, state Assemblies and

Local Governments for timely achievement of objectives.

• Recommend improvements in design of approved programmes and

suggest mid - course corrections to address implementation

constraints.

• Look into complaints/alleged irregularities received in respect of the

implementation of the programmes' including complaints of wrong

selection of beneficiaries, mis-appropriation / diversion of funds and

recommend follow-up action.

o The Committee should have the authority to summon and

inspect any record for this purpose.

• Closely review the flow of funds including the funds allocated, funds

released by both Centre and the State, utilization and unspent

balances under each Scheme etc.

Powers of the Committee

• This committee will have coordination and Monitoring powers.

• Its role is to facilitate timely execution of approved Projects.

• It will have powers in seeking effective follow up of issues raised

during the deliberation.

• The District Collector will be the Member Secretary responsible for

the timely follow up on recommendations.

71. Constitutional Provisions Regarding the Relationship Between

the Governor and the Chief Minister (TH)

• Why? The West Bengal Governor returned the recommendation of

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to summon the Assembly on

March 7.

• The Governor has said the Constitution permitted the Governor to

summon the House on recommendation of the Cabinet and the

State government had sent him a file that had endorsement only of

Hon’ble CM. There was no Cabinet decision. So, he had to send the


file back to government so that they send back with constitutional

compliance.

What?

Article 163–Council of Ministers to aid and advise Governor

• 1. There shall be a Council of Ministers with the Chief Minister as

the head to aid and advise the Governor in the exercise of his

functions, except in so far as he is required to exercise his functions

in his discretion.

• 2. If any question arises whether a matter falls within the Governor’s

discretion or not, decision of the Governor shall be final, and the

validity of anything done by the Governor shall not be called in

question on the ground that he ought or ought not to have acted in

his discretion.

• 3. The advice tendered by Ministers to the Governor shall not be

inquired into in any court.

Article 166–Conduct of Business of the Government of a State

• 1. All executive action of the Government of a State shall be

expressed to be taken in the name of the Governor.

• 2. Orders and other instruments made and executed in the name of

the Governor shall be authenticated in such manner as may be

specified in rules to be made by the Governor.

• 3. The Governor shall make rules for the more convenient

transaction of the business of the government of the state, and for

the allocation among ministers of the said business in so far as it is

not business with respect to which the Governor is required to act in

his discretion.

Article 167–Duties of Chief Minister

• It shall be the duty of the Chief Minister of each state

o 1. To communicate to the Governor of the state all decisions

of the council of ministers relating to the administration of the

affairs of the state and proposals for legislation.

o 2. To furnish such information relating to the administration of

the affairs of the state and proposals for legislation as the

Governor may call for.

o 3. If the Governor so requires, to submit for the consideration

of the council of ministers any matter on which a decision has

been taken by a minister but which has not been considered

by the council

• The Constitutional position of the Governor differs from that of the

President in the following two respects:

o 1. While the Constitution envisages the possibility of the

Governor acting at times in his discretion, no such possibility

has been envisaged for the President.

o 2. After the 42nd Constitutional Amendment (1976),

ministerial advice has been made binding on the President,

but no such provision has been made with respect to the

Governor.

• The Governor has Constitutional discretion in the following

cases:

o 1. Reservation of a bill for the consideration of the President.

o 2. Recommendation for the imposition of the President’s Rule

in the state.

o 3. While exercising his functions as the administrator of an

adjoining union territory (in case of additional charge).

o 4. Determining the amount payable by the Government of

Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram to an autonomous

Tribal District Council as royalty accruing from licenses for

mineral exploration.

o 5. Seeking information from the chief minister with regard to

the administrative and legislative matters of the state.

• In addition to the above constitutional discretion (i.e., the express

discretion mentioned in the Constitution), the Governor, like the

President, also has situational discretion (i.e., the hidden

discretion derived from the exigencies of a prevailing political

situation) in the following cases:

o 1. Appointment of chief minister when no party has a clear-

cut majority in the state legislative assembly or when the

chief minister in office dies suddenly and there is no obvious

successor.

o 2. Dismissal of the council of ministers when it cannot prove

the confidence of the state legislative assembly.

o 3. Dissolution of the state legislative assembly if the council

of ministers has lost its majority.

72. Public Order: A Constitutional Provision for Curbing Freedoms

(IE)

• Why? The Karnataka High Court is hearing a challenge to the

constitutionality of the state government’s ban on students wearing

a hijab in educational institutions.

• In one of the hearing, the judges heard an argument on whether the

state can justify the ban on the ground that it violates ‘public order’.

What is Public Order?

• Public order is one of the three grounds (public order, morality and

health) on which the state can restrict freedom of religion

guaranteed by Article 25 of the Constitution.

• Public order is normally equated with public peace and safety.

• According to List 2 (State List) of the Seventh Schedule of the

Constitution, the power to legislate on aspects of public order

rests with the states.

How has public order been interpreted by courts?

• Courts have broadly interpreted it to mean something that affects

the community at large and not a few individuals.

• In Ram Manohar Lohia vs State of Bihar (1965), the Supreme Court

held that in the case of ‘public order’, the community or the public

at large have to be affected by a particular action.

Other grounds to restrict Public Order

• Other grounds where Public Order can be used to restrict

freedoms/Rights are:

o Freedom of speech and expression (Article 19a)

o Right of Assembly (Article 19b)

o Freedom of Association (Article 19c)

o Freedom to Manage Religious Affairs (Article 26)

o Right of Minorities to Establish and Administer Educational

Institutions (Article 30)

• Public order is enumerated in the State List and the state

legislature has “in normal circumstances” exclusive powers to make

laws with respect to any of the matters enumerated in the State

List.

• The legislative assembly of Delhi can make laws on any subject of

the State List (except public order, police and land) and the

Concurrent List.


• Likewise, the legislative assembly of Jammu and Kashmir can

make laws on any subject of the State List (except public order and

police) and the Concurrent List.

• Both the Parliament as well as the state legislatures can

concurrently make a law of preventive detention (Article 22) for

reasons connected with the maintenance of public order (this is a

provision of the Concurrent List).

73. 102nd and 105th Constitution Amendment Acts (TH)

• Why? The Supreme Court began examining whether petitions

challenging a Madras High Court decision declaring ultra vires a

State quota law which provided 10.5% special reservation to

Vanniakula Kshatriyas within the Most Backward Community quota,

ought to be referred to a larger Bench.

• Several senior lawyers submitted that this case involved

constitutional issues, and would require a dive into the 102nd and

105th Constitutional Amendments.

What?

102nd Constitution Amendment Act, 2018

• 102nd Constitution Amendment Act inserted new Articles 338 B

and 342 A.

• The amendment also brings about changes in Article 366.

• Article 338B provides authority to NCBC to examine complaints

and welfare measures regarding socially and educationally

backward classes.

o It granted the National Commission on Backward Classes

(NCBC) constitutional status, at par with the National

Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) under Article-

338) and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes

(under Article 338-A).

• Article 342 A basically deals with the power of the President of

India to notify a particular caste as a Socially and Educationally

Backward Class (SEBC) and the power of the Parliament to change

the list.

o It states that the President may specify the socially and

educationally backward classes in the various states and

union territories. He may do this in consultation with the

Governor of the concerned state.

o However, a law of Parliament will be required if the list of

backward classes is to be amended (i.e. any name of the

community added or deleted from the list)

105th Constitution Amendment Act, 2021

• The 105th Amendment Act restores the power of the State

Governments and Union Territories to identify and specify Socially

and Economically Backward Classes (SEBCs).

• This amendment provides that the President may notify the list

of socially and educationally backward classes only for

purposes of the central government.

• This central list will be prepared and maintained by the central

government.

• It enables states and union territories to prepare their own list of

socially and educationally backward classes. This list must be

made by law, and may differ from the central list.

• Consultation with the NCBC: Article 338B of the Constitution

mandates the central and state governments to consult the NCBC

on all major policy matters affecting the socially and educationally

backward classes.

• 105th amendment act exempts states and union territories from

this requirement for matters related to preparation of their list

of socially and educationally backward classes.

74. Oath or Affirmation to the Judges of Supreme Court and the

High Courts (TH)

• Why? Tamil Nadu Governor administered the oath of office to

Madras High Court Chief Justice.

What?

• The Madras High Court is the second oldest High Court in

India. It has jurisdiction over the State of Tamil Nadu and the Union

Territory of Puducherry.

o The Calcutta High Court is the oldest High Court in India. It

has jurisdiction over the State of West Bengal and the Union

Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Oath or Affirmation

• A person appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court/High Court,

before entering upon his Office, has to make and subscribe an oath

or affirmation before the President/Governor, or some person

appointed by him for this purpose.

• In his oath, a judge of the Supreme Court/High Court swears:

o 1. to bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India;

o 2. to uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India;

o 3. to duly and faithfully and to the best of his ability,

knowledge and judgement perform the duties of the Office

without fear or favour, affection or ill-will; and

o 4. to uphold the Constitution and the laws.

75. Relations between the Centre and the States (TH)

• Why? The Chief Ministers of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu,

Mamata Banerjee and M.K. Stalin, respectively, have jointly

proposed a convention of non-BJP Chief Ministers.

What?

• Relations between the Centre and the States ruled by Opposition

parties are strained due to various factors, ranging from

questions related to GST, the partisan behaviour of central

agencies, the Centre’s move to give itself absolute powers in the

transfer of IAS, IPS and IFS officers and the overbearing attitude of

several Governors.

• The relations among States are also fraying in many instances even

as the Centre’s moral authority to be a neutral arbiter is at a low.

• The tendency to mobilise political support in one State by berating

other States, though not new, seems to have acquired an additional

edge in recent times.

Committees/Commissions on the Centre-State Relations

• The Committees/Commissions on the Centre-State relations in the

order they were constituted: Rajamannar Committee > Sarkaria

Commission > Puncchhi Commission

76. Constitutional Validity of the Laws That Limit Employment for

Citizens from Outside the State (TH)

• Why? Over the last three years, several States have enacted laws

that limit employment for citizens from outside the State. These

laws raise questions on the conception of India as a nation.

What?


• There are at least three important constitutional questions that arise

from these Acts.

• First, Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution guarantees freedom to

carry out any occupation, trade or business.

o There may be reasonable restrictions “in the interests of the

general public”, and in particular related to specifying any

professional or technical qualifications, or to reserve a sector

for government monopoly.

o These Acts, by requiring private businesses to reserve 75%

of lower end jobs for locals, encroaches upon their right to

carry out any occupation.

• In 2005, the Constitution was amended to allow reservation in

private educational institutions for socially and educationally

backward classes and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

o This amendment applies to admissions in private educational

institutions and not to jobs in the private sector.

• Second, the provision of reservation by virtue of domicile or

residence may be unconstitutional.

• Article 16 of the Constitution specifically provides for equality of

opportunity for all citizens in public employment. It prohibits

discrimination on several grounds including place of birth and

residence.

o However, it permits Parliament to make law that requires

residence within a State for appointment to a public office.

• Note two points here. This enabling provision is for public

employment and not for private sector jobs. And the law needs to

be made by Parliament, and not by a State legislature.

• The third question is whether 75% reservation is permitted.

o In the Indra Sawhney case in 1992, the Supreme Court

capped reservations in public services at 50%. A 50%

reservation ceiling limit was fixed by a nine-judge Bench in

the Indra Sawhney case.

o Further, the 1992 judgment had barred reservation solely

on economic criterion.

o In a 6:3 majority verdict, the apex court, in Indra Sawhney,

had held that “a backward class cannot be determined only

and exclusively with reference to economic criterion... It may

be a consideration or basis along with and in addition to

social backwardness, but it can never be the sole criterion”.

Affects equality

• The Constitution conceptualises India as one nation with all citizens

having equal rights to live, travel and work anywhere in the country.

These State laws go against this vision by restricting the right of

out-of-State citizens to find employment in the State.

• This restriction may also indirectly affect the right to reside across

India as finding employment becomes difficult.

Another fallout

• Other than potentially increasing costs for companies, there may

also be an increase in income inequality across States as citizens

of poorer States with fewer job opportunities are trapped within their

States.

• There may also be serious consequences to the idea of India as a

nation. Can people across States imagine themselves as citizens of

one nation if they cannot freely find work and settle down across

the nation?

77. What is State Mourning (TH)

• Why? Lata Mangeshkar, affectionately called a “Nightingale of

India”, who died after a brief illness, was cremated with State

honours.

• As a mark of respect, the Union government announced a two-day

national mourning, while the Maharashtra government has declared

a public holiday.

• The Rajya Sabha will be adjourned for an hour on Monday morning

in honour of the singer who was a member of the House from 1999

to 2005.

What?

• Observing or declaring a national mourning day is a symbolic

gesture to pay tribute and express grief for a national tragedy.

• Such days include those marking the death or funeral of a

renowned individual or individuals from that country or elsewhere,

or the anniversary of such a death or deaths.

• It is designated by the national government.

o State government also can declare state mourning day/s in

their respective state.

• After Mourning is declared by Ministry of Home Affairs following

restrictions are observed in all central

Institutions/organaisations/offices.

• National flag: On the day of mourning in India, the National Flag

will be flown at half-mast throughout the country and in Indian

missions abroad.

• Restriction on ceremonies and official entertainment: No

ceremonial functions will be organised and there shall be no official

entertainment during the period of state mourning. Memorial

activities are often organised by people.

• State funeral is accorded with due respect to the dignitary.

• Half day holiday in Central government and its institution: A

1997 Central government notification that restricts declaration of

public holiday only in the event of death of the sitting Prime Minister

or President.

78. Bru-Reang Refugees (TH)

• Why? All the internally displaced Bru tribal people who are living in

relief camps in Tripura for years will be rehabilitated permanently

within the State by March 31, Union Minister of State for Social

Empowerment & Justice Pratima Bhoumik said

What?

• In 1997, the murder of a Mizo forest guard allegedly by Bru (also

known as Reangs) militants led to a violent backlash against the

community, forcing several thousand of them to flee out of their

home state of Mizoram to neighbouring Tripura.


• Since then around 30,000 of them have been living in refugee

camps in the Jampui Hills of Tripura.

• The Bru militancy was a reactionary movement against Mizo

nationalist groups who had demanded in the mid-1990s that the

Brus be left out of the state’s electoral rolls, contending that the

tribe was not indigenous to Mizoram.

• Bru or Reang is a community indigenous to Northeast India, living

mostly in Tripura, Mizoram and Assam. In Tripura, they are

recognised as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group.

79. Can a Private Member's Bill Amend the Preamble to the

Constitution? (TH)

• Why? Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman deferred the introduction of a

Private Member Bill.

• A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of the Rajya Sabha, K.J.

Alphons, has sought to introduce a Private Member’s Bill to amend

the Preamble of the Constitution.

• “The position which I had made clear was that the question of ultra

vires will not be decided by the Chair, but that it may be left to the

House. If it comes to the conclusion that it is ultra vires, the House

may reject the Bill. If the House accepts the Bill for consideration,

then the party aggrieved has his remedy in the Supreme Court or

other courts,” the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman said.

What?

Amenability of the Preamble

• The question as to whether the Preamble can be amended under

Article 368 of the Constitution arose for the first time in the historic

Kesavananda Bharati case (1973).

• The Supreme Court held that the Preamble is a part of the

Constitution and held that the Preamble can be amended, subject

to the condition that no amendment is done to the ‘basic features’.

o In other words, the Court held that the basic elements or the

fundamental features of the Constitution as contained in the

Preamble cannot be altered by an amendment under Article

368.

• The Preamble has been amended only once so far, in 1976, by

the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, which has added three

new words–Socialist, Secular and Integrity–to the Preamble. This

amendment was held to be valid.

Private Members and their Bills

• Any Member of Parliament who is not a Minister is referred to as a

private member.

• Both Ministers and private members contribute to the law-making

process.

• Bills introduced by Ministers are referred to as government bills.

• Private member’s bills are piloted by non-Minister MPs. Their

purpose is to draw the government’s attention to what individual

MPs see as issues and gaps in the existing legal framework, which

require legislative intervention.

• Government Bills enjoy greater chances of being accepted by the

House than Private Members’ Bills.

Introduction in the House

• The admissibility of a private member’s Bill is decided by the Rajya

Sabha Chairman. (In the case of Lok Sabha, it is the Speaker; the

procedure is roughly the same for both Houses.)

• The Member must give at least a month’s notice before the Bill

can be listed for introduction.

• Private members can introduce up to three Bills per session.

• While government Bills can be introduced and discussed on any

day, private member’s Bills can be introduced and discussed

only on Fridays.

• In Lok Sabha, the last two and a half hours of a sitting on every

Friday are generally allotted for transaction of Private Members’

Business, i.e., Private Members’ Bills and Private Members’

Resolutions.

Procedure for introduction

• On the scheduled Friday, the private member moves a motion for

introduction of the Bill, which is usually not opposed.

• Only a fraction of private member’s bills that are introduced, are

taken up for discussion.

• A private member’s Bill that is introduced but not discussed in

Rajya Sabha, lapses when Member retires.

After discussion ends

• Upon conclusion of the discussion, the Member piloting the Bill can

either withdraw it on the request of the Minister concerned, or he

may choose to press ahead with its passage.

• In the latter case, the Bill is put to vote and, if the private member

gets the support of the House, it is passed.

• The last time a private member’s Bill was passed by both

Houses was in 1970. This was the Supreme Court (Enlargement

of Criminal Appellate Jurisdiction) Bill, 1968.

Procedures regulating the consideration of such Bills

• In respect of the Private Members’ Bills, the Members may not

have access to expert advice, and there are certain procedures

regulating the consideration of such Bills.

• The first and foremost requirement in the case of a Private

Member’s Bill is that it should be within the legislative competence

of the Parliament.

o In other words, the subject of the Bill should relate to the

subjects included in the Union or Concurrent List contained in

the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India.

• In addition to the Statement of Objects and Reasons, a Bill

involving expenditure from the Consolidated Fund of India

must also give an estimate of recurring and non-recurring

expenditures likely to be involved in case the Bill is passed into law.


• A Bill involving proposals for the delegation of legislative power

to any executive authority should be accompanied by a

memorandum explaining such proposals.

• If the Bill is one which, under the Constitution, cannot be

introduced (Articles 3 and 274 of the Constitution) without the

previous sanction or recommendation of the President, the

member-in-charge of the Bill should annex to the notice, a copy of

such sanction or recommendation.

o While Article 3 deals with the formation of new states or

alternation of names or boundaries of existing States, Article

274 deals with Bills affecting taxation in which states are

interested.

• A Bill which, if enacted, would involve expenditure from the

Consolidated Fund of India, cannot be taken into consideration

or referred to a Select/Joint Committee unless the member-in-

charge obtains the requisite recommendation of the President for

consideration of the Bill under Article 117(3) of the Constitution.

o Article 117(3) states that ‘A Bill which, if enacted and brought

into operation, would involve expenditure from the

Consolidated Fund of India shall not be passed by either

House of Parliament unless the President has recommended

to that House the consideration of the Bill.’

Private Members’ Bill passed by Parliament

• No Private Members’ Bills have been passed by the Parliament

since 1970.

• Till date, Parliament has passed 14 Private Members’ Bills— five of

which were introduced in Rajya Sabha. Six of these were passed in

1956 alone. The last Private Members’ Bill passed by

Parliament was ‘The Supreme Court (Enlargement of Criminal

Appellate Jurisdiction) Bill, 1968’ that became an Act on 9th August,

1970.

Do you know?

Amendment of the Constitution and Private Members

• The procedure for the amendment of the Constitution as laid down

in Article 368 is as follows:

• 1. An amendment of the Constitution can be initiated only by the

introduction of a bill for the purpose in either House of Parliament

and not in the state legislatures.

• 2. The bill can be introduced either by a minister or by a private

member and does not require prior permission of the President.

Money Bills and Private Members

• Money bills can be introduced in the Parliament only with the prior

recommendation of the President.

• Article 110 of the Constitution deals with the definition of money

bills.

• The Constitution lays down a special procedure for the passing of

money bills in the Parliament.

• A money bill can only be introduced in the Lok Sabha and that too

on the recommendation of the President.

• Every such bill is considered to be a government bill and can be

introduced only by a minister (so a Money Bill can’t be

introduced by a Private Member).

• State bills which impose restriction upon freedom of trade

under Article 304 also require prior permission of the President.

80. Essential Commodities Act (TH)

• Why? The Centre has imposed stock limits for retailers, outlets of

big chains and wholesalers across the country till June 30, after

most State governments failed to implement a previous order to do

so.

What?

What is the definition of an ‘essential commodity’?

• There is no specific definition of essential commodities in The EC

Act.

• Section 2(A) of the act states that an “essential commodity” means

a commodity specified in the “Schedule” of this Act.

• The Act gives powers to the central government to add or

remove a commodity in the “Schedule.”

o The Centre, if it is satisfied that it is necessary to do so in

public interest, can notify an item as essential, in

consultation with state governments.

• At present, the “Schedule” contains 9 commodities

o drugs;

o fertilisers, whether inorganic, organic or mixed;

o foodstuffs, including edible oils;

o hank yarn made wholly from cotton;

o petroleum and petroleum products;

o raw jute and jute textiles;

o seeds of food-crops and seeds of fruits and vegetables,

seeds of cattle fodder, jute seed, cotton seed;

• By declaring a commodity as essential, the government can control

the production, supply, and distribution of that commodity, and

impose a stock limit.

Essential Commodities Amendment Act

• The Lok Sabha passed the Essential Commodities Amendment

Act by a voice vote.

• The Act deregulated the production, storage, movement and sale of

several foodstuffs, including cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils,

onion and potatoes, except in the case of extraordinary

circumstances.

• Under the amended EC Act, agri-food stuffs can only be regulated

under extraordinary circumstances such as war, famine,

extraordinary price rise, and natural calamity.


• It says stock limits can only be imposed if retail prices surge

50% above the average in the case of non-perishables and

100% in the case of perishables.

So, why was an amendment needed in The EC Act?

• The EC Act was legislated at a time when the country was facing

scarcity of foodstuffs due to persistent abysmal levels of foodgrain

production.

• The country was dependent on imports and assistance (such as

wheat import form US under PL-480) to feed the population.

• In this scenario, to stop the hoarding and black marketing of

foodstuffs, The Essential Commodities Act was enacted in 1955.

• But now the situation has changed. In fact, India has now become

an exporter of several agricultural products. With these

developments, the EC Act has become anachronistic.

What will be the impact of the amendments?

• The move is expected to attract private investment in the value

chain of these commodities.

• While the purpose of the Act was originally to protect the interests

of consumers by checking illegal trade practices such as hoarding,

it has now become detrimental for investment in the agriculture

sector in general, and in post-harvesting activities in particular.

• The private sector has so far hesitated investing in cold chains and

storage facilities for perishable items as most of these commodities

are under the ambit of the EC Act, and can attract sudden stock

limits.

81. Common Electoral Roll (TH)

• Why? Law and Justice Minister told the Rajya Sabha that the

Centre was not planning on amending the Representation of the

People Act, 1951 to enable a common electoral roll and

simultaneous elections to all electoral bodies in the country.

What?

What is common electoral roll?

• A common electoral roll will serve for elections to the panchayat,

municipality, state assembly and the Lok Sabha.

• In many states, the voters’ list for the panchayat and municipality

elections is different from the one used for Parliament and

Assembly elections (Some states allow the SEC to borrow and

use the EC’s voter’s rolls in toto for the local body elections).

• The distinction stems from the fact that the supervision and

conduct of elections in our country are entrusted with two

constitutional authorities — the Election Commission (EC) of India

and the State Election Commissions (SECs).

• Set up in 1950, the EC is charged with the responsibility of

conducting polls to the offices of the President and Vice-

President of India, and to Parliament, the State Assemblies and

the Legislative Councils under article 324 of the constitution.

• The SECs constituted under the Constitution (73rd and 74th)

amendments Act, 1992 for each State / Union Territory supervise

municipal and panchayat elections (all three tiers of municipality

and panchayat).

• They are free to prepare their own electoral rolls for local body

elections, and this exercise does not have to be coordinated with

the EC.

o Art 243K states that for Elections to the Panchayats: the

superintendence, direction and control of the preparation

of electoral rolls and the conduct of, all elections to the

Panchayats shall be vested in a State Election

Commission consisting of a State Election Commissioner to

be appointed by the Governor.

o Art 243ZA give the power of superintendence, direction and

control of preparation of electoral rolls and the conduct of

urban local body elections to the SECs.

• It has argued that the preparation of a separate voters list causes

duplication of essentially the same task between two different

agencies.

• The pitch for a single voters list is not new as earlier the Law

Commission recommended it in its 255th report in 2015.

Features of an electoral roll

• The roll for each constituency shall be prepared in such form and in

such language or languages as the Election Commission may

direct.

• You can enrol as a Voter only if you:

o are an Indian citizen.

o have attained the age of 18 years on the qualifying date i.e.,

1st of January of the year of revision of electoral roll.

o are ordinarily resident of the part/polling area of the

constituency where you want to be enrolled.

o are not disqualified to be enrolled as an elector.

• There are 3 categories of electors (voters) in India: –

(i) General Electors

(ii) Oversees (NRI) Electors

(iii) Service Electors

General Elector

• Every Indian citizen who has attained the age of 18 years on the

qualifying date i.e. first day of January of the year of revision of

electoral roll, unless otherwise disqualified, is eligible to be

registered as a voter in the roll of the part/polling area of the

constituency where he is ordinarily resident.

Overseas (NRI) Elector

• According to the provisions of Section 20A of the Representation of

People Act, 1950, an NRI settled in foreign land can become an

elector in electoral roll in India.

• An overseas elector is a person who is a citizen of India and who

has not acquired citizenship of any other country and is otherwise

eligible to be registered as a voter but is absent from his place of

ordinary residence in India owing to his employment, education or

otherwise is eligible to be registered as a voter in the constituency

in which his place of residence in India as mentioned in his

passport is located.

Service Elector

• Service Elector is a voter having service qualification.

• According to the provisions of Section 20 of Representation of

People Act, 1950, service qualification means –

o Being a member of the armed Forces of the Union includes

both civil and defence employees;

o Being a member of an Armed Police Force of a State, and

serving outside that state; or

o Being a person who is employed under the Government of

India, in a post outside India.

• Person having service qualification can get enrolled as ‘service

voter’ at his native place even though he actually may be

residing at a different place (of posting).


82. Comparing Veto Powers of President and Governor (TH)

• Why? Tamil Nadu Governor has returned to the Assembly Speaker

a Bill seeking to dispense with NEET-based admissions for

undergraduate medical degree courses.

• Within hours of the Raj Bhawan release, the Tamil Nadu

government said it would take steps to adopt the same Bill in the

Assembly again.

• The Bill adopted by the Assembly in September 2021 sought to

admit students to UG medical degree programmes on the basis of

Plus Two scores.

• Note: You have already prepared this topic in detail from the Jan

2022 file.

83. Relationship Between the Governor and the Chief Minister (TH)

• Why? In an unprecedented move, West Bengal chief minister

Mamata Banerjee said she was “forced to block” West Bengal

governor on Twitter after getting “irritated” by his constant “abuse”

against her.

• The Governor in turn shared screenshot of Article 167 on social

media.

What?

• The following provisions of the Constitution deal with the

relationship between the governor and the Chief Minister:

Article 163

• There shall be a council of ministers with the Chief Minister as the

head to aid and advise the governor on the exercise of his

functions, except in so far as he is required to exercise his functions

or any of them in his discretion.

Article 164

• (a) The Chief Minister shall be appointed by the governor and other

ministers shall be appointed by the governor on the advise of the

Chief Minister;

• (b) The ministers shall hold office during the pleasure of the

governor; and

• (c) The council of ministers shall be collectively responsible to the

legislative assembly of the state.

Article 167

• It shall be the duty of the Chief Minister:

o (a) to communicate to the governor of the state all decisions

of the council of ministers relating to the administration of the

affairs of the state and proposals for legislation;

o (b) to furnish such information relating to the administration of

the affairs of the state and proposals for legislation as the

governor may call for; and

o (c) if the governor so requires, to submit for the consideration

of the council of ministers any matter on which a decision has

been taken by a minister but which has not been considered

by the council.

E) Science and Technology, Defence, Space

84. National Science Day 2021 and Other important National Days

(IE)

• Why? National Science Day 2021 was observed on 28th February

with the theme of 'Integrated Approach in Science and

Technology for a Sustainable Future'.

What?

• National Science Day is celebrated every year on 28th February to

commemorate the announcement of the discovery of the ‘Raman

Effect’ by Sir C.V. Raman (and his student-collaborator K.S.

Krishnan; Raman won solely; Krishnan didn’t share the award,

although his name was given an honourable mention) in 1928 for

which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1930 (Asia’s its first

Nobel in the Sciences).

o It was also the first Nobel in Physics for a non-white person,

and for an Indian scientist.

• Government of India designated 28 February as National Science

Day (NSD) in 1986.

• The first National Science Day was celebrated on February 28,

1987.

• National Council for Science & Technology Communication

(NCSTC), Department of Science and Technology (DST) acts as a

nodal agency to support, catalyze and coordinate the celebration

of the National Science Day.

• DST also instituted National Awards for Science Popularization

in 1987 to stimulate, encourage and recognize outstanding efforts in

the area of science and technology communication and

popularization as well as inculcating scientific temper among

masses.

o These awards are presented every year on National Science

Day.

The Raman Effect

• In 1921, C.V. Raman was on a trip to Europe when he noticed the

striking blue colour of some icebergs and the Mediterranean Sea.

He was inspired to want to understand the reason behind the

phenomenon.

• The Raman Effect is the process of scattering of light particles by

molecules of a medium.

o Scattering of light is the phenomenon in which light rays get

deviated from its straight path on striking an obstacle like dust

or gas molecules, water vapours etc.

• The scattering occurs due to a change in the wavelength of light as

it enters the medium.

• When a beam of light travels through a dust-free, transparent

chemical, a small fraction of the light emerges in directions other

than where it should.

• This means that light refracted from a body, like the Mediterranean

Sea or an iceberg, can appear to be of a different colour.

• This gave birth to the field of Raman spectroscopy, which has

extensive applications around the globe, and across fields.

Applications of the ‘Raman Effect’

• It can help in determining chemical bonding structures, characterise

materials, determine temperature, find out crystalline orientation,

identify pharmaceutical chemicals, discover counterfeit drugs,

identify pigments in old paintings and historical documents, and

detect explosives using lasers from a distance.

Scientific Temper and the Indian Constitution

• The phrase scientific temper is mentioned in Part IVA in Article

51A of Indian Constitution under Fundamental Duties (FDs).

o FDs were added by 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act in

1976 on the recommendation of Swaran Singh Committee.


• Article 51A(h), “It shall be the duty of every citizen ... to develop

the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and

reform.”

• Jawaharlal Nehru coined the term ‘scientific temper’; he defines

it as an attitude of logical and rational thinking.

• In 1976, the Government of India reemphasised its commitment to

cultivate scientific temper through a constitutional amendment

(Article 51A), and setup a nodal agency called the National

Council of Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC).

o The National Council for Science and Technology

Communication (NCSTC) is mandated to communicate

Science and Technology to masses, stimulate scientific and

technological temper and coordinate and orchestrate such

efforts throughout the country.

• National Children's Science Congress is an opportunity for

brilliant young scientists (10 -17 years of age group), started since

1993 to popularize the method of science.

UNESCO Kalinga Prize

• The UNESCO Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science is an

award given by UNESCO for exceptional skill in presenting

scientific ideas to lay people.

• It is awarded to persons who have had a distinguished career as

writer, editor, lecturer, radio, television, or web programme director,

or film producer in helping interpret science, research and

technology to the public.

• UNESCO Kalinga Prize winners know the potential power of

science, technology, and research in improving public welfare,

enriching the cultural heritage of nations and providing solutions to

societal problems on the local, regional and global level.

• Applicants do not need to have a science degree or to conduct

research.

• It was created in 1951, following a donation from Hon’ble Shri Biju

Patnaik, Chief Minister of Orissa.

• Till to date, more than sixty-five individuals, from around twenty-four

countries have received this award. Many of whom have also been

Nobel-Prize winners.

Other important National Days

National Statistics Day

• It is celebrated on the birth anniversary of Prof. P C Mahalanobis,

on 29th June, in recognition of his invaluable contribution in

establishing the National Statistical System.

• P.C. Mahalanobis devised the Mahalanobis distance and was

instrumental in formulating India’s strategy for industrialization in the

Second Five-Year Plan (1956–61).

• In 1931 he founded the Indian Statistical Institute in Calcutta. In the

next two decades he founded the National Sample Survey (1950)

and the Central Statistical Organization (1951) to serve as statistical

agencies for government data collection.

• He served on the Planning Commission of India from 1955 to 1967,

where he applied his mathematical reasoning to Indian industry.

• Mahalanobis devised a measure of comparison between two data

sets that is now known as the Mahalanobis distance.

• The theme of Statistics Day, 2020 was selected as SDG- 3 (Ensure

healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages) & SDG-

5 (Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls).

National Education Day

• The National Education Day (Rashtriya Shiksha Diwas, November

11) is celebrated to commemorate the birth anniversary of India's

First Education Minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.

National Good Governance Day

• Good governance is observed annually on December 25.

• The day is also celebrated to commemorate the birth anniversary of

India's former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

National Teachers’ Day

• In India, the Teachers’ Day is celebrated on 5th

September every year, which is also the birthday of Dr. Sarvepalli

Radhakrishnan, the first Vice-President of independent India and

the second President of the country.

• The World Teachers’ Day is celebrated on October 5.

National Unity Day

• National Unity Day is celebrated on October 31 across the country

to commemorate the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel,

and to recognise the contributions of the first Union Home Minister,

who laid the firm foundations of the Indian police and gave it its

identity, character and direction.

85. The Concept of Airspace (TH)

• Why? Many European countries have closed their airspace to

flights by Russian carriers in response to Russia’s invasion of

Ukraine, starting from midnight.

What?

• Airspace is the portion of the atmosphere controlled by a country

above its territory, including its territorial waters.

• It is not the same as aerospace, which is the general term for

Earth's atmosphere and the outer space in its vicinity.

• Airspace may be further subdivided into a variety of areas and

zones, including those where there are either restrictions on flying

activities or complete prohibition of flying activities.

Horizontal boundary

• By international law, the notion of a country's sovereign airspace

corresponds with the maritime definition of territorial waters as

being 12 nautical miles (22.2 km) out from a nation's coastline.

• Airspace not within any country's territorial limit is considered

international, analogous to the "high seas" in maritime law.

• However, a country may, by international agreement, assume

responsibility for controlling parts of international airspace, such as

those over the oceans.

o For instance, the United States provides air traffic control

services over a large part of the Pacific Ocean, even though

the airspace is international.

• Under the Geneva Convention on the High Seas (1958) as well as

under international customary law, the freedom of the high seas

applies to aerial navigation as well as to maritime navigation.

Vertical boundary

• There is no international agreement on the vertical extent of

sovereign airspace (the boundary between outer space—which is

not subject to national jurisdiction—and national airspace).

• Vertically, airspace ends where outer space begins.


86. Graveyard Orbit: What Happens When Artificial Satellites Die?

(TH)

• Why? China’s latest demonstration of physically moving one of its

disabled satellites into the graveyard orbit was bringing in newer

threats in the race to weaponise the space domain.

What?

• In the early days of space exploration, we didn’t worry so much

about what would happen to the stuff we launched into orbit.

• These days, though, there is so much junk that we are worried one

tiny collision could trigger a big chain reaction. This possibility is

called the “Kessler Effect.”

What happens when a satellite’s time has come?

• These days there are two choices, depending on how high the

satellite is. For the closer satellites, engineers will use its last bit of

fuel to slow it down. That way, it will fall out of orbit and burn up in

the atmosphere.

• Getting rid of the smaller satellites in low orbits is simple. The

heat from the friction of the air burns up the satellite as it falls

toward Earth at thousands of miles per hour.

• However, bigger things like space stations and larger

spacecraft in low orbit might not entirely burn up before reaching

the ground.

• In this case, spacecraft operators can plan for the final destination

of their old satellites to make sure that any debris falls into a remote

area.

o A remote region of the Pacific Ocean known as Point Nemo,

which lies between New Zealand and South America, is

fittingly known as the spacecraft cemetery, as the United

States, Russia, Japan, and Europe have used it to dump

space debris since 1971.

o Point Nemo was chosen by these nations because it is far

from human habitat and is within the South Pacific Gyre. This

current prevents nutrient-rich waters from filtering through the

region, limiting the life that can call it home.

Graveyard orbits

• The second choice is to send the satellite even farther away from

Earth. It can take a lot of fuel for a satellite to slow down enough to

fall back into the atmosphere. That is especially true if a satellite is

in a very high orbit.

• For many of these high satellites, it takes less fuel to blast it farther

into space into a “graveyard orbit” than to send it back to Earth.

• Graveyard orbit is an orbit almost 200 miles (about 321 km)

farther away from Earth than the farthest active satellites.

• And it’s a whopping 22,400 miles above Earth! Once satellites

reach this final orbit their instruments and subsystems are shut

down, the remaining fuel is depleted and they are left to orbit in

peace.

87. What is Quantum Cryptography (or Quantum Key

Distribution)? (TH)

• Why? DRDO and IIT Delhi scientists successfully demonstrated

communication between two cities 100 kilometres apart using

Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) technology, which is a

“robust” way to share encryption keys.

• In the QKD technology, encryption keys are sent as qubits in a

fibre optic cable.

o Quantum computing uses qubits as basic resources, similar

to how bits are used as basic resources in classical

computing.

• The QKD is designed in a way that if an illegitimate entity tries to

read the transmission, it will disturb the qubits - which are encoded

on photons - and this will generate transmission errors, leading to

legitimate end users being immediately informed.

What?

• Quantum cryptography is a technology that uses quantum

physics to secure the distribution of symmetric encryption keys. A

more accurate name for it is quantum key distribution (QKD).

• It works by sending photons, which are “quantum particles” of

light, across an optical link.

Cryptography

• Cryptography is the art of rendering information exchanged

between two parties unintelligible to any unauthorized person.

o Although confidentiality is the traditional application of

cryptography, it is also used nowadays to achieve broader

objectives, such as data authentication, digital

signatures, and non-repudiation.

• The way cryptography works is illustrated in Fig. 1. Before

transmitting sensitive information, the sender combines the plain

text with a secret key, using some encryption algorithm, to obtain

the cipher text.

• This scrambled message is then sent to the recipient who reverses

the process, recovering the plain text by combining the cipher text

with the secret key using the decryption algorithm.

• An eavesdropper cannot deduce the plain message from the

scrambled one without knowing the key.

• The scheme relies on the fact that both sender and receiver have

symmetric keys, and that these keys are known only to the

https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/review/spacecraft-graveyard/spacecraft-cemetery-700.en.jpg


authorized persons (also referred to as secret or symmetric key

cryptography).

• Numerous encryption algorithms exist. Their relative strengths

essentially depend on the length of the key they use. The more

bits the key contains, the better the security.

o The presently used Advanced Encryption Standard – AES –

has a minimum key length of 128 bits, and is now commonly

used with 256-bit keys.

• The key distribution rate of QKD is typically 1,000 to 10,000 times

lower than conventional optical communications.

o Therefore, in practice, QKD is often combined with

conventional symmetric encryption, such as AES, and used

to frequently refresh short encryption keys. This is sufficient

to provide quantum-safe security.

• In commercial applications, where general trust in the encryption

scheme is necessary, the encryption algorithm is normally public –

with the effectiveness of the encryption deriving from the fact that

the key is secret.

• Quantum cryptography solves the problem of key distribution by

allowing the exchange of a cryptographic key between two remote

parties with absolute security, guaranteed by the fundamental laws

of physics.

• This key can then be used securely with conventional cryptographic

algorithms. The more correct name for quantum cryptography is

therefore Quantum Key Distribution.

• The basic principle of quantum key distribution (QKD) is quite

straightforward. It exploits the fact that, according to quantum

physics, the mere fact of observing a quantum object perturbs it in

an irreparable way.

• If one encodes the value of a digital bit on a single quantum object,

its interception will necessarily translate into a perturbation because

the eavesdropper is forced to observe it.

• This perturbation causes errors in the sequence of bits exchanged

by the sender and recipient. By checking for the presence of such

errors, the two parties can verify whether an eavesdropper was

able to gain information on their key.

• It is important to stress that since this verification takes place after

the exchange of bits, one finds out a posteriori whether the

communication was intercepted or not. This is why the

technology is used to exchange a key and not valuable

information.

What does it mean in practice to encode the value of a digital bit

on a quantum object?

• In telecommunication networks, light is routinely used to exchange

information. For each bit of information, a pulse is emitted and sent

down an optical fiber – a thin fiber of glass used to carry light

signals – to the receiver, where it is registered and transformed

back into an electronic signal. These pulses typically contain

millions of particles of light, called photons.

• In quantum key distribution the same approach is followed with the

difference that the pulses contain only a single photon.

• The performance of a QKD system is described by the rate at which

a key is exchanged over a certain distance – or equivalently for a

given loss budget.

• When a photon propagates in an optical fiber, it has, in spite of the

high transparency of the glass used, a certain probability of getting

absorbed. If the distance between the two QKD stations

increases, the probability that a given photon will reach the

receiver decreases.

• The span of current QKD systems is limited by the

transparency of optical fibers and typically reaches hundred

kilometers (60 miles).

• A much longer distance of 300 km in an optical fiber has been

demonstrated. However, the lower key rate achievable for these

distances makes real-world applications more challenging.

• It is possible to exchange keys using quantum cryptography in

free space, between a terrestrial station and a low earth orbit

satellite.

o Indeed, absorption in the atmosphere takes place mainly over

the first few kilometers. If an adequate wavelength is

selected, and the weather is fair, an optical link between the

ground and the satellite at an altitude of roughly 800 km can

be established.

o Research groups have already performed preliminary tests of

such a system. Advanced research is done in China,

which has launched the first QKD satellite, named Micius

in August 2016.

88. Decommissioning the International Space Station (TH)

• Why? NASA plans to decommission the International Space

Station (ISS) by 2031. The ISS was launched in 1998 as part of

joint efforts by the U.S., Russia, Japan, Canada and Europe. It

operates in low-earth orbit.

What?

Why is NASA planning to decommission the ISS?

• The ISS was originally built to operate for 15 years. The ISS goes

through 16 rotations of the earth per day, causing extreme

temperature changes on the exterior.

• The side facing the sun can get heated up to 121°C while the

temperature on the opposite, darker side can fall to –157°C,

causing intense expansion and contraction of the building material.

This orbital thermal cycling, coupled with dynamic loading, affects

the longevity of the primary structure of the space station.

• NASA is planning to transition operations in low-earth orbit to

private players and focus energies on its missions to explore the

moon and Mars.

• The station currently operates in low-earth orbit above 400 km in

altitude, at a point where it still experiences atmospheric drag

and requires re-boosts to continue in its orbit.

• NASA plans to remove the ISS from its orbit around the earth and

eventually plunge it into the ocean, leading it to Point Nemo over

the South Pacific Oceanic Uninhabited Area (SPOUA).

What is the future of space stations?

• As the ISS plans to end operations in space, new players are

already lining up to replace it.

• In January 2022, China announced that its space station will be

ready for operations this year.

• Blue Origin, the aerospace company founded by Jeff Bezos, has

also announced its plans to build Orbital Reef, a commercially

developed, owned, and operated space station in low-earth orbit.

International Space Station


• The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest single

structure humans ever put into space.

• Its main construction was completed between 1998 and 2011,

although the station continually evolves to include new missions

and experiments.

o The Mir Space Station of the former Soviet Union, and later

operated by Russia, was functional from 1986 to 2001.

• ISS has been continuously occupied since Nov. 2000.

• Astronaut time and research time on the space station is allocated

to space agencies according to how much money or resources

that they contribute.

• NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia) and the European

Space Agency are the major partners of the space station who

contribute most of the funding; the other partners are the Japanese

Aerospace Exploration Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

• The ISS consists of Canada, Japan, the Russian Federation, the

United States, and eleven Member States of the

European Space Agency (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany,

Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and

the United Kingdom).

Finding the space station in the sky

• The ISS, at a height of about 402 km above the Earth (low-earth

orbit), orbits it 16 times every day, once every 90 minutes at a

speed of 28,000 km per hour. Over a period of 24 hours, the people

inhabiting the ISS see 16 sunrises and sunsets.

o The ISS travels at this speed to maintain an orbit around the

Earth.

o Orbits are elliptical (oval) in shape, but most spacecraft

orbiting Earth travel in orbits that are as close to a circle as

possible to keep a constant altitude (height) above the Earth.

• In one day, the station travels about the distance it would take to go

from Earth to the moon and back.

• The space station can rival the brilliant planet Venus in brightness

and appears as a bright moving light across the night sky.

o If the ISS flies over your location a bit before sunrise or a bit

after sunset, for those few minutes, it is usually the brightest

object in the sky.

• It can be seen from Earth without the use of a telescope by night

sky observers.

• The ISS generally holds crews of between three and six people.

• The ISS is a platform for long-term research for human health,

which NASA bills as a key stepping stone to letting humans explore

other solar system destinations such as the moon or Mars.

• Note: ISS is the only functional space station at present.

89. National Supercomputing Mission (NSM): India emerging a

leader in supercomputing (PIB)

• Why? India is fast expanding its supercomputer facilities and

developing the capacity to manufacture its own supercomputers in

the country.

What?

• The National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) envisages

empowering our national academic and R&D institutions spread

over the country by installing a vast supercomputing grid comprising

of high-performance computing facilities.

• Part of this is being imported from abroad, and part built

indigenously, the latter being increased with time.

• These supercomputers will also be networked on the National

Supercomputing grid over the National Knowledge Network

(NKN).

o The NKN is another programme of the government which

connects academic institutions and R&D labs over a high

speed network.

• The Mission also includes development of highly professional High

Performance Computing (HPC) aware human resource for meeting

challenges of development of these applications.

• The Mission would be implemented and steered jointly by the

Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Department of

Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY).

Objective

o To make India one of the world leaders in Supercomputing

and to enhance India’s capability in solving grand challenge

problems of national and global relevance

o To empower our scientists and researchers with state-of-the-

art supercomputing facilities and enable them to carry out

cutting-edge research in their respective domains

o To minimize redundancies and duplication of efforts, and

optimize investments in supercomputing

o To attain global competitiveness and ensure self-reliance in

the strategic area of supercomputing technology

• A new dimension has now been added in India’s march towards

leadership position in supercomputing with the convergence of

High-Performance Computing (HPC) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

• A 200 AI PF Artificial Intelligence supercomputing system has been

created and installed in C-DAC, which can handle incredibly large-

scale AI workloads increasing the speed of computing-related to AI

several times.

• PARAM Siddhi - AI, the high-performance computing-artificial

intelligence (HPC-AI) supercomputer, has achieved global ranking

of 62 in TOP 500 most powerful supercomputer systems in the

world, released on 16th November 2020.

• Param Shivay, the first supercomputer assembled

indigenously, was installed in IIT (BHU), followed by Param Shakti

and Param Brahma at IIT-Kharagpur and IISER, Pune,

respectively.

• As part of the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM), the Indian

Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru has installed Param Pravega,

one of the most powerful Indian supercomputers.

o Param Pravega having a supercomputing power of 3.3

petaflops, is the largest supercomputer that has been

installed in an Indian academic institution.

• India has developed an Indigenous server (Rudra), which can

meet the High-Performance Computing (HPC) requirements of all

governments and PSUs as well as the strategic needs of the

country.

o This is the first time that a server system was made in India,

along with the full software stack developed by C-DAC.

• Besides, a next-generation indigenous HPC interconnect called

“Trinetra” has been designed and developed in the country for

efficient inter-node communication between compute nodes. This

will help improve power efficiency and also support large-scale

systems.

Pratyush and Mihir


• Pratyush and Mihir are the supercomputers established at Indian

Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune and National Center

for Medium Range Weather Forecast (NCMRWF), Noida

respectively.

• As of January 2018, Pratyush and Mihir are the fastest

supercomputer in India with a maximum speed of 6.8 petaFlops.

Do you know?

• Supercomputer is any of a class of extremely powerful computers.

• The term is commonly applied to the fastest high-performance

systems available at any given time.

Distinguishing Features

• Unlike conventional computers, they usually have more than

one CPU (central processing unit).

• Most supercomputers have a very large storage capacity, as well

as a very fast input/output capability.

• Still another distinguishing characteristic of supercomputers is their

use of vector arithmetic—i.e., they are able to operate on pairs of

lists of numbers rather than on mere pairs of numbers.

What is FLOPS?

• Floating-point operations per second, or FLOPS, is the unit of

measurement that calculates the performance capability of a

supercomputer.

• One petaFLOPS is equal to one thousand teraFLOPS.

90. MILAN 2022: Indian Navy’s Biggest Maritime Exercise (TH)

• Why? The Indian Navy will host its biggest maritime exercise, from

February 26 to March 4 off the coast of Visakhapatnam, which

will include anti-submarine warfare drills for the first time.

What?

• The exercises aim to hone operational skills, instil best practises

and procedures, and enable doctrinal learning in the maritime

domain through professional interaction between friendly navies.

• This addition of Milan envisages further enhancement of the scope

and complexity with a focus on exercises at sea in surface,

subsurface, and air domains, including weapon firings.

• The exercise is divided into two phases - the harbour phase

(February 26-28) and the sea phase (March 1-4).

• This is the first time the exercise has been shifted from the

Andaman to Vizag, as the scale of the exercise has been

enhanced.

• The exercise was supposed to take place in 2020 as it's a biennial

event, but was called off due to Covid-19.

• MILAN, a Multilateral Naval Exercise hosted by India, made a

modest beginning in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in 1995 with

participation of four littoral navies.

• This biennial congregation of friendly navies, has metamorphosed

into a prestigious maritime exercise with participation by about 46

friendly foreign countries (both regional and extra regional navies of

the world) across continents in MILAN 2022.

• Originally conceived in consonance with India’s ‘Look East Policy’,

MILAN expanded in ensuing years with the GOI’s ‘Act East policy’

and Security And Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) initiative, to

include participation from island nations in the Western IOR as also

IOR littorals.

• MILAN 2022 is the eleventh edition of the event and would be held

under the aegis of Eastern Naval Command.

• The theme for MILAN 2022 is 'Camaraderie Cohesion

Collaboration'.

91. Indian Neutrino Observatory (INO) (TH)

• Why? Tamil Nadu has made it clear to the Supreme Court that it

does not want the Indian Neutrino Observatory (INO) to be set up in

a sensitive ecological zone in the Western Ghats at a great cost to

wildlife and biodiversity, and by ignoring the local opposition to the

project.

What?

• The proposed INO project primarily aims to study atmospheric

neutrinos in a 1,300-m deep cavern in the Bodi West Hills in Theni

district, Tamil Nadu.

• This observation will tell us more about the properties of neutrino

particles, whose main source is the Sun and the Earth's

atmosphere.

• The neutrino detector will be a magnetized iron calorimeter, which

will be the heaviest one made by any country.

• When completed, the INO would house the largest magnet in the

world.

• The underground laboratory will be located nearly 1.5 km below

the Earth’s surface, where a giant neutrino detector is to be

placed in the cavern at the end of a 2 km horizontal tunnel at the

INO site.

https://images.indianexpress.com/2018/11/graph-1.jpg


• Once built, INO would be the biggest research facility in India.

• The project is jointly funded by Dept. of Atomic Energy (DAE) and

the Dept. of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India.

Neutrinos

• Neutrinos are subatomic particles produced by the decay of

radioactive elements and lack an electric charge.

• They are almost mass less, and travel at near light speeds.

• Born from violent astrophysical events such as exploding stars and

gamma ray bursts, they are abundant in the universe, and can

move as easily through matter as we move through air.

• They are notoriously difficult to track down/detect because they

pass seamlessly through all kinds of matter.

• These little wisps hold the blueprint of nature, which the INO project

aims to use to understand some of the unsolved mysteries of the

universe.

• The Sun emits billions of neutrinos every second.

• Neutrinos are now considered to be the second most abundant

particle in the universe — after the photon, or light particle.

• Research on neutrinos has led to award of the Nobel Prize in

Physics in 2002 and 2015, and before that, in 1988 and 1995.

• The characteristics which make neutrinos useful for

astronomy are:

o they are produced in large quantities in high-energy

collisions,

o they travel essentially at the speed of light,

o they are unaffected by magnetic fields,

o they are affected only by gravity because of their energy

content and

o they are unabsorbed as they travel cosmological distances

between their origin and us.

Series of holdups

• The project has been mired in all kinds of trouble — litigation, public

protests, opposition from NGOs and political parties, besides

government apathy. It has had to move locations once, because the

nearby Mudhumalai National Park had been declared a tiger

reserve during the same time.

• The India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) project has

become controversial on environmental grounds, given the

proposed site’s proximity to the Mathikettan Shola National

Park in Kerala’s Western Ghats, a global biodiversity hotspot.

Eco Sensitive Areas

• Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESAs), as identified by the High

Level Working Group chaired by Dr. Kasturirangan, have been

identified and notified by the Indian Ministry of Environment &

Forests (MoEF) since 1989.

• Notifications declaring areas as ESAs are issued under the

Environment (Protection) Act 1986.

o However, the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 does not

mention the word “Eco-Sensitive Zones”.

• The clauses of the EPA which allow for the notification of ESAs hold

the possibility of realising landscape-level conservation.

92. All About Stem Cells (TH)

• Why? A woman patient has been cured of HIV Infection by using

Stem-Cell Transplant. While this approach is certainly a welcome

addition, stem cell therapy is a cumbersome exercise and barely

accessible to most HIV patients in the world.

• A vaccine for HIV or a drug that eliminates the virus is still

elusive for HIV/AIDS.

What?

What are stem cells, and why are they important?

• Stem cells are special human cells that are able to develop into

many different cell types.

• In some cases, they can also fix damaged tissues as they serve

as a sort of internal repair system dividing essentially without limit to

replenish other cells as long as the person or animal is still alive.

• When a stem cell divides, each new cell has the potential either

to remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a

more specialized function, such as a muscle cell, a red blood cell,

or a brain cell.

What are the unique properties of all stem cells?

• Stem cells differ from other kinds of cells in the body.

• All stem cells—regardless of their source—have three general

properties:

o they are capable of dividing and renewing themselves for

long periods;

o they are unspecialized; and

o they can give rise to specialized cell types.

Types of stem cells

• Stem cells are of 2 main types: embryonic stem cells and adult

stem cells.

Embryonic stem cells

• The embryonic stem cells used in research today come from

unused embryos that develop from eggs that have been fertilized

in vitro—in an in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinic—and then donated for

research purposes with informed consent of the donors.

• These embryonic stem cells are pluripotent. This means that

they can turn into more than one type of cell.

• Embryonic stem cells, as their name suggests, are derived from

embryos.

Adult stem cells

• There are 2 types of adult stem cells. One type comes from fully

developed tissues such as the brain, skin, and bone marrow.

• There are only small numbers of stem cells in these tissues.

• They are more likely to generate only certain types of cells.

• The primary roles of adult stem cells in a living organism are to

maintain and repair the tissue in which they are found.

• For example, a stem cell that comes from the liver will only

make more liver cells.

• The second type is induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS Cells)

• iPS Cells are basically adult stem cells that have been changed

in a lab to be more like embryonic stem cells.


• iPS Cells have been genetically reprogrammed to behave like

embryonic stem cells.

• The main advantage of iPS Cells is that it does not involves the

destruction of human embryos. This deals with the ethical concerns

being raised about embryonic stem cells.

• The 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded

jointly to Sir John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka for the

discovery that adult cells can be reprogrammed to become

pluripotent i.e. iPS cells.

Uses of stem cells

• Stem cells are frequently used in regenerative medicine research

and therapies in several ways.

• It repairs organs or tissues that are damaged by disease, aging

or trauma, such that function is restored, or at least improved.

Benefits of Stem cell therapy

Disadvantages

• The main disadvantage of stem cell research has to do with the way

that they're acquired-that is, it involves the destruction of human

embryos.

• This makes it immoral for those who believe that life begins at

contraception.

• Another risks include tumour formation and transforming of few

cells into malignant cells resulting in cancer.

• Transplanted stem cells can have high rejection rates.

Do you know?

• In some organs, such as the gut and bone marrow, stem cells

regularly divide to repair and replace worn out or damaged tissues.

• In other organs, however, such as the pancreas and the heart, stem

cells only divide under special conditions.

93. Japanese Encephalitis (PIB)

• Why? Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV) is the leading cause of

mosquito-borne encephalitis in South-East Asia and Western

Pacific and is often misdiagnosed as Dengue.

• As there is no cure available for JEV, early detection is essential to

mitigate a breakout.

• Since the conventional methods for JEV diagnosis are expensive,

more hazardous and time-consuming, National Institute of Animal

Biotechnology, Hyderabad has developed a method for the rapid,

sensitive and specific detection of the Non-Structural 1 (NS1)

secretory protein, which is suitable biomarker for JEV found

circulating in the blood.

What?

• Japanese encephalitis virus JEV is the most important cause of

viral encephalitis in Asia.

• It is a mosquito-borne flavivirus, and belongs to the same genus

as dengue, yellow fever and West Nile viruses.

• The first case of Japanese encephalitis viral disease (JE) was

documented in 1871 in Japan.

• JE primarily affects children. Most adults in endemic countries

have natural immunity after childhood infection, but individuals of

any age may be affected.

• Most JEV infections are mild (fever and headache) or without

apparent symptoms, but approximately 1 in 250 infections results in

severe clinical illness.

• Of those who survive, 20%–30% suffer permanent intellectual,

behavioural or neurological sequelae such as paralysis, recurrent

seizures or the inability to speak.

• JEV is transmitted to humans through bites from infected

mosquitoes of the Culex species (mainly Culex tritaeniorhynchus).

• Humans, once infected, do not develop sufficient viraemia to infect

feeding mosquitoes.

• The virus exists in a transmission cycle between mosquitoes, pigs

and/or water birds (enzootic cycle).

• The disease is predominantly found in rural and periurban settings,

where humans live in closer proximity to these vertebrate hosts.

• In most temperate areas of Asia, JEV is transmitted mainly during

the warm season, when large epidemics can occur.

o In the tropics and subtropics, transmission can occur year-

round but often intensifies during the rainy season and pre-

harvest period in rice-cultivating regions.

• There is no antiviral treatment for patients with JE. Treatment is

supportive to relieve symptoms and stabilize the patient.

• Safe and effective JE vaccines are available to prevent disease.

• In case of India, JEV has its endemic zones running along the

Gangetic plain including states of UP (east), Bihar, West Bengal

and Assam, and parts of Tamil Nadu.

Link with Unripe Litchi Fruit

• In India, AES outbreaks in north and eastern India have been linked

to severely malnourished children eating unripe litchi fruit on

empty stomachs.

• Unripe fruit contain the toxins hypoglycin A and

methylenecyclopropylglycine (MCPG), which cause vomiting,

sudden high fever and seizures serious enough to require

hospitalisation in young, severely malnourished children, if

ingested in large quantities.


• Vaccination: As per Govt. of India guidelines, 2 doses of JE

vaccine have been approved to be included in Universal

Immunization Program (UIP).

o The vaccine is effective in few genotypes of AES as well.

• Essential oils from plant extracts such as citronella oil,

lemongrass oil and neem oil can be used as natural repellent

against mosquitoes.

94. National Maritime Security Coordinator (NMSC) (TH)

• Why? Former Vice Chief of Navy Vice Admiral G Ashok Kumar has

been appointed as the country’s first National Maritime Security

Coordinator (NMSC).

What?

• The NMSC will be part of the National Security Council Secretariat,

and will report to National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.

• As the NMSC, Kumar will have the responsibility of coordinating

between all the agencies involved in maritime security and

maritime civil issues as well.

• He will also be tasked with improving the country’s blue

economy needs.

• He will look at all aspects of maritime security, and will be the

nodal point for all issues related to it.

• He will also be mandated to ensure better coordination between

the different authorities that work on maritime issues, but work

independently.

• The need for such a coordinating agency was first expressed by the

Group of Ministers formed after the Kargil War.

• After the 26/11 terror attacks in 2008, the Defence Ministry had

proposed the creation of a Maritime Security Advisory Board, and

appointment of a Maritime Security Advisor, but that was kept

pending.

• In November 2021, the Cabinet Committee on Security finally

cleared the creation of the NMSC.

• India has a 7,516.6 km coastline, which includes the mainland,

Lakshadweep Islands, and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

95. What is Lassa Fever? (IE)

• Why? One of the three persons diagnosed with Lassa fever in the

UK has died recently.

What?

• The Lassa fever is caused by a virus and was first discovered in

1969 in Lassa, Nigeria.

• The fever is spread by rats and is primarily found in countries in

West Africa including Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, and Nigeria

where it is endemic.

• A person can become infected if they come in contact with

household items of food that is contaminated with the urine or

feces of an infected rat.

• It can also be spread, though rarely, if a person comes in contact

with a sick person’s infected bodily fluids or through mucous

membranes such as the eyes, nose or the mouth.

• The most common complication associated with the fever is

deafness.

• The death rate associated with this disease is low, at around one

per cent.

o But the death rate is higher for certain individuals, such

as pregnant women in their third trimester.

• About 80 per cent of the cases are asymptomatic and therefore

remain undiagnosed.

• Some patients may need to be hospitalised and develop severe

multi-system disease. Fifteen per cent of the hospitalised patients

may die.

• Death can occur from two weeks of the onset of symptoms, usually

as a result of multi-organ failure.

96. Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) and Priority Pathogens (TH)

• Why? AMR is a leading cause of death around the world, with the

highest number of deaths occurring in low-resource settings.

• The six leading pathogens for deaths associated with resistance

included E. coli, S. aureus, K. pneumoniae, S. pneumoniae, A.

baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

• They accounted for 73.4 % of the deaths attributable to AMR, and

have been identified as priority pathogens by WHO.


2022 file.

97. 54th flight of the PSLV and EOS-04, INSPIREsat-1 and INS-2TD

(IE)

• Why? EOS-04 and two other small satellites —INSPIREsat-1 and

INS-2TD — rode on the heaviest version of the PSLV rocket in the

early hours from the Sriharikota launch range.

• This launch would be the 54th flight of the PSLV rocket, and the

23rd of its most powerful XL-version that has six strap-on boosters.

What?

What is the EOS-04 all about?

• EOS-04 is the fourth in a series of earth observation satellites that

are being launched under a new generic name.

• Like EOS-01, EOS-04, which will be placed in a sun synchronous

polar orbit of 529 km, is a radar-imaging satellite.

• It would replace the RISAT-1 which was launched in 2012 but has

been non-functional for the last few years.

• RISATs use synthetic aperture radars to produce high-resolution

images of the land.

o One big advantage that radar imaging has over optical

instruments is that it is unaffected by weather, cloud or fog, or

the lack of sunlight.

o It can produce high-quality images in all conditions and at all

times, making it suitable for surveillance.

• EOS-04 was designed to provide high-quality images for

applications such as agriculture, forestry and plantations, flood

mapping, soil moisture and hydrology.

• It will complement the data from Resourcesat, Cartosat and RISAT-

2B series of satellites that are already in orbit.

What other satellites are being launched?

INSPIREsat-1

• INSPIREsat-1 is a student satellite developed by the

Thiruvananthapuram-based Indian Institute of Space Science and

Technology in collaboration with the University of Colorado in the

United States where it was assembled and tested.

o Students from Nanyang Technological University in

Singapore and National Central University of Taiwan have

also contributed.

• This satellite will study the dynamics of the upper atmosphere

and carries an X-ray spectrometer for studying solar flares.


INS-2TD

• The other co-passenger, INS-2TD, is a technology demonstrator for

the first India-Bhutan joint satellite that is scheduled to be launched

next month.

• The two countries had signed a space agreement last year, and its

first outcome would be the launch of BhutanSat, or INS-2B, on a

PSLV rocket in March.

• The INS-2TD has a thermal imaging camera meant for earth

observation purposes, like assessment of land and water surface

temperature, and identification of forest and tree cover.

98. What is Doxxing? (TH)

• Why? Meta’s oversight board has suggested Facebook and

Instagram to make strict doxxing rules. It urged Meta to consider

doxxing as an offence which should prompt temporary account

suspension.

Analyis

Doxxing

• Doxxing is publishing and analysing others' personal information on

the internet with a malicious intent that can reveal the person's real

identity making them victims of harassments and cyber attacks.

• Doxxing is used to shame or punish people who would rather stay

anonymous, because of their controversial beliefs or other types of

non-mainstream activity.

99. What is ModifiedElephant? (IE)

• Why? American cybersecurity firm SentinelOne has released a

report on ModifiedElephant—a hacking group that allegedly

planted incriminating evidence on the personal devices of Indian

journalists, human rights activists, human rights defenders,

academics and lawyers.

What?

How does ModifiedElephant deploy malware to its targets?

• According to the report, ModifiedElephant operators have been

infecting their targets using spearphishing emails with malicious

file attachments over the last decade, with their techniques getting

more sophisticated over time.

o Spearphishing refers to the practice of sending emails to

targets that look like they are coming from a trusted source to

either reveal important information or install different kinds of

malware on their computer systems.

• ModifiedElephant typically weaponises malicious Microsoft Office

files to deliver malware to their targets.

• NetWire and DarkComet, two publicly-available remote access

trojans (RATs), were the primary malware families deployed by

ModifiedElephant, according to SentinelOne.

100. Origami Metamaterials (TH)

• Why? A car that dashes against an obstacle suffers damages, first

to its fenders. There is a keen interest to develop materials that can

be sandwiched in the fender system which will absorb the shock

and prevent the interiors from being damaged.

• Origami metamaterials that crumple rather than tear, and take the

impact, can play an important role in such situations.

What?

Poisson Ratio

• When you crush or stretch a material along a particular direction, it

undergoes a modification in the perpendicular, or lateral, direction.

o For example, take a clay cube and compress it along one

face, it will then bulge out in the sides.

• The ratio between the deformation along the force and the

deformation in a direction lateral to the force is called the Poisson

ratio.

• The Poisson ratio can be positive or negative. While, as in the

example of the clay cube, we can easily visualise a material with a

positive Poisson ratio, it is somewhat counter-intuitive to consider a

material with a negative Poisson ratio.

• In fact, there is a lot of interest in such materials – they are called

auxetics.

o One uses of auxetic materials is in lining the soles of sports

shoes, where it offers better support when running or

jumping.

o “If we try to crush or impact an auxetic material, it offers

resistance to the crushing load as the material below will

try to contract inwards, making it ‘denser’ and therefore,

preventing the crushing load from moving further into the

material,

• In order to be useful, materials need to maintain a constant Poisson

ratio when they crumble under pressure. However, they are prone

not to do so, and the Poisson ratio varies as they deform.

Using origami

• Into this scenario enter a special class of materials called origami

metamaterials. These combine the Japanese art of paper folding

(origami) and the existing material of choice and fold it to obtain

desired properties.

• Scientists have developed a special class of origami metamaterials

which show a constant value of Poisson Ratio when subjected to

stress.

• The benefit is that the observed property does not depend on

whether it is made from a sheet of paper, polymer or metal. What

matters is that under impact the sheet folds up along the creases.

Morph Cell

• The crux of the idea is a unit cell called Morph that Dr. Pratapa and

collaborators developed earlier.

• This cell can transform into two contrasting geometries. One which

exhibits positive Poisson ratio and the other which exhibits negative

Poisson ratio.

• It is possible to combine these two geometries to join and deform

together as a single system, by joining them along their edges.

• This is what made it possible for the researchers to develop a

material which showed a constant Poisson ratio when stress was

applied.

101. Erratus sperare (TH)

• Why? Arthropods, the group of animals that includes creepy

crawlies like spiders and woodlice, are the largest phylum in the

animal kingdom and are found everywhere from the deepest

ocean trench to the top of Mount Everest.

What?

• New research shows the newest addition to the group is a 520-

million-year-old (about 10 times as old as the dinosaurs) organism

called Erratus sperare.


• Erratus sperare was discovered in the Chengjiang Fossil Site, a

UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Yunnan, China, that

preserves an ancient underwater ecosystem.

• Modern water dwelling arthropods have biramous limbs, legs that

have two parts – one for breathing and one for walking – but how

such specialised limbs evolved was a mystery.

• Some of the earliest fossil arthropods, like Anomalocaris, had

swimming flaps that may have doubled as gills, but until now

researchers didn't know how arthropods made the jump from these

specialised flaps to the biramous limbs of modern arthropods.

• Erratus sperare provides the missing link between arthropods that

used such specialised flaps and arthropods with biramous limbs. It

has both legs and flaps.

• Now with the new fossil, researchers have finally solved the riddle.

The gills also probably went on to evolve into the wings of insects

and the lungs of terrestrial arthropods like spiders.

102. Proxima d, Exoplanets, Goldilocks Zone and Tidal Locking

(TH)

• Why? A new exoplanet has been found orbiting Proxima Centauri,

the Sun’s nearest star neighbour, just over four light years away.

• Named Proxima d, this is the third planet to be found in this

system. It orbits the star between it and the habitable zone.

• Proxima Centauri also has another near earth-sized planet in its

habitable zone, but which is tidally locked.

What?

• Proxima d is one of the lightest exoplanets known, and the lightest

exoplanet detected using radial velocity.

o The radial velocity technique detects tiny wobbles or

perturbations in the planet’s and star’s orbit.

o Because two bodies exert gravitational force on each other,

both the star and planet wobble under each other’s effects.

o This can be detected from earth and used to calculate the

planet’s mass from the known star’s mass.

• The discovery was made by the Echelle Spectrograph for Rocky

Exoplanets and Stable Spectroscopic Observations (ESPRESSO)

instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large

Telescope (ESO’s VLT) in Chile.

Exoplanets

• An exoplanet is a planet that orbits a star outside our solar system.

• The first exoplanet was discovered in 1992, orbiting a pulsar (a

neutron star that emits electromagnetic radiation).

• Exoplanets are made of the same elements as the worlds of our

own solar system.

• Exoplanets are very hard to see directly with telescopes as they are

hidden by the bright glare of the stars they orbit.

• So, astronomers use other ways to detect and study these distant

planets. They search for exoplanets by looking at the effects these

planets have on the stars they orbit.

Goldilocks Zone

• The Goldilocks Zone refers to the habitable zone around a star

where the temperature is just right - not too hot and not too

cold - for liquid water to exist on a planet.

• Looking for planets in the Goldilocks Zone is a way that allows

scientists to hone in their search for Earth-like planets that could

contain life.

• The location of a Goldilocks Zone around another star depends on

the type of star.

• Bigger hotter stars have their Goldilocks Zones further out, while

smaller cooler stars such as M-type red dwarf stars have habitable

zones much closer in.

o Red dwarfs are the most common type of star in the Milky

Way galaxy, and have very long-life expectancies.

o This means life should have lots of time to evolve and

develop around such as star.

• Alternatively, NASA's planet hunting Kepler space telescope

searches for planets orbiting in the habitable zones of Sun-like stars

by looking for planets with an average 365-day orbit.

More than just temperature

• Just because a planet or moon is in the Goldilocks Zone of a star,

doesn't mean it's going to have life or even liquid water.

• After all, Earth isn't the only planet in the Sun's Goldilocks Zone -

Venus and Mars are also in this habitable zone, but aren't

currently habitable.

• Venus is Earth's sister planet, both are about the same size and in

the same region of the solar system, and Venus once also had

water.

o However, Venus now has a runaway greenhouse effect going

on, with a surface temperature of over 460 degrees Celsius,

which has boiled away all its liquid water.

• At the other end of the Sun's Goldilocks Zone is Mars which also

once had liquid water flowing across its surface in rivers, lakes and

oceans.

o However, the Red Planet is now a freeze-dried desert, with a

thin carbon dioxide atmosphere, and only one 99th the

atmospheric pressure of sea level on Earth.

o The lack of both a significant atmosphere and a global

magnetic field - thanks to its mostly solidified core - means

the Martian surface is constantly being irradiated by the Sun.

What is Tidal locking?

• Tidal locking is the phenomenon by which a body has the same

rotational period as its orbital period around a partner.

o So, the Moon is tidally locked to the Earth because it rotates

in exactly the same time as it takes to orbit the Earth.

o That is why we only see one side of the Moon.

• If both bodies are of comparable size and are close together, both

bodies can be tidally locked to each other – this is the case in the

Pluto-Charon system.

o Charon is the largest of the five known natural satellites of the

dwarf planet Pluto.

• Tidal locking is a natural consequence of the gravitational

distortions induced by a body on another.

103. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Tagging and Radio

Waves (TH)

• Why? The Army has commenced Radio Frequency Identification

(RFID) tagging of its ammunition inventory, which it said would

lead to increased efficiency in technical activities carried out in

ammunition depots and reduce inventory carrying costs.

What?

• Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) refers to a wireless system

comprised of two components: tags and readers.


• The reader is a device that has one or more antennas that emit

radio waves and receive signals back from the RFID tag.

• RFID tags can store a range of information from one serial number

to several pages of data.

• RFID systems use radio waves at several different frequencies

to transfer data.

• However, there is concern about the potential hazard of

electromagnetic interference (EMI) to electronic medical devices

(pacemakers, implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) etc.)

from radio frequency transmitters like RFID.

o EMI is a degradation of the performance of equipment or

systems (such as medical devices) caused by an

electromagnetic disturbance.

• RFID is similar to barcoding in that data from a tag or label are

captured by a device that stores the data in a database.

o RFID, however, has several advantages over systems that

use barcode asset tracking software. The most notable is

that RFID tag data can be read outside the line-of-sight,

whereas barcodes must be aligned with an optical scanner.

o An RFID tag can hold much more data about an item than a

barcode can.

o In addition, RFID tags are not susceptible to the damages

that may be incurred by barcode labels, like ripping and

smearing.

• Smart labels differ from RFID tags in that they incorporate both

RFID and barcode technologies. They’re made of an adhesive label

embedded with an RFID tag inlay, and they may also feature a

barcode and/or other printed information.

• Smart labels can be encoded and printed on-demand using desktop

label printers, whereas programming RFID tags are more time

consuming and requires more advanced equipment.

RFID Technology is Employed in Many Industries to Perform Such

Tasks as:

• Inventory management

• Asset tracking

• Personnel tracking

• Controlling access to restricted areas

• ID Badging

• Supply chain management

• Counterfeit prevention (e.g. in the pharmaceutical industry)

What are Radio Waves

• Radio waves have the longest wavelengths in the

electromagnetic spectrum.

• Astronomical objects that have a changing magnetic field can

produce radio waves.

• Radio emissions can be from a variety of sources including radio

bursts from the Sun, the Earth, and even from Jupiter's ionosphere

whose wavelengths measure about fifteen meters in length.

o Radio bursts from the Sun caused by electrons that have

been ejected into space during solar flares moving at 20% of

the speed of light.

Radio Telescopes

• Radio telescopes look toward the heavens to view planets, comets,

giant clouds of gas and dust, stars, and galaxies.

• By studying the radio waves originating from these sources,

astronomers can learn about their composition, structure, and

motion.

• Radio astronomy has the advantage that sunlight, clouds, and

rain do not affect observations.

• Since radio waves are longer than optical waves, radio telescopes

are made differently than the telescopes used for visible light.

o Radio telescopes must be physically larger than an optical

telescopes in order to make images of comparable resolution.

o But they can be made lighter with millions of small holes cut

through the dish since the long radio waves are too big to

"see" them.

• In order to make a clearer, or higher resolution, radio image, radio

astronomers often combine several smaller telescopes, or receiving

dishes, into an array.

o Together, these dishes can act as one large telescope whose

resolution is set by the maximum size of the area.

o The National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large

Array (VLA) radio telescope in New Mexico is one of the

world's premier astronomical radio observatories.

The Radio Sky

• If we were to look at the sky with a radio telescope tuned to 408

MHz, the sky would appear radically different from what we see in

visible light.

• Instead of seeing point-like stars, we would see distant pulsars,

star-forming regions, and supernova remnants would dominate the

night sky.

• Radio telescopes can also detect quasars. The term quasar is short

for quasi-stellar radio source.

• The name comes from the fact that the first quasars identified emit

mostly radio energy and look much like stars.

• Quasars are very energetic, with some emitting 1,000 times as

much energy as the entire Milky Way.

• However, most quasars are blocked from view in visible light by

dust in their surrounding galaxies.

• Astronomers identified the quasars with the help of radio data from

the VLA radio telescope because many galaxies with quasars

appear bright when viewed with radio telescopes.

104. International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) (TH)

• Why? Scientists at the Joint European Torus (JET) facility near

Oxford in central England have achieved a new milestone in

producing nuclear fusion energy, or imitating the way energy is

produced in the sun.

What?

• Energy by nuclear fusion is one of mankind’s long-standing quests

as it promises to be low carbon, safer than how nuclear energy is

now produced and, with an efficiency that can technically exceed a

100%.

• A kilogram of fusion fuel contains about 10 million times as much

energy as a kilogram of coal, oil or gas. The energy was produced

in a machine called a tokamak, a doughnut-shaped apparatus.

• The JET site is the largest operational one of its kind in the world.

• Deuterium and tritium, which are isotopes of hydrogen, are heated

to temperatures 10 times hotter than the centre of the sun to create

plasma.


• This is held in place using superconductor electromagnets as it

spins around, fuses and releases tremendous energy as heat.

• The record and scientific data from these crucial experiments are a

major boost for the ITER, the larger and more advanced version

of the JET.

• The ITER is a fusion research mega-project supported by seven

members — China, the European Union, India, Japan, South

Korea, Russia and the U.S. — and based in the south of France. It

seeks to further demonstrate the scientific and technological

feasibility of fusion energy.

Introduction to ITER-India

• ITER is an experimental fusion reactor facility under construction in

Cadarache, South of France to prove the feasibility of nuclear

fusion for future source of energy.

• In southern France, 35 nations* are collaborating to build the

world's largest tokamak, a magnetic fusion device that has been

designed to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and

carbon-free source of energy based on the same principle that

powers our Sun and stars.

• ITER will be the first fusion device to produce net energy.

o Net energy: When the total power produced during a fusion

plasma pulse surpasses the thermal injected to heat the

plasma.

• ITER partners are the European Union, China, India, Japan,

South Korea, Russia and the United States of America.

o European Union being the host party contributes 45% while

the rest of the parties contribute 9% each.

o Most of these contributions are through 'in-kind' procurement

of ITER components.

o India formally joined the ITER Project in 2005.

• ITER Organization (IO) is the central team responsible for

construction at site and operation, while the ITER partners created

their own domestic agencies to deliver their commitments to ITER.

o ITER-India is the Indian domestic agency.

• India's is responsible for delivery of the following ITER packages:

o Cryostat

o In-wall Shielding

o Cooling Water System

o Cryogenic System

o Ion-Cyclotron RF Heating System

o Electron Cyclotron RF Heating System

o Diagnostic Neutral Beam System

o Power Supplies

o Diagnostics

What is Fusion?

• Fusion is the energy source of the Sun and stars.

o In the tremendous heat and gravity at the core of these stellar

bodies, hydrogen nuclei collide, fuse into heavier helium

atoms and release tremendous amounts of energy in the

process.

• Fusion reaction is a nuclear process by which nuclei of two light

elements fuse to produce a fast, heavier nucleus and an even faster

nucleon, i.e., a neutron or a proton.

• There is a small mass difference, say m, between the initial and the

final reaction products which gets converted into energy through

Einstein’s equation E=mc2, c being the speed of light.

• This energy comes out in the form of kinetic energy of the product

particles and can be converted into electricity by conventional

technologies.

• For such a reaction to occur, the reacting nuclei need to have

enough kinetic energy to overcome the repulsive electrostatic

barrier between any two of them.

• For this to happen in laboratory experiments, the reacting particles

need to be heated to very high temperatures, more than the

temperature at the core of the sun.

• At such high temperatures, matter remains in plasma state, a

collection of charged particles.

• Twentieth-century fusion science identified the most efficient fusion

reaction in the laboratory setting to be the reaction between two

hydrogen isotopes, deuterium (D) and tritium (T).

o The DT fusion reaction produces the highest energy gain at

the "lowest" temperatures.

• A Deuterium and a Tritium nucleus fuse to produce a Helium

nucleus and a neutron.

• In a plasma undergoing fusion, the reactions can be self-sustained,

as part of the kinetic energy of the resulting charged Helium can be

used to maintain the very high temperatures required to sustain the

fusion reactions.

• Three conditions must be fulfilled to achieve fusion in a laboratory:

o very high temperature (on the order of 150,000,000° Celsius);

o sufficient plasma particle density (to increase the likelihood

that collisions do occur); and


o sufficient confinement time (to hold the plasma, which has a

propensity to expand, within a defined volume).

• At extreme temperatures, electrons are separated from nuclei and a

gas becomes a plasma—often referred to as the fourth state of

matter.

• Fusion plasmas provide the environment in which light elements

can fuse and yield energy.

What is a Tokamak?

• The tokamak is an experimental machine designed to harness the

energy of fusion.

• In a tokamak device, powerful magnetic fields are used to confine

and control the plasma.

• Inside a tokamak, the energy produced through the fusion of atoms

is absorbed as heat in the walls of the vessel.

• Just like a conventional power plant, a fusion power plant will use

this heat to produce steam and then electricity by way of turbines

and generators.

• ITER will be the world's largest tokamak.

• ITER's First Plasma is scheduled for December 2025.

• That will be the first time the machine is powered on, and the first

act of ITER's multi-decade operational program.

The following advantages make fusion worth pursuing:

• Abundant energy: Fusing atoms together in a controlled way

releases nearly four million times more energy than a chemical

reaction such as the burning of coal, oil or gas and four times as

much as nuclear fission reactions (at equal mass).

• Sustainability: Fusion fuels are widely available and nearly

inexhaustible.

o Deuterium can be distilled from all forms of water, while

tritium will be produced during the fusion reaction as fusion

neutrons interact with lithium.

o Terrestrial reserves of lithium would permit the operation of

fusion power plants for more than 1,000 years, while sea-

based reserves of lithium would fulfil needs for millions of

years.

• No CO₂: Fusion doesn't emit harmful toxins like carbon dioxide or

other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Its major by-product

is helium: an inert, non-toxic gas.

• No long-lived radioactive waste: Nuclear fusion reactors produce

no high activity, long-lived nuclear waste.

• Limited risk of proliferation: Fusion doesn't employ fissile

materials like uranium and plutonium.

o Radioactive tritium is neither a fissile nor a fissionable

material.

o There are no enriched materials in a fusion reactor like ITER

that could be exploited to make nuclear weapons.

• No risk of meltdown: A Fukushima-type nuclear accident is not

possible in a tokamak fusion device.

o It is difficult enough to reach and maintain the precise

conditions necessary for fusion—if any disturbance occurs,

the plasma cools within seconds and the reaction stops.

o The quantity of fuel present in the vessel at any one time is

enough for a few seconds only and there is no risk of a chain

reaction.

• Cost: The average cost per kilowatt of electricity is also expected to

be similar to that of a fission reactor, slightly more expensive at the

beginning, when the technology is new, and less expensive as

economies of scale bring the costs down.

Fission vs Fusion

• Both fission and fusion are nuclear processes by which atoms are

altered to create energy.

• Fission is the division of one atom into two, and fusion is the

combination of two lighter atoms into a larger one.

• They are opposing processes, and therefore very different.

• Nuclear fission releases heat energy by splitting atoms.

• Nuclear fusion refers to the "union of atomic nuclei to form heavier

nuclei resulting in the release of enormous amounts of energy."

• Both fission and fusion are nuclear reactions that produce energy.

• Some scientists believe there are opportunities with such a power

source since fusion creates less radioactive material than fission

and has a nearly unlimited fuel supply.

o However, progress is slow due to challenges with

understanding how to control the reaction in a contained

space.

• Fission is used in nuclear power reactors since it can be controlled,

while fusion is not utilized to produce power since the reaction is not

easily controlled.

Do you know?

• In June 2020, engineering and construction giant Larsen & Toubro

(L&T) has achieved a major milestone under ‘Make in India’

initiative by building a cryostat (a vacuum pressure vessel made of

stainless steel) for the $20-billion world’s largest nuclear fusion

reactor being built in France under the global fusion project.

• The cryostat’s function is to provide cooling to the fusion reactor

and keep very high temperatures at its core under control.

105. What is an mRNA Vaccine? (TH)

• Why? India’s mRNA vaccine likely by April, 2022. The mRNA

vaccine being developed by Pune-based Gennova

Biopharmaceuticals is currently in phase 2/3 trials to evaluate the

safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of the candidate vaccine in

healthy subjects.

What?

• Globally, mRNA vaccines have been at the vanguard of inoculation

programmes in the United States and Europe because they exploit

recent advances in molecular biotechnology and are said to be

quicker to manufacture than older, well-established vaccine design

principles.


• A limitation of the mRNA vaccines was that they were required to

be stored in sub-zero conditions — a tough proposition in a country

where such a degree of refrigeration is limited in availability.

o However, the prospective Gennova vaccine can be stored in

ordinary refrigerators, the makers of Gennova have claimed

earlier.

• The mRNA vaccine, can also purportedly be tweaked to be

effective against newer variants, but so far, all the vaccines

developed — including the prospective Gennova vaccine — have

been customised to the original SARS-CoV-2.

• Gennova has been funded with ₹125 crore from the Department

of Biotechnology (DBT).

106. Understanding Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) (TH)

• Why? Artificial Neural Network Market is set for a Phenomenal

Growth from 2022 to 2028 according to report by Qualcomm.

What?

• The concept behind an Artificial Neural Network is to define inputs

and outputs, feed pieces of inputs to computer programs that

function like neurons and make inferences or calculations, then

forward those results to another layer of computer programs and so

on, until a result is obtained.

• Neural networks are designed to reflect the behavior of the

human brain, allowing computer programs to recognize

patterns and solve common problems in the fields of AI,

machine learning, and deep learning.

Concept of backpropagation (i.e. learning from Feedback)

• As part of this neural network, a difference between intended output

and input is computed at each layer and this difference is used to

tune the parameters to each program. This method is called

backpropagation and is an essential component to the Neural

Network.

• These can be used for both normal Machine Learning tasks like

classification or clustering and for Deep Learning/ANN tasks.

• ANN are computing systems inspired by the biological neural

networks that constitute animal brains.

The popularity of ANNs

• Data Science, used interchangeably with Machine Learning, is the

computer technology that uses data to detect patterns.

• This approach of using neural networks of many layers to

automatically detect patterns and parameters is called Deep

Learning.

• A couple of key developments in the past two decades helped

ANNs mature.

• Cloud computing provided enormous computing resources that are

needed for ANNs to “work through” massive volumes of data.

• Along with this, it was observed that instead of the CPU in a

computer, Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) which is good at

performing massive parallel tasks can be used for setting up

ANNs.

• In the last two decades, the software for neural networks matured

and backpropagation techniques became robust.

• Combining these concepts, if thousands of GPUs are available that

can take up chunks of data and can execute programs on those

chunks, then ANNs can be made available for a variety of tasks.

• Many commercial and free software have become available which

use GPUs and Cloud and offer readily available ANNs.

• A few popular free neural network frameworks are TensorFlow,

Keras, PyTorch and Theano.

Free neural networks

• TensorFlow was developed by Google. Popular implementations of

TensorFlow are Google’s search algorithm RankBrain and Twitter’s

tweet ranking.

• Neural networks have been applied in diverse fields including

aerospace, automotive, banking, defense, electronics,

entertainment, financial, insurance, manufacturing, medical, oil

and gas, speech, securities, telecommunications,

transportation, and environment.

• It involves computations and mathematics, which simulate the

human–brain like processes. Many of the recently achieved

advancements are related to the artificial intelligence research

area such as image and voice recognition, robotics are using

ANNs.

• The ANN frameworks or software mentioned above can be used

for both normal Machine Learning tasks and for Deep

Learning/ANN tasks.

• There are tasks that cannot be done with good accuracy by normal

Machine Learning and hence need Deep Learning

• Automatic Image Recognition of rich images (instead of only

simple hand-written digits) and Speech Recognition are two

popular uses of Deep Learning.

• Deep Learning has progressed to the next level and instead of

only working on input data and detections, it can now actually

generate creative output like music or paintings. (Asked in

UPSC PRELIMS 2021)

• Deep Learning made news in 2016 when an ANN-based product

called AlphaGo defeated a player in a game of “Go”.

• ANNs are present in many smartphone applications that we

use, like voice to type, Siri and Alexa.

• Some of the diverse applications of neural networks are as under

• 1. Facial Recognition: Facial Recognition Systems are serving as

robust systems of surveillance. Recognition Systems matches the

human face and compares it with the digital images.

• 2. Stock Market Prediction

• 3. Social Media: Artificial Neural Networks are used to study the

behaviours of social media users. Data shared everyday via virtual

conversations is tacked up and analyzed for competitive What?

and targeted advertisement.

• 4. Aerospace: Aerospace Engineering is an expansive term that

covers developments in spacecraft and aircraft. Fault diagnosis,

high performance auto piloting, securing the aircraft control

systems, and modeling key dynamic simulations are some of the

key areas that neural networks have taken over

• 5. Defence: Unmanned Airborne Vehicle (UAV), and Unmanned

Undersea Vehicle (UUV) these autonomous sea vehicles use

convolutional neural networks for the image processing.

• 6. Healthcare: ANN are actively employed in the healthcare industry

for X ray detection, CT Scan and ultrasound. It is used in image

processing, the medical imaging data retrieved from

aforementioned tests is analyzed and assessed based on neural

network models.

• 7. Fraud Detection: Artificial Neural Networks are used

for verifying the signatures. ANN are trained to recognize the


difference between real and forged signatures. ANNs can be used

for the verification of both offline and online signatures.

• 8. Weather Forecasting and Disaster management: Weather

Forecasting is primarily undertaken to anticipate the upcoming

weather conditions beforehand. In the modern era, weather

forecasts are even used to predict the possibilities of natural

disasters. Various inputs like air temperature, relative humidity,

wind speed and solar radiations were considered for training neural

network based models.

107. Role of Primers in COVID-Testing (TH)

• Why? The Delhi-based CSIR lab, Institute of Genomics and

Integrative Biology (IGIB), has successfully developed a unique

pool of primers and kits to be used in RT-PCR testing of SARS-

CoV-2 virus.

What?

• The most distinguishing aspect of the work was developing primers

that will not be affected by mutations seen in SARS-CoV-2 variants.

• This may allow the primers to detect any new SARS-CoV-2 variants

that might emerge immaterial of the novel mutations that the

variants might have.

• The pool of primers has been developed by the IGIB to target

regions of the virus which are unlikely to undergo mutations.

o So, the primers developed for RT-PCR tests will perform very

well when new variants emerge.

• Each new variant that emerges develops a unique set of mutations

that makes it more transmissible and/or causes severe disease.

• The high number of variants seen is because SARS-CoV-2 is a

rapidly mutating virus and tends to collect mutations during

infection.

• The SARS-CoV-2 is naturally endowed to collect about one

mutation every 10-14 days.

What is PCR?

• Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is a common laboratory

technique used in research and clinical practices to amplify, or

copy, small segments of genetic material.

• PCR is sometimes called “molecular photocopying,” and it is

incredibly accurate and sensitive.

• Short sequences called primers are used to selectively amplify a

specific DNA sequence.

• PCR is now used in a variety of ways, including DNA fingerprinting,

diagnosing genetic disorders and detecting bacteria or viruses.

• Because molecular and genetic analyses require significant

amounts of a DNA sample, it is nearly impossible for researchers to

study isolated pieces of genetic material without PCR amplification.

• COVID-19 testing uses a modified version of PCR called

quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR).

o This method adds fluorescent dyes to the PCR process to

measure the amount of genetic material in a sample.

• The testing process begins when healthcare workers collect

samples using a nasal swab or saliva tube.

• The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is the pathogen that causes COVID-

19, uses RNA as its genetic material.

• First, the single-stranded RNA is converted to double-stranded

DNA in a process called reverse transcription.

• The two DNA template strands are then separated and the DNA is

multiplied using primers and fluorescent dyes attach to the DNA,

providing a marker of successful duplication.

o Primers are small pieces of DNA designed to only connect to

a genetic sequence that is specific to the viral DNA, ensuring

only viral DNA can be duplicated.

• The cycle is then repeated 20-30 times to create hundreds of DNA

copies corresponding to the SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA.

What do results mean for a COVID-19 PCR test?

• A positive result happens when the SARS-CoV-2 primers match

the DNA in the sample and the sequence is amplified, creating

millions of copies. This means the sample is from an infected

individual.

• The primers only amplify genetic material from the virus, so it is

unlikely a sample will be positive if viral RNA is not present. If it

does, it is called a false positive.

• A negative result happens when the SARS-CoV-2 primers do not

match the genetic material in the sample and there is no

amplification. This means the sample did not contain any virus.

• A false negative result happens when a person is infected, but

there is not enough viral genetic material in the sample for the PCR

test to detect it. This can happen early after a person is exposed.

• Overall, false negative results are much more likely than false

positive results.

108. Solar Storms and Cosmogenic Radionuclides (TH)

• Why? Through What? of ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica,

a research team has found evidence of an extreme solar storm that

occurred about 9,200 years ago.

What?

• What puzzles the researchers is that the storm took place during

one of the sun's more quiet phases — during which it is generally

believed our planet is less exposed to such events.


• It is currently believed that solar storms are more likely during the

so-called sunspot cycle. Research now shows that this may not

always be the case for very large storms.

• The enhanced flux of relatively lower energy particles during a solar

energetic particle event (SEP) can trigger additional production of

cosmogenic radionuclides (carbon-14, beryllium-10 and

chlorine-36), leaving an imprint in environmental archives.

109. Vande Bharat Trains (TH)

• Why? Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has in the Union

Budget for 2022-2023 proposed the development and manufacture

of 400 new Vande Bharat trains in the next three years.

• In her speech, Ms. Sitharaman said these would be “new

generation” trains with better energy efficiency and passenger

riding experience.

What?

• The Vande Bharat train is an indigenously designed and

manufactured semi high speed, self-propelled train.

• These trains, dubbed as Train 18 during the development phase,

operate without a locomotive and are based on a propulsion

system called distributed traction power technology, by which

each car of the train set is powered.

• The Vande Bharat coaches incorporate passenger amenities

including on-board WiFi entertainment, GPS-based passenger

information system, CCTVs, automatic doors in all coaches,

rotating chairs and bio-vacuum type toilets like in aircraft.

• The first Vande Bharat was manufactured by the Integral Coach

Factory (ICF), Chennai, in about 18 months as part of the ‘Make in

India’ programme, at a cost of about ₹100 crore.

• It can achieve a maximum speed of 160 kmph due to faster

acceleration and deceleration, reducing journey time by 25% to

45%.

• It also has an intelligent braking system with power regeneration for

better energy efficiency thereby making it cost, energy and

environment efficient.

• The Vande Bharat was India’s first attempt at adaptation of the

train set technology compared with conventional systems of

passenger coaches hauled by separate locomotives.

o The train set configuration though complex is faster, easier to

maintain, consumes less energy, and has greater flexibility in

train operation.

• The Railways is also said to be considering the use of aluminium

instead of steel in the construction of the coaches as this would

help make the trains much lighter thereby improving energy

efficiency, and also making the trains faster.

110. Chandrayaan-3 Mission (TH)

• Why? India plans to execute the Chandrayaan-3 mission in August

2022, the concerned Minister told the Lok Sabha recently.

What?

• The Chandrayaan-3 mission is a follow-up of Chandrayaan-2 of

July 2019, which aimed to land a rover on the lunar South Pole.

o Chandrayaan-2 was sent aboard the country’s most powerful

geosynchronous launch vehicle, the GSLV-Mk 3.

o However, lander Vikram, instead of a controlled landing,

ended up crash-landing and prevented rover Pragyaan from

successfully travelling on the surface of the moon.

o Had the mission been successful, it would have been the first

time a country landed its rover on the moon in its maiden

attempt.

o Chandrayaan-2 mission was India’s first attempt to make a

soft-landing of a rover on the unchartered South Pole of the

lunar surface.

• Chandrayaan-3 will be a mission repeat of Chandrayaan-2 and will

include a Lander and Rover similar to that of Chandrayaan-2, but

will not have an orbiter (as the one deployed by Chandrayaan 2

is working just fine).

• ISRO is planning to land the Chandrayaan 3 lander at the same

location as the Chandrayaan 2 – the lunar south pole.

• The area is relatively unexplored and has mainly just been studied

by orbiters.

o Only China, in January 2019, was able to successfully soft-

land near the lunar south pole with its Chang’e 4 mission.

• Chandrayaan 3, if successful, will make India the fourth country

to soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon after the United States,

USSR and China.

Chandrayaan 1

• India’s first mission to the Moon Chandrayaan-1, launched in

2008, had given clear evidence on the extensive presence of

surface water and the indication for subsurface polar water-ice

deposits.

• It carried the Moon Impact Probe, which hard-landed on the moon

in November 2008.

• The lunar probe was originally supposed to orbit the Moon for two

years and prepare a three-dimensional atlas of the near and far

side of the Moon and to conduct a chemical and mineralogical

mapping of the lunar surface.

• However, after almost a year, the orbiter started suffering from

several technical issues. It stopped communicating on 28 August

2009, after 312 days of operation.

Why did the ISRO choose the Moon's South Pole as the landing

site for Chandrayaan-2?

• The lunar South Pole is one of the most compelling places in the

entire Solar System.

• The towering massifs of the South Pole-Aitken Basin can be

accessed, and these massifs contain impact melt that will allow

scientists to unambiguously determine the age of this huge

basin and could provide insights into planetary formation.

• Permanently shadowed craters may harbour reservoirs of ices and

other volatile compounds that could serve as a tremendously

valuable resource for future explorers.

• Additionally, these volatile deposits could contain a priceless

record of water composition dating back to the beginning of

our Solar System, an incomparable dataset for astrobiology

investigations.

• A few mountain peaks near the pole are illuminated for extended

periods of time, which could provide near-constant solar power for a

permanent lunar outpost sometime in the far future.

• In addition, South Pole region has craters that are cold traps and

contain a fossil record of the early Solar System.

Why not North Pole?


• The south pole of Moon has a large shadowy region (larger than

that in North pole). It contains places that remains in permanent

darkness where Sunlight never reaches.

• Further, the South Pole is at the edge of the Aitken basin, the

largest impact basin in the Solar System.

o NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is still flying over the

South Pole region at an altitude of only 30 km, collecting a

wealth of data.

o Unlike Earth, which turns on its axis every 24 hours, the

Moon takes about 30 days to make a complete rotation. This

means that days and nights on the Moon last two weeks.

The Moon Exploration

• Luan 9 (Soviet Union) was the first unmanned lunar soft landing

and first picture from the lunar surface.

• Lunokhod 1 (Soviet Union) was the first robotic rover to explore

the surface of the moon.

• Chang'e 3 (China) was the first non-Soviet rover on the Moon; first

rover after a gap of 40 years.

What's Next for ISRO?

Gaganyaan

• Gaganyaan – India’s maiden manned mission to space – seems to

be ISRO’s next ambitious leap – aims to demonstrate human space

flight capability with three crew members for five to seven days in

Low Earth Orbit (2,000 km above the surface) and safely recover

them after the mission.

Aditya L1 Satellite

• One of the most prominent is India’s first mission to the sun. The

programme is aimed at building the Aditya L1 satellite, which will

study the solar corona (the outer layers of the sun).

• The satellite is scheduled to be launched by the PSLV-XL from

Sriharikota.

• A second launch port, exclusively for the Small Satellite Launch

Vehicle (SSLV), will be established in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi

district and the land acquisition has been initiated.

X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat)

• Work will also be undertaken on XPOSAT, a planned space

observatory to study cosmic X-rays.

NISAR [NASA-ISRO SAR] Mission

• ISRO has completed development of a Synthetic Aperture Radar

(SAR) capable of producing high-resolution images for a joint earth

observation satellite mission with the U.S. space agency NASA.

• The NISAR mission, scheduled for launch in 2023, is optimised for

studying hazards and global environmental change and can help

manage natural resources better and provide information to

scientists to better understand the effects and pace of climate

change.

DISHA: Disturbed and quite-type Ionosphere System at High

Altitude

• A twin satellite system to study the Earth’s aeronomy, the

uppermost layer of a planet’s atmosphere which interacts with

space, is in an advanced stage.

Venus Mission

• India plans to launch a new orbiter to Venus in 2024, a year later

than planned, according to media reports.

• The Shukrayaan orbiter will be the first mission to Venus by the

India Space Research Organization (ISRO).

• Dozens of missions have flown to Venus since the 1960s, but only

a few in recent years. For example, the European Space

Agency's Venus Express orbited the planet between 2006 and

2014, and Japan's Akatsuki spacecraft entered orbit in 2015 after

a previous unsuccessful attempt.

• Several spacecraft are also performing flybys of Venus in the near

future, including NASA's Parker Solar Probe for solar

observation, and Europe's BepiColombo en route to Mercury.

Indo-French Cooperation in Space

TRISHNA Mission

• Developed by the Indian space agency, ISRO, and the French

space agency CNES, the TRISHNA mission is designed to observe

Earth’s surface in the thermal infrared domain. Its objective is to

measure surface temperatures all over the globe.

o Today, temperature measurements from space can only be

obtained monthly at a resolution of about 100 metres, and

daily global measurements are only available at a resolution

of one kilometre.

o The goal of TRISHNA—for Thermal infraRed Imaging

Satellite for High-resolution Natural resource

Assessment—is to reach a resolution of 57 metres with a

revisit interval of three days.

Megha-Tropiques

• The Indo-French joint satellite mission called MEGHA-TROPIQUES

was launched in 2011 for the study of the tropical atmosphere and

climate related to aspects such as monsoons, cyclones, etc. The

data products from this satellite are made available to the

international Scientific community.

SARAL

• Another joint mission with France, named SARAL (Satellite for

ALTIKA and ARGOS) for studying ocean from space using altimetry

was successfully launched in February 2013.

111. Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) (PIB)

• Why? Observing the 3rd World Neglected Tropical Diseases

(NTDs) Day on 30th January, India joined close to 40 other nations

to illuminate the iconic New Delhi Railway Station in purple and

orange hues.

What?

• NTDs are a diverse group of 20 conditions that are caused by a

variety of pathogens including viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi and

toxins.

• NTDs are prevalent mainly in rural areas, in conflict zones and

hard-to reach-regions.

• They thrive in areas where access to clean water and sanitation is

scarce – worsened by climate change.

• They affect over 1.7 billion people globally.

• They are “neglected” because they are almost absent from the

global health agenda of the developed countries and are associated

with stigma and social exclusion.

• 1 in 5 people around the world are affected by NTDs. India is home

to the world’s largest absolute burden of at least 11 of these major

neglected tropical diseases.

What are “Neglected Tropical Diseases”?

• There are four primary criteria that define an illness as a neglected

tropical disease (NTD):

• First, there is a significant burden of mortality and morbidity.


• Secondly, a majority of incidents occur in the world’s tropical and

sub-tropical regions, and it particularly impacts the poor.

• Thirdly, the disease is amenable to treatment, as well as

prevention.

• Finally, the overall level of investment in research addressing the

disease, from prevention to diagnosis to treatment and

rehabilitation, is exceptionally low in comparison to its impact.

Some of the neglected tropical diseases identified by WHO are

(please note that this list keeps on changing, red coloured

diseases might no longer be in the latest list):

o Buruli ulcer

o Chagas disease

o Dengue and Chikungunya

o Dracunculiasis (guinea-worm disease)

o Echinococcosis

o Foodborne trematodiases

o Human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness)

o Leishmaniasis

o Leprosy (Hansen's disease)

o Lymphatic filariasis

o Mycetoma, chromoblastomycosis and other deep mycoses

o Onchocerciasis (river blindness)

o Rabies

o Scabies and other ectoparasites

o Schistosomiasis

o Soil-transmitted helminthiases

o Snakebite envenoming

o Taeniasis/Cysticercosis

o Trachoma

o Yaws (Endemic treponematoses)

• The following six NTDs can be controlled or even eliminated

through mass administration of safe and effective medicines or

other, effective interventions:

o Dracunculiasis (Guinea Worm Disease)

o Lymphatic Filariasis

o Onchocerciasis

o Schistosomiasis

o Soil-transmitted Helminths (STH) (i.e., Ascaris, Hookworm,

and Whipworm)

o Trachoma

Neglected Tropical Diseases − Summary

• Dengue: A mosquito-borne infection causing flu-like illness that

may develop into severe dengue and cause lethal complications.

• Rabies: A preventable viral disease transmitted to humans through

the bites of infected dogs that is invariably fatal once symptoms

develop.

• Trachoma: A chlamydial infection transmitted through direct

contact with infectious eye or nasal discharge, or through indirect

contact with unsafe living conditions and hygiene practices, which

left untreated causes irreversible corneal opacities and blindness.

• Buruli ulcer: A debilitating mycobacterial skin infection causing

severe destruction of the skin, bone and soft tissue.

• Yaws: A chronic bacterial infection affecting mainly the skin and

bone.

• Leprosy: A complex disease caused by infection mainly of the skin,

peripheral nerves, mucosa of the upper respiratory tract and eyes.

• Chagas disease: A life-threatening illness transmitted to humans

through contact with vector insects (triatomine bugs), ingestion of

contaminated food, infected blood transfusions, congenital

transmission, organ transplantation or laboratory accidents.

• Human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness): A parasitic

infection spread by the bites of tsetse flies that is almost 100% fatal

without prompt diagnosis and treatment to prevent the parasites

invading the central nervous system.

• Leishmaniases: Disease transmitted through the bites of infected

female sandflies that in its most severe (visceral) form attacks the

internal organs and in its most prevalent (cutaneous) form causes

face ulcers, disfiguring scars and disability.

• Taeniasis and neurocysticercosis: An infection caused by adult

tapeworms in human intestines; cysticercosis results when humans

ingest tapeworm eggs that develop as larvae in tissues.

• Dracunculiasis (guinea-worm disease): A nematode infection

transmitted exclusively by drinking-water contaminated with

parasite-infected water fleas.

• Echinococcosis: Infection caused by the larval stages of

tapeworms forming pathogenic cysts in humans and transmitted

when ingesting eggs most commonly shed in faeces of dogs and

wild animals.

• Foodborne trematodiases: Infection acquired by consuming fish,

vegetables and crustaceans contaminated with larval parasites;

clonorchiasis, opisthorchiasis and fascioliasis are the main

diseases.

• Lymphatic filariasis: Infection transmitted by mosquitoes causing

abnormal enlargement of limbs and genitals from adult worms

inhabiting and reproducing in the lymphatic system.

• Onchocerciasis (river blindness): Infection transmitted by the bite

of infected blackflies causing severe itching and eye lesions as the

adult worm produces larvae and leading to visual impairment and

permanent blindness.

• Schistosomiasis: Trematode infections transmitted when larval

forms released by freshwater snails penetrate human skin during

contact with infested water.

• Soil-transmitted helminthiases: Nematode infections transmitted

through soil contaminated by human faeces causing anaemia,

vitamin A deficiency, stunted growth, malnutrition, intestinal

obstruction and impaired development.

• Mycetoma is a chronic, progressively destructive inflammatory skin

disease which usually affects the lower limbs. Infection is thought to

be caused by the inoculation, through a thorn prick or skin damage,

of fungi or bacteria into the subcutaneous tissue.

WHO issues new 10-year plan to end suffering from neglected

tropical diseases

• The overarching 2030 global targets are:

o reduce by 90% the number of people requiring treatment for

NTDs

o at least 100 countries to have eliminated at least one NTD

o eradicate two diseases (dracunculiasis and yaws)

o reduce by 75% the disability-adjusted life years (DALYs)

related to NTD

• Additionally, the road map will track 10 cross-cutting targets and

disease specific targets that include:


o a reduction by more than 75% in the number of deaths from

vector-borne NTDs such as dengue, leishmaniasis and

others,

o promote full access to basic water supply,

o sanitation and hygiene in areas endemic for NTDs and

achieve greater improvement in collecting and reporting NTD

data disaggregated by gender.

112. Von Neumann Architecture (PIB)

• Why? Prof. Mayank Shrivastava from IISc Bangalore is working on

applications of emerging materials that can help computers mimic

functions that the brain can perform rapidly.

• It can help computers perform cognitive functions, identify people

from a crowd, distinguish smell as well as learn and take decisions.

What?

• Since their inception, advanced computing systems have been

using von Neumann architecture, which uses physically

separated processing and memory blocks.

• While it has been the most cost-effective approach to date, physical

separation of memory from the processing blocks has become the

rate limiter for pushing the computational capabilities of advanced

nanoelectronic systems.

• Besides, von Neumann's architecture fails in real-time processing of

information that human brain can process in a fraction of a second.

• Keeping these gaps in mind, an alternative architecture, inspired by

the organization of neurons (processing unit) and synapses

(memory) in the human brain that emulates brain-like computing

behaviour, have been explored significantly in the last decade.

• A key element of such an architecture is a memory device called

the artificial synapse, which, however, must work on

biological/synaptic principles.

113. Perovskite Solar Cells (PIB)

• Why? Indian Scientists have devised a new process for increasing

the efficiency and stability of Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanorods

based on Perovskite Solar Cells (PSC). It will help develop solar

cells with stable light-harvesting active layer.

• Perovskite solar cells have become commercially attractive

because of the potential of achieving even higher efficiencies and

very low production costs. However, the challenge lies in its

short- and long-term stability.

What are Perovskite Solar Cells?

• Perovskites are a family of materials with a specific crystal

structure, named after the mineral with that structure.

• Perovskite crystals are found today in ultrasound machines,

memory chips, and now – solar cells.

• When used to create solar cells, they have shown potential for

high performance and low production costs.

• Perovskite solar cells have shown remarkable progress in recent

years with rapid increases in conversion efficiency, from reports of

about 3% in 2006 to over 25% today.

• While perovskite solar cells have become highly efficient in a very

short time, a number of challenges remain before they can become

a competitive commercial technology.

• Perovskites can be tuned to respond to different colors in the solar

spectrum by changing the material composition.

• Perovskite solar cells of certain compositions can convert ultraviolet

and visible light into electricity very efficiently, meaning they might

be excellent hybrid-tandem partners for absorber materials such as

crystalline silicon that efficiently convert infrared light.

o It is also possible to combine two perovskite solar cells of

different composition together to produce a perovskite-only

tandem.

o Doing so could lead to even higher efficiency and more cost-

effective tandem photovoltaic (PV) applications.

• Perovskite solar cells have demonstrated competitive efficiencies

with potential for higher performance, but their stability is quite

limited compared with that of leading PV technologies: They

don’t stand up well to moisture, oxygen, extended periods of light,

or high heat.

• Despite significant progress in understanding the stability and

degradation of perovskite solar cells, current operational lifetimes

are not commercially viable.

Semiconductors Vs Perovskite Solar Cells

• All photovoltaic solar cells rely on semiconductors — materials in

the middle ground between electrical insulators such as glass and

metallic conductors such as copper — to turn the energy from light

into electricity.

• Light from the sun excites electrons in the semiconductor material,

which flow into conducting electrodes and produce electric current.

• Silicon has been the primary semiconductor material used in solar

cells since the 1950s, as its semiconducting properties align well

with the spectrum of the sun’s rays and it is relatively abundant and

stable.

• However, the large silicon crystals used in conventional solar

panels require an expensive, multi-step manufacturing process that

utilizes a lot of energy.

• In the search for an alternative, scientists have harnessed the

tunability of perovskites to create semiconductors with similar

properties to silicon.

• Perovskite solar cells can be manufactured using simple, additive

deposition techniques, like printing, for a fraction of the cost and

energy.

• Because of the compositional flexibility of perovskites, they can also

be tuned to ideally match the sun’s spectrum.

F) Schemes, Policies, Initiatives, Awards and Social Issues

114. Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) (TH)

• Why? The Union Cabinet has approved the national roll-out of

Central Sector Scheme, Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission

(ABDM) of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

What?

• The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (earlier known as the

National Digital Health Mission) was launched on 15th August 2020.

• Three key registries of (ABDM) are namely Health ID, Health

Professional Registry (HPR), Health Facility Registry (HFR) and

digital infrastructure for data exchange have been developed.

o Health IDs are also known as ABHA – Ayushman Bharat

Health Accounts.

o Creation of Health ID is voluntary.

• Under ABDM, every Indian will get a Health ID card.


o Every time you visit a doctor or a pharmacy, everything will

be logged in this card.

o From the doctor’s appointment to the medication, everything

will be available in your health profile.

• The National Health Authority (NHA), the attached office of the

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare which runs the Ayushman

Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, would “design, build,

roll-out and implement the ABDM.

• The ABDM would be a voluntary programme to reduce the gap

among stakeholders, such as doctors, hospitals and other

healthcare providers, by connecting them in an integrated digital

health infrastructure.

• The mission will improve equitable access to quality healthcare by

encouraging use of technologies such as telemedicine and

enabling national portability of health services.

• Not only will ABDM facilitate evidence-based decision making for

effective public health interventions, but it will also catalyse

innovation and generate employment across the healthcare

ecosystem.

• Digital health solutions like CoWIN, Arogya Setu and eSanjeevani

have demonstrated the role of technology in enabling access to

healthcare.

o Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network (CoWIN): It is a cloud-

based IT solution for planning, implementation, monitoring,

and evaluation of Covid-19 vaccination in India.

o Aarogya Setu: It is India's main contact tracing app, and has

been developed by the National Informatics Centre under the

Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology. Aarogya

Setu is designed to keep track of other app users that a

person came in contact with. It then alerts app users if any of

the contacts tests positive for COVID-19.

o eSanjeevani: It is the Tele-Medicine platform rolled out

by Health Ministry. This platform has enabled two types of

telemedicine services viz. Doctor-to-Doctor (eSanjeevani)

and Patient-to-Doctor (eSanjeevani OPD) Tele-consultations.

115. Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) (PIB)

• Why? Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare launched the

National Polio Immunization Drive for 2022 by administering polio

drops to children below five years of age in the Ministry of Health

and Family Welfare.

What?

• India conducts one National Immunization Day (NID) and two

Sub-National Immunization Day (SNIDs) for polio every year to

maintain population immunity against wild poliovirus and to

sustain its polio free status.

• India has been free of polio for more than a decade, with the last

case of wild poliovirus reported in January 2011.

o However, India continues to remain vigilant to prevent re-

entry of the poliovirus into the country from neighboring

countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where wild poliovirus

continues to cause the disease.

Universal Immunization Programme (UIP)

• The Government of India launched the Universal Immunization

Program (UIP) in 1985.

• The UIP provides free of cost vaccines to all children across the

country to protect them against 12 life threatening diseases.

• These twelve vaccine preventable diseases are Tuberculosis,

Pertussis, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Hepatitis B, Polio, Pneumonia and

Meningitis due to Haemophilus Influenzae type b (Hib), Measles,

Rubella, Rotavirus diarrhoea and Japanese Encephalitis (JE).

o Rubella, JE and Rotavirus vaccine are given in select states

and districts.

• Universal Immunization Programme has introduced several new

vaccines like Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV), Rotavirus

vaccine, and Measles-Rubella vaccine (MR) in the recent past.

• Further, to provide additional protection to our children, the

Government of India has also introduced the injectable Inactivated

Polio Vaccine into its routine immunization program.

116. Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries

(SFURTI) (PIB)

• Why? The MSME Minister inaugurated the KONBAC SFURTI

(Konkan Bamboo and Cane Development Centre - Scheme of Fund

for Regeneration of Traditional Industries) bamboo cluster at Kudal.

The cluster will support 300 artisans.

What?

• SFURTI has been launched by the Ministry of Micro, Small &

Medium Enterprises.

• The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) is

implementing this scheme.

• The main objective of the SFURTI scheme is to organize the

traditional industries and artisans into clusters:

o to make them competitive, and provide support for their long-

term sustainability,

o to provide sustained employment for traditional industry

artisans & rural entrepreneurs,

o to enhance marketability of products etc.

• The scheme provides support in the form of two interventions viz.

Hard Interventions and Soft Interventions.

o Hard Interventions include creation of Common Facility

Centres (CFCs), Raw material banks (RMBs), Up-gradation

of production infrastructure, etc.

o Soft Interventions include counselling, trust building, skill

development and capacity building etc.

• The scheme was revised in 2017-18. Under the revised scheme,

two types of clusters are set up.

• The maximum financial assistance provided is Rs. 2.50 crore for a

Regular Cluster (upto 500 artisans) and Rs. 5.00 crore for a Major

Cluster (more than 500 artisans).

117. Bhasha Certificate Selfie (PIB)

• Why? Ministry of Education launched a campaign ‘Bhasha

Certificate Selfie’ to encourage cultural diversity and promote

mulitlinguism and to foster the spirit of Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat.

What?

• Bhasha Certificate Selfie initiative aims to promote Bhasha Sangam

mobile app, developed by Ministry of Education and MyGov India.

• Using the app, people can learn 100+ sentences of daily use in as

many as 22 scheduled Indian languages.

• The initiative, under the aegis of Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat, will

aim to ensure that people acquire basic conversational skills in

Indian languages.


• Rashtriya Ekta Diwas which is celebrated on October 31 every

year to mark the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

118. Sustainable Cities India Program (PIB)

• Why? The World Economic Forum and the National Institute of

Urban Affairs (NIUA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding

(MoU) to collaborate on a jointly designed ‘Sustainable Cities

India Program’ which will aim to create an enabling environment

for cities to generate decarbonization solutions across the energy,

transport, and the built environment sectors.

What?

• This initiative is particularly noteworthy as it comes after India’s

commitment to turn net zero by 2070 as a climate mitigation

response at COP26.

• The ‘Sustainable Cities India program’ intends to enable cities to

decarbonize in a systematic and sustainable way that will reduce

emissions and deliver resilient and equitable urban ecosystems.

• The Forum and NIUA will adapt the Forum’s City Sprint

process and Toolbox of Solutions for decarbonization in the

context of five to seven Indian cities across two years.

• The City Sprint process is a series of multi-sectoral, multi-

stakeholder workshops involving business, government, and civil

society leaders to enable decarbonization, especially through clean

electrification and circularity.

• The City Sprint process uses the Toolbox of Solutions - a digital

platform containing over 200 examples of clean electrification,

efficiency and smart infrastructure best practices and case studies

across buildings, energy systems and mobility from over 110 cities

around the world.

• As per the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2022,

densely populated countries that are highly dependent on

agriculture, such as India, are especially vulnerable to climate

insecurity.

• Decarbonization in cities is a real opportunity to keep global

warming well below 2°C and cities in India can make an enormous

contribution in reaching this goal.

About Net Zero Carbon Cities

• The World Economic Forum’s Net Zero Carbon Cities’ mission is to

create an enabling environment for clean electrification and

circularity, resulting in urban decarbonization and resilience.

• The program aims to do this by fostering public-private

collaboration to bridge the gap across the energy, built environment

and transport sectors.

119. Draft India Data Accessibility & Use Policy, 2022 (TH)

• Why? The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology

(MEITY) on February 21, 2022 released a policy proposal titled as,

“Draft India Data Accessibility & Use Policy, 2022”.

What?

• The policy objectives mentioned in this draft are primarily

commercial in nature.

• As the generation of citizen data is slated to increase exponentially

in the next decade, the Government is looking to license and

sell public data to the private sector.

• The policy will be applicable to all data and information created and

collected by the Central Government. It would also allow State

governments to adopt its provisions.

• Its operationalisation will be achieved through the establishment of

an India Data Office (IDO) for overall management.

• An India Data Council will also be formed as a consultative body.

• The policy strategy is to make Government data open by default

and then maintain a negative list of datasets which cannot be

shared.

What are the privacy issues with the Draft Data Accessibility

Policy?

• India does not have a data protection law that can provide

accountability and remedy for privacy violations such as coercive

and excessive data collection or data breaches.

• As a measure of privacy protection, there is a recommendation for

anonymisation and privacy preservation.

• A background note that accompanies the policy outlines existing

bottlenecks in data sharing and use which includes the absence of

a body for policy monitoring and enforcement of data sharing

efforts, absence of technical tools and standards for data sharing,

identification of high value datasets and licensing and valuation

frameworks.

• There are privacy issues which need to be addressed. Apart from

that, with the adoption of the language of open data the

Government strays from its core principle of providing transparency

towards its citizens.

• Other issues include questions of how the Centre and the State are

going to share the proceeds from the sales.

120. National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship (NMMSS) (PIB)

• Why? The Ministry of Education has approved the continuation of

Central Sector National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship (NMMSS)

over the 15th Finance Commission cycle for a period of five years

i.e. from 2021-22 to 2025-26 with minor modifications in eligibility

criteria such as increasing income ceiling from Rs.1.5 lakh per

annum to Rs.3.5 lakh per annum and revising the renewal criteria

under the scheme.

What?

• The objective of the scheme is to award scholarships to

meritorious students of economically weaker sections to arrest their

drop-out at class VIII and encourage them to continue their

education at secondary stage.

• One lakh fresh scholarships of Rs.12,000/- per annum (Rs.1000/-

per month) per student are awarded to selected students of class 9

every year and their continuation/renewal in classes 10 to 12 for

study in State Government, Government-aided and Local body

schools under the scheme.

• Students are selected for award of scholarships through an

examination conducted by the State/ UT Governments.

• 100% funds under the scheme are provided by Central

Government.

121. Ramanujan Prize for Young Mathematicians (PIB)

• Why? The Ramanujan Prize for Young Mathematicians was

awarded to Professor Neena Gupta, a mathematician of the Indian

Statistical Institute in Kolkata, in a virtual ceremony on

22nd February 2022.

What?

• She received the award for the year 2021 for her outstanding work

in affine algebraic geometry and commutative algebra.


• The prize is awarded annually to a researcher from a developing

country funded by the Department of Science and Technology

(DST) of the Government of India in association with ICTP

(International Centre for Theoretical Physics) and the International

Mathematical Union (IMU).

• It is given to young mathematicians less than 45 years of age who

have conducted outstanding research in a developing country.

• It is supported by DST in the memory of Srinivasa Ramanujan, a

genius in pure mathematics who was essentially self-taught and

made spectacular contributions to elliptic functions, continued

fractions, infinite series, and analytical theory of numbers.

122. Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan) (TH)

• Why? Almost half the government buildings in States and Union

Territories identified during access audits in 2016-17 have been

made accessible to people with disabilities, while only around 8% of

public buses have become fully accessible under the Accessible

India campaign ending in June 2022, according to government

data.

• The campaign was launched in 2015 with the goal of making

selected government buildings, transportation and websites

accessible for persons with disabilities by March 2018. The

deadline was then extended to March 2020 and then again to June

2022.

What?

• Accessible India Campaign (AIC) is the nationwide flagship

campaign of the Department of Empowerment of Persons with

Disabilities (DEPwD), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

• The aim of the Campaign is to make universal accessibility, barrier

free and conducive environment for Divyangjans all over the

country.

• It was launched on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities

on 3rd December, 2015.

• For creating universal accessibility for Persons with Disabilities, the

campaign has been divided into three components:

o Built Environment;

o Transport;

o Information & Communication Technology (ICT)

ecosystem.

• The Built Environment Accessibility component of Accessible

India Campaign entails following targets:

o (i) Completing accessibility audit of at least 25-50 most

important government buildings in 50 cities and making them

fully accessible by the end of 2017;

o (ii) Making 50% of all the government buildings of NCT and

all the State capitals fully accessible by December 2018;

o (iii) Completing accessibility audit of 50% of government

buildings and making them fully accessible in 10 most

important cities/towns of States not covered in targets (i) and

(ii) by December 2019.

• This component would include not only buildings, but also

footpaths, curb cuts, and obstacles that block the flow of pedestrian

traffic.

• The Transport accessibility component of Accessible India

Campaign aims

o to make all international airports fully accessible immediately

and domestic airports by March 2018.

o all A1, A & B categories of railway stations are to be made

fully accessible.

o to make 25% of government owned public transport carriers

to be made fully accessible by March 2018.

• The Accessibility of Information and Communication System is

another crucial pillar of Accessible India Campaign. The target set

under this vertical is to make at least 50% of Central and State

Government websites accessible by March 2017.

• Department launched ‘Sugamya Pustakalaya’- an online library for

Persons with Print Disabilities centred on achieving ‘Universal

Accessibility’.

United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities

(UNCRPD)

• India is a signatory of the United Nations Convention on Rights

of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

• It ratified this Convention in 2007 and submitted its First Country

Report on Status of Disability in India in 2015.

• The UN Committee on CRPD in its 22nd Session took up India’s

First Country Report for consideration during 2nd & 3rd September

2019 at UNHRC, Geneva.

• Secretary, DEPwD specifically drew attention of the UN Committee

on enactment of the Comprehensive RPwD Act, 2016, launch of

Accessible India Campaign, establishment of National Institute of

Mental Health Rehabilitation (NIMHR) to address issues concerning

psycho-social disability, establishment of Centre for Disability

Sports, achievements in distribution of aids and assistive devices,

etc.

Incheon Strategy to “Make the Right Real” for PwDs

in Asia and Pacific

• Governments at the High Level Inter Governmental Meeting

organized by the Govt. of Republic of Korea adopted the ministerial

declaration and Incheon Strategy to “Make the Right Real” for

PwDs in Asia and Pacific.

• The Incheon Strategy provides the Asian and Pacific Region, and

the world the first set of regionally agreed distinct – inclusive

development goals.

123. Academic Bank of Credits (ABC) (TH)

• Why? The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has

recommended a revamp of the higher education scene in India to

make education more student-centric and multi-disciplinary.

• A new initiative stemming from this desire is an ‘Academic Bank of

Credits’ (ABC) in higher education idea, which was notified recently

by the University Grants Commission (UGC) for implementation.

What?

• As per National Education Policy 2020, the Academic Bank of

Credits (ABC) has been envisaged as a digital/virtual/online entity

established by University Grants Commission to facilitate

students to become its academic accounts holder, thereby paving

the way for seamless students’ mobility between or within

degree granting Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).

• ABC is a bank for academic purposes on the patterned of

commercial banks for financial purposes with students as

academic account holders.

• The credits earned by students will be deposited in their ABC

‘Academic Account.’ If the student moves to a different institution,


the accumulated credits get transferred to the account of the new

institution.

o The Academic bank credit(s) can only be shared from

institutions, not directly from the student.

• Allowing multiple entry, multiple exits for students and improving

transparency and helping to build a more flexible approach to

curriculum design and development are among the major benefits

of the above programme.

• Academic Bank of Credits has been established on the lines of the

National Academic Depository (NAD), in the sense, NAD is the

backbone of ABC, where the students' academic data are held and

academic awards are stored (i.e. storehouse of academic awards).

• Being the owner of academic awards, Academic Institutions must

mandatorily register themselves under ABC via NAD.

• ABC regulations say that the institute should allow up to 20%

supernumerary seats for students enrolling through the ABC

scheme.

• The ABC scheme specifies that students can avail up to 70% of

courses from other institutes while being enrolled in a particular

college.

• As a whole, this scheme has all the right and laudable intentions

and would probably work well in a society with a more

equitable distribution of resources.

• But in India, where the quality of education varies drastically from

one institute to the next, this can lead to unmanageable academic

and administrative issues in higher education institutes with brand

names, and lead to a contraction in the number of teaching posts in

smaller higher education institutes.

• With grade inflation being a real and imminent danger, the quality

of degrees is bound to deteriorate. The UGC must rethink

expeditiously how to implement this scheme.

124. Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure

Mission (PM-ABHIM) (PIB)

• Why? Union Health Secretary reviewed the operationalisation

status of Prime Minister Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana (PM-

ABHIM) which has now renamed PM – Ayushman Bharat Health

Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM).

What?

• Announced in the Budget 2021-22, the Ayushman Bharat Health

Infrastructure Mission, is aimed at filling gaps in public health

infrastructure, especially in critical care facilities and primary care in

both urban and rural areas. This scheme is in addition to the

National Health Mission.

• People will have access to a full range of diagnostic services in

the public healthcare system through a network of laboratories

across the country, and integrated public health labs will be set up

in all the districts.

• Two container-based hospitals (Central Sector Component)

with comprehensive medical facilities will be kept ready at all times

which can be swiftly mobilized by rail or air to respond to any

calamity or disaster in the country.

Objectives

• To strengthen grass root public health institutions to deliver

universal Comprehensive Primary Health Care;

• To strengthen public health institutions and public health

governance capacities, to meet challenges posed by the current

and future pandemics/ epidemics with capacities for

comprehensive diagnostic and treatment including for critical

care services.

• To expand and build an IT enabled disease surveillance

system by developing a network of surveillance laboratories at

block, district, regional and national levels, Points of Entry and in

Metropolitan areas, for effectively detecting, investigating,

preventing and combating Public Health Emergencies and Disease

Outbreaks.

• To support research on COVID-19 and other infectious

diseases, and to develop core capacity to deliver the One Health

Approach to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease

outbreaks in animals and humans.

Components of PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure

Mission

• The Scheme is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme with some

Central Sector components.

Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) Components:

• 1. Support for infrastructure development for Ayushman Bharat -

Health & Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs) in rural areas in 7 High

Focus States (Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar

Pradesh and West Bengal) and 3 North Eastern States (Assam,

Manipur and Meghalaya).

• 2. Ayushman Bharat - Health & Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs) in

Urban areas

• 3. Block Public Health Units (BPHUs)

• 4. Integrated District Public Health Laboratories in all districts.

• 5. Critical Care Hospital Blocks in all districts with a population

more than 5 lakhs, in state government medical colleges / District

Hospitals.

Central Sector (CS) Components

• 1. Critical Care Hospital Blocks in 12 Central Institutions.

• 2. Strengthening surveillance of infectious diseases and outbreak

response.

• 3. Strengthening surveillance capacities at Points of Entry.

• 4. Strengthening Disaster and Epidemic Preparedness.

• 5. Bio-security preparedness and strengthening Pandemic

Research

• 6. Support for setting up of a National Institution for One Health

• Note: ‘Prime Minister Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana’

(PMASBY) scheme was renamed as PM – Ayushman Bharat

Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM).

Do you know?

• 27.5% of all deaths in India in 2016 were due to communicable

diseases, maternal, neonatal and nutritional disorders while non-

communicable diseases and injuries accounted for 61.8% and

10.7% deaths respectively.

125. Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP)

(PIB)

• Why? An article in PIB.

What?

• Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) is

a major credit-linked subsidy programme being implemented by

the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) (Ministry of

MSME) since 2008-09.


• The Scheme is aimed at generating self-employment opportunities

through establishment of micro-enterprises in the non-farm

sector by helping traditional artisans and unemployed youth in

rural as well as urban areas.

• It is introduced by merging the two schemes, namely Prime

Minister's Rojgar Yojana (PMRY) and Rural Employment

Generation Programme (REGP).

• PMEGP is a central sector scheme administered by the Ministry

of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME).

• Any individual above 18 years of age is eligible.

• Under the scheme, loan is being provided by all Public Sector

Banks, selected Private Sector Banks and Co-operative Banks with

margin money subsidy being given by Ministry of MSME through

KVIC.

• For setting up of projects costing above Rs.10 lakh in the

manufacturing sector and above Rs. 5 lakh in the business /service

sector, the beneficiaries should possess at least VIII standard

pass educational qualification.

o Further, Ministry of MSME has also introduced a new

component of second financial assistance for

expansion/upgrading the existing PMEGP/MUDRA units for

manufacturing unit up to Rs.1.00 cr. and for service/ trading

unit up to Rs.25.00 lakhs with subsidy of 15% (20% for NER

and Hilly state) from the year 2018-19.

• The maximum cost of projects should be Rs. 25 lakh in the

manufacturing sector and Rs. 10 lakh in the service sector.

• Benefit may be availed under PMEGP for setting up of new units

only.

• At the national level, the Scheme is being implemented by Khadi

and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), a statutory organization

under the administrative control of the Ministry of MSME as the

single nodal agency.

o At the State level, the Scheme is implemented through State

KVIC Directorates, State Khadi and Village Industries Boards

(KVIBs) and District Industries Centres (DICs) and banks.

• The units that have already availed Government Subsidy under any

other scheme of Government of India or State Government are

NOT eligible.

• A minimum target of 75 projects per district is awarded to all

districts of the country to achieve Inclusive Growth.

Objectives

o To generate continuous and sustainable employment

opportunities in Rural and Urban areas of the country

o To provide continuous and sustainable employment to a large

segment of traditional and prospective artisans, rural and

urban unemployed youth in the country through setting up of

micro enterprises.

o To facilitate participation of financial institutions for higher

credit flow to micro sector.

Amended Guidelines

• In a significant policy decision, the Ministry of Micro, Small and

Medium Enterprises (MSME) has done away with the role of

District Level Task Force Committee (DLTFC), headed by the

Distt. Collectors, in recommending the proposals under the Prime

Minister Employment Generation Program (PMEGP), thereby

simplifying the entire procedure.

• As per the amended guidelines, Khadi and Village Industries

Commission (KVIC), the nodal agency for implementing PMEGP

scheme, will directly clear the proposals/applications of the

prospective entrepreneurs and will forward it to the Banks for taking

credit decisions.

o As of now, the proposals were scrutinized by the DLTFC, that

often led to inordinate delays in sanctioning of the

projects.

o The district Collectors/Magistrates heading the DLTFC were

often preoccupied with local administrative issues and hence

works pertaining to the approval of PMEGP applications was

not on their priority at all.

126. Green Hydrogen/ Green Ammonia Policy (PIB)

• Why? Ministry of Power has notified Green Hydrogen/ Green

Ammonia Policy.

What?

The policy provides as follows:

• Green Hydrogen / Ammonia manufacturers may purchase

renewable power from the power exchange or set up renewable

energy capacity themselves or through any other, developer,

anywhere.

• Open access will be granted within 15 days of receipt of

application.

• The Green Hydrogen / Ammonia manufacturer can bank his

unconsumed renewable power, up to 30 days, with distribution

company and take it back when required.

• Distribution licensees can also procure and supply Renewable

Energy to the manufacturers of Green Hydrogen / Green Ammonia

in their States at concessional prices which will only include the cost

of procurement, wheeling charges and a small margin as

determined by the State Commission.

• Waiver of inter-state transmission charges for a period of 25

years will be allowed to the manufacturers of Green Hydrogen and

Green Ammonia for the projects commissioned before 30th June

2025.

• The manufacturers of Green Hydrogen / Ammonia and the

renewable energy plant shall be given connectivity to the grid on

priority basis to avoid any procedural delays.

• The benefit of Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) will be

granted incentive to the hydrogen/Ammonia manufacturer and the

Distribution licensee for consumption of renewable power.

• To ensure ease of doing business a single portal for carrying out

all the activities including statutory clearances in a time bound

manner will be set up by MNRE.

• Connectivity, at the generation end and the Green Hydrogen /

Green Ammonia manufacturing end, to the ISTS for Renewable

Energy capacity set up for the purpose of manufacturing Green

Hydrogen / Green Ammonia shall be granted on priority.

• Manufacturers of Green Hydrogen / Green Ammonia shall be

allowed to set up bunkers near Ports for storage of Green

Ammonia for export / use by shipping. The land for the storage for

this purpose shall be provided by the respective Port Authorities at

applicable charges.

Do you know?


• The National Hydrogen Mission was launched on India’s

75th Independence Day (i.e. 15th August, 2021).

• The Mission aims to aid the government in meeting its climate

targets and making India a green hydrogen hub.

• This will help in meeting the target of production of 5 million tonnes

of Green hydrogen by 2030 and the related development of

renewable energy capacity.

• Hydrogen and Ammonia are envisaged to be the future fuels to

replace fossil fuels.

• Production of these fuels by using power from renewable energy,

termed as green hydrogen and green ammonia, is one of the

major requirements towards environmentally sustainable energy

security of the nation.

127. Several Operations Under Different Names Launched by the

RPF (PIB)

• Why? Railway Protection Force (RPF) is entrusted with the

responsibility of security of railway property, passenger area,

passengers and matters connected therewith.

• To provide impetus to various activities of the force personnel which

they are performing even beyond their assigned duties, it has been

decided to launch several operations under different names

starting from January 2022.

What?

• RPF has been saving lives of persons in danger of coming under

the wheels of running trains at various railway stations and railway

area night and day going beyond their call of duty risking their own

lives under “Mission Jeewan Raksha".

• RPF has played important role in reuniting the children in need of

care and protection, lost/separated from their family or escaped

from their homes due to several reasons under "Operation Nanhe

Fariste”.

• To provide better security to the women passengers several new

initiatives were taken under the code name "Mahila Suraksha".

• RPF personnel go out of the way to help pregnant women who go

into labor during their train journeys, in childbirth under "Operation

Matrishakti".

• Though Policing is a state subject under 7th Schedule of the Indian

Constitution, RPF supplements the efforts of state police in the field

of combating passenger crime under "Operation Yatri Suraksha".

• To curb the menace of Human Trafficking through railways, RPF

has been working in coordination with other stake holders round the

clock under Operation "AAHT".

• Passengers, many a times, leave behind their belongings in haste

to catch trains or leave the station. RPF personnel act as guardians

and help secure these belongings with an aim to restore them to

their rightful owners under "Operation Amanat".

• In order to give focused attention to drive against smuggling of

narcotics through rail, RPF has launched "Operation NARCOS".

• Transportation by trains has become a major conduit for tax

evaders/law breakers. RPF has launched a separate operation

called "Operation Satark" against illegal transportation of Tobacco

Products, unaccounted cash, illegal liquor, unaccounted precious

items, smuggled goods etc.

• RPF has taken stringent action under "Operation WILEP" against

the smugglers involved in illegal trade of wildlife through railways.

• RPF acts as Sentinels on Rail and helps state police/law

Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) in detection of serious cases

reported from their respective areas of operation under Operation

"Rail Prahari".

• Under "Operation Dignity", RPF rescued 80 adult men and 153

adult women who were in distress needing immediate care and

protection.

• Under "Operation Sewa", RPF provided assistance to more than

1000 elderly, sick, divyang persons during their travel by activities

ranging from arranging medicines, infant food, wheel chairs,

stretchers, medical help to carrying divyang/elderly persons on their

shoulders.

• RPF personnel acknowledge the responsibility of being "citizens in

uniform" and will continue to secure, assist and serve in right

earnest in the service of nation and its citizens to realize motto of

the Force "Yash Labhaswa" or "Attain Honour".

128. Eat Right Campus Initiative and Eat Right India Movement

(TH)

• Why? Four police stations of New Delhi district have been certified

as ‘Eat Right Campus’ by the Food Safety and Standards Authority

of India (FSSAI).

What?

• As a part of Eat Right India, the Eat Right Campus initiative has

been launched for schools, colleges, universities, institutions,

workplaces, hospitals, jails and tea estates to support them to

ensure safe, healthy and sustainable food for the people who spend

the majority of their time in these campuses.

• While the Eat Right Campus initiative is not mandatory to adopt, it

can provide immense benefits to the campus and the individuals in

the campus not only in terms of health but also economics.

Evaluation Criteria

• Benchmarks have been created on four different parameters

based on which campuses are evaluated and certified as 'Eat Right

Campus'.

• These parameters include food safety measures, steps to ensure

provision of healthy and environmentally sustainable food and

building awareness among the individuals in the campus to make

the right food choices.

Eat Right India Movement

• Eat Right India aims to transform India's food safety and nutrition

environment through a judicious mix of regulatory, capacity

building, collaborative and empowerment approaches, thereby

protecting and advancing public health and improve the quality of

life across all walks of life.

• The tagline 'Sahi Bhojan. Behtar Jeevan' – ‘Right diet leads to

better quality life.’

• thus forms the foundation of this movement.

• The Eat Right India movement is based on three key

themes/pillars - Eat Safe, Eat Healthy, and Eat Sustainable.

• Along with traditional regulatory actvities to ensure safe, healthy

and sustainable food for all, it also focuses on capacity building and

social and behaviour change for all stakeholders viz. food

businesses as well as consumers.

• As part of the ERI movement, FSSAI has been focussing on

initiatives such as Eat Right Challenge, Clean Street Food Hubs,


Eat Right Campus, Eat Right Schools and other mass awareness

efforts.

Eat Right Challenge

• The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)

implements the Eat Right Challenge, an annual competition for

districts and cities across the country.

• The aim of the competition is to encourage them to strengthen the

food safety and regulatory environment and awareness among

consumers to make better food choices.

• The challenge will be led by designated officers under the guidance

of the State Food Safety Commissioners/District Magistrates (DMs).

Key focus areas

• Some of the key focus areas of the challenge will be to come up

with measures:

o to broaden the reach of registration/licensing, enforcement

and surveillance efforts at the State level,

o creation of Eat Right Food environments, and

o nudge consumers to make better food choices.

Clean Street Food Hubs

• To upgrade existing food street across the country and provide safe

and hygienic local eating experience, FSSAI with support of state

government bodies has framed benchmarks for basic hygiene and

sanitary requirements for upgrading the existing infrastructures of

food streets across the country.

• A Clean Street Food Hub (CSFH) may be defined as: “a hub or

cluster of 50 or more vendors/shops/stalls selling popular street

foods, 80 per cent or more of which represents local and regional

cuisines and meets the basic hygiene and sanitary requirements. It

excludes fine dining.”

• FSSAI will duly recognize and certify those Food Hubs that

comply with these standards and benchmarks, and such

certification would help to create consumer trust.

Broad Objectives

• To ensure health, hygiene and safety standard of street food for all

consumers,

• To raise the quality of street food vending to the level of food courts

and established hotels and restaurants,

• To ensure social and economic upliftment of street vendor

community by helping them in improving quality of offerings thereby

attracting more customers,

• To enhance the popularity of street food by transforming it into a

global brand by itself.

Eat Right School Programme

• Eat Right School programme aims at creating awareness about

food safety, nutrition & hygiene among school children, and through

them among the community at large.

• FSSAI has developed ‘The Yellow Books’ to inculcate right eating

habits. These are age appropriate in two volumes with each of them

targeted at children from grade 1-8.

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)

• It has been established under the Food Safety and Standards Act,

2006 which consolidates various acts and orders that have

hitherto handled food related issues in various Ministries and

Departments.

• It has been created for laying down science-based standards for

articles of food.

• Various Central Acts like Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954

etc. are repealed after the commencement of FSS Act, 2006.

• The Act also aims to establish a single reference point for all

matters relating to food safety and standards.

• To this effect, the Act establishes an independent statutory

authority - the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India under

the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

• Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and State Food

Safety Authorities shall enforce various provisions of the Act.

• FSSAI also contributes to the development of international technical

standards for food, sanitary and phyto-sanitary standards.

129. Scheme for Economic Empowerment of De-notified, nomadic

and semi-nomadic communities (SEED) (TH)

• Why? The Union Social Justice Ministry launched the Scheme for

Economic Empowerment of De-notified, nomadic and semi-

nomadic communities (SEED), with a total expenditure of ₹200

crore over five years.

• Under the new scheme, students would be given free coaching for

entrance tests like civil services, medicine, engineering and MBA

and livelihood support.

• Note: You have already prepared this topic in detail from the Feb

2022 file.

130. Annual Meeting of the Indo-German Working Group on

Quality Infrastructure (PIB)

• Why? The 8th Annual Meeting of the Indo-German Working Group

on Quality Infrastructure was held.

What?

• A publication on “United in Quality and Safety” was released

providing information about the quality infrastructure in Germany

and the European Union and expressed that publication will be of

great help to policymakers and trade partners in India to understand

Quality Infrastructure regime in Europe and in Germany.

• Outcome of the Global Quality Infrastructure Index (GQII) study

conducted by the German side was also shared.

o As per the GQII report, India is ranked at 10th place in the

world for overall quality infrastructure environment in the

country.

• A Work Plan for the Year 2022 was signed by both sides which

include collaboration in mobility, energy, circular economy, smart

farming/ agriculture, medical devices, digitalization (AI, Industry 4.0

and other new technology areas), machinery safety, medical

devices and equipment and market surveillance.

131. Capacity Development (CD) Scheme (PIB)

• Why? The Cabinet has approved the continuation of the Capacity

Development (CD) Scheme till 31.03.2026 or till further review.

What?

• The CD Scheme is an Ongoing Central Sector Scheme of

Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI)

with an overall objective to augment infrastructural, technical as

well as manpower resources for enabling availability of credible and

timely official statistics.


• The Scheme comprises Capacity Development (Main) Scheme and

two sub schemes viz. Support for Statistical Strengthening (SSS)

and Economic Census (EC).

• Some of the major statistical products of the Ministry such as

Gross Value Added (GVA), Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Private

Final Consumption Expenditure (PFCE), Government Final

Consumption Expenditure (GFCE), Gross Fixed Capital Formation,

Change In Stock (CIS), Index of Industrial Production (IIP),

Consumer Price Index (CPI), Labour Force Participation Rate

(LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR), Unemployment Rate

(UR),Formal Sector Employment Statistics, Sustainable

Development Goals (SDG) Indicator Framework etc., form

inevitable part of the economic and social indices utilized for

monitoring the Indian economy.

• The Support for Statistical Strengthening (SSS) is an ongoing

sub scheme of the CD Scheme, which aims to improve the

statistical capacity and operations of State Statistical Systems for

collecting, compiling and disseminating reliable official statistics.

• Economic Census sub-scheme conducted periodically gives the

complete count of all non-farm economic establishments located

within the geographical boundary of India.

o Economic Census provides disaggregated information on

various operational and structural variables of all such

establishments of the country.

o Its database provides valuable inputs for policy makers to

design economic development and employment generation

related strategies in States/Districts.

• In addition to the regular ongoing activities under the CD Scheme,

the Ministry is to continue the following newly initiated

surveys, namely, Annual Survey of Services Sector Enterprises

(ASSSE), Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises

(ASUSE) and Time Use Survey (TUS).

o The surveys namely ASSSE and ASUSE will bridge the

existing data gap for information required in the services

sector and un-incorporated sector, which contributes to a

major share in Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

o The TUS provides data on activities of individuals, particularly

time disposition of women, which are not presently reflected

in country’s GDP.

• The other major activities to be undertaken under the Scheme

include Household Consumer Expenditure Survey (HCES)/Survey

on Consumer Basket (SCB), Comprehensive Annual Modular

Survey (CAMS) to be conducted on households every year,

Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), Consumer Price Survey

(CPI)-Rural/Urban/Combined, Urban Frame Survey (UFS),

International Comparison of Prices (ICP), Annual Survey of

Industries (ASI) and other related ongoing regular activities for

strengthening the survey capabilities of National Sample Surveys.

132. New India Literacy Programme (NILP) (PIB)

• Why? Government approves 'New India Literacy Programme’, a

new scheme of Adult Education for FYs 2022-27.

• In the Union Budget 2021-22, announcement had been made to

enable increased access of resources, online modules covering the

entire gamut of adult education will be introduced.

What?

• New India Literacy Programme (NILP) will be implemented by the

Ministry of Education.

• The target for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy for FYs 2022-

27 is 5 (five) crore learners @ 1.00 crore per year by using “Online

Teaching, Learning and Assessment System (OTLAS)” in

collaboration with National Informatics Centre, NCERT and NIOS.

• The scheme will cover non-literates of the age of 15 years and

above in all state/UTs in the country.

• It seeks to cover all the aspects of Adult Education to align

with National Education Policy 2020.

• The National Education Policy 2020 has recommendations for Adult

Education and Lifelong Learning.

• The objectives of the scheme are to impart not only foundational

literacy and numeracy but also to cover other components

which are necessary for a citizen of 21st century such as:

o critical life skills (including financial literacy, digital literacy,

commercial skills, health care and awareness, child care and

education, and family welfare);

o vocational skills development (with a view towards obtaining

local employment);

o basic education (including preparatory, middle, and

secondary stage equivalency); and

o continuing education (including engaging holistic adult

education courses in arts, sciences, technology, culture,

sports, and recreation, other topics of interest or use to local

learners, such as more advanced material on critical life

skills).

• The scheme will be implemented through volunteerism

through online mode.

• All material and resources shall be provided digitally for easy

access to registered volunteers through easily accessible

digital modes, viz, TV, radio, cell phone-based free/open-

source Apps/portals, etc.

• NILP will have convergence with schemes of other Ministries.

• Support will be garnered from PRIs, Anganwadi workers, ASHA

workers and NYSK, NSS and NCC volunteers.

Salient Features of the Scheme

• School will be Unit for implementation of the scheme.

• Schools to be used for conducting survey of beneficiaries and

Voluntary Teachers (VTs).

• Use of Technologies to impart Adult Education for wider coverage

of the scheme.

• Performance Grading Index (PGI) for State/UT and district level will

show the performance of States and UTs to implement the scheme

and achievements on yearly basis.

• CSR/Philanthropic Support may be received by hosting ICT

support, providing volunteer support, opening facilitation centres

for learners and for providing IT access to economically weak

learners in the form of cell phones, etc

• Priority will be given in terms of categories to the Girls and women,

SC/ST/OBC/Minorities, Persons with Special Needs (Divyangjans),

Marginalized/ Nomadic/ construction workers/ laborers/etc. who

can substantially and immediately benefit from adult

education.

• In terms of location/area, the focus shall be on all

o aspirational districts of NITI Aayog,


o districts with literacy rates less than the National/State

average,

o districts with female literacy rates less than 60% as per the

2011 Census, Districts/ Blocks with large SC/ST/ Minority

population,

o Educationally Backward Blocks,

o Left Wing Extremism Affected districts.

Do you know?

• As per Census 2011, among the non-literates of the country, the

number of Females is almost twice to that of males (in 15 years

and above age group).

• Earlier Saakshar Bharat programme was being implemented during

2009-10 to 2017-18 for adult literacy.

133. SVAMITVA Scheme (TH)

• Why? India plans to prepare digital maps of all its 6,00,000 villages

and pan-India 3D maps will be prepared for 100 cities, Union

Minister said recently at an event to mark a year of the updated

geospatial policy guidelines.

What?

• Survey of Villages Abadi and Mapping with Improvised Technology

In Village Areas (SVAMITVA) is a Central Sector Scheme of the

Ministry of Panchayati Raj, which was launched on National

Panchayati Raj Day, 24th April 2020.

• The scheme aims to provide the ‘record of rights’ to village

household owners in rural areas and issue Property Cards.

• The Scheme is being implemented across the country in a phased

manner over a period of four years (2020-2024) and would

eventually cover around 6.62 lakh villages of the country.

Other features of the scheme:

• drone-based survey of rural areas by the Survey of India;

• establishment of Continuous Operating System (CORS)

stations’ network to assist in future drone flying activities;

• digital property card format.

The scheme seeks to achieve the following objectives:

• To bring financial stability to the citizens in rural India by enabling

them to use their property as a financial asset for taking loans and

other financial benefits.

• Creation of accurate land records for rural planning.

• Determination of property tax, which would accrue to the GPs

directly in States where it is devolved or else, add to the State

exchequer.

• Creation of survey infrastructure and GIS maps that can be

leveraged by any department for their use.

• To support in preparation of better-quality Gram Panchayat

Development Plan (GPDP) by making use of GIS maps.

• To reduce property related disputes and legal cases

❖ Survey of India (SoI) is the national mapping agency (NMA)

of the country under the Ministry of Science & Technology.

Continuously Operating Reference System (CORS)

• CORS enables users (e.g. moving platforms) to position themselves

with high-precision (cm-level).

• CORS is a GPS augmentation system that facilities, archives and

distributes GPS data corrections for precise positioning in an

automated manner, usually over an Internet connection.

• Distance-dependent errors are greatly reduced because more than

one station is at work to ensure correct positioning.

• GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) technology has

transformed how surveying is done.

o However, its use in survey applications is limited because of

inherent errors associated with the GPS signals.

• Continuously Operating Reference System (CORS) is an

infrastructure that can solve the problem of accuracy and real-

time data acquisition.

• Looking at the importance and usefulness of the technology, the

Survey of India has started an initiative of establishing

nationwide CORS network.

• CORS Network has wide applications in the development of India.

o It will help in the construction of large infrastructure projects

and in generation and updation of revenue maps, which is

one of the major problems being faced by the country today.

o The system will also augment with the NAVIC network along

with other GNSS networks like GPS, Galileo and GLONASS.

In future, when the NAVIC system improves, dependence on

foreign satellite systems will be reduced, making India a self-

reliant nation.

o It is in great demand among industries like surveying,

navigation, construction, mining, precision agriculture and

scientific research that require greater positional accuracy, as

well as continuity of data.

• India has launched various ambitious missions to prepare the

nation for disruptive technologies like Artificial Intelligence,

Machine Learning, Industry 4.0 and robotics.

134. Modernisation of State Police Forces (MPF Scheme) (TH)

• Why? The Union government has approved the continuation of a

police modernisation scheme for five years up to 2025-26.

What?

• The Union Home Ministry said the scheme included security-

related expenditure in J&K, north-eastern States and Maoist-

affected areas, for raising new battalions, developing high-tech

forensic laboratories and other investigation tools.

• Under the five-year plan, provision has been made for internal

security, law and order, adoption of modern technology by

police, assisting states for narcotics control and strengthening

the criminal justice system by developing a robust forensic

set-up in the country.

• ‘Police’ and ‘law and order’ fall under the category of subjects within

the domain of the State as per the List II of the 7th Schedule in the

Constitution of India.

• The principal responsibility for managing these subjects lies with the

State Governments.

• However, the States have not been able to fully modernize and

equip their police forces up to the desired level due to financial

constraints.

• It is in this context that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has been

supplementing the efforts and resources of the States, from time to

time, by implementing the Scheme for Modernisation of State Police

Forces (MPF Scheme) since 1969-70.

Objectives

• The objective of the scheme is to gradually reduce the

dependence of the State Governments on the Army and the

Central Armed Police Forces to control internal security and


law and order situations by equipping the State Police Forces

adequately and strengthening their training infrastructure.

o The focus is to strengthen police infrastructure at cutting

edge level by construction of secure police stations,

o training centres,

o police housing (residential),

o equipping the police stations with the required mobility,

o modern weaponry, communication equipment and forensic

set-up.

Funding Pattern

• Under the Scheme, the States are grouped into two categories,

namely Category ‘A’ and Category ‘B’ for the purpose of funding.

• Category ‘A’ States, namely, J&K and 8 North Eastern States

including Sikkim will be eligible to receive financial assistance on

90:10 Centre: State sharing basis.

• The remaining States will be in Category ‘B’ and will be eligible for

financial assistance on 60:40 Centre: State sharing basis.

135. Organic Farming in India (PIB)

• Why? There has been shift in demand for organic products,

especially fruit and vegetables in the cities due to increased

awareness about organic food in consumers including younger

generation.

• Government have also launched a dedicated web portal-

www.Jaivikkheti.in/. online marketing platform for direct sale

of organic products to the consumers across the country.

What?

• Organic foods are safe, healthy and free from chemical and

pesticides.

• Government of India (GOI) has been promoting Organic farming in

the country through dedicated schemes of Paramparagat Krishi

Vikas Yojana (PKVY) and Mission Organic Value Chain

Development in North East Region (MOVCDNER) since 2015.

o Farmers are provided financial assistance (RS 31000/ ha / 3

years in PKVY and 32500/ ha/ 3years under MOVCDNER)

for organic inputs such as seeds, bio/organic fertilisers, bio-

pesticides, botanical extracts etc.

• In addition, Organic cultivation on either side of River Ganga, large

area certification and support for individual farmers have also been

introduced under PKVY.

Organic Food

• Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has the

mandate to regulate manufacture, distribute, sell or import “organic

foods” in India under the Food Safety and Standards (Organic

Foods) Regulations, 2017 notified under the provisions of the Food

Safety Standards Act, 2006.

o Non-food items are not covered under the mandate of

FSS Act, 2006.

Which systems of certification are recognized in the Food Safety

and Standards (Organic Foods) Regulations, 2017?

• The Food Safety and Standards (Organic Foods) Regulations, 2017

recognize already established two systems of certification i.e.:

o Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) implemented by

Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, and

o National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP)

implemented by Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

• The Accredited Certification Bodies in case of NPOP and Local

Group in case of PGS-India are responsible for certifying the

Organic Food.

• If a food is marked ‘organic’, it does not mean it does not contain

insecticides, and contaminants. However, their limit is regulated.

• Ministry of Commerce has implemented the National Programme

for Organic Production (NPOP) since 2001.

• Fruits, vegetables, fibre and animal products which do not

contain chemical pesticides, fertilizers, genetically-modified

organisms and induced hormones can be certified as organic

food in India.

Organic Farming Policy of 2005

• Objectives

o Maintenance of soil fertility by encouraging and enhancing

the biological cycle within farming systems involving micro-

organisms, soil flora and fauna, plants and animals.

o Identification of areas and crops suitable for organic farming.

o Setting up of model organic farms for getting seed material

for organic cultivation.

o Assurance of production and supply of quality organic input.

o Adoption of biological methods for pest and disease

control.

o Promotion of group certification.

o Improvement in condition of livestock that allow them to

perform all aspects of their innate behaviour.

• Since the launch of the Organic Farming Policy of 2005, there has

been an increase in the area under organic farming by about 70

percent. Sikkim is now a fully organic state.

• So, despite accusations that the PKVY is merely a repackaging of

previously existing schemes, it really is a more focused and

targeted approach towards promotion of organic farming techniques

and benefits.

• Note: Manure contains large quantities of organic matter and small

quantities of nutrients. It increases the water holding capacity of

sandy soil.

Do you know?

• Organic farming is also supported under Rastriya Krishi Vikas

Yojana (RKVY), Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture

(MIDH) and National Project on Organic Farming (NPOF), Network

Project on Organic Farming under Indian Council of Agricultural

Research (ICAR).

136. National Rail Plan (NRP) (PIB)

• Why? Indian Railways have prepared a National Rail Plan (NRP)

for India – 2030.

What?

Some of the main features of the National Rail Plan are:

• Formulate strategies to increase modal share of the Railways in

freight to 45% (To achieve this objective all possible financial

models including Public Private Partnership (PPP) are being

considered).

• NRP is aimed to reform Railways to make it more efficient and

greener mode of transportation both for the passenger and freight

movement.

• Reduce transit time of freight substantially by increasing

average speed of freight trains to 50Kmph.


• Identify new Dedicated Freight Corridors.

• Identify new High Speed Rail Corridors.

• Sustained involvement of the Private Sector.

• As part of the National Rail Plan, Vision 2024 has been launched

for accelerated implementation of certain critical projects by

2024 such as

o 100% electrification,

o multi-tracking of congested routes,

o upgradation of speed to 130kmph on all other Golden

Quadrilateral-Golden Diagonal (GQ/GD) routes

o elimination of all Level Crossings on all GQ/GD route.

• Note: The NRP is for the entire Indian Railways network and

not only for districts connected to the existing rail network but

also districts indirectly impacted by rail transportation.

137. Support for Marginalised Individuals for Livelihood and

Enterprise Scheme (PIB)

• Why? The Department of Social Justice & Empowerment is

launching the Central Sector scheme “SMILE: Support for

Marginalised Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise.”

• Under this includes two sub-schemes - ‘Central Sector Scheme for

Comprehensive Rehabilitation for Welfare of Transgender Persons’

and ‘Central Sector Scheme for Comprehensive Rehabilitation of

persons engaged in the act of Begging’.

• The Sub-scheme - ‘Central Sector Scheme for Comprehensive

Rehabilitation for Welfare of Transgender Persons’ includes the

following components-

o Scholarships for Transgender Students: Scholarships for

students studying in IX and till post-graduation to enable

them to complete their education.

o Skill Development and Livelihood: Skill Development and

Livelihood under PM-DAKSH scheme of the Department.

o Composite Medical Health: A comprehensive package in

convergence with PM-JAY supporting Gender-Reaffirmation

surgeries through selected hospitals.

o Housing in the form of ‘Garima Greh’: Shelter Homes ‘Garima

Greh’ where food, clothing, recreational facilities, skill

development opportunities, recreational activities, medical

support etc. will be provided.

o Provision of Transgender Protection Cell: Setting up of

Transgender Protection in each state to monitor cases of

offences and to ensure timely registration, investigation and

prosecution of offences.

o E-Services (National Portal & Helpline and Advertisement)

and other Welfare Measures.

• The focus of the sub-scheme ‘Comprehensive Rehabilitation of

persons engaged in the act of Begging’ are as follows-

o Survey and identification: Survey and Identification of

beneficiaries shall be carried out by the Implementing

Agencies.

o Mobilisation: Outreach work will be done to mobilise the

persons engaged in begging to avail the services available in

the Shelter Homes.

o Rescue/ Shelter Home: The shelter homes will facilitate

education for children engaged in the act of Begging and

children of persons engaged in the act of Begging.

o Comprehensive resettlement.

• Skill development/vocational training will be provided to attain

capacity, capability and desirability so that they can sustain and live

a life of dignity by engaging in self-employment.

• Pilot projects initiated on Comprehensive Rehabilitation in ten cities

namely Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Indore, Lucknow,

Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna and Ahmedabad.

138. Government Banned the Import of Drones With Immediate

Effect (TH)

• Why? The government banned the import of drones with immediate

effect, except for research and development, defence and

security purposes, to promote made in India drones.

What?

• While exceptions were provided for R&D, defence and security,

importing drones for these purposes will require “due clearances.”

• The Directorate General of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of

Commerce and Industry notified the Indian Trade Classification

(Harmonised System), 2022 effecting the prohibition of drones for

import.

• However, import of drone components will not require any

approvals.

• Last year, the Ministry of Civil Aviation notified liberalised drone

rules that abolished a slew of approvals with the aim to encourage

R&D and creating India as a drone hub. The government also

approved a Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for drones

and their components with an allocation of ₹120 crore for three

financial years.

139. Financial support to Unorganised Sector (TH)

• Why? The government has launched a number of programmes for

employment and income generation for the citizens such as the

Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana to incentivise employers for

creation of new jobs along with social security benefits.

What?

• The Government had announced Rs 1.70 Lakh Crore ‘Pradhan

Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana’ relief package on 26.03.2020 to help

the poor in the fight against Corona Virus.

• Government had launched Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana

(PMGKY) under which Government of India had contributed both

12% employer’s share and 12% employee’s share under

Employees Provident Fund (EPF), totaling 24% of the wage for the

wage month from March to August, 2020 for the establishments

having upto 100 employees with 90% of such employees earning

less than Rs. 15000/-.

• Government has also taken various measures under Pradhan

Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY). Some of these are as

follows:

o Under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana

(PMGKAY), 5 kg wheat or rice and 1 kg of preferred pulses

for free every month for three months; the PMGKAY scheme

was extended till the end of November 2020.

o An ex-gratia of Rs. 500 per month for three months for

women Jan Dhan account holders.

o Increase in MNREGA wage to Rs. 202 a day from Rs. 182 to

benefit 13.62 crore families.


o An ex-gratia of Rs. 1,000 to 3 crore poor senior citizen, poor

widows and poor disabled.

• The Government is providing fiscal stimulus of more than rupees

twenty seven lakh crore as part of the Aatmanirbhar financial

Package.

• Aatmanirbhar Bharat package comprises of various long term

schemes/ programmes/ policies for making the country self-reliant

and to create employment opportunities for all the sectors and

regions.

• Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana (ABRY) has been launched

to incentivize creation of new employment along with social security

benefits and restoration of loss of employment during COVID-19

pandemic.

o This scheme being implemented through the Employees

Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) reduces the financial

burden of the employers of various sectors/industries

including MSMEs and encourages them to hire more

workers.

o Under ABRY, the Government of India is crediting for a

period of two years, both the employees’ share (12% of

wages) and employers share’ (12% of wages) of contribution

payable or only the employees’ share, depending on

employment strength of the EPFO registered establishments.

• Government is implementing Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan

Yojana (PMRPY) since 2016 with the objective to incentivise

employers for creation of new employment and also aimed to bring

informal workers to the formal workforce.

o Under the scheme, Government of India is paying Employer’s

full contribution i.e. 12% towards Employees’ Provident Fund

(EPF) and Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS) both (as

admissible from time to time) for a period of three years to the

new employees through Employees’ Provident Fund

Organisation (EPFO).

o The terminal date for registration of beneficiary through

establishment was 31st March 2019.

o The beneficiaries registered upto 31st March, 2019 will

continue to receive the benefits for 3 years from the date of

registration under the scheme.

• PM-SVANidhi Scheme has facilitated collateral free working capital

loan upto Rs.10,000/- for one-year tenure to street vendors, to

resume their businesses.

• Central Government has given directions to State Governments to

use the Building and Construction Workers Welfare Fund to

provide relief to Construction Workers.

• Government has earmarked an additional Rs. 40,000 crore under

MGNREGS to generate nearly 300 crore person days in total

addressing need for more work including returning migrant workers.

140. Scheme for Economic Empowerment for DNTs (SEED) (PIB)

• Why? Development and Welfare Board for De-notified,

Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Communities (DWBDNCs) has

formulated a Scheme for Economic Empowerment for DNTs

(SEED).

What?

• The SEED scheme is being implemented by the Ministry of Social

Justice and Empowerment.

• It has the following four components: -

o To provide coaching of good quality for DNT candidates to

enable them to appear in the competitive examinations

o To provide Health Insurance to them

o To facilitate livelihood initiative at community level and

strengthen small clusters of DNT/NT/SNT Communities

institutions.

o To provide financial assistance for construction of houses for

members of these communities.

• The ministry has constituted the Development and Welfare Board

for De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Communities

(DWBDNCs) for implementaition of this scheme.

What are De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Communities?

• The British Government had from time to time declared some of the

tribes which, according to them, were involved in criminal

activities as Criminal Tribes.

• The Criminal Tribes Act (CTA), 1871 provided that if a Local

Government had reason to believe that any tribe, gang or class of

people is addicted to the systematic commission of non-bailable

offences, it may, with the authorization of the viceroy, declare such

tribe etc. as a “Criminal Tribe”.

• The creation of this act was concerned with the Revolt of 1857,

where many tribal chiefs as Dhan Singh Gurjar were labelled

traitors and considered rebellious.

• Because of this label, restriction on their movements was also

imposed.

• Adult male members of such groups were forced to report weekly to

the local police.

• Lord Mayo was the Viceroy during the passage of this act.

• The CTA was revised in 1911 and in 1924.The CTA, 1924, was

repealed by the Criminal Tribes Laws (Repeal) Act, 1952 on the

recommendations of the Shri Ananthasayanam Ayyangar

Committee.

Denotified Tribes

• The tribes notified earlier as Criminal Tribes, stood denotified after

the implementation of Criminal Tribes Laws (Repeal) Act and the

name ‘Denotified Tribes’ (DTs) has been in use for them since then.

• Most DNTs are categorized as SC, ST or OBC though a few of the

DNTs are not covered in any of these categories

Nomadic and Semi-nomadic Tribes

• Terms such as nomads and semi-nomads are applied to 'social

groups who undertook a fairly frequent, usually seasonal physical

movement as port of their livelihood strategy in the recent past.

• The term semi-nomad is mostly used to describe those sections of

nomads whose duration, distance and frequency of movement is

comparitively less than others.

o The distinction between nomads and semi-nomods do not

involve distinguishable ethnic categories or social groups, it

rather describes the degree of mobility practiced by them.

• There are nearly 1,500 nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes and 198

denotified tribes, comprising 15 crore Indians, according to the

Renke Commission, 2008.

• These tribes remain socially and economically marginalised even

now, depriving many of them of basic human rights.

Culture and Tradition of De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic

Tribes


• The customs of Nomadic communities have a long tradition of

continuity and many of their practices claim on ancient heritage.

• They have their own Gods and Goddesses. Moreover, their own

festivals and celebrations ore diversified.

• The social and cultural characteristics of nomadic communities are

closely related with their economic activities.

• As is the case with most of the communities in lndia, large majority

of De-notified and nomadic communities are primarily patriarchal.

Status in India

• It has been estimated that South Asia has the world’s largest

nomadic population. In India, roughly 10 per cent of the population

is Denotified and Nomadic.

• The absence of any uniform classification across the country is

among the biggest dilemmas regarding DNTs.

• They are not enumerated separately in the Census, making it

difficult to ascertain concrete figures.

• Also, these communities are spread across SC, ST and OBC

communities in different states.

o DNTs, as a whole are not recognised as a separate social

category under constitutional schedules.

• Many of the communities were subsumed under SC, ST or OBC,

but their biggest hurdle is access to schemes and, as a first step,

access to the caste certificates.

• According to the Renke Commission, 2008, although the DNTs

are spread across different backward class categories and are

entitled to various schemes under these categories, they are unable

to access any of these benefits. There were two main reasons for

this — one was identity certificates; the other, the lack of

awareness.

Schemes for DNT

• The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is

implementing the following schemes for the welfare of the DNTs.

Dr. Ambedkar Pre-Matric and Post-Matric Scholarship for DNTs

• This Centrally Sponsored Scheme was launched for the welfare of

those DNT students who are not covered under SC, ST or OBC.

• The income ceiling for eligibility is Rs. 2.00 lakh per annum.

• The scheme is implemented through State Governments/UT

Administrations.

• The expenditure is shared between the Centre and the States in the

ratio of 75:25.

Nanaji Deshmukh Scheme of Construction of Hostels for DNT

Boys and Girls

• This Centrally Sponsored Scheme is implemented through State

Governments/ UT Administrations/ Central Universities.

• The aim of the scheme is to provide hostel facilities to those DNT

students; who are not covered under SC, ST or OBC; to enable

them to pursue higher education.

• The income ceiling for eligibility is Rs. 2.00 lakh per annum.

• The expenditure is shared between the Centre and the States in the

ratio of 75:25.

Assistance to Voluntary Organization working for the Welfare of

Other Backward Classes (OBCs)

• From the year 2017-18, the scheme "Assistance to Voluntary

Organization working for the Welfare of Other Backward

Classes (OBCs)" has been extended for DNTs and EBCs as

"Central Sector Scheme of Assistance for Skill Development of

Backward Classes (OBCs)/ De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-

Nomadic Tribes (DNTs)/ Economic Backward Classes (EBCs)".

141. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act

(MGNREGA) (TH)

• Why? The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural

Development has pulled up the government after the Mahatma

Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)

scheme received a Budget allocation 25% lower than the previous

year’s revised estimates.

• The Committee also recommended a hike in wage rates and in the

number of days of guaranteed work, and a revision of the 60:40

wage-material ratio under the scheme.

• Note: You have already prepared this topic in detail from the Nov

2021 file.

142. Curative Petition (TH)

• Why? The Supreme Court has disposed of a curative petition

concerning the row between Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd.

(GUVNL), the State’s power utility, and Adani Group’s power

company after noting that both parties had reached an amicable

out-of-court settlement and their relationship would be governed by

the terms of the compromise.

What?

• The curative petition is fairly a new concept in the Indian legal

system.

• A party can take only two limited grounds in a curative petition —

one, that he was not heard by the court before the adverse

judgment was passed, and two, the judge was biased. OR

• A curative petition, which follows the dismissal of a review petition,

is normally allowed only on the limited grounds of violation of

principles of natural justice and circumstances suggesting possible

bias on the part of judges.

• It is the last judicial resort available for redressal of grievances in

court which is normally decided by judges in-chamber.

• It is only in rare cases that such petitions are given an open-

court/oral hearing.

• The concept of curative petition was first evolved by the Supreme

Court of India in the matter of Rupa Ashok Hurra vs. Ashok Hurra

and Anr. (2002) where the question was whether an aggrieved

person is entitled to any relief against the final judgement/order of

the Supreme Court, after dismissal of a review petition.

143. Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) (TH)

• Why? The government’s recent announcement that the maternity

benefit programme, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana,

which provides ₹5,000 for first child will be extended to cover the

second child only if it is a girl has met with sharp criticism from

activists who have demanded that it be universalised.

What?

• It has been launched by the Ministry of Woman and Child

Development.

• Under the scheme, pregnant women and lactating mothers are

offered a cash incentive of ₹5,000 for the birth of their first child as

partial compensation for wage loss, to reduce maternal mortality

and malnutrition levels among children.


o The eligible beneficiaries would receive the incentive given

under the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) for Institutional

delivery and the incentive received under JSY would be

accounted towards maternity benefits so that on an average

a woman gets Rs 6000/-.

o Under the National Food Security Act, 2013, all pregnant

women (except those already receiving similar benefits under

other laws) are entitled to maternity benefits of ₹6,000 per

child.

o In this context, the modalities of the scheme violate the

NFSA: benefits are restricted to the first living child, and to

₹5,000 per woman.

• The Scheme covers all Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers,

excluding those who are in regular employment with the

Central Government or the State Governments or PSUs or

those who are in receipt of similar benefits under any law for the

time being in force.

• In case of miscarriage/still birth, the beneficiary would be eligible

to claim the remaining instalment(s) in event of any future

pregnancy.

• In case of infant mortality, she will not be eligible for claiming

benefits under the scheme, if she has already received all the

instalments of the maternity benefit under PMMVY earlier.

• The scheme will provide Aadhaar linked, Direct Benefit Transfer in

beneficiary’s bank/post office account in three instalments

o at the stage of early registration of pregnancy,

o after six months of pregnancy on at least one antenatal

check-up and

o registration of child birth & first cycle of immunisation of the

child.

• The PMMVY is Centrally Sponsored Scheme under which the

cost sharing ratio between the Centre and the States & UTs with

Legislature is 60:40, for North-Eastern States & three Himalayan

States, it is 90:10 and 100% Central assistance for Union Territories

without Legislature.

• The States are bound to implement this Scheme because the

scheme is a by-product of the National Food Security Act.

• Odisha, which decided to not implement PMMVY because it has its

own State-sponsored scheme called ‘Mamata’ that includes two

births, has a few lessons to offer through its near universal

coverage.

• The infant mortality rate among tribals is the fourth highest in

Odisha, after Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

Causes for dissatisfaction among beneficiaries of PMMVY

• Under the PMMVY, pregnant women and lactating mothers receive

₹5,000 for their first child in three instalments.

• Each tranche is released upon the beneficiaries meeting some

conditions.

• The money is meant to compensate women for loss of wages, and

is aimed at ensuring a healthy nutritional development of the

newborn.

• The NITI Aayog has called for “simplification in documentation and

operational rules” to avoid delays.

• It has proposed to “rationalise” the mandatory waiting period of 180

days before the second instalment is released as well as the

compulsory birth certificate for the release of the third instalment.

Do you know?

Mission Shakti

• It envisages a unified citizen-centric lifecycle support for women.

• Mission Shakti has two sub-schemes ‘Sambal’ and ‘Samarthya’.

• The “Samarthya'' sub scheme is for empowerment of women,

consisting of existing schemes of Ujjwala, SwadharGreh and

Working Women Hostel.

• In addition, the National Creche Scheme for children of working

mothers and the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY),

which have been under the Umbrella ICDS Scheme till now, are

also subsumed in ‘Samarthya’.

• For details on Mission Shakti refer the file ‘Budget 2022-23’.

144. All About PM CARES Fund (TH)

• Why? The PM CARES Fund collected ₹10,990 crore since its

inception in March 2020 until March 2021.

What?

• Keeping in mind the need for having a dedicated national fund with

the primary objective of dealing with any kind of emergency or

distress situation, like posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to

provide relief to the affected, a public charitable trust under the

name of ‘Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in

Emergency Situations Fund’ (PM CARES Fund)’ has been set

up.

Who may contribute to the fund?

• The fund receives voluntary contributions from individuals and

organisations and does not get any budgetary support.

o This fund will enable micro-donations as a result of which a

large number of people will be able to contribute with smallest

of denominations.

• Donations have been made tax-exempt, and can be counted

against a company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR)

obligations.

• It is also exempt from the Foreign Contribution (Regulation)

Act, 2010, and accepts foreign contributions.

• The Prime Minister chairs the fund in his official capacity, and

can nominate three eminent persons in relevant fields to the Board

of Trustees.

o The Ministers of Defence, Home Affairs and Finance are

ex-officio Trustees of the Fund.

Does not India already have a fund with similar objectives?

• Yes. The Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) was set

up in January 1948, originally to accept public contributions for the

assistance of Partition refugees.

• It is now used to provide immediate relief to the families of those

killed in natural calamities and the victims of major accidents and

riots and support medical expenses for acid attack victims and

others.

• The entire management of the fund is entrusted to the Prime

Minister, who currently has sole discretion for fund disbursal.

o A joint secretary in the PMO administers the fund on an

honorary basis.

• Opposition leaders have questioned the need for a new PM CARES

Fund, given that the PMNRF has similar objectives.

• States also have similar Chief Minister’s Relief Funds.

No need to audit PM CARES: SC


• The Supreme Court in the past has endorsed the PM CARES Fund

as a “public charitable trust” to which donors contribute voluntarily.

• There is “no occasion” for the Comptroller and Auditor General

(CAG) to audit a public charitable trust independent of budgetary

support or government money.

• Earlier, the Comptroller and Auditor General’s office had

clarified that it wouldn’t audit PM-CARES Fund as it is “a

charitable organisation” and “based on donations from

individuals and organisations”.

o The PMNRF too is not audited by CAG but by an

independent auditor outside of the government.

• The Court dismissed the idea that the PM CARES was constituted

to “circumvent” the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) —

the statutory fund already in existence under the Disaster

Management Act of 2005 to receive contributions to finance the

fight against a calamity.

What are some of the other concerns around it?

• The decision to allow uncapped corporate donations to the fund to

count as CSR expenditure — a facility not provided to PMNRF or

the CM’s Relief Funds — goes against previous guidelines stating

that CSR should not be used to fund government schemes.

PM-CARES Fund 'Not a Public Authority', Doesn't Fall Under RTI

Act: PMO

• In June 2020, the PMO rejected an RTI application seeking details

of the PM CARES Fund, stating that the fund is not a public

authority under section 2 (h) of the Right to Information Act, 2005,

and therefore it won’t be able to divulge information sought in the

application.

• One RTI query to the PMO by activist Vikrant Tongad was refused

citing a Supreme Court observation that “indiscriminate and

impractical demands under RTI Act for disclosure of all and

sundry information would be counterproductive” (Mohan Lal

Atwal vs Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, July, 2019).

• As per the RTI Act, a public authority means any authority, body or

institution of self-government established or constituted:

o a) by or under the constitution;

o b) by any other law made by parliament;

o c) by any other law made by the state legislature and

o d) by notification issued or order made by the appropriate

government.

• It also includes “body owned, controlled or substantially financed;

non-governmental organisation substantially financed directly or

indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate government”.

• Note: You have already prepared the Prime Minister’s National

Relief Fund (PMNRF) in detail from the Jan 2022 file.

145. Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programme for welfare of

Minority Communities (PIB)

• Why? This information was given by the Union Minister for Minority

Affairs in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

What?

• The Ministry of Minority Affairs is implementing the Prime

Minister’s New 15 Point Programme for welfare of Minority

Communities.

• It is an overarching programme which covers various

schemes/initiatives of the participating Ministries/Departments

with an aim to ensure that the underprivileged and weaker sections

of six centrally notified minority communities have equal

opportunities for availing the various Government welfare Schemes

and contribute to the overall socio-economic development of the

Country.

• The programme has the following broad objectives:

o (i) Enhancing opportunities for education;

o (ii) Ensuring an equitable share for minorities in economic

activities and employment, through existing and new

schemes, enhanced credit support for self-employment, and

recruitment to State and Central Government jobs;

o (iii) Improving the conditions of living of minorities by ensuring

an appropriate share for them in infrastructure development

schemes; and

o (iv) Prevention and control of communal disharmony and

violence.

• Under the said Programme, various schemes/ initiatives are being

implemented by various Ministries/Departments of the Central

Government throughout the country (including Kerala and

Rajasthan), for the welfare of notified minorities viz, Christians,

Sikhs, Jains, Muslims, Buddhists and Parsis, as per details given

below:

A) Educational Empowerment

• Scholarship Schemes- Pre-Matric Scholarship, Post-Matric

Scholarship and Merit-cum-Means based Scholarship.

• Maulana Azad National Fellowship Scheme, provides financial

assistance to students from notified minority communities, to pursue

higher education such as M.Phil and Ph.D.

• In addition, the Maulana Azad Education Foundation implements

the scheme viz. Begum Hazrat Mahal National Scholarship for

meritorious girls belonging to minorities studying in Classes IX to

XII.

• Naya Savera – Free Coaching and Allied Scheme which aims to

enhance skills and knowledge of students and candidates from

minority communities where total annual family income is less than

Rs. 6 lakh to get employment in Government Sector/ Public Sector

Undertaking, jobs in private sector, and admission in reputed

institutions in technical and professional courses at under-graduate

and post-graduate levels.

B) Economic Empowerment

Skill Development

• Seekho aur Kamao (Learn & Earn): It is a skill development

initiative for minorities and aims to upgrade the skills of minority

youth in various modern/traditional skills.

• A mission has been launched by the Ministry of Minority Affairs

under “Upgrading the Skill and Training in Traditional

Arts/Crafts for Development (USTTAD)” scheme to give an

effective platform to minority artisans and culinary experts from

across the country to showcase and market their finest handicraft

and exquisitely crafted products through “Hunar Haats” organized

by the Ministry.

• Nai Manzil - A scheme to provide education and skill training to the

youth from minority communities.

• Gharib Nawaz Employment Training Programme for providing

short-term job-oriented skill development courses to youths

belonging to minority communities.


• Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY): Under Skill

India Mission, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship

is implementing a flagship scheme known as Pradhan Mantri

Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) 2016-20 with an objective to

provide skilling to one crore people including persons from minority

community under Short Term Training (STT) and Recognition of

Prior Learning (RPL) across the country for four years i.e. 2016-

2020.

• National Minorities Development Finance Corporation (NMDFC)

Loan Schemes provide concessional loans for self-employment

and income generating activities for the socio-economic

development of the ‘backward sections’ amongst the notified

minorities.

• Priority Sector Lending by Banks (Department of Financial

Services)

• National Urban Livelihoods Mission (M/o Housing & Urban

Affairs)

• National Rural Livelihoods Mission (M/o Rural Development)

• Deen Dayal Upadhyay – Gramin Kaushal Yojana (M/o Rural

Development)

• Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (Gramin) (M/o Rural

Development)

• In addition, another scheme namely Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas

Karyakram (PMJVK) is implemented by the Ministry of Minority

Affairs, which aims to improve the socio-economic conditions and

basic amenities of minorities so as to improve their quality of life

and reduce imbalances in the identified Minority Concentration

Areas.

o The major projects approved under PMJVK are in sectors of

education, health and skill, and include Residential Schools,

School buildings, Hostels, Degree Colleges, ITIs,

Polytechnics, Sadbhav Mandaps, Health Centres, Skill

Centres, Sports facilities, Drinking Water facilities, sanitation

facilities etc.

146. Nai Roshni Scheme (PIB)

• Why? During the last three year i.e. 2018-19 to 2020-21, around

one Lakh women have been trained under the Nai Roshni scheme.

What?

• Nai Roshni scheme is a Central Sector Scheme which aims to

empower and enhance confidence in women by providing

knowledge, tools and techniques for Leadership Development of

Women.

• It is a six-day non-residential/five-day residential training

programme conducted by selected Programme Implementing

Agencies for the women belonging to minority community in the age

group of 18 to 65 years.

• The training programme cover areas related to programmes for

women, health and hygiene, legal rights of women, financial

literacy, digital literacy, Swachch Bharat, Life Skills, and advocacy

for social and1behavioural changes, etc.

147. Parvatmala: National Ropeways Development Programme

(PIB)

• Why? Union Finance Minister while presenting Union Budget for

2022-23 announced National Ropeways Development Programme

– “Parvatmala” -- will be taken up on PPP mode, which will be a

preferred ecologically sustainable alternative in place of

conventional roads in difficult hilly areas.

What?

• The idea is to improve connectivity and convenience for

commuters, besides promoting tourism.

• This may also cover congested urban areas, where conventional

mass transit system is not feasible.

• The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) has so

far been responsible for development of Highways and regulating

the road transport sector across the country.

o Since February 2021, the Ministry to also look after the

development of Ropeways and Alternate Mobility

Solutions.

Major Factors Driving Ropeway Infrastructure

• Economical mode of transportation: Given that ropeway projects

are built in a straight line over a hilly terrain, it also results in lower

land acquisition costs.

o Hence, despite having a higher cost of construction per

km than roadways, ropeway projects’ construction cost may

happen to be economical than roadways.

• Faster mode of transportation: Owing to the aerial mode of

transportation, ropeways have an advantage over roadway projects

where ropeways can be built in a straight line, over a hilly terrain.

• Environmentally friendly: Low dust emissions. Material containers

can be designed so as to rule out any soiling of the environment.

• Last mile connectivity: Ropeway projects adopting 3S (a kind of

cable car system) or equivalent technologies can transport 6000-

8000 passengers per hour.

• Ability to handle large slopes: Ropeways and cableways (cable

cranes) can handle large slopes and large differences in

elevation.

• Low footprint: The fact that only narrow-based vertical supports

are needed at intervals, leaving the rest of the ground free, makes it

possible for ropeways to be constructed in built-up areas and

in places where there is intense competition for land use.

148. Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO) (TH)

• Why? Prime Minister of India has stated that the Union government

is resolved to mobilise small farmers into farmer producer

organisations (FPOs) and make them influential market forces in

the years to come to improve their incomes by developing

agriculture value chain.

What?

• The concept behind Farmer Producer Organizations is that farmers,

who are the producers of agricultural products, can form groups.

• The FPOs include farmer producer companies (FPCs)

registered under the Companies Act as well as farmers'

cooperatives registered under the Cooperative Societies Act of

state governments.

• FPO is now defined as "farmer" in the new Farmers' Produce Trade

and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act of 2020 for the

purpose of trading in agricultural produce.

• They are formed for the purpose of leveraging collectives through

economies of scale in production and marketing of agricultural and

allied sector.


• FPCs combine the cooperative (collective) spirit and structural

advantages of companies.

• It allows farmers to register a producer company to engage in

production, harvesting, processing and marketing of agricultural

produce.

Farmer Producer Organization (FPO)

• FPO is a generic name, which means and includes farmer-

producers’ organization incorporated/ registered either under Part

IXA of Companies Act or under Co-operative Societies Act of the

concerned States and formed for the purpose of leveraging

collectives through economies of scale in production and marketing

of agricultural and allied sector.

o However, FPOs registered under Cooperative Societies Act

of the State for the purpose of this Scheme, is to be insulated

from all kinds of interference including in election process and

day today management through suitable provisioning in their

Memorandum of Association and Bye-laws with a view to

encourage healthy growth and development of FPO.

Central Sector Scheme to form and promote 10,000 new FPOs

• A new Central Sector Scheme to form and promote 10,000 new

FPOs for five years (2019-20 to 2023-24) towards handholding of

each FPO for five years from its aggregation and formation has

been launched by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare.

• Implementing Agencies to form and promote FPOs are:

o Small Farmers Agri-business Consortium (SFAC),

o National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC)

o National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of

India Limited (NAFED) and

o National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development

(NABARD).

• States may also, if so desire, nominate their Implementing Agency

in consultation with DAC&FW.

• FPOs will be formed and promoted through Cluster Based

Business Organizations (CBBOs).

o FPOs are to be developed in produce clusters, wherein

agricultural and horticultural produces are grown/cultivated

for leveraging economies of scale and improving market

access for members.

• Priority will be given for formation of at least 15% of the targeted

10,000 FPOs in aspirational districts in the country with at least

one FPO in each block of aspirational districts.

• The ‘Transformation of Aspirational Districts’ Programme

aims to expeditiously improve the socio-economic status of

115 districts from across 28 states.

• At Government of India level, programme is anchored by NITI

Aayog.

• FPOs will be promoted under "One District One Product"

cluster to promote specialization and better processing, marketing,

branding & export by FPOs.

• There will be a provision of Equity Grant for strengthening equity

base of FPOs.

• States/UTs will be allowed to avail loan at prescribed concessional

rate of interest under Agri-Market Infrastructure Fund (AMIF)

approved for set up in NABARD for developing agriculture

marketing and allied infrastructure.

• One of the focus areas of the Scheme is to promote agriculture

marketing including exports through production of quality produce

with the involvement of institution of FPOs.

• FPOs should have 300 minimum number of members in case of

plain areas; while in case of North-East and Hilly areas, it shall be

100 to avail the benefit under the scheme.

Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC)

• Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) is an Autonomous

Society promoted by Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.

• It was registered under Societies Registration Act, 1860.

• The Society is governed by Board of Management which is chaired,

ex-officio, by Hon’ble Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers

Welfare as the President.

• Society is pioneer in organising small and marginal farmers as

Farmers Interest Groups, Farmers Producers Organisation and

Farmers Producers Company

• It has been entrusted with the implementation of Delhi Kisan

Mandi and e-NAM (National Agriculture Market Scheme on e-

platform) to progressively free agricultural trade and offer price

discovery to farmers.

Equity Grant Scheme of SFAC

• Equity Grant Scheme of SFAC extends support to the equity base

of Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) by providing matching

equity grants subject to maximum of Rs. 15.00 lakh per FPC in two

tranche with in a period of 3 Year and to address nascent and

emerging FPCs which have paid up capital not exceeding Rs. 30.00

lakh with a view to the undernoted primary objectives

a) Enhancing viability and sustainability of FPCs.

b) Enhancing credit worthiness of FPCs.

c) Enhancing the shareholding of members to increase their

ownership and participation in their FPC.

Venture Capital Assistance Scheme

• Venture Capital Assistance is financial support in the form of an

interest free loan provided by SFAC to qualifying projects to meet

shortfall in the capital requirement for implementation of the project.

• It encourages farmers to diversify into high value crops aimed to

increase farmer’s income and assured access to markets for their

crops by linking their produce to the agribusiness unit.

• Key objectives of the scheme:

o 1. To facilitate setting up of agri-business venture in

association with banks.

o 2.To catalyze private investment in setting up of agri-

business project.

o 3. Increasing rural income and employment.

o 4. To strengthen backward linkage of agri-business project

with producers.

o 5. Assign producer groups and agriculture graduates to

enhance their participation in value chain.

149. Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (TH)

• Why? In a welcome development, the National Health Authority

(NHA) — the body responsible for administering the Ayushman

Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) — has initiated a consultation

process on the retention of health data by health-care providers in

India.

What?


• The National Digital Health Mission (now known as Ayushman

Bharat Digital Mission) was launched on 15th August 2020.

• Three key registries of NDHM are namely Health ID, Health

Professional Registry (HPR), Health Facility Registry (HFR) and

digital infrastructure for data exchange have been developed.

o Health IDs are also known as ABHA – Ayushman Bharat

Health Accounts.

o Creation of Health ID is voluntary.

• Under NDHM, every Indian will get a Health ID card.

o Every time you visit a doctor or a pharmacy, everything will

be logged in this card.

o From the doctor’s appointment to the medication, everything

will be available in your health profile.

• The National Health Authority (NHA), the attached office of the

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare which runs the Ayushman

Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, would “design, build,

roll-out and implement the NDHM.

• The NDHM would be a voluntary programme to reduce the gap

among stakeholders, such as doctors, hospitals and other

healthcare providers, by connecting them in an integrated digital

health infrastructure.

150. Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) (TH)

• Why? Only one out of four routes under the low-cost flying scheme

called UDAN have survived after completing the government’s

subsidy period of three years.

• The aim of the scheme was to take flying to the masses and

improve air connectivity to tier-2 and -3 cities.

• Under the scheme, airlines have to cap fares at ₹2,500 per seat per

hour of flight for 50% of the seats in a plane for which they receive

a viability gap funding (subsidy) from the government along with

some other benefits.

• The government expected that after the expiry of the three-year

subsidy period, airlines would be able to sustain the routes without

outside support.

What?

• The Scheme has been launched by the Civil Aviation Ministry.

• Airports Authority of India (AAI) is the implementing agency

of UDAN.

• It envisages providing connectivity to un-served and under-served

airports of the country through revival of existing air-strips and

airports.

• The scheme aims to stimulate regional connectivity with flights

covering distances between 200 to 800 km, with no lower limit set

for hilly, remote, island and security sensitive regions, through a

market-based mechanism.

How it works

• Interested airline and helicopter operators can start operations

on hitherto un-connected routes by submitting proposals to the

Implementing Agency.

• The operators could seek a Viability Gap Funding (VGF) apart

from getting various concessions.

o Viability Gap Finance means a grant to support projects that

are economically justified but not financially viable.

o The States will have to bear 20% towards VGF. The share

will be 10% for North Eastern States and Union Territories.

• All such route proposals would then be offered for competitive

bidding through a reverse bidding mechanism (bidders who offer

the least bid wins) and the route would be awarded to the

participant quoting the lowest VGF per Seat.

• The successful bidder would then have exclusive rights to operate

the route for a period of three years.

• Government support would be withdrawn after a three-year period,

as by that time, the route is expected to become self-sustainable.

• The selected airline operator would have to provide a certain

minimum/maximum UDAN Seats (subsidized rates) on the UDAN

Flights for operations through fixed wing aircraft/helicopters.

• The fare for a one hour journey of appx. 500 km on a fixed wing

aircraft or for a 30 minute journey on a helicopter would now be

capped at Rs. 2,500.

• The passenger fares are kept affordable through:

o Central Government would provide concessions in the form

of reduced excise duty, service tax etc. and freedom to enter

into code sharing arrangements with domestic as well as

international airlines

o State governments will have to lower the VAT on Aviation

Turbine Fuel to 1% or less, besides providing security and

fire services free of cost and electricity, water and other

utilities at substantially concessional rates.

o Airport operators shall not impose Landing and Parking

charge and Terminal Navigation Landing Charges in addition

to discounts on Route Navigation Facility Charges.

• A Regional Connectivity Fund (RCF) would be created to meet the

viability gap funding requirements under the scheme.

o The RCF levy per departure will be applied to certain

domestic flights.

• The partner State Governments (other than North Eastern States

and Union Territories where contribution will be 10 %) would

contribute a 20% share to this fund.

• Priority areas for improving connectivity are the North East,

Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Andaman &

Nicobar Islands and Lakshdweep.

o Helicopter operations under the Scheme are limited to Priority

Areas only.

UDAN Round 2

• It allowed the state governments to provide subsidy for international

flights to be launched from their states.

UDAN Round 3

• Key Features of UDAN 3 included:

o Inclusion of Tourism Routes in coordination with the Ministry

of Tourism

o Inclusion of Seaplanes for connecting Water Aerodromes,

and

o Bringing in a number of routes in the North-East Region

under the ambit of UDAN.

UDAN Round 4

• Under UDAN 4, the operation of helicopter and seaplanes is also

been incorporated.


151. Welfare of Women Belonging to Economically Weaker Section

(PIB)

• Why? The Government is implementing several schemes for the

welfare of women belonging to economically weaker and socially

backward sections.

What?

• Swadhar Greh Scheme (Ministry of Women and Child

Development) caters to primary needs of women in difficult

circumstances – women and girls rendered homeless due to family

discord, crime, violence, mental stress, social ostracism or are

being forced into prostitution and are in moral danger.

o The scheme through the provisions of shelter, food, clothing,

counseling, training, clinical and legal aid aims to rehabilitate

such women in difficult circumstance economically and

emotionally.

• Ujjawala Scheme (Ministry of Women and Child

Development) aims to

o (i) prevent trafficking of women and children for commercial

sexual exploitation through social mobilization and

awareness generation programmes,

o (ii) facilitate rescue of victims from the place of their

exploitation and place them in safe custody,

o (iii) provide rehabilitation services through basic

amenities/needs such as shelter, food, clothing, medical

treatment including counselling, legal aid and guidance and

vocational training,

o (iv) facilitate reintegration of victims into the family and

society at large, and

o (v) facilitate repatriation of cross-border victims to their

country of origin.

• One Stop Centre Scheme (OSCs) is a centrally sponsored

scheme being implemented by the Ministry of Women and Child

Development, for addressing the problem of violence against

women (including sexual harassment).

o It aims to facilitate women affected by violence (including

domestic violence and sexual harassment) both in private

and public spaces with a range of integrated services under

one roof such as Police facilitation, medical aid, legal aid and

legal counselling, psycho-social counselling, temporary

shelter, etc.

o The OSC supports all women including girls below 18 years

of age affected by violence, irrespective of caste, class,

religion, region, sexual orientation or marital status.

o One Stop Centres (OSCs) are popularly known as Sakhi

Centres.

• Women Helpline (WHL) Scheme (Ministry of Women and Child

Development) provides 24 hours emergency and non-emergency

response to women affected by violence, both in public and private

spaces by linking them with appropriate authority such as Police,

One Stop Centre, Hospital, Legal Services, etc.

o WHL also supports women in distress with rescue van and

counselling services in addition to providing information about

women welfare schemes and programs across the country.

Women can dial 181 short code to avail services from

Women Helpline.

• National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) (Ministry of

Rural Development) is a fully funded Centrally Sponsored Scheme

for the under-privileged identified by the States and UTs. The

objective of NSAP is to provide a basic level of financial support.

• In alignment with the goals under Nation Health Policy (NHP) 2017,

the Government announced the ambitious and holistic Ayushman

Bharat Programme (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare) with

its twin pillars of Health and Wellness Centres and Pradhan Mantri

Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) in September 2018. Under Jan

Aarogya Yojana, coverage is provided to poor and vulnerable

families. This will help improve women’s access to health care

services.

• Government of India launched the Stand Up India scheme

(Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance)

in April 2016 to promote entrepreneurship amongst women, SC and

ST categories, i.e., those sections of the population understood to

be facing significant hurdles due to lack of advice/ mentorship as

well as inadequate and delayed credit.

o The Scheme facilitates bank loans between Rs. 10 lakh to

Rs. 1 crore to at least one scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe

borrower and at least one woman borrower per bank branch

of Scheduled Commercial Banks for setting up Greenfield

enterprises in trading, manufacturing and services sector.

• Government has set up Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras under

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (Ministry of Skill

Development and Entrepreneurship) across the country.

o Emphasis has been laid on creating additional infrastructure

for training and apprenticeship for women etc.

• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act,

2005 (MGNREGA) seeks to ensure employment in rural

households, mandating that at least one third of the jobs generated

should be given to women.

• Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-dhan (PM-SYM) (Ministry of

Labour & Employment) has been launched to ensure old age

protection for unorganised workers including women who are not

covered by any other pension scheme.

• Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) (Ministry of Finance) has

been initiated by Government, inter alia, for facilitation of self-

employment.

o Under PMMY, collateral free loans upto Rs. 10 lakh are

extended to micro/small business enterprises and to

individuals to enable them to setup or expand their business

activities. Majority of the beneficiaries under this yojna are

women.

• Deendayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme (DDRS) (Ministry of

Social Justice & Empowerment) is a central sector scheme which

aims to:

o (i) provide grant-in-aid to non-governmental organizations

(NGOs) for projects relating to rehabilitation of persons with

disabilities with a view to enabling persons with disabilities to

reach and maintain their optimal, physical, sensory,

intellectual, psychiatric and socio-functional levels,

o (ii) create an enabling environment to ensure equal

opportunities, equity, social justice and empowerment of

persons with disabilities, and


o (iii) encourage voluntary action for ensuring effective

implementation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act,

2016.

• Incentives Scheme for Providing Employment to Persons with

Disabilities in the Private Sector: As per the Scheme,

Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD)

will make payment of employers’ contribution to the EPF and ESI

for 10 years, there will be no salary ceiling for the Persons with

Disabilities (PwD) employees and DEPwD will bear one-third of the

gratuity amount due and admissible to PwD employees.

• Prime Minister Awaas Yojana (PMAY-G) (Ministry of Rural

Development) aims to provide ‘Housing for All’ through provision of

pucca house with basic amenities to all houseless households and

households living in kutcha and dilapidated house in rural areas by

2022. This will also benefit the neglected, abandoned and destitute

widows.

• Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (PMAY-U) (Ministry of Housing

and Urban Affairs) is a Scheme with the vision to facilitate

Housing for All by 2022. Under this scheme, central assistance is

provided to States/UTs in addressing the housing requirement of

Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) including slum dwellers in

the urban areas.

• Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Urban Livelihood

Mission (DAY-NULM) (Ministry of Rural Development) is

implemented in statutory towns to reduce poverty and vulnerability

of urban poor households, for improvement in their livelihoods on a

sustainable basis.

o The mission provides for broadening of coverage to include

families of disadvantaged groups like SCs, STs, women,

minorities, disabled, etc. subject to a maximum of 25 percent

of the above urban poor population.

• Atal Pension Yojana (APY) (Ministry of Finance) is implemented

with an objective to create a universal social security system for all

Indians, especially the poor, under-privileged and workers in the

unorganized sector.

o The scheme is open to all citizens of India between 18-40

years of age having a savings bank account in a bank or post

office.

• The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment is implementing

a Central Sector Scheme of Integrated Programme for Older

Persons (IPOP) since 1992 with the objective of improving the

quality of life of senior citizens, including women, by providing basic

amenities like shelter, food, medical case and entertainment

opportunities and by encouraging productive and active ageing.

o Under this Scheme, financial assistance is provided to Non-

Governmental/Voluntary Organisations, Panchayati Raj

Institutions etc. for running and maintenance of projects like

Old Age Homes, Physiotherapy Centres, Day Care Centres,

etc.

• Scheme for Development of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal

Groups (PVTGs): There are certain groups among Scheduled

Tribes which have declining or stagnant population, low level of

literacy, pre-agricultural level of technology and are economically

backward.

o These groups are among the most vulnerable sections of our

society as they are few in numbers, have not attained any

significant level of social and economic development and

generally inhabit remote localities having poor infrastructure

and administrative support.

o 75 such groups in 18 States and one UT have been identified

and categorized as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups

(PVTGs).

o The Ministry of Tribal Affairs implements the 100% Central

Sector Scheme of “Development of Particularly Vulnerable

Tribal Groups (PVTGs)” exclusively for them.

152. Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) Scheme (PIB)


What?

• The Government has established FFS with corpus of Rs. 10,000

crore, spread over 14th and 15th Finance Commission cycles, to

meet the funding needs of startups. Department for Promotion of

Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and

Industry, is the monitoring agency and Small Industries

Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is the operating agency for

FFS.

• It has not only made capital available for startups at early stage,

seed stage and growth stage but also played a catalytic role in

terms of facilitating raising of domestic capital, reducing

dependence on foreign capital and encouraging home grown and

new venture capital funds.

• The Scheme does not directly provide financial assistance to

startups, instead supports SEBI- registered Alternative Investment

Funds (AIFs), who in turn invest money in growing Indian startups

through equity and equity-linked instruments.

Do you know?

• Government e-Marketplace (GeM) Startup Runway is a dedicated

corner for startups to sell products & services directly to the

Government.

• Faster Exit for Startups: Ministry of Corporate Affairs has notified

Startups as ‘fast track firms’ enabling them to wind up operations

within 90 days vis-a-vis 180 days for other companies.

• One of the key objectives under the Startup India initiative is to

help connect Indian startup ecosystem to global startup ecosystems

through various engagement models.

153. One Nation, One Ration Card Scheme (PIB)

• Why? Chhattisgarh has become 35th State/UT to implement One

Nation One Ration Card scheme of the Department of Food &

Public Distribution, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public

Distribution.

What?

• Under the National Food Security Act, 2013, about 81 crore

persons are entitled to buy subsidized foodgrains — rice at Rs 3/kg,

wheat at Rs 2/kg, and coarse grains at Re 1/kg — from their

designated Fair Price Shops (FPS) of the Targeted Public

Distribution System (TPDS).

• One Nation One Ration Card’ scheme will allow portability of food

security benefits.

• This means poor migrant workers will be able to buy subsidised

foodgrains from any ration shop in the country, so long as their

ration cards are linked to Aadhaar.


o While Aadhaar linkage is not necessary to access NFSA

benefits in a beneficiary’s local registered ration shop,

located closest to her home address, it will be necessary to

access the portability scheme.

• A migrant will be allowed to buy a maximum of 50% of the family

quota.

o While a person can buy her share of foodgrains as per her

entitlement under the NFSA, wherever she is based, the rest

of her family members can purchase subsidised foodgrains

from their ration dealer back home.

• Migrants would only be eligible for the subsidies supported by the

Centre, which include rice sold at Rs. 3/kg and wheat at Rs. 2/kg.

o Even if a beneficiary moved to a State where grains were

given for free, that person would not be able to access those

benefits, as they were funded by the State exchequer.

• Ration card portability is aimed at providing intra-state as well as

inter-state portability of ration cards.

• While the Integrated Management of Public Distribution System

(IM-PDS) portal provides the technological platform for the inter-

state portability of ration cards, enabling a migrant worker to buy

foodgrains from any FPS across the country, the other portal

(Annavitran portal) hosts the data of distribution of foodgrains

through E-PoS devices within a state.

o The Annavitran portal enables a migrant worker or his family

to avail the benefits of PDS outside their district but within

their state.

• To ensure seamless inter-state portability of a ration card, Aadhar

seeding of all ration cards as well as biometric authentication of

beneficiaries through automation of all Fair Price Shops (FPSs) with

installation of electronic point of sale (e-PoS) devices are essential.

• Therefore, additional borrowing limit of 0.25 percent of the Gross

State Domestic Product (GSDP) is allowed to the States only on

completion of both of the following actions:

o Aadhar Seeding of all the ration cards and beneficiaries in the

State

o Automation of all the FPSs in the State.

• In view of the resource requirement to meet multiple challenges

posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of India in May,

2020 enhanced the borrowing limit of the States by 2 percent of

their GSDP.

o Half of this special dispensation i.e., 1 percent of GSDP was

linked to undertaking citizen centric reforms by the States.

• The four citizen centric areas for reforms identified by the

Department of Expenditure were:

o (a) Implementation of One Nation One Ration Card System,

o (b) Ease of doing business reform,

o (c) Urban Local body/ utility reforms and

• (d) Power Sector reforms.

154. Atmanirbhar Bharat Centre of Design (ABCD) Project (PIB)


What?

• Atmanirbhar Bharat Centre of Design (ABCD) project aims to

highlight, promote and celebrate the products that have the

Geographical Indication (GI) sign, as it signifies a specific

geographic origin infused with unique features of that region.

• Through this initiative, Economic Value Addition to GI products is

envisioned and can pave way for GI products from India towards a

success story of Atmanirbhar Bharat.

• The ABCD project is being implemented by Indira Gandhi National

Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), an autonomous organization under

Ministry of Culture.

155. National Initiative for Design Innovation (NIDI) (PIB)

• Why? The following information was given by the Minister of State

for Education in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

What?

• The Ministry of Education launched the scheme of “National

Initiative for Design Innovation (NIDI)” in March, 2014.

• The objective of the scheme is to promote a culture of innovation

and creative problem-solving.

• The NIDI scheme does not provide the allocation of funds to any

specific district. Design Innovation Centres (DICs) are established

by co-locating them in existing publicly funded institutes of national

reputes, like IIT’s, NIT’s, Central and State universities, to facilitate

optimal utilization of the existing resources including faculty and

infrastructure.

156. Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM) (PIB)

• Why? An increase of 20% in the budget in 2022-23 for Rashtriya

Gokul Mission and National Program for Dairy Development will

increase the productivity of the indigenous bovine population and

quality milk production.

What?

• The Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM) is being implemented by the

Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare for development and

conservation of indigenous bovine breeds since December 2014.

• The scheme is also continued under umbrella scheme Rashtriya

Pashudhan Vikas Yojna from 2021 to 2026.

Objectives

• a) To enhance productivity of bovines and increasing milk

production in a sustainable manner using advance technologies.

• b) To propagate use of high genetic merit bulls for breeding

purposes.

• c) To enhance Artificial insemination coverage through

strengthening breeding network and delivery of Artificial

insemination services at farmers doorstep.

• d) To promote indigenous cattle & buffalo rearing and conservation

in a scientific and holistic manner.

157. Technology Development Fund (TDF) (PIB)


What?

• Technology Development Fund (TDF) has been established to

promote self-reliance in Defence Technology as a part of the

'Make in India' initiative.

• It is a programme of MoD (Ministry of Defence) executed by DRDO

meeting the requirements of Tri-Services, Defence Production and

DRDO.

• The scheme encourages participation of public/private industries

especially MSMEs.


• The scheme will be limited to development of technologies or

prototype of product having potential use for the Services and

typical development period of two years.

• The scheme will cover funding through provision of grants to

industry that may work in collaboration with the academia or

research institutions to carry out innovation, research and

development; such chosen entities will be referred to as

Development Agencies (DAs).

• In cases where academia or research institutions are involved, their

work involvement cannot exceed 40% of the total efforts required.

• Global Innovation & Technology Alliance (GITA) is the

Supporting Agency engaged by DRDO to support implementation

of Technology Development Fund (TDF) Scheme.

• GITA is a “non–for–profit” Section-8 (Companies Act 2013) Public

Private Partnership (PPP) company promoted jointly by the

Technology Development Board (TDB), Department of Science &

Technology (DST) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

158. Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana (PIB)

• Why? Question was asked in Rajya Sabha about this scheme.

What?

• The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has launched

the “Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana” (RVY) for providing Physical Aids

and Assisted-living Devices for Senior citizens belonging to BPL

category free of cost.

• This is a Central Sector Scheme, fully funded by the Central

Government.

• The expenditure for implementation of the scheme will be met from

the "Senior Citizens' Welfare Fund".

• The Scheme will be implemented through the sole implementing

agency - Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation (ALIMCO),

a PSU under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

• Under the scheme, the physical aids will be provided only to the

senior citizens of the nation aged above 60 years.

• Senior citizens belonging to the BPL category with monthly

income not more than Rs. 15000/-. and suffering from any of the

age related disability/ infirmity are eligible beneficiaries under this

scheme.

• The Government aims to cover all the districts of the country under

the Scheme.

159. SMILE Scheme (PIB)

• Why? Information about SMILE Scheme was given by Minister of

State for Social Justice and Empowerment in a written reply in the

Rajya Sabha.

What?

• The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has

formulated a scheme “SMILE - Support for Marginalized

Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise”.

• This includes a sub scheme - ‘Comprehensive Rehabilitation for

Welfare of Transgender Persons’.

• The focus of the sub-scheme is on rehabilitation, provision of

medical facilities and intervention, counseling, education, skill

development, economic linkages to the transgender persons.

• One of the components of the sub-scheme is setting up of Garima

Grehs (Shelter Home for Transgender Persons) with the aim of

setting up of atleast one Garima Greh in each State.

• Its aim is to provide shelter to transgender persons with basic

amenities like food, medical care and recreational facilities.

• Further, SMILE scheme has also provision for Transgender

Protection Cell under the charge of Director General of Police to

monitor cases of offences against Transgender persons and to

ensure timely registration, investigation and prosecution of such

offences.

160. Housing for All (TH)

• Why? The Union Budget 2022-23 has proposed an allocation of

₹48,000 crore for the government’s Housing for All initiative.

• In 2022-23, 80 lakh houses will be completed for the identified

eligible beneficiaries of PM Awas Yojana, both rural and urban.

What?

• “Housing for All” initiative consists of 2 components PMAY- U and

PMAY-G.

Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana – Gramin (PMAY-G)

• The Rural Housing Scheme, Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana –

Gramin (PMAY-G) was launched by the Prime Minister of India on

20th November 2016 at Agra, Uttar Pradesh.

• To commemorate the launch of PMAY-G, which aims to provide

“Housing for All” by 2022, it was decided to celebrate 20th

November every year as “Awaas Diwas”.

• Also called “Housing for All” scheme.

• Launched in November, 2016 by Ministry of Rural Development.

• It aims to to provide an environmentally safe and secure pucca

house, with basic amenities, to all houseless householders and

those households living in kutcha and dilapidated house, in rural

areas by 2022.

o The program envisages the completion of 2.95 crore PMAY-

G houses with all basic amenities by the year 2022.

o In the 1st phase of the scheme i.e. from 2016-17 to 2018-19, a

target for construction of 1 crore pucca houses were set.

o In the 2nd phase of the scheme starting from 2019-20 to

2021-22, the target of construction of the remaining 1.95

crore houses has been set.

• The scheme provides a minimum governmental support of nearly

Rs. 1.5 lakh to Rs. 1.6 lakh per unit household.

• The cost of unit assistance is to be shared between Central and

State Government in the ratio 60:40 in plain areas and 90:10 for

North Eastern and the Himalayan States.

• There is also a provision of Bank loan upto Rs. 70,000/-, if the

beneficiary so desires.

• The minimum size of the house has been increased to 25 sq.mt

(from 20sq.mt) with a hygienic cooking space.

• The beneficiary is entitled to 90-95 person day of unskilled labour

from MGNREGS.

• Towards better quality of construction, setting up of a Nation

Technical Support Agency (NTSA) at the national level is

envisaged.

• The houses are disaster resilient and are suitable to the local

geo-climatic conditions.


• Homes will have cooking area, toilet, LPG connection, electricity

connection and water supply through convergence with other

schemes, and beneficiaries can plan their homes as per their need.

• There are negligible inclusion errors of ineligible beneficiaries

due to three stage selection filters-

o (I) use of SECC 2011 data,

o (II) validation by Gram Sabha, and

o (III) Geo-tagging with photos of existing house of the

beneficiary using space technology.

• PMAY-G is a major step forward in bringing together Skill India,

Digital India, Make In India, IT/DBT Aadhaar platform and Pradhan

Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY).

• The programme provides for skilling 5 lakh Rural Masons by 2019.

• The programme uses ICT and space technology to further confirm

correct selection of beneficiaries and progress of work.

• The entire payments are through IT/DBT mode with Aadhaar linked

Bank accounts, to ensure complete transparency and

accountability.

• The programme implementation is to be monitored not only

electronically, but also through community participation (Social

Audit), Member of Parliament (DISHA Committee), Central and

State Government officials, National Level Monitors etc.

Convergence with various government programmes

• PMAY-G also addresses the basic needs of households through

convergence with various government programmes.

• The poor not only get a home but also get up to 90-95 days of work

under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee

Scheme (MGNREGS).

• Their homes are also provided electricity connection under the

existing Ministry of Power schemes and LPG connection under

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Scheme besides the assistance of Rs.

12,000 for construction of toilets through Swachh Bharat Mission-

Gramin (SBM-G) / MGNREGS and tap connection under Jal Jeeval

Mission.

• Efforts have also been made to provide livelihood development and

diversification opportunities to 1.82 crore rural households, under

Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihood Mission

(DAY-NRLM).

• The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin (PMAY-G) was formerly

called the Indira Awas Yojana and was renamed in March 2016.

• It is targeted at promoting accessibility and affordability of housing

for all of rural India

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Housing for All (Urban)

• It has been launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty

Alleviation (MoHUPA).

• It aims to provide central assistance to Urban Local Bodies (ULBs)

and other implementing agencies through States/UTs during 2015-

2022 for:

o a) In-situ slum rehabilitation of Slum Dwellers with

participation of private developers using land as a resource;

o b) Promotion of affordable housing for weaker section

through credit linked subsidy;

o c) Affordable housing in partnership with Public & Private

sectors and

o d) Subsidy for beneficiary-led individual house construction or

enhancement.

Beneficiaries

• Beneficiaries include Economically weaker section (EWS), low-

income groups (LIGs) and Middle-Income Groups (MIGs).

• The annual income cap is up to Rs 3 lakh for EWS, Rs 3-6 lakh for

LIG and Rs 6 + -18 lakhs for MIG.

• EWS category of beneficiaries is eligible for assistance in all four

verticals of the Missions whereas LIG and MIG categories are

eligible under only Credit linked subsidy scheme (CLSS)

component of the Mission.

• For identification as an EWS or LIG beneficiary under the scheme,

an individual loan applicant will submit self-certificate/ affidavit as

proof of income.

• A beneficiary family will comprise husband, wife, unmarried sons

and/or unmarried daughters.

• The beneficiary family should not own a pucca house either in

his/her name or in the name of any member of his/her family in any

part of India to be eligible to receive central assistance under the

mission.

• States/UTs, at their discretion, may decide a cut-off date on which

beneficiaries need to be resident of that urban area for being

eligible to take benefits under the scheme.

• Credit linked subsidy component is being implemented as a Central

Sector Scheme while other three components as Centrally

Sponsored Scheme (CSS).

• Also, under the Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme, beneficiaries under

PMAY are eligible for interest subsidy if they avail a loan to

purchase or construct a house.

• To ensure regular flow of funds for implementation of

PMAY(U), National Urban Housing Fund has been created to

mobilize ₹ 60,000 Cr through Extra Budgetary Resources over

and above the budgetary allocation for the Mission.

• Through the Credit Link Subsidy Scheme (CLSS), for the first

time, the Middle-Income Group (MIG) is being provided benefits for

their housing needs.

• Government has identified many alternative and innovative

technologies through a Global Housing Technology Challenge-

India.

o As a part of GHTC- India, 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 namely Indore; Rajkot; Chennai;

Ranchi; Agartala and; Lucknow.

o These projects will showcase the use of the six distinct

shortlisted innovative technologies for field level application,

learning and replication.

o LHPs will demonstrate and deliver ready to live mass housing

at an expedited pace as compared to conventional brick and

mortar construction and will be more economical,

sustainable, of high quality and durability.

• In 2019 only, MoHUA launched Angikaar- a campaign for change

management in more than 4000 cities.

o The campaign addressed and enabled beneficiaries to adapt

to life transformation that comes with shifting to a newly

constructed house.

• All statutory towns as per Census 2011 and towns notified

subsequently would be eligible for coverage under the Mission.


• Houses constructed under the mission would be allotted in the

name of the female head of the households or in the joint name of

the male head of the household and his wife.

• In the spirit of cooperative federalism,

o mission provides flexibility to the States for choosing the best

options amongst four verticals of mission to meet the demand

of housing in their states.

o process of project formulation and approval in accordance

with the mission Guidelines has been left to the States so that

projects can be formulated, approved and implemented

faster.

Other Important Features of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (U)

• Under PMAY, subsidy interest rate is provided at 6.5% on housing

loan for the term of 15 years to all the beneficiaries.

• Under the PMAY scheme, differently abled and senior citizens will

be given preference in allocation of ground floors.

• Sustainable and eco-friendly technologies would be used for

construction.

• The scheme covers entire urban areas in the country with the first

priority given to 500 Class I cities. This will be done in 3 phases.

o The Mission covers the entire urban area consisting of

Statutory Towns, Notified Planning Areas, Development

Authorities, Special Area Development Authorities, Industrial

Development Authorities or any such authority under State

legislation which is entrusted with the functions of urban

planning & regulations.

• The credit linked subsidy aspect of the PMAY scheme gets

implemented in India in all statutory towns from the initial stages

itself.

The scheme will be implemented in three phases as follows:

o Phase-I (April 2015 - March 2017) to cover 100 Cities to be

selected from States/UTs as per their willingness;

o Phase - II (April 2017 - March 2019) to cover additional 200

Cities.

o Phase-III (April 2019 - March 2022) to cover all other

remaining Cities.

• A Technology Sub-mission under the Mission would be set up to

facilitate:

o adoption of modern, innovative and green technologies and

building material for faster and quality construction of houses.

o preparation and adoption of layout designs and building plans

suitable for various geo-climatic zones.

• All houses built or expanded under the Mission should essentially

have toilet facility.

• The houses under the mission should be designed and constructed

to meet the requirements of structural safety against earthquake,

flood, cyclone, landslides etc. conforming to the National Building

Code and other relevant Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) codes.

• All houses under PMAY(U) have basic amenities like toilet, water

supply, electricity and kitchen.

• PMAY (U) adopts a demand-driven approach wherein the

housing shortage gets decided on the demand assessment by

the states and union territories.

• PMAY(U) adopts a cafeteria approach to suit the needs of

individuals based on the geographical conditions, topography,

economic conditions, availability of land, infrastructure etc.

What is Central Sector Scheme?

• 100% funding by the Central government.

• implemented by the Central Government machinery.

• mainly formulated on subjects from the Union List.

• financial resources are not shifted to states.

What is Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS)?

• financial participation by both the centre and states.

• central government helps states to run its Plans financially.

• a stipulated percentage of the funding is provided by the States in

terms of percentage contribution.

• direct transfer of money to the state governments.

• implementation is made by State/UT Governments.

• created on areas that are covered under the State List.

161. Services e-Health Assistance and Teleconsultation (SeHAT)

(PIB)

• Why? Services e-Health Assistance and Teleconsultation (SeHAT)

is the tri-services teleconsultation service of the Ministry of

Defence designed for all entitled personnel and their families.

What?

• SeHAT stay home OPD is a patient-to-doctor system where the

patient can consult a doctor remotely through the internet using his

Smartphone, laptop, Desktop or Tablet.

• It aims to provide quality healthcare services to patients from the

comfort of their homes.

162. India National Tech Excellence Award for Women 2022 (PIB)

• Why? Applications have been invited from Indian Women Scientists

and Entrepreneurs to felicitate a select few with the prestigious

India National Tech Excellence Award for Women 2022 for

pursuing, prevailing, creating an impact, and etching out stories of

inspiration for future young girls.

What?

• Technology Development Board, a statutory Body of the

Department of Science and Technology, on the special occasion

of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, has instituted the award to honour the

outstanding contribution of women scientists and entrepreneurs in

commercializing innovative indigenous technologies.

• The awards will be presented on International Women’s Day on

8th March, 2022.

• The awards are categorized under two categories National Women

Scientist Award for Excellence in Translational Research and

National Women Entrepreneur Award.

• Both the awards will be presented in two distinct subcategories of

Senior (45 years and above) and Young (Below 45 years).

• The contributions made by women across sectors have been

evident over the centuries, science and technology being one of the

most benefitted.

• Women like, Leelavati, a mathematician and astrologer; Janaki

Ammal, first Indian scientist to have received the Padma Shri

Award in 1977; Kadambini Ganguly, one of the first female

physicians of South Asia to be trained in western medicine; Anna

Mani, an Indian physicist, and meteorologist, also the former DDG

of the Indian Meteorological Department; Indira Hinduja, the first

Indian women who delivered a test tube baby; Kiran Mazumdar


Shaw, Chairman & Managing Director, Biocon Limited, Kalpana

Chawla, a first Indian woman in space, Dr. Renu Swaroop, first

Woman Secretary to lead DST and Dr. Alka Mittal, first woman

CMD of ONGC have made significant contribution to sectors such

as aerospace, medical science, biotechnology, meteorology.

163. Fortification of Rice & its Distribution under Public

Distribution System (TH)

• Why? The Centre has distributed 3.38 lakh metric tonnes of fortified

rice till December 2021 through anganwadis and mid-day meal

schemes at government schools, according to the Economic Survey

released on Monday.

What?

• In 2019, the government approved a Centrally sponsored pilot

scheme for fortification of rice for a period of three years beginning

2019-2020.

• The scheme is being implemented in 15 districts across as many

States.

• In 2018, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)

had set standards for fortification for five category of staples which

includes wheat flour and rice (with iron, vitamin B12 and folic

acid), milk and edible oil (with Vitamins A and D) and double

fortified salt (with iodine and iron).

• The fortification norms are currently voluntary.

164. Indian Coast Guard (ICG): Mission and Duties (PIB)

• Why? Indian Coast Guard (ICG) under the Ministry of Defence

celebrated its 46th Raising Day on February 01, 2022.

• As the fourth largest Coast Guard in the world, it has played a

significant role in securing the Indian coasts and enforcing

regulations in the maritime zones of India.

What?

Indian Coast Guard (ICG): Mission

• Mission to protect our ocean and offshore wealth including oil, fish

and minerals.

• To assist mariners in distress and safeguard life and property at

sea.

• To enforce maritime laws with respect to sea, poaching, smuggling

and narcotics.

• To preserve marine environment and ecology and protect rare

species.

• To collect scientific data and back-up the navy during war.

Motto

• "Vayam Rakshamah" - We Protect

Indian Coast Guard (ICG): Charter of Duties

• Safety and Protection of Artificial Islands and Offshore

Terminals

• Protection of Fishermen

• Assistance to Fishermen in Distress at Sea

• Preservation and Protection of Marine Environment

• Prevention and Control of Marine Pollution: It has developed the

capability to be the "first-responder" for oil-spills in Indian waters.

• Assisting the Customs and other authorities in anti-smuggling

operations

• Enforcement of Maritime Laws and other regulations and

international treaties to which India is a signatory

• Safety of Life and Property at Sea: Indian Coast Guard ships and

aircraft operations mitigate the effect of maritime accidents, and

help in ensuring safety and security from natural or man-made

disasters.

• Collection of Scientific Data: Whilst on patrol, ICG ships collect

relevant information regarding meteorological and oceanographic

data for What? and use by the scientific fraternity.

G) Indices, Reports, Surveys, Committees and Organisations

165. International Court of Justice (TH)

• Why? Ukraine has lodged a complaint against Russia at the

International Court of Justice in The Hague to get it to halt its

invasion

What?

• The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the principal judicial

organ of the United Nations (UN).

• It was established in June 1945 by the Charter of the United

Nations.

• The seat of the Court is at the Peace Palace in The Hague

(Netherlands).

• Of the six principal organs of the United Nations, it is the only one

not located in New York (United States of America).

o The main organs of the UN are the General Assembly, the

Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the

Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice, and

the UN Secretariat.

o All were established in 1945 when the UN was founded.

• The Court has a dual role:

o to settle, in accordance with international law, legal disputes

submitted to it by States and

o to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by

authorized United Nations organs and specialized agencies.

• The Court is composed of 15 judges, who are elected for terms of

office of nine years by the United Nations General Assembly and

the Security Council.

• In order to be elected, a candidate must receive an absolute

majority of the votes in both bodies (UNSC and UNGA).

• It is assisted by a Registry, its administrative organ.

• Its official languages are English and French.

• Judges are chosen on the basis of their qualifications, not their

nationality, but no two judges can be from the same nationality.

• The following are the qualifications of International Court of

Justice (ICJ) judges:

o A judge should have a high moral character.

o A judge should fit to the qualifications of appointment of

highest judicial officers as prescribed by their respective

states or

o A judge should be a jurisconsult of recognized competence in

international law.

• Effort is also taken to ensure that the principal legal systems of the

world are reflected in the composition of the court.

• Its judgments have binding force and are without appeal for

the parties concerned.

• In 2017, India’s nominee to the International Court of Justice (ICJ)

Dalveer Bhandari was re-elected to the fifth and the last seat of


the world court after Britain withdrew its candidate from the

election.

o This was the first time since the ICJ was established in

1945 that there was no British judge in the ICJ.

Who may submit cases to the Court?

• Only States are eligible to appear before the Court in contentious

cases. At present, this basically means the 192 United Nations

Member States.

• The Court has no jurisdiction to deal with applications from

individuals, non-governmental organizations, corporations or any

other private entity. It cannot provide them with legal counselling or

help them in their dealings with the authorities of any State

whatever.

• However, a State may take up the case of one of its nationals and

invoke against another State the wrongs which its national claims to

have suffered at the hands of the latter; the dispute then becomes

one between States.

• The Court can only hear a dispute when requested to do so by one

or more States. It cannot deal with a dispute of its own motion. It is

not permitted, under its Statute, to investigate and rule on acts of

sovereign States as it chooses.

Are decisions of the Court binding?

• Judgments delivered by the Court (or by one of its Chambers) in

disputes between States are binding upon the parties concerned.

• Judgments are final and without appeal.

What differentiates the International Court of Justice from the

International Criminal Court and the ad hoc international criminal

tribunals?

• The International Court of Justice has no jurisdiction to try

individuals accused of war crimes or crimes against humanity.

• As it is not a criminal court, it does not have a prosecutor able to

initiate proceedings.

• This task is the preserve of national courts, the ad hoc criminal

tribunals established by the United Nations and also of

the International Criminal Court, set up under the Rome Statute.

• The Court is not a supreme court to which national courts can turn;

it does not act as a court of last resort for individuals. Nor is it an

appeal court for any international tribunal. It can, however, rule on

the validity of arbitral awards.

166. Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) (PIB)

• Why? The 25th meeting of the Financial Stability and Development

Council (FSDC) was held in Mumbai today, under the

Chairpersonship of Union Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala

Sitharaman.

What?

• In pursuance of the announcement made in the Union Budget

2010–11 and with a view to strengthen and institutionalize the

mechanism for maintaining financial stability and enhancing inter-

regulatory coordination, Indian Government has setup an apex-level

Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC).

• FSDC is not a statutory body.

• The idea to create such a super regulatory body was first mooted

by the Raghuram Rajan Committee in 2008.

• FSDC has replaced the High Level Coordination Committee on

Financial Markets (HLCCFM), which was facilitating regulatory

coordination, though informally, prior to the setting up of FSDC.

Composition

• The Chairman of the FSDC is the Finance Minister of India and its

members include the heads of the financial sector regulatory

authorities (i.e., SEBI, IRDA, RBI, PFRDA and FMC), Finance

Secretary and/or Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs

(Ministry of Finance), Secretary, (Department of Financial Services,

Ministry of Finance) and the Chief Economic Adviser.

o The commodities markets regulator, Forward Markets

Commission (FMC) was added to the FSDC in December

2013 subsequent to shifting of administrative jurisdiction of

commodities market regulation from Ministry of consumer

Affairs to Ministry of Finance.

• Additional Secretary, DEA, Ministry of Finance, will be the Secretary

of the Council.

Mandate

• Without prejudice to the autonomy of regulators, this Council would

monitor macro prudential supervision of the economy,

including the functioning of large financial conglomerates.

• It will address inter-regulatory coordination issues and thus spur

financial sector development.

• It will also focus on financial literacy and financial inclusion.

• What distinguishes FSDC from other such similarly situated

organizations across the globe is the additional mandate given

for development of financial sector.

167. Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM)

(TH)

• Why? The Finance Ministry’s Principal Economic Adviser Sanjeev

Sanyal has been inducted into the Economic Advisory Council to

the Prime Minister as a full-time member.

What?

• According to the notification, the terms of reference of the Council

include to analyse any issue, economic or otherwise, referred to it

by the Prime Minister and advising him hereon.

• Besides, addressing issues of macroeconomic importance and

presenting views thereon to the Prime Minister.

o This could either suo-motu or on reference from the Prime

Minister or anyone else.

• The EAC-PM is an independent body constituted to advise the

government, especially the prime minister, on economic and related

issues.

• The Council works closely with the Reserve Bank of India on

monetary policy and fiscal framework.

• The EAC-PM can also opt for professional consultation from private

sector and other key stakeholders to find solutions to India's

economic troubles.

168. Human Rights Watch (TH)

• Why? Indian authorities are wrongfully prosecuting activists and

protest organisers under the anti-terrorism law, Human Rights

Watch said in statement.

What?

• Human Rights Watch was founded in 1978 as “Helsinki Watch.”


• It investigates and reports on abuses happening in all corners of the

world.

• It is an organisation of roughly 450 people of 70-plus nationalities

who are country experts, lawyers, journalists, and others who work

to protect the most at risk, from vulnerable minorities and civilians in

wartime, to refugees and children in need.

• It directs advocacy towards governments, armed groups and

businesses, pushing them to change or enforce their laws, policies

and practices.

• To ensure its independence, it refuses government funding and

carefully review all donations to ensure that they are consistent with

its policies, mission, and values.

• Its headquarters are in New York City.

• Human Rights Watch conducts fact-finding investigations of human

rights abuses and monitors various countries to ensure they are not

in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).

169. Scientific What? Group (SAG) (TH)

• Why? The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has

prohibited the sharing of top secret or secret documents by its

officials over Internet.

What?

• The order that has been issued in view of the finding that a large

number of government officials use private messaging platforms

like WhatsApp and Telegram for communication of classified

information.

• The Ministry has directed that top secret and secret documents be

shared only in a closed network with the leased line connectivity

where the Scientific What? Group (SAG) grade encryption

mechanism is deployed.

• The SAG functions under the Defence Research & Development

Organisation. It is working in the area of cryptology and information

security.

• The Ministry has recommended the use of government email facility

or government instant messaging platforms such as the Centre for

Development of Advanced Computing’s Samvad and the

National Informatics Centre’s Sandesh for communicating such

information.

170. Global Innovation & Technology Alliance (GITA) (PIB)

• Why? The celebration of the 10th Foundation Day of Global

Innovation and Technology Alliance (GITA).

What?

• Global Innovation & Technology Alliance (GITA) is a “not–for–

profit” Section-8 Public Private Partnership (PPP) company

promoted jointly by the Technology Development Board

(TDB), Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of

India and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

• It is Government’s arm’s length entity under PPP mode to

professionally manage the Government’s funds for providing

flexibility to industry for undertaking R&D along with global

partners.

• The GITA platform encourages industrial investments in innovative

technology solutions by

o Mapping technology gaps,

o Undertaking expert evaluation of technologies available

across the globe,

o Facilitating techno–strategic collaborative

partnerships appropriate for Indian economy

o Connecting industrial and institutional partners for

synergistic matchmaking and

o Providing soft funding for technology development /

acquisition / deployment.

Mission

• To catalyze India’s recognition as a key innovator and provider of

technologies at the global level.

• To inspire Indian industrial community to recognize RD&D

(Research Development & Deployment) as a key and sustainable

driver for individual and collective business growth.

• To enhance risk appetite of Indian industry for taking up innovative

projects by inculcating a culture of RD&D (Research Development

& Deployment) and sensitizing the importance of protecting

intellectual property.

• To create a vibrant skilled work force to take up research activities

and in turn strengthen the RD&D (Research Development &

Deployment) ecosystem of India.

• To become an enabler for transfer of world class technologies to

India through viable arrangements.

Mandate

• Funding

o GITA extends financial support in form of Grant/ Conditional

Grant to promote industrial R&D, Innovation, Technology

Acquisition and International S & T collaborative efforts.

• Capacity building

o GITA catalyzes innovation and empowers ideas by offering

specialized Information, matchmaking, IP protection etc. in

the areas of technology design and IPR management.

• Strengthening ecosystem

o GITA is involved in Technical, Financial, Strategic policy

research and recommendation to industry, research

institution, State & Central Government and offers global

networking platforms.

• Deployment

o GITA is mandated to facilitate the implementation of various

innovative and revolutionary scientific and technological

industrial research and development projects worldwide.

171. Group of 20 (G20) (PIB)

• Why? The Union Cabinet has approved the setting up of a G20

Secretariat and its reporting structures, which will be responsible for

implementation of overall policy decisions and arrangements

needed for steering India’s forthcoming G20 Presidency. The

Secretariat will be functional till February 2024.

• India will hold the Presidency of the G20 from 1 December 2022 to

30 November 2023, culminating with the G20 Summit in India in

2023.

What?

• Group of 20 (G20) is an international body created in 1999 that

provides a forum for strategic economic communication

between industrialized and developing countries.

• The G20 originated as a response to the economic crises of the

late 1990s.

• It expanded on the work of the Group of Seven (G7) by including

countries that previously had been left out of the global discussion.


o G7: Canada, U.S., U.K., Italy, France, Germany and Japan –

the seven largest advanced economies.

o Earlier it was G-8 when Russia was suspended from it

because of Russia's annexation of Crimea, a part of Ukraine.

• Its membership comprises 19 countries (Argentina, Australia,

Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy,

Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea,

Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and the

European Union (EU).

• The countries are represented by finance ministers and central

bank governors, while the EU is represented by the European

Central Bank and a rotating council presidency.

• The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund also

participate.

• Meetings are held annually, and each summit meeting is hosted

and chaired by a different member.

• In addition, emergency summit meetings may be called.

• The issues that have been addressed by the group include

terrorism, economic circumstances, corruption, tax

transparency, economic inequality, renewable energy, and

sustainable development.

172. East Asia Summit and Marine Pollution (PIB)

• Why? The Government of India, in partnership with other East Asia

Summit (EAS) countries viz., Australia and Singapore, conducted

an international workshop on combating marine pollution focusing

on marine plastic debris in the Indo-Pacific Region in February

2022.

• Scientists have suggested considering the application of

technological tools such as remote sensing, artificial

intelligence and machine learning to map the distribution of

marine plastics and developing models to understand the

dynamics of plastics in the Indian ocean.

What?

East Asia Summit

• Established in 2005, the East Asia Summit is a unique Leaders-led

forum of 18 countries of the Asia-Pacific region formed to further the

objectives of regional peace, security and prosperity.

• It has evolved as a forum for strategic dialogue and cooperation on

political, security and economic issues.

• The membership of EAS consists of ten ASEAN Member States

(i.e., Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR,

Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and

Vietnam), Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of

Korea, Russian Federation and the USA.

• India has been a part of East Asia Summits since its inception in

2005 in Kuala Lumpur.

• There are six priority areas of regional cooperation within the

framework of the EAS. These are

o Environment and Energy,

o Education,

o Finance,

o Global Health Issues and Pandemic Diseases,

o Natural Disaster Management, and

o ASEAN Connectivity.

• Following the 12th EAS in November 2017 in Manila, Philippines and

following the adoption of the Manila Plan of Action, Maritime

Cooperation has been identified as an important area of

cooperation under the EAS.

173. National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) (PIB)

• Why? The National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) has

issued the Financial Reporting Quality Review Report (FRQRR) in

respect of Prabhu Steels Industries Limited (PSIL) for the Financial

Year 2019-20.

What?

• For enforcement of auditing standards and ensuring the quality of

audits, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has established the

National Financial Reporting Authority as an independent

regulator.

o The National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA), Ministry

of Corporate Affairs, has one post of Chairperson, three posts

of full-time Members and one post of Secretary for NFRA.

o The NFRA was one of the key changes brought in by the

Companies Act, 2013.

• In making any recommendations, NFRA attempts to keep in mind

the implications of such recommendations on the Ease of Doing

Business.

174. Agricultural Products Export Development Authority (APEDA)

(PIB)

• Why? Agricultural Products Export Development Authority

(APEDA) celebrated its 36th Foundation Day (13th February).

What?

Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development

Authority (APEDA)

• The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export

Development Authority (APEDA) is a statutory body established

under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to promote

agricultural and processed food products exports.

• The Authority replaced the Processed Food Export Promotion

Council (PFEPC).

Some of the important Functions are:

• In accordance with the Agricultural and Processed Food Products

Export Development Authority Act, 1985, (2 of 1986) the following

functions have been assigned to the Authority.

o Development of industries relating to the scheduled products

for export by way of providing financial assistance or

otherwise;

o Registration of persons as exporters of the scheduled

products on payment of such fees as may be prescribed;

o Fixing of standards and specifications for the scheduled

products for the purpose of exports;

o Carrying out inspection of meat and meat products in

slaughter houses, processing plants, storage premises etc.;

o Improving of packaging and marketing of the Scheduled

products.

• In addition to this, APEDA has been entrusted with the

responsibility to monitor import of sugar.

Do you know?

• APEDA is working with the state governments for ensuring

traceability and market linkages for farmers for promoting exports.


• APEDA’s thrust has been on ensuring digitalization of land records

and formalization of tenancy for the farmers, which helps in

boosting exports.

• For promoting use of hybrid technology, APEDA has integrated a

Blockchain solution into its GrapeNet traceability platform.

o The GrapeNet is a web-based certification and traceability

software system for monitoring fresh grapes exported from

India to the European Union.

o After the success of traceability implementation in the grapes

sector, the same was replicated for other products such as

peanut (Peanut.net); Organic products (Tracenet) and meat

products (Meat.net).

o The Blockchain solution, called APEDA Trust Chain, helps

track all the details of the export consignment, right down to

the location of the vineyards.

• Even though India is the biggest producer of main agricultural

crops, fruits and vegetables, the country’s contribution to the agri-

exports in the global market is not significant due to lack of requisite

infrastructure at farm gate, post production and logistics complied

with other aspects such as awareness about the good agricultural

practices, good manufacturing practices, hygienically producing and

other latest international standards in the area of quality and

packaging, etc, have been the key hindrances in harnessing export

potential of the country.

175. CRUSHED Report 2021 (TH)

• Why? The CRUSHED Report 2021 released by Safe in India (SII)

portrays a dismal picture concerning occupational safety and health

in the auto sector.

What?

• Occupational safety and health (OSH) has not received due

attention from law-makers and even trade unions in India, even

though OSH is an existential human and labour right.

• Statistics concerning industrial accidents in India are produced by

the Labour Bureau.

• It compiles and publishes data on industrial injuries relating only to

a few sectors, viz. factories, mines, railways, docks and ports. But

the data suffer from several shortcomings.

• It is inexplicable why the Labour Bureau has not considered

expanding the scope of statistics on injuries by adding sectors such

as plantations, construction, the service sector, etc.

• Even the data it produces is not representative of the situation in

India as several major States default in the provision of data to the

Labour Bureau.

• Given the above statistical facts, two major issues are pertinent to

legal and labour policy aspects.

• First, mindless liberalisation of the inspection system as has been

effected during the last 20 years will not promote sound labour

market governance.

• Second, simplifying the annual returns and self-certification systems

weakens the already poorly placed labour statistical system

regarding all variables — especially industrial injuries — thanks to

low reporting by firms to State labour departments and the latter to

the Labour Bureau.

• India has ratified International Labour Organization (ILO)

conventions, the Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (C081) and

Labour Statistics Convention, 1985 (C160); and thus, these defects

violate the conventions.

• So, against these tenets, the labour codes, especially the OSH

Code, the inspection and the labour statistical systems should be

reviewed as the Government is in the process of framing the

Vision@2047 document for the Labour Ministry.

176. Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) (TH)

• Why? In a pan-India operation, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB)

has arrested 22 persons for their alleged involvement in

procurement and sale of drugs via darknet.

What?

• 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.

• Prohibition on the consumption of intoxicating drugs, except

for medicinal purposes comes from these 3 Central Legislations:

o Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940,

o The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985,

and

o The Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and

Psychotropic Substances Act, 1988.

• The responsibility of drug abuse control, which is a central function,

is carried out through a number of Ministries, Departments and

Organisations.

• These include the Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue

which has the nodal co-ordination role as administrator of the

Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 and

the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and

Psychotropic Substances Act, 1988.

• India is also a signatory to:

o Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs 1961, as amended

by the 1972 Protocol

o Conventions on Psychotropic Substances, 1971

o United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in

Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, 1988.

Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB)

• The Narcotics Control Bureau is a statutory body under the

Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 and

exercises the powers and functions of the Central Government

under the Act.

• The Bureau is subject to the supervision and control of the Ministry

of Home Affairs, Government of India.

• India is signatory to various international drug related UN

conventions and the responsibility of implementation of the

provision of these international conventions also lies with

NCB.

• It exercises the powers and functions of the Central Government for

taking measures with respect to:

o Co-ordination of actions by various offices, State

Governments and other authorities under the N.D.P.S. Act,

Customs Act, Drugs and Cosmetics Act and any other law for

the time being in force in connection with the enforcement

provisions of the NDPS Act, 1985.


o Implementation of the obligation in respect of counter

measures against illicit traffic under the various international

conventions and protocols that are in force at present or

which may be ratified or acceded to by India in future.

o Assistance to concerned authorities in foreign countries and

concerned international organisations to facilitate

coordination and universal action for prevention and

suppression of illicit traffic in these drugs and substances.

o Coordination of actions taken by the other concerned

Ministries, Departments and Organizations in respect of

matters relating to drug abuse.

Dark Net or "Darknet"

• In its original meaning, the Dark Net refers to any device connected

to the Internet which has an IP address, but has no active

services running on that IP address.

• Darknet is the deep hidden internet platform that is used for

narcotics sale, exchange of pornographic content and other illegal

activities by using the secret alleys of the onion router (TOR) to stay

away from the surveillance of law enforcement agencies.

• Owing to its end-to-end encryption, darknet is considered very

tough to crack when it comes to investigating criminal activities

being rendered over.

• The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) was part of a global

‘Operation Trance’, launched in December 2019, entailing a joint

intelligence gathering action on international postal, express mail

and courier shipments containing psychotropic drugs (which can

only be purchased on a doctor’s prescription) that are abused as

sedatives and painkillers.

177. Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) and INCOIS (TH)

• Why? Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services

(INCOIS) has carried out coastal vulnerability assessment for entire

Indian coast at States level to bring out an Atlas comprising 156

maps on 1:1,00,000 scales to prepare a Coastal Vulnerability Index

(CVI).

What?

• From this CVI, it can be delineated that Gujarat’s 124 coastal km is

going to get affected or 5.36%, Maharashtra 11 km or 1.22% and

then Karnataka & Goa 48 km or 9.54%, Kerala 15 km or 2.39%,

Tamil Nadu 65 km or 6.38%, Andhra Pradesh 6 km or 0.55 %,

Odisha 37 km or 7.51% West Bengal 49 km or 2.56%,

Lakshadweep Islands 1 km or 0.81%, Andaman Islands 24 km or

0.96 km and Nicobar Islands 8 km or 0.97%.

Sea-level rise

• While the maps determine the coastal risks due to future sea-

level rise based on the physical and geological parameters for the

Indian coast, the CVI uses the relative risk that physical changes

will occur as sea-level rises are quantified based on parameters

like: tidal range; wave height; coastal slope; coastal elevation;

shoreline change rate; geomorphology; and historical rate of

relative sea-level change.

• A coastal Multi-Hazard Vulnerability Mapping (MHVM) was also

carried out using parameters like sea level change rate, shoreline

change rate, high-resolution coastal elevation, extreme water level

from tide gauges and their return periods.

o These parameters were synthesized to derive the composite

hazard zones that can be inundated along the coastal low-

lying areas due to extreme flooding events.

o This MHVM mapping was carried for the entire mainland of

India on a 1:25000 scale. These maps depict the coastal low-

lying areas exposed to the coastal inundation.

Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS)

• Earth System Science Organization- Indian National Centre for

Ocean Information System (ESSO-INCOIS) was established as an

autonomous body in 1999 under the Ministry of Earth Sciences

(MoES) and is a unit of the ESSO.

Activities of INCOIS

• Provides round-the-clock monitoring and warning services for the

coastal population on tsunamis, storm surges, high waves,

etc. through the in-house Indian Tsunami Early Warning

Centre (ITEWC).

o The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of

UNESCO designated ITEWC as a Regional Tsunami Service

Provider (RTSP) to provide tsunami warnings to countries on

the Indian Ocean Rim.

• Provides daily advisories, called Potential Fishing Zone

Advisories, to fisher folk to help them easily locate areas of

abundant fish in the ocean while saving on both fuel and time

used to search for the same.

• Short term (3-7 days) Ocean State Forecasts (waves, currents,

sea surface temperature, etc.) are issued daily to fisher folk, the

shipping industry, the oil and natural gas industry, the Navy, the

Coast Guard, etc.

• Generates Global Ocean What? data on a daily basis to provide

the initial conditions to ocean-atmosphere coupled models used for

the prediction of the monsoon and to understand oceanic

processes.

• Established a national network (Indian Seismic and GNSS

Network (ISGN)) that integrates Seismic and GNSS stations and

seeks to enhance the capability in monitoring seismic activity in

India, besides providing high quality data for researchers.

• Established a VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) aided

Emergency Communication System (VECS) (a fail-safe

satellite-based communication system) to provide tsunami

warnings with the least possible time delay even when there is a

failure in conventional communication systems.

• ESSO-INCOIS has been designated as the National

Oceanographic Data Centre by IOC/IODE of UNESCO and is also

identified as the Regional Argo Data Centre for the Indian Ocean.

• Deploys and maintains a suite of Ocean Observing Systems in the

Indian Ocean to collect data on various oceanic parameters to

understand the processes in the ocean and to predict their

changes.

International Involvement

• ESSO-INCOIS has a prominent international presence, being a

permanent member of the Indian delegation to IOC of UNESCO

and a founding member of the Indian Ocean Global Ocean

Observing System (IOGOOS) and the Partnership for Observing

the Oceans (POGO).


• ESSO-INCOIS houses the IOGOOS secretariat and the Sustained

Indian Ocean Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (SIBER)

International Programme Office.

• Through the Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning

System for Africa and Asia (RIMES), ESSO-INCOIS provides

ocean information and forecasts to member countries.

• ESSO-INCOIS is also a member of the Global Ocean Data

Assimilation Experiment (GODAE), Ocean View Science Team

(GOVST) and Patron’s Group.

178. National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) (PIB)

• Why? National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) compiles and

publishes information on crimes against women in its publication

'Crime in India'.

• The data shows decline in the crime against women during the year

2020 as compared to 2019.

What?

National Crime Records Bureau

• NCRB, now under the Home Ministry, was set-up in 1986 to

function as a repository of information on crime and criminals so as

to assist the investigators in linking crime to the perpetrators.

• NCRB developed Crime Criminal Information System (CCIS) in

the year 1995, Common Integrated Police Application (CIPA) in

2004, and finally Crime and Criminal Tracking Network &

System (CCTNS) in 2009.

• National Digital Police Portal allows search for a criminal/suspect on

a national data base apart from providing various services to

citizens like filing of complaints online and seeking antecedent

verification of tenants, domestic helps, drivers etc.

• NCRB also compiles and publishes annual National Crime

Statistics i.e., Crime in India, Accidental Deaths & Suicides,

Prison Statistics and Finger Prints.

• NCRB has been conferred with “Digital India Awards 2016-Silver

Open Data Championship” from the Ministry of Electronics and

Information Technology.

• NCRB has also floated various IT based Public Services like,

Vahan Samanvay (online Motor Vehicle Matching), Talash

(matching of missing persons and dead bodies).

• In addition, NCRB also maintains Counterfeit Currency

Information and Management System (FICN) and Firearms

Coordination System for lost and recovered firearms.

Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC)

portal

• Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has launched Cyber Crime

Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC) portal to check

objectionable online content.

• The portal will allow citizens to lodge complaints on objectionable

online content related to child pornography, child sexual abuse

material and sexually explicit material such as rape and gang rape.

• The portal will enable citizens to report complainants in without

disclosing their identity.

• It also allows complainants to upload objectionable content and

URL to assist in investigation by state Police.

• The complaints registered through this portal will be handled by

police authorities of respective State/UTs.

• In this regard, NCRB has been notified as Central Government

nodal agency to issue notices under the Information Technology

(IT) Act.

Other functions of NCRB

• To function as a clearing house of information on crime and

criminals including those operating at National and International

levels so as to assists the investigators.

• To store, coordinate and disseminate information on inter-state and

international criminals from and to respective States, national

investigating agencies, courts and prosecutors in India without

having to refer to the Police Station records.

• To collect and process crime statistics at the National level.

• Executive and develop computer-based systems for the Central

Police Organisations.

• To function as the National storehouse of fingerprint (FP) records of

convicted persons including FP records of foreign criminals.

179. Agriculture Orientation Index (AOI) and India (TH)

• Why? An article in the Hindu.

What?

• The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations

(UN) report for 2001 to 2019 shows that, globally, India is among

the top 10 countries in terms of government spending in agriculture,

constituting a share of around 7.3% of its total government

expenditure.

o However, India lags behind several low-income countries

such as Malawi (18%), Mali (12.4%), Bhutan (12%), Nepal

(8%), as well as upper middle-income countries such as

Guyana (10.3%) and China (9.6%).

• The picture changes and rather looks disappointing when we look

at the Agriculture Orientation Index (AOI) — an index which

was developed as part of the Goal 2 (Zero Hunger) of the 2030

Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015.

• The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 emphasises an

increase in investment in rural infrastructure, agricultural research

and extension services, development of technology to enhance

agricultural productivity and eradication of poverty in middle- and

lower-income countries.

• The AOI is calculated by dividing the agriculture share of

government expenditure by the agriculture value added share of

GDP. In other words, it measures the ratio between

government spending towards the agricultural sector and the

sector’s contribution to GDP.

• India’s index is one of the lowest, reflecting that the spending

towards the agricultural sector is not commensurate with the

sector’s contribution towards GDP.

A comparison with Asia

• India’s AOI is one of the lowest in Asia and among several other

middle-income and upper-income countries.

• Asia as a whole performs much better, with a relatively higher

performance by Eastern Asian countries. China has been doing

remarkably well with an index steadily improving and crossing one.

• In China, even with an average land holding size of 0.6 hectares,

which is much lower than India’s average land holding size,

the performance of the sector in terms of crop yield is much

higher than India.


• Even with an overall increase in budgetary outlays, the allocation

towards Market Intervention Scheme and Price Support

Scheme (MIS-PSS) was 62% less than the previous allocation in

revised estimates (RE) of FY 2021-22.

Other significant reductions

• Similarly, the Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay SanraksHan

Abhiyan (PM-AASHA) experienced a significant reduction to only

one crore as against the allocation of ₹400 crore in 2021-22.

• Both schemes are pertinent to ensure MSP-based procurement

operations in the country, especially for pulses and oil seeds.

180. Centrally Protected Monuments and the ASI (TH)

• Why? The 100-metre radius around Centrally protected

monuments where construction is prohibited could be replaced

with site-specific limits to be decided by an expert committee, as

the Union Culture Ministry was working on amendments to the

relevant Act.

• The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains

(AMASR) Act, 1958, was amended in 2010 to declare the 100-

metre radius of protected monuments as prohibited areas and the

next 300-metre radius as regulated areas.

What?

Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)

• The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), under the Ministry of

Culture, is the premier organization for the archaeological

researches and protection of the cultural heritage of the nation.

• It regulates all archaeological activities in the country as per the

provisions of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological

Sites and Remains Act, 1958.

o There is a ban on construction within 100 metres of a

Centrally protected monument and regulated construction in

the next 300-metre radius under the Ancient Monuments and

Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958.

o The Act protects monuments and sites that are over 100

years old.

o At present, about 3,700 monuments nationwide are protected

by the ASI, with the highest number in Uttar Pradesh.

• It also regulates Antiquities and Art Treasure Act, 1972.

o If any question arises whether any article, object or thing is

an art treasure or not, the decision of the Director-General,

Archaeological Survey of India or an officer authorised by him

shall be final.

o Under this Act, any object over 100 years old is an antique.

181. United Nations Commission on International Trade Law

(UNCITRAL) (TH)

• Why? The Centre is preparing to come out with a cross-border

insolvency resolution framework based on the UNCITRAL model

law and which would be applicable to both corporate debtors as

well as personal guarantors to such debtors.

• The cross-border insolvency process pertains to those debtors

having assets and creditors overseas.

What?

• The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law

(UNCITRAL) is the core legal body of the United Nations system in

the field of international trade law.

• In establishing the Commission, the General Assembly recognized

that disparities in national laws governing international trade

created obstacles to the flow of trade, and it regarded the

Commission as the vehicle by which the United Nations could

play a more active role in reducing or removing these

obstacles.

• The members of the Commission are elected by the General

Assembly for a term of six years, the term of half of the members

expiring every three years.

• India was a founder member of UNICTRAL.

• It plays an important role in developing framework/ model laws for

harmonization and modernization of the law of international

trade.

H) Art, Culture and History

182. Contributions of Indian Mathematicians (PIB)

• Why? Ministry of Culture has announced DHARA- an Ode to

India's knowledge system, a series of programmes which are

powered by lecture demonstrations, celebrating India's contribution

across diverse field.

What?

• Ten Indian contributions to mathematics apart from zero

include The Indian Numeral System, The Baudhayana-Pythagoras

Theorem, The Mathematics of Language, The Sine Function in

Trigonometry, Negative Numbers, Solutions to Quadratic

Equations, Binomial Coefficients, The Virahanka-Fibonacci

Sequences, Error-detecting/ correcting codes, First Exact Formula

for Pi.

Some of the contributions of ancient Indian mathematicians

Baudhayan

• The value of pi was first calculated by him. pi is useful in calculating

the area and circumference of a circle.

• What is known as Pythagoras theorem today is already found in

Baudhayan’s Sulva Sutra, which was written several years before

the age of Pythagoras.

Aryabhatta

• Aryabhatta was a fifth century mathematician, astronomer,

astrologer and physicist.

• At the age of 23, he wrote Aryabhattiya, which is a summary of

mathematics of his time. There are four sections in this scholarly

work.

o In the first section he describes the method of denoting big

decimal numbers by alphabets.

o In the second section, we find difficult questions from topics

of modern day Mathematics such as number theory,

geometry, trigonometry and Beejganita (algebra).

o The remaining two sections are on astronomy.

• Aryabhatta showed that zero was not a numeral only but also a

symbol and a concept.

• Discovery of zero enabled Aryabhatta to find out the exact distance

between the earth and the moon.

• Aryabhatta contributed greatly to the field of science, too,

particularly Astronomy (Khagolshastra).

o Khagol was the famous astronomical observatory at Nalanda,

where Aryabhatta studied.


• Disregarding the popular view that our planet earth is ‘Achala’

(immovable), Aryabhatta stated his theory that ‘earth is round and

rotates on its own axis.’

• He explained that the appearance of the sun moving from east to

west is false by giving examples.

o One such example was: When a person travels in a boat, the

trees on the shore appear to move in the opposite direction.

• He also correctly stated that the moon and the planets shined by

reflected sunlight.

• He also gave a scientific explanation for solar and lunar eclipse

clarifying that the eclipses were not because of Rahhu and/or Ketu

or some other rakshasa (demon).

• The first satellite sent into orbit by India has been named after

Aryabhatta.

Brahmgupta

• In 7th century, Brahmgupta took mathematics to heights far beyond

others.

• In his methods of multiplication, he used place value in almost the

same way as it is used today.

• He introduced negative numbers and operations on zero into

mathematics.

• He wrote Brahm Sputa Siddantika through which the Arabs came to

know our mathematical system.

Bhaskaracharya

• Bhaskaracharya was the leading light of 12th Century. He was born

at Bijapur, Karnataka.

• He is famous for his book Siddanta Shiromani. It is divided into four

sections: Lilavati (Arithmetic), Beejaganit (Algebra), Goladhyaya

(Sphere) and Grahaganit (mathematics of planets).

• Bhaskara introduced Chakrawat Method or the Cyclic Method to

solve algebraic equations.

o This method was rediscovered six centuries later by

European mathematicians, who called it inverse cycle.

o In the nineteenth century, an English man, James Taylor,

translated Lilavati and made this great work known to the

world.

Mahaviracharya

• There is an elaborate description of mathematics in Jain literature

(500 B.C -100 B.C).

• Jain gurus knew how to solve quadratic equations.

• They have also described fractions, algebraic equations, series, set

theory, logarithms and exponents in a very interesting manner.

• Jain Guru Mahaviracharya wrote Ganit Sara Sangraha in 850A.D.,

which is the first textbook on arithmetic in present day form.

• The current method of solving Least common Multiple (LCM) of

given numbers was also described by him.

o Thus, long before John Napier introduced it to the world, it

was already known to Indians.

Some of the contributions of medieval Indian mathematicians

• Narayana Pandit, son of Narsimha Daivajna was well known for his

works in Mathematics – Ganitakaumudi and Bijaganitavatamsa.

• Gangadhara, in Gujarat, wrote Lilavati Karamdipika,

Suddhantadipika, and Lilavati Vyakhya. These were famous

treatises which gave rules for trigonometrical terms like sine, cosine

tangent and cotangent.

• Nilakantha Somasutvan produced Tantrasamgraha, which also

contains rules of trigonometrical functions.

• Ganesa Daivajna produced Buddhivilasini - a commentary on

Lilavati - containing a number of illustrations.

• Krishna of the Valhalla family brought out Navankura on the

Bijaganit of Bhaskara-II and elaboration of the rules of

indeterminate equations of the first and second orders.

• Nilakantha Jyotirvida compiled Tajik, introducing a large number of

Persian technical terms.

• Faizi, at the behest of Akbar, translated Bhaskara’s Bijaganit.

o Akbar ordered to make Mathematics as a subject of study,

among others in the education system.

• Naisiru’d –din-at –tusi, was another scholar of Mathematics.

Some of the contributions of modern Indian mathematicians

Ramanujan

• Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan (FRS), one of India’s greatest

mathematical genius, was born at Erode in Tamil Nadu on 22

December, 1887.

• He could not complete his college education as he kept on

developing his ideas and started posing problems and solving them

in the Journal of Indian Mathematical Society.

• In 1911, he published in the same journal a brilliant research paper

on Bernoulli Numbers. This got him recognition and he became well

known in Madras circles as a mathematical genius.

183. Khajuraho Temples (TOI)

• Why? Renowned artists from across the country will be performing

in the week-long 48th Khajuraho Dance Festival – 2022 in Madhya

Pradesh.

• The Khajuraho Dance Festival is organised by the Department of

Culture of the government of Madhya Pradesh every year against

the backdrop of these ancient Khajuraho temples.

What?

• The temples at Khajuraho were built during the Chandella dynasty,

between 950 and 1050 AD.

• The common date palm - khajura - has given Khajuraho its name.

• Only about 20 temples remain and belong to two different

religions – Hinduism and Jainism.

• These temples depict various forms like meditation, spiritual

teachings, kinship, wrestling, royalty and most significantly, erotic

art.

o They strike a perfect balance between architecture and

sculpture. One can witness the extravagant sculptures of

various nayikas (nymphs) performing numerous

activities in the exterior part of Kandariya temple.

o Among other idols on the outer walls of the temple, there are

sculptures of Uma-Maheshwar, Laxmi-Narayan and

Vishnu's vast forms.

• The sculptures which are generally erotic in their themes drew

inspiration from Vatsyayana’s Kamasutra.

• The Khajuraho group of monuments have also been recognised by

UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1986.

• The group of temples of Khajuraho testifies to the culmination of

northern Indian temple art and architecture of the Chandella

dynasty who ruled the region in the 10th and 11th centuries CE


that display the originality and high quality of Nagara-style temple

architecture.

• Built in sandstone, each temple is elevated from its environs by a

highly ornate terraced platform, or jagati, on which stands the body,

or jangha, including a combination of saptaratha plan topped by

a tower, or shikhara, unique to the Nagara style.

• The temples were generally north or east facing. Panchayatan style

of temple making was followed. The subsidiary shrines had rekha-

prasad shikharas creating an impression of a mountain range.

184. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and the Maratha State (PIB)

• Why? The Prime Minister of India paid tributes to Chhatrapati

Shivaji Maharaj on his Jayanti.

What?

• Although a number of influential Maratha families—the Mores, the

Ghatages, the Nimbalkars, etc., exercised local authority in some

areas, the Marathas did not have any large, well- established

states like that of the Rajputs.

• The credit for setting up such a large state goes to Shahji Bhonsale

and his son, Shivaji.

• Shahji had left the Poona jagir to his neglected senior wife, Jija Bai,

and his minor son, Shivaji.

• Aurangzeb instructed the new Mughal governor of the Deccan,

Shaista Khan, who was related to Aurangzeb by marriage, to

invade Shivaji’s dominions but he failed to deliver Shivaji to

Mughals.

Treaty of Purandar (1665)

• After the failure of Shaista Khan, Aurangzeb deputed Raja Jai

Singh of Amber, who was one of the most trusted advisers of

Aurangzeb, to deal with Shivaji.

• Jai Singh captured Purandar fort (1665), due to which Shivaji

opened negotiations with Jai Singh. Among others, it was agreed

upon:

• The Mughals will support Shivaji in aiding the capture of

Bijapur territory.

• Shivaji asked to be excused from personal service. Shivaji

promised, however, to join personally in any Mughal campaign

in the Deccan.

• Shivaji Maharaj's son Sambhaji was tasked with the command

of a 5,000-strong force to fight for Mughals as mansabdar.

Failure of Treaty of Purandar – Shivaji Second Innings against

Mughals

• Shivaji could not be reconciled to the loss of 23 forts and other

territory without any compensation from Bijapur as promised by

Mughals. This lead to failure of Treaty of Purandar.

• He renewed the contest with the Mughals, sacking Surat a second

time in 1670.

• During the next four years, he recovered a large number of his

forts, including Purandar, from the Mughals and made deep

inroads into Mughal territories, especially Berar and

Khandesh. Mughal preoccupation with the Afghan uprising in the

northwest helped Shivaji.

• In 1674, Shivaji crowned himself formally at Raigarh, this placed

him on a pedestal much higher than any of the Maratha chiefs.

• To strengthen his social position further, Shivaji married into

some of the leading old Maratha families—the Mohites, the

Shirkes, etc.

• Finally, as an independent ruler it now became possible for Shivaji

to enter into treaties with the Deccani sultans on a footing of

equality and not as a rebel.

• It was also an important step in the further growth of Maratha

national sentiment.

• In 1676 Shivaji undertook a bold new venture. With the active aid

and support of the brothers, Madanna and Akhanna at Hyderabad,

Shivaji undertook an expedition into the Bijapuri Karnataka.

• Shivaji was given a grand welcome by the Qutb Shah at his capital,

and a formal agreement was arrived at. The Qutb Shah agreed to

pay a subsidy of one lakh huns annually to Shivaji and a Maratha

ambassador was to live at his court.

• The territory and the booty gained in Karnataka was to be shared.

The Qutb Shah supplied a contingent of troops and artillery to aid

Shivaji and also provided money for the expenses of his army.

• The treaty was very favourable to Shivaji and enabled him to

capture Jinji and Vellore from Bijapuri officials and also to

conquer much of the territories held by his half-brother, Ekoji.

• Shivaji had assumed the title of ‘Haindava-Dharmoddhara’

(Protector of the Hindu faith), he plundered mercilessly the Hindu

population of the area.

• Returning home laden with treasure, Shivaji refused to share

anything with the Qutb Shah, thus straining his relations with him.

• The Karnataka expedition was the last major expedition of Shivaji.

Administrative System of Shivaji

• Shivaji’s system of administration was largely borrowed from the

administrative practices of the Deccani states.

• Although he designated eight ministers, sometimes called the

Ashtapradhan, it was not in the nature of a council of

ministers, each minister being directly responsible to the ruler.

o The most important ministers were the Peshwas who

looked after the finances and general administration.

o The sar-i-naubat (senapati) which was a post of honour

and was generally given to one of the leading Maratha

chiefs.

o The majumdar. was the accountant, while the wakenavis

was responsible for intelligence, posts and household

affairs.

o The surunavis or chitnis helped the king with his

correspondence.

o The dabir was master of ceremonies and also helped the king

in his dealings with foreign powers.

o The nyayadhish and panditrao were in charge of justice and

charitable grants.

• More important than the appointment of these officials was Shivaji’s

organisation of the army and the revenue system.

• Shivaji preferred to give cash salaries to the regular soldiers,

though sometimes the chiefs received revenue grants (saranjam).

Strict discipline was maintained in the army, no women or dancing

girls being allowed to accompany the army.

• The plunder taken by each soldier during campaigns was strictly

accounted for.


• The regular army (paga) consisting of about 30,000 to 40,000

cavalry, as distinct from the loose auxiliaries (silahdars), were

supervised by havaldars who received fixed salaries.

• The revenue system seems to have been patterned on the system

of Malik Ambar.

• A new revenue assessment was completed by Annaji Datto in

1679. It is not correct to think that Shivaji abolished the

zamindari (deshmukhi) system, or that he did not award jagirs

(mokasa) to his officials.

• However, Shivaji strictly supervised the mirasdars, that is, those

with hereditary rights in land. Mirasdars paid to the government only

a small part of their collections.

• In consequence, the mirasdars grew and strengthened themselves

by building bastions, castles and strongholds in the villages,

enlisting footmen and musketeers.

• This class had become unruly and seized the country.’ Shivaji

destroyed their bastions and forced them to submit.

• Shivaji supplemented his income by levying a contribution on

the neighbouring Mughal territories.

• This contribution which came to one-fourth of the land revenue,

began to be called chauthai (one- fourth) or chauth.

Character of the Maratha State under Shivaji

• Shivaji laid the foundation of a strong state by curbing the power of

the deshmukhs.

• The army was an effective instrument of his policies, rapidity of

movement being the most important factor.

• The army depended for its salaries to a considerable extent on the

plunder of the neighbouring areas.

• But the state cannot thereby be called just a ‘war-state.’ It was

regional in character. To that extent, Shivaji was a popular king

who represented the assertion of popular will in the area

against Mughal encroachments.

185. Guru Ravidas: Teachings and Literary Works (PIB)

• Why? The Prime Minister of India has remembered Sant Ravidas

on the eve of his Jayanti. He has also said that he feels proud that

every step taken by his government has imbibed the spirit of Pujya

Shri Guru Ravidas ji.


2022 file.

186. Medaram Jathara (PIB)

• Why? The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has sanctioned ₹2.26 Crores for

various activities pertaining to Medaram Jathara 2022.

What?

• Medaram Jatara is the second-largest fair of India, after the Kumbh

Mela, celebrated by the second-largest Tribal Community of

Telangana- the Koya tribe for four days.

• Medaram Jathara is conducted in honour of the Goddesses

Sammakka and Saralamma.

o It commemorates the fight of a mother and daughter,

Sammakka and Saralamma, with the reigning rulers against

an unjust law.

• It is celebrated once in two years in the month of “Magha”

(February) on the full moon day.

• Medaram is a remote place in the Eturnagaram Wildlife Sanctuary,

a part of Dandakaranya, the largest surviving forest belt in the

Mulugu District, Telangana.

• At present, the Jathara festival is biennially celebrated and

organized by the Koyas in collaboration with the Tribal Welfare

Department.

187. Hippocratic Oath and Charak (IE)

• Why? The National Medical Commission has suggested to medical

colleges that the traditional Hippocratic Oath should be replaced by

a "Charak Shapath".

• ‘Charak Shapath’ is a pledge mentioned in the Charaka Samhita,

one of the two foundational Sanskrit texts of ancient Indian

medicine.

What?

Hippocrates and Hippocratic Oath

• The Hippocratic Oath is attributed to Hippocrates - a Greek

physician of the classical period, broadly corresponding to the

period from the death of the Buddha (486 BC) to the rise of the

Mauryas (321 BC) in India.

o Hippocrates is appropriated as father of Modern

Medicine.

• Basically, the Hippocratic Oath is a charter of ethical principles

that physicians over the ages have sworn to uphold in the

practice of their profession.

Charaka and Charak Samhita

• The Charak Samhita - compiled by Charak is a medical treatise

and collection of commentaries and discussions on medical

practices that is dated to the 1st-2nd centuries AD.

• Charaka Samhita is the oldest and the most authentic treatise on

Ayurveda.

• Apart from giving information on medical conditions and their

treatment; it also gives valuable information on geographical, social,

and economic conditions of India.

• Charaka was a physician at the court of Emperor Kanishka in

1st century AD and was hailed as the “king of physicians”.

• The presently available Charaka Samhita mentions Punarvasu

Atreya, Charaka, and Dridhabala.

o Punarvasu Atreya is believed to have preached Ayurveda to

his student Agnivesha, who composed the text which

Dridhabala completed and Charaka compiled.

• Charak Samhita along with the Susruta (c. 4th century AD), which

is about surgery, are considered the foundational text of ancient

Indian medicine, which was an evolved system of

understanding and treating disease that resembled that of

Hippocrates and Galen (2nd century AD), and was in some

ways ahead of the Greeks.

• Interest in physiology in India was also enriched by the growth and

spread of Buddhism to new lands, the arrival of the first Christian

missionaries, and the contact with Hellenic practitioners of

medicine.

• In theory and practice, ayurvedic medicine today remains

broadly unchanged from these ancient Indian principles.

Ayurveda- An ancient Indian system of medicine

• At the heart of ancient Indian medicine is the doctrine of the three

‘doshas’ (humours).


• Combining physical, psychological, and spiritual health, Ayurveda

focuses on whole-body healing and states that a person’s dosha, a

type of bodily humor, determines their personality and health.

• A combination of each element results in three humors, or doshas,

known as ‘vata’, ‘kapha’, and ‘pitta’. These three doshas are

believed to be responsible for a person’s physiological, mental, and

emotional health.

• Ayurvedic medicine is based on the idea that the world is made up

of five elements — aakash (space), jala (water), prithvi (earth), teja

(fire), and vayu (air).

• It is believed in Ayurveda that a balance of the four vital fluids,

wind, bile/ gall, mucus/ phlegm and blood is essential for good

health

Do you know?

• In Charak Samhita, food is seen as the key to good health: it is why

the body exists — and as bad food causes sickness, good food

heals.

• According to AL Basham - Surgery reached great heights in ancient

India.

• The caesarian section was known, bone-setting was highly evolved,

and plastic surgery was “developed far beyond anything known

elsewhere at the time”.

188. Ramanujacharya (IE)

• Why? Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dedicate to the world the

‘Statue of Equality’ on February 5 to mark the 1,000th birth

anniversary of Vaishnavite saint Ramanujacharya at the

sprawling ashram of Tradandi Chinna Jeeya Swamy at Muchintal,

near Hyderabad in Telangana.

What?

About the Statute

• It is a 216-foot tall statue of Vaishnavite Saint Sri Ramanuja

(11th-12th century AD)

• It is world’s second tallest statue in a seated position after the

statue of the Great Buddha of Thailand (302 feet).

• It is made of panchaloha (an alloy of gold, silver, copper, brass

and tin/lead) and its base depicts 36 elephants and 27-feet-high

lotus petals.

Why it is called Statue of Equality?

• In the times of Ramanujacharya, temples were the centres of

administration, under the control of one section of society, one

particular caste i.e., Brahmins.

• Ramanujacharya as a Vedic philosopher and social reformer

travelled across India, advocating social equality and social

justice.

• He encouraged temples to open their doors to everyone

irrespective of caste or position in society at a time when people of

many castes were forbidden from entering them.

• He encouraged inclusiveness by allotting 50% of tasks in the

temple to persons belonging to the rest of the castes including the

lower castes.

• That’s the reason, from then onwards, there were no restrictions

based on caste to enter temples.

• He took education to those who were deprived of it.

• His greatest contribution is the propagation of the concept of

“vasudhaiva kutumbakam”, which translates as “all the universe is

one family”.

• He embraced the socially marginalised and condemned, and

asked royal courts to treat them as equals.

All about Ramanuja

• Ramanuja was a Tamil Brahmin (1017-1137 AD)

• He was a major exponent of Sri Vaishnavism tradition.

• The philosophy propounded by Ramanuja was Vishishtadwaita

or qualified monism.

• Vishishtadvaita became a sub- school of Vedanta philosophy.

• Vishishtadvaita signifies non-dualism.

• Srirangam Ranganatha temple in Tamil Nadu is associated with

his tradition.

• Ramanuja visited all the Vaishnavite shrines in South India and

finally reached Srirangam.

• Here he settled himself permanently and continued his labours of

preaching the Visishtadvaita philosophy and writing books.

• Ramanuja revived the Bhakti movement, and his preachings

inspired other Bhakti schools of thought.

• He is considered to be the inspiration for poets like

Annamacharya, Bhakt Ramdas, Thyagaraja, Kabir, and Meerabai.

• Ramanuja appealed for the protection of nature and its resources

like air, water, and soil.

• He went on to write nine scriptures known as the navaratnas,

and composed numerous commentaries on Vedic scriptures.

• Ramanuja is also credited with establishing the correct procedures

for rituals performed in temples throughout India, the most famous

being Tirumala and Srirangam.

• He believed that Lord Narayana as the Supreme Being and gave

the concept of chit-achit: the individual soul is Chit; matter is

Achit.

• His two main philosophical writings (the Śrī

Bhāṣya and Vedārthasaṅgraha) are amongst the masterpieces of

Indian scholastic philosophy.

• Ramanuja, tried to assimilate bhakti to the tradition of the

Vedas.

• He argued that in order to attain salvation, grace of God was more

important than knowledge about Him.


• Through his works he brought the treasure of Vedic literature to

the doorsteps of the common man.

• Following the great Sankara, works in the field of philosophy by

Ramanuja, Madhava, Vallabha, etc., continued to be written in

Sanskrit.

• Ramanuja emphasized that the path of prapatti or (total reliance

on and surrender to God) was open to all, including the Shudras

and the Dalits.

• Thus, Ramanuja tried to build a bridge between the popular

movement based on bhakti, and the upper caste movement based

on the Vedas.

• This tradition established by Ramanuja was followed by a number

of thinkers such as Madhvacharya (tenth century), and in north

India by Ramananda, Vallabhacharya and others.

• In this way, bhakti in its popular form became acceptable to all

sections of Hindu society by the early sixteenth century.

Do you know?

• Vedānta” means the ‘end of the Vedas’ and refers to the

philosophy expressed in the end portion of the Vedas, also known

as the Upaniṣads, and encoded in the cryptic summary by

Bādarāyaṇa called the Vedānta Sūtra or Brahma Sūtra.

• The perennial questions of Vedānta are: what is the nature

of Brahman, or the Ultimate, and what is the relationship between

the multiplicity of individuals to this Ultimate.

• Vedānta comprises one of the six orthodox schools of Hindu

philosophy.

189. Dvaita Vs Advaita Vs Vishishtadvaita (PIB)

• Why? Vice President visits Statue of Equality, calls for imbibing

Acharya Ramanuja’s teachings for a ‘New India’.

What?

Dvaita

• Madhvacharya propounded this philosophy.

• It considers Brahman and Atman as two different entities,

and Bhakti as the route to eternal salvation.

• According to Dvaita, Jivatma are many and Paramatma is one.

• Concerning the soul Madhvacharya says that no two souls are

alike.

• The soul becomes similar to God in some respects when it is

liberated, yet even in these respects it is much inferior to God.

Advaita

• At the intellectual level, the most serious challenge to Buddhism

and Jainism was posed by Sankara who reformulated the Hindu

philosophy.

• Shankara, one of the most influential philosophers of India, was

born in Kerala in the eighth century.

• Sankara’s philosophy is called advaitavada or the doctrine on non-

dualism. According to Sankara, God and the created world are one:

the differences were apparent but not real, and arose due to

ignorance, maya being a part of it.

• The way to salvation was devotion to God, strengthened by the

knowledge that God and the created beings were one and the

same. This philosophy is called vedanta. Thus, Sankara upheld

the Vedas as the fountainhead of true knowledge.

• He was an advocate of Advaita or the doctrine of the oneness of

the individual soul and the Supreme God which is the Ultimate

Reality.

• He taught that Brahman, the only or Ultimate Reality, was formless

and without any attributes.

• Advaita is the oldest school of Vedanta, and it states that

Brahman is the only reality and the world is illusory (Maya).

• Ignorance of the reality is what causes suffering, and liberation

can be obtained only by true knowledge of Brahman.

• It states that both the individual self (Atman) and Brahman are

the same, and knowing this difference causes liberation.

• The quintessence of Shankara’s philosophy is “Brahma satya

jagat mithya, jivo Brahmaiva na aparah”, meaning Brahman (the

absolute) alone is real; this world is unreal, and the jiva or the

individual soul is non-different from Brahman.

• The Jiva or the individual soul identifies itself with the body-mind

complex due to Avidya (ignorance).

• The path of knowledge put forward by Sankara could be followed

by only a few. Sankara did not reject the path of bhakti by which the

devotee merged with God. But for this, the heart had to be cleaned

through jnana or knowledge. It could not, thus, influence the

masses.

Vishishtadvaita

• Ramanuja, born in Tamil Nadu in the eleventh century, was deeply

influenced by the Alvars.

• According to him the best means of attaining salvation was

through intense devotion to Vishnu.

• He propounded the doctrine of Vishishtadvaita or qualified

oneness in that the soul even when united with the Supreme

God remained distinct.

• Vishishtadvaita literally means the Unique Advaita, that is, Advaita

with some amendments.

• While it accepts Brahman as the unified whole, it states He is

characterized by multiple forms.

• Vishishtadvaita is qualified monism, where God alone exists, but

it admits plurality of souls.

• God and the individual souls are inseparable, just like the fire and

spark. In liberation, the Jivatma understands Paramatma, but do

not merge in Paramatma.

• According to Ramanujacharya, souls are intrinsically the same and

all souls are alike in their quality.

• God stands for the whole universe and matter and souls form His

body, He being THEIR soul. God is viewed as the cause and also

as the effect.

• Ramanuja's philosophy is a fusion of the Vedas and the Bhagavata

Purana.

• Ramanuja’s doctrine greatly inspired the new strand of bhakti which

developed in north India subsequently.

• He provided an intellectual basis for the practice of bhakti

(devotional worship) in three major commentaries: the Vedartha-

samgraha (on the Vedas, the earliest scriptures of Hinduism), the

Shri-bhashya (on the Brahma-sutras), and the Bhagavadgita-

bhashya (on the Bhagavadgita).

• Majority of Hindus follow the Dvaita philosophy. They feel that God

is the controller of their life, God is different from them.

Ramanuja Vs Shankara


• Ramanuja insisted that the phenomenal world is real and provides

real knowledge, and that the exigencies of daily life are not

detrimental or even contrary to the life of the spirit.

o In this emphasis he is the antithesis of Shankara, of

whom he was sharply critical and whose interpretation of the

scriptures he disputed.

• Ramanuja’s worldview accepts the ontological reality of three

distinct orders: matter, soul, and God.

• Like Shankara and earlier Vedanta, he admits that there is

nonduality (advaita), an ultimate identity of the three orders, but this

nonduality for him is asserted of God, who is modified (vishishta;

literally “qualified”) by the orders of matter and soul; hence, his

doctrine is known as Vishishtadvaita (“qualified nonduality”) as

opposed to the unqualified nonduality of Shankara.

• Ramanuja, tried to assimilate bhakti to the tradition of the Vedas.

He argued that in order to attain salvation, grace of God was

more important than knowledge about Him.

• Ramanuja emphasized that the path of prapatti or total reliance on,

or surrender to God was open to all, including the Shudras and the

Dalits.

• Thus, Ramanuja tried to build a bridge between the popular

movement based on bhakti, and the upper caste movement based

on the Vedas.

190. Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya (PIB)

• Why? The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has remembered

Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya on his death anniversary.

What?

• Deendayal Upadhyaya first started the monthly Rashtra Dharma

from Lucknow in the 1940s, meant for spreading the ideology of

Hindutva nationalism.

• He also started the weekly Panchjanya and then the daily

Swadesh.

• He entered politics through the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and

remained a lifelong pracharak of the Sangh.

• In 1951, Syama Prasad Mukherjee founded the Bharatiya Jana

Sangh along with Deendayal Upadhyaya as its general secretary.

• Upadhyaya devised the political philosophy Integral

Humanism, which advocates the simultaneous and integrated

program of the body, mind and intellect and soul of each human

being.

• He advocated a system free from social inequality where the capital

and power get decentralized.

• For India, he visualised a decentralised polity and self-reliant

economy with the village being the core.

• According to Upadhyaya, the primary concern in India must be to

develop an indigenous economic model that puts the human being

at center stage.

• Deendayal Upadhyay vision of ‘education for all’ and ‘har hath ko

kam, har khet ko pani’ was seen culminating in his idea of

Economic Democracy.

• He opposed the idea of large scale industries based development,

centralization and monopoly, he advocated swadeshi and

decentralization.

• He further said that any system which reduces the opportunity for

employment is undemocratic.

191. The Sufi Movement (PIB)

• Why? The Prime Minister of India presented a Chadar which shall

be offered at the Ajmer Sharif Dargah on the Urs of Khwaja

Moinuddin Chishti.

• The Muslim masses also celebrate the death anniversaries of

various saints in a ceremony called ʿurs’.

• The saints, far from dying, are believed to reach the zenith of their

spiritual life on this occasion.

What?

• The tenth century is important in Islamic history for variety of

reasons: it marks the rise of the Turks on the ruins of the Abbasid

Caliphate, as well as important changes in the realm of ideas and

beliefs.

• In the realm of ideas, it marks the end of the domination of the

Mutazila or rationalist philosophy, and the rise of orthodox

schools based on the Quran and Hadis (traditions of the Prophet

and his companions) and of the Sufi mystic orders.

• The ‘rationalists’ had been accused of spreading scepticism and

atheism. In particular, it was argued that their philosophy of monism

which held that God and the created world were fundamentally one

was heretical on the ground that it abolished the difference between

the creator and the created.

• The works of the ‘traditionalists’ crystallized in four schools of the

Islamic Law. Of these, the Hanafi school, which was the most

liberal, was adopted by the eastern Turks who later came to India.

• Mystics, who are called Sufis, had risen in Islam at a very early

stage. Most of them were persons of deep devotion who were

disgusted by the vulgar display of wealth and degeneration of

morals following the establishment of the Islamic empire.

o Hence, these saints wanted to have nothing to do with the

state—a tradition which continued later on.

• Some of the early Sufis, such as the woman mystic Rabia (d.

eighth century) and Mansur bin Hallaj (d. tenth century), laid

great emphasis on love as the bond between God and the

individual soul.

• But their pantheistic approach led them into conflict with the

orthodox elements who had Mansur executed for heresy.

• Despite this setback, mystic ideas continued to spread among the

Muslim masses. Al-Ghazzali (d. 1112), who is venerated both by

the orthodox elements and the Sufis, tried to reconcile mysticism

with Islamic orthodoxy. This he was able to do in a large measure.


• He gave a further blow to the ‘rationalist’ philosophy by arguing that

positive knowledge of God and his qualities cannot be gained by

reason, but only by revelation. Thus, the revealed book, Quran, was

vital for a mystic.

• Around this time, the Sufis were organized in 12 orders or silsilahs.

A silsilah was generally led by a prominent mystic who lived in a

khanqah or hospice along with his disciples.

• The link between the teacher or pir and his disciples or murids was

a vital part of the Sufi system. Every pir nominated a successor or

wali to carry on his work.

o The monastic organisation of the Sufis, and some of their

practices such as penance, fasting and holding the breath are

sometimes traced to the Buddhist and Hindu yogic influence.

• Buddhism was widely prevalent in Central Asia before the advent of

Islam, and the legend of the Buddha as a saintly man had passed

into the Islamic legend.

• Yogis continued to visit West Asia even after the advent of Islam

and the yogic book, Amrit-kund, had been translated into Persian

from Sanskrit.

o Thus, Hindu and Buddhist practices and rituals seem to -

have been absorbed and assimilated by the Sufis even

before they came to India.

• Whether, Buddhist philosophic ideas and Vedantist ideas had, in a

significant manner, influenced Sufism is a matter of controversy.

The origin of ideas is difficult to trace. The Sufi saints and many

modern thinkers trace the Sufi ideas to the Quran.

• What is important to note here is that, irrespective of origin, there

were many similarities in the ideas of the Sufis and the Hindu

yogis and mystics about the nature of God, and His relationship

with the soul, and the material world. This provided a basis for

mutual toleration and understanding.

Ba-shara Vs Be-shara

• The Sufi orders are broadly divided into two: Ba-shara, that is,

those which followed the Islamic Law (shara) and be-shara, that is,

those which were not bound by it.

• Both types of orders prevailed in India, the latter being followed

more by wandering saints.

• Although these saints did not establish an order, some of them

became figures of popular veneration, often for the Muslims and

Hindus alike.

The Chishti and Suharwardi Silsilahs

• Of the ba-shara movements, only two acquired significant influence

and following in north India during the thirteenth and fourteenth

centuries. These were the Chishti and Suharwardi silsilahs.

• The Chishti order was established in India by Khwaja Muinuddin

Chishti who came to India around 1192, shortly after the defeat and

death of Prithvi Raj Chauhan.

• After staying for some time in Lahore and Delhi he finally shifted to

Ajmer which was an important political centre and already had a

sizable Muslim population.

• No authentic record of his activities is available; he did not write any

book, but his fame rose, it seems, along with that of his successors.

• Among the disciples of Shaikh Muinuddin (d. 1235) were Bakhtiyar

Kaki and his disciple Faridud- Din Ganj-i-Shakar.

• Farid-ud-Din confined his activities to Hansi and Ajodhan (in

modern Haryana and the Punjab, respectively).

o He was deeply respected in Delhi, so much so that streams

of people would throng around him whenever he visited

Delhi.

o His outlook was so broad and humane that some of his

verses are later found quoted in the Adi-Granth of the Sikhs.

• The most famous of the Chishti saints, however, were Nizamuddin

Auliya and Nasiruddin Chiragh-i-Delhi.

• These early Sufis mingled freely with people of the lower classes,

including the Hindus.

• They led a simple, austere life, and conversed with people in

Hindawi, their local dialect.

• They were hardly interested in effecting conversions, though later

on, many families and groups, attributed their conversion to the

‘good wishes’ of these saints.

• These Sufi saints made themselves popular by adopting musical

recitations called sama, to create a mood of nearness to God.

• Moreover, they often chose Hindi verses for the purpose, since they

could make a greater impact on their listeners.

• Nizamuddin Auliya adopted yogic breathing exercises, so much so

that the yogis called him a sidh or ‘perfect’.

• After the death of Nasiruddin Chiragh-i-Delhi in the middle of the

fourteenth century, the Chishtis did not have a commanding figure

at Delhi. As a result, the Chishti saints dispersed, and extended

their message to the eastern and southern parts of India.

• The Suharwardi order entered India at about the same time as the

Chishtis, but its activities were confined largely to the Punjab and

Multan.

• The most well-known saints of the order were Shaikh Shihabuddin

Suharwardi and Hamid-ud-Din Nagori.

• Unlike the Chishtis, the Suharwardi saints did not believe in leading

a life of poverty.

o They accepted the service of the state, and some of them

held important posts in the ecclesiastical department.

o The Chishtis, on the other hand, preferred to keep aloof from

state politics and shunned the company of rulers and nobles.

• Nevertheless, both helped the rulers in their own way by creating a

climate of opinion in which people belonging to different sects and

religions could live in peace and harmony.

192. All About Winter Olympics (TH)

• Why? Terming China’s decision to field a People’s Liberation Army

(PLA) soldier involved in the June 2020 Galwan clashes as the

torchbearer for the Winter Olympics Games in Beijing as

“regrettable”, India announced a diplomatic boycott of the games

just ahead of the opening ceremony.

What?

• The decision does not affect the participation of Arif Khan, the skier

who will be the only athlete representing India in Beijing.

What is a diplomatic boycott?

• It simply means these countries will not send official government

delegations to Beijing during the Games.

Does a diplomatic boycott affect athletes’ participation?

• It doesn’t. Athletes and officials from all countries will continue to

take part in the Winter Olympics in Beijing unhindered.

Why have the Beijing Winter Games been so controversial?

• In India’s case, the boycott was announced after a Chinese soldier

involved in the Galwan incident was made an Olympic torchbearer.


• The Western countries, led by the US, made the diplomatic snub

over China’s alleged treatment of the Uyghur Muslims and

human rights issues.

• Some countries like Austria, New Zealand, Slovenia, Sweden and

the Netherlands have cited pandemic-related risks for not

sending government officials.

• France, the hosts of the 2024 Summer Olympics, has been

against a boycott.

Has the Peng Shuai issue also contributed to the boycotts?

• Yes. The US and Australia cited it as one of the reasons, while

German ministers, too, said they won’t attend the Games in

response to the alleged treatment meted out towards Chinese

tennis star Peng Shuai.

• Peng Shuai had accused a high-ranking communist party member,

Zhang Gaoli, of sexually assaulting her.

Olympic Games

• The first Olympic Games took place in the 8th century B.C. in

Olympia, Greece. They were held every four years for 12 centuries.

Then, in the 4th century A.D., all pagan festivals were banned by

Emperor Theodosius I and the Olympics were no more.

• However, the athletic tradition was resurrected about 1500 years

later: The first modern Olympics were held in 1896 in Greece.

• The five rings of the Olympic symbol – designed by Baron Pierre

de Coubertin, co-founder of the modern Olympic Games –

represent the five inhabited continents of the world.

• The six colors – blue, yellow, black, green, red, and the white

background – were chosen because every nation’s flag contains at

least one of them.

• The Olympics remains the world’s greatest congregation adhering

to its eternal ‘faster, higher, stronger’ motto.

• The basic requirements for a sport to be Olympic are as follows: it

must have a men's federation in at least 75 countries on four

continents and a women's federation in 40 countries on three

continents.

o In addition, the country organising the Games may propose

that sports be included or removed depending on their

strength in the Games or on the climatic or economic

conditions.

o Finally, the IOC votes on whether they are accepted or not.

• The first time the Olympics were cancelled was in 1916, which

were scheduled to be held in Berlin and German Empire, but were

cancelled due to World War I.

• Japan had planned to host the summer and winter Olympics in

1940, but the second world war led to the cancellation of the

Games.

• After abandonment of the Tokyo Games in 1940, the 1944 edition in

London was also cancelled due to WWII.

• Moreover, in 1980, many countries, including the US, China and

Japan, boycotted the Moscow Olympics in protest at the Soviet

Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.

• As Tokyo, Japan, underwent a harsh Covid-19 wave of the

pandemic in 2020, the games were postponed to 2021.

Winter Olympics

• The first Winter Games were held in Chamonix (France), in 1924.

• The Winter Olympics used to be held during the same year as

Summer Games until 1992

• Since 1992, the Summer and Winter Games are each still held

every four years but the Summer Games are celebrated during

the first year of an Olympiad and the Winter Games held in the

third year (four years period is called "Olympiad).

• Both Summer and Winter Olympic Games are organized by the

International Olympic Committee.

• The Summer Olympics, more popularly known as just The

Olympics is a much bigger event with 204 countries participating as

of 2012.

• The Winter Olympics is an event on a relatively smaller scale, with

about 88 countries participating in it.

• The Winter Olympics typically occur in February of their scheduled

year, while the Summer Olympics take place in the month of August

of their scheduled year.

• Winter Olymics are organised only for sports that are practiced on

snow and ice.

• Beijing is the first city to host both Summer and Winter

Olympics. Beijing is also the first Olympic venue to host the Games

where natural snow is not abundant.

o There are hundreds of snow guns and necessary equipment

used to create artificial snow at the snow-centric venues.

• There will be 15 sports held at the Winter Olympics in Beijing this

year.

Do you know?

• The International Olympic Committee is entirely privately funded

and ever since the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 it

has relied upon contributions from commercial partners in order to

stage the Games and support the Olympic Movement.

• At the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in October 2015,

confronted with the global refugee crisis that has seen millions of

people in the world displaced, IOC President Thomas Bach

announced the creation of the Refugee Olympic Team – the first of

its kind – to take part in the Olympic Games Rio 2016.

193. National War Memorial (PIB)


• Why? PM urges people to visit National War Memorial.

What?

• National War Memorial was inaugurated in 2019.

• It is located inside the C hexagon India Gate at New Delhi.

• The layout of the structure comprises four concentric circles,

named:

o the "Amar Chakra" or Circle of Immortality,

o the "Veerta Chakra" or Circle of Bravery,

o the "Tyag Chakra" or Circle of Sacrifice and

o the "Rakshak Chakra" or Circle of Protection.

• The memorial is dedicated to soldiers who laid down their lives

defending the nation during the Sino-Indian war in 1962, Indo-Pak

wars in 1947, 1965 and 1971, Indian Peace Keeping Force

Operations in Sri Lanka and in the Kargil Conflict in 1999.

• The National War Memorial also commemorates the soldiers

who participated and made supreme sacrifices in United

Nations peace-keeping missions, Humanitarian Assistance

Disaster Relief (HADR) operations, counterinsurgency operations

and Low-Intensity Conflict Operations (LICO).

• As part of the Central Vista redevelopment project, the Amar Jawan

Jyoti flame has been merged with the one at National War

Memorial.

Amar Jawan Jyoti

• Established in 1972, it was to mark India’s victory over Pakistan in

the 1971 War, which resulted in the creation of Bangladesh.

• The eternal flame at the Amar Jawan Jyoti was a symbol of the

nation’s tributes to the soldiers who have died for the country in

various wars and conflicts since Independence.

• The India Gate memorial was built by the British government in

memory of the British Indian Army soldiers who lost their lives

between 1914-1921.

Reason for relocation

• The names inscribed on the India Gate are of only some martyrs

who fought for the British in World War 1 and the Anglo Afghan War

& thus is a symbol of our colonial past.

• The names of all Indian martyrs from all the wars, including “1971

and wars before and after it are housed at the National War

Memorial.

I) Miscellaneous

194. Fifth Generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA)

(TH)

• India and France are close to concluding a deal, likely in the next

couple of months, for the joint development of a 125KN engine for

the indigenous fifth generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft

(AMCA) under development.

195. Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) (TH)

• A number of people killed by jihadists in the villages of Borno state

in northeast Nigeria in four separate attacks. The villages are on

the fringes of Sambisa forest, a major jihadist hideout.

• The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), who split from

rival Boko Haram jihadists in 2016, has escalated attacks in recent

weeks, despite ongoing military operations.

196. Glycogen Reserves (TH)

• We store glucose in the form of glycogen in the liver, and the

energy demands of the body are met from this reservoir.

• One day of fasting leads to a 20% decrease in blood sugar levels

and depleted glycogen reserves.

• The body switches to a metabolic mode where energy is obtained

from fat-derived ketone bodies and from glucose outside the liver.

197. Devastation in Spring (TH)

• The Chixulub meteorite impact that killed the dinosaurs, and many

other life forms, occurred in springtime, finds a new study published

in Nature.

• The researchers studied growth rings in the bones of exquisitely

preserved fish fossils and deduced this.

• Additional evidence was provided by the distribution, shapes and

sizes of bone cells which are known to fluctuate with season.

198. Time Dilation Clocked (TH)


• Time dilation is a phenomenon predicted by Albert Einstein and

refers to the stretching of time intervals when moving at high

speeds or passing near intense gravitational fields.

• According to relativity, time slows the faster you go as you

approach the speed of light. Gravitational fields can cause the

same slowdown, too: The stronger the field, the greater the time

dilation. The closer you are to Earth’s center the more Earth’s

gravity is pulling you down, and the more time dilation you

experience.

• Now, in a feat of measurement science, physicists, have shown that

two tiny atomic clocks placed a millimetre away from each other

tick at different rates.

199. Multi-nation air exercise cancelled (TH)

• The multi-nation air exercise Cobra Warrior with NATO countries

Belgium, the U.K. and the U.S. along with Sweden and Saudi

Arabia scheduled to be held in March 2022, which the Indian Air

Force (IAF) was to join for the first time, has been cancelled against

the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis.

200. Fallen soldiers not ‘martyrs’, says Army (TH)

• The Army headquarters has issued a letter to all its Commands on

the incorrect use of the term “martyr” for soldiers who fell in the line

of duty, which it said “may not be appropriate.”

• Martyr refers to a person who suffers death as a penalty for

refusing to renounce a religion or a person who suffers very much

or is killed because of their religious or political beliefs.

• The letter further stated that in order to “preserve the memory and

maintain the dignity of Indian Army soldiers” who have made the

“supreme sacrifice” while protecting the sovereignty and integrity of

the nation, it is requested that “any one of the following terms (as

per context) may be used” when referring to them in public in

speech or in written form.

• The six terms suggested are: killed in action, laid down their lives,

supreme sacrifice for the nation, fallen heroes, Indian Army braves

and fallen soldiers.

201. Same species of tree had different patterns of carbon dioxide

storage (TH)

• A team of scientists researching the consequences of forest loss,

examined if the same species of tree had different patterns of

carbon dioxide storage when located at a forest edge or further

away.

• The textbook assumption was that trees at forest edges release

and store carbon at similar rates as forest interiors, but this isn’t

true.

• A team of researchers found edge trees grew faster than their

country cousins deep in the forest, and that soil in urban areas can

hoard more carbon dioxide than previously thought.

• This is likely because the trees on the edge don't have competition

with interior forest, so they get more light.

202. Forest cover outside the recorded forest area (TH)

• The India State of Forest Report (2021) released in January found

that nearly 28% of the forest cover is outside the recorded forest

area.

• About 12% of the forests classified as ‘very dense’ is also outside

the recorded areas.

• Following a trend and noted in previous editions of the forest

surveys, the increase in forest cover between 2019 and 2021 was

led by growth outside the recorded area and the sharpest increase

was in so called ‘open forest’ where any patch over a hectare and

having a canopy density more than 10% counts as ‘forest.’

• This brings in man-made plantations of cash crops such as tea and

coffee plantations and mango orchards and even tree-lined

avenues in densely built-up cities were being classified as ‘forest’.

203. Employment Outlook of India (PIB)

• The National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and

Programme Implementation has released the press note on

Employment Outlook of the country covering the period

September, 2017 to December, 2021 based on the administrative

records available with selected government agencies to assess the

progress in certain dimensions.

204. Meet the Champions Initiative (PIB)

• Meet the Champions' initiative is a unique school visit campaign

that, is jointly being organized by the Ministry of Education and the

Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.

• During their visit, the Olympians share their own experiences, life

lessons, tips on how to eat right and also give an overall

inspirational boost to school children.

205. Ombudsperson App (PIB)

• Ministry of Rural Development has developed an Ombudsperson

App for smooth reporting and categorization of grievances by

Ombudsperson based on complaints he received from various

sources viz. physical, digital and mass media, related to the

implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi NREG Scheme in the

States/UTs.

• At present, the reporting of complaints, passing awards and

disposal of complaints are in physical form.

206. SPARSH Initiative (PIB)

• Defence Accounts Department (DAD) of Ministry of Defence has

signed an MoU with CSC e-Governance Services India Limited, a

special purpose vehicle (SPV) under Ministry of Electronics and

Information Technology, to onboard pension services under the

System for Pension Administration (Raksha) {SPARSH}

initiative across more than four lakh Common Service Centres

(CSCs) all over the country.

• SPARSH is an initiative of Ministry of Defence which aims at

providing a comprehensive solution to the administration of pension

to the defence pensioners in line with the Government’s vision of

‘Digital India’, ‘Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT)’ and ‘Minimum

Government, Maximum Governance’.

207. Meiteis (TH)

• A demand for granting Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the Meiteis

has found no takers among the political parties in poll-bound

Manipur.

• The Meiteis are the dominant community in 40 of the 60 Assembly

constituencies straddling the Imphal and Jiribam Valleys.


• A majority follow Hinduism, while a little more than 8% are Muslims,

known as Pangals here.

208. One Rank, One Pension (OROP) (TH)

• The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its judgment on a

petition claiming that the government’s implementation of One

Rank, One Pension (OROP) for the armed forces has been faulty.

• OROP means a uniform pension would be paid to retired

servicemen of the same rank with the same length of service,

regardless of their date of retirement.

209. Desert Kites or Mass Traps (TH)

• A team of Jordanian and French archaeologists said that it had

found a roughly 9,000-year-old shrine at a remote Neolithic site in

Jordan’s eastern desert.

• The ritual complex was found in a Neolithic campsite near large

structures known as “desert kites,” or mass traps that are believed

to have been used to corral wild gazelles for slaughter.

210. Vigyan Sarvatra Pujyate (PIB)

• Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is

participating in ‘Vigyan Sarvatra Pujyate’ being held across the

country on the occasion of 75th year of India’s Independence, ‘Azadi

Ka Amrit Mahotsav’.

• ‘Vigyan Sarvatra Pujayate’ is a pan-India programme to showcase

science, technology & innovation from every part of the country

during February 22-28, 2022.

211. EU Ministerial Forum on Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific (TH)

• India’s foreign affairs Minister appreciated the French initiative of

hosting a EU Ministerial Forum on Cooperation in the Indo-

Pacific on February 22, where he will participate along with several

other Ministers from the Indo-Pacific and the EU countries.

212. SEA-ME-WE-6 Undersea Cable Consortium (TH)

• Bharti Airtel announced it had joined the SEA-ME-WE-6 undersea

cable consortium, participating as a major investor, while Reliance

Jio said it would land its India-Asia-Xpress (IAX) undersea cable

system in Maldives.

• The 19,200 Rkm (route kilometres) SubCom and the Southeast

Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 6 (SEA-ME-WE 6) will connect

Singapore and France.

213. Living With Covid Campaign (TH)

• The British government confirmed that people with COVID-19 won’t

be legally required to self-isolate, as part of a plan for “living with

COVID” that is also likely to see testing for the coronavirus scaled

back.

• British Prime Minister said ending all of the legal restrictions brought

in to curb the spread of the virus will let people in the U.K. “protect

ourselves without restricting our freedoms.”

214. What is Co-location (TH)

• The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has recorded the

statement of former National Stock Exchange (NSE) Managing

Director in connection with ‘co-location’ or the alleged abuse of

server architecture of the exchange to provide preferential access

to a private company to the data ahead of other brokers.

215. Western Quad (TH)

• The western Quad consisting of Israel, India, UAE and the United

States has been a regional factor ever since it was convened in

October 2021 which was followed by a ministerial meeting of the

four countries.

216. International Mother Language Day (PIB)

• International Mother Language Day is observed worldwide on

21st February every year to promote awareness of linguistic and

cultural diversity and to promote multilingualism.

• International Mother Language Day is observed to honour those in

Bangladesh who sacrificed their lives to protect their mother tongue,

Bangla, against the then rulers of West Pakistan and to honour the

ethno-linguistic rights of individuals across the world.

• The general conference of the United Nations Educational,

Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) decided to

celebrate February 21 as International Mother Language Day in

2000.

• The theme of 2022 is: “Using technology for multilingual

learning: Challenges and opportunities.

Article 350-A in Part XVII of the Indian Constitution

• It shall be the endeavour of every state and every local authority

within the state to provide adequate facilities for instruction in the

mother-tongue at the primary stage of education to children

belonging to linguistic minority groups.

217. Australia banned far-right extremist group (TH)

• Australia has added the U.S.-based far-right extremist group

National Socialist Order and planned to add the entirety of the

Palestinian group Hamas to its list of outlawed terrorist

organisations as concerns rise about radicalised children.

218. Freedom 2 Walk & Cycle Challenge (PIB)

• Smart Cities Mission, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs

(MoHUA), as part of the activities being undertaken under Azadi Ka

Amrut Mahotsav (AKAM) launched two unique national level

challenges for the first time- “Freedom 2 Walk & Cycle Challenge

for City Leaders” & “Inter- City Freedom 2 Walk & Cycle Challenge

for Citizens” between 1st to 26th January 2022.

• In addition to being events that motivate citizens to adopt healthier

life choices in a celebratory spirit, the Challenges serve the larger

purpose of a long-term behavioral change in citizens towards

taking up walking & cycling, and to make city leaders as walking

and cycling champions in each city.

219. Darkathon-2022 (TH)


• The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) is organising “Darkathon-

2022” to find solutions to counter drug trafficking on the darknet.

• The agency recently busted three groups of drug peddlers

operating on the network that is accessed through encryption

software which enables anonymity of users.

220. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar as Young Entrepreneur (PIB)

• In 1917, Dr. Bababasaheb Ambedkar set up a firm called ‘Stock &

Shares Advisors’ to do business as a consultant in the trading of

stocks and shares.

• He submitted a memorandum to Viceroy Linlithgow in 1942,

demanding the participation of the underprivileged in the tenders of

CPWD.

• Due to his extensive social and political responsibilities, Babasaheb

could not give time to his entrepreneurial side.

221. The Wild Oranges of India (TH)

• Over 60 different citrus fruits are popular in the world today, all of

which are hybrids of the three fruits mentioned below, or hybrids

of hybrids, and so on:

o (1) The large, sweet and spongy-skinned Pomelo (Citrus

maxima; chakotara in Hindi);

o (2) the tasteless Citron, which is used in traditional medicine

(Citrus medica; Galgal), and

o (3) the loose-skinned and sweet mandarin orange (Citrus

reticulata; Santra) that we associate with Nagpur.

222. Y-Shaped Seat Belt (TH)

• Soon, all “front-facing” seats, including middle-rear seats, will be

required to have a “three-point” or Y-shaped seat belt, since it

spreads the energy all over the body in the event of a collision,

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said recently.

• In the recent past, the Ministry also proposed to make six airbags

compulsory for all passenger cars.

223. Poshan Tracker (TH)

• Rising inflation, increased workload due to COVID-19 and a close

monitoring of their daily activities through a tool called Poshan

Tracker has forced the workers at anganwadis or child care centres

in Delhi to once again go on an indefinite strike.

• They have demanded that the government recognise them as its

employees and pay them at least minimum wages.

• Since 2017, the Ministry of Women and Child Development has

rolled out a mobile application called Poshan Tracker to record

delivery of different anganwadi services and growth and nutrition

indicators of the beneficiaries. But workers feel it is more of a tool to

snoop on them.

224. Patriot Missile Defence System (TH)

• The United States has approved a possible $100 million sale of

equipment and services to Taiwan to “sustain, maintain, and

improve” the Patriot missile defence system used by the self-

ruled island claimed by China.

225. NITI Aayog, USAID to collaborate in healthcare (TH)

• The Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, and the U.S. Agency

for International Development announced a new partnership

under the Sustainable Access to Markets and Resources for

Innovative Delivery of Healthcare initiative, which aims to

improve access to affordable and quality healthcare for vulnerable

populations in cities, rural and tribal regions.

226. Sri Lanka to launch its own ‘Aadhaar’ (TH)

• India has agreed to provide a grant to Sri Lanka to implement a

‘Unitary Digital Identity framework’, apparently modelled on the

Aadhaar card.

227. Kodiyal Theru (TH)

• Trusting in God Hundreds of devotees pulling the chariot of Sri

Venkataramana as part of the Kodiyal Theru, an annual car

festival, ignoring COVID-19 physical distancing norms, in

Mangaluru.

• The “Kodial Theru” or The Car Festival called as Theru in Konkani

and Rathothsava in Kannada revolves around the celebrations of

placing the Deity in a gigantic Ratha (a wooden palanquin or palkhi)

decorated in red and white which is then hauled across the city by

devotees.

228. Marital Rape (TH)

• Why? The Delhi High Court has asked the Centre to clarify in two

weeks its stand on the issue of criminalising rape within marriage.

What?

• In India, marital rape is not defined in any statute or law.

• An exception granted to husbands under Indian rape law says

sexual intercourse by a man with his wife aged 15 years or above is

not rape even if it is without her consent. In October 2017, the

Supreme Court increased the age of consent to 18 years.

229. Waqf Properties in India (PIB)

• Why? Union Ministry of Minority Affairs is implementing Shahari

Waqf Sampatti Vikas Yojana (SWSVY) through Central Waqf

Council (CWC).

What?

• Shahari Waqf Sampatti Vikas Yojana (SWSVY)

• Under this scheme, the Central Waqf Council (CWC) provides

interest free loan to Waqf Institutions/Waqf Boards throughout India

for taking up economically viable projects on the urban Waqf land

such as commercial complexes, marriage halls, hospitals, cold

storages etc.

• Central Waqf Council is a statutory body under the administrative

control of the Ministry of Minority Affairs.

• Union Minister of Minority Affairs is the ex-officio Chairperson of

the Central Waqf Council.

• Waqf is the property given in the name of God for religious and

charitable purposes.

• The proceeds from waqf properties are typically used to finance

educational institutions, graveyards, mosques and shelter homes.

230. Satkosia Tiger Reserve (STR) (TH)

• Fifteen years after declaration as a tiger reserve and failure of

revival of big cat population through India’s first inter-State tiger

relocation programme, the Satkosia Tiger Reserve (STR) in

Odisha has started making efforts afresh to re-establish it as a tiger

habitat.


• The State and Forest department are attempting to relocate

inhabitants of three villages from its core area to create 500 sq km

area of inviolate zone for tigers.

231. Havana Syndrome (TH)

• A recent U.S. intelligence report says that ‘Havana Syndrome’ —a

collection of symptoms (such as dizziness, hearing loss,

headaches, vertigo, nausea, memory loss and possible brain

injuries) and related brain injuries, reported by U.S. officials,

particularly diplomats in embassies —could be caused by pulsed

electromagnetic energy or close-range ultrasound.

232. Separate Agriculture Budget (TH)

• Preparations are in full swing for the first separate Agriculture

Budget to be presented in the Rajasthan Assembly session starting

on February 9, with the emphasis on welfare measures for farmers

and innovations for the benefit of cultivators.

To the Point Current Affairs: Magazine February 2022

Documents

Transcript of To the Point Current Affairs: Magazine February 2022