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N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 0 C A K A M A R A J I A S A C A D E M Y P a g e | 1
AP - 127, AF block, 6 th street, 11th Main Rd, Shanthi Colony, Anna Nagar, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600040
CURRENT AFFAIRS
NOVEMBER - 2020
INDEX
A. POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
1. Bru Resettlement in Tripura
2. OTT under I&B
3. One Nation, One Election
4. New CIC Appointed
5. Roshni Act
6. Kerala Withdraws General Consent
to CBI
7. Star Campaigner
8. All insults not offences under
SC/ST Act
9. Disqualification of MLA
10. Parliamentary Standing Committee
on Health
B. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. SCO Heads of State Summit
2. India – Luxembourg
3. India – Bahrain
4. Kartarpur Gurudwara
5. 4th
Global Meet on Criminal
Finances
6. India-Maldives-Sri Lanka Trilateral
7. RCEP takes off
8. 15th
G20 Leaders Summit
9. India – Italy
C. ECONOMY
1. Increase in Forex
2. WPI inflation @ 8 months high
3. GDP Contracts
4. Government allocates for infra
funding
5. Agriculture Exports Grow
6. NGREGA demand rises
7. Proposal for Corporate Houses to
set up banks
8. LVB under Moratorium
9. Centre rolls out 1.19 lakh crore
stimulus package
D. ENVIRONMENT
1. Uttarakhand de-notifies Elephant
Reserve
2. Blue Tide along Mumbai Coast
3. High Biodiversity in Ganga
4. Vulture number Stabilizing
5. Gya Glacier Outburst
6. Spike in Ammonium levels in
R.Yamuna
7. Atlantic Oceans largest protected
Marine Reserve
8. Lonar Lake Declared Ramsar Site
9. Water Bears survive UV Radiation
E. SOCIAL ISSUES
1. 2.5 crore rural homes gets tap
water
2. Indian Universities Employability
3. Deserted Wives alimony
4. More Children to get fortified rice
5. NITI Aayog report on Nutrition
6. Academic Freedom Index
7. Public Affairs Index
8. File FIRs for Cyber crimes
9. India’s push for gender equality in
Science
10. IIT Bombay tops in India- QS
Ranking
F. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
1. D614G Mutation in Coronavirus
2. QRSAM Trial
3. IRNSS
4. Diabetes goal not satisfactory
5. EOS-01 launched
6. India and Measles Vaccine
7. RT-LAMP for detecting COVID
8. IMAC
9. Elimination of Kala Azar
10. India’s Deep Sea Mission
11. Gullian Barre Syndrome
12. SpaceX-NASA’s Crew 1 Mission
13. Fast Radio Burst Observed in
Milky Way Galaxy
G. ART AND CULTURE
Miyas of Assam and Char-Chapori Culture
H. PRELIMS TIT BITS
I. TROPICAL CYCLONES
N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 0 C A K A M A R A J I A S A C A D E M Y P a g e | 2
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A. POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
1.Protests against Bru resettlement in Tripura
What’s in news?
Tripura’s Kanchanpur and Panisagar areas
remains tense after protests against the planned
resettlement of thousands of Bru migrants
permanently at Kanchanpur sub-division of North
Tripura turned violent
Who are Brus?
i. The Bru or Reang are a community
indigenous to Northeast India, living
mostly in Tripura, Mizoram, and
Assam.
ii. In Tripura, they are recognised as a
Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group
(PVTG).
iii. Bru are the second most populous tribe of
Tripura, after the Tripuris
iv. They speak the Reang dialect of
Kokborok language which is of Tibeto-
Burmese origin and is locally referred to
as Kau Bru.
v. Hojagiri folk dance of Reang sub tribe is
rather well known all over the world.
vi. There is no dowry system among the Brus
and they are endogamous tribe
How did they become internally displaced?
i. In Mizoram, they are scattered in Kolasib,
Lunglei and Mamit districts.
ii. While many Brus of Assam and Tripura
are Hindu, the Brus of Mizoram converted
to Christianity over the years.
iii. Clashes in 1995 with the majority Mizos
led to the demand for the removal of the
Brus, perceived to be non-indigenous,
from Mizoram’s electoral rolls.
iv. This led to an armed movement by a Bru
outfit, which killed a Mizo forest official
in October 1997.
v. The retaliatory ethnic violence saw more
than 40,000 Brus fleeing to adjoining
Tripura where they took shelter in six
relief camps.
What’s now?
i. In a major breakthrough on repatriation of
displaced Bru persons from Mizoram, an
agreement was signed by Government of
India, Governments of Mizoram and
Tripura and Mizoram Bru Displaced
People’s Forum (MBDPF) in July 2018
ii. Government of India assured financial
assistance for rehabilitation of Brus in
Mizoram and address their issues of
security, education, livelihood etc. in
consultation with Governments of
Mizoram and Tripura.
iii. According to the four-corner agreement
for resettling them in Tripura, the central
government announced a special
development project with funding of Rs
600 crore.
iv. Each resettled family is estimated get 0.03
acre (1.5 ganda) of land for building a
home, Rs 1.5 lakh as housing assistance,
and Rs 4 lakh as a one-time cash benefit
for sustenance, monthly allowance of Rs
5,000 and free rations for two years from
the date of resettlement.
v. The repatriation so far has not gone
according to what the government had
promised, with the Mizoram government
not issuing ration cards to the families who
returned.
vi. The Bru leaders have also alleged that
those who accepted the rehabilitation
package had not been allotted land to
construct houses and had been kept in
huts, where they were sharing community
kitchens and toilets.
vii. Over the past 10 months, the state has
planned 12 resettlement spots across six
districts of Tripura with 300 families each.
viii. Six of these spots were proposed to be set
up at Kanchanpur sub-division alone, a
move opposed by the Joint Movement
Committee
ix. They demanded that the Bru migrants
should get settlement in all the eight
districts of the state to prevent their
concentration in Kanchanpur sub division.
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x. The recent agitation in Tripura was started
by Joint Movement Committee to save
‘ancestral lands’ from Bru migrants as the
government was planning to settle 5,000
migrant families at Kanchanpur instead of
1,500 as assured by the local
administration a month back.
2.News websites, streaming services now under
I&B purview
What’s in news?
i. The government has ordered that digital
media, including films and online news
platforms, will now come under the
purview of the Union Ministry of
Information and Broadcasting.
ii. In the absence of any specific laws of
online content providers and news
platforms, the segment was not directly
regulated by any particular ministry and
the Information Technology Act, 2000
has provided the overarching legal
framework for it.
iii. The Cabinet Secretariat amended the
Government of India (Allocation of
Business) Rules to include “Films and
Audio-Visual programmes made available
by online content providers” and “News
and current affairs content on online
platforms” under the I&B Ministry.
iv. This has brought video streaming over-the-
top (OTT) platforms such as Netflix,
Amazon’s Prime Video, Hotstar, and
others under the Ministry of Information
and Broadcasting (I&B)
What are OTT platforms?
i. OTT, or over-the-top platforms, are audio
and video hosting and streaming services
which started out as content hosting
platforms, but soon branched out into the
production and release of short movies,
feature films, documentaries and web-
series themselves.
ii. These platforms offer a range of content
and use artificial intelligence to suggest
users the content they are likely to view
based on their past viewership on the
platform.
What are the regulation available for media?
i. For print media, there is the Press Council
of India, which is a statutory, quasi-
judicial authority;
ii. For television news, the News
Broadcasting Standards Authority is a
self-regulatory body;
iii. For films there is the Central Board of
Film Certification, which comes under
the I&B Ministry;
iv. For television entertainment, there is
Broadcasting Content Complaints
Council, which is also independent and
self-regulatory;
v. Advertising Standards Council of India,
is also a industry self-regulatory body.
vi. Moreover, the I&B Ministry also has a
mechanism to penalize television
channels—both, news and non-news—for
any violation of the programme code and
the advertising code prescribed under the
Cable Television Network (Regulation)
Act, 1995.
vii. In 2019 November, government had
brought out a draft Registration of Press
and Periodicals (RPP) Bill, which sought
to replace the 150-year of Press &
Registration of Books Act, 1867.
viii. So far in India, there are no laws or rules
regulating OTT platforms as it is a
relatively new medium of entertainment.
What happens now to the OTT platforms?
i. The issue of unregulated content on the
OTT platforms has been raised in the
courts several times in the past.
ii. First challenge before the OTT platforms
would be keeping a check on their content.
iii. It could also mean that these platforms
would have to apply for certification and
approval of the content they wish to
stream
iv. This could give rise to many conflicts as
most OTT platforms have content that
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could otherwise be censored by the
certification boards in India.
Recent FDI Rules:
i. Upto 26% FDI is allowed in online news
platforms, as of now I&B Ministry has
laid down certain guidelines
ii. The conditions require the online news
platforms with even less than 26 per cent
foreign direct investment (FDI) to share
details of their shareholding, directors and
promoters within a month.
What’s next?
i. OTT platforms are likely to resist any
plans to censor the content being provided
and streamed by them as these platforms
have often chosen to produce movies and
documentaries on politically sensitive but
relevant topics.
ii. It will also have to be seen as to what
guidelines, if any, does the I&B ministry
put in place for regulating these OTT
platforms.
3.PM pitches for ‘One Nation, One Election’
What’s in News?
PM while addressing the concluding session of the
80th All India Presiding Officers Conference
pitched for “One Nation, One Election” and a
single voter list for all polls in order to prevent the
impact of the model code of conduct on
development works every few months due to
frequent spread-out polls.
Advantages of Simultaneous Elections:
In 2015, the Parliamentary Standing
Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances,
Law and Justice, headed by E M Sudarsana
Natchiappan, prepared a report on the ‘Feasibility
of Holding Simultaneous Elections to House of
People (Lok Sabha) and State Legislative
Assemblies’.
The report said that simultaneous elections would
help to reduce:
(1) the massive expenditure that is currently
incurred for the conduct of separate elections,
(2) the policy paralysis that results from the
imposition of the Model Code of Conduct during
election time,
(3) the impact on the delivery of essential
services and,
(4) the burden on crucial manpower that is
deployed during election time.
Disadvantages of Simultaneous Elections:
1) Complexity of simultaneous elections in a
country of India’s size and diversity would
be impossible to manage.
2) There would be massive logistics issues,
requiring about twice as many electronic
voting machines and Voter Verifiable
Paper Audit Trail machines as in a Lok
Sabha election.
3) Also, it is widely held that simultaneous
polls would benefit the nationally
dominant party at the cost of regional
players, and the complications that would
arise if any of the governments were to
collapse before completing its term.
Did India had Simultaneous Election Earlier?
1) India did start out with simultaneous
elections.
2) Lok Sabha and state legislatures went to
polls together in 1952 and 1957.
3) The cycle was first broken in Kerala, in
July 1959, when the government of
Jawaharlal Nehru used Article 356 of the
Constitution to dismiss the government of
the Communist E M S Namboodiripad
4) At present, Assembly elections in only
Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Arunachal
Pradesh and Sikkim are held together with
the Lok Sabha elections.
Earlier Attempts of Simultaneous Elections:
1) In 1983, the Election Commission had
suggested simultaneous elections.
2) The Law Commission headed by Justice B
P Jeevan Reddy, in its 170th Report in
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May 1999, had stated: “We must go back
to the situation where the elections to Lok
Sabha and all the Legislative Assemblies
are held at once”
All India Presiding Officers Conference:
i. The All India Presiding Officers
Conference began in 1921
ii. The theme of this year's conference is
‘Harmonious Coordination between
Legislature, Executive and Judiciary- Key
to a Vibrant Democracy’.
4.Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha takes oath as
Chief Information Commissioner
Central Information Commission :
Background:
1. The Central Information Commission was
established by the Central Government in
2005, under the provisions of the Right
to Information Act (2005).
2. It is a Non-Constitutional Body
3. Right to Information (RTI) is an act of the
Parliament which sets out the rules and
procedures regarding citizens' right to
information.
4. It replaced the former Freedom of
Information Act, 2002.
5. Under the provisions of RTI Act, any
citizen of India may request information
from a "public authority" which is required
to reply expeditiously or within thirty
days.
6. In case of matter involving a petitioner's
life and liberty, the information has to be
provided within 48 hours.
Composition: The Commission consists of a Chief
Information Commissioner and not more than ten
Information Commissioners.
Appointment:
1. They are appointed by the President of
India on the recommendation of a
committee consisting of the Prime
Minister as Chairperson, the Leader of
Opposition in the Lok Sabha and a
Union Cabinet Minister to be nominated
by the Prime Minister
2. Oath of Office will be administered by the
President of India according to the form
set out in the First Schedule.
Eligibility Criteria:
1. Candidates for CIC/IC must be persons of
eminence in public life with wide knowledge and
experience in law, science and technology, social
service, management, journalism, mass media or
administration and governance.
2. CIC/IC shall not be a Member of Parliament or
Member of the Legislature of any State or Union
Territory. He shall not hold any other office of
profit or connected with any political party or
carrying on any business or pursuing any
profession.
Powers and Functions of CIC:
The Central Information Commission or State
Information Commission, as the case may be,
shall, while inquiring into any matter under this
section, have the same powers as are vested in a
civil court while trying a suit under the Code of
Civil Procedure, 1908, in respect of the following
matters, namely:—
(a) Summoning and enforcing the attendance of
persons and compel them to give oral or written
evidence on oath and to produce the documents or
things;
(b) Requiring the discovery and inspection of
documents;
(c) Receiving evidence on affidavit;
(d) Requisitioning any public record or copies
thereof from any court or office;
(e) Issuing summons for examination of witnesses
or documents; and
(f) Any other matter, which may be prescribed.
Resignation and Removal:
1. The CIC or an IC may, at any time, by
writing under his hand addressed to the
President, resign from his office.
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2. The CIC or an IC may be removed from
office only by order of the President on the
ground of proved misbehaviour or
incapacity after the Supreme Court, on a
reference made to it by the President,
reports that he/she should be removed on
the grounds mentioned.
3. The President may also remove them from
office if such a person is adjudged
insolvent, convicted for certain offences
etc.
RTI Amendment 2019 related to CIC & IC:
Tenure:
It provided that the Chief Information
Commissioner and an Information Commissioner
(of Centre as well as States) shall hold office for
such term as prescribed by the Central
Government.
Salary:
It provided that the salary, allowances and other
service conditions of the Chief Information
Commissioner and an Information Commissioner
(of Centre as well as States) shall be such as
prescribed by the Central Government.
5.J&K Government Voids Roshni Act
What’s in News?
The Jammu and Kashmir government on October
31 declared all the actions taken under the Jammu
and Kashmir State Land (Vesting of Ownership to
the Occupants) Act, 2001, also known as the
Roshni Act, under which 20 lakh kanals of land
was to be transferred to existing occupants, as
“null and void”.
What is the Roshni Act?
i. The Roshni Act envisaged the transfer of
ownership rights of state land to its
occupants, subject to the payment of a
cost, as determined by the government.
ii. It was enacted by the then Farooq
Abdullah government in 2001, and it set
1990 as the cutoff for encroachment on
state land.
iii. The government’s target was to earn Rs
25,000 crore by transferring 20 lakh kanals
of state land to existing occupants against
payment at market rates.
iv. The government said the revenue
generated would be spent on
commissioning hydroelectric power
projects, hence the name “Roshni”.
v. Later on the cut off year was relaxed as
2004 and was relaxed further to 2007.
vi. The government also gave ownership
rights of agricultural land to farmers
occupying it for free, charging them only
Rs 100 per kanal as documentation fee.
Allegations and Illegality:
i. In 2009, the State Vigilance Organisation
registered an FIR against several
government officials for alleged criminal
conspiracy to illegally possess and vest
ownership of state land to occupants who
did not satisfy criteria under the Roshni
Act.
ii. The transactions under the Roshni Act had
been halted in 2018 after Jammu and
Kashmir went under governor’s rule and
Governor Satya Pal Malik had pronounced
the law “no longer relevant”.
iii. And that was before the state was stripped
of special status under Article 370 and
split into two Union Territories.
iv. A CAG report estimated that against the
targeted Rs 25,000 crore, only Rs 76 crore
had been realised from the transfer of land
into private ownership from 2007 to 2013.
v. The CAG report blamed irregularities
including arbitrary reduction in prices
fixed by a standing committee, and said
this was done to benefit politicians and
affluent people.
vi. Earlier, the Jammu and Kashmir High
Court pronounced the Roshni Act
“completely unconstitutional, contrary to
law and unsustainable” and ordered a
Central Bureau of Investigation probe on
the “land scam” enabled by the law.
6.Kerala withdraws General Consent to CBI
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What’s in News?
Kerala withdraws General Consent to CBI,
thereby joining the list of other states including
Mizoram, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Maharashtra,
Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand.
CBI:
i. The Central Bureau of Investigation is the
premier investigating agency of India.
ii. Operating under the jurisdiction of the
Ministry of Home Affairs (India),
Originally set up to investigate bribery and
governmental corruption, in 1965 it
received expanded jurisdiction to
investigate breaches of central laws
enforceable by the Government of India,
multi-state organised crime, multi-agency
or international cases
iii. However for investigations of offences
under the Prevention of Corruption Act,
its superintendence vests with the Central
Vigilance Commission.
iv. CBI is exempted from the provisions of
the Right to Information Act.
v. CBI is India's officially designated single
point of contact for liaison with the
Interpol.
What is general consent?
i. The CBI is governed by the Delhi Special
Police Establishment Act (DPSEA).
ii. This law makes the CBI a special wing of
Delhi Police and thus its original
jurisdiction is limited to Delhi.
iii. CBI needs consent of the state government
in whose territorial jurisdiction, the CBI
has to conduct an investigation.
iv. This is unlike other central government
agencies, for example, the National
Investigation Agency (NIA), which by
law, enjoys an all-India jurisdiction.
What does the CBI law say?
i. Section 6 of the DPSE Act authorises the
central government to direct CBI to probe
a case within the jurisdiction of any state
on the recommendation of the concerned
state government.
ii. The courts can also order a CBI probe, and
even monitor the progress of investigation.
iii. The CBI manual says, "The central
government can authorize CBI to
investigate such a crime in a state but only
with the consent of the concerned state
government. The Supreme Court and High
Courts, however, can order CBI to
investigate such a crime anywhere in the
country without the consent of the state."
How many types of consent are there for the CBI?
i. There are two types of consent for a probe
by the CBI.
ii. These are: general and specific.
iii. When a state gives a general consent to the
CBI for probing a case, the agency is not
required to seek fresh permission every
time it enters that state in connection with
investigation or for every case.
iv. When a general consent is withdrawn, CBI
needs to seek case-wise consent for
investigation from the concerned state
government. If specific consent is not
granted, the CBI officials will not have the
power of police personnel when they enter
that state.
v. This hurdle impedes seamless
investigation by the CBI. A general
consent is given to facilitate that seamless
investigation in a case of corruption or
violence.
What types of cases the CBI investigates in a
state?
The CBI investigates three types of cases through
three specialised wings.
a) The Anti-Corruption Division that
probes cases of corruption against public
servants.
b) The Economic Offences Division probes
crimes of financial malfeasance, bank
frauds, money laundering, black money
operations, and the like. However, the CBI
usually transfers cases of money
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laundering to the Enforcement Directorate
(ED).
c) There is a Special Crimes Division to
investigate cases of violence such as
murder, crimes related to internal security
such as espionage, narcotics and banned
substances, and cheating. It is this division
of the CBI that generally handles cases
that get wide media coverage, for example,
actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case.
7.Star Campaigner Status withdrawn for
Kamal Nath
What’s in News?
Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and
Congress leader Kamal Nath moved the Supreme
Court against the decision of the Election
Commission (EC) to remove his name from the
list of ‘star campaigners’ for his party.
Who is a Star Campaigner ?
i. While there are no specific definitions
according to law or the Election
Commission of India, a star campaigner
can be described as persons who are
nominated by parties to campaign in a
given set of constituencies.
ii. These persons are, in almost all cases,
prominent and popular faces within the
party.
iii. A recognised political party can have 40
star campaigners and an unrecognised
(but registered) political party can have
20.
iv. The list of star campaigners has to be
communicated to the Chief Electoral
Officer and Election Commission within a
week from the date of notification of an
election.
v. The expenditure incurred on
campaigning by such notified star
campaigners is exempt from being
added to the election expenditure of a
candidate.
vi. A star campaigner's expenditure is not
added to candidate's expenditure only
when he/she does a general campaign for
the political party, and not a specific
candidate.
vii. With a candidate's expenditure limit for all
states being set at Rs 70 lakh and for
Arunachal Pradesh, Goa and Sikkim, Rs
54 lakh, Section 77 (b) of The
Representation of People's Act, 1951 says
that most of the expenses incurred by the
campaigner "shall not be deemed to be
expenditure in connection with the
election". In other words, all expenses will
be borne by the respective political party.
viii. For example, expenses borne by star
campaigners on account of travel by air or
by any other means of transport shall not
be deemed as expenditure in connection
with the election.
ix. The manual to the Model Code of Conduct
states that for the benefit of availing
Section 77 (1) of The Representation of
People's Act, a permit for the mode of
transport for every star campaigner will be
issued centrally and against their name. It
is also mandatory for this permit to be
stuck on a prominent and visible place on
the vehicle.
x. The Model Code of Conduct states that if
the star campaigner is a prime minister or a
former prime minister, then expenses
incurred for bullet-proof vehicles required
by centrally appointed security personnel
will be borne by the government.
xi. If a candidate or her election agent shares
the stage with a star campaigner at a rally,
then the entire expenditure on that rally,
other than the travel expenses of the star
campaigner, is added to the candidate’s
expenses.
xii. This also applies when a candidate’s name
is mentioned by the Star Campaigner or
when photos of the star campaigner are
used by any candidate of the party
What is the issue in Madhya Pradesh ?
i. On October 30, Election Commission had
found Mr. Kamal Nath guilty of violating
the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) (he
was found using bad language) in place for
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the byelections to 28 Assembly seats in
Madhya Pradesh scheduled on November
3.
ii. In mid October, the Election Commission
(EC) had already warned him after he
violated its advisory asking political
leaders not to make disrespectful
statements against women, however, poor
choice of words in public forum continued
and thereby EC revoked his name from the
list of Indian National Congress Star
Campaigners for the MP by-elections.
iii. Kamal Nath can still campaign but being
removed as “star campaigner” status
means that the money spent on his
meetings and rallies would now be added
to the poll expenditure of the candidate.
8.All insults not offence under SC/ST Act
What’s in News?
The Supreme Court observed that all insults or
intimidations to people belonging to Dalit or tribal
communities will not be an offence under the
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
(Prevention of Atrocities) Act
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE JUDGEMENT:
i. An offence will be considered under the
law only if the insults or intimidations
were intended to humiliate a member of
the community, targeting their caste or
tribe. Or, if it is done in a place “within
public view”.
ii. The Supreme Court said that a property
dispute between a person from the SC/ST
community and an upper caste person will
not reveal an offence under the Act unless
the accusations are made as the victim
belonged to the community.
iii. The SC noted that the aim of the Act was
to punish the actions of those belonging to
the upper caste against the vulnerable
sections of the society for the reason that
they belong to a particular community
SCHEDULED CASTES AND THE SCHEDULED
TRIBES (PREVENTION OF ATROCITIES)
AMENDMENT ACT, 2018:
i. It seeks to amend the Scheduled Castes
and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of
Atrocities) Act, 1989.
ii. The Act prohibits the commission of
offences against members of the
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
and establishes special courts for the trial
of such offences and the rehabilitation of
victims.
iii. The Bill states that the investigating
officer will not require the approval of
any authority for the arrest of an
accused.
iv. Further, it provides that a preliminary
enquiry will not be required for the
registration of a First Information
Report against a person accused under the
Act.
v. The Act states that persons accused of
committing an offence under the Act
cannot apply for anticipatory bail.
vi. The Bill seeks to clarify that this provision
will apply despite any judgements or
orders of a court that provide otherwise.
9.Mizoram Assembly Speaker disqualifies
Lalduhoma
What’s in News?
India’s first Member of Parliament to have been
disqualified from the Lok Sabha has now been
disqualified as an MLA in Mizoram
Disqualification of Lalduhoma:
Lalduhoma was a former IPS officer and in 1988
he became the first MP to have been disqualified
under the Anti-Defection Law for giving up
membership of the Congress (I)
Now he has been disqualified as MLA on the
ground that he has declared himself as a
representative of the Zoram People’s Movement
(ZPM) despite being elected as an independent
candidate from the Serchhip constituency by the
Speaker of Mizoram Assembly.
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Anti – Defection Law:
The 52nd Amendment Act of 1985 provided for
the disqualification of the members of Parliament
and the state legislatures on the ground of
defection from one political party to another
For this purpose, it made changes in four Articles
of the Constitution and added a new Schedule (the
Tenth Schedule) to the Constitution.
This act is often referred to as the ‘anti-defection
law’.
Later, the 91st Amendment Act of 2003 made
one change in the provisions of the Tenth
Schedule.
It omitted an exception provision i.e.,
disqualification on ground of defection not to
apply in case of split.
Grounds of Disqualification:
Members of Political Parties:
A member of a House belonging to any political
party becomes disqualified for being a member of
the House,
(a) if he voluntarily gives up his membership of
such political party; or
(b) if he votes or abstains from voting in such
House contrary to any direction issued by his
political party without obtaining prior permission
of such party and such act has not been condoned
by the party within 15 days.
Independent Members:
An independent member of a House (elected
without being set up as a candidate by any
political party) becomes disqualified to remain a
member of the House if he joins any political
party after such election.
Nominated Members:
A nominated member of a House becomes
disqualified for being a member of the House if he
joins any political party after the expiry of six
months from the date on which he takes his seat in
the House.
This means that he may join any political party
within six months of taking his seat in the House
without inviting this disqualification.
However, Legislators may change their party
without the risk of disqualification in certain
circumstances:
The law allows a party to merge with or into
another party provided that at least two-thirds of
its legislators are in favour of the merger.
In such a scenario, neither the members who
decide to merge, nor the ones who stay with the
original party will face disqualification.
Any question regarding disqualification arising
out of defection is to be decided by the presiding
officer of the House.
10.Parliamentary panel bats for laws to
counter bio-terrorism
What’s in News?
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health
in a report, “The Outbreak of Pandemic
COVID-19 And its Management” , has
mentioned formulating effective laws to counter
bio-terrorism is one of the important lessons to be
learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report did not explicitly state that COVID-
19 virus as a bio weapon
What is Bioterrorism?
i. A biological attack, or bioterrorism, is the
intentional release of viruses, bacteria, or other
germs that can sicken or kill people, livestock, or
crops.
ii. Bacillus anthracis, the bacteria that causes
anthrax, is one of the most likely agents to be used
in a biological attack.
What are the Recommendations given by the
Parliamentary Standing Committee?
The Committee strongly recommends the Ministry
to conduct more research and work towards
training and capacity building for management of
public health emergencies arising from the use of
bio-weapons
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The follows are some of the recommendations
i. Financing the health sector:
a. The Committee recommended that
healthcare spending should be increased to 2.5%
of the GDP (as compared to 1.6% of GDP in
2019-20) within two years.
b. Further, it suggested that emphasis should
be given to spending on primary healthcare.
ii. Health infrastructure:
a. The total number of government hospital
beds were inadequate to deal with the rise in cases
of COVID-19 at the same time there is an
underutilization of beds provided by the Ministry
of Railways.
b. To deal with the burden on the existing
health infrastructure, the private healthcare sector
should be supported.
c. It suggested that the government institute
fair costing and pricing for COVID-19 treatment
in private hospitals.
iii. Healthcare workers:
a. There is a shortage of healthcare workers
due to vacancies in state run hospitals which are to
be filled at the earliest.
b. To streamline healthcare delivery, the
Committee recommended the creation of the
Indian Health Service as a public health cadre
similar to the Indian Administrative Service.
c. To assist healthcare workers during the
pandemic, the Committee recommended that
health workers have defined work hours and
leaves.
d. Further, it recommended: (i) paid sick
leave, and (ii) timely payment of salaries, for
health workers.
iv. Testing and tracing:
a. Poor contact tracing and less testing could
have been a factor in the growth of COVID-19
cases.
b. The number of testing facilities should be
increased and accurate tests, such as the RT-PCR
test, should be utilised.
v. Treatment:
a. The drugs should only be prescribed for
COVID-19 treatment after multi-centric trials and
detailed study, further, clear guidelines for the
safe use of drugs for treatment of COVID-19
should be issued.
vi. Vaccines:
a. A vaccine should pass all phases of
clinical trials before it is made public.
b. Further, it recommended that the whole
population should be vaccinated.
c. In this regard, the Committee suggested
that:
I.the cost of the vaccine should be subsidised for
weaker sections of society,
II. The cold-storage system across the country
should be upgraded, and
III.vaccines should be administered as per the
World Health Organisation’s strategic allocation
approach or a multi-tiered risk-based approach.
vii. Role of AYUSH:
a. To assist the allopathic sector, the
Committee recommended that AYUSH systems
should be utilised to combat the pandemic.
b. Further, it recommended the integration of
AYUSH with allopathy to: (i) give medical
students an understanding of preventative
healthcare and community medicine, and (ii)
equip AYUSH practitioners to provide primary
healthcare.
c. AYUSH doctors may provide assistance in
areas with a shortage of allopathic doctors or
COVID-19 hospitals and centres.
d. It recommended that standard operating
procedures for deployment of trained AYUSH
manpower to states should be prepared.
B. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
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1.Modi says SCO members must respect
sovereignty
What’s in News?
20th SCO heads of state summit was held recently
which was chaired virtually by Russian President
Vladimir Putin.
Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO):
i. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization
(SCO) is an intergovernmental
organization founded in Shanghai in 2001
by six countries, People’s Republic of
China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic,
Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
ii. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in
1991, the then security and economic
architecture in the Eurasian region
dissolved and new structures had to come
up.
iii. The original Shanghai Five were China,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and
Tajikistan.
iv. The SCO was formed in 2001, with
Uzbekistan included.
v. It expanded in 2017 to include India and
Pakistan.
vi. Since its formation, the SCO has focused
on regional non-traditional security, with
counter-terrorism as a priority: The fight
against the “three evils” of terrorism,
separatism and extremism has become
its mantra.
vii. Today, areas of cooperation include
themes such as economics and culture.
Highlights of the Summit:
i. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said all
member-nations of the Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation (SCO) should
respect each other’s sovereignty and
territorial integrity.
ii. The Prime Minister also announced that in
2021, the National Museum of India will
hold an exhibition on the Buddhist
heritage of the SCO countries and India
will host a food festival reflecting the
culinary traditions of the SCO region.
iii. India has also proposed to set up a special
working group on innovation and startups
and a sub-group on traditional medicine
within SCO.
Moscow Declaration:
i. At the end of the 20th
Summit, the heads of
the States has adopted the “Moscow
Declaration” and 16 set of documents
which is meant to expand member states’
cooperation across different areas and
assist in a more coordinated approach to
address global and regional challenges,
including the COVID-19 pandemic.
ii. The Parties call for the early adoption by
consensus of a comprehensive convention
against international terrorism
iii. The SCO leaders adopted the action plan
for 2021-2025 to implement the SCO
Development Strategy through 2025 that
includes nearly 150 practical measures to
improve the organization’s activities in the
next five years, focusing mostly on
economic recovery after the coronavirus
outbreak.
iv. The package of documents also include the
SCO Cooperation Concept for Developing
Remote and Rural Territories in the Digital
Age and the Comprehensive Plan of Joint
Measures to Counter Epidemic Threats in
the Region.
v. The meeting, which finalized Russia’s
chairmanship in the organization and
passing it on to Tajikistan, also made a
decision to sign memorandums of
understanding between the SCO
Secretariat and the Secretariat of the
United Nations Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific, the
Eurasian Economic Commission, the
World Health Organisation.
vi. The SCO leaders also supported
Kyrgyzstan’s initiative to establish an
SCO Cultural and Integration Centre in
Bishkek.
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2.INDIA – LUXEMBOURG RELATIONS
What’s in news?
A virtual bilateral summit between India and
Luxembourg was held for the first time in the last
2 decades
India-Luxembourg Relations:
i. The diplomatic relations between India
and Luxembourg were established in 1947.
ii. India and Luxembourg have a
longstanding cooperation in the steel
sector.
iii. Chennai is the Indian hub for
Luxembourg's all-cargo airline Cargolux
iv. To identify the areas of mutual economic
interest and bilateral trade promotion,
v. India-BLEU (Belgo-Luxembourg
Economic Union) Joint Commission
Meeting (JCM) was set up in 1997.
vi. It is working as a biennial forum for
exchange of views on various issues of
economic cooperation and to identify the
areas of mutual economic interest and
bilateral trade promotion
vii. Luxembourg is the third largest source
of Foreign Portfolio Investments (FPI)
for India
viii. In 2020, Luxembourg is also the 15th third
largest source of Foreign Direct
Investments (FDI) into India.
ix. Luxembourg is one of the most important
financial centres globally.
x. Several Indian companies have raised
capital by issuing Global Depositary
Receipts at the Luxembourg Stock
Exchange.
xi. The bilateral trade between India-
Luxembourg in the year 2018-19 was USD
162 million (€147 million).
xii. India’s exports to Luxembourg mainly
consisted of engineering products, textiles
and garments and chemicals.
xiii. The major items of India’s imports from
Luxembourg are engineering goods, base
metals, Plastics and articles.
xiv. Several Luxembourg-based investment
funds hold substantial banking and asset
management market share in portfolio
investments in India.
xv. In March 2009, an Indian Business
Chamber of Luxembourg (IBCL) was
constituted to promote commercial
relations between India and Luxembourg.
xvi. Luxembourg’s issued a commemorative
stamp in 2019 to mark the 150th Birth
Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
xvii. Luxembourg based space companies had
begun utilizing the services of India for
launching their satellites into space
recently on 7th November 2020 Satellite
PSLV-C49 by ISRO included 4 satellites
from Luxembourg.
xviii. There is also an ongoing collaboration in
the area of research in neurodegenerative
diseases
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SUMMIT:
They following MOU’s were signed
i. MoU between India International
Exchange (India INX) and Luxembourg
Stock Exchange and MoU between State
Bank of India and Luxembourg Stock
Exchange both, provides for cooperation in
financial services industry, maintenance of
orderly markets in securities respective
country, ESG (environmental, social and
governance) and green finance in the local
market.
ii. MoU between Invest India and
Luxinnovation for Supporting and
developing mutual business cooperation
between Indian and Luxembourg
companies, including promotion and
facilitation of inbound FDI, coming from
or proposed by Indian and Luxembourgish
investors.
3.India, Bahrain agree to boost cooperation
What’s in News?
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar concluded
a two day visit to Bahrain
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India and Bahrain agreed to further strengthen ties
including in areas of defence and maritime
security, space technology, trade and investment,
infrastructure, IT, health, hydrocarbon and
renewable energy
India – Bahrain Relations:
i. India Bahrain bilateral Trade and
commercial exchanges go back to about
5,000 years ago tracing their origins to the
period of Dilmun Civilization in Bahrain
to the era of Indus valley civilization in
India.
ii. Ancient Bahraini traders are believed to
have carried out flourishing trade of
Bahraini pearls with Indian spices from
India.
iii. Presence of around 350,000 Indian
nationals who comprise a third of
Bahrain's total population of 1.4 million is
an important anchor of our bilateral
relations with Bahrain.
iv. Bahrain launched ‘Little India in Bahrain’
project in November 2015 to acknowledge
and mark the contribution of Indian
community to the history and progress of
Bahrain
v. India and Bahrain had signed an Economic
and Technical Co-operation Agreement in
1981 which led to the establishment of The
India-Bahrain Joint Committee on
Economic and Technical Cooperation
(JCETC)
vi. India’s main items of exports to Bahrain
are mineral fuels, mineral oils, inorganic
chemicals, organic or inorganic
compounds of precious metals of rare
earth, Elam/radii/isotopes, cereals, nuts,
fruits, articles of apparel and clothing
accessories etc.,
vii. While main items of import from Bahrain
are crude oils, mineral fuels, their
bituminous substance, distillation,
aluminum, fertilizers, ores/slags/ ashes of
aluminum, iron and copper, pulp, salt,
printed books, newspapers etc
viii. In 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi
visited Bahrain , the first ever visit by an
Indian Prime Minister to the country
during which 3 MoUs on space, culture,
the International Solar Alliance and the
RuPay card was signed
4.Behind the fresh row over Kartarpur
gurdwara: Move to control administration,
donations
What’s in news?
The Pakistan government’s decision to transfer the
management and administrative control of the
Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur from a Sikh
body — Pakistan Sikh Gurudwara Prabhandhak
Committee (PSGPC) — to a trust under the
Evacuee Trust Property Board, a non-Sikh body,
has inviting sharp reactions from India, which
termed the move “highly condemnable” and
against the spirit of the Kartarpur Corridor.
What is Gurdwara Darbar Sahib and what is its
importance in Sikh religion?
1. The Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, also known
as Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib, is located in
Pakistan’s Narowal district across river
Ravi, about five kilometres from the Dera
Baba Nanak shrine in India’s Punjab.
2. Guru Nanak Dev, the first Sikh Guru had
arrived in Kartarpur between 1520 and
1522, as per historians, and spent the last
18 years of his life there.
3. It was in Kararpur that he laid the
foundations of a Sikh religion.
4. It was at Kartarpur that Nanak gave the
three Gs – Gurdwara, the Granth, and the
Guru himself – that underpin the Sikh
faith.
5. It was at Kartarpar, Guru Nanak started
the practice of Langar ('an almshouse' or
'a place for the poor and needy', is a
community kitchen in the Sikh tradition).
6. At Kartarpur, Guru Nanak practised what
he preached—“naam japo, kirrt karo,
wand chhako (worship, work, and
share)” — as the path to liberation
7. At his final resting place stands the
gurdwara.
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8. Pakistan government restored the main
building of the gurdwara in 2004
Kartarpur Corridor:
1. The Kartarpur corridor connects the
Darbar Sahib Gurdwara in Narowal district
of Pakistan with the Dera Baba Nanak
shrine in Gurdaspur district in India’s
Punjab
2. India and Pakistan have signed an
agreement to operationalise the Kartarpur
corridor, which is valid initially for 5 years
3. The agreement will facilitate visa-free
movement of Indian pilgrims who would
just need a permit to cross over to
Pakistan.
4. The corridor would allow devotees to visit
Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan and
return in one day without a visa
5. Persons of Indian origin holding OCI
(Overseas Citizenship of India) card too
can visit the gurdwara using the Kartarpur
corridor.
6. The corridor was built to commemorate
550th birth anniversary celebrations of
Guru Nanak Dev, founder of Sikhism on
12th November 2019.
What’s the Controversy?
1. There were more than 176 gurdwaras of
religious and historical importance in
Pakistan.
2. Less than 20 of these gurdwaras have been
opened so far by Pakistan government in
last 73 years.
3. All such gurdwaras are under control of
Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) of
Pakistan.
4. The Pakistan Sikh Gurudwara
Prabhandhak Committee (PSGPC) looks
after the religious affairs of the gurdwaras.
5. The PSGPC also keeps control of the
donations made by devotees
6. The Pakistan government’s has now
decided to transfer the management and
administrative control of the Gurdwara
Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur from Pakistan
Sikh Gurudwara Prabhandhak Committee
(PSGPC) to a trust under the Evacuee
Trust Property Board.
7. For this purpose, Project Management
Unit (PMU)- a new body has been formed
8. This has invited sharp criticism from India
5.132 countries attend 4th Global meet on
criminal finances
What’s in News?
Over 2,000 representatives from 132 countries
attended the virtual 4th Global Conference on
Criminal Finances and Cryptocurrencies
organised by the Interpol, Europol and the
Basel Institute on Governance.
About the Conference:
i. It is an initiative of the Working Group on
Cryptocurrencies and Money Laundering
established in 2016 by the three
organisations
ii. It was launched with an objective of
strengthening knowledge, expertise and
best practices for investigations into
financial crimes and intelligence on virtual
assets and cryptocurrencies
iii. A multi-agency and multi-disciplinary
approach involving both the private and
public sectors is key to tackling criminal
finances and the misuse of
cryptocurrencies.
iv. The conference’s agenda included trends
and investigations on cryptocurrency
related offences, exploring criminal flows
and operations in the dark markets,
ransomware and sextortion case studies,
money laundering involving virtual assets,
and the transfer of drug proceeds using
cryptocurrencies.
v. The conference underlined the need to
expand capabilities on ways to probe
virtual assets and regulate virtual asset
service providers to prevent money
laundering.
Criminal Finance:
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Financial crime ranges from basic theft or fraud
committed by ill-intentioned individuals to large-
scale operations masterminded by organized
criminals with a foot on every continent.
These are serious criminal activities whose
importance should not be minimized as, over and
beyond their social and economic impact, they are
often closely linked to violent crime and even
terrorism
INTERPOL:
i. Interpol is the International Criminal
Police Organization, a network comprising
194 member nations, including India.
ii. The agency, with its headquarters in
Lyon, France, was established in 1923.
iii. India has been a member since 1956.
iv. Like any member nation, India maintains a
National Central Bureau which serves as
the national platform for cooperation
between domestic law enforcement units
and the international police community.
The NCB is the designated contact point
for the Interpol.
v. India has collaborated with the Interpol in
tackling a myriad of organised crimes such
as poaching, wildlife trafficking, spurious
drugs and fake medicine rackets, among
others.
vi. The Interpol basically connects police
across the world even if these individual
member nations do not have diplomatic
relations.
vii. The Interpol facilitates information
exchange, knowledge sharing and research
between nations.
viii. This is done by issuing colour-coded
'notices' in four languages -
English,Spanish, French, and Arabic.
ix. The Interpol doesn't have law enforcement
powers such as arrest.
Europol:
The European Union Agency for Law
Enforcement Cooperation, is the law enforcement
agency of the European Union (EU) formed in
1998 to handle criminal intelligence and combat
serious international organised crime and
terrorism through cooperation between competent
authorities of EU member states.
It's headquarters is in The Hague, Netherlands
The Basel Institute on Governance:
The Basel Institute on Governance is an
independent not-for-profit competence centre
working around the world to strengthen
governance and counter corruption and other
financial crimes
The organisation was established in Basel,
Switzerland in 2003
6.Trilateral meet held after 6 years, looks
beyond maritime security
What’s in News?
The fourth National Security Adviser-level
Trilateral Maritime Security Cooperation meeting
was recently held between India, Maldives and
Sri Lanka to promote “meaningful
cooperation” in the Indian Ocean region on
“maritime security”
Mauritius and Seychelles joined as observers
through virtual mode.
Trilateral Maritime Security Co-operation
Initiative:
i. The Trilateral Maritime Security Co-
operation Initiative was launched by India, Sri
Lanka and Maldives in October 2011 at Male
during the first National Security Adviser (NSA)
level meeting
ii. Later Two meeting were followed - in
2013 in Sri Lanka, and in 2014 in India
iii. The three countries were meeting after a
gap of six years, with the long delay attributed to
the strained relations between India and Maldives
during the presidency of Abdulla Yameen.
iv. Factors that necessitated the trilateral
maritime cooperation are as follows: maintaining
peace and security in the Indian Ocean Region;
perceived or real threat perception from external
sources; energy security; disaster management;
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non-traditional threats, such as maritime terrorism,
arms and drug trade, piracy, human and arms
smuggling etc
Highlights of the 4th Meet:
i. The aim was to broad-base the maritime
security dialogue and include “terrorism”,
“radicalisation”, “extremism”, “drugs”, “arms and
human trafficking”, “money laundering” and
“cybersecurity” as they decided to cooperate in
these areas of common concern.
ii. Past trilateral meetings were limited in
their scope, as they did not mention terrorism
iii. While the trilateral dialogue is supposed to
be an annual feature, they also agreed to hold
deputy NSA-level working group meetings twice
a year for cooperation at the operational level.
iv. The three sides agreed to expand the scope
of cooperation to improve intelligence-sharing.
v. In the area of maritime cooperation, the
discussions surrounded “maritime domain
awareness, humanitarian assistance and disaster
relief, joint exercises, capacity building, maritime
security and threats, marine pollution, and
maritime underwater heritage”
Way Forward:
i. Given the limited capability and the vast
ocean area to look after, ensuring maritime
security is a major security concern for Sri Lanka
and the Maldives.
ii. In the emerging security situation in the
Indian Ocean, India seems to be comfortable with
the presence of the US and other like-minded
countries in the region.
iii. Nonetheless, India must ensure that in the
long run, it does not lose its relevance in the
neighbourhood.
iv. Factoring in the geo-strategic dynamics in
the Indian Ocean region, as well as the security
needs and strategic concerns of the littoral states,
resumption of the NSA level trilateral meeting
between India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives on
maritime Security Cooperation and inviting
Mauritius, Seychelles and Bangladesh is a
welcome development
7.China-led mega trade bloc RCEP takes off
What’s in News?
Fifteen Asia-Pacific countries have signed the
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership
(RCEP), at the 37th Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit.
RCEP:
i. The Regional Comprehensive Economic
Partnership (RCEP) is a trade deal that was being
negotiated between 15 countries.
ii. They include the 10 Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members
(Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand, and Vietnam) and the five countries
with which the bloc has free trade agreements
(FTAs) —Australia, China, Korea, Japan, and
New Zealand.
iii. This is expected to represent at least 30%
of the global GDP and will emerge as the largest
free trade agreement in the world.
Why India Did not join RCEP?
i. Key issues that have prevented India from
coming on board include “inadequate”
protection against surges in imports.
(Auto-trigger Mechanism would have
allowed India to raise tariffs on products
in instances where imports cross a certain
threshold.)
ii. India has also not received any credible
assurances on its demand for more
market access, and its concerns over
non-tariff barriers. RCEP participants
like China are known to have used non-
tariff barriers in the past to prevent India
from growing its exports to the country.
iii. India had also reportedly expressed
apprehensions on lowering and
eliminating tariffs on several products
from the country.
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iv. Its concerns on a “possible
circumvention” of rules of origin — the
criteria used to determine the national
source of a product — were also not
addressed. Current provisions in the deal
reportedly do not prevent countries from
routing, through other countries, products
on which India would maintain higher
tariffs. This is anticipated to allow
countries like China to pump in more
products.
v. According to a paper published by NITI
Aayog, India has a bilateral trade deficit
with most of the member countries of
RCEP. (Of India’s $105-billion trade
deficit with RCEP countries, nearly half
was with China.)
What would be the impact of India being out of
RCEP?
i. For India, it will be an opportunity to
strengthen its domestic industries and move
towards its dream of becoming self-reliant
ii. At the same time, India might lose out on
investment opportunities
iii. Countries in the RCEP agreement would
also lose out on an opportunity to access the
Indian market.
iv. The Indian government is expected to
pursue separate trade agreements with some of the
countries that will be part of the bloc, such as
Australia and New Zealand.
8.G20: PM calls for a new global index in post-
pandemic world
What’s in News?
The 15th G20 Leaders’ Summit was held virtually
under the presidency of Saudi Arabia, with the
theme "Realizing Opportunities of 21st
Century for All."
The agenda of the summit is focused on
overcoming the pandemic, economic recovery and
restoring jobs, and building an inclusive,
sustainable and resilient future.
India’s Proposals and Address in the Summit:
i. Addressing the summit, PM Modi
described Covid-19 as the biggest challenge the
world was facing since World War II and an
important turning point in the history of humanity.
ii. An official statement by the Ministry of
External Affairs said Modi called for a “new
global index for the post-Corona world that
comprises four key elements – creation of a vast
talent pool; ensuring that technology reaches all
segments of the society; transparency in systems
of governance; and dealing with Mother Earth
with a spirit of trusteeship”
iii. According to PM Modi, the emphasis over
the past few decades has been on capital and
finance, the time has come to focus on multi-
skilling and re-skilling to create a vast human
talent pool which will enhance the dignity of
people and make them more resilient to face
crises.
iv. Any assessment of new technology should
be based on its impact on ease of living and
quality of life
v. ‘Work from Anywhere’ is a new normal in
the post-Covid world and India offered it’s IT
prowess to further develop digital facilities for
efficient functioning of the G20
vi. The summit ended with the adoption of the
Leaders’ Declaration, and with Saudi Arabia
passing on the presidency to Italy.
vii. India will host the G20 summit in 2022.
G20:
i. The G20 is the international forum that
brings together the world’s major economies.
ii. It is a premier forum for international
economic cooperation.
ii. It brings together the leaders of both
developed and developing countries from every
continent.
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iv. Its members account for more than 80% of
world GDP, 75% of global trade and 60% of the
population of the planet.
v. The forum has met every year since 1999
and includes, since 2008, a yearly Summit, with
the participation of the respective Heads of State
and Government.
vi. In addition to the Summit, ministerial
meetings, Sherpa meetings (in charge of carrying
out negotiations and building consensus among
Leaders), working groups and special events are
organized throughout the year.
vii. The G20 members are Argentina,
Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France,
Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico,
Republic of Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South
Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United
States and the European Union (EU).
viii. The presidency of the G20 rotates between
member countries every year.
9.India & Italy ink 15 pacts
What’s in News?
India and Italy inked 15 pacts and finalised an
ambitious action plan to further expand their ties
following a virtual summit between Prime
Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian
counterpart Giuseppe Conte that primarily focused
on ramping up economic engagement.
News Highlights:
i. Italy is the fifth largest trading partner of
India in the European Union
ii. The volume of bilateral trade was Euros
9.52 billion in 2019
iii. In the wide-ranging discussions, the two
sides agreed to further strengthen defence
engagement including through co-development
and co-production of military systems and decided
to conclude a migration and mobility partnership
agreement at the earliest
iv. The two prime ministers condemned
terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and
pledged to strengthen cooperation in the fight
against the menace at bilateral level and in
multilateral fora
v. MoU between Cassa Depositi Prestiti
(CDP) and National Infrastructure Investment
Fund (NIIF) was signed
vi. The Italian Prime Minister thanked India
for extending support to Italy during the pandemic
by supplying medicines and personal protection
equipment (PPE).
vii. The two Leaders welcomed the Global
Health Summit, which will be held in Italy in the
context of the Italian G 20 Presidency in 2021, in
cooperation with the EU Commission.
viii. Creation of the first joint ASI-ISRO
(Italian Space Agency (ASI)) working group in
heliophysics field involving experts and scientists
from both countries was appreciated.
ix. MoU among the Indian Institute of
Technology (Kanpur), Ca’ Foscari University of
Venice, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and
Soprintendenza Archeologica Belle Arti e
Paesaggio di Venezia on creating network and
sharing skills for restoration and protection of
monuments was signed
x. Other MOU’s signed will lead to
cooperation in a diverse range of areas including
energy, trade, film-making, shipbuilding and
science and technology.
xi. The two leaders agreed to work closely
together for the success of the 16th India-EU
summit to be held in 2021.
India-Italy Joint Statement and Plan of Action
2020-2024:
The four-year action plan is based upon the
following Pillars
i. PILLAR I (Political dialogue at bilateral
level and coordination in multilateral fora)
a. This include enhance cooperation in the
field of counter terrorism, security, cybersecurity
and Defence, Prioritise disaster risk reduction and
management, foster connectivity etc
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ii. PILLAR II (economic engagement)
a. This include improving the business
environment, Stronger contribution of Italy to
India’s flagship programmes "Make in India” and
"Assembled in India for the world”, food
processing, manufacturing and financial sector
iii. PILLAR III (Partnership in the field of
Science and Technology)
a. This aims to increase the partnership in the
field of S&T and environment for this India-Italy
Executive Programme for Scientific and
Technological Cooperation (2021-2023) is been
developed which will provide an overarching
umbrella to current and future initiatives in the
field of Science and Technology (S&T), with
particular regard to:
i. the establishment of Indo-Italian networks
of Excellence in selected areas of mutual strength
(cultural heritage preservation; renewable energy;
life and environmental sciences; geo-hazards);
ii. the implementation of the new phase of the
bilateral Industrial Research & Development
Cooperation Programme and the funding of joint
industrial research projects.
iv. PILLAR IV (Cultural cooperation and
people-to-people exchanges)
a. This include - Enhanced partnership in the
field of cultural and creative industries and
increase Student Mobility
C. ECONOMY
1.In eight months, forex reserves rise by more
than $100 billion
What’s in News?
In last eight months, the foreign exchange reserves
have risen by over $100 billion when the
lockdown was announced in March-end. This
jump of 22 per cent has come following a sharp
decline in imports alongside strong foreign
investment inflows in the second half of the
calendar year.
What is Foreign Exchange Reserves?
i. Foreign exchange reserves are the foreign
currencies held by a country's central bank
ii. Reserve Bank of India Act and the Foreign
Exchange Management Act, 1999 set the
legal provisions for governing the foreign
exchange reserves.
iii. Components of India's Foreign exchange
reserves are
(1) Foreign Currency Assets
(FCA) – it is the largest part of
India’s forex and it comprises of
major currencies such as the
Dollar, Euro, Pound Sterling,
Japanese Yen etc which are valued
in Dollar along with investments
made in Treasury bonds of other
countries and so on,
(2) Gold,
(3) Special Drawing Rights
(SDRs) which is the reserve
currency of IMF and
(The value of the SDR is calculated
from a weighted basket of major
currencies, including the U.S.
dollar, the euro, Japanese yen,
Chinese yuan, and British pound.)
(4) Reserve Tranche Position
(RTP) (It is basically an
emergency account that IMF
members can access at any time
without agreeing to conditions or
paying a service fee. In other
words, a portion of a member
country’s quota can be withdrawn
free of charge at its own
discretion.)
Why There is a increase in Forex Now?
i. While the forex reserves stood at about
$470 billion in the week ended March 20,
2020, it has risen by about $103 billion
since then and to touch nearly $573 billion
in the week ended November 13, 2020.
ii. The major reason in decline in import bill
- the net crude oil import declined sharply
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between April and September this year and
the value of imports with respect to Gold
and Electronic Goods also decreased in the
time period
iii. The second major reason is the increase in
foreign investments in India both FDI
and FPI - Between April and November,
the foreign portfolio investments (FPI)
amounted to more than Rs 1.4 lakh crore
(nearly $19 billion).Meanwhile, the net
FDI between April and September
aggregated to about $23 billion.
What is the advantage of having high forex
reserves?
i. As GDP growth remains a concern for
2020-21, rising forex reserves provide
comfort to the government and the RBI.
ii. It sufficiently covers the import bill of the
country.
iii. Reserves also provide confidence to
markets that the country can meet its
external obligations and has reserves for
national disasters or emergencies.
iv. High reserves provide the central banks the
ability to intervene in the currency markets
if required to stabilise volatility in rupee-
dollar exchange rate, and also use it as a
tool for inflation management.
v. Accumulation of dollars is enhancing
liquidity in the banking system, keeping
bond yields in check and supporting
effective transmission
vi. Rise in foreign exchange reserves in
combination with benign oil prices and
tepid imports, has helped the Indian rupee
remain broadly stable since mid-March
2020.
2.WPI inflation at 8-month high
What’s in news?
The wholesale price-based inflation rose to an
eight-month high of 1.48 per cent in October, as
manufactured products turned costlier.
What’s WPI?
i. Wholesale Price Index (WPI) measures the
average change in the prices of
commodities for bulk sale at the level of
early stage of transactions.
ii. The index basket of the WPI covers
commodities falling under the three major
groups namely Primary Articles, Fuel and
Power and Manufactured products
iii. WPI is also known as the headline
inflation rate.
iv. The base year for calculation of WPI is
2011-2012
v. Office of Economic Advisor (OEA),
Department of Industrial Policy and
Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and
Industry calculates the WPI.
vi. The main uses of WPI are :
a. to provide estimates of inflation at
the wholesale transaction level for
the economy as a whole. This helps
in timely intervention by the
Government to check inflation in
particular, in essential
commodities, before the price
increase spill over to retail prices.
b. WPI is used as deflator for many
sectors of the economy including
for estimating GDP by Central
Statistical Organisation (CSO).
c. WPI is also used for indexation by
users in business contracts.
d. Global investors also track WPI as
one of the key macro indicators for
their investment decisions.
Consumer Price Index (CPI):
i. Consumer Price Index is a measure of
change in retail prices of goods and
services consumed by defined population
group in a given area with reference to a
base year.
ii. Presently the consumer price indices
compiled in India are
a. CPI for Industrial workers
CPI(IW),
b. CPI for Agricultural Labourers
CPI(AL) and;
c. Rural Labourers CPI(RL) and
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d. CPI (Urban) and CPI(Rural).
iii. Of these, the first three are compiled by
the Labour Bureau in the Ministry of
Labour and Employment.
iv. Fourth is compiled by the Central
Statistical Organisation (CSO) in the
Ministry of Statistics and Programme
Implementation.
v. The base year for CPI is 2011-2012
except for CPI (IW) which is 2016
Wholesale Price Index (WPI) Vs Consumer Price
Index (CPI)
i. WPI reflects the change in average prices
for bulk sale of commodities at the first
stage of transaction while CPI reflects the
average change in prices at retail level paid
by the consumer.
ii. WPI does not capture changes in the prices
of services, which CPI does.
iii. The CPI basket consists of services like
housing, education, medical care,
recreation etc. which are not part of WPI
basket
iv. Both baskets measure inflationary trends
but the two indices differ in weightages
assigned to food, fuel and manufactured
items
3.GDP Contracts 7.5% in second quarter
What’s in News?
India’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) contracted
7.5% in the second quarter of 2020-2021 and has
now entered a technical recession
What is a recessionary phase?
i. At its simplest, in any economy, a
recessionary phase is the counterpart of an
expansionary phase.
ii. In other words, when the overall output of
goods and services — typically measured
by the GDP — increases from one quarter
(or month) to another, the economy is said
to be in an expansionary phase.
iii. And when the GDP contracts from one
quarter to another, the economy is said to
be in a recessionary phase.
iv. Together, these two phases create what is
called a “business cycle” in any economy.
v. A full business cycle could last anywhere
between one year and a decade.
How is a recession different?
“When a recessionary phase sustains for long
enough, it is called a recession. In other words,
when the GDP contracts for a long enough period,
the economy is said to be in a recession.”
What is Technical Recession and which country
faces it?
i. A “technical recession” is when you
have 2 negative quarters of GDP, but it
is due mainly to slowing growth or an
isolated event rather than a major
underlying cause.
ii. Technical recessions are usually short in
duration and mild in severity
iii. India entered a recession at the end of
September.
iv. The UK is in its third quarter of recession.
v. Brazil and Indonesia are also in recession
while South Africa has evaded it until
now, but only marginally.
vi. China, where the pandemic began, has
bucked the trend.
What RBI Forecasted?
i. Earlier in its latest monthly bulletin — for
November — the Reserve Bank of India
has dedicated a chapter on the “State of the
economy”.
ii. The idea is to provide a monthly snapshot
of some of the key indicators of India’s
economic health.
iii. “By doing so, a hallowed tradition that
began with the first issue of the Bulletin in
January 1947, but interrupted during the
period 1995 to date, will be revived,” the
bulletin said.
iv. As part of the exercise, the RBI has started
“nowcasting” or “the prediction of the
present or the very near future of the state
of the economy”.
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4.Government allots Rs.2000 cr for infra
funding
What’s in News?
The Cabinet approved infusion of Rs.2000 crore
as equity into a new debt platform to raise upto
Rs. 1.1 lakh crore for financing infrastructure
projects by 2025 sponsored by NIIF.
National Investment and Infrastructure Fund
(NIIF):
i. The National Infrastructure and Investment
Fund (NIIF) is India’s first-ever
sovereign wealth fund (SWF). (A
sovereign wealth fund is a state-owned
fund) which was set up in 2015
ii. The primary goal of setting up NIIF was to
optimise the economic impact largely
through investing in infrastructure-related
projects.
iii. Across its three funds- Master Fund, Fund
of Funds, and Strategic Fund - it manages
over $3 billion of capital
iv. The funds are registered as Alternative
Investment Fund (AIF) with the
Securities and Exchange Board of India
(SEBI).
v. The NIIF signed the first investment deal
of worth USD 1 billion with the Abu
Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) in
October 2017.
vi. The ADIA became the first-ever
international investor in the NIIF’s master
fund.
vii. The Indian Government holds a 49%
share in the NIIF.
viii. Domestic investors such as ICICI Bank,
HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra
Life are the other notable investors in the
NIIF.
ix. The UK Government in association with
the NIIF started the Green Growth
Equity Fund (GGEF) under its Fund of
Funds to invest in transportation, water,
waste management, renewable energy, and
other similar sectors in the country.
5.In a mirror of economy, agricultural exports
grow amid overall decline
What’s in news?
India’s agricultural exports are up 4.6% year-on-
year in dollar terms during April-September.
This comes even as the country’s overall
merchandise exports for the same period have
registered a 21.2% annual decline.
Agricultural Exports:
1. Agricultural exports help farmers to take
advantage of wider international market
and increase their income.
2. It have also resulted in increased
production in agriculture sector by
increasing area coverage and productivity.
3. In 2019-20, India exported agricultural and
allied products worth Rs 2.5 lakh crore
against imports of Rs 1.5 lakh crore.
Major Agricultural Commodities that are
Exported:
1. Rice is the major commodity that has been
exported with the value of shipments
increasing by well over a third to $4.08
billion in April-September.
2. India exports basmati rice largely to the
West Asian countries (Iran, Saudi Arabia,
Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and
Yemen), besides the US and UK.
3. The destinations for non-basmati are
mainly West Africa (Benin, Nigeria, Togo,
Ivory Coast, Liberia, Guinea and Senegal),
East Africa (Somalia and Djibouti), UAE
and Nepal.
4. The growth has come more from the non-
basmati rather than basmati segment.
5. The major segment to benefit is sugar,
Indian mills shipped out almost $2 billion
worth of the sugar in 2019-20, whereas
they have already done $1.4 billion during
the first six months of this fiscal.
6. A third commodity whose exports have
done well this year is cotton
7. In the 2019-20 season (October-
September), India exported 50 lakh bales
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of cotton, compared to 42 lakh bales in the
preceding year.
8. For 2020-21 season, the projections for
cotton trade show exports hitting 70 lakh
bales — the highest since 117 lakh bales in
2013-14.
Things that favoured Indian Agricultural
Exports:
a) The recovery in global prices — courtesy
a combination of demand revival from
unlockdowns (opposite to what happened
in April-May)
b) Chinese stockpiling (in anticipation of a
fresh corona outbreak during the winter)
and
c) Dry weather in producer countries such
as Thailand, Argentina, Brazil and Ukraine
Agriculture Export Policy, 2018:
The major objectives of Agriculture Export Policy
are,
1. To double agricultural exports from
present ~US$ 30+ Billion to ~US$ 60+
Billion by 2022 and reach US$ 100 Billion
in the next few years thereafter, with a
stable trade policy regime.
2. To diversify our export basket,
destinations and boost high value and
value added agricultural exports including
focus on perishables.
3. To promote novel, indigenous, organic,
ethnic, traditional and non-traditional Agri
products exports.
4. To provide an institutional mechanism for
pursuing market access, tackling barriers
and deal with sanitary and phyto-sanitary
issues.
5. To strive to double India’s share in world
agri exports by integrating with global
value chain at the earliest.
6. Enable farmers to get benefit of export
opportunities in overseas market.
Elements of Agriculture Export Policy:
The recommendations in the Agriculture
Export Policy have been organised in two
categories – Strategic and Operational – as
detailed below:
Strategic
Policy measures
Infrastructure and logistics
support
Holistic approach to boost
exports
Greater involvement of State
Governments in agri exports
Focus on Clusters
Promoting value-added exports
Marketing and promotion of
“Brand India
Operational Attract private investments into
production and processing
Establishment of strong quality
regimen
Research & Development
Miscellaneous
6.NREGS demand still on rise: 96% of
panchayats have applicants
What’s in News?
Over 96 per cent of gram panchayats across the
country have registered demand for work under
NREGS from April till November-end, signalling
that the rural economy is still struggling to recover
from the pandemic-induced slump.
MGNREGA:
i. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act
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(MGNREGA), was enacted on August 25,
2005.
ii. The MGNREGA provides a legal
guarantee for one hundred days of
employment in every financial year to
adult members of any rural household
willing to do public work-related unskilled
manual work at the statutory minimum
wage.
iii. The Ministry of Rural Development
(MRD), Govt of India is monitoring the
entire implementation of this scheme in
association with state governments
iv. This act was introduced with an aim of
improving the purchasing power of the
rural people, primarily semi or un-skilled
work to people living below poverty line
in rural India.
v. It attempts to bridge the gap between the
rich and poor in the country.
KEY FEATURES OF MGNREGA:
Legal right to work:
a) Unlike earlier employment guarantee
schemes, the Act provides a legal right to
employment for adult members of rural
households.
b) At least one third beneficiaries have to be
women.
c) Wages must be paid according to the
wages specified for agricultural labourers
in the state under the Minimum Wages
Act, 1948, unless the central government
notifies a wage rate (this should not be less
than Rs 60 per day).
d) At present, wage rates are determined by
the central government but vary across
states, ranging from Rs 135 per day to Rs
214 per day.
Time bound guarantee of work and unemployment
allowance:
a) Employment must be provided with 15
days of being demanded failing which an
‘unemployment allowance’ must be
given.
Decentralised planning:
a) Gram sabhas must recommend the works
that are to be undertaken and at least 50%
of the works must be executed by them.
b) PRIs are primarily responsible for
planning, implementation and monitoring
of the works that are undertaken.
c) In 2019, an MoU was signed between the
Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD)
and National Remote Sensing Centre
(NRSC) under ISRO for geo-tagging of
the assets created under MGNREGS in
each Gram Panchayat.
Work site facilities:
a) All work sites should have facilities such
as crèches, drinking water and first aid.
Transparency and accountability:
a) There are provisions for proactive
disclosure through wall writings, citizen
information boards, Management
Information Systems and social audits.
b) Social audits are conducted by gram
sabhas to enable the community to monitor
the implementation of the scheme.
Funding:
a) Funding is shared between the centre and
the states.
b) There are three major items of expenditure
– wages (for unskilled, semi-skilled and
skilled labour), material and administrative
costs.
c) The central government bears 100% of the
cost of unskilled labour, 75% of the cost of
semi-skilled and skilled labour, 75% of the
cost of materials and 6% of the
administrative costs.
CHALLENGES OF MGNREGA:
I. Fabrication of job cards
II. Delay in payment of wages
III. Non payment of unemployment
allowances
IV. Large number of incomplete works
V. Poor quality of assets created
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VI. Several instances of corruption in the
implementation of MGNREGA
VII. Insufficient involvement of PRIs.
News Highlights:
i. The NREGS is a demand-based scheme
and has emerged as a safety net during the
pandemic for jobless migrant workers
returning to their villages
ii. Every year all the Gram Panchayat will not
demand work under MGNREGA such
Gram Panchayat data shows “nil person
days”
iii. From April to November end Gram
Panchayat with “nil person days” is at 8
year low
iv. Only a little over 9,000 GPs, ie. 3.4 per
cent of the 2.68 lakh GPs across the
country, generated nil person days of
work.
v. This means that over 96 per cent of gram
panchayats across the country have
registered demand for work under NREGS
from April till November-end
vi. Over 6.5 crore households, covering 9.42
crore individuals, have availed NREGS till
November 29 during the current financial
year, which is an all-time high.
vii. The wage expenditure, too, has reached an
all-time high of Rs 53,522 crore during
this period.
7.Proposal to allow corporate houses to set up
banks
What’s in News?
The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Internal
Working Group headed by Prasanna Kumar
Mohanty, formed on June 12 2020, has come out
with a set of recommendations that could redefine
the face of private bank ownership.
Some of the most staggering changes proposed
include higher promoter shareholding, the
provision for non-banking financial corporations
(NBFCs) to turn into banks, and the possibility of
corporates being allowed to become promoters.
Proposals in Report:
i. Increasing the level of promoter
shareholding:
a. The RBI committee has recommended
increasing the cap of promoters’ stake in the long
run — that is, 15 years — from the current level
of 15% to 26% stake in the paid up share capital
of the bank.
ii. Non-banking institutions could be turned
into banks
a. Currently, NBFCs don’t have any way to
convert into banks.
b. This means those looking to downsize
don’t have an option.
c. And, this applies to all 9,601 of India’s
shadow banks.
d. The top 50 account for 80% of the market
share when it comes to loans.
iii. Corporates may be allowed to become
bank promoters with the right changes to the
Banking Regulation Act
a. Instead of depending on rich bankers to
step in, this rule will allow large corporates and
industrial houses to become promoters of banks.
iv. Other suggested changes laid out by the
committee include provisions for payments banks
for converting into small finance banks.
a. They also suggested that small finance
banks and payments banks may be listed within
six years from the date “of reaching net worth
equivalent to prevalent entry capital requirement
prescribed for universal banks” or ten years “from
the date of commencement of operations”,
whichever is earlier.
v. The RBI committee is also advocating
that the licensing new banks should be enhanced
from ₹ 500 crore to ₹ 1000 crore for universal
banks, and from ₹ 200 crore to ₹ 300 crore for
small finance banks.
vi. The report has suggested that RBI
regulations need to be consistent and the same
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for all players, irrespective of their licensing
date.
Why The recommendation matters?
i. The total balance sheet of banks in India
still constitutes less than 70 per cent of the GDP,
which is much less compared to global peers such
as China, where this ratio is closer to 175%.
ii. The domestic bank credit to the private
sector is just 50% of GDP when in economies
such as China, Japan, the US and Korea it is
upwards of 150 per cent.
iii. In other words, India’s banking system has
been struggling to meet the credit demands of a
growing economy.
iv. There is only one Indian bank in the top
100 banks globally by size.
v. Further, Indian banks are also one of the
least cost-efficient.
vi. Private banks are not only more efficient
and profitable but also have more risk appetite.
vii. It is in this background that the IWG was
asked to suggest changes that not only boost
private sector banking but also make it safer.
Why is the recommendation to allow large
corporates to float their own banks being
criticised?
i. Historically, RBI has been of the view that
the ideal ownership status of banks should
promote a balance between efficiency, equity and
financial stability.
ii. A greater play of private banks is not
without its risks.
iii. The global financial crisis of 2008 was a
case in point.
iv. A predominantly government-owned
banking system tends to be more financially stable
because of the trust in government as an
institution.
v. Moreover, even in private bank ownership,
past regulators have preferred it to be well-
diversified — that is, no single owner has too
much stake.
vi. More specifically, the main concern in
allowing large corporates — that is, business
houses having total assets of Rs 5,000 crore or
more, where the non-financial business of the
group accounts for more than 40% in terms of
total assets or gross income — to open their own
banks is a basic conflict of interest, or more
technically, “connected lending”.
What is connected lending?
i. Simply put, connected lending refers to a
situation where the promoter of a bank is also a
borrower and, as such, it is possible for a promoter
to channel the depositors’ money into their own
ventures.
ii. Connected lending has been happening for
a long time and the RBI has been always behind
the curve in spotting it.
iii. The recent episodes in ICICI Bank, Yes
Bank, DHFL etc. were all examples of connected
lending.
iv. The so-called ever-greening of loans
(where one loan after another is extended to
enable the borrower to pay back the previous one)
is often the starting point of such lending.
v. Unlike a non-bank finance company or
NBFC (many of which are backed by large
corporates), a bank accepts deposits from common
Indians and that is what makes this riskier.
Then why recommend it?
i. The Indian economy, especially the private
sector, needs money (credit) to grow.
ii. Far from being able to extend credit, the
government-owned banks are struggling to
contain their non-performing assets.
iii. Government finances were already
strained before the Covid crisis.
iv. With growth faltering, revenues have
plummeted and the government has limited ability
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to push for growth through the public sector
banks.
v. Large corporates, with deep pockets, are
the ones with the financial resources to fund
India’s future growth.
8.Lakshmi Vilas bank places under 30-day
moratorium by RBI, caps withdrawals
What’s in News?
The Reserve Bank of India imposed a 30-day
moratorium on struggling Lakshmi Vilas Bank
Ltd (LVB), superseded its board of directors and
announced a draft scheme for the amalgamation of
the bank with DBS Bank India, a subsidiary of
DBS of Singapore, in the wake of “serious
deterioration in the financial position of the bank”.
What happened?
i. LVB undergone a steady decline with the
bank incurring continuous losses over the last
three years, eroding its net worth.
ii. Almost one fourth of the bank’s advances
have turned bad assets.
iii. Its gross non-performing assets (NPAs)
stood 25.40 per cent of the advances as of June
2020, as against 17.30 per cent a year ago
iv. Further, the bank was also experiencing
continuous withdrawal of deposits and low levels
of liquidity
v. The bank was placed under the prompt
corrective action (PCA) framework in September
2019 considering the breach of PCA thresholds as
on March 31, 2019.
What RBI did?
i. The Reserve Bank of India imposed a 30-
day moratorium
ii. Under the moratorium the RBI has
restricted withdrawals by depositors at Rs 25,000
from savings and current accounts, and
expenditure on any item at Rs 50,000 per month.
iii. Borrowers can withdraw above ₹ 25,000
only for unforeseen expenses including medical
treatment, education etc.
iv. The RBI has also superseded (replaced)
the Board of Directors of LVB, for a period of 30
days, in order to protect the depositors’ interest.
v. The central bank also appointed TN
Manoharan, former non-executive chairman of
Canara Bank, as administrator of LVB.
vi. RBI has announced a draft scheme to
merge LVB with DBS Bank India Ltd (DBIL), an
Indian subsidiary of Singapore’s DBS Bank.
vii. DBIL will bring in additional capital of Rs
2,500 crore, to support credit growth of the
merged entity.
viii. The scheme for merger will try to
implement the scheme before the expiry of the
moratorium
ix. The RBI, has assured depositors of LVB
that their interests will be protected.
9.Centre rolls out ₹ 1.19 lakh-crore stimulus
package
What’s in News?
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced
a fresh set of relief and stimulus measures
((Atmanirbhar Bharat 3.0) for the economy worth
₹ 1.19 lakh crore, including a scheme to boost re-
employment chances of formal sector employees
who lost their jobs amidst the COVID-19
pandemic.
Highlights of the Package:
A. Atmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana :
i. “Atmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana” is
being launched to incentivise creation of new
employment opportunities during the COVID
recovery phase.
ii. The beneficiaries under the Scheme are -
Any new employee joining employment in EPFO
registered establishments on monthly wages less
than Rs.15000/-. EPF members drawing monthly
wage of less than Rs.15000/- who made exit from
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employment during COVID Pandemic from
01.03.2020 to 30.09.2020 and is employed on or
after 01.10.2020
iii. For establishments employing up to 1,000
employees, the total PF contribution of 24 per cent
for both employers and employees will be paid by
the government.
iv. For establishments employing more than
1,000 employees, the employees’ share of 12 per
cent will be contributed by the government.
v. To be eligible for the scheme, firms having
more than 50 employees must hire at least five
new workers, while those with less than 50
employees must hire a minimum of two workers.
vi. Scheme to be operational till 30th June
2021
B. Launch of ECLGS 2.0 (Emergency
Credit Line Guarantee Scheme) -Guaranteed
credit for supporting stressed sectors
i. To be utilized for 100% guaranteed
collateral free additional credit at capped interest
rates to— Entities in 26 stressed sectors identified
by Kamath Committee plus health care sector with
credit outstanding of above Rs. 50 crore and up to
₹ 500 Crore as on 29.2.2020.
ii. As per the Kamath committee, the stressed
sectors include auto components, construction,
gems and jewellery, hotel and restaurants, iron
and steel, real estate and textiles.
iii. Earlier, the (ECLGS) was available only to
small businesses. The revised scheme extends it to
stressed sectors, irrespective of their turnover and
will be available until March 31, 2021.
iv. Tenor of additional credit under ECLGS
2.0 to be 5 years, including one year moratorium
on principal repayment
v. Scheme available till 31.3.2021
C. PM Garib Kalyan Rozgar Yojana
i. The government has increased the outlay
of Rs. 20,000 crore for the PPM Garib Kalyan
Rozgar Yojana.
ii. The scheme, targeting migrant labourers
who returned to their native places, was created
integrating MNREGA and Grameen Sadak
Yojana.
D. Real estate sector:
i. The government has allowed buyers to
purchase homes at 20% below the circle rate
without attracting any tax penalties. The new
norm is for residential units up to Rs 2 crore.
(Circle rate is the government-defined value at
which property is registered, whereas agreement
value is the one negotiated between the builder
and the buyer)
ii. Earlier, if the developer sold property
below the circle rate, the differential between the
circle rate and the agreed rate was taxable for both
buyer and seller.
iii. Last year, the government allowed
developers to sell at rates up to 10% lower than
the circle rate without attracting additional tax.
iv. The government has now doubled the
differential to 20%.
v. This benefit will be available until June 30,
2021.
E. Infusion of equity to the extent of Rs
6,000 crore to the National Investment and
Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) debt platform
F. Rs 18,000 crores additional outlay for PM
Awaas Yojana (PMAY) –Urban
G. ₹ 65,000 crore additional outlay for
providing fertiliser subsidies to farmers.
H. Rs 10,200 crore are being additionally
provided as stimulus towards capital and
industrial expenditure.
I. Rs. 900 crore provided for Covid
Suraksha Mission for Research and
Development of Indian Covid Vaccine to
Department of Biotechnology
D. ENVIRONMENT
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1.Uttarakhand wildlife board clears proposal
to de-notify Elephant reserve
What’s in News?
The Uttarakhand State Wildlife Board cleared a
proposal to cancel the notification of Shivalik
Elephant Reserve, which is spread over 5,409
square km, in the State.
News Highlights:
i. In the recent years, officials of the state
have noted that the notification for
elephant reserve was creating hurdles in
development work in that area.
ii. For instance, the expansion of the Jolly
Grant airport in Dehradun required
additional clearances due to the
notification of Elephant Reserve.
iii. However, even after the notification is
cancelled, the area will remain a reserve
forest and rules of Forest Conservation Act
will remain applicable there.
Conservation Efforts of Elephants in India:
i. The Indian elephant Elephas maximus
occurs in the central and southern Western
Ghats, North-east India, eastern India and
northern India and in some parts of
southern peninsular India.
ii. It is included in Schedule I of the Indian
Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and in
Appendix I of the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered
Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES).
iii. ‘Gaj Yatra’ is a nationwide awareness
campaign launched by MoEF&CC to
celebrate elephants and highlight the
necessity of securing elephant corridors.
iv. Elephants are the National Heritage
Animal of India
v. Recently, Supreme Court has highlighted
that Elephants are “Keystone Species” in
an ecosystem
Project Elephant:
PROJECT ELEPHANT was launched by the
Government of India in the year 1992 as a
Centrally Sponsored Scheme with following
objectives:
1. To protect elephants, their habitat & corridors
2. To address issues of man-animal conflict
3. Welfare of captive elephants
The Project is being mainly implemented in 16
States / UTs , viz. Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal
Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand,
Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Meghalaya,
Nagaland, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Tripura,
Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate
Change provides the financial and technical
support to major elephant range states in the
country through Project Elephant.
The CITES Monitoring the Illegal Killing of
Elephants (MIKE) Programme is a site-based
system designed to monitor trends in the illegal
killing of elephants, build management capacity
and provide information to help range States make
appropriate management and enforcement
decisions.
2.Glistening ‘blue tide’ along Mumbai,
Sindhudurg coasts
What’s in News?
Bioluminescence or light-emitting tide is making
an appearance during night on Juhu beach in
Mumbai and Devgad, Velas and Murud along the
Maharashtra’s coastline
Why did the waves appear blue?
i. The phenomenon is called ‘blue tide’, and
appears when luminescent marine life
make the sea appear a deep shade of blue.
ii. The spectacle occurs when phytoplankton
(microscopic marine plants), commonly
known as dinoflagellates, produce light
through chemical reactions in proteins.
iii. Waves disturb these unicellular
microorganisms and make them release
blue light
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What are phytoplanktons?
i. Phytoplanktons are freely floating
microorganisms that drift with water
currents.
ii. The two main classes of phytoplankton are
dinoflagellates and diatoms.
iii. Like land plants, phytoplankton have
chlorophyll to capture sunlight, and they
use photosynthesis to turn it into chemical
energy thereby consuming carbon dioxide,
and releasing oxygen.
iv. As they need light, phytoplankton live near
the surface, where enough sunlight can
penetrate.
v. They are known as the primary
producers of the ocean
vi. When too many nutrients are available,
phytoplankton may grow out of control
and form harmful algal blooms .
vii. Similar to the blue tide, harmful algal
blooms emit red light and produce a red
tide.
What is Bioluminescence?
i. Bioluminescence is the property of a
living organism to produce and emit
light. Animals, plants, fungi and bacteria
show bioluminescence.
ii. A remarkable diversity of marine animals
and microbes are able to produce their own
light.
iii. It is found in many marine organisms such
as bacteria, algae, jellyfish, worms,
crustaceans, sea stars, fish and sharks.
iv. Luminescence is generally higher in deep-
living and planktonic organisms than in
shallow species.
v. This may occur due to chemical reaction
involving light emitting molecule and an
enzyme called luciferin and luciferase
Why do they glow?
i. It is an antipredatory response.
ii. Bioluminescence is assumed to startle
predators, causing them to hesitate, in a
form of predator intimidation.
iii. Another explanation is that
bioluminescence helps these organisms
gather together and make colonies
What are the factors causing Bioluminescence?
a) Eutrophication (seawater has low
dissolved oxygen and high presence of
Nitrogen) making phytoplanktons very
dominant.
b) Heavy rain
c) Fertiliser run off
d) Discharge of sewage into the ocean.
e) Factors such as the pattern of the wind and
the temperature of the ocean also
determine the occurrence of
bioluminescent waves
Are bioluminescent waves common in India?
i. Bioluminescence has been an annual
occurrence along the west coast since 2016
during the months of November and
December.
ii. Not only in Maharashtra but recently, the
‘blue tide’ was witnessed along Dakshina
Kannada-Udupi coast.
iii. While bioluminescence is not common in
India, there are several tourist places
across the world which are famous for the
phenomenon.
iv. The Blue Grotto in Malta is one of nine
caves near the island of Filfa that produces
a phosphorescent glow.
v. Similar to the Blue Grotto is
Bioluminescent Bay in Puerto Rico, San
Diego in California, Navarre Beach in
Florida, and Toyama Bay in Japan.
Is the blue tide harmful?
i. While smaller blooms may be harmless,
slow-moving larger blooms may have an
impact on deep-sea fishing.
ii. This phenomenon is an indicator of
climate change.
iii. Harmful algal blooms can produce
extremely toxic compounds that have
harmful effects on fish, shellfish,
mammals, birds, and even people
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Sea Sparkle:
i. The bloom of Noctiluca Scintillans
commonly known as “Sea Sparkle” has
displaced the microscopic algae called
diatoms which forms the basis of marine
food chain
ii. This has deprived food for the
planktivorous fish
iii. Though the species doesnot produce toxin
it was found to accumulate toxic levels of
ammonia, which is then excreted into the
surrounding waters, possibly acting as a
killing agent in blooms
iv. The ammonia makes N.Scintillans
unpalatable for most creatures, only
jellyfish and salps were known to prey on
it
v. They act both a plant and animals –
Because they graze on other micro-
organisms such as larvae, fish eggs and
diatoms, but the unicellular phytoplankton
that live inside it can photosynthesise
turning sunlight into energy, they help
their host cell survive even when food was
scarce.
3.High biodiversity in 49% of Ganga main
river
What’s in news?
Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in the second
phase of its survey of the entire main stem of the
Ganga river (the main river without its tributaries),
has found that 49 per cent of the river has high
biodiversity and that biodiversity sightings,
including of the Gangetic Dolphin and otters, have
increased in the river.
R.Ganga and its biodiversity?
1. Ganga rises in the Gangotri glacier near
Gaumukh in the Uttarkashi district of
Uttaranchal. Here, it is known as the
Bhagirathi.
2. At Devprayag, the Bhagirathi meets the
Alaknanda; hereafter, it is known as the
Ganga.
3. The Ganga and its tributaries flow through
11 states and cover 26.3 per cent of the
country’s total geographical area.
4. The main stem of the river flows through
five states — Uttarakhand, UP, Bihar,
Jharkhand and West Bengal.
5. Ten per cent of the high biodiversity areas
fall alongside national parks and
sanctuaries such as Rajaji national park in
Uttarakhand, Hastinapur wildlife sanctuary
in UP and Vikramshila gangetic Dolphin
sanctuary in Bihar
6. The high biodiversity stretches have been
divided into six zones – Devprayag to
Rishikesh (61 km), Makdumpur to Narora
(147 km), Bhitaura to Ghazipur (454 km),
Chhapra to Kahalgaon (296 km),
Sahibganj to Rajmahal (34 km) and
Baharampur to Barackpore (246 km).
7. The river supports around 2000 aquatic
species, including the threatened river
dolphin and gharial.
8. The Ganga river dolphin, gharial and
riverine turtle are the indicator species
used to develop conservation strategies
9. It has 143 different freshwater fish species,
including the Critically Endangered
Ganges shark, Gangetic stingray, Golden
mahseer and Hilsa.
Findings of the Report:
1. The study was initiated by WII on behalf
of the National Mission for Clean Ganga,
one of the flagship projects undertaken by
the Ministry of Jalshakti, and the first
phase of the survey was carried out
between 2017-2019.
2. Nesting colonies of the Indian Skimmer.
3. Seibold’s, a species of water snake,
disappeared 80 years ago and has now
resurfaced.
4. New distributions of the puffer fish.
5. The study has found that 49 per cent of the
river has high biodiversity and that
biodiversity sightings, have increased in
the river.
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6. According to scientists, this indicates
reducing pollution levels and a healthier
state of the river.
Why the threat to the Ganga’s biodiversity is
real?
1. Freshwater ecosystems account for 0.01%
of the earth’s surface water but 10% of
species.
2. According to the UN Environment
Programme World Conservation
Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC),
decline in diversity of freshwater species is
the highest, and surpasses losses in marine
and terrestrial species – globally 20% of
all known freshwater fish, 44% waterbirds
and 42% amphibian species are under
threat of extinction.
3. The highest loss of freshwater biodiversity
has been reported from the Indian
subcontinent, specifically the Gangetic
plains.
4.Vulture numbers ‘stabilising’, MoEF
launches action plan to increase population
What’s in news?
Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate
Change has launched a Vulture Action Plan
2020-25 for the conservation of vultures in the
country.
Vulture in India:
i. Vultures are large birds of prey specialized
to scavenge the bodies of dead animals
ii. There are nine recorded species of
vultures in India — the Oriental white-
backed, long-billed, slender-billed,
Himalayan, red-headed, Egyptian,
bearded, cinereous and the Eurasian
Griffon.
iii. Between the 1990s and 2007, numbers of
three presently critically-endangered
species – the Oriental white-backed, long-
billed and slender-billed vultures —
crashed massively with 99 per cent of the
species having been wiped out.
iv. The number of red-headed vultures, also
critically-endangered now, declined by
91% while the Egyptian vultures by 80%.
v. The Egyptian vulture is listed as
‘endangered’ while the Himalayan,
bearded and cinereous vultures are ‘near
threatened’.
vi. In India, Vultures also plays an important
role in Parsi religion, when a Parsi dies,
his or her body is left in the ‘Tower of
Silence’ for vultures, they believe that
being consumed by the scavenger bird
liberates the spirits of the dead.
Threats to Vultures:
Diclofenac:
i. Main threat to Vulture is Diclofenac, it is a
non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug
(NSAID) mainly used for animals,
bioaccumulation of Diclofenac causes
kidney failure and visceral gout in
Vultures leading to death.
ii. Diclofenac is such dangerously fatal for
Vultures that even 1% of it in carcass
would kill the Vulture in a short time, after
it feeds such carcass.
iii. It was found in 2006 and in 2008 it was
banned in India
Pesticide Pollution and Slow Breeding Rate:
i. Chlorinated hydrocarbon D.D.T (Dichloro
Diphenyl Trichloroethane) used as
pesticide enters the body of vultures
through food chain where it affects the
activity of estrogen hormone, as a result of
which the egg shell is weakened.
ii. Consequently the premature hatching of
egg takes place causing the death of the
embryo.
iii. Moreover a Vulture lay a single egg in a
breeding season
Others:
i. Poisoned Carcass
ii. Habitat Destruction
iii. Starvation due to non available of food
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Conservation efforts:
i. The MoEFCC released the Action Plan for
Vulture Conservation 2006
ii. The Central Zoo Authority (CZA) and
Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS)
also established the Vulture Conservation
Breeding Programme, which has been
successful and had three critically-
endangered species bred in captivity for
the first time.
iii. Eight centres have been established and, so
far, 396 vultures of the three species have
successfully fledged.
iv. The Jatayu Conservation Breeding
Centre (JCBC) established at Pinjore in
2001 was the first Vulture Care Centre
(VCC) in the country.
v. Four rescue centres have been proposed
for different geographical areas like
Pinjore in the north, Bhopal in ventral
India, Guwahati in Northeast and
Hyderabad in South India.
vi. Protection status of White backed, Long
Billed and Slender Billed Vultures has
been upgraded from Schedule IV to
Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection)
Act, 1972.
vii. The Vulture Safe Zone programme is
being implemented at eight different
places in the country where there were
extant populations of vultures, including
two in Uttar Pradesh.
viii. The Ministry also plans on carrying out
safety testing of available NSAIDs on
vultures and to develop new ones which do
not affect vultures.
5.Gya Glacial Outburst
What’s in News?
In August 2014, a glacial lake outburst flood
(GLOF) hit the village of Gya in Ladakh,
destroying houses, fields and bridges.
Researchers now have mapped the evolution of
Gya glacial lake and note the cause of the flood.
GLACIAL LAKE OUTBURST FLOOD (GLOF):
i. A glacial lake outburst flood is a type of
outburst flood occurring when water
dammed by a glacier or a moraine is
released.
ii. A water body that is dammed by the front
of a glacier is called a marginal lake, and a
water body that is capped by the glacier is
called a sub-glacial lake.
iii. When a marginal lake bursts, it may also
be called a marginal lake drainage. When a
sub-glacial lake bursts, it may be called a
jökulhlaup.
iv. Failure can happen due to erosion, a
buildup of water pressure, an avalanche of
rock or heavy snow, an earthquake or
cryoseism, volcanic eruptions under the
ice, or massive displacement of water in a
glacial lake when a large portion of an
adjacent glacier collapses into it.
v. In 1929, a GLOF from the Chong
Khumdan Glacier in the Karakoram
caused flooding on the Indus River 1,200
km downstream
GYA GLACIAL OUTBURST AND EFFECT:
i. Gya Lake is situated in Leh, Ladakh at
5,400 m which is snow covered even in
summer .
ii. Using remote sensing data, researchers
from Germany have mapped the evolution
of Gya Glacier and noted the cause of the
flood
iii. The flooding did not happen due to an
avalanche or landslide, rather there was a
thawing of the ice cores in the moraine
(a field of dirt and rocks that have been
pushed along by the glacier as it moves)
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which drained through the subsurface
tunnels
iv. The researches note that the thawing of ice
cores may accelerate in future due to
global climate and there is an urgent need
to use multiple methods for better risk
assessment and early warning
v. It is almost certain that other glacial lake
outburst floods will happen all over the
Indian Himalaya.
vi. However, not all of these events have
catastrophic outcomes.
vii. It largely depends on urban planning, the
size of the lake, the distance between the
lake and affected villages, the valley
section and some more aspects.
viii. In some cases, cloudbursts can also trigger
glacial lake outburst flood events like in
the Kedarnath disaster in 2013.
ix. More bathymetric studies are needed to
analyse lake volumes, and it is important
to regularly monitor lake development and
dynamics.
x. New, sophisticated technologies can also
be put to use to understand the stability of
the moraines that dam the lake
6.Spike in ammonia levels in Yamuna
What’s in News?
Water supply was affected in parts of Delhi after a
spike in pollutants in the river Yamuna led to a
temporary closure of two water treatment plants.
Ammonia levels in the river, flowing into Delhi
from Haryana, had reached nearly 3 parts per
million (ppm), almost six times above the
acceptable limit of 0.5ppm
Yamuna River:
1. Yamuna, is the Western Most and the
longest tributary of Ganga and has its
source in Yamunotri Glacier on the
Western Slopes of Banderpunch Range in
Uttarakhand
2. It joins Ganga at Prayag
3. Some of its tributaries are Hindon, Tons,
Giri, Baghain, Chambal, Betwa, Varuna,
Ken
Causes for Yamuna River Pollution:
1. Effluents from dye units, distilleries and
other factories in Panipat and Sonepat
districts in Haryana
2. The pesticides used in the agriculture land
3. Discharge of Untreated Sewage /
Wastewater from Households
4. Idol Immersion
5. It is particularly polluted downstream of
New Delhi which dumps about 58% of its
waste into the river
6. High Density Population and Rapid
Urbanisation
Ammonia:
1. Ammonia is a colourless gas with a
chemical formula NH3.
2. It occurs naturally in the environment from
the breakdown of organic waste matter
3. It is widely used as a fertilizer,
manufacturing of explosives,
manufacturing of synthetic dyes,
refrigerant and in the production of soda
ash
Ammonia Pollution:
1. Ammonia reduces the amount of oxygen
and also increases Biochemical oxygen
demand (BOD).
(Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) is
the measure of the quantity of oxygen used
by microorganisms in the oxidation of
organic matter
Dissolved Oxygen (DO) – Concentration
of Oxygen dissolved in a water sample
High BOD indicates low DO)
2. High levels of Ammonia increases the
toxicity of water thereby affected the life
of aquatic organisms
3. Long Term ingestion of water having
ammonia levels of 1 ppm or above may
cause damage to internal organs
Treatment for Ammonia Pollution :
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1. The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) at present has
the capacity to treat 0.9 ppm of ammonia
in the raw water
2. If the concentration is higher than this,
then raw water is diluted with fresh water
3. The amount of chlorine added to disinfect
raw water is also increased when high
levels of ammonia are detected
Long Term Solution:
1. Maintaining Minimum Ecological Flow of
Water
2. Stabilisation of Ecosystem by means of
reducing the ammonium waste at the
source and treatment of waste water before
discharge
3. Stringent implementation of guidelines
against dumping harmful waste into the
river
7.Atlantic Ocean’s largest protected marine
reserve
What’s in news?
Isolated UK Overseas Territory of Tristan da
Cunha, which is home to the world’s most
remote human settlement, declared the largest
fully protected marine reserves in the Atlantic
Ocean at 687,000 square kilometres
Where is it located?
i. Tristan da Cunha is a remote group of
volcanic islands in the south Atlantic
Ocean.
ii. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago
in the world, lying approximately 1,511
miles (2,432 km) off the coast of Cape
Town in South Africa
iii. Tristan da Cunha is a British Overseas
Territory with its own constitution.
iv. There is no airstrip on the main island; the
only way of travelling in and out of Tristan
is by boat, a six-day trip from South
Africa.
v. Saint Helena and Falkland Islands are it’s
neighbouring islands
Biodiversity:
i. Tristan da Cunha, which is inhabited by
less than 300 humans is a small chain of
islands
ii. The water around the islands are
considered to be the richest in the world.
iii. The mountainous archipelago Tristan da
Cunha is home to tens of millions of
seabirds and several unique land birds
iv. However, some of its seabirds that are not
found anywhere else in the world face
threats including illegal and unregulated
fishing activities, overfishing, plastic
pollution and climate change.
v. The National Geographic reported that
invasive mice brought to the islands by
passing ships kill over 2 million birds a
year.
vi. As of now, there are two critically
endangered species in the island group and
over five endangered species.
vii. The island group is also home to the
World Heritage Site of Gough and
Inaccessible Islands, which is one of the
most important seabird islands in the
world.
What does the announcement mean for the island
group?
i. After joining the UK’s Blue Belt
Programme, it will become the largest no-
take zone in the Atlantic and the fourth
largest on the planet.
ii. This means fishing, mining and any such
activities will not be allowed.
iii. The almost 700,000 square kilometres of
the Marine Protection Zone (MPZ) is
almost three times the size of the UK and
will safeguard the future of sevengill
sharks, yellow-nosed albatrosses and
rockhopper penguins
UK’s Blue Belt Programme:
i. The Blue Belt programme supports the UK
Overseas Territories to put in place long
term protection.
ii. This includes 27 million pounds over a
period of five years for marine
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conservation around the UK Overseas
Territories and international organisations
iii. Marine Protection Zones (MPZs) involve
the management of certain natural areas
for biodiversity conservation or species
protection and are created by delineating
zones with permitted and non-permitted
areas within that zone.
Way Forward:
Tristan da Cunha’s model can be used in many
islands around the world
As per the National Geographic Society’s
Campaign for Nature Initiative, over 30 percent of
the world’s oceans need to be protected to allow
ecosystems to provide benefits like ample fish
stocks
8.Lonar’s meteor lake declared Ramsar site
What’s in News?
The meteor lake at Lonar in Buldhana district has
been declared a Ramsar site
The number of protected wetlands in India
under the Ramsar Convention increased from
27 in 2019 to 41 in 2020
What are Wetlands?
The Ramsar Convention definition for wetlands
includes marshes, floodplains, rivers and lakes,
mangroves, coral reefs and other marine areas no
deeper than 6 metres at low tide, as well as
human-made wetlands such as waste-water
treatment ponds and reservoirs.
Wetlands in India:
i. A total of 757,060 wetlands have been
mapped in the country.
ii. The total wetland area estimated is 15.26
million hectares, which is around 4.63% of
the geographical area of the country
(National Wetlands Atlas - ISRO)
iii. The 2011 edition of the National Wetlands
Atlas of India classified India’s wetlands
into 19 categories.
iv. Common ones include river, stream,
reservoir, barrage, intertidal, mud-flat and
natural lake; the more unique among them
are lagoon, mangrove, coral, riverine and
high-altitude lake
v. Wetlands are regulated under the Wetlands
(Conservation and Management) Rules,
2017
Ramsar Convention:
i. The Ramsar Convention is an international
treaty for the conservation and sustainable
utilization of wetlands, recognizing the
fundamental ecological functions of
wetlands and their economic, cultural,
scientific, and recreational value
ii. This convention was adopted on February
2, 1971 in Ramsar, Iran.
iii. February 2 is observed as World
Wetlands Day every year.
iv. Ramsar Site designation is for “Wetlands
of International Importance”.
v. Wetlands can be designated to the Ramsar
List under any (one or more) of the nine
criteria that ranges from uniqueness of the
site to those based on species and
ecological communities supported.
vi. Globally, there are over 2,300 Ramsar sites
around the world, covering over 2.1
million sq km.
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Ramsar Sites in India:
India has 41 Ramsar Sites, out of which
Kabartal (Bihar), Asan Conservation Reserve
(Uttrakhand), Sur Sarovar (Uttar Pradesh), Lonar
Lake (Maharashtra) were added in October –
November 2020
NAME OF SITE
STATE
LOCATION
1
Asan Conservation
Reserve Uttarakhand
2 Asthamudi Wetland Kerala
3
Beas Conservation
Reserve Punjab
4
Bhitarkanika
Mangroves Orissa
5 Bhoj Wetlands
Madhya
Pradesh
6 Chandertal Wetland
Himachal
Pradesh
7 Chilka Lake Orissa
8 Deepor Beel Assam
9
East Kolkata
Wetlands West Bengal
10 Harike Lake Punjab
11 Hokera Wetland
Jammu and
Kashmir
12 Kabartal Wetland Bihar
13 Kanjli Lake Punjab
14 Keoladeo Ghana NP Rajasthan
15
Keshopur-Miani
Community Reserve Punjab
16 Kolleru Lake
Andhra
Pradesh
17 Loktak Lake Manipur
18 Lonar Lake Maharashtra
19
Nalsarovar Bird
Sanctuary Gujarat
20
Nandur
Madhameshwar Maharashtra
21
Nangal Wildlife
Sanctuary Punjab
22
Nawabganj Bird
Sanctuary
Uttar
Pradesh
23
Parvati Agra Bird
Sanctuary
Uttar
Pradesh
24
Point Calimere
Wildlife and Bird
Sanctuary Tamil Nadu
25 Pong Dam Lake Himachal
Pradesh
26 Renuka Wetland
Himachal
Pradesh
27 Ropar Lake Punjab
28 Rudrasagar Lake Tripura
29 Saman Bird Sanctuary
Uttar
Pradesh
30
Samaspur Bird
Sanctuary
Uttar
Pradesh
31 Sambhar Lake Rajasthan
32 Sandi Bird Sanctuary
Uttar
Pradesh
33 Sarsai Nawar Jheel
Uttar
Pradesh
34 Sasthamkotta Lake Kerala
35 Sunderbans Wetland West Bengal
36
Surinsar-Mansar
Lakes
Jammu and
Kashmir
37 Sur Sarovar
Uttar
Pradesh
38 Tsomoriri Lake
Jammu and
Kashmir
39
Upper Ganga River
((Brijghat to Narora
Stretch)
Uttar
Pradesh
40
Vembanad Kol
Wetland Kerala
41 Wular Lake
Jammu and
Kashmir
Lonar Lake:
i. The Lonar lake, situated in the Deccan
Plateau’s volcanic basalt rock, was created
by the impact of a meteor 35,000 to 50,000
years ago.
ii. The water in the lake is highly saline and
alkaline, containing special
microorganisms like anaerobes,
Cyanobacteria and phytoplankton.
iii. The site also has 160 bird, 46 reptile and
12 mammal species.
9.How water bears survive lethal UV radiation
What’s in News?
In a recently published paper, researchers from
Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru (IISc) have
reported findings on a species of microscopic
organisms called tardigrades (also knows as water
bears).
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Scientists have discovered a new species of
tardigrade that can endure ultraviolet (UV) light
so lethal, it is regularly used to get rid of hard-to-
kill viruses and bacteria.
Tardigrades:
i. Tardigrades, small aquatic creatures
known as water bears, can survive extreme
heat, radiation, and even the vacuum of outer
space—conditions that would kill most animals
ii. It can survive decades without food and
can live in water or on land, and are capable of
surviving temperatures as high as 150° Celsius
and as low as minus 272° Celsius albeit for a few
minutes.
iii. They are also called as moss piglets
iv. The eight-legged animals can come back
from being dried out to a lifeless husk for decades,
and withstand the crushing depths of the Mariana
Trench.
v. About 1,300 species of Tardigrades have
been reported worldwide.
vi. Most tardigrades eat algae and flowering
plants, piercing plant cells and sucking out their
contents though their tube-shaped mouths.
vii. Some, however, are carnivorous and may
eat other tardigrades.
viii. Tardigrades are nature’s pioneers,
colonizing new, potentially harsh environments,
providing food for larger creatures that follow.
ix. Tardigrades pose no threat to humans.
Scientists have yet to identify a species of
tardigrade that spreads disease.
x. In 2019, Tardigrades were on a lunar
lander and probe called Beresheet launched by
an Israeli private company but Beresheet crash-
landed on the Moon and got destroyed, but the
company said that they believe the tardigrades
might have survived the Beresheet lunar crash.
Research Findings:
i. Researchers at the Indian Institute of
Science scoured their campus for water bears, and
then exposed them to extreme conditions, realized
they had found a new species of tardigrade, part of
the Paramacrobiotus genus.
ii. To figure out how the new species—which
was found living in moss on a concrete wall in
Bengaluru, —survived, the scientists examined it
with an inverted fluorescence microscope.
iii. To their surprise, under the UV light, the
reddish tardigrades became blue.
iv. Fluorescent pigments, likely located under
the tardigrades’ skin, transformed the UV light
into harmless blue light.
v. In contrast, Paramacrobiotus with less
pigment died about 20 days after exposure.
E. SOCIAL ISSUES
1. 2.5 crore rural homes get tap water;
Telangana tops
What’s in news?
A latest data by Jal Shakti Ministry has revealed
that over 2.5 crore rural households have been
provided tap connections under the Jal Jeevan
Mission (JJM) since it started in 2019, with
Telangana and Bihar emerging as leading states
Jal Jeevan Mission:
1. Jal Jeevan Mission, is envisioned to
provide safe and adequate drinking water
through individual household tap
connections by 2024 to all households in
rural India.
2. The Mission was launched on August 15,
2019.
3. Department of Drinking Water and
Sanitation under the Jal Shakti Ministry is
the executing agency of the mission.
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4. The Mission will focus on both demand
and supply side water management at
the local level.
5. It will also focus on creation of local
infrastructure like rainwater harvesting,
groundwater recharge and management of
household wastewater for reuse in
agriculture.
6. The Mission is based on a community
approach to water and includes extensive
Information, Education and
Communication as a key component of the
mission.
7. The fund sharing pattern between the
Centre and states is 50:50 (except
Himalayan and North East and UT’s),
90:10 for Himalayan and North-Eastern
States and 100% for Union Territories.
8. Recently, 100-days Campaign was
launched on the occasion of Gandhi
Jayanti under the Jal Jeevan Mission to
provide potable piped water supply in
Schools & Anganwadi Centres
Why is Jal Jeevan Mission Needed?
1. India is a water stressed country, the per
capita water availability in 2011 in India
was 1,545 cubic metre.
2. As per NITI Aayog, about 70% of piped
water supply in India is contaminated.
3. UNICEF data said the estimated economic
burden of waterborne diseases is
approximately US$600 million as
chemicals contaminate the water in 1.96
million homes.
4. More than 50% of the population has no
access to safe drinking water and about
200,000 people die every year for lack of
access to safe water.
5. The 2018 Composite Water Management
Index (CWMI) noted that 6% of economic
GDP will be lost by 2050, while water
demand will exceed the available supply
by 2030
Highlights of the recent data:
1. Goa has become the first state in the
country to provide a tap connection to all
rural households
2. Telangana is the top performing state in
terms of providing tap connections to a
maximum proportion (69.56 per cent) of
rural households, providing about 38 lakh
tap connections
3. Bihar, which is at second place, has
covered 54.38 per cent of rural households,
followed by Goa (24.3 per cent), Mizoram
(23.19 per cent), Haryana (21.12 per cent),
Manipur (20.78 per cent), Himachal
Pradesh (19.99 per cent), Maharashtra
(15.4 per cent), Uttarakhand (14.97 per
cent), and J&K (14.94 per cent).
4. West Bengal is at the bottom of the list of
32 states and Union territories, covering
only 1.44 per cent of rural households
since the start of the mission. The others at
the bottom of the list are Karnataka (1.4
per cent), Kerala (1.78 per cent), Ladakh
(2.25 per cent), Assam (3.39 per cent),
Jharkhand (3.36 per cent) and Rajasthan
(3.69 per cent), among others.
2.Indian universities No. 15 in employability of
graduates
What’s in News?
“Employability Rankings 2020” released by
Times Higher Education (THE) and a French
Consultancy “Emerging” has placed India at 15
rank in the world list of most universities
producing employable graduates
Highlights of the News:
i. India has improved its ranking from 23 in
2010 to 15 in 2020
ii. There is a general decline of American and
British universities in terms of employability.
iii. India has been one of the high performers for
employability over the last decade along with
Germany (ranked 3rd), China (5th) and South
Korea (9th).
iv. India also increased its representation in the
top 250 universities worldwide - from four in
2019 to six in 2020.
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v. A notable performer is IIT-Delhi, which
ranked 149th in 2014 and moved up to 27th in
2020.
vi. The top 3 universities are California Institute
of Technology (1st), Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (2nd) and Harvard University
(3rd)
vii. China’s score saw an increase of 132% over
the past 10 years (208 in 2010 to 481 in 2020).
Way Forward:
i. As the Covid-19 situation has made the
challenge of finding work difficult for
graduates, the study says students and parents
are even more driven by the ability to get job
rather than the reputation of a university.
ii. Covid 19 has exposed the vulnerabilities of
Indian Universities in delivering quality skills
and education which will now hinder the
employability of students in post covid
scenario
iii. At the same time, India needs certain reform
to maintain and improve it’s standard in the
Global report namely – Reforms in Acts and
Laws related to UGC, NAAC ranking
framework, IQAC Regulations and imparting
industry relevant skills
3.Deserted wives, children entitled to alimony
from date of application: Supreme Court
What’s is News?
i. The Supreme Court held that deserted
wives and children are entitled to
alimony/maintenance from the husbands
from the date they apply for it in a court of
law.
ii. In order to prevent the dependent spouse
from undergoing financial hardships, it is
necessary that maintenance is awarded
from the date on which the application is
filed.
iii. Both the applicant wife and the respondent
husband have to disclose their assets and
liabilities in a maintenance case.
iv. Any earlier case filed or pending under
any other law should also be revealed in
court.
v. There is no provision in the Hindu
Marriage Act with respect to the date from
which an order of maintenance may be
made effective.
vi. Similarly, Section 12 of the Domestic
Violence Act, does not provide the date
from which the maintenance is to be
awarded.
vii. The judgment was given in a matrimonial
case on the question of payment of
maintenance by a man to his wife and son
under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal
Procedure (CrPC).
viii. Strict proof of marriage should not be a
pre-condition for grant of maintenance
under Section 125 of the CrPC
ix. Section 125(2) of CrPC is the only
statutory provision which provides that the
Magistrate may award maintenance either
from the date of the order, or from the date
of application
x. Usually maintenance cases have to be
settled in 60 days, but in reality, it takes
years to settle such cases, due to legal
loopholes.
xi. An order of maintenance may be enforced/
executed under Section 28A of the Hindu
Marriage Act, Section 20(6) of the
Domestic Violence Act or Section 128 of
CrPC.
xii. Further, an order or decree for maintenance
may be enforced as a money decree under the
Code of Civil Procedure.
4.More Children to get fortified rice
What’s in News?
In a bid to combat chronic anaemia and
undernutrition, Government is planning to
distribute fortified rice through Integrated Child
Development Services (ICDS) and Mid Day Meal
Schemes across the country from the next year
with special focus on 112 aspirational districts
Present Scheme for Food Fortification:
i. A centrally-sponsored pilot scheme was
approved in February 2019, for a three-
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year period from 2019-20 onwards with a
budget outlay of Rs.174.6 crore
ii. Under it, one district each in 15
predominantly rice-eating States was
selected and fortified rice where to be
distributed through PDS
iii. It was found that, out of 15 states only 5
— Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra,
Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh — have
started the distribution of fortified rice in
their identified pilot districts.
iv. The Food Corporation of India has now
been mandated to scale up the annual
supply of Fortified Rice Kernels (FRK)
from the current 15,000 tonnes to at least
1.3 lakh tonnes.
Food Fortification and Fortifying Rice:
i. According to the World Health
Organisation (WHO), food fortification is
defined as the practice of deliberately
increasing the content of essential
micronutrients so as to improve the
nutritional quality of the food supply and
to provide a public health benefit with
minimal risk to health.
ii. Fortifying rice is infused with iron, folic
acid and Vitamin B12
iii. Fortifying rice involves grinding broken
rice into powder, mixing it with nutrients,
and then shaping it into rice-like kernels
using an extrusion process.
iv. These fortified kernels are then mixed with
normal rice in a 1:100 ratio and distributed
for consumption.
v. Currently, there are only 15,000 tonnes of
these kernels available per year
ICDS:
i. The Integrated Child Development Service
(ICDS) Scheme providing for
supplementary nutrition, immunization
and pre-school education to the children is
a popular flagship programme of the
government.
ii. Launched in 1975, it is one of the world’s
largest programmes providing for an
integrated package of services for the
holistic development of the child.
iii. ICDS is a centrally sponsored scheme
implemented by state governments and
union territories.
iv. The scheme is universal covering all the
districts of the country.
v. The ICDS Scheme offers a package of six
services, viz.
a. Supplementary Nutrition
b. Pre-school non-formal education
c. Nutrition & health education
d. Immunization
e. Health check-up and
f. Referral services
Mid Day Meal Scheme:
i. It was 1995 as a centrally sponsored
scheme under the Ministry of Human
Resource Development
ii. The scheme provides that every child
within the age group of six to fourteen
years studying in classes I to VIII who
enrolls and attends the school, shall be
provided hot cooked meal having
nutritional standards of 450 calories and 12
gm of protein for primary (I- V class) and
700 calories and 20 gm protein for upper
primary (VI-VIII class), free of charge
every day except on school holidays.
iii. The scheme covers all government and
government aided schools and also
maktabs (elementary religious schools)
and madrasas (secondary religious
schools) supported under the Samagra
Shiksha Abhiyan.
5.Need to step up efforts to meet nutrition
targets, says NITI Aayog report
What’s in News?
The National Nutrition Mission or the Poshan
Abhiyaan — the world’s largest nutrition
programme for children and mothers — must be
stepped up in order to meet the targets set by the
Centre to reduce stunting, wasting, and
anaemia by 2022, warns a report by NITI Aayog
with only a little over a year left to reach its goals.
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More than a third of children under five suffer
from stunting and wasting and 40% of children
between one and four are anaemic. Over 50% of
pregnant and non-pregnant women were found to
be anaemic, according to the National Family
Health Survey-4 released in 2016.
POSHAN ABHIYAN:
i. The Prime Minister’s Overarching
Scheme for Holistic Nutrition or
POSHAN Abhiyaan or National
Nutrition Mission, is Government of
India’s flagship programme to improve
nutritional outcomes for children, pregnant
women and lactating mothers
ii. It was launched on International Women’s
Day on 8 March, 2018 from Jhunjhunu in
Rajasthan
iii. For implementation of POSHAN
Abhiyaan the four point strategy/pillars of
the mission are:
a. Inter-sectoral convergence for
better service delivery
b. Use of technology (ICT) for real
time growth monitoring and
tracking of women and children
c. Intensified health and nutrition
services for the first 1000 days
d. Jan Andolan
iv. Improving capacities of frontline workers
through the Incremental Learning
Approach (ILA) mechanism.
v. Emphasizing convergent actions among
the frontline workforce, including through
performance linked joint incentives for the
3As (ASHA, Anganwadi & ANM).
vi. As a part of its mandate, NITI Aayog is
required to submit implementation status
reports of POSHAN Abhiyaan every six
months to the PMO
vii. The programme through the targets will
strive to reduce the level of stunting,
under-nutrition, anemia and low birth
weight babies.
viii. NNM targets to reduce stunting, under-
nutrition, anemia (among young children,
women and adolescent girls) and reduce
low birth weight by 2%, 2%, 3% and 2%
per annum respectively. Although the
target to reduce Stunting is atleast 2% p.a.,
Mission would strive to achieve reduction
in Stunting from 38.4% (NFHS-4) to 25%
by 2022 (Mission 25 by 2022).
ix. Under Poshan Abhiyaan, the month of
September is observed as Poshan Maah i.e.
Nutrition month every year, since 2018
The National Council on India’s Nutrition
Challenges:
i. As per the mandate of Government of
India, MoWCD has constituted the
National Council on India’s Nutritional
Challenges under the Chairmanship of
Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog with the
following objectives:
a. To provide policy directions to
address India’s Nutrition
Challenges through coordinated
inter-sectoral action
b. To coordinate and review
convergence among ministries
c. To review programmes for
nutrition on a quarterly basis
ii. The key role of the Council is also to
coordinate and review convergence among
Ministries for providing policy directions
to address India’s Nutrition Challenges
through coordinated inter-sectorial action.
iii. $200 million loan from World Bank will
be used for implementing the National
Nutrition Mission
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE REPORT:
i. The review report was drafted in March
and does not factor worsening poverty and
hunger levels over the past seven months
(COVID Effect)
ii. The report calls for a need to lay as much
emphasis on complementary feeding as it
does on breastfeeding, which it points out
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can help avert 60% of the total stunting
cases in India.
iii. It also recommends improved “water,
sanitation, hand washing with soap and
hygienic disposal of children’s stools” as
other interventions which could help avert
a quarter of the stunting cases.
iv. On stunting, the review says that India's
targets are conservative as compared to the
global target defined by the World Health
Assembly (WHA), which is a prevalence
rate of 5% of stunting as opposed to
India’s goal of reducing stunting levels to
13.3% by 2022.
v. Additional preventive nutrition and health
sensitive strategies are required to achieve
further reductions in wasting to meet
WHA target for India
vi. The projections are optimistic, and will
need to be re-adjusted for the COVID-19
disruptions to health and nutrition services
6.ACADEMIC FREEDOM INDEX:
What’s in News?
India has a low score in a new global index of
academic freedom
Academic Freedom Index:
i. Academic freedom, the freedom of
teachers and students to teach, study, and
pursue knowledge and research without
unreasonable interference or restriction
from law, institutional regulations, or
public pressure
ii. It has been published by Global Public
Policy Institute as a part of a global time-
series dataset (1900-2019) in cooperation
with Friedrich-Alexander University
Erlangen-Nürnberg, Scholars at Risk and
the V‑ Dem Institute.
iii. The AFI has eight components.
1. Freedom to research and teach
2. Freedom of academic exchange
and dissemination
3. Institutional autonomy
4. Campus integrity
5. Freedom of academic and cultural
expression
6. Constitutional protection of
academic freedom
7. International legal commitment to
academic freedom under the the
International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights
8. Existence of universities
iv. The report has the index 0 -1
v. The index did not report data for 35
countries - including the United States and
Australia
vi. Uruguay and Portugal top the AFI, with
scores of 0.971 each, followed closely by
Latvia (0.964) and Germany (0.960).
vii. India with a score of 0.352, is closely
followed by Saudi Arabia (0.278) and
Libya (0.238).
viii. In the last five years, the AFI of India has
dipped by 0.1 points.
ix. Countries like Malaysia (0.582), Pakistan
(0.554), Brazil (0.466), Somalia (0.436)
and Ukraine (0.422) have scored better
than India.
x. India has not fared well in components like
institutional autonomy, campus integrity,
freedom of academic and cultural
expression and constitutional protection of
academic freedom
xi. AFI has cited the “Free to Think: Report of
the Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom
Monitoring Project”, suggests that political
tensions in India have something to do
with the falling economic freedom
Problems in India:
i. Most universities in India are subjected to
unsolicited interference from governments
in both academic and non academic issues
ii. Majority of the appointments especially to
top posts in universities are highly
politicised
iii. These choke academic and creative
freedom and lead to corrupt practices
including those in licensing and
accreditation, thus promoting unhealthy
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favouritism and nepotism in staff
appointments and student admissions
iv. Which ultimately reflects “Rent Seeking
Culture” within the academic community
How National Education Policy NEP 2020 can
solve this?
i. NEP 2020 aims at overhauling the
educational system and making “India a
global knowledge superpower”, aligned
with the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goal-4 (SDG 4 -Quality
Education).
ii. It also emphasises universal access to
schools for all children, raising the Gross
Enrolment Ration (GER) and ending the
spiralling dropout rate in India
iii. The NEP 2020 claims that it is based on
principles of creativity and critical
thinking and envisions an education
system that is free from political or
external interference.
iv. The policy states that faculty will be given
the “freedom to design their own curricular
and pedagogical approaches within the
approved framework, including textbook
and reading material selections,
assignments and assessments”.
v. It also suggests constituting a National
Research Foundation (NRF), a merit-
based and peer-reviewed research funding,
which “will be governed, independently of
the government, by a rotating Board of
Governors consisting of the very best
researchers and innovators across fields”.
vi. It aims to de-bureaucratise the education
system by giving governance powers to
academicians.
7.PUBLIC AFFAIRS INDEX 2020
What’s in News?
Public Affairs Index-2020 released by the Public
Affairs Centre
Pubic Affairs Index:
i. It is an annual report released by Public
Affairs Centre – Not-for-Profit
Organization (NPO) based in Bengaluru
(Karnataka) headed by former Indian
Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
chairman K Kasturirangan
ii. In the index, the states were ranked on
governance performance based on a
composite index in the context of
sustainable development.
iii. It uses Three Dimensions of development
– Equity, Growth and Sustainability,
Five Themes, and 50 indicators
iv. It maps the indicators to the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) relevant to
Indian states.
Equity Index:
i. This index is composed using 23 social,
economic and gender related indicators
such as malnutrition, women in legislature,
slum population and crimes against
SC/ST’s.
ii. Among the Large States, the top three are
Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Chhattisgarh
and lowest being Uttar Pradesh
iii. Among the Small States, Meghalaya tops
the list followed by Himachal Pradesh and
Manipur, while Delhi was the least
Growth Index:
i. It comprises of 20 indicators such as
expense on agriculture, student-teacher
ratio, drinking water, sanitation, electricity
availability, fiscal deficit and
unemployment rate
ii. Among Large States, the top 3 are –
Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu while
Uttar Pradesh comes Last
iii. Among the Small States Goa tops the list
followed by Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim
and lowest score was of Manipur
Sustainability Index:
i. It is composed of 7 indicators such as use
of renewable energy, land degradation,
waste management and air quality
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ii. Among Large States – Kerala, Tamil Nadu
and Telangana tops the list and West
Bengal was in the bottom
iii. Among the Small States – Goa, Meghalaya
and Sikkim tops the list while the last
place was obtained by Uttarakhand
Overall Ranking:
i. Four southern states, Kerala, Tamil
Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka
stood in the first four ranks in the large
state category in terms of governance,
Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Bihar were at
the bottom of the ranking
ii. In the small state category, Goa ranked
first, followed by Meghalaya and
Himachal Pradesh. Worst performers are
Manipur, Delhi and Uttarakhand.
iii. Chandigarh emerged the best governed
Union territory , followed by Puducherry
and Lakshadweep.
iv. Andaman and Nicobar, Jammu and
Kashmir ,Dadar and Nagar Haveli were
the least performers.
8.File FIRs for Cybercrimes
What’s in News?
Home Ministry has written to all States to
examine and register FIRs based on complaints
received on the National Cybercrime Portal
What is a Cybercrime?
Cybercrime -the use of a computer as an
instrument to further illegal ends, such as
committing fraud, stealing identities, or violating
privacy
NCRB Data on Cybercrime:
i. Increased by 63.5% in 2019.
ii. Out of this, 60.4% of cybercrime cases
registered were for the motive of fraud,
followed by sexual exploitation, with 5.1%
iii. The highest number of cybercrime cases
were registered in Karnataka (12,020)
closely followed by Uttar Pradesh
(11,416), Maharashtra (4,967)
iv. As per the data available with the Home
Ministry, only 2.5% of total complaints
registered on the National Cybercrime
Reporting Portal was converted into First
Information Reports (FIRs)
India’s Cyber Situation:
i. India secures a spot amongst the top 10
spam-sending countries in the world
alongside USA
ii. India was ranked among the top five
countries to be affected by cybercrime,
according to a report by online security
firm ”Symantec Corp”
iii. Steps taken by India to deal with
Cybercrimes:
iv. Information Technology Act, 2000 deals
with - Identity theft , Cyberterrorism,
Cyberbullying , Hacking , Defamation,
Trade Secrets, Freedom of Speech,
Harassment and Stalking
v. National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal
under the Ministry of Home Affairs
which facilitate victims/complainants to
report cyber crime complaints online
vi. The National Cyber Security Policy
document drafted by the Department of
Electronics and Information Technology
(DeitY) in 2013 aimed at protecting the
public and private infrastructure from
cyber attacks.
vii. National Cyber security Coordination
Centre (NCCC) which was formed in
2017 with a mandate to scan internet
traffic and communication metadata
(which are little snippets of information
hidden inside each communication)
coming into the country to detect real-time
cyber threats.
viii. A scheme for establishment of Indian
Cyber Crime Coordination Centre
(I4C) has been established to handle issues
related to cybercrime in the country in a
comprehensive and coordinated manner
ix. In 2017 a platform named Cyber
Swachhta Kendra was introduced for
internet users to clean their computers and
devices by wiping out viruses and malware
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x. Training of 1.14 Lakh persons through 52
institutions under the Information
Security Education and Awareness
Project (ISEA) – a project to raise
awareness and to provide research,
education and training in the field of
Information Security.
xi. In 2018 Cyber Surakshit Bharat
Initiative was launched to spread
awareness about cybercrime and building
capacity for safety measures for Chief
Information Security Officers (CISOs) and
frontline IT staff across all government
departments.
xii. In International Level we have Budapest
Convention on Cybercrime that seeks to
address Internet and computer crime
(cybercrime) by harmonizing national
laws, improving investigative techniques,
and increasing cooperation among nations.
It came into force on 1 July 2004. India is
not a signatory to this convention.
INTERPOL INITIATIVE:
i. The Interpol has created two secure and
flexible services to facilitate cybercrime
related communication among law
enforcement agencies and other
stakeholders to ensure more effective and
coordinated action based on timely
intelligence.
ii. Cybercrime Knowledge Exchange
workspace that handles general, non-
police information and is open to all
relevant users
iii. Cybercrime Collaborative Platform-
Operation, which assists in the law
enforcement operations, with access
restricted to the operational stakeholders
only.
iv. Said to be the first of its kind, the
Cybercrime Collaborative Platform-
Operation is a centralised information
database for coordination of global law
enforcement operations against
cybercrime.
9. India’s push for gender equity in science
What’s in News?
The Science, Technology and Innovation Policy,
currently being drafted by the Department of
Science and Technology (DST), one of the focus
in the draft will be to increase the participation of
women in science.
What is been planned?
i. DST will incorporate a system of grading
institutes depending on the enrolment of
women and the advancement of the careers
of women faculty and scientists.
ii. The concept borrows from a programme
started by the UK in 2005 called the
Athena SWAN (Scientific Women’s
Academic Network), which is now being
adopted by many countries.
iii. The DST will soon launch a pilot, which
the British Council has helped it develop.
What is Athena SWAN?
i. The Athena SWAN Charter is an
evaluation and accreditation programme in
the UK enhancing gender equity in
science, technology, engineering,
mathematics and medicine (STEMM).
ii. Participating research organisations and
academic institutions are required to
analyse data on gender equity and develop
action plans for improvement.
iii. The programme recognises such efforts
with bronze, silver or gold accreditation.
iv. Institutions that sign up commit to
addressing unequal gender representation;
tackling the gender pay gap; removing the
obstacles faced by women in career
development and progression;
discriminatory treatment often experienced
by trans people; gender balance of
committees and zero tolerance for bullying
and sexual harassment.
Why does India need such a programme?
i. In India, it will be called GATI (Gender
Advancement through Transforming
Institutions).
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ii. India is ranked 108 out of 149 countries in
the 2018 Global Gender Gap report.
iii. According to DST figures, in 2015-16, the
share of women involved in scientific
research and development was 14.71% —
after it had actually increased from 13% in
2000-2001 to 29% in 2014-15.
iv. The DST has also found that women are
either not promoted, or very often drop out
mid-career to attend to their families
What are the challenges ahead?
i. To get as many institutions as possible to
sign up, the DST will need to manoeuvre
around government red tape as most
universities, barring the IITs and NITs, are
run and funded by the government as well.
ii. This means that these institutions don’t
have direct control over institutional
policies, recruitment and promotions.
iii. The DST has tied up with National
Assessment and Accreditation Council,
under the UGC, aiming to push gender
equity through them.
iv. The DST plans to run intensive gender
sensitisation programmes, especially for
the top leadership of institutions, and work
within existing rules such as pushing for
women members on selection committees
during recruitment processes.
v. In the future, the DST is likely to consider
policy changes such as those brought
about in the UK providing financial
incentives through grants to institutes.
10.IIT-Bombay best in country, 8 Indian
institutes in top 500: QS World University
Ranking 2021
What’s in News?
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
Bombay is the best institute in India, as per the
latest QS World University Ranking 2021. The
institute has been ranked 172nd in top universities
across the world by the Quacquarelli Symonds
Ranking.
Quacquarelli Symonds Ranking:
i. QS Quacquarelli Symonds is the world’s
leading provider of services, analytics, and insight
to the global higher education sector, whose
mission is to enable motivated people anywhere in
the world to fulfil their potential through
educational achievement, international mobility,
and career development.
ii. The QS World University Rankings
portfolio, inaugurated in 2004
iii. It also publishes QS Asia University
Rankings 2021that compares 650 institutions from
18 locations across Asia.
iv. Some other ranking by QS are - QS Top
50 under 50 Ranking(annually), QS Graduate
Employability Rankings and QS Best Student
Cities
QS World University Ranking 2021 Highlights:
i. The United States has remained dominant
in the ranking with four out of the five institutes.
ii. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology
has continued to be the top-ranking university in
the world, followed by Stanford, Harvard and
California University of Technology (Caltech).
iii. QS ranking claims universities from across
80 different locations were ranked across six
metrics — academic reputation, employer
reputation, faculty-student ratio, citations per
faculty, international faculty ratio, and
international student ratio.
iv. Among Asian counterparts, the top-
ranking is grabbed by the National University of
Singapore.
v. A total of eight institutes have found their
place in the top 500, No Indian Institute is
featured in top 100
vi. In the recently released, Employability
Ranking, IIT-Delhi was ranked as the most
employable institute in India.
vii. IIT-Bombay, IISc Bangalore, IIT-Delhi,
IIT-Madras, IIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Kanpur, IIT-
Roorkee and IIT-Guwahati are placed in top 500
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QS Asia University Ranking 2021:
i. The National University of Singapore
secured the top institution position for the third
consecutive year.
ii. No Indian institute could make it to the top
10 of the QS list for 2021.
iii. The top three Indian universities to feature
on the Asia Rankings are IIT Bombay (Rank 47),
IIT Delhi (Rank 50), and IIT Madras (Rank 56).
iv. A total of 107 Indian institutes made it to
the overall QS Asia Rankings.
v. Of them, 7 bagged a spot in the top 100.
vi. The top 8 countries with the most
universities are: Mainland China (124), India
(107), Japan (105), South Korea (88),Taiwan
(43),Pakistan (40),Malaysia (35) and Indonesia
(30)
F. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
1.D614G MUTATION IN CORONAVIRUS
According to the paper published in the peer-
reviewed journal mBIO, D614G has become a
dominant mutation variant in COVID 19
pandemic, it has become the most transmitted
mutant variant
What is D614G mutation?
i. All viruses mutate to adapt to the barriers
that humans put up. RNA viruses such as
SARS-CoV-2 mutate slowly as they
require a host (human cell) in order to
replicate.
ii. Until now, 12,000 mutations have been
documented in over 3.2 crore cases
globally.
iii. One mutation has been found the most
widespread.
iv. It was first noticed in China and Germany,
but gained attention when it cropped up in
several cases across Europe, and
eventually in the US, Canada, Australia
and India.
v. In this mutation, glycine (G) replaces
aspartic acid (D) in the 614th position in
the amino acid.
vi. Hence the mutation came to be referred as
‘D614G’.
What makes this mutation unlike others?
i. To understand this, we must understand
how SARS-CoV-2 enters a human cell.
ii. When the virus makes an error in this
replicating cycle, we get a transformation
(mutation).
iii. The amino acids where mutation occurs
are located in the spike protein of the
virus.
iv. The spike proteins binds with the ACE2
receptor on the human cell and gains entry.
v. It is the peptides in the spike protein that
lock with the ACE2 receptor.
vi. In D614G mutation, two of the three
peptides open up, making chances of entry
into human cell higher.
vii. Imagine a hand with three fingers. If only
one finger opens, it has limited access to
pick up objects, but if two fingers open,
they can pick up more objects.
viii. The two peptides increase chances of the
virus entering a human cell.
ix. Because its nature allows a better chance
of entering a host cell than other mutated
strains, D614G has a higher rate of
transmission.
What are the implications of this?
i. A virus mutates every time it replicates in
the human cell to adapt and survive.
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ii. This mutation is helping the virus do
exactly that.
iii. Patients infected with this mutation “had
significantly higher virus load in the
nasopharynx on initial diagnosis”.
(Viral load is a measure of virus particles. It is
the amount of virus present once a person has
been infected and the virus has had time to
replicate in their cells.)
iv. This mutation is widely prevalent in India
Way Forward:
The mutation may not reduce the ability of
vaccines in clinical trials to protect against
COVID-19 and the therapeutic antibodies should
be tested against the circulating variant of the
virus before clinical development
The paper, however, fails to establish any link
between the D614G mutation and the increase in
the severity of COVID-19 or its impact on the
mortality of the patients.
The patients infected with this mutation show
variable reactions depending on certain factors
such as age, exposure to other diseases, genetic
constitution and so on.
2. Second trial of QRSAM proves DRDO
warhead’s capabilities
What’s in News?
A second consecutive successful trial of the
indigenously developed Quick Reaction Surface
to Air Missile (QRSAM) was conducted by the
DRDO, it was conducted to strike down a high
performance Jet Unmanned Aerial Target called
Banshee, which simulates an aircraft.
What is QRSAM?
i. QRSAM is a short range Surface to Air
Missile (SAM) system, primarily designed
and developed by DRDO to provide a
protective shield to the moving armoured
columns of the Army from enemy aerial
attacks
ii. QRSAM is one of the 4 categories of air
defence system the other three being, Short
Range Surface to Air Missile (SRSAM),
Medium Range Surface to Air Missile
(MRSAM) and Long Range Surface to Air
Missile (LRSAM)
iii. The weapon system would be inducted in
2021, the indigenous development started
for QRSAM development was in 2014 by
DRDO
iv. The system has been designed for
induction into the Indian Army and has a
range of 25 to 30 kilometers.
v. It is an all weather, all terrain and
capable of striking multiple targets while
on-the-move
vi. It has both surveillance radars and
multi-function radars, having 360-degree
coverage with search on move and track
on move capability.
vii. It is equipped with electronic counter
measures against the aircraft jammers to
deceive enemy radars.
Some of India’s Air Defence System:
i. SPYDER (Surface-to-air PYthon and
DERby) missile of Israel was recently
deployed with Akash Air Defence
System in Ladakh region along the India-
China border.
ii. Akash is an advanced, quick-reaction,
surface-to-air, supersonic missiles with a
range of 30 km.
iii. In Feb 2020, US has approved the sale of
an Integrated Air Defence Weapon
System (IADWS) to India at an estimated
cost of $1.9 billion.
3.The regional navigation satellite system or
IRNSS that India is the fourth nation to have
What’s in News?
India became the fourth country in the world to
have its independent regional navigation satellite
system recognised by the International Maritime
Organisation (IMO) as a part of the World Wide
Radio Navigation System (WWRNS).
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What is the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite
System?
i. The IRNSS is an independent regional
navigation satellite system developed by
India.
ii. It is designed to provide accurate position
information service to assist in the
navigation of ships in the Indian Ocean
waters.
iii. It could replace the US-owned Global
Positioning System (GPS) in the Indian
Ocean extending up to approximately 1500
km from the Indian boundary.
iv. Navigation in Indian Constellation
(NavIC) is an Indian Regional Navigation
Satellite System (IRNSS)
v. IRNSS consists of eight satellites, three
satellites in geostationary orbit and five
satellites in geosynchronous orbit.
vi. Some applications of IRNSS are:
a) Terrestrial, Aerial and Marine
Navigation
b) Disaster Management
c) Vehicle tracking and fleet management
d) Integration with mobile phones
e) Precise Timing
f) Mapping and Geodetic data capture
g) Terrestrial navigation aid for hikers
and travellers
h) Visual and voice navigation for drivers
What does the International Maritime
Organisation’s (IMO) recognition of the IRNSS
mean?
i. The IMO is the United Nations’
specialised agency responsible for the
safety and security of shipping and the
prevention of marine and atmospheric
pollution by ships.
ii. The Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) of
the IMO recognised the IRNSS as a
component of the World-wide Radio
Navigation System (WWRNS) during its
102nd session held virtually from
November 4 to November 11.
iii. With the recognition as a component of the
of the WWRNS, the Indian navigation
system is similarly placed as GPS, most
commonly used by marine shipping
vessels across the world or the Russian
Global Navigation Satellite System
(GLONASS).
iv. After the US, Russia and China that have
their own navigation systems, India has
become the fourth country to have its
independent regional navigation system.
v. Unlike GPS, however, IRNSS is a regional
and not a global navigation system.
What are the navigation system of other
countries?
1. GPS – Global Positioning System (United
States)
2. GLONASS (Russia)
3. GALILEO (European Union)
4. BEIDOU (China) (BeiDou Navigation
Satellite System (BDS))
5. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
(QZSS Japan)
4.Diabetes care goals are not yet satisfactory:
Study
What’s in News?
Recently a analysis titled, Temporal changes in
diabetes prevalence and achievement of care goals
in urban South Asia from 2010 to 2016-The
Center for Cardio-metabolic Risk Reduction in
South Asia Study, was published in the peer
reviewed British journal Diabetic Medicine.
Study Highlights:
i. A five-year follow-up of population with
diabetes in three mega cities (Chennai,
Delhi and Karachi) in South Asia has
found that the overall prevalence had risen
between 2010-11 and 2015-16 to just 1%.
ii. However, the four care goals — glycaemic
control (HbA1c), blood pressure,
cholesterol and cessation of smoking —
need improvement.
iii. Diabetologists refer to the four care goals
as ABCD — HbA1c below 7%; BP (below
140/90 mmHg); cholesterol (below
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100mg/dl); and D (diet, in this case they
looked at prevalence of smoking).
iv. It found that HbA1c control had risen from
25% during 2010-11 to 30% during 2015-
16.
v. The percentage of those who controlled
their cholesterol rose from 34% to 45% but
there was no significant improvement in
blood pressure control.
vi. Also, the smokers in the studied
population had not given up their habit.
vii. The project was coordinated by CoE-
CARRS (Center of Excellence–Center for
cArdio-metabolic Risk Reduction in South
Asia) based at the Public Health
Foundation of India (PHFI), New Delhi, in
collaboration with the Centre for Chronic
Disease Control (CCDC), New Delhi; the
All India Institute of Medical Sciences
(AIIMS), New Delhi; Madras Diabetes
Research Foundation (MDRF), Chennai;
Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan;
and Emory University, Atlanta, U.S.
viii. Six in ten adults in large South Asian
cities have either diabetes or
prediabetes.
ix. South Asia is making progress in terms of
its ability to deliver health care and there
are marked improvements in the past few
years
5.India successfully launches earth observation
satellite EOS-01
What’s in news?
India has launched successfully the Earth
Observation Satellite EOS-01 which is a Radar
Imaging Satellite (RISAT), along with nine
satellites from foreign countries, by a PSLV
rocket
What is Earth Observation Satellite?
1. An Earth observation satellite or Earth
remote sensing satellite is a satellite used
or designed for Earth observation (EO)
from orbit, including spy satellites and
similar ones intended for non-military uses
2. Land and forest mapping and monitoring,
mapping of resources like water or
minerals or fishes, weather and climate
observations, soil assessment, geospatial
contour mapping are all done through
earth-observation satellites.
3. RISAT, CARTOSAT Series, INSAT-
series, Resourcesat series, GISAT,
Scatsat,Bhaskara, Rohini are some of the
Earth Observation Satellites of India
What is EOS-1and the new naming system of
ISRO?
i. EOS-01 is an earth observation satellite,
intended for applications in agriculture,
forestry and disaster management support..
ii. It is a Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT),
which was originally named RISAT-
2BR2.
iii. It will work together with RISAT-2B and
RISAT-2BR1 launched last year.
iv. EOS-01 carried an X-band synthetic-
aperture radar (SAR). (X band Radars
uses a frequency of 12.5-8 GHz and
wavelength of 2.4-3.75 cm, mostly
worldwide the X band radars are widely
used for military reconnaissance, mapping
and surveillance)
v. EOS-01, and its sister RISATs, use X-
band radars that operate at low
wavelengths and are considered best for
monitoring of urban landscape, and
imaging of agricultural or forest land
vi. With EOS-01, ISRO is moving to a new
naming system for its earth observation
satellites which till now have been named
thematically, according to the purpose they
are meant for.
vii. For example, the Cartosat series of
satellites were meant to provide data for
land topography and mapping, while the
Oceansat satellites were meant for
observations over sea
viii. Henceforth, it seems, all the earth
observation satellites would be called
EOS-series.
What is Radar Imaging and why is it used?
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1. Imaging radar is an application of radar
which is used to create two-dimensional
images, typically of landscapes.
2. Imaging radar provides its light to
illuminate an area on the ground and take a
picture at radio wavelengths
3. It uses radio waves to determine the range,
angle, or velocity of objects.
4. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships,
spacecraft, guided missiles, weather and
terrain (land).
5. 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.
6. It can produce high-quality images in all
conditions and at all times
7. Depending on the wavelength of the
electromagnetic radiation used by the
radar, different properties on land can be
captured in the image.
8. For example, a low wavelength signal can
capture tree cover or vegetation, while a
higher wavelength signal can penetrate
even dense tree cover to look at the
contours of land beneath.
News Highlights:
1. For the launch of EOS-01, ISRO used a
new variant of its PSLV rocket that has
been flown only once before, in January
last year, when it had placed the Microsat-
R satellite in orbit. (This Microsat-R was
the one that was brought down in March
last year in India’s first anti-satellite test,
a demonstration of its capability to hit an
in-orbit enemy satellite in space.)
2. This variant of PSLV does not become
waste after depositing its satellite in the
orbit.
3. Instead, the last stage of the rocket, the one
that remains after the satellite is separated,
can acquire its own orbit and be used as an
orbital platform for other onboard
instruments to perform experiments in
space.
4. In effect, the fourth stage acts like another
satellite, with a life span of about six
months.
5. The nine customer satellites from
Lithuania (1), Luxembourg (4) and USA
(4) were launched under a commercial
arrangement with NewSpace India Limited
(NSIL).
(NSIL is the commercial arm of Indian Space
Research Organisation (ISRO) under the
Department of Space with the primary
responsibility of enabling Indian industries to take
up high technology space related activities and is
also responsible for promotion and commercial
exploitation of the products and services
emanating from the Indian space programme.)
6.India among 6 countries with highest tally of
infants who didn’t get measles vaccine
What’s in News?
According to a new report titled ‘Progress
Towards Regional Measles Elimination
Worldwide 2000-2019’ of the World Health
Organisation and US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, India was among six
countries with the highest number of infants who
had not received the vaccine against measles.
Report Findings:
i. Measles disease surged worldwide in 2019
reaching the highest number of reported
cases in 23 years
ii. A total of 1.2 million children did not
receive the first dose of measles-
containing-vaccine (MCV1) in 2019 in
India, accounting for nearly half of the
world’s total along with the remaining five
countries — Nigeria (3.3 million),
Ethiopia (1.5 million), Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC) (1.4
million), Pakistan (1.4 million), and
Philippines (0.7 million).
iii. Global measles deaths climbed nearly 50
percent since 2016
iv. Most measles deaths in 2019 have been in
Africa, many associated with major
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outbreaks in Madagascar and the
Democratic Republic of the Congo
v. To control measles and prevent outbreaks
and deaths, vaccination coverage rates
with the required MCV1 and MCV2 must
reach 95 per cent and be maintained at
national and subnational levels.
vi. Failure to vaccinate children on time with
two doses of measles-containing-vaccines
(MCV1 and MCV2) as the main driver of
these increases in cases and deaths
Measles:
i. Measles is a virus (paramyxovirus family)
that can be transmitted through airdrops,
personal contact and infected surfaces and
it is highly contagious
ii. The virus infects the respiratory tract, then
spreads throughout the body.
iii. Measles is a human disease and is not
known to occur in animals
iv. Symptoms usually develop 10–12 days
after exposure to an infected person and
last 7–10 days.
v. Unvaccinated young children are at
highest risk of measles and its
complications, including death.
vi. Unvaccinated pregnant women are also at
risk.
vii. Any non-immune person (who has not
been vaccinated or was vaccinated but did
not develop immunity) can become
infected.
viii. No specific antiviral treatment exists for
measles virus.
ix. Routine measles vaccination for children,
combined with mass immunization
campaigns in countries with high case and
death rates, are key public health strategies
to reduce global measles deaths.
The Measles & Rubella Initiative:
i. Launched in 2001, the Measles &
Rubella Initiative (M&R Initiative) is a
global partnership led by the American
Red Cross, United Nations Foundation,
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), UNICEF and WHO.
ii. The Initiative is committed to ensuring
that no child dies from measles or is born
with congenital rubella syndrome.
iii. The Initiative helps countries to plan, fund
and measure efforts to stop measles and
rubella for good.
India’s Response:
i. Measles-rubella (MR) vaccine is covered
under Mission Indradhanush, which
provides vaccination against 12 Vaccine-
Preventable Diseases (VPD) and envisaged
to rapidly increase the full immunization
coverage to 90%.
ii. It is also covered under the Intensified
Mission Indradhanush (IMI), which
aims to reach each and every child under
two years of age and all those pregnant
women who have been left uncovered
under the routine immunisation
programme.
iii. India has initiated the world’s largest
Measles-Rubella (MR) Campaign in 2017
which aims to vaccinate 405 million
children by 2019
Way Forward:
i. Measles is entirely preventable; in a time
in which we have a powerful, safe and
cost-effective vaccine nobody should still
be dying of this disease.
ii. Covid-19 has resulted in dangerous
declines in immunisation coverage,
leading to increased risk of measles
outbreaks.
iii. India can make use of the Intensified
Indradhanush Programme and the eVIN
initiative to make sure every child receives
the Vaccine on time
7.RT-LAMP for detecting COVID-19
RT-LAMP:
1) RT-LAMP (Reverse Transcriptase loop-
mediated isothermal amplification)
technology is a one-step nucleic acid
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amplification method to multiply specific
sequences of RNA of the coronavirus.
2) Here, the RNA is first made into cDNA
(copy DNA) by the usual reverse
transcription.
3) Then, the DNA is amplified by the LAMP
technique.
4) Although the LAMP technique has been
used in western countries for the past five
years or more, the technique is new to the
Indian IVD industry
Current Methods of Testing:
RT-PCR:
i. The current method for SARS-CoV-2
diagnosis is the real time reverse
transcription polymerase chain reaction
(RT-PCR) test which detects the presence
of viral nucleic acids in nasopharyngeal
swab samples.
ii. The test requires complex and costly
equipment.
iii. It requires extensive training for potential
users.
iv. As the specificity and sensitivity of the test
is about 95%, there is a possibility of false
negative results.
v. The turnaround time is about 10 hours, so
that the result will be available only by the
next day.
vi. In remote places, the turnaround time
further increases depending on the distance
the samples need to travel.
vii. It does not have the capacity to keep pace
with the increasing demand.
Serology Tests:
i. COVID-19 serology tests are also in use to
detect antigens that are associated with the
virus infection.
ii. These tests are easy to use with rapid
results, as well as have minimal expenses.
iii. However, serology immunoassay lacks the
necessary accuracy to be a reliable
diagnostic test due to its low sensitivity
and high false negative/positive rates.
Advantages of RT- LAMP compared to Current
Methods:
i. The LAMP technology has many
advantages over RT-PCR technology.
ii. The RT-PCR test needs different
temperatures in one cycle.
iii. The temperature of the solution has to be
changed from 92 degrees C to 56 degrees
C and again to 72 degrees C every two
minutes, and this cycle has to be repeated.
iv. Thus, the PCR test needs expensive
thermal cycler as well as the real time PCR
machines.
v. On the other hand, the new RT-LAMP
technology is done at 65 degrees C, where
the DNA amplification is done at a
constant temperature (isothermal), so that
expensive thermal cycler is not required.
vi. Moreover, the quantity of DNA amplified
in the LAMP technology is hundred
thousand times more than that is taking
place in PCR.
vii. Therefore the final assay is possible with a
simple colour reaction, removing the need
for very costly real time PCR machines.
viii. An equally important advantage of the
LAMP technology is that the assay is so
fast that results can be obtained within 30
minutes and positive samples are amplified
as early as 10 minutes. This may be
compared with the PCR technique which
needs 8–10 hours for completion. This
means that COVID-19 testing centres can
report with accuracy in substantially lower
turnover time.
ix. Yet another advantage of LAMP is that the
reagents are to be stored at 4 degree C
(ordinary fridge), whereas the PCR-based
reagents are to be stored and transported at
–20 degrees C, which needs deep freezers
that escalate the cost.
x. The LAMP technology does not need
laborious preparation as in the case of RT-
PCR. LAMP is cost effective and does not
need complex expensive equipment.
Assays can be performed with minimum
skill and minimum infrastructure.
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xi. RT-LAMP test can be done in a single
tube with minimal expertise in a very basic
lab setup like mobile units / kiosks for
testing at Airports, Railway Stations, Bus
Stands and other public places.
xii. RT-LAMP based COVID-19 kit
components are easily available and these
can be completely manufactured in India
8.IMAC to be domain awareness Centre
What’s in News?
The Navy’s Information Management and
Analysis Centre (IMAC), the nodal agency for
maritime data fusion set up after the 26/11
Mumbai terror attacks, will soon become a
National Maritime Domain Awareness Centre
(NMAC)
IMAC:
i. Approved by the Defence Acquisition
Council in 2012, the IMAC became operational in
2014 at a cost of ₹ 450 crore and is located in
Gurugram
ii. It is the nodal centre for maritime
security information collation and distribution.
iii. It is jointly operated by the Navy and
Coast Guard
iv. The Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists who carried
out the 26/11 attacks had entered Mumbai through
the sea, using speedboats.
v. The attack exposed several vulnerabilities
of coastal security
vi. This resulted in the formation of IMAC
vii. It is the nodal centre of the National
Command Control Communication and
Intelligence System (NC3I), which was
established to link the operational Centres and
lower echelons of the Navy and the Coast Guard
spread across the country’s coastline, including
the island territories.
viii. The IMAC tracks vessels on the high seas
and gets data from the coastal radars, white
shipping agreements, Automatic Identification
Systems (AIS) transponders fitted on merchant
ships, air and traffic management system and
global shipping databases.
ix. It is important to note that IMAC tracks
only non-military or commercial ships, known as
white shipping.
x. Military ships, are tracked by the
Directorate of Naval Operations, as this is on a
classified (secret) network.
xi. As part of improving transparency on
maritime traffic on the high seas, the Navy had
been authorised to conclude white shipping
agreements with 36 countries and three
multilateral constructs.
xii. In 2018, the Information Fusion Centre
– Indian Ocean region (IFC-IOR) was set up
within the premises of the IMAC to coordinate
with regional countries on maritime country and
act as a regional repository of maritime data.
xiii. It presently has linkages with 21 partner
countries and 22 multi-national agencies across
the globe.
xiv. The NMAC (National Maritime Domain
Awareness Centre )will be multi-agency body
including the Navy, Coast Guard, intelligence
agencies, state marine police forces, and ministries
of shipping, ports and fisheries.
9.How kala-azar was eliminated from a highly
endemic district in Bihar
What’s in News?
In a recent paper published in PLOS Neglected
Tropical Diseases, Kala Azar disease has been
eliminated from Vaishali(Bihar) where it was
highly endemic.
Kala Azar:
i. Kala-azar or visceral leishmaniasis (VL)
is a tropical disease characterised by irregular
fever, weight loss, anaemia and swelling of the
spleen and liver.
ii. Some people may not face any symptom
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iii. It is a parasitic disease of the viscera (the
internal organs, particularly the liver, spleen, bone
marrow and lymph nodes).
iv. It is caused by a protozoan Leishmania
parasite and is transmitted to humans by the bite
of infected female sandflies.
v. The term kala-azar comes from India
where it is the Hindi for black fever.
vi. The disease is also known as Indian
leishmaniasis, visceral leishmaniasis, leishmania
infection, dumdum fever, black sickness, and
black fever.
vii. Without proper diagnosis and treatment,
the disease is associated with high fatality
(deaths).
Prevalence of Kala Azar Globally and India:
i. According to the World Health
Organisation (WHO), globally, about 7 to 10 lakh
new cases occur annually.
ii. India accounts for about two-thirds of the
total global cases, and the disease is endemic to
Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
iii. More than 90% of the global burden of
visceral leishmaniasis (VL) was contributed by
seven countries in 2015: Brazil, Ethiopia, India,
Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan
Elimination of Kala Azar:
i. A disease is considered to be eliminated
when the annual cases of the disease are reduced
to less than 1 case per 10,000 people at the sub-
district or block level.
ii. Eradication of the disease would mean that
there are zero cases.
iii. An initiative was launched by WHO to
eliminate VL as a public health problem from the
South East Asia region by 2020. The deadline has
now been extended to 2023.
iv. With an area of around 2,000 square
kilometres, Vaishali has a population of over 35
lakh and about 22% in the district got affected by
Kala-azar or visceral leishmaniasis (VL) each
year.
v. The programme to eliminate Kala Azar in
Vaishali included mapping of the case
distribution, community awareness campaigns,
early case detection and chemical-based vector
control.
vi. Once a person is diagnosed with Kala-
azar, indoor chemical spraying is done at the
patient’s house and at the neighbouring houses
within 500 metres.
vii. Though the disease is not contagious, the
infected sand fly may be present in the area and
the chemical spray will help kill them
viii. Routine monitoring is needed to identify if
the Kala-azar vector (sandfly) has developed
resistance to insecticides.
ix. Frequent monitoring of active cases –
track, test, and treat strategy – in the hotspot
region is very important
10.India set to launch “Deep Sea Mission”
What’s in News?
As per the Ministry of Earth Sciences, India will
soon launch an ambitious ‘Deep Ocean Mission’
that envisages exploration of minerals, energy and
marine diversity of the underwater world
The mission, which is expected to cost over
₹ 4,000 crore, will give a boost to efforts to
explore India’s vast Exclusive Economic Zone
and Continental Shelf
Samudrayaan:
i. The mission is tentatively named
“Samudrayaan”
ii. The project aims at sending Underwater
Vehicles and Robotics and manned
submersibles which is estimated to carry 3
humans for a 3 day expedition to the seafloor in
the Central Indian Ocean Basin
iii. The multi-disciplinary work will be
piloted by the MoES and other government
departments like the Defence Research and
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Development Organisation, Department of
Biotechnology, Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO), Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR)
iv. India has been ear-marked nearly 1.5 lakh
square kilometres of area in the central Indian
Ocean for exploration.
v. In September 2016, India signed a 15-year
contract with the International Seabed Authority
(ISA) for exploration of Poly-Metallic Sulphides
(PMS) in the Indian Ocean.
vi. The mission will also involve procurement
of more advanced deep sea vessels for
explorations.
vii. The existing vessel Sagar Kanya is nearly
three-and-half decades old.
International Seabed Authority (ISA):
i. Open Sea is a common property of the
humanity and it is governed under the United
Convention on the Laws of the Sea, which is
often called as “Constitution for the Oceans”
ii. The Treaty governs the right of free
passage to scientific research and marine
conservation
iii. The ISA is an institution set up under the
Convention on Law of the Sea to which India is a
Party.
iv. This body issues contracts for exploration
and exploitation of the deep sea and also ensures
distribution of some of the profits to the
developing nations
v. India received the status of pioneer
investor in 1987 and was given an area of about
1.5 lakh sq. kms in Central Indian Ocean Region
vi. The ISA earlier approved 10,000 sq. km
for India with a 15-year PMS exploration plan
along the Central Indian Ridge (CIR) and
Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR) region of the
Indian Ocean.
vii. The 15-year contract formalised India’s
exclusive rights for exploration of PMS in the
allotted area in the Indian Ocean.
Polymetallic Nodules:
i. “Polymetallic polynodules” (manganese
nodules) are rock concretions on the sea floor
formed by concentric layers of iron, manganese,
and other high-value metals around a tiny core.
(Nickel, Copper, Cobalt, Cadmium, Lead,
Titanium etc)
ii. The size of a fully developed nodule varies
from a fraction of a millimeter to as much as 20
cm with an average size between 5 and 10 cm.
iii. Nodules are formed by precipitation of
metals from sea water over several million years.
iv. Polymetallic nodules occur in most oceans
of the world with the greatest abundance at the
vast abyssal floor at depths between 4000 and
6000 m.
v. Areas of economic interest have been
identified in the north central Pacific Ocean, the
Peru basin in the southeast Pacific, and the center
of the north Indian Ocean.
vi. Central Indian Ocean Basin is estimated
to have a huge 380 million tonnes of such
nodules
vii. India is one among the top 8-
countries/contractors and is implementing a long-
term programme on exploration and utilization of
Polymetallic Nodules.
viii. Polymetallic modules contain Rare Earth
Elements and metals which are important to high-
tech industries and the amount of copper
contained in the CCZ nodules is estimated to be
about 20% of that held in global land-based
reserves.
ix. These metals are particularly useful for
ensuring energy security as the world moves
towards non fossil fuel based energy generation
x. Lithium-ion battery and other related
technologies require these elements as they are
cardinal raw materials
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xi. But IUCN has warned the nations against
the exploitation of deep
sea bed as it is home to
rich biodiversity
Deep Sea Mining:
i. Deep-sea mining
is the process of
retrieving mineral
deposits from the deep
sea – the area of the
ocean below 200 m
which covers about 65%
of the Earth’s surface.
ii. There is growing
interest in the mineral
deposits of the deep sea.
iii. This is largely
due to depleting
terrestrial deposits for
metals such as copper,
nickel, aluminium,
manganese, zinc, lithium
and cobalt, coupled with
rising demand for these
metals to produce high-
tech applications such as
smartphones and green
technologies such as wind turbines, solar panels
and electric storage batteries.
iv. The scraping of the ocean floor by
machines can alter or destroy deep-sea habitats,
leading to the loss of species and fragmentation or
loss of ecosystem structure and function.
v. Many species living in the deep sea are
endemic – meaning they do not occur anywhere
else on the planet – and physical disturbances in
just one mining site can possibly wipe out an
entire species.
vi. This is one of the biggest potential impacts
from deep-sea mining.
vii. Environmental impact assessments,
effective regulation and mitigation strategies are
needed to limit the impacts of deep-sea mining.
viii. Comprehensive baseline studies are
needed to improve our understanding of the deep
sea.
ix. Many nations such as Brazil, Singapore,
Russia, Canada, United States, Germany etc are
all moving towards deep sea exploration and
exploitation
x. In November, China live-streamed footage
of its new manned submersible parked at the
bottom of the Mariana Trench.
PICTURE : POLYMETALLIC NODULES
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11.The Guillain Barre Syndrome
In a rare complication, some patients infected with
Covid-19 have been found suffering from Guillain
Barre Syndrome (GBS). In India, such cases have
been reported since August.
A group of neurologists in Mumbai is now
mapping these cases and their symptoms.
What is Guillain Barre Syndrome?
i. It is a very rare autoimmune disorder.
ii. The immune system, in an attempt to
kill the coronavirus, accidentally starts
attacking the peripheral nervous system.
iii. The peripheral nervous system is a
network of nerves that lead from the brain and
spinal cord to different parts of the body.
iv. Attacking them can affect limb functions.
v. The syndrome’s first symptoms are a
tingling or itching sensation in the skin, followed
by muscle weakness, pain and numbness.
vi. The symptoms may emerge first in feet
and hands.
vii. A person then starts experiencing reflex
loss and paralysis, which may be temporary, but
can last for 6-12 months or longer.
viii. With Covid-19 a year old, it is still
difficult to assess the nature of permanency GBS
in such cases may present.
ix. GBS is caused by bacteria or viral
infection.
x. In the past, patients of Middle East
Respiratory Syndrome showed GBS symptoms, as
did those infected with Zika, HIV, Herpes virus
and Campylobacter jejuni.
Guillain Barre Syndrome and Covid-19
i. Covid-19 is known to affect digestive,
cardiac and kidney functions.
ii. It is also known that some –– not all ––
patients are prone to neurological problems if they
contract the virus.
iii. The virus can cause memory fog, anxiety,
headache and depression if it attacks parts of the
brain which form the central nervous system.
iv. In all these cases, the virus attacks the
organs or tissues directly leading to the
complication.
v. But in some cases, it can have an indirect
effect.
vi. It can trigger an immune response so
powerful that the body’s peripheral nervous
system can come under attack
vii. It is paradoxical - we all want a good
immune system, but if the immune system is over-
active, it can be detrimental for the body, it can
attack healthy nerves along with attacking the
virus
viii. An interval of 5-10 days is noticed
between onset of GBS symptoms and Covid-19
infection, but some doctors say it can also take
weeks after Covid-19 infection for a person to
develop GBS.
Treatment
i. Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG)
and sometimes plasma therapy helps recovery in
patients with GBS.
ii. Some patients may develop severe
complications and require intensive care treatment
or ventilator support.
12.SpaceX-NASA’s Crew-1 mission
What’s in News?
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft was launched
from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida
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carrying a crew of four people to the International
Space Station (ISS) on a six-month-long mission.
What is the Crew-1 mission?
i. The mission is part of NASA’s
Commercial Crew Program, whose objective is
to make access to space easier in terms of its cost,
so that cargo and crew can be easily transported to
and from the ISS, enabling greater scientific
research.
ii. Significantly, Crew-1 will be the first
operational flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon
spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket to the ISS and is
the first of the three scheduled flights scheduled
over the course of 2020-2021.
iii. NASA certified SpaceX’s Crew Dragon
capsule and the Falcon 9 rocket, making it the first
spacecraft certification provided by the space
agency.
iv. This means SpaceX can now operate
regular flights to the space station.
What are the experiments that are to be
undertaken?
i. Some of the research that the crew is
carrying with themselves includes materials to
investigate food physiology, which will study the
effects of dietary improvements on immune
function and the gut microbiome and how those
improvements can help crews adapt to spaceflight
ii. Another experiment aboard the Crew
Dragon is a student-designed experiment titled,
“Genes in Space-7” that aims to understand how
spaceflight affects brain function.
iii. Other experiments include research that
will enable scientists to understand the physical
interactions of liquid, rocks and microorganisms,
experiment on the role of microgravity on human
health and another on how microgravity affects
heart tissue.
International Space Station (ISS)
i. The International Space Station (ISS) is a
modular space station (habitable artificial satellite)
in low Earth orbit (LEO).
ii. It is the largest artificial object in space
and the largest satellite in low Earth orbit,
regularly visible to the naked eye from Earth's
surface.
iii. The ISS is a multi-national collaborative
project between five participating space agencies
viz. NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia),
JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA
(Canada).
iv. Its main construction was completed
between 1998 and 2011 and has been
continuously occupied since Nov. 2, 2000
Sentinel-6 satellite :
i. The Copernicus Sentinel-6 Michael
Freilich satellite, designed to monitor oceans, was
launched from the Vandenberg Air Force base in
California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket
ii. This is a part of the next mission dedicated
to measuring changes in the global sea level.
iii. Other satellites that have been launched
since 1992 to track changes in the oceans on a
global scale include the TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-
1 and OSTN/Jason-2, among others.
iv. The mission, called the Jason Continuity
of Service (Jason-CS) mission, is designed to
measure the height of the ocean, which is a key
component in understanding how the Earth’s
climate is changing.
v. The spacecraft consists of two satellites,
one of them is Sentinel-6, and the other, called
Sentinel-6B, to be launched in 2025.
vi. It has been developed jointly by the
European Space Agency (ESA), NASA, European
Organisation for the Exploitation of
Meteorological Satellites (Eumetsat), the USA’s
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) and the EU, with
contributions from France’s National Centre for
Space Studies (CNES)
vii. This will help scientists foresee the effects
of the changing oceans on the climate.
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13.Fast radio burst, spotted by NASA for the
first time in the Milky Way
What’s in News?
NASA has reported that on April 2020, it
observed a mix of X-ray and radio signals never
observed before in the Milky Way.
Significantly, the flare-up it observed included the
first fast radio burst (FRB) seen within the galaxy.
Three papers reporting the detection of fast radio
burst (FRB) have been published recently in the
journal Nature
What is an FRB (Fast radio burst)?
i. The first FRB was discovered in 2007,
since when scientists have been working towards
finding the source of their origin.
ii. Essentially, FRBs are bright bursts of radio
waves (radio waves can be produced by
astronomical objects with changing magnetic
fields) whose durations lie in the millisecond-
scale, because of which it is difficult to detect
them and determine their position in the sky.
iii. The source of the FRB detected in April in
the Milky Way is a very powerful magnetic
neutron star, referred to as a magnetar, called SGR
1935+2154 or SGR 1935, which is located in the
constellation Vulpecula and is estimated to be
between 14,000-41,000 light-years away.
iv. The FRB was part of one of the magnetar’s
most prolific flare-ups, with the X-ray bursts
lasting less than a second.
v. The radio burst, on the other hand, lasted
for a thousandth of a second and was thousands of
times brighter than any other radio emissions from
magnetars seen in the Milky Way previously.
vi. It is possible that the FRB-associated burst
was exceptional because it likely occurred at or
close to the magnetar’s magnetic pole.
vii. This flare-up, which lasted for hours, was
picked up by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space
telescope and NASA’s Neutron star Interior
Composition Explorer (NICER), which is an X-
ray telescope mounted on the International Space
Station
What is a Radio Wave?
i. Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic
radiation and have the longest wavelengths in the
electromagnetic spectrum.
ii. The wavelength is the distance a wave
takes to complete one cycle.
iii. The basic building block of radio
communications is a radio wave
iv. Naturally occurring radio waves are
emitted by lightning and astronomical objects
What is a magnetar?
i. As per NASA, a magnetar is a neutron
star, “the crushed, city-size remains of a star many
times more massive than our Sun.”
ii. The magnetic field of such a star is very
powerful, which can be over 10 trillion times
stronger than a refrigerator magnet and up to a
thousand times stronger than a typical neutron
star’s.
iii. Neutron stars are formed when the core of
a massive star undergoes gravitational collapse
when it reaches the end of its life.
iv. This results in the matter being so tightly
packed that even a sugar-cube sized amount of
material taken from such a star weighs more than
1 billion tons, which is about the same as the
weight of Mount Everest
v. Magnetars are a subclass of these neutrons
and occasionally release flares with more energy
in a fraction of a second than the Sun is capable of
emitting in tens of thousands of years.
vi. In the case of SGR 1935, for instance, the
X-ray portion of the simultaneous bursts it
released in April carried as much energy as the
Sun produces in a month, assuming that the
magnetar lies towards the nearer end of its
distance range.
Why is this observation significant?
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i. Until now, there were various theories that
tried to explain what the possible sources of an
FRB could be.
ii. One of the sources proposed by the
theories has been magnetars.
iii. But before April this year, scientists did
not have any evidence to show that FRBs could be
blasted out of a magnetar
iv. This also leads to a possibility that at least
some of these signals are also produced by
magnetars in other galaxies.
G. ART AND CULTURE
The Miyas of Assam, and their char-chapori
culture
What’s in News?
A proposed “Miya museum” reflecting the
“culture and heritage of the people living in char-
chaporis” has stirred up a controversy in Assam.
What are Char-chaporis?
1. Char-chaporis are shifting riverine
islands of the Brahmaputra and are
primarily inhabited by the Muslims of
Bengali-origin (pejoratively referred to as
‘Miyas’).
2. A char is a floating island while chaporis
are low-lying flood-prone riverbanks.
3. Prone to floods and erosion, these areas are
marked by low development indices.
4. The website of the Directorate of Char
Areas Development puts the population of
chars at 24.90 lakh as per a socio-
economic survey in 2002-03.
5. 80% of the Char population lives below
poverty line.
6. A UNDP Assam Human Development
report from 2014 describes the char areas
as suffering from “communication deficits,
lack of adequate schooling facilities
beyond primary, girl child marriage,
poverty and illiteracy”.
7. While Bengali-origin Muslims primarily
occupy these islands, other communities
such as Misings, Deoris, Kocharis, Nepalis
also live here
Who are the Miyas?
1. The ‘Miya’ community comprises
descendants of Muslim migrants from
East Bengal (now Bangladesh) to
Assam.
2. They came to be referred to as ‘Miyas’,
often in a derogatory manner.
3. The community migrated in several waves
— starting with the British annexation of
Assam in 1826, and continuing into
Partition and the 1971 Bangladesh
Liberation War — and have resulted in
changes in demographic composition of
the region.
4. Years of discontent among the indigenous
people led to the six-year-long (1979-85)
anti-foreigner Assam Agitation to weed
out the “illegal immigrant”, who was
perceived as trying to take over jobs,
language and culture of the indigenous
population.
What’s the Controversy?
The museum has been proposed in the
Kalakshetra, which is a cultural complex in
Guwahati named after neo-Vaishnavite reformer
Srimanta Sankardev, and which was set up as part
of the Assam Accord, it hurts Assamese
sentiments
H. PRELIMS TIT BITS
1.PLATFORM WORK:
The Code on Social Security Bill, 2020, for the
first time in Indian law, attempted to define
‘platform work’ outside of the traditional
employment category.
It says: “Platform work means a work
arrangement outside of a traditional employer-
employee relationship in which organisations or
individuals use an online platform to access other
organisations or individuals to solve specific
problems or to provide specific services or any
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such other activities which may be notified by the
Central Government, in exchange for payment.”
A categorical clarification could ensure that social
security measures are provided to workers without
compromising the touted qualities of platform
work: flexibility and a sense of ownership.
2.“GO ELECTRIC” CAMPAIGN
The “Go Electric” campaign was launched by
Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) in
coordination with the Andhra Pradesh State
Energy Conservation Mission with an aim to
establish 400 Electric Vehicle charging stations
across Andhra Pradesh (1 charging station for
every 25 km along the National Highway)
3.U.S FORMALLY EXIT PARIS PACT:
The US formally exited the Paris Climate
Agreement. President Trump originally
announced his intention to withdraw from the
agreement in 2017 arguing it would undermine the
U.S. economy and formally notified the United
Nations last year.
Some 189 countries remain committed to the 2015
Paris accord, which aims to keep the increase in
average temperatures worldwide “well below” 2
degrees Celsius, ideally no more than 1.5 degree
Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels
The Paris accord requires countries to set their
own voluntary targets for reducing Greenhouse
Gases such as Carbon Di Oxide
The US is the second leading producer of all
carbon dioxide emissions globally, behind
China.
The US is the only country to withdraw from the
global pact. It can still attend negotiations and
give opinions, but is relegated to observer status.
4.LUHRO HYDROPOWER PROJECT:
Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs
approved the funding for 210 MW Luhri
Hydropower Project on R.Satluj in Himachal
Pradesh
5. NURTURING NEIGHBOURHOOD
CHALLENGE:
Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has
launched “Nurturing Neighbourhood Challenge”
for 100 Smart Cities, cites with population of
more than 5 lakh and State/UT Capitals to develop
and implement initiatives to improve the quality
of life of young children, caregivers and
families.
6.NPCI ALLOWS WHATSAPP TO OFFER
PAYMENT SERVICES
The National Payments Corporation of India
(NPCI) allowed Facebook-owned messaging
platform WhatsApp to start its payments service
in the country in a "graded" manner.
NPCI runs the Unified Payments Interface (UPI)
used for real-time payments between peers or at
merchants' end while making purchases.
A "cap of 30 per cent of total volume of
transactions processed in UPI" will be applicable
on all Third Party App Providers (TPAPs) from
January 1, 2021
The cap of 30 per cent will be calculated on the
basis of the total volume of transactions processed
in UPI during the preceding three months on a
rolling basis
7.UAE OVERHAULS ISLAMIC LAWS:
The United Arab Emirates announced a major
overhaul of the country's Islamic personal laws,
allowing unmarried couples to cohabitate,
loosening alcohol restrictions and criminalizing
so-called "honor killings."
Attempted suicide, forbidden in Islamic law,
would also be decriminalized
The reforms aims to boost the country’s economic
and social standing and “consolidate the UAE’s
principles of tolerance”.
8.ADB APPROVES $300 MILLION LOAN
TO PAKISTAN
To promote macroeconomic stability in Pakistan
ADB is providing $300 million loan, earlier
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Pakistan secured $800 million worth of debt
freeze deals from 14 members of the G20
9.CHINA’S FIRST DOMESTICALLY MADE
NUCLEAR REACTOR GOES ONLINE
China has powered up its first domestically
developed nuclear reactor — the Hualong One (
In east China’s Fujian province)
The reactor, which was connected to the national
grid, can generate 10 billion kilowatt-hours of
electricity each year and cut carbon emissions by
8.16 million tons.
Nuclear plants supplied less than five percent of
China’s annual electricity needs in 2019,
according to the National Energy Administration,
but this share is expected to grow as Beijing
attempts to become carbon neutral by 2060
This will help China to become less dependent on
Western allies for energy security and critical
technology
10.NEOM CITY:
Neom City is the $500 billion city state built on
Saudi Arabia’s northwest coast
The name Neom is a combination of Greek and
Arabia words means “New Future”
It is expected to open to the residents in 2025 and
it is located in the Tabuk Province (which is
roughly the size of Belgium) and located along the
Red Sea Coast
This region is already inhabited by Huwaitat
tribe
11.PAKISTAN CABINET FOR STRICT
PUNISHMENT TO RAPISTS
The Anti Rape (Investigation and Trial)
Ordinance, 2020 and the Pakistan Penal Code
(Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 was passed by
Pakistan Cabinet which aimed at handing out
exemplary punishment, including chemical
castration and hanging to rapists
The ordinance has amended the definition of rape
in which for the first time “Transgender” and
“Gang Rape” has been included
The proposed ordinance have also prohibit the
controversial two finger test performed on rape
survivors which was earlier declared unscientific
by WHO
12.SITMEX-2020 and SIMBEX-2020 :
The second edition of India, Thailand and
Singapore trilateral naval exercise SITMEX-
2020 was held in Andaman Sea.It was started in
2019
The 27th
bilateral India Singapore maritime
exercise SIMBEX-2020 was also held in
November , The SIMBEX series of exercises
between the Indian Navy and the RSN have been
conducted annually since 1994 and they are aimed
at enhancing mutual interoperability and imbibing
best practise
13. ‘ORUNODOI’ SCHEME:
The Assam government launched ‘Orunodoi’
scheme. Over 18 lakh families in the state will
receive minimum of 830 rupees per month that
will be deposited in the bank accounts of the
women of the families.
The main aim of the scheme is to take care of the
financial problems of the poor and BPL families
in the state with substantial financial support
14. CHINA’S CHANG’E-5
It is a lunar mission that aims to bring back
samples of lunar rock from a previously
unexplored portion i.e. Mons Rumker region of
the Moon.
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Chang’e-5 probe, is named after the Chinese
Moon goddess who is traditionally accompanied
by a white or jade rabbit.
15. INS VAGIR
Indian Navy’s fifth Kalvari-class Diesel Electric
attack submarine INS Vagir was launched
It is fifth among the six Kalvari-class submarines
being constructed by the public sector shipbuilder
Mazagon Dock Ltd (MDL) in Mumbai.
The other vessels in the class are INS Kalvari,
INS Khanderi, INS Karanj, INS Vela and INS
Vagsheer.
Of these Kalvari and Khanderi have been
commissioned in 2017 and 2019, Vela and Karanj
and undergoing sea trials, Vagir has now been
launched and Vagsheer is under construction
The Kalvari class of submarines are capable of
launching various types of torpedoes and missiles
and are equipped with a range of surveillance and
intelligence gathering mechanisms.
16.SDG INVESTOR MAP
United Nations Development Programme, UNDP
and Invest India have launched the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) Investor Map for
India.
It laid out 18 Investment Opportunities Areas in
six critical SDG enabling sectors, that can help the
country push forward on the trajectory of
Sustainable Development.
17.MADHYA PRADESH’S COW CABINET
Madhya Pradesh had set up a ‘Gau Cabinet’ for
the protection and promotion of cattle.
18.INDIA’S COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
PROJECTS IN AFGHANISTAN:
India has announced the launch of Phase-IV of the
High Impact Community Development Projects in
Afghanistan.
It envisages more than 100 projects worth 80
million dollars that India would undertake in
Afghanistan
It includes construction of the Shatoot dam,
which would provide safe drinking water to two
million residents of Kabul city and 202-kilometer
Phul-e-Khumri transmission line that provided
electricity to Kabul city.
19. ESSENTIAL SERVICES MAINTENANCE
ACT (ESMA)
Uttar Pradesh government has imposed
Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) in
the state.
As per the U.P ESMA, the state government now
has the power to prohibit strikes in workplaces
for the next six months, after which it may be
extended for another six months.
20. AIM-SIRIUS INNOVATION
PROGRAMME
Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and Sirius,
Russia, today launched ‘AIM-Sirius Innovation
Programme for Indian and Russian school
children.
AIM-Sirius programme seeks to develop
technological solutions for the two countries.
Over a two-week programme, from 7th to 21st of
November , 48 students and 16 educators and
mentors will create 8 virtual products and mobile
applications addressing global challenges across a
range of areas like applied cognitive science,
health and well-being, and artificial intelligence
21. The Ministry of Shipping has been renamed
as the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and
Waterways
22. DIPAM SIGNED AN AGREEMENT
WITH WORLD BANK
Department of Investment and Public Asset
Management, DIPAM signed an agreement with
World Bank .
Under the agreement, World Bank is to provide
advisory services to DIPAM for asset
monetization.
DIPAM is mandated with facilitating
monetization of non-core assets of government
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CPSEs under strategic disinvestment or closure
and enemy property of value of Rs. 100 crore and
above.
23.The First Solar Power enabled Textile Mill of
Asia is coming up in Parbhani District of
Maharashtra
24. PARAM SIDDHI
India’s Artificial Intelligence supercomputer
Param Siddhi has achieved 63rd rank among top
500 most powerful non-distributed computer
systems in the world.
25. UNITED NATIONS GENERAL
ASSEMBLY – INDIA SPONSORED
RESOLUTIONS
The first committee of the United Nations General
Assembly has adopted two India-sponsored
resolutions on nuclear disarmament which aim to
reduce risk of nuclear accidents and call for a
prohibition on the use of nuclear weapons.
The UNGA first committee deals with the issue of
disarmament and works in close cooperation with
the United Nations Disarmament Commission and
the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament,
the other two bodies to deal with the nuclear issue.
The two resolutions adopted include Convention
on the Prohibition of the Use of Nuclear
Weapons and Reducing Nuclear Danger under
the Nuclear weapons cluster.
26. MISSION SAGAR-II
As part of ‘Mission Sagar-II’, the Government of
India is providing assistance to Friendly Foreign
Countries to overcome natural calamities and
Covid-19 pandemic.
Towards the same INS Airavat is delivering food
aid for the people of Sudan.
27. DECLARATION OF PRIVATE SECTOR
ON CLIMATE CHANGE
Some of India's biggest private sector companies
pledged to work with the government to tackle
climate change and build sustainable economies,
thereby helping the country achieve its targets
under the Paris Agreement.
CEOs of companies like Reliance Industries Ltd,
Tech Mahindra, Dalmia Cement, Ambuja Cement,
Dr Reddy's, Sun Pharma and Adani Transmission
etc. held a virtual discussion with Union
Environment Minister at the India CEO Forum on
Climate Change.
Following the discussion, they issued a
'Declaration of Private Sector on Climate Change',
pledging to take necessary action to help India
achieve its targets under the Paris Agreement.
The companies stated they aim to go beyond
promotion of renewable energy, enhanced energy
and material efficiency, improved processes and
technologies, water efficiency processes, planned
afforestation, waste management and recycling,
etc.
28. STATUE OF PEACE
Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled ‘Statue of
Peace’ in Rajasthan’s Pali, to mark the 151st
Jayanti celebrations of Jainacharya Shree Vijay
Vallabh Surishwer Ji Maharaj.
29.NATIONAL NEWBORN WEEK
Newborn Care Week is celebrated every year in
the country from 15 to 21 November.
The aim for celebrating the week is to raise
awareness about the importance of the newborn
care for child survival and development.
The theme of National Newborn Week this year is
‘Quality, Equity, Dignity for every newborn at
every health facility and everywhere’.
In 2014, India became the first country to launch
the India Newborn Action Plan (INAP), in
alignment with the Global Every Newborn Action
Plan towards eliminating preventable deaths of
new-borns and stillbirths
30.GAIL COMPLETES KOCHI
MANGALORE PIPELINE
GAIL India has completed the final 540-metre
treacherous stretch across the Chandragiri river in
northern Kerala
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The 444-km-long natural gas pipeline was
launched in 2009 at an estimated cost of Rs 2,915
crore and was to be commissioned in 2014.
The pipeline will supply gas to all seven districts
it passes through Kerala -- Ernakulam, Thrissur,
Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur and
Kasargod -- and the hilly Wayanad district.
31.AUSTRALIA TO TEMPORARILY HOST
ISRO SATELLITE TRACKING FACILITY
As part of steps to deepen cooperation in civil
space activities, the space agencies of India and
Australia were working together to position
temporarily Indian tracking facilities in Australia
This would support India’s planned human space
flight programme.
32.MOYAR IS THE LAST STRONGHOLD
FOR MAHSEER
Known to be among the “largest and hardest
fighting freshwater fish in the world”, the
majestic hump-backed mahseer (Tor remadevii),
once a prize catch for anglers, is on the verge of
extinction.
In fact, the Moyar, flowing through the
Mudumalai and Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserves,
is one of the last strongholds for Tor remadevii,
known as the “tiger of the Cauvery river”.
Once seen in rivers across the Cauvery basin, the
mahseer, also known as the orange-finned
mahseer, is now restricted to a few protected
stretches of rivers in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
The International Union for the Conservation of
Nature (IUCN) has listed it as being “critically
endangered”.
33.JAPANESE GRANT TO MALDIVES
Maldives received the Japanese Grant of $7.6
million for the Maldives Coast Guard and the
Maritime Rescue and Coordination Center
Earlier Maldives have signed first military
agreement with USA.
34. WILLOW WARBLER SPOTTED FOR
THE FIRST TIME IN INDIA
Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus), one of
the longest migrating small birds that breeds
throughout northern and temperate Europe and
the Palearctic, has been sighted for the first time
in the country at Punchakkari in Kerala
These birds migrate to sub-Saharan Africa
during early winter.
It is Least Concern according to the IUCN Status
35. UP UNLAWFUL RELIGIOUS
CONVERSION PROHIBITION
ORDINANCE, 2020
It makes religious conversion for marriage a non-
bailable offence and the onus will be on the
defendant to prove that conversion was not for
marriage.
The notice period to the District Magistrate for the
religious conversion is two months.
In case of conversion done by a woman for the
sole purpose of marriage, the marriage would be
declared null and void.
Violation of the provisions of the law would invite
a jail term of not less than one year extendable to
five years with a fine of Rs. 15,000.
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If a minor woman or a woman from the Scheduled
Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) converts, the
jail term would be a minimum of three years and
could be extended to 10 years with a fine of Rs.
25,000.
The ordinance also lays down strict action,
including cancellation of registration of social
organisations conducting mass conversions, which
would invite a jail term of not less than three years
and up to 10 years and a fine of Rs. 50,000.
36.ARUNACHAL PRADESH RECORDS THE
BEST SEX RATIO
According to the 2018 report on “vital statistics
of India based on the Civil Registration
System”.
Arunachal Pradesh recorded 1,084 females born
per thousand males, followed by Nagaland (965)
Mizoram (964), Kerala (963) and Karnataka
(957).
The worst was reported in Manipur (757),
Lakshadweep (839) and Daman & Diu (877),
Punjab (896) and Gujarat (896).
Sex ratio at birth is number of females born per
thousand males.
37. MARCOS DEPLOYED IN LADAKH
The Marine Commandos, abbreviated to
MARCOS and officially called the Marine
Commando Force (MCF), is the special forces
unit of the Indian Navy that is responsible for
conducting special operations.
It was formed in 1987 and are capable of
operating in all types of environments; at sea, in
air and on land.
MARCOS are being deployed in the Eastern
Ladakh alongside the Indian Army against the
Chinese military in the vicinity of the Pangong
Tso lake
38. CHINA’S SUPER DAM ON
BRAHMAPUTRA
China will build a “super” dam on the lower
reaches of the R.Brahmaputra (Yarlung Zangbo)
river close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in
Tibet
The dam could come up in the Medog county of
TAR, which is close to Arunachal Pradesh.
The state-owned hydropower company
POWERCHINA signed a strategic cooperation
agreement with the Tibet Autonomous Region
(TAR) government to implement hydropower
exploitation in the downstream of the Yarlung
Zangbo river as part of the new Five Year Plan
(2021-2025).
In 2015, China operationalised its first
hydropower project at Zangmu in Tibet, while
three other dams at Dagu, Jiexu and Jiacha are
being developed, all on the upper and middle
reaches of the river.
This would be the first dam in the lower streches
39. GARIMA GREH
Under the Scheme of ‘Shelter Home for
Transgender Persons’, Social Justice &
Empowerment Ministry has launched ‘Garima
Greh: A Shelter Home for Transgender Persons’
in Vadodara, Gujarat for transgender persons who
have been forced to leave their homes or
abandoned by the family
By March 31 next year, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai,
Patna, Kolkata, Jaipur, Raipur, Bhubaneswar and
Manipur will also have such homes to be called
“Garima Greh” with a capacity for 25 persons.
40. SARNA RELIGION
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The Jharkhand government passed a resolution
to send the Centre a letter to recognise Sarna
religion and include it as a separate code in the
Census of 2021.
The followers of Sarna faith believe pray to
nature. The holy grail of the faith is “Jal, Jungle,
Zameen” and its followers pray to the trees and
hills while believing in protecting the forest areas.
It is believed that 50 lakhs tribal in the entire
country put their religion as ‘Sarna’ in the 2011
census, although it was not a code.
I. TROPICAL CYCLONES
Cyclone formed in the low latitudes is called as
Tropical cyclone.
Cyclone Nivar is the fourth cyclone to hit the
North Indian Ocean region in 2020 which made
landfall in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh
What are the types of Tropical Cyclones
according to the wind speed?
1. Tropical Disturbances
2. Tropical depressions Low winds with a speed
between 31 and 61 km ph.
3. Tropical cyclone wind speed from 62 to 88 km
ph and it is assigned a name.
4. Severe Cyclonic Storm (SCS) wind speed is
between 89 to 118 km ph
5. Very SCS wind speed between 119 to 221 km
ph and
6. Super Cyclonic Storm when wind exceeds 221
km ph.
How are Tropical cyclones formed?
i. Tropical cyclones form only over warm ocean
waters near the equator.
ii. To form a cyclone, warm, moist air over the
ocean rises upward from near the surface. As
this air moves up and away from the ocean
surface, it leaves is less air near the surface. So
basically as the warm air rises, it causes an
area of lower air pressure below.
iii. Air from surrounding areas with higher air
pressure pushes in to the low pressure area.
Then this new “cool” air becomes warm and
moist and rises, too. And the cycle
continues…
iv. As the warmed, moist air rises and cools the
water in the air forms clouds. The whole
system of clouds and wind spins and grows,
fed by the ocean’s heat and water evaporating
from the ocean surface.
v. As the storm system rotates faster and faster,
an eye forms in the centre. It is very calm and
clear in the eye, with very low air pressure.
Higher pressure air from above flows down
into the eye.
vi. When the winds in the rotating storm reach 39
mph (63 kmph), the storm is called a “tropical
storm”. And when the wind speeds reach 74
mph (119 kmph), the storm is officially a
“tropical cyclone” or hurricane.
vii. Tropical cyclones usually weaken when they
hit land, because they are no longer being
“fed” by the energy from the warm ocean
waters. However, they often move far inland,
dumping many centimeters of rain and causing
lots of wind damage before they die out
completely.
How are Cyclones Named?
i. Cyclones that form in every ocean basin
across the world are named by the regional
specialised meteorological centres (RSMCs) and
Tropical Cyclone Warning Centres (TCWCs).
ii. There are six RSMCs in the world,
including the India Meteorological Department
(IMD), and five TCWCs
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iii. As an RSMC, the IMD names the cyclones
developing over the north Indian Ocean,including
the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea, after
following a standard procedure.
iv. The IMD is also mandated to issue
advisories to 12 other countries in the region on
the development of cyclones and storms. In 2000,
a group of nations called WMO/ESCAP (World
Meteorological Organisation/United Nations
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and
the Pacific), which comprised Bangladesh, India,
the Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri
Lanka and Thailand, decided to start naming
cyclones in the region.
v. After each country sent in suggestions, the
WMO/ESCAP Panel on Tropical Cyclones (PTC)
finalised the list.
vi. The WMO/ESCAP expanded to include
five more countries in 2018 — Iran, Qatar,Saudi
Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
vii. The list of 169 cyclone names released by
IMD (13 suggestions from each of the 13
countries)
viii. The 13 names in the recent list that have
been suggested by India include: Gati, Tej,
Murasu, Aag, Vyom, Jhar (pronounced Jhor),
Probaho, Neer, Prabhanjan, Ghurni, Ambud,
Jaladhi and Vega.
ix. Nivar was the name suggested by Iran, in
the Parsi language, the word 'Nivar' means light.
What are the guidelines to adopt names of
cyclones?
While picking names for cyclones, here are some
of the rules that countries need to follow.
If these guidelines are following, the name is
accepted by the panel on tropical cyclones (PTC)
that finalises the selection:
i. The proposed name should be neutral to
(a) politics and political figures (b) religious
believes, (c) cultures and (d) gender
ii. Name should be chosen in such a way that
it does not hurt the sentiments of any group of
population over the globe
iii. It should not be very rude and cruel in
nature
iv. It should be short, easy to pronounce and
should not be offensive to any member
v. The maximum length of the name will be
eight letters
vi. The proposed name should be provided
with its pronunciation and voice over
vii. The names of tropical cyclones over the
north Indian Ocean will not be repeated.
viii. Once used, it will cease to be used again.
Thus, the name should be new.
How are Cyclones Forecast?
i. Over the years, India’s ability to track the
formation of cyclones has improved
significantly.
ii. There is a network of 12 doppler weather
radars (DWR) along India’s coast if one were
to begin counting from Kolkata and trawl up
to Mumbai — there are 27 in all in the
country.
iii. Depending on where a storm is forming, these
radars send pulses of radio waves to gauge the
size as well as the speed at which water
droplets are moving.
iv. The earlier generation of radars was unable to
track such progress in real time, but with
DWRs, now the base standard of weather
radars, it is usually possible to detect a
potential storm at least four-five days in
advance.
v. The IMD also collaborates with similar
international networks, such as the Japan
Meteorological Agency, the U.S. National
Hurricane Center, and the U.S. Central Pacific
Hurricane Center, and these bodies constantly
send warnings and forecasts about changes in
the ocean weather.
vi. The IMD also issues flood forecast maps, in
collaboration with urban bodies that forecast
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which pockets in a city are likely to be flooded
and where crop damage is likely to be
maximum.