Current Affairs (CONSOLIDaTION)

September 2020 (Part – I)

Drishti, 641, First Floor, Dr. Mukherjee Nagar, Delhi-110009 Phone: 87501 87501, WhatsApp: 92058 85200, IVR: 8010-440-440 Email: [email protected] Contents

Polity and Governance...... 1 z Basic Structure Doctrine: Kesavananda Bharati Case...... 1 z Compatibility of the Contempt of Court with International Standards...... 3 z Reservation to In-service Doctors in PG: SC...... 3 z Question Hour and Zero Hour...... 4 z Monsoon Session of Parliament...... 5 z Supplementary Demands for Grants...... 6 z Mission Karmayogi for Civil Servants...... 7 z Assam Firm on NRC Re-verification...... 8 z Postal Voting in the USA...... 8 z Revised Guidelines for Parole and Furlough: MHA...... 9 z Proposed Amendment to Railways Act 1989...... 10 z State of the Young Child in India Report...... 11 z Launch of Bamboo Clusters...... 12 z Delhi Master Plan 2041...... 13 z Report on Literacy Rate...... 13 z Virtual Courts...... 14 z FCRA Clearance of 6 NGOs Suspended...... 15 z SAROD-Ports: Dispute Resolution Mechanism...... 16 z Shikshak Parv...... 17 z Aatmanirbhar Bharat ARISE-Atal New India Challenge...... 18 z Ease of Doing Business Rankings of the States: DPIIT...... 18 z Draft Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture: NITI Aayog...... 19 z Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill 2020...... 21 z Sub-categorisation of OBCs...... 21 z Sanskrit Grams Programme: Uttarakhand...... 22 z English as Medium of Education...... 23 z Extension of Tenure of Standing Committees...... 25 z Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana...... 26 z Household Social Consumption: Education in India...... 27 z Gap in Vaccination of Children...... 30 z VIP Security in India...... 31 z Start-Up Village Entrepreneurship Programme...... 32 z Uttar Pradesh Special Security Force ...... 33 z Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework...... 33 z Five Star Villages Scheme: India Post...... 34 z Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar 2020...... 35

Economic Scenario...... 36 z Impact of Lockdown on Indian Corporates ...... 36 z Core Sector Contracted by 9.6%...... 37 z Special Open Market Operations by RBI...... 38 z GDP Contracted by 23.9% in First Quarter...... 39 z Financing the Fiscal Deficit...... 41 z Manufacturing Improved: PMI...... 42 z Adjusted Gross Revenue to be Paid in 10 Years...... 44 z NPAs in SHG Loans...... 45 z Capping of MEIS Scheme Benefits...... 46 z Revised Priority Sector Lending Guidelines...... 47 z Development Bank for Infrastructure Funding...... 48 z Retiring Old Thermal Power Plants...... 49 z Resolution Plan by RBI for Covid-19 Stressed Assets...... 50 z Panel to Assess Impact of Waiving Loan Interest...... 51 z High Forex Reserves...... 51 z EASE 2.0 Banking Reforms Index...... 53 z Global Innovation Index 2020...... 54 z New FDI Policy in Defence Sector...... 55 z Ranking of States on Support to Startup Ecosystems: DPIIT...... 56 z Limits on Multi-Cap Fund Investments...... 56 z Contraction in July Factory Output: IIP...... 57 z Steel Industry in India...... 57 z Inflation Data: August 2020...... 58

International Relations...... 59 z Turkey- Russia Military Drill in Eastern Mediterranean...... 59 z Eighth East Asia Summit Economic Ministers’ Meeting...... 60 z G-20 Foreign Ministers Meet...... 61 z UNSC Rejects to Designate Indians as Terrorists...... 62 z Indra 2020 to be held in Andaman Sea...... 62 z Indo-China Defence Ministerial Meet...... 63 z Five Point Plan to De-escalate LAC Stand-off...... 64 z US-India Strategic Partnership Forum...... 65 z India-Japan Logistics Agreement...... 65 z 5th BRICS Culture Ministers’ Meet...... 66 z Indo-Pacific Trilateral Dialogue...... 67 z UK Internal Market Bill, 2020...... 68 z USA-Maldives Framework on Defense and Security Relationship...... 69 z Singapore Convention on Mediation...... 69 z Tension Between Russia-Germany ...... 70 z India-Bangladesh Inland Waterway Route...... 71 z India’s Position-Shift on Taliban...... 71 z USA Sanctions Against ICC Officials...... 72

Science and Technology...... 74 z Spot Robot...... 74 z Covid-19 Detection Using Mass Spectrometer...... 74 z Bradykinin Storm: Covid-19...... 76 z Chandrayaan-1 Findings...... 76 z Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle ...... 77 z Intermediate-Mass Black Hole...... 78 z Flying V Aircraft...... 79 z Indian Brai Templates: NIMHANS...... 80 z Number of Giant Radio Galaxies...... 80 z Graphene Mask Inactivates Coronaviruses...... 81 Environment and Ecology...... 82 z African Baobab Tree...... 82 z Project Dolphin...... 82 z Review of National Forest Policy, 1988...... 84 z World Solar Technology Summit...... 85 z UN Special Rapporteurs on EIA 2020...... 86 z International Day of Clean Air For Blue Skies...... 87 z Disposal of Cigarette Butts...... 88 z Paddy Stubble Use by PEDA...... 89 z Low Ozone Over Brahmaputra River Valley...... 90 z Net Present Value of Forests...... 91 z Significance of Dead Coral Reef...... 92 History...... 94 z Inscription From Renati Chola Era ...... 94 z Moplah Uprising...... 95 Geography...... 97 z Hurricane Nana...... 97 z Typhoon Maysak and Typhoon Haishen...... 97 z Yanomami Tribe of South America...... 98 z Methane Hydrates in Krishna-Godavari Basin...... 99 Art & Culture...... 101 z Onam Festival...... 101 z Patrika Gate in Jaipur...... 101 z Rogan Art: Gujarat...... 102 z Hindi Diwas...... 102 z Promotion of Buddhist Sites...... 103 Social Issues...... 105 z Kiran: Mental Health Rehabilitation Helpline...... 105 z Cooperative Labour in Odisha Tribes...... 105 Security...... 107 z Special Frontier Force: Vikas Battalion...... 107 z Administration of Assam Rifles...... 108 Miscellaneous...... 109 z Indira Gandhi Peace Prize 2019...... 109 z Real Mango: An Illegal Software...... 109 www.drishtiIAS.com CURRENT AFFAIRS SEPTEMBER 2020 1 Polity and Governance

Highlights z Basic Structure Doctrine: Kesavananda Bharati Case z Shikshak Parv z Compatibility of the Contempt of Court with International Standards z Aatmanirbhar Bharat ARISE-Atal New India Challenge z Reservation to In-service Doctors in PG: SC z Ease of Doing Business Rankings of the States: DPIIT z Question Hour and Zero Hour z Draft Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture: NITI Aayog z Monsoon Session of Parliament z Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill 2020 z Supplementary Demands for Grants z Sub-categorisation of OBCs z Mission Karmayogi for Civil Servants z Sanskrit Grams Programme: Uttarakhand z Assam Firm on NRC Re-verification z English as Medium of Education z Postal Voting in the USA z Extension of Tenure of Standing Committees z Revised Guidelines for Parole and Furlough: MHA z Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana z Proposed Amendment to Railways Act 1989 z Household Social Consumption: Education in India z State of the Young Child in India Report z Gap in Vaccination of Children z Launch of Bamboo Clusters z VIP Security in India z Delhi Master Plan 2041 z Start-Up Village Entrepreneurship Programme z Report on Literacy Rate z Uttar Pradesh Special Security Force z Virtual Courts z Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework z FCRA Clearance of 6 NGOs Suspended z Five Star Villages Scheme: India Post z SAROD-Ports: Dispute Resolution Mechanism z Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar 2020

€ A 13-judge bench was set up by the Supreme Basic Structure Doctrine: Court (SC), the biggest so far, to hear the case. Kesavananda Bharati Case € The question underlying the case also included: Was the power of Parliament to amend the Why in News Constitution unlimited? In other words, could Parliament alter, amend, abrogate any part of the Recently, Kesavananda Bharati, the main petitioner Constitution even to the extent of taking away all of the Kesavananda Bharati Sripadagalvaru and Ors Fundamental Rights? versus State of Kerala Case (1973) has passed away. ¾ Background: ¾ The landmark judgement is known for introducing the basic structure doctrine of the Constitution of India. € The SC conceded absolute power to Parliament in amending the Constitution, as was seen in the Key Points verdicts in the Shankari Prasad case (1951) and ¾ Kesavananda Bharati: Sajjan Singh case (1965). € He challenged the Kerala land reforms legislation z In both the cases, the court had ruled that the in 1970, which imposed restrictions on the term “law” in Article 13 must be taken to mean management of the religious property. rules or regulations made in exercise of ordinary € The case was challenged under Article 26, legislative power and not amendments to the concerning the right to manage religiously owned Constitution made in exercise of constituent property without government interference. power under Article 368.

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z This means Parliament had the power to z The SC declared the Article 31C as unconstitutional amend any part of the Constitution including and invalid on the ground that judicial review Fundamental Rights. is the basic structure and hence cannot be „ But Article 13(2) reads, “The State shall not taken away. make any law which takes away or abridges € Despite the ruling that Parliament cannot breach the right conferred by this Part (i.e. Part-III) Fundamental Rights, the court upheld the and any law made in contravention of this amendment that removed the Fundamental Right clause shall, to the extent of the contravention, to property. be void.” z The court ruled that in spirit, the amendment € However, in the Golaknath case (1967), the SC held would not violate the “basic structure” of the that Parliament could not amend Fundamental Constitution. Rights, and power to amend the Constitution would ¾ Doctrine of the Basic Structure: be only with a Constituent Assembly. € The origins of the basic structure doctrine are z The Court held that an amendment under Article found in the German Constitution which, after 368 is “law” within the meaning of Article 13of the Nazi regime, was amended to protect some the Constitution and therefore if an amendment basic laws. “takes away or abridges” a Fundamental Right € Learning from that experience, the new German conferred by Part III, it is void. Constitution introduced substantive limits on € To dis-effect the judgments of the SC in the Parliament’s powers to amend certain parts of Golaknath case (1967), RC Cooper case (1970), the Constitution which it considered ‘basic law’. and Madhavrao Scindia case (1970), the then € In India, the basic structure doctrine has formed government enacted major amendments to the the bedrock of judicial review of all laws passed Constitution. Most notably: by Parliament. th z 24 Constitutional (Amendment) Act, 1971: € No law can impinge on the basic structure. What the Parliament had also given itself the power to basic structure is, however, has been a continuing amend any part of the Constitution. deliberation. th z 25 Constitutional (Amendment) Act, 1972: € Parliamentary democracy, Fundamental Rights, The right to property had been removed as a judicial review, secularism- are all held by courts Fundamental Right. as the basic structure and the list is not exhaustive. ¾ Verdict in the Kesavananda Bharati Case: € It is the judiciary which is responsible to decide € The landmark judgement was delivered on 24th what constitutes the basic structure. April 1973 by a thin majority of 7:6 wherein the ¾ Implications of the Judgement: majority held that any provision of the Indian € Politically, as a result of the verdict, thejudiciary Constitution can be amended by the Parliament faced its biggest litmus test against the executive. in order to fulfil its socio-economic obligations The government ignored the opinion and superseded that were guaranteed to the citizens as given in three judges. the Preamble, provided that such amendment did € Within less than two years of the restoration of not change the Constitution’s basic structure. Parliament’s amending powers to near absolute € The minority, however, in their dissenting opinion, terms, the 42nd amendment, 1976 was challenged were wary of giving the Parliament unlimited before the SC by the owners of Minerva Mills amending power. (Bangalore), a sick industrial firm which was € The court held that the 24th Constitutional nationalised by the government in 1974. Amendment was entirely valid but it found the € Basic structure doctrine was reaffirmed in the second part of the 25th Constitutional Amendment Minerva Mills case (1980) and later in the Waman to be ultra vires. Rao case (1981).

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€ The International Covenant on Civil & Political Compatibility of the Rights: The judgement is inconsistent with the Contempt of Court with freedom of expression law guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. International Standards z The ICCPR is a key international human rights treaty, providing a range of protections for civil Why in News and political rights. The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has urged z The Covenant compels governments to take for a review of criminal contempt laws in India, expressing administrative, judicial, and legislative measures its concerns over the Supreme Court’s decision to convict in order to protect the rights enshrined in the Advocate Prashant Bhushan for criminal contempt. treaty and to provide an effective remedy. z The Covenant was adopted by the UN General Key Points Assembly in 1966 and came into force in 1976. ¾ The Supreme Court’s Decision: 173 countries including India have ratified the € The Court found Prashant Bhushan guilty of Covenant. ‘scandalizing the court’ on a suo-motu consideration € The United Nations’ Basic Principles on the Role of of his two tweets. It has fined him with Rs. 1. Lawyers: The judgement goes against the principles € Contempt of Court: enshrined under the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers. z Constitutional Provisions: Article 129 and 215 of the Constitution of India empowers the z Principle 23: Lawyers “shall have the right to take Supreme Court (SC) and High Courts respectively part in public discussion of matters concerning to punish people for their respective contempt. the law, the administration of justice and the promotion and protection of human rights”. „ Article 142 of the Indian Constitution also th empowers the SC to punish for its contempt. z These Principles were adopted by the 8 United However, what is contempt of court per se has Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime not been defined by the Indian Constitution. and the Treatment of Offenders, Cuba in 1990. ¾ The also highlighted that z Statutory Provisions: The Contempt of Court Bar Association of India Act, 1971 elaborately deals with the concept “the exercise of contempt jurisdiction by the Court of contempt of court. in this manner has potential for more self-harm than the avowed purpose of safeguarding the prestige of „ The Act divides contempt into civil and the institution”. criminal contempt. ¾ International Commission of Jurists’ Views: International Commission of Jurists € For the ICJ, the conviction appears to be inconsistent ¾ Since 1952, the International Commission of Jurists with international standards on freedom of (ICJ) has performed a unique and prominent role as expression and the role of lawyers. a Non Governmental Organization (NGO)defending € The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: The human rights and the rule of law worldwide. judgement goes against the general protection ¾ It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. of free speech and expression in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Reservation to z The Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. For the first In-service Doctors in PG: SC time, fundamental human rights were made universally applicable and protected. Why in News z It states that ‘All human beings are born free and Recently, the Supreme Court has allowed states to equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed grant the benefit of reservation of seats to in-service with reason and conscience and should act doctors in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.’ (NEET) postgraduate degree courses.

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¾ The five-judge Constitution Bench of the apex court z The in-service candidates, due to their work, also held that the Medical Council of India (MCI) has hardly find time to study and it becomes tough no power to provide or not provide reservation for for them to compete with the general merit in-service doctors in admission to PG courses. candidates. € MCI is a creation of a statute under Entry 66 of List-I € The Central government and the MCI opposed of the Constitution and its role is to coordinate and the plea contending that granting reservations or a determine the standards of medical education. separate source of entry for in-service candidates z Entry 66 of List-I: Coordination and determination would directly impinge on the authority of MCI of standards in institutions for higher education or and its regulations. research and scientific and technical institutions. Question Hour and Zero Hour Key Points ¾ The Bench held that MCI regulations barring such Why in News reservations are unconstitutional and arbitrary and Recently, the Central government has decided to that the state legislature has the authority to provide suspend the Question Hour and curtail Zero Hour for reservation for in-service doctors. Monsoon Session. This has been done in view of the € It held that a State has the legislative competence Covid-19 pandemic. and authority to provide for a separate source of ¾ In the past too, the Question Hour has been suspended. entry for in-service candidates seeking admission However, they were suspended during national to postgraduate degree/diploma courses in the emergencies. The current suspension has been done exercise of powers under Entry 25 of List-III, during a regular session. described in the seventh schedule. z Entry 25 of List-III: Education, including technical Key Points education, medical education and universities, ¾ Question Hour: subject to the provisions of entries 63, 64, 65 € Definition: The first hour of every parliamentary and 66 of List I; vocational and technical training sitting is slotted for the Question Hour. However, in of labour. 2014 the Question Hour was shifted in the Rajya ¾ It has asked states to formulate a scheme for rural/ Sabha from 11 am to 12 noon. remote service by in-service doctors after completing z During this one hour, Members of Parliament PG degree and the doctors must sign a bond for five (MPs) ask questions to ministers and hold years in service in such areas. them accountable for the functioning of their ¾ Background: ministries. € Doctors from Kerala, Maharashtra, and Haryana z The questions can also be asked to the private filed a petition challenging the validity of the members (MPs who are not ministers). Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations € Regulation: It is regulated according to the 2000, framed by the MCI. parliamentary rules. z 50% seats in PG diploma courses are reserved z The presiding officers of both Houses (Rajya for medical officers in the government service Sabha and Lok Sabha) are the final authority but the MCI regulations barred it in PG degree with respect to the conduct of Question Hour. courses. € Kinds of Questions: There are three types of z All the admission to PG degree courses are questions asked, which are as follows: conducted through the NEET and 50% seats are z Starred question (distinguished by an asterisk): filled through all India quota and the remaining This requires an oral answer and hence 50% from state quota. supplementary questions can follow. € Doctors held that granting reservation benefits z Unstarred question: It requires a written would encourage those working in government answer and hence, supplementary questions hospitals and rural areas. cannot follow.

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z Short notice question: It is asked by giving a Key Points notice of less than ten days. It is answered orally. ¾ Parliament Session: € Frequency: Question Hour in both Houses isheld € The President of India is empowered to summon on all days of the session but there are two days each House of Parliament from time to time. when an exception is made. € The maximum gap between two sessions of z When the President addresses MPs from both Parliament cannot be more than six months. Houses. That means the Parliament should meet at least „ The President’s speech takes place at the twice a year. beginning of a new Lok Sabha and on the € A ‘session’ of Parliament is the period between first day of a new Parliament year. the first sitting of a House and its prorogation. z On the day the Finance Minister presents the € There are usually three sessions in a year, viz, Budget. z (February to May) ¾ Zero Hour: Budget Session z Monsoon Session (July to September) € Zero Hour is an Indian parliamentary innovation. It is not mentioned in the parliamentary rules book. z Winter Session (November to December) € Under this, MPs can raise matters without any € The period between the prorogation of a House and prior notice. its reassembly in a new session is called ‘recess’. € The zero hour starts immediately after the question ¾ Termination of Session: hour and lasts until the agenda for the day (i.e. € A sitting of Parliament can be terminated by regular business of the House) is taken up. adjournment or adjournment sine die or z In other words, the time gap between the prorogation or dissolution (in the case of the question hour and the agenda is known as Lok Sabha). zero hour. € Adjournment: It suspends the work in a sitting for a ¾ Impact: specified time, which may be hours, days or weeks. € Over the last 70 years, MPs have successfully used € Adjournment sine die: It means terminating a the parliamentary device of ‘Question Hour’ to sitting of Parliament for an indefinite period. shine a light on government functioning. Their z In other words, when the House is adjourned questions have exposed financial irregularities without naming a day for reassembly. and brought data and information regarding z The power of adjournment as well as government functioning to the public domain. adjournment sine die lies with the presiding € Suspension of the Question Hour would mean that officer (Speaker or Chairman) of the House. the Opposition would lose the right to question € Prorogation: The President issues a notification the government. Also, the Ministers are not liable for prorogation of the session after the business to reply to the issues raised during the Zero Hour. of a session is completed and the presiding officer € This would mean that the MPs would not be able declares the House adjourned sine die. to hold the government accountable for its action. z The President can also prorogue the House This will go against the spirit of parliamentary while in session. democracy. € Dissolution: Only the Lok Sabha is subject to dissolution. Rajya Sabha, being a permanent House, Monsoon Session of Parliament is not subject to dissolution. z A dissolution ends the life of the existing House, Why in News and a new House is constituted after general Recently, the monsoon session of Parliament began elections are held. after several months which was delayed due to the z The President is empowered to dissolve the Covid-19 pandemic. Lok Sabha.

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Supplementary Supplementary Grants ¾ Supplementary Grant: It is granted when the Demands for Grants amount authorised by the Parliament through the appropriation act for a particular service for the Why in News current financial year is found to be insufficient for that year. The Centre has sought Parliament approval for a gross additional expenditure of Rs. 2.35 lakh crore for 2020 -21. € It is specified by theArticle 115of the constitution ¾ The Minister of Finance presented the first batch of of India, along with Additional and Excess Grants. Supplementary Demands for Grants for this financial ¾ Other Grants: year in the Lok Sabha. € In addition to the budget that contains the ordinary estimates of income and expenditure Key Points for one financial year, various other grants are ¾ Out of the gross additional expenditure of Rs. 2.35 lakh made by the Parliament under extraordinary or crore, Rs. 1.67 lakh crore is the net cash outgo and special circumstances. Apart from Supplementary Rs. 68,868 crore is matched by savings of the Ministries/ Grants, these include: Departments or by enhanced receipts/recoveries. € Additional Grant: It is granted when a need ¾ Due to the emergency situation caused by the Covid-19 has arisen during the current financial year for pandemic, this year’s supplementary demand includes additional expenditure uponsome new service additional allocations to pay for: not contemplated in the budget for that year. € Relief measures announced as part of the Pradhan € Excess Grant: It is granted when money has been Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana in March 2020. spent on any service during a financial year in z These include insurance schemes, food security, excess of the amount granted for that service cash transfer, help to small companies for paying in the budget for that year. Before the demands employees etc. for excess grants are submitted to the Lok Sabha € Aatmanirbhar Bharat stimulus package announced for voting, they must be approved by the Public in May 2020. Accounts Committee of Parliament. z The package is expected to focus on land, labour, € Vote of Credit: It is granted for meeting na liquidity and laws. unexpected demand upon the resources of € Grants-in-aid for the State Disaster Response Funds, India, when on account of the magnitude or the in accordance with the interim recommendations indefinite character of the service, the demand of the 15th Finance Commission. cannot be stated with the details ordinarily given z The government has decided to treat Covid19 in a budget. Hence, it is like a blank cheque given as a “notified disaster” as defined in Disaster to the Executive by the Lok Sabha. Management Act, 2005. € Exceptional Grant: It is granted for a special € Grants for bank recapitalisation: The Centre had purpose and forms no part of the current service not allocated any funds for bank recapitalisation of any financial year. in Budget 2020-21, but the economic impact of € Token Grant: It is granted when funds to meet the lockdown led the the Reserve Bank of India the proposed expenditure on a new service (RBI) to announce in July that infusing money into can be made available by reappropriation. A banks had become necessary. demand for the grant of a token sum (of Re 1) z The allocation will not involve cash outgo, as is submitted to the vote of the Lok Sabha and if the money is being raised through government assented, funds are made available. securities. z Reappropriation involves transfer of funds € Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment from one head to another. It does not involve Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme etc which is any additional expenditure. suffering from a fund crunch.

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¾ Votes on account, votes of credit and excep- € Tech-Aided: The capacity building will be delivered tional grants are specified in Article 116 of the through iGOT Karmayogi digital platform, with constitution. content drawn from global best practices. ¾ Supplementary, additional, excess and exceptional € Coverage: The scheme will cover 46 lakh central , at all levels, and involve grants and vote of credit are regulated by the same government employees an outlay of Rs. 510 crores over a five-year period. procedure which is applicable in the case of a regular budget. € Shift from Rules to Roles: The programme will support a transition from “rules-based to roles- based” Human Resource Management (HRM) so Mission Karmayogi that work allocations can be done by matching for Civil Servants an official’s competencies to the requirements of the post. z Apart from domain knowledge training, the Why in News scheme will focus on “functional and behavioural The Union Cabinet has approved ‘Mission Karmayogi’ competencies” as well, and also includes - the National Programme for Civil Services Capacity a monitoring framework for performance Building (NPCSCB). evaluations. ¾ It is meant to be a comprehensive post-recruitment € Integrated Initiative: Eventually, service matters reform of the Centre’s human resource development. such as confirmation after probation period, Similar to pre-recruitment changes in the form of the deployment, work assignments and notification of National Recruitment Agency. vacancies will all be integrated into the proposed framework. Key Points ¾ Governance Structure: ¾ Aim & Objective: € Human Resource Council: NPCSCB will be governed by the , € It is aimed at building a future-ready civil service Prime Minister’s Human Resource Council with the right attitude, skills and knowledge, which will also include state Chief Ministers, Union Cabinet ministers, and experts. aligned to the vision of New India. z This council will approve and review civil service € It aims to prepare Indian civil servants for the fu- capacity building programmes. ture by making them more creative, constructive, imaginative, proactive, innovative, progressive, € Cabinet Secretary Coordination Unit: It will comprise professional, energetic, transparent, and tech- select secretaries and cadre controlling authorities. nology-enabled. € Capacity Building Commission: It will prepare and monitor annual capacity building plans and audit € Comprehensive reform of the capacity building human resources available in the government. apparatus at the individual, institutional and process levels for efficient public service delivery. € Special Purpose Vehicle: It will govern the iGOT- Karmayogi platform. ¾ Reason for Mission: z It will be set up under Section 8 of the Companies € To address the challenges like- Rule orientation, Act, 2013 and will be a “not-for-profit” company. political interference, inefficiency with promotions, z The SPV will create and operationalize the and generalist and specialist conflict. content, market place and manage key business € To change the status quo of civil services and bring services of the iGOT-Karmayogi platform, relating about the long pending civil services reforms. to content validation, independent proctored € The capacity of Civil Services plays a vital role in assessments and telemetry data availability. rendering a wide variety of services, implementing z The SPV will own all Intellectual Property Rights welfare programs and performing core governance on behalf of the Government of India. functions. € Monitoring and Evaluation Framework: An ¾ Features of the Scheme: appropriate monitoring and evaluation framework

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will also be put in place for performance evaluation € In 2018, the SC mentioned the prospect of sample of all users of the iGOT-Karmayogi platform so as re-verification in an order, saying that it could to generate a dashboard view of Key Performance consider re-verifying 10% of the names included Indicators. in the NRC. ¾ To conclude, the ultimate aim of Mission Karmayogi € In July 2019, the state government gave an affidavit is to ensure “Ease of Living” for the common man, in the SC seeking a re-verification of 20% included “Ease of Doing Business” and Citizen-Centricity that names in the districts bordering Bangladesh and is reducing the gap between the government and 10% in the rest of the districts. the citizens. This can only be achieved by regular € However, it was dismissed after the erstwhile and constructive involvement by the government coordinator of the NRC submitted that re-verification and civil servants. was already done. ¾ Current Scenario: Assam Firm € The state government of Assam has provided the latest data regarding ‘foreigner’ detection on NRC Re-verification in the state. z 1,36,149 people have been declared ‘foreigners’ Why in News by the state’s 100 functioning Foreigners’ The Assam government remains firm on its demand Tribunals, whereas only 227 ‘foreigners’ have of 10-20% re-verification of the nationality claims made been deported from 13th March 2013 to 31st by some of the people included in the final National July 2020. Register of Citizens (NRC), published in 2019. z A total of 425 people are currently lodged in ¾ The state government’s plea for the re-verification the six detention centres in the state. is lying pending in Supreme Court (SC) for more € There is a need for re-verification because people than a year and the apex court is yet to stamp its of Assam want a correct NRC. approval on it. € Also, there has been a delay in issuing the rejection ¾ The NRC 2019 is yet to be approved by the Registrar slips to the over 19 lakh excluded people so that General of India. they can move court to claim nationality. z Officials have cited theCovid-19 pandemic and National Register of Citizens the floods in the stateas reasons for the delay. ¾ NRC is a register prepared in respect of each village, z The rejection slips would carry the reason of showing the houses or holdings in a serial order and rejection, which would differ from person to indicating against each house or holding the number person and based on the reason they would and names of persons staying therein. be able to challenge their exclusion in the ¾ The register was first prepared after the 1951 Foreigners’ Tribunals. Census of India and since then it has not been „ Every individual, whose name does not figure updated until recently. in the final NRC, can represent his/her case € It has been updated in Assam only for now and in front of the Foreigners Tribunals. the government plans to update it nationally as well. ¾ Purpose: To separate “illegal” immigrants from Postal Voting in the USA “legitimate” residents. ¾ Nodal Agency: Registrar General and Census Why in News Commissioner India. Many states in the USA are making postal voting options more easily accessible, as the USA presidential Key Points electionis set to take place in November 2020 amid the ¾ Background: Covid-19 pandemic.

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Key Points € Mr. Trump and his supporters allege that the expansion of postal voting in the November 2020 ¾ Election in USA: elections will lead to malpractices. However, € In the USA, all elections–federal, state, and local– Democrats and a section of the Republicans are directly organised by the governments of disagree with Mr. Trump, saying he is deliberately individual states. disrupting the postal voting. € Unlike India, there is no Election Commission independent of the government in the USA to Revised Guidelines for conduct elections at the national (federal) level. € The USA Constitution and laws grant the states Parole and Furlough: MHA wide latitude in how they administer elections, this has resulted in varying rules across the country. Why in News ¾ Postal Voting in USA: Recently, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) € Every single state allows postal voting, but they has revised the Model Prison Manual, 2016 guidelines have different rules for this. related to parole and furlough. z In some states voters are provided absentee Key Points ballots if they provide an excuse as to why they ¾ Revised Guidelines: cannot be present in person on election day. € The MHA has asked states to not release prisoners, „ Absentee voting allows a person to vote on parole and furlough, who are considered a by mail. threat to the security of the state or to individuals. z However, in some states there is “no-excuse z Imprisonment besides being a mode of absentee voting”, where voters can get an punishment also aims at protecting the society absentee ballot without providing justification. from criminal activities, therefore release on z Some states also have “vote-by-mail” facilities, parole is not an absolute right but a concession. where every registered voter is sent a ballot z A balance is, therefore, considered essential without a request. between ensuring the rights of inmates and € In 2016 around 24% of voting happened through protecting the society from further harm. postal ballots. In 2020, the proportion is expected € The parole rules of states to be reviewed about to surge significantly. the benefits and detriments of such parole. ¾ Issues involved: € Parole and furlough may not be granted as a matter of routine and may be decided by a committee Postal Voting in India of officers and behavioural experts, especially for ¾ Ballot papers are distributed electronically to electors inmates sentenced for sexual offences and serious and are returned to the election officers via post. crimes such as murder, child abduction, violence etc. ¾ Currently, only the following voters are allowed to € Inclusion of an expert psychologist/ criminologist/ cast their votes through postal ballot: correctional administration expertas a member of € Service voters (armed forces, the armed police the sentence review board and in the committee force of a state and government servants posted which decides grant of parole and furlough to abroad), inmates and obtain their opinion before such € Voters on election duty. temporary release. € Voters above 80 years of age or Persons with ¾ Background: Disabilities (PwD). € In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, states are € Voters under preventive detention. under pressure to release prisoners in order to avoid overcrowding in prisons. Earlier, the Supreme ¾ The exception to the above-mentioned category Court of India has also passed orders on measures of voters is provided under Section 60 of the taken to decongest prisons, correction homes and Representation of the People Act, 1951. detention centres due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

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z Prison is a state subject and all states have compound the offence of smoking by levying spot fine their own rules for parole, furlough, remission and dropping all charges/action against the person and premature release based on good conduct involved. of the prisoners. ¾ These changes are part of an exercise to decriminalise/ € The MHA guidelines came in the backdrop of rationalise penalties under the provisions of the reports of several prisoners being released on Railway Act, 1989. parole and furlough and some of them committing crimes out of jail. Key Points ¾ Parole and Furlough On Begging: ¾ Parole: It is a system of releasing a prisoner € Current Provision: Section 144 (2) of the Actholds with suspension of the sentence. The release that if any person begs in any railway carriage or is conditional, usually subject to behaviour, and upon a railway station, s/he shall be liable for requires periodic reporting to the authorities for a punishment of either imprisonment for a term set period of time. that may extend to one year, or with a fine that € Parole is not a right, and is given to a prisoner may extend to Rs. 2,000, or with both. for a specific reason, such as a death in the family € Proposed Amendment: Now the proposal is to or a wedding of a blood relative. amend the Section by stating that “No person € It may be denied to a prisoner even when he shall be permitted to beg in any railway carriage makes out a sufficient case, if the competent or upon any part of the Railway”. authority is satisfied that releasing the convict € In 2018, Delhi High Court quashed a similar would not be in the interest of society. law that made begging in the national capital a ¾ Furlough: punishable offence and held that law does not € It is similar to parole, but with some significant make any distinction between types of begging: differences. It is given in cases of long-term voluntary or involuntary. imprisonment. The period of furlough granted to z The law violated Article 14 (Equality before a prisoner is treated as remission of his sentence. Law) and Article 21 (Right to Life and Personal € Unlike parole, furlough is seen as a matter of Liberty) of the Constitution. right for a prisoner, to be granted periodically z The Court held that the State cannot fail to do irrespective of any reason, and merely to enable its duty to provide a decent life to its citizens the prisoner to retain family and social ties, and add insult to injury by arresting, detaining and to counter the ill-effects of prolonged time and, if necessary, imprisoning persons who spent in prison. beg in search for essentials of bare survival. ¾ Both parole and furlough are considered as z It noted that the city governments can bring reformative processes. These provisions were in alternative legislation to curb any racket of introduced with a view to humanising the prison forced begging after undertaking an empirical system. examination on the sociological and economic € Parole and furlough are covered under the aspects of the matter. Prisons Act of 1894. ¾ On Smoking: € Current Provision: Section 167 of the Act holds Proposed Amendment that no person in any compartment of a train to Railways Act 1989 shall, if objected to by any other passenger, smoke therein. Irrespective of any objections raised, the railway administration may prohibit smoking in Why in News any train or part of a train. Whosoever contravenes Recently, the Ministry of Railways has proposed to these provisions shall be punishable with a fine decriminalise begging on trains or railway premises and that may extend to Rs.100.

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€ Proposed Amendment: If the person liable to pay the fine is willing to pay it immediately, the State of the Young officer authorised may compound the offence Child in India Report by charging the maximum fine which will be paid to the railway administration. Provided that, Why in News the offender shall be discharged and no further Recently, the State of the Young Child in India report proceeding shall be taken against him/her in has been released by Mobile Creches, a non-governmental respect of such offence. organisation (NGO). Beggary ¾ The Young Child Outcomes Index (YCOI) and the ¾ Definition of Beggary: Young Child Environment Index (YCEI) are parts of the report. € The Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959 defines beggary as an activity of having ¾ Mobile Creches works in the field ofearly childhood no visible means of subsistence, and wandering care and development by ensuring creche services about or remaining in any public place in such at construction sites and slum settlements across condition or manner, as makes it likely that the several cities. person doing so exists by soliciting or receiving Key Points alms. ¾ Young Child Outcomes Index: € However, the provisions of legislation aim to € It measures health, nutrition and cognitive growth effectively “cleanse” these spaces of individuals of children in the 0-6 years age group with the help who appear poor or destitute. of indicators such as infant mortality rate, stunting ¾ In India, begging was first criminalised in the 1920s, and net attendance at the primary school level. as part of a colonial logic that sought to subjugate € It has been constructed for 2005–2006 and certain communities by imputing criminality to them. 2015–2016 to enable inter-state comparisons as ¾ Beggary Laws In India: well as provide an idea of change over time. € There is no central Act on beggary, however, € Kerala, Goa, Tripura, Tamil Nadu and Mizoram many States and Union Territories have used are among the top five states for the well-being certain sections of the Bombay Prevention of of children. Beggary Act, 1959, as the basis for their own laws. z The act of begging in Delhi was made a criminal offence after the 1959 Act was extended to Delhi by a Central government amendment in 1960. € Through these legislations, the governments try to maintain public order, address forced begging or “begging rackets”, and prevent annoyance to tourists. Major Provision Related to Smoking ¾ The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003 (COTPA) is the principal comprehensive law governing tobacco control in India. ¾ In 2004, India ratifiedthe World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO- FCTC) which came into force in 2005.

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€ Assam, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Farmers’ Welfare has virtually inaugurated 22 bamboo Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and clusters in 9 states viz. Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar have scores below the country’s average. Maharashtra, Odisha, Assam, Nagaland, Tripura, Uttara- € The overall India score is 0.585 on a scale of 0-1. khand and Karnataka. ¾ Young Child Environment Index: ¾ A logo for the National Bamboo Mission (NBM) has also been released. € It helps to understand the policy and environment enablers that influence a child’s well-being. Key Points z It uses five policy enablers that influence ¾ child well-being outcomes, including poverty National Bamboo Mission: alleviation, strengthening primary health care, € The restructured NBM was launched in 2018-19 improving education levels, safe water supply for the holistic development of the complete and promotion of gender equity. value chain of the bamboo sector and is being implemented in a hub (industry) and spoke € It was constructed for 2015–2016 only due to . limitations of data availability. model € Objective: € Kerala, Goa, Sikkim, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh have secured the top five positions. z Connecting farmers to markets so as to enable farmer producers to get a ready market for € The eight states with a below-average score on the bamboo grown and to increase the supply the YCOI have also performed poorly on this one. of appropriate raw material to the domestic € The overall India score is 0.672. industry. ¾ Analysis of Expenses: z It also endeavours to upgrade skills of traditional € India spent Rs. 1,723 per child in 2018–2019 towards bamboo craftsmen as per the requirement child nutrition, healthcare, education and other of contemporary markets with a tie-up with necessary protection services which is insufficient enterprises and premier institutes. and fails to reach the entire eligible population. z The Sector Skill Councils established under the € It highlights that the budgetary allocation for National Skill Development Agency (NSDA) will the Ministry of Women and Child Development impart skills and recognition of prior learning has increased on a yearly basis however all the to traditional artisans, encouraging the youth additional funds have been allocated towards to carry forward their family traditions. nutrition delivery under the Integrated Child „ NSDA is an autonomous body under Development Scheme (ICDS). the Ministry of Skill Development and z While the population of children under six Entrepreneurship that anchors the National years of age is 158.8 million, the ICDS covers Skill Qualifications Framework and allied only 71.9 million children as calculated from quality assurance mechanisms for synergizing the total number of beneficiaries across states. skill initiatives in the country. z Out of the 159 million children aged below 6 € New Logo: years in India, 21% are undernourished, 36% z It portrays a bamboo culm in the centre of a circle are underweight and 38% do not receive full composed of half an industrial wheel and half immunisation. farmers, depicting € The report calls for an increase in public spending the objectives of on children. NBM appropriately. z The green and Launch of Bamboo Clusters yellow colour of the logo symbolise bamboo often Why in News termed as green Recently, the Union Minister for Agriculture and gold.

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litres of sewage per day and half of this goes Delhi Master Plan 2041 directly into water bodies without being treated. € A mix of mechanised and natural systems may Why in News be adopted, and dumping of solid wastes in any Recently, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) of these sites will be strictly prohibited by local has decided to hold public consultations for the preparation bodies, through the imposition of penalties. of the Master Plan for Delhi 2041, a vision document for ¾ Issues Involved: Delhi’s development over the next two decades. € Lack of access to basic services of water and ¾ The existing Master Plan for Delhi, which lays down sanitation and other facilities. planning guidelines, policies, code of development, € Vulnerability and risks related to disasters such and space requirements for various socio-economic as fire, earthquakes, etc. activities will come to end in 2021. € Lack of coordination between the multiplicity Key Points of agencies like DDA, Delhi Jal Board, Flood and Irrigation Department, and various municipal ¾ Features of 2041 Master Plan: corporations. € It focuses on sustainability, inclusivity and equity. € Other issues included the legality of some of € It endeavours to be proactive and forward-looking the properties, narrow access roads, congestion, in nature that accounts for current, emerging and conflicts between commercial and residential anticipated drivers of urban development. uses, quality of drinking water and waterlogging. ¾ Area of Focus: Blue-Green Infra Policy € A blue-green infrastructure, cycling infrastructure, ¾ It refers to urban planning where water bodies walking circuits for pedestrians, and focus on and land are interdependent, and grow with the unauthorised colonies to make it less dense. help of each other while offering environmental € There is also a plan to develop spaces for yoga, and social benefits. active sports, open-air exhibitions, museums € ‘Blue’ infrastructure refers to water bodies like and information centres, and other low impact rivers, canals, ponds, wetlands, floodplains, and public uses. water treatment facilities. € The Master Plan will be able to fulfill various € ‘Green’ stands for trees, lawns, hedgerows, provisions of Sustainable Development Goals parks, fields, and forests. (SDGs) like: z SDG 6- Clean water and sanitation. z SDG 11- Sustainable cities and communities. Report on Literacy Rate z SDG 14- Life below water. z SDG 15- Life on land. Why in News ¾ Functioning: Recently, the report on ‘Household Social Consumption: th € Delhi has around 50 big drains (blue areas) but due Education in India as part of 75 round of National Sample to their poor condition and encroachment, the Survey - from July 2017 to June 2018’ has been released. land around green areas has also been affected. ¾ It is based on the National Statistical Office (NSO) In the recent past, severe air pollution has also survey and provides for state-wise detail of literacy affected the city. rate among the persons aged seven years and above. € The master plan focuses on the removal of all ¾ The report comes before the International Literacy sources of pollution by checking the outfall of Day which is celebrated on 8th September every year. untreated wastewater as well as the removal of existing pollutants. Key Points z As per the report by the Central Pollution ¾ Data Analysis: India’s Overall Literacy Rate is 77.7%. Control Board, Delhi generates 3,800 million € Urban Areas: 87.7%.

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€ Rural areas: 73.5%. € Male Literacy Rate: 84.7%. Virtual Courts € Female Literacy Rate: 70.3%. z The male literacy rate is higher than the female Why in News literacy rate among all states with a considerable Recently, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on gap in the worst-performing states. Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice has pre- € Best Performers: Kerala > Delhi > Uttarakhand > sented its report “Functioning of the Virtual Courts/ Himachal Pradesh > Assam. Courts Proceedings through Video Conferencing”. ¾ € Worst Performers: Andhra Pradesh < Rajasthan < This is the first report to be presented by any Bihar < Telangana < Uttar Pradesh. parliamentary panel on the impact of the pandemic. € Digital Literacy: Key Points z 23% of urban households and 4% of rural ¾ Pre-Covid-19 period, the video-conference (VC) set households possess computers. up was primarily used for conducting remand matters z Among persons of age 15-29 years, nearly 56% to prevent movement of prisoners between courts in urban areas and 24% in rural areas were able and jails. to operate a computer. € In August 2019, the High Court of Punjab and z In the same age group, nearly 25% in rural Haryana launched its first virtual court at Farid- areas and 58% in urban areas reported the use abad to deal with traffic challan cases from across of the internet. the state. ¾ The report suggests that a full-fledged virtual court International Literacy Day 2020 should be piloted in the first instance and recommends ¾ The importance of literacy was first observed at the the continuation of virtual courts in a post-Covid-19 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural scenario. Organisation’s (UNESCO) General conference in 1966 ¾ It argued that transfer of certain categories of cases, and following this, the first International Literacy like cases pertaining to traffic challans or other petty Day was celebrated on 8th September 1967 and the offences, from regular court establishments to virtual tradition has been held annually since then. courts will reduce the pendency of cases. ¾ Objective: To raise awareness and remind people of € Currently, there are 30 million pending cases. the importance of literacy as a matter of dignity and ¾ Advantages: human rights. € Virtual/digital justice is cheaper and faster besides ¾ Literacy Day 2020: It will focus on the changes and addressing locational and economic handicaps. challenges in learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. € Virtual courts are an improvement over traditional € It will reflect on the innovative and effective courts as they are more citizen-friendly and offer pedagogies that can be used in youth and adult greater access to justice. literacy programmes to face the pandemic and € The productivity of lawyers will increase beyond. substantially as there will be no regular visits to ¾ The international community isfocusing on 2030 with courts and long waiting hours. If this practice is Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and has aimed extended to other civil cases, efficiency will double, to “ensure inclusive and quality education for all and even treble, in judicial functioning. promote lifelong learning” within its goals of SDG 4. ¾ Challenges: ¾ The 50-year review of South Asia (which includes € Various stakeholders have noted that the present Bangladesh, India, Islamic Republic of Iran, Nepal infrastructure does not support virtual court and Pakistan) states that the large scale illiteracy is proceedings. ever-present among adults. z 3,477 courtrooms are supported with facilities € As per UNESCO, India will achieve universal for virtual proceedings while 14,443 are still to literacy by 2060. be provided with them.

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€ Almost 50% of lawyers, particularly in district Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), 2010 courts, do not have any laptop or computer facility ¾ Foreign funding of voluntary organizations in India so their participation in the virtual courts will be is regulated under FCRA act which is implemented either very less or not at all. by the Ministry of Home Affairs. € All judges are not able to undertake virtual ¾ The Acts ensures that the recipients of foreign hearings due to lack of experience and also due contributions adhere to the stated purpose for to lack of sufficient infrastructure to enable all of which such contribution has been obtained. them to undertake virtual hearings. ¾ Under the Act, organisations are required to register € Virtual court hearings, especially during peak themselves every five years. hours when many people log into the video- conferencing system, are subject to frequent Non Governmental Organisations crashes of the system and one glitch can spoil ¾ Worldwide, the term ‘NGO’ is used to describe the entire proceeding. a body that is neither part of a government nor € There are concerns that virtual courts will a conventional for-profit business organisation. compromise the privacy of data as well as the ¾ NGOs are groups of ordinary citizens that are involved confidentiality of discussions and court proceedings, in a wide range of activities that may havecharitable, due to the usage of third-party software applications, social, political, religious or other interests. which are prone to hacking and manipulation. ¾ NGOs are helpful in implementing government e-Courts Project schemes at the grassroots. ¾ It was conceptualized on the basis of the “National ¾ In India, NGOs can be registered under a plethora Policy and Action Plan for Implementation of of Acts such as the Indian Societies Registration Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Act, 1860, Religious Endowments Act, 1863, Indian the Indian Judiciary-2005” submitted bye-Committee , Trusts Act, etc. Supreme Court of India with a vision to transform ¾ India has possibly the largest number of active the Indian Judiciary by ICT enablement of Courts. NGOs in the world, a study commissioned by the ¾ The e-Courts Mission Mode Project, is a pan-India government put the number of NGOs in 2009 at Project, monitored and funded by the Department 33 lakh. of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, for the District € That was one NGO for less than 400 Indians, Courts across the country. and many times the number of primary schools and primary health centres. FCRA Clearance ¾ Ministries such as Health and Family Welfare, Human Resource Department, etc provide funding of 6 NGOs Suspended to a handful of NGOs. ¾ NGOs also receive funds from abroad, if they are Why in News registered with the Home Ministry under the Foreign Recently, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA). suspended licenses under the Foreign Contribution € Without this, no NGO can receive cash or anything Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010of the six Non Governmental of value higher than Rs 25,000. Organisations (NGOs). ¾ Earlier, in 2017, USA- based Christian donor,Compassion ¾ Suspension of FCRA license means that the NGO can International, was forced to stop operations in India no longer receive fresh foreign funds from donors after the Home Ministry found that it funded NGOs pending a probe by the Home Ministry. that encouraged religious conversions.

Key Points Controversies Related to FCRA ¾ The reasons for the suspension have not been ¾ The FCRA regulates the receipt of funding from specified by the government. sources outside of India to NGOs working in India.

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It prohibits the receipt of foreign contribution “for any activities detrimental to the national interest”. SAROD-Ports: Dispute ¾ The Act also held that the government can refuse Resolution Mechanism permission if it believes that the donation to the NGO will adversely affect or the “public interest” Why in News “economic interest of the state”. The Union Ministry of Shipping launched ‘SAROD- € However, there is no clear guidance on what Ports’ (Society for Affordable Redressal of Disputes - constitutes “public interest”. Ports) through virtual ceremony in New Delhi. ¾ The FCRA restrictions have serious consequences on both the rights to free speech and freedom of Key Points association under Articles 19(1)(a) and 19(1)(c) of ¾ About SAROD-Ports: the Constitution. € It is established under Societies Registration Act, ¾ The right to free speech is affected in two ways: 1860. € By allowing only some political groups to receive € ‘SAROD-Ports’ is similar to provision available foreign donations and disallowing some others, in Highway Sector in the form of SAROD-Roads can induce biases in favour of the government. constituted by National Highways Authority of z NGOs need to tread carefully when they criticise India (NHAI). the regime, knowing that too much criticism € Functions: could cost their survival. z SAROD-Ports will advise and assist in settlement z FCRA norms can reduce critical voices by of disputes through arbitrations in the maritime declaring them to be against the public interest. sector, including ports and shipping sector in This chilling effect on free speech can lead to Major Port Trusts, Non-major Ports, including self-censorship. private ports, jetties, terminals and harbours. € Similar to this on unclear guidelines on public z It will also cover disputes between: interest, in Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2015), „ Granting authority and Licensee/Conces- the Supreme Court (SC) struck down Section 66A sionaire /Contractor. of the Information Technology Act. The SC held „ Also, disputes between Licensee/Conces- that the Act could be used in a manner that has sionaire and their contractors arising out a chilling effect on free speech. of and during the course of execution of ¾ Besides, given that the right to freedom of association various contracts. is part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ¾ Benefits: (Article 20), a violation of this right also constitutes € SAROD-Ports will become the pivotal mechanism a human rights violation. of ummeed (hope), vishwas (trust) and nyaya ¾ In April 2016, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights (justice) in the Port sector of India. It will lead to to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association saving huge amounts of legal expenditure and time. undertook a legal analysis of the FCRA, 2010. € Enforcement of concession agreements in the € It stated that restrictions in the name of “public letter and spirit. interest” and “economic interest” as invoked under z A concession agreement is a contract that gives a the FCRA failed the test of “legitimate restrictions”. company the right to operate a specific business € The terms were too vague and gave the state within a government’s jurisdiction or on another excessive discretionary powers to apply the firm’s property, subject to particular terms. provision in an arbitrary manner. € It will promote ease of doing business in the ¾ In this context, though it is necessary to regulate maritime sector because of thefast, timely, cost corrupt NGOs, there needs to be clarity on terms effective and robust dispute resolution mechanism. like public interest. z It will inspire confidence in the private players.

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€ All major Ports will shift towards the Landlord‘ „ Constitution of the Society for Affordable Model’. Redressal of Disputes – Ports (SAROD-Ports) as dispute resolution mechanism. Landlord Port Model „ Providing an exit route to developers by ¾ In the landlord port model, the publicly governed way of divesting their equity upto 100% after port authority acts as a regulatory body and as completion of 2 years from the Commercial landlord while private companies carry out port Operation Date (COD). operations—mainly cargo-handling activities. „ Under provision of additional land to the ¾ The port authority maintains ownership of the port Concessionaire, land rent has been reduced while the infrastructure is leased to private firms from 200% to 120% of the applicable scale that provide and maintain their own superstructure of rates for the proposed additional land. and install their own equipment to handle cargo. „ Introduction of Complaint Portal for the use ¾ In return, the landlord port gets a share of the of port users. revenue from the private entity. ¾ Significance: € Currently, most major port trusts in India carry out Shikshak Parv terminal operations as well, resulting in a hybrid model of port governance. The involvement of Why in News the port authorities in terminal operations leads Shikshak Parv is being celebrated from 8th-25th to a . conflict of interest September 2020 to felicitate the teachers and to take € The neutrality of the landlord port authority is a New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 forward. basic requirement for fair competition between port service providers, particularly the terminal Key Point operators. ¾ Teachers’ Day is celebrated on 5th September every € The role of the landlord port authority would year throughout India in memory of Dr. Sarvapalli be to carry out all public sector services and Radhakrishnan on his birth anniversary. operations such as the award of bids for cargo € Radhakrishnan was born in a family in Tiruttani terminals and dredging. (Tamil Nadu) in 1888. ¾ Model Concession Agreement € He has played many roles in his life. He has been a € Model Concession Agreement is the core of teacher, philosopher, author and politician. He was public private partnership projects in India. It the first Vice President of India (1952–1962) and sets regulatory framework to implement PPP the second President of India from 1962 to 1967. (Public Private Projects) in India. There are MCAs for national highways, urban rail transit systems, state highways and ports. € Amendments to the Model Concession Agreement (MCA): In January 2018, the government approved amendments in the Model Concession Agreement (MCA) to make the Port Projects more investor- friendly. z Key features:

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€ He was awarded knighthood in 1931. In 1954, he Government Ministries / Departments will become was awarded Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian the potential first buyers. award in India. He got honorary membership of ¾ Administration: the British Royal Order of Merit in 1963. € The initiative will be carried under the Atal ¾ World Teachers’ Day is celebrated on 5th October Innovation Mission (AIM - an initiative by the annually to commemorate the anniversary of the NITI Aayog). adoption of the1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation € The programme will be driven by Indian Space concerning the Status of Teachers. Research Organization (ISRO) and four ministries: € This instrument sets forth the rights and z Ministry of Defence; responsibilities of teachers, and standards for z Ministry of Food Processing Industries; their initial preparation and further education, z Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; and recruitment, employment, teaching and learning conditions. z Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. ¾ Features: ¾ New Education Policy (NEP) 2020: € A total of 15 sector-specific challenges will be € This policy aims to pave the way for transformational selected where three challenges are kept for reforms in school and higher education systems in each ministry. the country. This policy replaces the 34 year old National Policy on Education (NPE),1986. € A grant-of-aid of up Rs. 50 lakh for a period of 9 to 12 months have been earmarked for startups € NEP 2020 is aligned to the 2030 Agenda for to develop a minimum usable prototype. Sustainable Development. It is built on the € Innovators would also be attracted by using the foundational pillars of Access, Equity, Quality, Mahatma Gandhi Challenge method. Affordability and Accountability. z On the 150th birth Anniversary of Mahatma € An autonomous body, the National Educational Gandhi, ‘the Gandhian Challenge’ was launched. Technology Forum (NETF), is proposed to provide a platform to facilitate decision making on the z It provides a platform forevery child across India induction, deployment, and use of technology, to ideate innovative solutions for a sustainable as well as the opportunity to consult and share India of their dreams, using Gandhi’s principles. best practices. z Broad categories in the challenge: Art & Innovation and Science, Technology & Innovation. Aatmanirbhar Bharat ARISE- Ease of Doing Business Atal New India Challenge Rankings of the States: DPIIT

Why in News Why in News The Aatmanirbhar Bharat ARISE-Atal New India Recently, the Department for Promotion of Industry Challenge (ANIC) Program, launched by the government, and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and is a national initiative to promote research & innovation Industry released the 4th edition of Ease of Doing Business and increase competitiveness of Indian startups and Rankings based on the State Business Reform Action Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). Plan (State BRAP). Key Points ¾ Andhra Pradesh has topped the rankings followed by Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh and ¾ Objective: To proactively collaborate with Ministries Jharkhand. Tripura, Sikkim, Odisha were among the and the associated industries to catalyse research, worst performers. innovation and facilitate innovative solutions to sectoral problems. Key Points € The objective is also to provide a steady stream of ¾ Andhra Pradesh has achieved 100% compliance innovative products & solutions where the Central with BRAP.

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¾ S.No. State/UT Rank 2019 Ease of Doing Business (EODB): It is a joint initiative by the Department for Promotion of Industry and 1 Andhra Pradesh 1 Internal Trade (DPIIT) and the World Bank to improve 2 Uttar Pradesh 2 the overall business environment in the States. 3 Telangana 3 € Ranking of all the States and Union Territories is 4 Madhya Pradesh 4 done, based on the implementation of BRAP by 5 Jharkhand 5 them. 6 Chhattisgarh 6 ¾ Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP): 7 Himachal Pradesh 7 € It was launched in 2015. 8 Rajasthan 8 € BRAP 2019 contains a list of 80 reforms (187 reform action points) to be implemented by 9 West Bengal 9 19 State departments. 10 Gujarat 10 € These reforms cover 12 business regulatory areas 11 Uttarakhand 11 such as Access to Information, Single Window 12 Delhi 12 System, Labour, Environment, etc. 13 Maharashtra 13 € Objective : It was introduced to encourage a 14 Tamil Nadu 14 healthy competition between states. 15 Lakshadweep 15 z This would help in attracting investments and 16 Haryana 16 increasing Ease of Doing Business in each State. 17 Karnataka 17 18 Daman and Diu 18 Draft Data Empowerment 19 Punjab 19 and Protection Architecture: 20 Assam 20 NITI Aayog 21 Jammu and Kashmir 21 22 Andaman & Nicobar 22 Why in News 23 Dadra & N. Haveli 23 Recently, the NITI Aayog has released draft Data 24 Goa 24 Empowerment and Protection Architecture (DEPA) which 25 Mizoram 26 aims to promote greater user control on data sharing. 26 Bihar 26 27 Puducherry 27 Key Points 28 Kerala 28 ¾ Features: DEPA will be empowering individuals with 29 Arunachal Pradesh 29 control over their personal data, by operationalising a regulatory, institutional, and technology design 30 Chandigarh 29 for secure data sharing. 31 Manipur 29 ¾ Consent Managers: DEPA’s Institutional Architecture 32 Meghalaya 29 will involve the creation ofnew market players known 33 Nagaland 29 as User Consent Managers. These will ensure that 34 Odisha 29 individuals can provide consent as per an innovative 35 Sikkim 29 digital standard for every data shared. These Consent Managers will also work to protect data rights. 36 Tripura 29 € Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a Master Directive € It is the first State to take measures to revive the creating Consent Managers in the financial sector economy hit by the global pandemic and revive to be known as Account Aggregators (AAs). A the small and medium scale industries with a non-profit collective or alliance of these players ReSTART package. is created called the DigiSahamati Foundation.

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¾ Open APIs: Open Application Programming Interfaces € It will help in greater financial inclusion and (APIs) enable seamless and encrypted flow of data economic growth. between data providers and data users through a € Flow based lending: If portability and control consent manager. of data could allow an MSME owner to digitally ¾ Implementation: RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, PFRDA and the share proof of the business’ regular tax (GST) Ministry of Finance will implement this model. This payments or receivables invoices easily, a bank regulatory foundation is also expected to evolve could design and offerworking capital loans based with time (eg. with the forthcomingData Protection on demonstrated ability to repay (known as flow Authority envisaged under Personal Data Protection based lending) rather than only offering bank loans Bill, 2019). backed by assets or collateral. ¾ Telecom Sector: DEPA is also being launched in the telecom sector following a Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) consultation report on privacy released in July 2018. ¾ Government Departments: The first major government department to become a Government Information Provider will be Goods and Services Tax (GST). € In future, departments with data on individuals and MSMEs could adopt the specifications to improve the ease of doing business or create greater data portability of individual education, jobs, or transaction data. ¾ Background: Regulatory direction on data privacy, ¾ Healthcare: National Health Authority which has protection, consent, and the new financial institutions been tasked with implementing theNational Digital required for DEPA’s application in the financial sector Health Mission, is piloting the DEPA architecture for was provided through healthcare data. € Supreme Court Judgement on the fundamental ¾ Skilling: The Ministry of Skill Development and Right to Privacy in 2017. Entrepreneurship is encouraging adoption of adigital € Personal Data Protection Bill (PDP), 2019. skill credential that could be used to address low data portability in employment by sharing verified € Justice Srikrishna Committee Report, 2018. information on work experience or educational training. € RBI Master Direction on NBFC-Account Aggregators, 2016 (for the financial sector). Advantages ¾ Recently, a government committee headed by Infosys ¾ Opening up an API-based data sharing framework would co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan has suggested that bring significant innovation by newfintech entities. non-personal data generated in India be allowed to ¾ This architecture replaces costly and cumbersome be harnessed by various domestic companies and data access and sharing practices that disempower entities. individuals, such as physical submission, username/ Application password sharing, and terms and conditions forms providing blanket consent etc. ¾ Financial sector: ¾ Individuals and small firms do not benefit from € Using DEPA, individuals and Micro, Small and individual’s data right now. DEPA will provide individuals Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) can use their digital and small businesses with the practical means to footprints to access not just affordable loans, access, control, and selectively sharepersonal data but also insurance, savings, and better financial that they have stored across multiple institutional management products. datasets – to maximise the benefits of data sharing € The framework is expected to become functional for individual empowerment whilst minimising for the financial sector starting fall 2020. privacy risks and data misuse.

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¾ DEPA will also enable better personal financial € Dogri along with Bodo, Maithili and Santhali was management services, wealth management, robo added to the scheduled languages under the Eighth advisory, or different types of lending, insurance, Schedule by 92nd Amendment Act of 2003, which and investment use cases and products that one may consists of the following 22 languages: not be able to foresee today. z Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Jammu and Kashmir Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri. Official Languages Bill 2020 z Of these languages, 14 were initially included in the Constitution. Why in News z Sindhi language was added by the 21st Recently, the Union Cabinet has approved the Jammu Amendment Act of 1967. and Kashmir Official Languages Bill 2020 to be introduced z Konkani, Manipuri, and Nepali were included in the monsoon session of Parliament. by the 71st Amendment Act of 1992. ¾ The Bill not only fulfills a long-pending public demand Key Points of the region but also keeps with the spirit of equality. ¾ The Bill will include Kashmiri, Dogri and Hindi as official languages in the newly-created Union Territory Sub-categorisation of OBCs of Jammu and Kashmir. € Only English and Urdu were official languages in the former State, which was bifurcated on 5th Why in News August 2019, with Ladakh becoming a separate A commission headed by Justice (Retd.) G Rohini has Union Territory. been examining sub-categorisation of Other Backward Classes (OBC) for almost three years now. Constitutional Provisions ¾ The issue of the sub-categorisation of Scheduled ¾ Part XVII of the Indian Constitution deals with the Castes and Scheduled Tribes for reservations is also official languages in Articles 343 to 351. in the highlights after the Supreme Court (SC) has € Article 345: Official language or languages of referred it to a larger Bench. a State subject to the provisions of Article 346 and 347. Key Points ¾ The Constitutional provisions related to theEighth ¾ Sub-categorisation of OBCs: Schedule are: € OBCs are granted 27% reservation in jobs and € Article 344: Article 344(1) provides for the education under the central government but only constitution of a Commission by the President a few affluent communities among the over 2,600 on expiration of five years from the commen- included in the Central List of OBCs have secured cement of the Constitution and thereafter at the a major part of this. expiration of ten years from such commencement, € Sub-categorisation or creating categories within which shall consist of a Chairman and such OBCs for reservation would ensure “equitable other members representing the different distribution” of representation among all OBC languages specified in the Eighth Schedule to communities. make recommendations to the President for € However, sub-categorisationcan be used to appease the progressive use of Hindi for official purposes one vote-bank or the other within the category of the Union. and thus a cause of social justice would end up € Article 351: It provides for the spread of the being politicised. Hindi language to develop it so that it may serve € The commission requested for an appropriate budget as a medium of expression for all the elements provision for a proposed all-India survey for an of the composite culture of India. estimate of the caste-wise population of OBCs.

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z The reason given was the absence of data for z 983 OBC communities, 37% of the total, have the population of various communities to zero representation in jobs and educational compare with their representation in jobs and institutions. admissions as the data of the Socio-Economic z 994 OBC sub-castes have a total representation Caste Census (SECC) were not considered reliable. of only 2.68% in recruitment and admissions. z In August 2018, it was announced that the data € According to the 2018-19 annual report of the of OBCs will also be collected in Census 2021 Department of Personnel and Training, OBC but there have been no other announcements recruitment in central jobs is considerably low. after that. z For example, there was not a single professor ¾ Commission: and associate professor appointed under the € It took charge in October 2017 with a tenure of 12 OBC quota in central universities. weeks ending in January 2018. In June 2020, the z Posts reserved for them were being filled by Cabinet approved a six-month extension to the people of general category as OBC candidates commission up to 31st January 2021. were declared ‘None Found Suitable’ (NFS). € Progress: It is ready with the draft report and would have huge political consequences and is Sanskrit Grams likely to face a judicial review as well. € Budget: Until November 2019, the government Programme: Uttarakhand has spent over Rs. 1.70 crore on the Commission including salary and other expenses. Why in News z The budget is being drawn from the National The Uttarakhand Government has decided to develop Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) ‘Sanskrit Grams’ across the state. which was given constitutional status by the ¾ The decision was taken after noting significant progress government in 2018. in a pilot programme to teach Sanskrit to residents ¾ Commission’s Terms of References: of two villages in Uttarakhand. € To examine the uneven distribution of reservation Key Points benefits among different castes in the central OBC list. ¾ Sanskrit Grams Programme: € To work out the mechanism, criteria, norms € Aim: To teach people to use Sanskrit regularly. and parameters in a scientific approach for sub- € Villages Selected: categorisation within such OBCs. z Villages were selected at the meeting of the € To take up the exercise of identifying the respective Uttarakhand Sanskrit Academy, chaired by castes/communities/sub-castes/synonyms for the Uttarakhand Chief Minister. comprehensive data coverage. „ It has also been decided to rename the € To study and recommend correction of any academy as Uttaranchal Sanskrit Sansthanam repetitions, ambiguities, inconsistencies and Haridwar, Uttarakhand. errors of spelling or transcription. „ The academy was established in 2002. ¾ Findings So Far: € Implementation Strategy: € According to the 2018 data analysis of 1.3 lakh z The focus will be on the school-going children central jobs and admissions to central higher so that they can learn the language from a education institutions given under OBC quota: young age. z 24.95% of these jobs and seats have gone to z The programme will start by teaching people just 10 OBC communities. smaller sentences which are used most commonly. z 97% of all jobs and educational seats have z The programme will run first at the district level gone to just 25% of all sub-castes classified and then at the block level for promotion of as OBCs. the Sanskrit language.

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¾ Usage of Sanskrit in Uttarakhand: Promotion of Sanskrit by the Central Government € Sanskrit is the second official language in Uttarakhand ¾ The government has established the Rashtriya Sanskrit after Hindi(Article 345 of the Constitution: Official Sansthan in Delhi as a nodal authority to promote language or languages of a State). Sanskrit. The Sansthan has been allocated Rs 643.84 € The state government currently runs 97 Sanskrit crore in the last three years. schools, where an average of 2,100 students ¾ Providing financial assistance to Adarsh Sanskrit study each year. Mahavidyalayas / Shodha Sansthans. ¾ Award of merit scholarships to students of Sanskrit Sanskrit Pathasala to College level. ¾ It is an old Indo-Aryan language in which the most ¾ Financial assistance to NGOs / Higher Educational ancient documents, Vedas are composed in what is Institutions of Sanskrit for various Research Projects called Vedic Sanskrit. / Programmes. ¾ Classical Sanskrit, a language close to late Vedic as ¾ Retired eminent Sanskrit scholars are engaged under then used in the northwest of the subcontinent, was the Shastra Chudamani scheme for teaching. elegantly described in one of the finest grammars ¾ Sanskrit is also taught through Non-formal Sanskrit ever produced, the Aṣṭādhyāyī (“Eight Chapters”) Education (NFSE) programme, by setting up Non-Formal th th composed by Pāṇini (c. 6 –5 century BCE). Sanskrit learning centres, in reputed institutions like ¾ Sanskrit has been written both in Devanāgarī script Indian Institutes Technology, Ayurveda institutions, and in various regional scripts, such as Śāradā from Modern Colleges and Universities. the north (Kashmir), Bāṅglā (Bengali) in the east, ¾ Presidential awards for Sanskrit Language are awarded Gujarātī in the west, and various southern scripts, annually to 16 senior scholars and to 5 young scholars. including the Grantha alphabet, which was especially ¾ Financial Assistance for Publication, Reprint of rare devised for Sanskrit texts. Sanskrit books. ¾ There are also , major works of drama and poetry ¾ Ashtaadashi containing eighteen Projects for sustaining although the exact dates of many of these works and the growth of Sanskrit has been implemented. their creators have not been definitively established. Important authors and works include: € Bhāsa (for example, his Svapnavāsvavadatta - English as Vāsavadatta in a Dream), who is assigned widely Medium of Education varying dates but definitely worked prior to Kālidāsa, who mentions him. Why in News € Kālidāsa, dated anywhere from the 1st century BCE to the 4th century CE, whose works include Recently, the Supreme Court refused to stay the Andhra Pradesh High Court’s order the Śakuntalā, Vikramorvaśīya, Kumārasambhava striking down state government’s decision to make and Raghuvaṃśa. English the medium of education for government school students from € Śūdraka and his (“Little Clay Cart”), Mṛcchakatika Classes I to VI beginning 2020-21 academic year. possibly dating to the 3rd century CE. ¾ The Court pointed out that Section 29(2)(f) of the € Bhāravi and his Kirātārjunīya (“Arjuna and the says that the th Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009 Kirāta”), from approximately the 7 century. medium of instruction shall, as far as practicable, be € Māgha, whose Śiśupālavadha (“The Slaying of in a child’s mother tongue. Śiśupāla”) dates to the late 7th century. € The two epics Rāmāyaṇa (“Life of Rāma”) and Key Points Mahābhārata (“Great Tale of the Bhāratas”) were also ¾ Constitutional and Legal Provisions: composed in Sanskrit, and the former is esteemed € Article 29 (Protection of interests of minorities) as the first poetic work (ādikāvya) of India. gives all citizens right toconserve their language and ¾ Sanskrit is a classical and an eighth schedule language. prohibits discrimination on the basis of language.

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€ Article 120 (Language to be used in Parliament) ¾ Arguments against English as Medium of Instruction: provides for use of Hindi or English for transactions € Accessibility to Knowledge: The use of mother of parliament but gives the right to members of tongue or regional languages makes the process of parliament to express themselves in their mother learning familiar, comprehensible, and approachable tongue. for the students. This encourages wholehearted € Part XVII of the Indian Constitution deals with the engagement of students in the learning process official languages in Articles 343 to 351. and boosts their confidence. z Article 350A (Facilities for instruction in mother- € Promotion of Local Culture: Also, using mother tongue at primary stage) provides that it shall be tongue allows students to express themselves the endeavour of every State and of every local better and communicate their experiences, their authority within the State to provide adequate multifaceted identities, and their cultures. facilities forinstruction in the mother-tongue € Encouragement to Merit: The use of English at the primary stage of education to children language often creates a divide between students belonging to linguistic minority groups. hailing from backward castes and communities and the ‘upper’ class. Often, z Article 351 (Directive for development of the real talent and merit gets Hindi language) provides that it shall be the suppressed due to an imposed linguistic disability. duty of the Union to promote the spread of ¾ Government Initiatives to Promote Regional Languages: the Hindi language. € The recently announced New Education Policy € The Eighth Schedule recognises following 22 states that wherever possible, students till Class languages as official languages:Assamese, Bengali, 5 in schools should be taught in mother tongue/ Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, regional language/local language. It also introduces Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, the Three-Language Formula for primary education, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, as per the recommendation ofKothari Commision, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri. 1968. € The Commission for Scientific and Technical € Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009 says that the Terminology (CSTT) is providing publication grants medium of instruction shall, as far as practicable, towards the publications of University Level Books be in a child’s mother tongue. in regional languages. ¾ Arguments in Favour of English as Medium of z It was established in 1961 to evolve technical Instruction: terminology in all Indian Languages. € Career: The ability to speak in english qualifies € The National Translation Mission (NTM) is being one for many jobs which are not yet available for implemented through the Central Institute of speakers of regional languages. Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysore under which € Competitive Exams: Lack of knowledge of english the text books of various subjects prescribed in will put the students of government schools on a Universities and Colleges are being translated in backfoot as compared to those of English-medium all languages of the Eighth Schedule. private schools in competitive exams, z CIIL was established in 1969 under the € Higher Education: Most technical and scientific administrative control of the Ministry of books are available only in english and much of Education. higher education is also imparted in english. This z Its objective is tocoordinate the development may hinder the access of students from government of Indian languages, to bring about the essential schools to STEM and higher education. unity of Indian languages through scientific € Global Opportunities: English being the global studies and protect and document minor, lingua franca gives the students opportunity to minority and tribal languages. compete at the global level. € The Government of India is running a scheme known € Status Symbol: Knowing english is often equated as “Protection and Preservation of Endangered with progressiveness. Languages” for conservation of threatened languages.

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€ The University Grants Commission (UGC) also emphasis on women security in the digital space”, promotes regional languages in higher education for which it summoned Facebook recently. courses in the country and supports nine Central ¾ Options Being Considered: Universities under the scheme “Establishment € To extend the term of the panels for a year. of Centre for Endangered Languages in Central € To form new committees with a fixed tenure of Universities”. two years. € Recently, an initiativeNamath Basai by Kerala State ¾ Origin: On the recommendation of the Rules Committee Government has proved to be very beneficial in of the Lok Sabha, were set up in the Parliament educating children from tribal areas by adopting 17 DRSCs in In , seven more such committees were vernacular languages as medium of instruction. 1993. 2004 set up, thus increasing their number from 17 to 24. ¾ Global Efforts: ¾ Departmental Standing Committees: Out of the 24 € The Yuelu Proclamation made byUnited Nations standing committees,8 work under the Rajya Sabha Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and 16 under the Lok Sabha. (UNESCO) at Changsha, China, in 2018 plays a ¾ central role in guiding the efforts of countries and Members: Each standing committee consists of 31 regions around the world to protect linguistic members (21 from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha). resources and diversity. The members of the Lok Sabha are nominated by the Speaker, just as the members of the Rajya Sabha are € The United Nations General Assembly has nominated by the Chairman from amongst its members. proclaimed 2019 as the International Year of Indigenous Languages (IYIL). € A minister is not eligible to be nominated as a member of any of the standing committees. In z The IYIL 2019 strives to preserve, support and case a member, after his nomination to any of the promote indigenous languages at the national, standing committees, is appointed a minister, he regional and international levels. then ceases to be a member of the committee ¾ Tenure: The term of office of each standing committee Extension of Tenure is one year from the date of its constitution. of Standing Committees ¾ Role: € They secure more accountability of the Executive Why in News (i.e., the Council of Ministers) to the Parliament. Through Committees, Parliament exercises its The Rajya Sabha Secretariat is considering changing control and influence over administration and the rules governing the Departmentally-Related Standing keeps vigilance over the executive. Committees’ (DRSC)tenure to make it to two years from the present one year so that the panels have enough € The Committeesaid and assist the Legislature in time to work on the subjects selected by them. discharging its duties and regulating its functions effectively, expeditiously and efficiently. They assist Key Points the Parliament in thoroughly and systematically ¾ Reason for Extension: The tenure of all the DRSCs of scrutinising the matters which could not be discussed Parliament is ending on 11th September, 2020 and they on the floor at length. can’t hold deliberations till new panels are formed. € The Committees also provide the expertise on a € A significant amount of the tenure of the committees matter which is referred to them. was lost due to the Covid-19 pandemic. ¾ New Draft Guidelines:Recently, Rajya Sabha secretariat € Many of the panels have not been able to complete prepared new draft guidelines for its standing reports on the subjects they were working on. committees. The guidelines are still under review by For example, the Information Technology panel the Lok Sabha Speaker. This may include: could not complete deliberations on“Safeguarding € A minimum 15 days’ notice and confirmation by citizens’ rights and prevention of misuse of social/ one-third of the members before holding a panel online news media platforms including special meeting.

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Parliamentary Committees the country as a part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. ¾ The Constitution of India makes a mention of these committees at different places, butwithout making ¾ It aims to: any specific provisions regarding their composition, € Adopt ‘Cluster or Area-based Approaches’ and tenure, functions, etc. create fisheries clusters through backward and ¾ Broadly, parliamentary committees are of two kinds— forward linkages. Standing Committees and Ad Hoc Committees. € Focus especially on employment generation ¾ Standing Committees : Permanent(constituted every activities such as seaweed and ornamental fish year or periodically) and work on a continuous basis. cultivation. They can be categorized into following broad groups € Address critical gaps in fish production and 1. Financial Committees productivity, quality, technology, post-harvest infrastructure and management, modernisation 2. Departmental Standing Committees (24) and strengthening of the value chain, traceability, 3. Committees to Inquire establishing a robust fisheries management 4. Committees to Scrutinise and Control framework and fishers’ welfare.

5. Committees Relating to the Day-to-Day Business € Consolidate the achievements of the blue of the House revolution and bring new interventions such 6. House-Keeping Committees or Service Committees as fishing vessel insurance, support for new/up- ¾ Ad Hoc Committees: Temporaryand cease to exist gradation of fishing vessels/boats, integrated aqua on completion of the task assigned. parks, e-trading/marketing, etc. € Ad hoc committees can be divided into two ¾ Targets: categories, that is, Inquiry Committee and € Enhance fish production by an additional 70 lakh Advisory Committee. tonne and increase fisheries export earnings to € Examples of Ad Hoc Committees:Joint Committee Rs.1,00,000 crore by 2024-25. on Bofors Contract, Joint Committee on Fertilizer € Double the incomes of fishers and fish farmers. etc. Pricing € Reduce post-harvest losses from 20-25% to about € Nomination of members based on their qualifications, 10%. interests and occupations. € Generate an additional 55 lakhs direct and indirect € At least 50% attendance while collecting evidence gainful employment opportunities in the fisheries and adopting reports. sector and allied activities. ¾ Budget and Time Period: Pradhan Mantri € An estimated investment of Rs. 20,050 crore for a period of 5 years from financial year Matsya Sampada Yojana (FY) 2020-21 to FY 2024-25 in all States/Union Territories. Why in News € This investment is the highest ever in the fisheries Recently, the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada sector yet. Yojana (PMMSY) has been launched. ¾ Implementation:It will be implemented as an umbrella ¾ Several other initiatives in the fisheries and animal scheme with two separate components namely: husbandry sectors have also been launched on the € Central Sector Scheme: The project cost will be occasion. borne by the Central government. € Centrally Sponsored Scheme: All the sub- Key Points components/activities will be implemented by the ¾ PMMSY is a flagship scheme for the focused and States/UTs and the cost will be shared between sustainable development of the fisheries sector in Centre and State.

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Other Inaugurations Related to Animal Husbandry Household Social Consumption: ¾ e-Gopala App: Education in India € It is a comprehensive breed improvement marketplace and information portal for direct Why in News use of farmers. Recently, a report on ‘Household Social Consumption: € It will provide solutions on the aspects of: Education in India’ has been released by the National th z Managing livestock including buying and selling Statistical Office (NSO) as part of the 75 round of National of disease-free germplasm in all forms (semen, Sample Survey (July 2017 to June 2018). embryos, etc.). Key Points z Availability of quality breeding services (Artificial Insemination, veterinary first aid, vaccination, ¾ About: treatment, etc.). € This is the 6th survey on social consumption relating th nd nd th st z Guiding farmers for animal nutrition and to education. Earlier, 35 , 42 , 52 , 64 , and 71 st treatment of animals using appropriate ayurvedic rounds had surveys on this subject. The 71 round medicine/ethnoveterinary medicine. pertained to January-June 2014. € z Providing a mechanism to send alerts and inform A sample of 64,519 rural households from 8,097 farmers about various government schemes villages and 49,238 urban households from 6,188 and campaigns in the area. blocks was surveyed all over India. ¾ Semen Station: € It provides for state-wise detail of literacy rate among the persons aged seven years and above € The state of the art facility has been established and highlights a stark digital divide across States, under Rashtriya Gokul Mission in Purnea, Bihar . with an investment of Rs. 84.27 crores. cities and villages, and income groups € This survey covered both qualitative and € It is one of the largest semen stations in the government sector with a production capacity of quantitative aspects related to the educational 50 lakh semen doses per annum. attainment of the household members and educational services used by them. € It will give a new dimension to the development ¾ and conservation of indigenous breeds of Bihar Data Analysis: and meet the demand of semen doses of eastern € Best Performers: Kerala > Delhi > Uttarakhand > and northeastern States. Himachal Pradesh > Assam. ¾ In vitro fertilization (IVF) Laboratories: € Worst Performers: Andhra Pradesh < Rajasthan < Bihar < Telangana < Uttar Pradesh. € Various IVF laboratories are being set up across the country through a 100% grant in aid. € Education and Literacy Rates: € These labs are crucial for propagating elite animals z The literacy rate among persons (aged 7 years of indigenous breeds and thereby enhancing milk and above) in India was about 77.7%. In rural production and productivity manifold. areas, the literacy rate was 73.5% compared to ¾ Use of Sex-sorted Semen in Artificial Insemination: 87.7% in urban areas. € Through this method, only female calves can be produced (with more than 90% accuracy) which will help double the growth rate of milk production in the country. ¾ Demonstration of IVF Technology at Farmer’s Doorstep: € It will propagate the technology for the multiplication of high yielding animals at a faster rate as through the use of technology, a female cattle can give birth to 20 calves in a year.

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z The male literacy rate was higher (84.7%) than z Incidence of taking private coaching was female literacy rate (70.3%). maximum at the secondary level (31% of male z Only 5.7% were graduates or above in rural areas students and 29% of female students). while the percentage was 21.7% in urban areas. € Household Expenditure on Education: € Internet Access: z Average expenditure per student incurred during z Nearly 4% of rural households and 23% of urban the current academic session (2017-18) for basic households possessed computers and 24% of the courses was nearly Rs. 8,331 for general courses, households in the country had internet access. Rs. 50,307 for technical/professional courses. z Among persons of age 15-29 years, nearly 24% z The average annual expenditure on education in rural areas and 56% in urban areas were able for secondary school students is Rs. 9,013, of to operate a computer. which Rs. 4,078 goes towards regular school fees. € Access to Schools, Attendance, Type of Education: z About Rs. 1,632, or just over 18%, goes towards z Only 38% of rural households have secondary private coaching. In higher secondary school, schools within 1 km of the house as compared students spend more than Rs. 2,500, also about to 70% for urban households. 18% of the total expenditure, on private coaching. z In rural areas 92.7% of households and in urban € Persons Currently Not Attending Education: areas, 87.2% of households reported availability z In India, percentages of persons in the age group of primary school within 1 km from the house. of 3-35 years dropping out of studies were nearly z 96.1% of students were in general education 14% in rural areas and 10% in urban areas. and remaining were in technical/professional z For the males of age 3-35 years engagement education. in economic activities was the most common z Gross Attendance Ratio (GAR) at the primary major reason for not attending education, level was nearly 100% for both males and whereas for the females it was the engagement females in rural and urban areas. in domestic activities. „ For each level of education, GAR is the ratio of the number of persons attending in the Challenges level of education (for example, class I-V) to ¾ There is a major digital divide within the country the number of persons in the corresponding across states, cities and villages, and income groups. official age-group (for example, the total € Schools across the country are closed for six months population of age group 6-10). due to Covid-19. € Free Education, Scholarships, Stipends: € This means vastly different things for different people z At all-India level, nearly 14% of students attending like many who have access to digital resources formal education received scholarship/stipend/ are getting an online education, those who do reimbursement. not have such resources are devoid of education. z 77% of the students studying in Government ¾ Access to Computers and the Internet: institutions were receiving free education. Percentage of students studying in private unaided € Across India, only one in ten households have a institutions and receiving free education was computer, whether a desktop, laptop or tablet. nearly 2% in rural areas and 1% in urban areas. € Almost 25% of all homes have internet facilities, z At the pre-primary level, nearly 33% of students accessed via a fixed or mobile network using any were getting a free education in India. At primary device, including smartphones. level, the proportion of students receiving free ¾ Urban-Rural Divide: education was 62%. € Most of the internet-enabled homes are located in € Private Coachings: cities, where 42% have internet access. In rural India, z Nearly 20% of students attending pre-primary however, only 15% are connected to the internet. and above level were taking private coaching € The huge differences in some parameters like in India. internet access, the ability to use the internet or

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physical access to schools show that urban and ¾ Dependence on Coaching Institutes: rural India have very different conditions. € It leads to the affluent having more access to € Accordingly, there is a need for separate policies education thus increasing the disparities between which cater to the separate needs of both, based different social groups. on local input and community-led approaches. € It also compromises the quality of education as € Access and Utilization Gap:Having internet access the emphasis often shifts to employability only, is no guarantee that one can use it. while the real motive of education should be to ¾ Regional Disparity: enhance critical thinking along with developing skills of the students. € The national capital has the highest internet access, ¾ with 55% of homes having such facilities. Heavy Household Expenditure: € In spite of many government initiatives to promote € Himachal Pradesh and Kerala are the only other and improve education in governmental institutions, states where more than half of all households the cost of education is still very high for a large have internet. population to afford. € Odisha is at the bottom with only one in ten homes € The percentage of students who are receiving having Internet. free education is still not enough and many needy € There is less than 20% internet penetration, even students are outside its coverage. in states with software hubs such as Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Solutions ¾ Disparity Due to Economic Status: ¾ Online Education As a Common Good: The Centre and € The biggest divide is by economic status, which the state governments should start making access to the NSO marks by dividing the population into five technology universal and more feasible in the public equal groups, or quintiles, based on their usual education system. monthly per capita expenditure. € Also, as part of Corporate Social Responsibility € Even in Odisha, almost 63% of homes in the top (CSR), private players can involve tech-based urban quintile have internet facilities. organisations to make e-resources accessible and available to students, especially in government € In the poorest quintile of rural Odisha, however, and low-income private schools. that figure drops to an abysmal 2.4%. € The Centre has directed State Education Departments ¾ Intra-state Inequality: to map the online access available to all their € Kerala shows the least inequality with more than students in order to adequately plan curriculum 39% of the poorest rural homes having internet, and teaching methods that can reach such students. in comparison to 67% of the richest urban homes. ¾ Expansion in Scope of Right to Education: Expand € Himachal Pradesh also fares well, with 40% of the the definition of theright to education and promote lowest rural quintile having internet. online education so that it addresses the importance of € Assam shows the starkest inequality, with almost connectivity and access to knowledge and information. 80% of the richest urban homes having internet ¾ Valuing Teaching Profession: Digital innovation provides access denied to 94% of those in the poorest rural a remarkable opportunity for the democratisation of homes in the state. education. However, there is a need to encourage ¾ Low Literacy Rate in Women: conditions that give frontline educators autonomy € This not only leads to increased gender divide but and flexibility to act collaboratively. also leads to low participation of women in the ¾ e-Skilling: Inclusion of virtual vocational training, workforce and research and development activities. virtual labs and skill development courses. € Also, as the reason for women dropping out of ¾ Vernacular Language: Developing quality e-content schools remains domestic, the deep-ingrained in local languages. patriarchy in the society is still the major factor ¾ Infrastructural Development: Promote and ensure behind the gender divide. digital literacy among the masses by ensuring

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uninterrupted internet connectivity and mobile € National Digital Literacy Mission: It aims to network signals in rural areas, complemented with empower at least one person per household infrastructure reforms, support and training by the with crucial digital literacy skills by 2020. government and aided by civil-society groups. € Bharat Net Programme: It aims to have an optical ¾ Behavioural Changes: Need for real emancipation fibre network in all gram panchayats. of the people. Education systems across the world € Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing should provide the training required for children (DIKSHA) Platform: Part of the PM-eVidya, it is a and working adults so that they can learn to read national platform for school education available and write. National educational plans should include for all states and the central government for schooling for children and literacy training for adults grades 1 to 12. as parallel elements. € SWAYAM and SWAYAM Prabha: Study Webs Government Initiatives of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds ¾ For Education and Literacy: (SWAYAM) provides one integrated platform and portal for online courses. SWAYAM Prabha € National Education Policy, 2020: It aims provides 32 high-quality educational channels at making “India a global knowledge super- through DTH across the length and breadth of power” by introducing several changes from the the country on a 24x7 basis. school to college level in the Indian education system. € Samagra Shiksha: It is an integrated scheme for Gap in Vaccination of Children school education extending from pre-school to class XII to ensure inclusive and equitable quality Why in News education at all levels of school education. According to the ‘Health in India’ report recently € Mid Day Meal Scheme: It provides that every published by the National Statistical Organisation(NSO) , child within the age group of six to fourteen the full immunisation programme is not completed among years studying in classes I to VIII who enrols 40% of the children. and attends the school, shall be provided hot ¾ th cooked nutritional meals, free of charge every The report is based on the 75 round of the National day except on school holidays. Sample Survey (July 2017-June 2018) on household social consumption related to health. € Eklavya Model School and Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship Scheme (RGNF): These aim to Full Immunisation encourage the students belonging to Scheduled ¾ It means that a child receives a cocktail of eight Tribes (ST) community to pursue higher education. vaccine doses in the first year of life. This includes: € On Air: Shiksha Vani, DAISY by National Institute € BCG Vaccine: It is injected in a single dose shortly of Open Schooling (NIOS) for differently-abled, after birth, which protects against a childhood e-PathShala-Radio broadcasting for children in attack of tuberculosis. remote areas who are not online (especially for € Measles Vaccine: Measles is a viral disease. grades 1 to 5). € Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV): It is given against polio ¾ For Digital Literacy: virus. Its first dose is given at birth, followed by € Digital India Programme: It pulls together two more doses at intervals of four weeks. many existing schemes by restructuring and € DPT/Pentavalent Vaccine: It is injected in three re-focusing them and then implementing them doses, which is meant to protect a child from in a synchronized manner. diphtheria, pertussis or whooping cough, tetanus, € Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Hepatitis B, and meningitis and pneumonia Abhiyan: It is one of the largest initiatives of caused by haemophilus influenzae type .B the country with the target of making citizens z Booster doses for OPV and DPT are also given digitally literate. between 16 and 24 months.

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€ This protection is informally called “VIP security”, and it is generally given only to someone who holds a position of consequence either in the government or in civil society. z Certain individuals, by reason of positions they hold in government, are automatically entitled to security cover. They include: „ The Prime Minister and his immediate family. „ The Home Minister. „ Officials such as the National Security Advisor. € In cases where the central government decides to extend security to an individual, the level of security needed by any individual is decided by the MHA, based on inputs received from intelligence agencies which include the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW). z Concern due to lack of Accountability: Key Points „ Indian intelligence agencies are not accountable to any statutory body, and ¾ Data Analysis: are subject only to the internal oversight € Across the country, only 59.2% of children under of the MHA and the Ministry of External five years are fully immunised. Affairs (MEA). € About 97% of children across the country received „ Because of this opacity in functioning, and the at least one vaccination— mostly BCG or the first fact that there is virtually no accountability dose of OPV at birth. except to the government in power, VIP security € Only 67% of children are protected against measles. is open to manipulation by the executive. Only 58% got their polio booster dose, while 54% „ A large number of protectees, it has been got their DPT booster dose. alleged, are under security cover purely ¾ States/UTs Specific Data: for political or “prestige” reasons, and not € Best Performance: Manipur (75%), Andhra Pradesh necessarily because of any genuine threat. (73.6%) and Mizoram (73.4%) recorded the highest ¾ Levels of Protection: rates of full immunisation. € There are broadly six categories of security cover: € Poor Performance: Nagaland (12%), followed by X, Y, Y-plus, Z, Z-plus, and SPG (Special Protection Puducherry (34%) and Tripura (39.6%). Group). € In Delhi, less than half of all children are fully € The SPG is meant only for the Prime Minister and immunised. his immediate family, other protection categories can be provided to anyone about whom the Centre VIP Security in India or state governments have inputs of a threat. € The number of personnel guarding the protectee differ from category to category. Why in News z The X category on average entails just one Recently, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has gunman protecting the individual. The X category provided Y-plus category of CRPF security to an actress. is the most basic level of protection. z Z-plus category protectees have 10 security Key Points personnel for mobile security, and two (plus 8 ¾ VIP Security: on rotation) for residence security.

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¾ Different Forces Involved: and capital infusion to 153 blocks of 23 states as of € Protectees get residence security from state police, August 2020. but mobile security from a Central Armed Police ¾ Partner: Entrepreneurship Development Institute Force (CAPF). of India (EDII), Ahmedabad is the technical support z Central Armed Police Forces of India is a group partner of SVEP. of forces (under the Ministry of Home Affairs) € EDII is an autonomous and not-for-profit institute, for internal security. It includes the CRPF, CISF, set up in 1983. ITBP, etc. € It is sponsored by apex financial institutions like € For VIPs other than the PM, the government has the IDBI Bank Ltd., IFCI Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd. and mandated the National Security Guard (NSG), the State Bank of India (SBI). Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the € It has been assigned the task of setting up Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) to provide Entrepreneurship Development Centers in security cover. Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, etc. ¾ Paying for the Protection: by the Ministry of External Affairs. € On Assessment by the Intelligence Agencies: ¾ It aims to: Anyone to whom the government provides security € Support the rural poor to come out of poverty. after assessment by intelligence agencies, gets the € Support the people to set up enterprises and protection for free. provide support until the enterprises stabilise. z However, those who have an elaborate security € Providing self-employment opportunities with cover such as those in the Z and Z-plus categories, financial assistance and training in business may have to consider accommodation for these management and soft skills. security personnel on their own. € Create local community cadres for promotion of € Private Individuals: Those who apply for the security enterprises. but their case is not having consequences on the government and civil society, the government can ¾ Features: charge a private individual for their security cover € It addresses three major pillars of rural start-ups even after assessing a threat to them. namely finances, incubation and skill ecosystems. € It promotes both individual and group enterprises, Start-Up Village majorly in manufacturing, trading and service sectors. Entrepreneurship Programme € It invests on building the capacities of the entrepreneurs to run the businesses profitably Why in News based on the local demand and ecosystem. Women Self Help Groups (SHGs) under the Start-Up € Investments are also made on the use of the Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) stepped up Information and Communication Technology as effective frontline responders and reached the last (ICT) to create standard E-learning modules for mile ensuring an immediate relief to the rural communities minimizing the transmission loss in technical and the most vulnerable population during the ongoing aspects like a business plan and profit and loss Covid-19 pandemic. account preparations. ¾ Activities: Activities under SVEP are strategically Key Points designed to promote rural enterprises with a few ¾ SVEP is a sub-scheme of the Deendayal Antyodaya key areas. Yojana-National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY- € One of the key areas is to develop a pool NRLM), Ministry of Rural Development and has been of Community Resource Persons-Enterprise implemented since 2016. Promotion (CRP-EP) who are local and support ¾ Progress: It has extended business support services entrepreneurs setting-up rural enterprises.

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€ Another key area is to promote the Block Resource € The court had directed the state government to form Center (BRC) in SVEP blocks, to monitor and manage an exclusive force for security on court premises. the community resource persons, appraise SVEP loan applications and act as the repository of Central Industrial Security Force enterprise-related information in the concerned ¾ It is a central armed force the Union raised under block. an Act of Parliament namely Central Industrial Security Force Act, 1968. z BRCs play the role to support a sustainable revenue model to operate effectively and ¾ It is directly under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. independently. ¾ The CISF provides security cover to industrial units, € SVEP established local markets/rural haat which government infrastructure projects and facilities motivated entrepreneurs to take up demand-based and establishments located all over India. production, advertise their enterprise and increase ¾ Other central armed forces in India include Central earning opportunities. Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force z A typical rural haat is mostly indigenous, (BSF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Sashastra flexible and multi-layered structure which Seema Bal (SSB), National Security Guard (NSG) accommodates the economic activities of and Assam Rifles (AR). various nature. z Local market/haat/bazaar serves as an important Climate Smart Cities economic platformwhere a range of products is traded. Assessment Framework

Uttar Pradesh Why in News Special Security Force The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has launched the Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework (CSCAF) 2.0, along with the ‘Streets for People Challenge’ Why in News under the Smart Cities Mission. The Uttar Pradesh government is going to constitute a Special Security Force (SSF) in the state. Key Points Key Points ¾ CSCAF 2.0: € Objective: To provide a clear roadmap for ¾ On the lines of the Central Industrial Security Force, cities towards combating Climate Change while SSF will be responsible for security of vital government planning and implementing their actions, including and private buildings, and industrial establishments. investments. € It can also be hired by private establishments by z CSCAF initiative intends to inculcate climate-a paying a fixed cost. sensitive approach to urban planning and ¾ It will be headed by an Additional Director General development in India. (ADG)-ranked officer and will be headquartered in € Framework: It has 28 indicators across five Lucknow. categories namely; ¾ Powers: It will not require magistrate’s order or z Energy and Green Buildings, warrants to make an arrest or conduct searches. z Urban Planning, Green Cover & Biodiversity, € Its powers will be governed by a set of rules made by the state government. z Mobility and Air Quality, ¾ Background : The UPSSF will set up on the basis z Water Management and of orders of the Allahabad High Court, which had z Waste Management. expressed its displeasure over the security at civil € Implementing Agency:The Climate Centre for Cities courts in December 2019 over shootout incidents at under National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) is Bijnor and Muzaffarnagar courts. supporting MoHUA in implementation of CSCAF.

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Smart Cities Mission „ The India Program works with cities to design and implement sustainable transport projects, ¾ It is an innovative initiative under the Ministry and provide policy solutions to enhance social of Housing and Urban Affairs, to drive economic inclusion, reduce dependency on limited growth and improve the quality of life of people resources, improve road safety, and reduce by enabling local development and harnessing carbon emissions. technology as a means to create smart outcomes for citizens. ¾ It was launched in the year 2015 as a Centrally Five Star Villages Sponsored Scheme. Scheme: India Post ¾ Objective: To promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to Why in News its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of Smart Solutions. The Department of Posts under the Ministry of Communications has launched the ¾ Strategy: Five Star Villages Scheme. € Pan-city initiative in which at least one Smart ¾ It seeks Solution is applied city-wide. to bridge the gaps in public awareness and reach of postal products and services, especially in € Develop areas step-by-step with the help of interior villages. these three models: z Retrofitting. Key Points z Redevelopment. ¾ Objective:To ensure universal coverage of flagship z Greenfield. postal schemes in rural areas of the country. ¾ Features: ¾ Streets for People Challenge: € Three components: Product and Service Availability, € Aim:​ It aims to inspire cities to create walking- Product and Service Publicity and Product and friendly and vibrant streets. Service Marketing. € Eligibility: All cities with a population of over 5 € One-Stop Centre: Branch offices will function as lakh, and capital cities, can apply. one-stop shops to cater to all post-office-related € It includes: needs of the villagers. z Creating pedestrian-friendly streets in high € Schemes Covered: footfall areas, z Savings Bank accounts, Recurring Deposit z Re-imagining under-flyover spaces, Accounts (RDA), National Savings Certificate z Re-vitalizing dead neighbourhood spaces, and (NSC) and Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) certificates. z Creating walking links through parks and z Sukanya Samridhi Accounts and Public Provident institutional areas. Fund (PPF) Accounts. € Supporting Partners: z Funded Post Office Savings Account linked India z Fit India Mission, under Ministry of Youth Post Payments Bank Accounts. Affairs and Sports, z Postal Life Insurance Policy and Rural Postal Life z The India program of the Institute for Transport Insurance Policy. Development and Policy (ITDP). z Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana Account „ ITDP works around the world to design and and Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana implement high quality transport systems Account. and policy solutions that make cities more € Rating System: One Scheme is equal to one star livable, equitable, and sustainable. It was of rating. Therefore, if a village attains universal set up in 1985 and is headquartered in New coverage for four schemes from the above list, York, USA. then that village gets four-star status and so on.

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encourage involvement of corporates and sports Rashtriya Khel promotion boards in the development of sports Protsahan Puruskar 2020 in the country. € The Union Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports revised the Scheme of Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Why in News Puruskar in the year 2015. Air Force Sports Control Board was conferred with € The award is given in the following four ‘Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar 2020’ for the categories: outstanding contribution in helping sportspersons to excel in their respective disciplines and to implement robust z Identification and nurturing of budding/young sports welfare measures. talent. z Encouragement of sports through Corporate Key Points Social Responsibility (CSR). ¾ Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar: z Employment of sportspersons and sports € The Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar scheme welfare measures. was introduced by the government in 2009 to z Sports for Development.

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Economic Scenario

Highlights z Impact of Lockdown on Indian Corporates z Resolution Plan by RBI for Covid-19 Stressed Assets z Core Sector Contracted by 9.6% z Panel to Assess Impact of Waiving Loan Interest z Special Open Market Operations by RBI z High Forex Reserves z GDP Contracted by 23.9% in First Quarter z EASE 2.0 Banking Reforms Index z Financing the Fiscal Deficit z Global Innovation Index 2020 z Manufacturing Improved: PMI z New FDI Policy in Defence Sector z Adjusted Gross Revenue to be Paid in 10 Years z Ranking of States on Support to Startup Ecosystems: DPIIT z NPAs in SHG Loans z Limits on Multi-Cap Fund Investments z Capping of MEIS Scheme Benefits z Contraction in July Factory Output: IIP z Revised Priority Sector Lending Guidelines z Steel Industry in India z Development Bank for Infrastructure Funding z Inflation Data: August 2020 z Retiring Old Thermal Power Plants

z Discretionary spending:It refers to non-essential Impact of Lockdown items, such as recreation and entertainment, that on Indian Corporates consumers purchase when they have enough income left over after paying the necessary expenses such as the mortgage and utilities. Why in News € FMCG and consumer foods were relatively less Recently an investment information and credit rating impacted given the essential nature of these purchases. agency analysis looked into the effect of prolonged € Commodity-linked sectors contracted by 34% on nationwide lockdown on Indian corporate sector. a y-o-y basis with almost all the major commodity sectors, including oil and gas, metals and mining, Key Points iron and steel and cement, reporting revenue ¾ Study: Around 500 companies which were surveyed have contraction on the back of tepid realizations due to shown aggregate revenues contracting by31.1% year- benign commodity prices and subdued volumes. on-year basis in the first quarter of Financial Year 2021. z Commodity-linked sectors: Sectors which are ¾ Exceptions:Stress is visible across major sectors, with dependent upon the commodity market (involves the exception of select sectors like IT, telecom, sugar buying, selling, or trading a raw product, such and pharmaceuticals. as oil, gold, or coffee). ¾ Impact: € Industrial and infrastructure-oriented sectors also € The contraction in revenues was visible across most contributed to the slowdown with 29% and 38% major sectors, but it was sharpest in consumer- y-o-y de-growth respectively during the quarter, oriented sectors where revenues contracted to given the restrictions on activity. nearly half of the previous year’s levels. € Non-pharma exporters, real estate and construction € Sectors like airlines, hotels, retail, automotive companies also face one of their worst years. and consumer durables, which primarily comprise € Banking Sector: Poor credit growth, including retail discretionary purchases, are significantly impacted. loans, along with rising Non-Performing Assets

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(NPAs) and credit costs will be harmful for banks € In pharmaceuticals, new launches from a strong and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs). product pipeline will propel 15% growth. ¾ Reasons: € Movement of goods on National Highways, as € Restrictions on manufacturing, industrial, indicated by the Fastag and E-way bill volumes, construction and consumption activities for the shows recovery to 85% of pre-pandemic levels in major part of Q1 FY2021 due to imposition of July 2020, which was also visible in the railway nationwide lockdown primarily hurt the financial freight and port tonnage data. performance of the Indian corporate sector. € Demand-side: Mainly due to customer wariness Core Sector Contracted by 9.6% because of the uncertain economic environment and erosion of purchasing power. Why in News € Consumer Confidence Survey: One of India’s most lucrative assets is its large consumer base. The output of eight core infrastructure sectors But people appeared to be less optimistic about dropped by 9.6% in July 2020. It has been a continued their current situation and future expectations. contraction for the past five months. z Data from the Reserve Bank of India showed Key Points consumer confidence has collapsed. z The current situation index and the future ¾ Reasons: The contraction is due to adecline mostly expectations index were both below 100, in the production of steel, refinery products and indicating that consumers were pessimistic. A cement. reading above 100 represents optimism. € In general, the weak demand and over-supply ¾ Consequences: along with global and domestic disruptions due € Despite the benefit of subdued raw material prices to Covid-19 are hampering the mobilization of and favourable rupee movement in select sectors economic resources. like IT, the negligible revenues for the major part € In July, local demand growth has slowed because of the quarter has: of high fuel prices, renewed lockdown in parts of z Made companies struggle to cover even the country, and as monsoon rains hit transport, operating costs. industrial, and construction activity. z Lower realization of profit in commodity sectors ¾ Current Scenario: (especially metals and oil and gas), with Profit € The production of eight core sectors expanded by Before Tax margins contracting to multi-year lows. 2.6% in July 2019. ¾ Expectations: € ICRA expects that revival will be marginal from these historic lows. However, a sustained recovery to pre-pandemic levels would be gradual. € Banking: NPAs are expected to swell for non-banking finance companies, too, with microfinance, MSME loans and wholesale/developer funding witnessing the sharpest spike. € Normal monsoons with sufficient and well distributed rainfall are expected to revive investment sentiments and job creation which are very crucial to sustain the growth in earnings. € Electricity generation will also see a 6% to 8% growth, however, capital goods sector revenue is likely to decline by 5% indicating that the recovery is not yet broad-based.

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€ Barring the which grew by 6.9%, all fertiliser sector € It is used by government agencies including the seven sectors namely coal, crude oil, natural gas, Ministry of Finance, the Reserve Bank of India, refinery products, steel, cement, and electricity etc. for policy-making purposes. recorded negative growth in July. € IIP remains extremely relevant for the calculation € The output of steel saw the highest decline (16.5%). of the quarterly and advance GDP estimates. It was followed by refinery products (13.9%). € The minimum contraction in the output is in the electricity sector with 2.3%. Special Open Market Operations by RBI Core Sector Industries ¾ The eight-core sector industries include coal, crude Why in News oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser, steel, Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cement, and electricity. announced several measures to ensure orderly market ¾ These comprise 40.27% of the weight of items included conditions and smooth financial conditions. in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). ¾ These measures include two more tranches of special ¾ The eight core Industries in decreasing order of their Open Market Operations (OMOs) in bonds and a weightage: Refinery Products > Electricity > Steel > hike in the Held-To-Maturity (HTM) limit under the Coal > Crude Oil > Natural Gas > Cement > Fertilizers. Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) for banks. Industry Weight (in %) Key Points Petroleum and Refinery production 28.04 ¾ The move has been termed as ‘Operation Twist’. Electricity generation 19.85 € Operation Twist is the name given to aUSA Federal Reserve monetary policy operation, which involves Steel production 17.92 the purchase and sale of government securities to Coal production 10.33 boost the economy by bringing down long-term Crude Oil production 8.98 interest rates. It is now being used for similar measures taken by RBI in Indian context as well. Natural Gas production 6.88 ¾ OMOs: RBI will conduct additional special open Cement production 5.37 market operations for an aggregate amount of Rs. Fertilizers production 2.63 20,000 crore. € RBI conducted OMOs in March as well. Index of Industrial Production ¾ Term Repo Operations: RBI will also conduct term repo ¾ It is an indicator that measures the changes in the operations for an aggregate amount of Rs.1,00,000 volume of production of industrial products during crore at the prevailing repo rate in the middle of a given period. September to ease liquidity pressures on the market. ¾ It is compiled and published monthly by the National € In order to reduce the cost of funds, banks that had Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and availed of funds under Long-Term Repo Operations Programme Implementation. (LTROs) may exercise an option of reversing these ¾ IIP is a composite indicator that measures the growth transactions before maturity. rate of industry groups classified under: z LTRO is a tool that lets banks borrow one to € Broad sectors: Mining, Manufacturing, and three-year funds from the RBI at the repo rate, Electricity. by providing government securities with similar € Use-based sectors: Basic Goods, Capital Goods, or higher tenure as collateral. and Intermediate Goods. € Thus, the banks may reduce their interest liability ¾ Base Year for IIP is 2011-2012. by returning funds taken at the repo rate prevailing at that time (5.15%) and availing funds at the ¾ Significance of IIP: current repo rate of 4%.

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Open Market Operations GDP Contracted by ¾ Open Market Operations is the simultaneous sale and purchase of government securities and 23.9% in First Quarter treasury bills by RBI. ¾ The objective of OMO is to regulate the money Why in News supply in the economy. According to the recent National Statistical Office ¾ RBI carries out the OMO through commercial banks (NSO) data, India’s Gross Domestic Product(GDP) growth and does not directly deal with the public. contracted by 23.9% in the first (April-June) quarter of ¾ OMO is one of the quantitative tools that RBI uses 2020 compared to the same period (April-June) in 2019. to smoothen the liquidity conditions through the ¾ It is the sharpest contraction since India started year and minimise its impact on the interest rate reporting quarterly data in 1996. and inflation rate levels. ¾ Gross Value Added (GVA) growth rate also declined € Quantitative tools control the extent of money by 22.8% in the first quarter of this financial year. supply by changing the Cash Reserve Ratio € GDP is a measure of economic activityin a country. (CRR), or bank rate or open market operations. It is the total value of a country’s annual output of Qualitative tools include persuasion by the goods and services. It gives the economic output Central bank in order to make commercial banks from the consumers’ side. discourage or encourage lending which is done € GVA is the sum of a country’s GDP and net of through moral suasion, margin requirement, etc. subsidies and taxes in the economy. ¾ Increase in HTM limit: RBI raised the limit on bonds Key Points held-to-maturity (HTM) to 22% from 19.5% of Net Demand and Time Liabilities (NDTL). This means banks ¾ Sector Wise Data: will have room to buy more bonds without bothering € Construction, manufacturing, trade, hotels and about short-term fluctuations in yields. other services and mining were the worst-hit sectors, recording contractions of 50.3%, 39.3%, € HTM securities are the debt securities acquired with the intent to keep it until maturity. 47.0% and 23% respectively. z This reflects the unprecedented suspension Key Terms of economic activity in the first quarter of this ¾ Repo Rate: It is the rate at which RBI lends money fiscal due to the pandemic and the series of to commercial banks. lockdowns. ¾ Government Securities (G-Sec): It is a tradable instrument issued by the central government or state governments. € Short term G-secs (with original maturities of less than one year) are called Treasury Bills. Long term G-secs (with original maturities of more than one year) or long term are called Government Bonds or Dated Securities.Treasury Bills are not issued by State Governments while Government Bonds or Dated securities are issues both by State and Central Governments. ¾ Net Demand and Time Liabilities (NDTL): It is the difference between the sum of demand and time liabilities (deposits) of a bank (with the public or the other bank) and the deposits in the form of assets held by the other banks.

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€ Only the agriculture sector showed a positive z In the informal sector, factory output figures are growth at 3.4%. used to extrapolate the trends in the growth. ¾ Factors of GDP Contraction: € On Banks: The looming defaults in the banking € In any economy, the GDP growth is generated from sector after the moratorium ends will add to the one of the four engines of growth. i.e. private banking sector woes, impacting bank’s lending. consumption, demand generated by private sector z Also, there are worries regarding household businesses, demand generated by government debt, with incomes stagnating, salary cuts and and exports. job losses. z Private consumptionhas fallen by 27%. It is the € On Economy: With GDP contracting by more than biggest engine that drives the Indian economy. what most observers expected, it is now believed z Investment by private sector businesses have that the full-year GDP could also worsen. fallen by 47%. It is the second biggest engine. z A fairly conservative estimate would be a z The net export demand has turned positive in contraction of 7% for the full financial year. this first quarter because India’s imports have Possible Solutions crashed more than its exports. ¾ As the incomes of individuals fall sharply, they reduce „ While on paper, this provides a boost to consumption. When consumption falls sharply, overall GDP, it also points to an economy businesses stop investing. Since both of these are where economic activity has plummeted. voluntary decisions, there is no way to force people to z The government’s expenditure went up by spend more and/or coerce businesses to invest more. 16% but this was nowhere near enough to € The same logic holds for exports and imports as well. compensate for the loss of demand in other sectors (engines) of the economy. ¾ Therefore under these circumstances, there is only one engine that can boost GDP, that is the government. € Only when the government spends more — either by building roads and bridges and paying salaries or by directly handing out money — can the economy revive in the short to medium term. € If the government does not spend adequately enough then the economy will take a long time to recover. ¾ The Indian Government can also adopt the measures suggested by McKinsey Global Institute in which an additional 3.5 % of the GDP can be raised by the ¾ Implications: government. This includes: € On Jobs: The sectors which have contracted € Global Shift:Global trends such as digitization and (e.g. construction, manufacturing etc.) are the automation, shifting supply chains, urbanization, sectors that create the maximum new jobs in the rising incomes and demographic shifts, and a country. greater focus on sustainability, health, and safety z Therefore, in a scenario where each of these can become the hallmarks of the post pandemic sectors are contracting, would lead to more economy. and more people either losing jobs (decline € Higher Productivity through Privatisation: in employment) or failing to get one (rise in Privatisation of 30 or so of the largest state-owned unemployment). enterprises to potentially double their productivity. € On Informal Sector: The real extent of the economic Government also had a focus on privatisation under crisis is expected to be deeper given that the small- the Atmanirbhar Bharat Package. scale sector and informal sector is more affected € Improvement in Infrastructure: India needs to than the organised sector, but is not reflected in unlock supply in land markets to reduce land costs the quarterly GDP numbers. by 20-25%, enable efficient power distribution to

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reduce commercial and industrial tariffs by 20- € The government has already raised its gross market 25%; and improve the ease and reduce the cost borrowing target for the current financial year by of doing business. more than 50%, owing to the pandemic. € Efficient Financing: Streamlining fiscal resources € Disadvantage: can deliver USD 2.4 trillion in investment while z High Debt: An increased borrowing programme boosting entrepreneurship by lowering the cost means that public debt will go up. of capital for enterprises by about 3.5 percentage z Higher Interest Rates: Higher borrowing can points. push up interest rates because markets are € Bad Bank: Creation of a‘bad bank’ can take care nervous about the government’s ability to of the inoperative assets. repay. z Increase in Taxes: It may also necessitate an Financing the Fiscal Deficit increase in taxes. This may burden the common people and also lead to less spending and saving by the public, leading to a stalled market. Why in News z Crowding out: When the government borrows India, being one the hardest-hit major economy due from the private sector by selling bonds, the to Covid-19, faces the challenge of managing its fiscal private sector is left with less money to spend deficit. and invest. Therefore, although government ¾ Borrowing more and monetising the deficitare the spending increases, private sector spending falls. options being considered by the government and the ¾ Monetisation of the Deficit: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to finance the fiscal deficit. € Monetising deficit means RBI purchases government and Key Points bonds in the primary market prints more money to finance the debt. ¾ State of Indian Economy: € This is resorted to only when the government € As per the official data, the Centre’s fiscal deficit cannot borrow from the market (Banks and other for the first three months of fiscal 2020-21 (April- Financial Institutions like LIC). June) was Rs. 6.62 lakh crore, which is 83% of the € The money printed by the RBI is called high powered budgeted target for the whole year. money or reserve money or monetary base. z As per the economists, the fiscal deficit may end € RBI also conducts indirect monetisation of the up as high as 8% of the Gross Domestic Product deficitthrough Open Market Operations (OMOs). (GDP), far exceeding the budget’s goal of 3.5%. z OMOs are market operations conducted by € The GDP contracted by 23.9% in the first (April- RBI by way of sale/purchase of government June) quarter of 2020 compared to the same period securities to/from the market with an objective (April-June) in 2019. to adjust the rupee liquidity conditions in the € The manufacturing sector is also contracting, as market on a durable basis. per the recent IHS Markit India Manufacturing z Recently, RBI has decided to infuse Rs. 10,000 Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI). crore liquidity in the banking system by buying € The output of eight core industries contracted government securities through OMOs. for the fourth consecutive month, shrinking by z Purchase of Government securities by the RBI 15% in June 2020. helps in increasing the supply of the money in € The Financial Stability Report from RBI also shows the market and with banks. It helps to stabilize an increase in bad loans and Non-Performing the market economy and generates credibility Assets (NPA). in the investors. z It is different from monetisation as it is controlled Methods of Bridging the Fiscal Deficit by RBI instead of the government as it is not as ¾ Borrowing From the Market: inflationary as deficit monetisation.

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€ Advantages: z It has helped in the economic development of Manufacturing Improved: PMI India as our domestic savings were less than 9% of GDP and the capacity to raise loans was also Why in News limited during the early 1950s, constraining the As per the latest Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) welfare activities of the government. data, India’s manufacturing sector activity has started to € Disadvantages: show signs of growth in August, driven mainly by pick-up z Deficit financing is inflationary and is bad for in production along with improvement in customer demand. the health of the central bank. Purchasing Managers’ Index z It may push up interest rates and thus make it even more difficult for the government to ¾ Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) is an indicator of service the loan. business activity - both in the manufacturing and services sectors. z It also poses threat to the financial stability of the economy. ¾ It is calculated separately for the manufacturing and services sectors and then a composite index FRBM and Monetising Deficits is also constructed. ¾ Monetisation of deficit was in practice in India ¾ The PMI summarizes whether market conditions till 1997, whereby the central bank automatically as viewed by purchasing managers are expanding, monetised government deficit through the issuance neutral, or contracting. of ad-hoc treasury bills. ¾ The purpose of the PMI is to provide information ¾ Two agreements were signed between the gov- about current and future business conditions to ernment and RBI in 1994 and 1997 to completely company decision makers, analysts, and investors. phase out funding through ad-hoc treasury bills. € The PMI is a number from 0 to 100. ¾ With the enactment of Fiscal Responsibility and € PMI above 50 represents an expansion when Budget Management (FRBM) Act, 2003, it was totally barred. compared to the previous month; ¾ However, the FRBM Act Amendment, 2018 contains € PMI under 50 represents a contraction, and an escape clause which permits monetisation of € A reading at 50 indicates no change. the deficit under special circumstances. ¾ The PMI is usually released at the start of every € Escape clause generally refers to a contract month. It is, therefore, considered a good leading provision that specifies the conditions under indicator of economic activity. which a party can be freed from an obligation. ¾ The Index (PMI) is compiled by IHS Markit for more € It provides flexibility to governments to overshoot than 40 economies worldwide. IHS Markit is a global fiscal deficit targets in times of need, enabling leader in information, analytics and solutions for the them to respond to economic shocks. major industries and markets that drive economies € The clause details a set of events in which the worldwide. Central government can deviate from fiscal deficit targets. These include: Key Points z Overriding considerations ofnational security, ¾ PMI Data: acts of war, and calamities of national € The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose from proportion and collapse of agriculture severely 46 in July to 52 in August. affecting farm output and incomes. z In PMI parlance, a value above 50 means z Far-reaching structural reforms in the economy expansion, while a score below that denotes with unanticipated fiscal implications. contraction. z A sharp decline in real output growth of at € In April, the index had slipped into contraction least 3% points below the average for the mode, after remaining in the growth territory for previous four quarters. 32 consecutive months.

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¾ Positive Highlights: Suggestions € New business received by Indian manufacturers ¾ Focusing on Atmanirbhar Bharat: The government expanded at the fastest pace since February. announced an economic stimulus package of Rs. 20 € Higher levels of productionsupported a modest lakh crore and big-bang systemic reforms under the rise in the number of purchases during August. Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan (self-reliant India). The € Goods and Services Tax Collection:GST collections intended objective of this plan is two-fold. in August stood at— 88% of the august 2019-20 € First, interim measures such as liquidity infusion level. and direct cash transfers for the poor will work as z Collections in July were marginally higher but shock absorbers for those in acute stress. at 85.6% of the year earlier. € The second, long-term reforms in growth-critical € Infrastructure: The contraction in India’s sectors to make them globally competitive and infrastructure sector slowed to 9.6% in July attractive. compared with 12.9% shrinkage in June. ¾ Increasing the MGNREGA Funding and Expanding € Mobility: The Google Mobility index, which to Urban Areas: The Mahatma Gandhi National measures visits to different locations such as retail Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (MGNREGA) shops, workplaces, parks and transport hubs, programme has proved to be a bedrock of support in showed a 2% rise in trends for places such as the normal times and during times of difficulty (like supermarkets, food warehouses, farmers’ markets, Covid-19) and it will be a good idea to expand the speciality food shops and pharmacies. scheme to urban areas. € E-way bills, another widely followed indicator of ¾ Transfer of Cash Benefits: Money in the hands of business activity, reached 99.8% of last year’s people can provide an immediate sense of security level in August. and confidence, which is the cornerstone to restoring € Petrol consumption: Petrol consumption oser by economic normalcy. about 2% in the first fortnight of August from the € It will raise the consumption and demand of the corresponding period in July. economy and can bring back the virtuous cycle of ¾ Reasons: The pick-up in demand from domestic markets demand and supply in play. gave rise to upturns in production and input buying. ¾ Issues with the Banking System: Covid-19 assistance € Gradually, unlocking after lockdown has increased measures undertaken by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) the pace of mobilization of economic resources. and the government such as interest rate reductions, € Exports are also on marginal improvement. When credit guarantee and liquidity enhancement schemes compared to imports, the rate of export demand are welcome steps. is on the higher side due to strict slash on imports. € Although banks have largely failed to take initiatives ¾ Concerns: as they are not confident of lending. € Unemployment: Despite an expansion in new € The RBI should consider a Single One Time Window orders, job shedding continued in the Indian for restructuring business loans, as required, by manufacturing sector. all banks. z The relocation of employees following Covid-19 ¾ Tax Incentivization:Big business houses and MSME pandemic is linked to the reduction in staffing sector should be supported by the government though numbers. tax incentivization to reopen their operations. € Inflation:Reports of higher raw material costs due € This will energize consumer demand and boost to supplier shortages and transportation delays the functioning of the vendor or ancillary industry stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic, resulted in the MSME sector (which has huge potential for in rising input prices during August. job creation). € Exports: The decline in foreign exports weighed ¾ Calibrating Make in India: The ongoing distrust on slightly on overall new orders as firms cited subdued Chinese manufacturing amid USA-China spat can be demand conditions from abroad. very well garnered by India.

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€ Making India a global trading hub – devise an were issued to companies in return for a fixed incentive regime for companies setting up global license fee. trading operations from India. Adjusted Gross Revenue ¾ Promoting Sunrise Sectors:It should also encourage ¾ AGR is a between the sunrise sectors as part of re-imagining Indian economy fee-sharing mechanism government and the telcos who shifted to the such as battery manufacturing (storage systems)/ ‘revenue-sharing fee’ model in 1999, from the solar panel manufacturing. ‘fixed license fee’ model. € The government can also consider giving impetus € In this course, telcos are supposed to share a to “Deep Tech”-leveraged businesses - blockchain, percentage of AGR with the government. robotics, AI, machine learning, etc. ¾ Auto-sector Reforms: The auto industry which € To provide relief from the steep fixed license fee, contributes significantly to GDP (nearly 9%) deserves the government in 1999 gave an option to the special treatment. licensees to migrate to the revenue sharing fee model. € In addition to reducing GST rate, old vehicle scrap policy with tax incentives for creating a demand z Under this, mobile telephone operators were for new vehicles may be formulated. required to share a percentage of their AGR with the government as annual license fee (LF) ¾ Labour Law Reforms: Focus should be given to strictly and spectrum usage charges (SUC). enforce discipline within the factory premises and demand higher productivity. The moves by U.P., M.P. z License agreements between the Department and Gujarat are welcome signals. of Telecommunications (DoT) and the telecom companies define the gross revenues of the latter. € Labour laws must be motivated by concerns of sustainability. Minimum wages, a written job € The definition of AGR has been under litigation for contract that specifies terms and conditions of 14 years. In 2005, Cellular Operators Association working, social security provisions etc. increase of India (COAI) challenged the government’s costs in the short run but augment economic definition for AGR calculation. optimisation in the long run by enhancing the € However, DoT argued that AGR includes all revenues productivity of the workforce. from both telecom and non-telecom services. € The government has come out with four labour € The companies claimed that AGR should comprise codes as long term reforms. just the revenue accrued from core services and not dividend, interest income or profit on the sale € The government should provide health insurance of any investment or fixed assets. for migrant labourers as experimented by certain States. € In 2015, the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) stayed the case in favour of telecom companies and held that AGR Adjusted Gross Revenue includes all receipts except capital receipts and to be Paid in 10 Years revenue from non-core sources such as rent, profit on the sale of fixed assets, dividend, interest and miscellaneous income. Why in News € However, setting aside TDSAT’s order, the Supreme Recently, the Supreme Court of India allowed telecom Court upheld the definition of AGR as stipulated companies (telcos) 10 years’ time to pay their Adjusted by the DoT in October 2019. Gross Revenue (AGR) dues to the government. z As per the government definition, AGR includes rental receipts, dividend income and income Key Points from any other-activity arising out of the telecom ¾ Background: licence the company has. € The telecom sector was liberalised under the z Later on, the Court rejected a 20-year payment National Telecom Policy, 1994 after which licenses timeline proposed by the central government

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and supported by telecom companies. Instead it Assets (NPAs) district-wise and take corrective measures has given 10 years’ time to repay the AGR dues. to recover overdue/ outstanding dues from Self-Help ¾ Directions Issued by Court: Groups (SHGs). € The telecom operators would make the payment ¾ The issue was raised in the review meeting of of 10% of the total dues as demanded by the the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Department of Telecom by 31st March 2021. Livelihoods Mission. ¾ € The yearly instalments would commence from 1st A Non Performing Asset (NPA) is a loan or advance April 2021 up to 31st March 2031. The instalments for which the principal or interest payment remained would be paid by 31st March every year. overdue for a period of 90 days. € In the event of any default in making payment of Deendayal Antyodaya annual instalments, interest would be levied as per Yojana - National Livelihoods Mission the agreement along with penalty and interest on ¾ It was launched by the Ministry of Rural Development penalty automatically without reference to court. (MoRD), Government of India in 2011. z Besides, it would be punishable for contempt ¾ NRLM set out with an agenda to cover 7 Crore rural of court. poor households, across 600 districts, 6000 blocks, € Compliance with the court order should be reported 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats and 6 lakh villages in the by the telcos and the telecom department every country through SHGs and federated institutions year on 7th April. and support them for livelihoods collectives in a € The sale of spectrum by telcos facing insolvency period of 8-10 years. proceedings shall be decided by the National ¾ The Mission aims at creating efficient and effective Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). institutional platforms for the rural poor enabling ¾ Issues Involved: them to increase household income through € The definition of AGR has been such a contentious sustainable livelihood enhancements and improved issue because it has huge financial implications access to financial services. for both telcos and the government. Key Points z It was estimated, after the SC’s 2019 judgment, that the telecom operators owe the government ¾ SHG Loans as NPAs: about Rs. 92,000 crore in back charges, interest € About Rs. 91,130 crore have been given to about and penalties on license fee alone. 54.57 lakh SHGs across the country by the end of March 2020 as loans. z The October 2019 judgment had pushed many telcos on the verge of bankruptcy. z Around 2.37% or Rs. 2,168 crore of this total outstanding bank loans turned out to be NPAs. € While the government has been deprived of the extra revenue, the financial implications for € The proportion of NPAs in bank loans given to SHGs telecom companies — who now have to pay overdue has significantly increased over the last decade amounts piled up for years — are serious too. from 2.90% in 2008 to 6.12% in 2018 z Especially at the current juncture, when profits € There has been a rise of 0.19% in overall NPAs in for telcos are under pressure from severe SHG loans in 2019-20 compared to financial year competition and the falling average revenue 2018-19. per user. ¾ State Wise Distribution: € Uttar Pradesh, which has 71,907 SHGs, reported NPAs in SHG Loans that 36.02% of the loans taken by the groups were NPAs at the end of March 2020, as compared to 22.16% in 2018-19. Why in News € In Arunachal Pradesh, the NPA proportion stood The Union Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) at an alarming 43%, though the number of SHGs has asked states to monitor the status of Non Performing there is just 209.

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Initiatives by Central Government to promote SHGs ¾ Agriculture Infrastructure Fund ¾ PM Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PM FME) Scheme ¾ Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) ¾ Ambedkar Hastshilp Vikas Yojana (AHVY) ¾ North East Rural Livelihood Project ¾ Economic Stimulus-III National Institute of ¾ Directions:The State Rural Livelihood Missions (SRLMs) Rural Development and Panchayati Raj were directed by the MoRD to monitor the status of ¾ It is an autonomous organisation under theUnion NPA district wise and take immediate corrective actions Ministry of Rural Development. wherever instances of NPA or overdues were found. ¾ It is a premier national centre of excellence inrural € A mechanism under which representatives drawn development and Panchayati Raj. from SHGs monitored loans had proved critical ¾ It has been recognized internationally as one of the in ensuring timely repayment and therefore, it UN-ESCAP Centres of Excellence. should be institutionalised in all bank branches. ¾ It builds capacities of rural development functionaries, ¾ Reasons: In 2019, the National Institute of Rural elected representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions, Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRDPR) has bankers, Non-Governmental Organizations and conducted a research study on NPAs by SHGs. other stakeholders through interrelated activities € It found that poor economic conditions, non- of training, research and consultancy. cooperation, lack-of training, expenses towards ¾ marriages and social ceremonies, and medical The Institute is located in Hyderabad (Telangana). emergencies are the main reasons for non-payment ¾ Quantum of loan should be high as it is a major of loans by SHGs. limiting factor, one-time lending not only impedes € Expectations of loan waiver from the government the process of business expansion but also wastes the was also found to be a major reason for the poor money lent so far. Banks need to be sensitized to lend financial health of SHGs. multiple doses of credit, for well performing SHGs. € The role played by banks in handholding, timely opening accounts, monitoring and follow-up was Capping of not as per the expectation. MEIS Scheme Benefits Suggestions ¾ Training SHGs and providing them market linkages Why in News for the products/services so that they use the funds The government has taken a decision to for income generating activity and have no problem cap export in paying back the loan amount should be done by incentives under Merchandise Exports from India Scheme the government. In addition, providing group health (MEIS) at Rs. 2 crore per exporter on outbound shipments and life insurance clubbed with loans at low cost will made during September-December, 2020. help as members spend a significant portion of the Key Points loan on events like ill-health,ceremonies etc. ¾ It needs to be ensured that grading of SHGs needs to ¾ About the Decision: be done properly and loans should be issued only if it € The ceiling would be subject to a downward revision is found suitable for lending. Follow-ups and constant to ensure that the total claim doesn’t exceed the monitoring is a must. allocated Rs. 5,000 crore for the period.

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€ The new Import Export Code (IEC) obtained on all embedded taxes including local levies paid on or after st1 September will be ineligible to submit inputs by exporters. any MEIS claim for exports. ¾ Concerns: z Import Export Code: It is issued by the DGFT € Lack of Data for New Scheme to Replace MEIS: The (Director General of Foreign Trade - Ministry RoDTEP committee has started the work, but the of Commerce and Industry). IEC is a 10-digit industry is facing challenges in providing the data code which has a lifetime validity. Predominantly due to frequent local lockdowns, non-availability importers cannot import goods without the IEC of transport and non-functioning of auditors. and similarly, the exporter merchant cannot € The Federation of Indian Export Organisations avail benefits from DGFT for the export scheme, (FIEO) is of the view that exports during September- etc. without IEC. December are based on orders that had been ¾ Reasons for Government Decision: MEIS is not World negotiated earlier after factoring in the existing Trade Organisation (WTO) compliant and rolling back Merchant Export from India Scheme (MEIS) benefit. of the MEIS scheme will pave the way for a new scheme z These benefits arepart of the export competi- in place. The Indian government has announced a tiveness and therefore the sudden change will new WTO-compliant scheme called Remission of affect exporters’ financially as buyers are not Duties or Taxes On Export Product (RoDTEP) which going to revise their prices upwards. will replace MEIS starting st1 January 2021. ¾ Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS): Revised Priority € MEIS was introduced in the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2015-20 w.e.f. 1st April 2015 with the objective Sector Lending Guidelines to offset infrastructural inefficiencies and associated costs involved in exporting goods/products which Why in News are produced /manufactured in India including Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released products produced/manufactured by MSME Sector. revised Priority Sector Lending (PSL) guidelines, which € Under MEIS, the government provides duty benefits align with emerging national priorities and also bring depending on product and country. sharper focus on inclusive development. € Rewards under the scheme are payable as ¾ The PSL guidelines were last reviewed for commercial percentage of realised free-on-board value (of banks in April 2015 and for Urban Co-operative Banks 2%, 3% and 5%) and MEIS duty credit scrip can be (UCBs) in May 2018. transferred or used for payment of a number of duties including the basic customs duty. Key Points ¾ Remission of Duties or Taxes On Export Product ¾ Fresh Categories: Bank finance to start-ups up to Rs. 50 (RoDTEP): crore, loans to farmers for installation of solar power € The new scheme will be implemented from 1st plants for solarisation of grid connected agriculture January 2020 and create a fully automated route pumps and loans for setting up Compressed BioGas for Input Tax Credit (ITC) in the GST to help increase plants have been included as fresh categories eligible exports in India. for finance under priority sector. € It will reimburse all the taxes/duties/levies being ¾ Farmers’ Related: Higher credit limit has been charged at the Central/State/Local level which are specified forFarmers Producers Organisations (FPOs) not currently refunded under any of the existing undertaking farming with assured marketing of their schemes but are incurred at the manufacturing produce at a predetermined price. and distribution process. € Loans for these activities will be subject to an € The Ministry of Finance has set up a committee aggregate limit of Rs. 2 crore per borrowing entity. under the chairmanship of former commerce € The targets prescribed for small and marginal and home secretary GK Pillai to finalise the rates farmers and weaker sections will be increased under RoDTEP that will allow reimbursement of in a phased manner.

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€ It has defined farmers with land holding of up to one hectare as marginal farmers, and farmers Development Bank with a landholding of more than one hectare and for Infrastructure Funding up to 2 hectares as small farmers. ¾ Boosting Credit: The credit limits for renewable energy, Why in News health infrastructure, including the projects under ‘Ayushman Bharat’, have been doubled. The government is planning to set up a new Develop- € Bank loans up to a limit of Rs. 30 crore to borrowers ment Finance Institution (DFI) essentially to fill the gap for purposes like solar-based and biomass-based in long-term finance for infrastructure sectors. power generators, windmills, non-conventional Key Points energy-based public utilities, etc. For individual households, the loan limit will be Rs. 10 lakh per ¾ Proposed DFI: borrower. € It will be used to finance both social and economic € Bank loans up to a limit of Rs. 10 crore per borrower infrastructure projects identified under theNational for building healthcare facilities including under Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP). ‘Ayushman Bharat’ in Tier II to Tier VI centres. z In April 2020, the Government released the ¾ Addresses Disparity: It seeks to address the issues final report on NIP for 2019-25, which had concerning regional disparities in the flow of priority drawn up projects totalling investments of Rs. sector credit at district level which includes: 111 lakh crore across roads, railways, energy and urban sectors. € Ranking districts on the basis of per capita credit flow to the priority sector. z The task force on NIP was headed by Atanu Chakraborty (economic affairs secretary). € Building an incentive framework for districts with ¾ comparatively low flow of credit and dis-incentivea Role of Government in DFI: framework for districts with comparatively high € The DFI can have two types of character: flow of priority sector credit. z Either it should be promoted by the government. € Higher weightage has been assigned to priority z Or it should be given a private sector character sector credit in ‘identified districts’ where priority with the government restricting its holding to 49%. sector credit flow is comparatively low. € There are clear advantages if the DFI is fully held by the government, the most important being Priority Sector Lending fund-raising. ¾ The RBI mandates banks to lend a certain portion of z The securities from the DFI could be made their funds to specified sectors, like agriculture, Micro, Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) eligible. This will Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), export encourage banks to subscribe to the securities credit, education, housing, social infrastructure, issued by DFI and fulfil their SLR obligations. renewable energy among others. z However, the issue involved in this is that € All scheduled commercial banks and foreign the senior management of the DFI may be banks (with a sizable presence in India) are hounded by investigative agencies such as mandated to set aside 40% of their Adjusted Net the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and Bank Credit (ANDC) for lending to these sectors. be subject to the scrutiny of the Comptroller € Regional rural banks, co-operative banks and and Auditor General (CAG) and the Central small finance banks have to allocate 75% of Vigilance Commission (CVC). ANDC to PSL. € A DFI with a private sector character will require the ¾ The idea behind this is to ensure that adequate government to believe and trust the private sector. institutional credit reaches some of the vulnerable z This will require the government to maintain some sectors of the economy, which otherwise may not distance from the private sector DFI institution be attractive for banks from the profitability point and let it implement and execute projects aimed of view. at improving the quality of life of all citizens.

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Development Finance Institutions mismatch in the maturities of assets and liabilities for the lender. ¾ DFIs provide long-term credit for capital-intensive investments spread over a long period and yielding low rates of return, such as urban infrastructure, Retiring Old mining and heavy industry, and irrigation systems. Thermal Power Plants ¾ DFIs oftenlend at low and stable rates of interest to promote long-term investments with considerable social benefits. Why in News ¾ DFIs are also known as Development banks. They According to a report by research organisation are different from commercial banks which mobilise Climate Research Horizon, shutting down thermal power short- to medium-term deposits and lend for similar plants older than 20 years can save the government Rs. maturities to avoid a maturity mismatch-a potential 53,000 crore over five years. cause for a bank’s liquidity and solvency. ¾ The thermal power plants were analysed in 11 DFIs in India States (Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, ¾ Soon after independence, the institutional framework Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil for development banking began- IFCI (1948), IDBI Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal), (1964), IIBI (1972), NABARD and EXIM Bank (1982), which account for nearly 50% of Power Distribution SIDBI (1990), etc. Companies (discom) dues. ¾ However, in the past few years, DFIs such as ICICI, Key Points IDBI and IDFC have transformed into universal banks as they did not have the advantage of low-cost ¾ Findings from the Report : funding for long term projects. € Shutting down old coal-based power plants and ¾ Currently, DFIs are sector-specific, such as Rural freezing those under constructioncan save over Electrification Corp. Ltd (REC) for the power sector, Rs. 1.45 lakh crore at a time when electricity National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development demand has been hit due to Covid-19. (NABARD) for the agriculture sector, and Indian z The savings will accrue from avoiding retrofitting Railway Finance Corp. to fund rail infrastructure old plants to reduce the toxicity from their among others. emissions. € z The institution can also work without fear of Replacing electricity from older coal plants with the CBI, CVC or the CAG. cheaper renewable sources will reduce the gap between cost of supply and revenue generation ¾ Issues in Infrastructure Funding: for discoms. € Funding Gap: Banks are unable to provide long- € Further, surplus electricity generation capacity term finance to infrastructure projects. has seen many power plants struggle with low z Infrastructure financing is currently dominated Plant Load Factors (PLF or capacity utilisation), a by bank lending, with outstanding credit to the situation that most experts predict will persist for infrastructure sector touching 15% until FY16. the foreseeable future. z However, due to rising non-performing assets ¾ Power Generation Scenario: in the banking sector driven by declining asset quality in the infrastructure sector, the share € India mainly uses three types of thermal power has declined to 12% in FY19. plants- Coal, Gas and Liquid-fuel based. The electricity generated by these plants adds up to € Asset/Liability Management Mismatch: In India, 62.2% of the total power generation in the country. most lenders borrow funds with maturity under 5 years. The reason is primarily the absence of a ¾ Problems Faced by Discoms: deep bond market to borrow from. As a result, € 75-80% of a disoms’ costs are in power purchase they lend to a project with a maturity of, say 20 and many are locked into expensive agreements years, with funds of 2-year maturity. This leads to a (Power Purchase Agreements -PPAs) for decades.

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¾ Economic Stimulus: Part of the Rs. 90,000-crore economic stimulus package announced by the Ministry of Finance is assigned for liquidity injection into power distribution companies.

Solutions ¾ Cost Effective Solar Plants:The average cost of coal- fired projects is Rs.4 per unit and generally sees an upward escalation whereas new solar power plants are being bid out at less than Rs.3 per unit. z PPAs in India are not flexible. They lack the ¾ Encourage Private Sector: New private competition option for exiting the contract. can bring new capital and more innovation. z Also renegotiating them in case of demand € New coal-fired power plants are still being financed collapse is not easy because of lack of provisions so that the private sector is not building any coal- for a review of terms and conditions. based power plants at all; only the public sector power companies are doing so. These PSU thermal z Discoms purchase power from generation companies through Power Purchase Agreements plants are financed by public sector banks and (PPAs), and then supply it to their consumers largely on tax payers’ money. (in their area of distribution). ¾ UDAY 2.0: Government’s announcement of the launch of UDAY 2.0 which seeks installation of smart prepaid € This has been affecting the ability of discoms to buy power for supply, and the ability to invest metres, prompt payment by discoms, making coal in improving the distribution infrastructure. available for short term and reviving gas-based plants Consequently, this impacts the quality of electricity is a step in the right direction. that consumers receive. ¾ Flexible Contracts: Long-term supply contracts need ¾ Issues Complicating the Problem: flexibility for public utilities to adapt to unforeseen situations such as a Covid collapse in demand. € Lockdown Effect: The nationwide lockdown has resulted in peak electricity demand coming down, with commercial and industrial power demand Resolution Plan by RBI taking a hit after many factories shut down. for Covid-19 Stressed Assets € Power theft is also a challenge. € Cross Subsidisation - Discoms charge “commercial and industrial (C&I) consumers” very high tariffs. Why in News z This is to compensate for subsidies provided The Re­serve Bank of India (RBI) has specified five to residential and agricultural consumers, for fi­nancial­ ra­tios and sec­tor-spe­cific thresholds­ for reso­ ­ whom tariffs are kept artificially low for political lu­tion of Covid-19 related­ stressed as­sets in 26 reasons. sec­tors. € Ineffective Government Schemes- The Ujwal Key Points Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) that was launched in 2015 to fix the financial problems of the sector ¾ Recommended by: This resolution plan is based on has not yielded expected benefits. the recommendations of the K.V. Ka­math com­mit­tee. ¾ Financial Ratios: The key fi­nan­cial ratios to be Government Initiatives considered in the restructuring of loans impacted by ¾ Shut down old power plants: The 2020-21 Budget the Covid-19 pandemic are: speech advised utilities to close thermal power € Total Outside Liability to Adjusted Tangible Net plants which are in violation of National Clean Air Worth Ratio :This ratio is arrived at by addition of Programme (NCAP) norms. long-term debt, short term debt, current liabilities

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and provisions and deferred tax liability divided € The restructuring quantum from the corporate sector by tangible net worth net of the investments and in FY21 could range between 3% and 5.8% of the loans. It indicates a company’s financial leverage banking credit, amounting to Rs 3.3-6.3 lakh crores. over the total net worth of the company. € At least Rs. 2,10,000 crore (1.9% of banking € Total­ debt to EBIDTA ratio:It is total debt divided credit) of non-corporate loans is likely to undergo by Earnings Before Interest, Depreciation, Taxes restructuring after the announcement, which would and Amortisation (EBIDTA). This ratio indicates have otherwise slipped into the Non-Performing the cash position of a company to pay back its Asset category. debt. Higher ratio means the company has more € India Ratings and Research is a credit rating agency leverage. that provides credit opinions regarding India’s € Cur­rent ra­tio: Cur­rent as­sets divided by current­ credit markets. li­a­bil­i­ties. Current ratio indicates the company’s ability to pay short term debt and other liabilities which are due within a year’s time. Panel to Assess Impact € Debt Ser­vice Cov­er­age Ra­tio: It is the available of Waiving Loan Interest cash to pay current debt. € Av­er­age Debt Ser­vice Cov­er­age Ra­tio. Why in News ¾ Sectors: The 26 sectors­ spec­i­fied by the RBI in­clude Recently, the Union government has constituted an au­to­mo­biles, power, tourism, ce­ment, chemi­­cals, expert committee to measure the economic impact of gems and jew­ellery, lo­gis­tics, min­ing, man­u­fac­tur­ing, waiving of interest on the Covid-19 related loan moratorium. real es­tate, and ship­ping among oth­ers. ¾ Eligibility: The resolution under this framework is Key Points applicable only to those borrowers who have been ¾ Chairmanship: The expert panel will be chaired by impacted on account of Covid. Rajiv Mehrishi, former Comptroller and Auditor ¾ Graded Approach: The lend­ing in­sti­tu­tions may, at General (CAG) of India, and will submit its report their dis­cre­tion, adopt agraded approach­ depend­ ing­ within one week. while on the sever­ity of the im­pact on borrow­ ­ers ¾ Task: It will measure the impact on the national im­ple­ment­ing the reso­ ­lu­tion plan. economy and financial stability of waiving of interest ¾ Background: and Covid-19 related moratorium. € The RBI took a number of steps to give relief to ¾ Background: The move came as various concerns companies affected by Covid-19 in its Monetary have been raised during the ongoing hearing in the Policy Report. Supreme Court in the matter regarding relief sought z It permitted lenders a one-time restructuring in terms of waiver of interest and waiver of interest of loans without classifying these as Non- on interest and other related issues. Performing Assets. € It allowed lenders to grant a loan moratorium for Loan Moratorium three months on Equated Monthly instalments ¾ A moratorium provides stressed customers extra (EMIs) falling due between 1st March and 31st May, time to repay without their accounts being labelled 2020. Later, it extended this for another three NPA or their credit score being affected. months until 31st August. ¾ It is not a loan waiver and does not offer any ¾ According to a report by India Ratings and Research, a discount on interest payout. high proportion of debt from the real estate, airlines, hotels, and other sectors had been restructured, the High Forex Reserves largest contribution had been from infrastructure, power, and construction. € Banks are likely to restructure up to Rs. 8.4 lakh Why in News crore of loans, or 7.7% of the overall system’s credit. As per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, India’s

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foreign exchange (forex) reserves touched a record high ¾ Significance of Rising Forex Reserves: th of USD 541.431 billion in the week ended 28 August 2020. € Comfortable Position for the Government: The rising forex reserves give comfort to the government Key Points and the RBI in managing India’s external and internal ¾ Forex Reserves: financial issues at a time of major contraction € Definition:Foreign exchange reserves are assets (23.9%) in economic growth. denominated in a foreign currency that are held € Managing Crisis: It serves as a cushion in the on reserve by a central bank. These may include event of a Balance of Payment (BoP) crisis on foreign currencies, bonds, treasury bills and other the economic front. government securities. z It is enough to cover the import bill of the € Objectives Behind Holding Forex Reserves: country for a year. z Supporting and maintaining confidence in z Assist the government in meeting its foreign the policies for monetary and exchange rate exchange needs and external debt obligations. management. € Rupee Appreciation:The rising reserves have also z Provides the capacity to intervene in support helped the rupee to strengthen against the dollar. of the national or union currency. € Confidence in Market: Reserves will provide a z Limits external vulnerability by maintaining level of confidence to markets and investors that foreign currency liquidity to absorb shocks during a country can meet its external obligations times of crisis or when access to borrowing is curtailed. Using Forex for Infrastructure € Forex reserves are external Forex Reserves in India: ¾ Arguments in Favour: There was a demand from assets accumulated by India and controlled by the some quarters that forex reserves should be used RBI in the form of: for infrastructure and other development needs in z Gold. the country because of: z Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) of the International € Adequate Forex Reserves: Sufficiency of forex Monetary Fund (IMF). reserves is sometimes measured on how many z Foreign currency assets (capital inflows to the months’ worth of imports can a country afford. Six capital markets, Foreign Direct Investment and months is the safer limit and at present reserve is external commercial borrowings). sufficient for the whole year. z Reserve Position with IMF. € Adequate Contingency Arrangement: In case of € Forex Reserves Storage: The RBI Act, 1934 provides a credit shock, India can mitigate any BoP crisis the legal framework for the deployment of situation, as there are sufficient arrangements for reserves in different foreign currency assets and foreign exchange reserves in the form of a credit gold within the broad parameters of currencies, line from the IMF and many central bank liquidity instruments, and issuers. swap agreements with countries like Japan. ¾ Reasons for High Forex Reserves: € Leveraging Forex as a Last Resort: Tax revenues, € Rise in investment by foreign portfolio investors in this fiscal year, will be affected by lower-than- (FPIs) and increased foreign direct investments expected economic activity. Also, non-tax revenue (FDIs). will remain subdued as the RBI has already given a z The sharp jump in reserves started with the huge dividend payment to the government in 2019. Finance Ministry’s announcement in 2019, z Thus, the lack of considerable space both on the cuttingcorporate tax rates. monetary and fiscal front to support economic € Fall in crude oil prices has brought down the oil growth, part of the country’s forex reserves can import bill, saving precious foreign exchange. be used for stimulating the economy. € Dollar outflow from overseas remittances and ¾ Arguments Against: The RBI had opposed the plan. foreign travels have fallen steeply. Reasons may include the considerations of:

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€ Oil Price Unpredictability: Current low crude oil z Indian Banks’ As- prices are due to several issues, one such is the sociation, formed price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia. As on 26th Sept 1946 soon as a common ground is agreed between the is an association of two, the crude prices will tend to rise again. Indian banks and fi- € Unreliable Portfolio Investments: Another issue nancial institutions is the high ratio of volatile flows (portfolio flows based in Mumbai. and short-term debt) to reserves which are around € EASE Agenda is aimed 80%. This money can exit at a fast pace. Foreign at institutionalising institutional investments (FIIs) by their nature are CLEAN and SMART investments based on speculation. banking. z Therefore, the current surge in forex reserves ¾ EASE Reforms Index: The Index measures performance should not be treated with permanent nature. of each PSB on 120+ objective metrics. z In March 2020 alone, FII in India fell by Rs. € The Index follows a fully transparent scoring 65,000 crore. methodology, which enables banks to identify € Confidence of High Forex: High forex reserves also their strengths as well as areas for improvement. help India to maintain its global rating, especially € The goal is to continue driving change by in the context of falling GDP growth rate. encouraging healthy competition among PSBs. z The depletion in forex reserves may have a ¾ EASE 1.0: The EASE 1.0 report showed significant negative impact on these ratings, which in turn improvement in PSB performance in the resolution may reduce foreign investment inflows into India. of Non Performing Assets (NPAs) transparently. € Volatility in Indian Rupee: RBI has been ¾ EASE 2.0: EASE 2.0 builds on the foundation of EASE fundamentally using India’s foreign exchange to 1.0 and introduces new reform Action Points across ensure rupee stability. six themes to make reforms journey irreversible, strengthen processes and systems, and drive outcomes. EASE 2.0 € The six themes of EASE 2.0 are Responsible Banking, Customer Responsiveness, Credit Off-take, PSBs as Banking Reforms Index UdyamiMitra (SIDBI portal for credit management of MSMEs), Financial Inclusion and Digitalisation; Why in News and Governance and Human Resources. Recently, the Enhanced Access and Service Excellence Performance of PSB on EASE 2.0 Index (EASE) 2.0 Banking Reforms Index on the performance of the Public Sector Banks (PSBs) from March 2018-2020 ¾ Overall Score: Increased by 37% between March-2019 has been released and best-performing banks on EASE and March-2020, with the average EASE index score were felicitated. improving from 49.2 to 67.4 out of 100. ¾ Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs also ¾ Top Performing Banks: Bank of Baroda, State Bank inaugurated the Doorstep Banking Services by PSBs of India, and erstwhile Oriental Bank of Commerce. on the occasion. ¾ Major Improvements: ¾ In February 2020, EASE 3.0 (2020-21) for smart, tech- € Digital Banking: Nearly 4 crore active customers enabled banking was also unveiled. on mobile and internet banking. z 50% of financial transactions through digital Key Points channels. ¾ EASE Reforms Agenda: It was jointly launched by the € Customer service: Increase in the number of call government and PSBs in January 2018. centres and inclusion of 13 regional languages € It was commissioned through Indian Banks’ Asso- in customer service, enhanced doorstep banking ciationand authored by Boston Consulting Group. support by 75,000+ Bank Mitras etc.

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€ Easy loans: Turnaround time for retail loans reduced by from nearly 30 days to nearly 10 days. Global Innovation Index 2020 € NPAs and Frauds: Gross NPAs reduced from Rs. 8.96 lakh crore in March-2018 to Rs. 6.78 lakh Why in News crore in March-2020. Recently, the Global Innovation Index 2020 was z A sharp decline in fraud occurrence from 0.65% of released by the World Intellectual Property Organisation advances during FY10-FY14 to 0.06% in FY19-20. (WIPO). z Record recovery of Rs. 2.27 lakh crore in FY19- ¾ India is at the 48th position in the list of top 50 FY20. innovative countries. z Banks have taken steps like instituting data- € India occupied the 52nd position in2019 rankings. driven risk assessments and introducing Early Warning Signals (EWS) systems. Key Points ¾ Switzerland, Sweden, the USA, the UK and Netherlands are the top five countries. ¾ With a group of Asian economies advancing up the rankings, the index indicates that “a gradual eastward shift in the locus of innovation” is underway. ¾ In Asian economies, China, India, the Philippines and Vietnam have made the most progress on the index in recent years, with all four now among the top 50. EASE 3.0 € India is one of the leading innovation achievers ¾ A comprehensive agenda for smart, tech-enabled in the central and southern Asian region, as it has banking has been adopted for FY 2020-21, under shown a consistent improvement in its innovation ranking for the last 5 years. which PSBs have initiated the eShishu Mudra (app- based lending for instant sanction of working capital € China, which is the only middle-income economy th up to Rs. 50,000) for straight-through processing of among the top 30, now holds the 14 position. loans to micro-enterprises. ¾ India Specific Highlights: ¾ EASE 3.0 seeks to enhance ease of banking in all € India has become the third most innovative lower- customer experiences, using technology viz. Dial-a- middle-income economy in the world. loan, Partnerships with FinTechs and E-commerce € India ranks in the top 15 in indicators such as the companies, Credit@click, Tech-enabled agriculture Information and Communication Technology (ICT) lending, EASE Banking Outlets, etc. services exports, government online services, graduates in science and engineering, and Research Doorstep Banking Services and Development-intensive global companies. ¾ As part of the EASE Reforms, Doorstep Banking Services € India improved the most in three pillars: Institutions is envisaged to provide the convenience of banking (61st), business sophistication (55th), and creative services to the customers at their doorstep through outputs (64th). the universal touchpoints of Call Centre, Web Portal € The consistent improvement in the index rankings or Mobile App. is owing to the immense knowledge capital, the ¾ At present, only non-financial services viz. request for vibrant startup ecosystem, and the amazing account statement, delivery of cheque book, demand work done by the public and private research draft, pay order etc are available to customers.Financial organisations. services shall be made available from October 2020. € The India Innovation Index 2019 which was released ¾ The services shall benefit all customers, particularly by the NITI Aayog, has been widely accepted as Senior Citizens and Divyangs who would find it at the major step in the direction of decentralisation ease to avail these services. of innovation across all the states of India.

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Global Innovation Index € It has been focusing on the defence sector to act as an engine for boosting manufacturing in the ¾ It provides detailed metrics about the innovation country, and is aiming to achieve a turnover of Rs performance of 131 countries and economies around the world. 1.75 lakh crore, including exports worth Rs 35,000 crore, by 2025. ¾ Its 80 indicators explore a broad vision of innovation, including political environment, education, z As of 2019, the defence industry, along with infrastructure and business sophistication. the aerospace and shipbuilding industry, was estimated to be worth Rs. 80,000 crore, of ¾ It is published annually by Cornell University, which the share of Public Sector Units (PSUs) INSEAD and the WIPO. was nearly 80%. ¾ 2020 Theme: Who will Finance Innovation? € The government has brought a draft Defence € The GII 2020 sheds light on the state of innovation Production and Export Promotion Policy 2020 financing by investigating the evolution of existing (DPEPP 2020), which aims to provide an overarching mechanisms and by pointing to progress and guiding document to provide a focused, structured remaining challenges. and significant thrust to defence production capabilities of the country for self-reliance and exports. € The government has also brought a negative imports list for defence equipment and a dedicated budget for capital acquisition from the domestic industry. z The negative imports list contains a list of weapons that will not be imported and can only be purchased from within the country. z It was done with an aim to reduce the defence . New FDI Policy import bill € The government has inaugurated two defence in Defence Sector industrial corridors, in Tamil Nadu and in Uttar Pradesh, to boost the flagship ‘Make in India’ Why in News programme that in turn would attract investments as well as encourage employment generation. Recently, the Union Cabinet approved a new Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy in the defence sector which Foreign Direct Investment allows the FDI through automatic approval to be increased ¾ FDI is an investment made by a firm or individual from 49% to 74%. in one country into business interests located in ¾ However, the new policy has a ‘National Security’ another country. clause as a condition which has been proposed by ¾ Generally, FDI takes place when an investor establishes the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. foreign business operations or acquires foreign Key Points business assets, including establishing ownership or controlling interest in a foreign company. ¾ National Security Clause: FDI in the defence sector ¾ It is different from Foreign Portfolio Investment shall be subject to scrutiny on the ground of National where the foreign entity merely buys equity shares Security and the Government reserves the right to of a company. FPI does not provide the investor review any foreign investment in the defence sector with control over the business. that may affect national security. ¾ Routes through which India gets FDI: ¾ Strengthening Indigenous Manufacturing: Through more liberalised FDI policy the government is seeking € Automatic Route: In this, the foreign entity does to attract foreign players to set up manufacturing not require the prior approval of the government units in India. or the RBI.

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€ Gujarat had secured the Best Performer position € Government route: In this, the foreign entity has to take the approval of the government. previous year as well. z The Foreign Investment Facilitation Portal (FIFP) facilitates the single window clearance of Limits on Multi- applications which are through approval route. Cap Fund Investments z This portal is administered by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade Why in News (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Recently, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has imposed some limits on multi-cap funds. Ranking of States on Support Multi-Cap Fund to Startup Ecosystems: DPIIT ¾ Multi-cap funds are those that diversify their investments into all three categories (small, medium, Why in News and large-cap). The Results of the 2nd edition of Ranking of States ¾ These funds invest by market capitalization of shares. on Support to Startup Ecosystems were released by the € Market capitalization is the aggregate valuation Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade of the company based on its current share price (Ministry of Commerce & Industry). and the total number of outstanding stocks. € It is calculated by multiplying the current market Key Points price of the company’s share with the total ¾ Objectives:The rankings were started with an objective outstanding shares of the company. of fostering competitiveness, mutual learning and ¾ Large cap stocks: Stocks of top 100 listed companies propel States and Union Territories (UTs) to work in terms of full market capitalisation. proactively towards uplifting the startup ecosystem. ¾ Mid-cap stocks: Stocks of top 101 to 250 companies ¾ Framework: The 2019 Ranking Framework has seven in terms of full market capitalisation. broad reform areas consisting of 30 action points ¾ Small-cap stocks: Stocks of companies above 251 ranging from institutional support, easing compliances, in terms of full market capitalisation. relaxation in public procurement norms, incubation support, seed funding support, venture funding Key Points support, and awareness and outreach. ¾ Changes Made: ¾ Participation: 22 States and 3 Union Territories. € A multi cap fund will be required to invest a ¾ 2 Categories: To establish uniformity and ensure minimum of 75% of its total assets in equities and standardization in the ranking process, States and equity-related instruments. UTs have been divided into two groups. z At present, the rule is to invest a minimum of € Category Y: All UTs except Delhi and all States in 65% in equities. North East India except Assam. € Minimum investment of 75% has to be allocated in € Category X: All other States and UT of Delhi. between large cap companies, mid cap companies ¾ Results: The States and UTs were classified as: Best and small cap companies, with a minimum share Performers, Top Performers, Leaders, Aspiring Leaders of 25% in each. The rest 25% can be invested as and Emerging Startup Ecosystems. per the investor’s choice. € Gujarat was the Best performer in Category X z Till now, fund managers of multi cap mutual followed by Karnata and Kerala. Uttar Pradesh funds were investing across market capitalisation and Tamil Nadu occupied the lowest positions. as per their choice. € Andaman and Nicobar Islands was the Best ¾ Reason: performer in Category Y. Sikkim secured the € The changes have been done to diversify the bottom place. underlying investments of multi-cap funds across

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the large-cap, mid-cap and small-cap companies z It recorded the best sequential improvement and be true to the label. and may turn out to be the first sector, apart € Currently, the portfolio of most multi cap funds from consumer non-durables, to find its way is biased towards large caps with 65% to 90% of in positive territory going ahead. their portfolio in large cap stocks. ¾ Similar Trends: The decline in industrial growth mirrors ¾ Impact: the trend in other high-frequency indicators for July. € Fund houses will have to cut their exposure to big € India’s Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index cap stocks and invest in mid- and small-cap stocks. (PMI) had stood at 46 in July compared with 47.2 € This will result in up to Rs. 40,000 crore moving in June. A print below 50 signifies a contraction. from largecap to broader market (mid-cap and ¾ Impact: The negative IIP for July, which is the first small-cap fund). month of the second quarter, will reflect in the expected contraction in theGross Domestic Product Contraction in (GDP) growth numbers for the July-September quarter. € India’s GDP growth contracted by 23.9% in the July Factory Output: IIP April-June quarter, the worst among G20 countries.

Why in News Steel Industry in India Recently, the National Statistical Office (NSO) has released data, highlighting the decline in the factory Why in News output (also called Industrial Production) for the fifth consecutive month, with July 2020 posting a contraction According to recent information shared by the Union of 10.4% compared to July 2019. Minister for Steel in Lok Sabha, Indian steel companies ¾ The data, however, recorded a sequential improvement including the public sector steel companies have con- from 15.8% contraction seen in June, reflecting some sistently enhanced their capacities, production and sales resumption in industrial activity with the lifting of including exports over the years. lockdown restrictions. Key Points Key Points ¾ Improvements: ¾ Cumulatively, theIndex of Industrial Production (IIP) € India was a net exporter of steel in 2019-20 and contracted by 29.2% for April-July against a growth during the period of April-August, 2020, steel of 3.5% in the same period last year. exports from India have increased by more than € The IIP had grown by 4.9% in July 2019. 153% in comparison to the same period in 2019-20. ¾ Reason: The decline is mainly due to degrowth in € Capacity for domestic crude steel production manufacturing, mining, capital goods, and consumer has been expanded from 109.85 Million Tonnes durables output. Per Annum (MTPA) in 2014-15 to 142.29 MTPA ¾ Contraction Data: Barring consumer non-durables, in 2019-20. all other sectors including manufacturing, mining, € Crude steel production has gone up from 88.98 primary goods, capital goods contracted in July. MTPA in 2014-15 to 109.14 MTPA in 2019-20. € Consumer Non-durables: A proxy for the Fast € These improvements can be attributed to the Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), it posted a continuous efforts of skill training and government positive growth of 6.7%. initiatives in the country. € Manufacturing Sector: Weight of 77.6% in IIP, ¾ Skill Training: contracted by 11.1% in July from a contraction of € By Skill Training Centres under the Ministry of 16.0% in June. Steel. For example, National Institute of Secondary € Electricity Output: It contracted by 2.5% as against Steel Technology (Punjab), Institute for Steel a double-digit contraction of 10.0% in June. Development and Growth (Kolkata), etc.

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€ By Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) like ¾ The wholesale price-based inflation is measured by Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) and Rashtriya Wholesale Price Index (WPI). Ispat Nigam Ltd. (RINL). Key Points z Both CPSEs have been making continuous efforts towards reducing the operational costs through ¾ Retail Inflation: technology induction, enhanced productivity € The retail inflation growth dipped to 6.69% in the and streamlining procurement. month of August. It was at 6.73% in July 2020. ¾ Challenges: € However, the retail inflation continued to grow beyond the upper € Capital: Iron and steel industry requires large capital Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) investment which is difficult for a developing margin of 6%. country like India to afford. Many of the public z The Central government has mandated the sector integrated steel plants have been established RBI to keep inflation within the range of 4±2%. with the help of foreign aid. z This inflation range (4% within a band of +/- 2%) € Low Productivity: The per capita labour productivity was recommended by the committee headed in the country is at 90-100 tonnes for the steel by Urjit Patel in 2014. industry which is very low. It is 600-700 tonnes per € The growth in retail inflation wasprimarily due to person in Korea, Japan, and other steel producing a rise in meat and fish prices that saw a 16.50% nations. on-year rise in August. € Low Potential Utilisation: Durgapur steel plant € The Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) or the makes use of approximately 50% of its potential inflation in the food basket eased to 9.05% in the which is caused by factors like strikes, shortage month of August. It was at 9.27% in July 2020. of raw materials, energy crisis, incompetent ¾ Wholesale Inflation: administration, etc. € The wholesale price-based inflationrose to 0.16% € Huge Demand: Huge chunks of steel are to be in August as food items and manufactured products imported in order to meet the demands. In order turned costlier. to save invaluable foreign exchange, productivity z The WPI inflation was in the negative territory needs to be increased. for four straight months — April (-) 1.57%, May € Inferior Quality of Products: The weak infrastructure, (-) 3.37%, June (-) 1.81% and July (-) 0.58%. capital inputs and other facilities eventually lead to € Inflation in food articles during August stood at a steel making process which is more time-taking, 3.84%. However, fuel and power inflation fell expensive and produces an inferior variety of 9.68% in August. steel products. ¾ Implication: The difference between WPI (food) and CPI (food) shows the supply side issues due to Inflation Data: August 2020 several lockdowns at regional level. CPI vs. WPI Why in News ¾ WPI, tracks inflation at the producer level and CPI captures changes in prices levels at the consumer level. Recently, the inflationdata for the month of August ¾ 2020 was released. The inflation data includes retail WPI does not capture changes in the prices of services, which CPI does. inflationand wholesale inflationdata. ¾ In April 2014, the RBI had adopted the CPI as its ¾ The retail inflation is measured by the Consumer key measure of inflation. Price Index (CPI).

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International Relations

Highlights z Turkey- Russia Military Drill in Eastern Mediterranean z 5th BRICS Culture Ministers’ Meet z Eighth East Asia Summit Economic Ministers’ Meeting z Indo-Pacific Trilateral Dialogue z G-20 Foreign Ministers Meet z UK Internal Market Bill, 2020 z UNSC Rejects to Designate Indians as Terrorists z USA-Maldives Framework on Defense and Security Relationship z Indra 2020 to be held in Andaman Sea z Singapore Convention on Mediation z Indo-China Defence Ministerial Meet z Tension Between Russia-Germany z Five Point Plan to De-escalate LAC Stand-off z India-Bangladesh Inland Waterway Route z US-India Strategic Partnership Forum z India’s Position-Shift on Taliban z India-Japan Logistics Agreement z USA Sanctions Against ICC Officials

€ Turkey condemned the move and urged the USA Turkey- Russia Military Drill to reverse course to safeguard Turkish-speaking in Eastern Mediterranean Cypriots. z The Embargo: To prevent an arms race that Why in News would hinder UN-facilitated reunification efforts for Cyprus. Turkey has announced that Russia will hold live-fire „ It was directed against the southern, Greek naval exercises in the eastern Mediterranean. This will Cypriot part of the island, where Cyprus’ happen during escalating tensions between Turkey and internationally recognised government is its coastal neighbors Greece and Cyprus over the rights seated. to search for energy resources in the region. ¾ Impact of Russia-Turkey Military Drill: Key Points € Turkey’s announcement comes at a time when ¾ Complex Geo-politics: Turkey is a North Atlantic Turkish survey vessels and drillships continue Treaty Organization(NATO) member, and it is strange to prospect for hydrocarbons in waters where to expect NATO-member Turkey to engage such drills Greece and Cyprus claim exclusive economic on Russia’s behalf. rights. € It can be noted that the two countries have in € Russia maintains a sizeable naval presence in the recent years significantly strengthened their eastern Mediterranean and regularly conducts military, political and economic ties. naval manoeuvres. ¾ Russia-Turkey Link: € It’s also at odds with the European Union over € Apart from the announced drill, they are coordinating its territorial disputes with bloc members Greece closely on their military presence in Syria. and Cyprus. € Turkey has purchased Russia’s advanced S-400 € France recently increased its military presence in missiles and has agreed to go with a Russian-built the area to support Greece and Cyprus. nuclear power plant on its southern coast. € Impact on India: ¾ Reasons: z Energy: Mediterranean oil accounted for about € Recently, the USA lifted a decades-old arms embargo 4.5% of India’s overall imports in the year 2019- (1987) on Cyprus which created the fresh strains 20. Stability of this region is important for India’s between Turkey and Greece. energy security.

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¾ Recently, Japan has mooted the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI) as a trilateral approach to trade, with India and Australia as the key-partners.

Key Points ¾ Features of the Joint Statement: € Any trade-restrictive emergency measures put in place to address the impact of Covid-19 must be targeted, proportionate, transparent, temporary, consistent with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules and do not create unnecessary barriers to trade or disruption of global and regional supply chains. € Support for the necessary reforms in the WTO and pledge to continue to work together torealise a free, fair, transparent, non-discriminatory, predictable, and stable trade environment. € Facilitating the essential movement of people across borders, without undermining each country’s z Diaspora: Any turmoil in the region will have efforts to prevent the spread of the virus and to an impact on India’s diaspora in the region. stabilise the trade and investment. z India is not only a party, but also founded the € Commitment to facilitate supply chain connectivity, Non Aligned Movement whereas Turkey and including for essential goods such as medical Russia lean to different polar ideologies. supplies, medicines, including vaccines, food, „ It is a real test of Indian diplomatic skills to commodities and other essential supplies and create a balance between different ideologies. services in the region. € Harness the opportunities of the digital economy z The diplomatic exchanges between Turkey and to overcome the challenges posed by restricted India have intensified in recent past following movement. India’s decision to end the special status of Kashmir. ¾ India’s Stand: € „ India’s voice over this remains important being India highlighted its Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan a protagonist of democracy, right to self- which is about upscaling the growth of Indian determination and sovereign responsibility. industry, its skills and capabilities to make them resilient and less vulnerable to shocks and integrating Indian industries with the global Eighth East Asia Summit supply chains. Economic Ministers’ Meeting ¾ Significance of the Meeting: € The meeting comes at acritical juncture when the pandemic has not just posed an unprecedented Why in News health crisis but also caused a sharp contraction Recently, the 8th East Asia Summit Economic Ministers’ in economic activities, disrupting trade and Meeting (EAS-EMM) was held virtually and attended by investments. 10 ASEAN members and eight other nations, including € The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has India, the USA, and China. predicted a 4.9% contraction for the 2020 global ¾ The meetinghighlighted the importance of strength- Gross Domestic Product (GDP), warning that the ening regional supply chains to make them resilient in Covid-19 outbreak has plunged the global economy times of heightened challenges posed by theCovid-19 into its worst recession since the Great Depression pandemic and to spur economic growth. in the 1930s.

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€ In April, the WTO also warned that global trade Key Points volume growth could crash by 13-32% in 2020. ¾ Meeting: East Asia Summit € The foreign ministers acknowledged the importance ¾ Established in 2005, it is a forum of 18 regional of opening borders and promoting measures leaders for strategic dialogue and cooperation on to allow the economy to thrive in light of the the key political, security, and economic challenges protective measures for theCovid-19 pandemic. facing the Indo-Pacific region. z Many health safety protocols were brought in ¾ Genesis: to minimize the risk of spread of the Covid-19, € The concept of an East Asia Grouping was first like closed borders. promoted in 1991 by the then Malaysian Prime z However, they have now become a huge obstacle Minister, Mahathir bin Mohamad. in running trade and businesses worldwide € India is one of the founding members of the resulting in a crisis of life and livelihood for many. East Asia Summit. € India apprised the G-20 foreign ministers about ¾ Membership: steps taken by India including Vande Bharat Mission and creation of for the welfare and € It comprises the ten member states of the ASEAN travel bubbles which are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, protection of foreign citizens stranded in India as Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, well as its own citizens abroad. Thailand, and Vietnam, along with 8 other ¾ Recent Initiatives Taken by G-20: countries namely Australia, China, Japan, India, € Earlier, in the 3rd G-20 Finance Ministers and New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Russia and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting held the USA. in July 2020, G-20 came up with the G20 Action € It is an ASEAN-centred forum so it can only be Plan to deal with the pandemic. chaired by an ASEAN member. z The Action Plan includes a list of collective commitments under the pillars of health response, economic response, strong and sustainable recovery and international financial coordination. € The G-20 also organised a virtual meeting of G-20 Digital Economy Ministers to highlight the digital initiatives taken by the countries to deal with Covid-19. ¾ India’s Proposal: € Development of voluntary “G-20 Principles on Coordinated Cross-Border Movement of People” with three elements: z Standardisation of testing procedures and universal acceptability of test results. G-20 Foreign Ministers Meet z Standardisation of Quarantine procedures. z Standardisation of ‘movement and transit’ Why in News protocols. Recently, Saudi Arabia has hosted the G-20 foreign € Governments around the world need to ensure ministers meeting with a focus on cross-border movement that the interests of foreign students are protected amid the Covid-19 pandemic. and movement of stranded seafarers back to their ¾ Currently, Saudi Arabia holds the presidency of home country is facilitated. G-20. It is the first Arab nation to take over the G20 z The education institutes around the globe have Presidency. been shut for months due to the pandemic.

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With borders closed now, foreign students Report of the Secretary-General on the Threats to who had returned to their home countries are International Peace and Securityposed by Terrorism now finding it difficult to rejoin their respective Actions, accusing India of terrorism. institutions. ¾ However, the UNSC President had refused to take cognisance of the statement, as Pakistan is not a UNSC Rejects to Designate member of the UNSC. ¾ India formally protested against this calling this a Indians as Terrorists false claim. ¾ In July 2020, Pakistan moved the 1267 Resolution Why in News Sanctions Committee to designate the four Indians The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has as global terrorists. rejected all Pakistan’s requests to list four Indians as ¾ Reasons for Pakistan’s Actions : designated terrorists under its 1267 Committee for € The tension between India and Pakistan has Counterterrorism Sanctions. escalated after theabrogation of special status to ¾ The USA, UK, France, Germany and Belgium blocked Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 in August Pakistan’s requests due to lack of evidence. 2019, which was heavily objected by Pakistan. ¾ While the USA, UK and France are permanent z Pakistan released a new political map that members of the UNSC, Germany and Belgium are included all of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Sir non-permanent members. Creek and Junagadh, on the completion of one year of abrogation of Article 370. UNSC Resolution 1267 Sanctions Committee € After repeated attempts (in 2009, 2016 and 2017) ¾ This committee oversees the implementation of to list Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad chief as sanctions pursuant to UNSC resolutions 1267 (1999) “global terrorist”, India finallysucceeded in getting 1989 (2011) and 2253 (2015). him listed in 2019. This move was not received well ¾ It was adopted unanimously on 15th October 1999. by Pakistan as it tainted its international image as ¾ It is one of the most important and active UN a terrorism-supporter. subsidiary bodies working on efforts to combat € Pakistan has also received another extension on terrorism, particularly in relation to Al Qaeda, Taliban the greylist of the Financial Action Task Force and the Islamic State group. It prepares a consolidated (FATF) until October 2020. list of people associated with these organizations. € It also faced setbacks on other fronts like the USA ¾ It discusses UN efforts to limit the movement of slamming its record on terrorism, including its failure terrorists, especially those related to travel bans, the to act against groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). freezing of assets and arms embargoes for terrorism. € Pakistan also opposed India’s leadership in dealing with the Covid-19 crisis in the SAARC region which Key Points was criticized by India. ¾ In September 2019, Pakistan had alleged that four € Pakistan’s requests to get Indians listed in the Indians working in Afghanistan, formed an Afghanistan- 1267 sanctions are also being seen as attempts to based “Indian terror syndicate” that was organising target India ahead of January 2021, when India the banned terror groups Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan will join as a non-permanent member for a two- (TTP) and Jamaat-Ul-Ahrar (JuA) to carry out attacks year term at the UNSC. in Pakistan. ¾ Pakistan and China also moved the joint proposal to Indra 2020 to be declare one of these four, as a sanctioned terrorist with links to TTP and JuA. held in Andaman Sea € This proposal received a veto from the USA in UNSC. ¾ Pakistan later claimed it had made a statement Why In News at an Open Debate of the Security Council on the India and Russia are scheduled to hold Indra 2020

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in the Andaman Sea, close to the Strait of Malacca instead because their presence in the IOR has gone up of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). considerably over the years in the name of Anti- ¾ The Strait of Malacca connects Indian Ocean to the Piracy patrols. South China Sea and is 900 km in length and is also a z In 2017, China opened its first overseasmilitary prominent trade route between East Asia and West base in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. Asia-Europe. z Given its strategic location,India has embarked ¾ IOR is under high operational alert by the Indian Navy on a major infrastructure expansion plan on due to the ongoing standoff with China in Ladakh. the Andaman and Nicobar island chain.

Indo-China Defence Ministerial Meet

Why in News Recently, the Indo-China Defence Minister level meet has happened on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers’ meeting in Moscow (Russia).

Key Points ¾ Significance of the Meet: € It is the first high-level political face-to-face meeting Key Points between India and China since the border row ¾ The Indra series of exercises began in 2003 and was erupted along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) conducted as a bilateral naval exercise alternately in eastern Ladakh. between the two countries. € India pushed for the restoration of status quo € However, the first joint Tri-Services Exercise was ante at all friction points along the LAC in eastern conducted in 2017. Ladakh and called for disengagement of troops in € Indra 2020 will be the first bilateral naval exercise an expeditious way. since all such engagements were suspended due ¾ Background: to Covid-19 pandemic. € The Indian and Chinese armies are engaged in the ¾ Its timing coincides with Indian Defence Minister’s visit standoff at Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok to Russia for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh. (SCO) Defence Ministers Meet. € The actions on the northern bank of Pangong ¾ Andaman Sea was also the location where frontline Tso are not just for territorial gains on land, but warships of the Indian Navy conducted a Passage enhanced domination of the resource-rich lake. Exercise (PASSEX) with the USA Navy’s USS Nimitz z Pangong Tso is overlooked by the Finger Area, carrier strike group in July this year. a set of eight cliffs extending out of the Sirijap ¾ China Factor: range (on the northern bank of Lake). € Recently, India has withdrawn from the Kavkaz-2020 € The stand-off at Ladakh’s Galwan Valley has multinational exercise in Russia due to the escalated in recent weeks due to the infrastructure restrictions posed by the pandemic. However, projects that India has undertaken in recent years. the participation of Chinese troops in the same € India is building a strategic road, Darbuk-Shyok- exercise is apparently the main reason. Daulat Beg Oldie (DSDBO) road, through the € Indian Navy is keeping a close watch on the Galwan Valley, close to China, connecting the movement of Chinese Naval ships in the IOR region to an airstrip.

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z China is opposed to any Indian construction ¾ Member-states: Eight members are India, Kazakhstan, in the area. A stand-off in the Galwan area was China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and one of the biggest flashpoints of the1962 war. Uzbekistan. India’s Statement at SCO € India joined SCO in 2017 at the insistence of Russia, and China balanced India’s entry with ¾ Peace and Prosperity: India stressed upon a peaceful, the entry of Pakistan. stable and secure region of SCO member states. € Four observer states are Afghanistan, Belarus, € Prosperity and stability in the region demand a Iran and Mongolia. climate of trust and cooperation, non-aggression, ¾ Permanent Bodies: The organisation has two respect for international rules, sensitivity to permanent bodies: each other’s interest and peaceful resolution of € SCO Secretariat based in Beijing (China). differences. € Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist € India is committed to the evolution of a global Structure (RATS) based in Tashkent (Uzbekistan). security architecture which will be open, ¾ Significance: It counterbalances the North Atlantic transparent, inclusive, rules-based and anchored Treaty Organization (NATO). in international laws. ¾ Mandate: SCO has an evolving mandate which ¾ Regional Situation: started off by being an economic, political, cultural € India expressed concern at the security situation and regional security organisation. in Afghanistan. z The SCO contact group on Afghanistan is useful for arriving at a formal agreement among SCO Five Point Plan to member States. De-escalate LAC Stand-off z It was conceived in 2005 and was brought into action in 2017 at the level of deputy foreign Why in News . ministers Recently, India and China have agreed on a five points z The group envisages joint actions to enhance plan to disengage troops and reduce tensions along the cooperation in security, trade, the economy as Line of Actual Control (LAC), where Indian and Chinese well as cultural and humanitarian ties. troops have been engaged in a four and a half month- € Gulf Region: India called upon the Gulf countries long stand-off. to resolve differences between them by “dialogue ¾ The move came after the talks between India’s External based on mutual respect, sovereignty and non- Affairs Minister and his Chinese counterpart, on the interference in internal affairs of each other”. margins of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation ¾ Terrorism: India unequivocally condemned all forms (SCO) meeting in Russia. of terrorism, its manifestations and proponents and asserted the need to build institutional capacity to Key Points deal with both traditional and non-traditional threats, ¾ Five Point Plan: above all, terrorism, drug-trafficking and transnational € Both countries should take guidance from Wuhan crime. and Mahabalipuram summits on developing relations, that includes not allowing differences Shanghai Cooperation Organization to become disputes. ¾ Geographic Extent: SCO is a significant organisation € Border troops should continue their dialogue, that has a vast geographic expanse and is important quickly disengage, maintain proper distance and for Central Asia, South-Asia and Asia-Pacific region. ease tensions. € It is a major Eurasian organisation that represents € The two sides should abide by all the existing half of the world’s population. agreements and protocols on China-India boundary € It is a permanent intergovernmental international affairs and avoid any action that could escalate organisation. matters.

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€ Communications should continue through the € These deep differences continue to complicate Special Representatives (SRs) mechanism and the path towards comprehensive military the meetings of the Working Mechanism for disengagement and de-escalation. Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on border affairs. US-India Strategic z The SRs on the Boundary Question was established in 2003. It provided important Partnership Forum guidance for ensuring peace and tranquillity in border areas in a challenging situation. Why in News z WMCC was established in 2012 as an institutional Recently, the Prime Minister of India has delivered mechanism for consultation and coordination for the keynote address at the 3rd Annual Leadership Summit the management of India-China border areas. of US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF). € Both nations should work to conclude new confidence-building measures. Key Points ¾ Reasons for Talk: ¾ Established: It is a non-profit organisation established € Initially, China appeared to have convinced itself in 2017. that India had no option but to accept its new ¾ Objective:Strengthening the USA-India bilateral and claims at LAC. strategic partnership. z This confidence was reflected in China’s refusal ¾ Aim: Strengthening economic and commercial ties to pull back its forces from LAC and its dismissive between the two countries through policy advocacy that diplomatic tone. will lead to driving economic growth, entrepreneurship, € India’s repeated demand for restoration of the employment-creation, and innovation to create a more status quo ante on the frontier was not heeded inclusive society. until theIndian army ramped up its mobilisation € Enabling business and governments to collaborate and boldly seized some high ground to challenge and create meaningful opportunities that can Chinese military positions. positively change the lives of citizens. z These moves on the frontier also came along with ¾ Theme for 2020: US-India Navigating New Challenges. a series of economic measures against China, ¾ In 2019, overall such as banning various Chinese applications Economic Relations: USA-India in goods and services reached and specifying the country of origin on imports. bilateral trade USD 149 billion. € India’s demonstration of the political resolve to escalate the conflictand the military capability to € USA energy exports are an important area of back it may have convinced China that it needs to growth in the trade relationship. rethink its approach to the current crisis. ¾ Issues Involved: India-Japan € The joint statement of India and China tries to Logistics Agreement reduce the tension at LAC but the separate explanatory comments from both the countries reveal the challenges ahead. Why in News z India insists that the objective of the talks Recently, India and Japan have signed a logistics is to “restore” the status quo ante but there agreement that will allow armed forces of both sides to is no explicit Chinese commitment to that coordinate closely in services and supplies. The agreement goal. is known as the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement z China wants to separate the border conflict (ACSA). from the rest of the relationship but India says ¾ India has similar agreements with the USA, Australia, the two are inextricably interlinked. France, Oman, Singapore and South Korea.

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Key Points € Both countries are also part of Quadrilateral ¾ Agreement: Security Dialogue (QUAD). ¾ Significance: € It is aimed at great- er maritime cooper- € India needs sophisticated weapons and technology ation and can up- from Japan, so more collaboration and cooperation grade India-Japan can prove beneficialto both nations. naval exercises as € There is a huge potential as far as Make in India both countries are expected to share maritime and defence deals are concerned. Joint ventures facilities for mutual benefit. could be created by merging Japanese technology € It establishes the enabling framework for closer with Indian raw materials and labour. cooperation between the armed forces of both € Closer cooperation is the best measure to combat countries in the reciprocal provision of supplies China’s growing role in Asia and Indo-Pacific. and services while engaged in bilateral training activities,United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, th Humanitarian International Relief and other 5 BRICS mutually agreed activities. Culture Ministers’ Meet z The supplies and services include food, water, transportation, airlift, petroleum, clothing, Why in News communications and medical services etc. The 5th BRICS Culture Ministers’ Meeting was held € It will also enhance the interoperability, assist in through a video conference under the Chairpersonship maintaining regional security and further increase of Russian Federation. the bilateral defence engagements between the two countries. ¾ The delegates from Culture Ministries of the BRICS nations - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa € It will remain in force for 10 years and will be - participated in the meeting. automatically extended for periods of 10 years unless one of the parties decides to end it. Key Points € The agreement is being interpreted as a coming ¾ Discussions Held: together of Japan and India when India is having a border standoff with China at Line of Actual € Impact of the Covid-19 situation on the cultural Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. sphere in the BRICS countries. ¾ India-Japan Defence Cooperation: € Review of the possible implementation of joint cultural online-projects within BRICS. € In 2019, India and Japan held the first-ever ministerial-level 2+2 dialogue. This dialogue ¾ Suggestions Given by India: involves the Defence and Foreign Ministers on both € Digitisation: sides and is seen as an endorsement of the special z Exploring possibilities of hosting Digitala Online strategic partnership between India and Japan. Exhibition on a shared theme towards the end z Both nations share a common vision of a free, of 2021 under the auspices of BRICS Alliance open, inclusive and rules-based Indo-Pacific of Museums. region in which the principles of sovereignty z Extending full cooperation andcontent sharing and territorial integrity are ensured. for the website envisaged under the BRICS z India and Japan defence forces organize a series Alliance. of bilateral exercises namely, JIMEX (naval € BRICS Corner: Opening the BRICS Corner under the exercise), SHINYUU Maitri (air force exercise), auspices of BRICS Alliance of Libraries proposed and Dharma Guardian (military exercise). to be inaugurated during India’s BRICS Presidency z Both countries also participate in theMalabar in 2021. The Corner will disseminate information exercise with the USA. related to the history and culture of BRICS countries.

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¾ Joint Exhibition to be Organised by India: The National as a major strategic partner for India in the Indo- Gallery of Modern Arts, New Delhi will host the BRICS Pacific and Indian Ocean Region (IOR), especially in Joint Exhibition titled Bonding‘ Regions & Imagining the maritime domain. For instance: Cultural Synergies’ under the auspices of the BRICS € India has logistics agreementswith both countries. Alliance of Art Museums and Galleries in 2021. The logistics agreement provides for easier access ¾ Cultural Cooperation among BRICS Nations: to supplies of goods and services. € In 2018, the BRICS nations endorsed institution- € There is significant cooperation in information to-institution collaborations in the form of BRICS exchange for Maritime Domain Awareness. Alliance of Museums, BRICS Alliance of Art Museums z France was the first country to deploy a Liaison and Galleries. Officer at theIndian Navy’s Information Fusion € In 2017, the agreement on cooperation in the field Centre (IFC-IOR) as part of efforts to improve of culture (2017-21) between the governments of Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA). BRICS nations was signed. € India conducted its first joint patrolswith France in Reunion Island (western Indian ocean) in BRICS February 2020. ¾ BRICS is an acronym for the grouping of the world’s ¾ Chinese Factor: leading emerging economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. € The trilateral cooperation will help to take on China’s aggressive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific € In 2001, the British EconomistJim O’Neill coined region. E.g in South China Sea. the term BRIC to describe the four emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. € This trilateral cooperation is an addition to the Quad which comprises the USA, Japan, Australia € The grouping was formalised during the first and India. meeting of BRIC Foreign Ministers’ in 2006. € It also adds diplomatic muscle to the global coalition € South Africa was invited to join BRIC in December that is shaping up to counter China’s belligerence. 2010, after which the group adopted the acronym ¾ BRICS. Issues Discussed: € Possibility of ¾ The chairmanship of the forum is rotated annually enhancing maritime security between the three countries in the among the members, in accordance with the cooperation acronym B-R-I-C-S. Indo-Pacific region. z It also includes areas of humanitarian assistance ¾ During the Sixth BRICS Summit in Fortaleza (Brazil) in and disaster relief, maritime domain awareness, 2014, the leaders signed the Agreement establishing mutual logistics support and capacity-building the New Development Bank (NDB - Shanghai, China). of friendly countries. They also signed the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement to provide short-term liquidity support € Development cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, to the members. initiatives such as theInternational Solar Alliance and Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, and the need for a reformed multilateralism. Cooperation on marine global commons. It € Indo-Pacifc Trilateral Dialogue includes blue economy, marine biodiversity and Why in News environmental challenges such as marine pollution. Recently, India, Australia and France held a dialogue € Practical cooperation at the trilateral and regional for the first time under a trilateral framework. The three level, including through regional organisations sides have agreed to hold the dialogue on an annual basis. such as Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Key Points and the Indian Ocean Commission. ¾ Focus: Enhancing cooperation in the Indo-Pacific € The increased salience of resilient and reliable Region. Australia, along with France, has emerged supply chains.

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Backstop (earlier known as the Northern Ireland Protocol). z Irish Backstop is the draft agreement between the UK and the EU that aims to prevent a hard border (limited number of authorised crossing points staffed by customs officers and police) in Ireland after the UK leaves the EU. z Northern Ireland will become the UK’s only land border with the EU after the transition ends. € The UK has held that the Bill is needed for a smooth trade between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and will help power recovery z India, Australia and Japan recently inked an from the Covid-19 pandemic. initiative to build resilient supply chains, which ¾ Current System: is named as Supply Chain Resilience Initiative € Currently, the UK is a part of the European single (SCRI). France may join this initiative too. market, with jointly agreed regulations and € Emerging challenges in the context of Covid-19 standards right across the continent. pandemic, including the financial impact of the € Post-Brexit, the UK wants to continue to have ajoint pandemic on the Indian Ocean region countries. and “internal market” across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. UK Internal Market Bill, 2020 € Due to Brexit, rules and regulations around things like food and air quality and animal welfare have Why in News to be set in the UK only but there is a conflicton who should have the ultimate authority out of The new UK Internal Market Bill has run into the four countries. controversy over its impact on talks with the European ¾ Union (EU) and on international treaties, given it could Criticisms: rewrite parts of the Brexit withdrawal agreement. € Under the EU Withdrawal Treaty, England is meant to cooperate with Brussels (EU’s Headquarter) on Key Points any arrangements for Northern Ireland and not ¾ About the Bill: decide on such matters all by itself. € € The bill is designed Scotland holds that the new Bill is a just a power- to “protect jobs and grab by England from the devolved administrations trade” within the in Scotland itself, Wales and Northern Ireland. UK after the end of € All four nations will have to accept goods at the 2020’s transition standards set in any one country so there are fears period for leaving the EU. local quality controls could be dragged down to the z Under the withdrawal treaty, a transition period lowest common denominator if England sets any has been finalised until December 2020. such standard which is not practical or profitable € It will enable the UK government to provide financial for the rest of the three countries. assistance to Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland € Furthermore, under the current proposals, any and with new powers to spend taxpayers’ money disputes would be settled by a new Office for previously administered by the EU. the Internal Market. € It will also empower ministers to pass regulations, z This might be envisioned as an independent third specifically on trade and state aid, even if they party forum, but the devolved administrations are contrary to the agreement previously reached see it as being another example of decisions with the EU under what is known as the Irish being taken out of their hands.

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z Malabar Exercise to strengthen the shared USA-Maldives objective of a free, open and prosperous Indo- Framework on Defense Pacific. z Track 1.5 dialogue between India, France and and Security Relationship Australia to identify security challenges and sustainability issues in the Indo Pacific. Why in News z Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement Recently, a Framework on Defense and Security between India and Japan which allows armed forces of both sides to coordinate closely in Relationship has been signed between the USA and the services and supplies. Maldives. ¾ The framework has the potential to blunt the security ¾ The move is seen as consistent with the growing aspects of cooperation between China and the alignment of the USA and Indian interests in the Maldives, even if economic co-operation continues. Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and Indo-Pacific. € In 2017, the Maldives signed up to China’s Belt and Key Points Road initiative and is part of President Xi Jinping’s vision of the Maritime Silk Route as well. ¾ The Framework intends to ¾ Given India-USA ties, India sees the pact as useful also deepen engagement and because cooperation in support of India’s own direct involvement in Maldivian security matters tends to be viewed with suspicion maintaining peace and domestically. security in the Indian Ocean. € The framework can provide an indirect route to India if needed. ¾ It marks an important step forward in the defence partnership between the USA and the Maldives, where both of them agreed to reiterate their commitment Singapore to a free and open Indo-Pacific that promotes the Convention on Mediation security and prosperity of all nations in the region. ¾ The Framework outlines a range of bilateral activities, Why in News including senior-level dialogues, engagements etc. in Recently, the United Nations Convention on Inter- areas such as maritime domain awareness, natural national Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation disasters and humanitarian relief operations. has come into force. Significance for India ¾ The convention will provide a more effective way of enforcing mediated settlements of corporate disputes ¾ India has not officially responded to the announcement involving businesses in India and other signatories. of the framework yet. ¾ This announcement can be seen as a timely signal to Key Points China, particularly when Indian and Chinese soldiers ¾ About: are locked in a stand-off at the Line of Actual Control € The United Nations General Assembly adopted the (LAC) in Ladakh. Convention in 2018 and was opened for signature € The Chinese presence and influence in the IOR in 2019 in Singapore. have been a for India. constant source of worry € It is also known as the Singapore Convention € India has taken steps to strengthen its strategic on Mediation and also the first UN treaty to be presence in both the IOR and Indo-Pacific. named after Singapore. z The Quad, a grouping that brings together z Singapore had worked with the UN Commission the USA, Japan, India and Australia, with the on International Trade Law, other UN member apparent but unstated aim of containing China states and non-governmental organisations for in the region, is also part of this process. the Convention.

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€ India approved the signing of the Convention in ¾ Germany has threatened sanctions against Russia July 2019. which, in turn, has accused Germany of delaying the € As on 1st September 2020, the Convention has53 investigation on the matter. signatories, including China and the USA as well. Key Points ¾ Significance: ¾ € The Convention has been designed to become Alexei Navalny is Russia’s opposition leader and an essential instrument in the facilitation of anti-corruption campaigner who was evacuated to international trade and in the promotion of Germany after falling ill. mediation as an alternative and effective method ¾ Germany claims that the opposition leader has been of resolving trade disputes. poisoned using the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok. € It will ensure that a settlement reached by parties € It is one of the strongest accusations yet from becomes binding and enforceable in accordance Germany on the basis that the deadly substance with a simplified and streamlined procedure. has been used by the Russian authorities, in the € Businesses seeking enforcement of a mediated past as well. settlement agreement across borders can do so ¾ Germany, which currently holds the rotating by applying directly to the courts of countries presidency of the European Union (EU), will discuss that have signed and ratified the treaty, instead possible sanctions against Russia if it fails to provide of having to enforce the settlement agreement an explanation. as a contract in accordance with each country’s € The EU can discuss sanctions on Nord Stream 2, domestic process. which is a critical energy export project for the € The harmonised and simplified enforcement Russian government. framework will save time and legal costs, which are of crucial importance in uncertain times posed Novichok by pandemics like Covid-19. ¾ It means “newcomer” in Russian and applies to € Businesses in India and around the world will now a group of advanced nerve agents developed by have greater certainty in resolving cross-border the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s, under a disputes through mediation, as it provides amore programme codenamed Foliant. effective means for mediated outcomes to be € Nerve agents act by blocking messages from enforced. the nerves to the muscles, causing a collapse ¾ Importance for India: of many bodily functions. € It will boost India’s ‘ease of doing business’ € The main nerve agents are the chemicals sarin credentials by enabling swift mediated settlements (GB), soman (GD), tabun (GA) and VX. Sarin was of corporate disputes. used by Syrian air force in chemical attacks on a village in Syria’s western Hama region in 2017. € It will also increase the confidence of the investors and shall provide a positive signal to foreign € Nerve agents are man-made and have been investors about India’s commitment to adhere manufactured for use in chemical warfare. to international practice on Alternative Dispute ¾ These nerve agents were designed to escape Resolution (ADR). detection and are extremely toxic. Nord Stream 2 Tension Between ¾ About: Russia-Germany € It is a nearly constructed 1,200-kilometre pipeline from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea. Why in News € It will run alongside the already constructed and will Recently, tensions between Russia and Germany have Nord Stream double the amount of gas being funnelled through the Baltics to 110 deepened over the alleged poisoning of Russian oppo- billion cubic meters per year. sition figure Alexei Navalny.

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¾ Benefits: € It connects Tripura with the National Waterways of India through Bangladesh. € It is intended to provide Europe with a sustainable ¾ gas supply while providing Russia with more Benefit of the Route: direct access to the European gas market. € It will improve the connectivity of Tripura and the adjoining States with Indian and Bangladesh’s € Its proposed route enters the territorial waters and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of three economic centers and will help the hinterland of other countries: Finland, Sweden and Denmark. both the countries. National governments and local authoritieswill € It will open up new avenues for economic benefit economically from investment and development in both the countries. employment in the pipeline. ¾ Protocol on Transit and Trade: Bangladesh and India ¾ Security Concerns and Criticism: have a long standing and time-tested Protocol on Transit and Trade through inland waterways. € The project has been criticized by the USA and Germany’s Eastern neighbours like Poland, € It provides inland waterways connectivity between Czech Republic etc. citingRussian dependence the two countries, particularly with the North as a threat to the common market and the EU’s Eastern Region of India and also enhances bilateral strategic interests. trade. z The pipeline will enable Russia to increase € This Protocol was first signed in 1972. its military presence in the Baltic Sea and € It was last renewed for five years with a provision also to transmit military information on the for its automatic renewal for a further period of movements of naval vessels. five years.

River Gumati ¾ It is the largest and longest river of Tripura with a cumulative length of 180 km. ¾ Dumbur dam is built over the river. ¾ The river meets with river Meghna in Bangladesh.

India’s Position-Shift on Taliban

Why in News Recently, India has signalled a shift in its position on India-Bangladesh engaging with the Taliban by participating in the commencement ceremony of Intra-Afghan talks between Inland Waterway Route the Afghanistan government and the Taliban in Doha, Qatar. Why in News Key Points Recently, Sonamura-Daudkandi inland waterway route between India and Bangladesh was operationalised. ¾ India’s Position Shift: ¾ Daudkandi is in Bangladesh, while Sonamura is in € The Indian presence at the Intra-Afghan peace talks Tripura, India. indicates that it has changed its position given the ground reality in Afghanistan and the changing Key Points power structure in Afghanistan. ¾ Sonamura-Daudkandi Route: The inland waterway z USA’s withdrawal has given Pakistan a major route over river Gumati was included in the list of role to play in Afghanistan directly or indirectly Indo-Bangla Protocol (IBP) routes in May 2020. through its proxies.

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€ However, some experts were of the opinion that India chose to attend the ceremony because the Afghan government was also at the table. € India still does not recognise the Taliban. ¾ India’s Stand: € India believes that any peace process must be Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled. z It has to respect the national sovereigntyand territorial integrity of Afghanistan and promote human rights and democracy. z It also needs to preserve the progress made in the establishment of the democratic Islamic Republic in Afghanistan. € The interests of minorities, women and vulnerable sections of society must be preserved and the issue USA Sanctions of violence across the country and its neighbourhood has to be effectively addressed. Against ICC Officials € Indian interests, which include the Indian Embassy and Indian companies and workers in Afghanistan, Why in News should also be protected. The USA announced sanctions, including asset freez- € India supports an “independent and sovereign” es and visa bans, against two officials of theInternational Afghanistan. The use of words “independent and Criminal Court (ICC) for their investigation into alleged sovereign” make it clear that Pakistan and its war crimes by the USA forces and the Central Intelligence Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) should not control Agency (CIA) in Afghanistan since 2003. the levers in Afghanistan. ¾ Background: Key Points € The USA signed a deal with the Taliban that ¾ The USA’s Stand: Not only sanctions against officials, paved the way towards a full withdrawal of the earlier the USA criticized the ICC. American troops from Afghanistan and also € The USA has considered the ICC a threat to USA represent a step towards ending the 18-year-war sovereignty, and announced the strict punitive in Afghanistan. measures that are generally reserved for use € The peace deal was expected to kick-off two against terror groups and those accused of abusing processes, a phased withdrawal of American human rights. troops and an ‘intra-Afghan’ dialogue. z USA had never ratified the “Rome Statute”, € The deal is a fundamental step to deliver a which created the ICC in 1998, and thus is not comprehensive and permanent ceasefire and subject to its rulings. the future political roadmap for the Afghanistan € The USA administration also called ICC a thoroughly peace process. broken and corrupted institution. ¾ India’s Interests in Afghanistan: ¾ ICC’s Stand on USA Sanctions: An unacceptable € India has a major stake in the stability of Afghanistan. attempt to interfere with the rule of law and the India has invested considerable resources in Court’s judicial proceedings. Afghanistan’s development. € It stands firmly by its staff and officials and remains z For example, the Afghan Parliament, the Zaranj- unwavering in its commitment to discharging, Delaram Highway, Afghanistan-India Friendship independently and impartially, the mandate laid Dam (Salma Dam), etc. down in its founding treaty, the Rome Statute. € Afghanistan is the gateway to Central Asia. ¾ Criticism of the USA’ Sanctions:

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€ The USA decision has been criticised by theUnited € The Rome Statute is a multilateral treaty which Nations , the European Union , 10 members of serves as the ICC’s foundational and governing the UN Security Council, including the UK and document. France, as well as several international human € States which become party to the Rome Statute, rights agencies, all of which have called for the for example by ratifying it, become member states sanctions to be reversed. of the ICC. € The international NGO Human Rights Watch has € The Rome Statute has been signed by 139 countries, observed that by penalising war crimes investigators, and 123 have ratified it through their Parliaments the USA is openly siding with those who commit and internal process. and cover up human rights abuses. ¾ USA and the ICC: Although the USA was part of the z The USA action is a s etback to the international founding movement to build the ICC to try cases of . rules-based multilateral order genocide and war crime, especially after the courts z The decision to sanction anybody assisting the in Rwanda failed, it decided not to ratify the Statute ICC will deter victims of violence in Afghanistan in 2002. from speaking out. € USA opposed the ICC due to apprehensions that it € The USA’s unilateral sanctions would encourage will be used politically against its nationals. other regimes accused of war crimes to flout the ¾ Countries like Russia, China and India were never ICC’s rulings. in favour of the Rome Statute or the ICC, and never International Criminal Court signed on. ¾ The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an inter- India and ICC governmental organization and international tribunal ¾ that sits in The Hague in the Netherlands. India is not a party to ICC. ¾ It was set up after the ad hoc tribunals to deal with ¾ For India, the decision was based on a number of Rwanda war crimes proved ineffective. ICC is a principles. The major objections of India to the Rome criminal court. Statute are: ¾ The ICC has the jurisdiction to prosecute individuals € The ICC is a criminal court, unlike the International for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against Court of Justice (which adjudicates on civil matters), humanity, and war crimes. and arrogates to itself the right to prosecute matters ¾ ICC is based on the principle of complementarity. against countries that aren’t even signatories. ICC was not created to supplant the authority of € Since ICC is subordinate to the UN Security Council national courts. However, when a state’s legal system (UNSC), permanent members are vested with collapses or when a government is a perpetrator of unbridled powers. heinous crimes, the ICC can exercise jurisdiction. ICC € India also objected to the omission of cross-border is a court of last resort. terror, use of nuclear arms and weapons of mass ¾ The ICC began functioning on1 st July 2002, the date destruction from the areas the ICC would institute that the Rome Statute entered into force. its investigations.

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Science and Technology

Highlights z Spot Robot z Intermediate-Mass Black Hole z Covid-19 Detection Using Mass Spectrometer z Flying V Aircraft z Bradykinin Storm: Covid-19 z Indian Brai Templates: NIMHANS z Chandrayaan-1 Findings z Number of Giant Radio Galaxies z Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle z Graphene Mask Inactivates Coronaviruses

z The infrared camera measures this temperature Spot Robot change, enabling researchers to calculate the breathing rate. Why in News € Pulse Rate & Oxygen Level: When haemoglobin binds to oxygen and flows through blood vessels, Recently, researchers from Boston Dynamics, of it results in slight changes in colour. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT - USA) have developed a robot, called ‘Spot’. z These changes are measured with the help of the three monochrome cameras, which filter ¾ They have planned to use it for patients with Covid-19 lights of three different wavelengths. symptoms. z Using these measurements, the algorithm Key Points calculates pulse rate and blood oxygen saturation. ¾ ¾ Features: Benefit: € The robot can be deployed in areas where suspected € The robot is cases of Covid-19 assemble. Healthcare workers can controlled by a avoid exposing themselves to risk, by manoeuvring handheld device. the robot to wherever patients are sitting. € It can walk on four legs, similarly to a dog, climbs € The robot can also carry a tablet that allows doctors stairs and can traverse rough terrain with ease to ask patients about their symptoms without and small enough to be used indoors. being in the same room. € It can measure skin temperature, breathing rate, pulse rate, and blood oxygen saturation in healthy patients,from 2 metres away. Covid-19 Detection z It has four cameras — one infrared, three Using Mass Spectrometer monochrome. ¾ Working: Why in News € Body Temperature: The infrared camera measures Researchers from the Institute of Genomics and skin temperature on the face. Integrative Biology (IGIB) and the National Centre for z An algorithm then correlates the facial skin Disease Control (NCDC) have developed a technique that temperature with core body temperature. uses mass spectrometry to detect novel coronavirus € Breathing Rate: When a patient wearing a mask (SARS-CoV-2). breathes, their breath changes the temperature ¾ IGIB is a premier institute of Council of Scientific of the mask. and Industrial Research (CSIR), engaged in research

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of national importance in the areas of genomics, ¾ New Technique vs RT-PCR: molecular medicine, bioinformatics, etc. It is based € No Amplification of RNA: in New Delhi. z The new method can directly detect the virus ¾ NCDC is under administrative control of the Directorate without amplifying the RNA for detection, as General of Health Services in the Union Ministry of is the case with the Reverse Transcription- Health and Family Welfare. Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test, which is considered the gold standard of testing for Key Points the infection. ¾ Mass Spectrometry (MS): z Scientists could detect the peptides of SARS- € It is an analytical technique used for determining CoV-2 virus even in patients who have recovered the elemental composition of samples, quantifying from the symptoms and have tested negative the mass of particles and molecules, and elucidating for the virus by RT-PCR. The peptides were their chemical structure. present even after 14 days of initial infection. € MS is based on ionization and fragmentation of € Sensitivity and Specificity: With the new technique, sample molecules in the gaseous phase. scientists have been able to detect novel coronavirus € The instruments used in this technique are called with 95% sensitivity and 100% specificity with mass spectrometers and mass spectrographs, and respect to RT-PCR. This is much better than the they operate on the principle that moving ions alternative rapid antigen kits, currently in use in may be deflected by electric and magnetic fields. India for scaling up testing, that can throw up 20 € Clinical laboratories use the MS technology for to 50% false negatives. disease screening, diagnosis of disease and z Sensitivity measures how often a test correctly metabolic disorders, monitoring of drug therapy, generates a positive result for people who have identifying drug toxicity and poisoning, and the condition that’s being tested for (also known discovering new biomarkers. as ‘true positive’ rate). z Biomarker is short for biological marker, and is z Specificity measures a test’s ability to correctly used as an indication that a biological process generate a negative result for people who don’t in the body has happened or is ongoing. have the condition that is being tested for (also ¾ New Technique Covid-19 Detection: known as the ‘true negative’ rate). € The new technique based on mass spectrometry € Detection Time: Detection of the virus takes less relies on detecting the presence of two peptides than three minutes; time from sample preparation which are unique to SARS-CoV-2 virus and not to detection takes less than 30 minutes. seen in any other coronavirus or other viruses. z The RT-PCR takes a minimum of 2-5 hours z Peptides are building blocks of the viral protein. including time taken for a sample transportation. € Only two peptides are used for quick virus detection, € Cost: The mass spectrometer is expensive but though seven peptides were found to be unique it would cost only about Rs.100 per test, and so to SARS-CoV-2. One of the peptides is the spike cheaper than RT-PCR. Further, many research labs protein and the other is a replicase protein. have the mass spectrometer. z The unique peptides were seen in over 54,000 € Pooled Testing:The method also allows for effective genomic sequences of the SARS-CoV-2 virus pooling of samples. deposited in a public database (GISAID) as on z Pooled testing is when samples from more 1st July 2020. than one person are mixed together and tested. z The GISAID initiative promotes the rapid And, if one of the batches comes back positive, sharing of data from all influenza viruses and the the samples from only that batch are retested coronavirus causing Covid-19. It was launched on individually to detect the person who has the the occasion of the 61st World Health Assembly infection. This method helps save cost and in May 2008. scale up testing.

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€ Considering its benefits, it caneither complement z Hyaluronic acid is a sugar molecule that occurs RT-PCR or be used as an alternative to RT-PCR. naturally in the skin, and it helps to bind water to collagen (a protein). It can absorb more than Different Types of Test for Detecting Covid-19 1,000 times its own weight in water to form a ¾ RT-PCR Tests hydrogel. ¾ Rapid Antigen Detection Tests € Impact: The bradykinin storm-induced leakage ¾ RTnPCR Tests of fluid into the lungs combined with the excess ¾ Feluda Tests hyaluronic acid would likely result in a Jello-like ¾ ELISA Antibody Tests substance that prevents oxygen uptake and carbon dioxide in the lungs of severely affected Covid-19 ¾ SalivaDirect Test patients. z This rapid accumulation of fluid in the lungs Bradykinin Storm: Covid-19 of patients sometimes makes even the most sophisticated intensive care, including ventilators, Why in News futile. ¾ Knowing the mechanism, doctors A recent analysis of samples of patients with the Significance: can target the bradykinin pathway to evolve more Covid-19 infection has shown a phenomenon called a therapeutic interventions to offset the severe effects ‘bradykinin storm’. of Covid-19.

Key Points Cytokine Storm Syndrome ¾ Doctors treating Covid-19 patients often cannot ¾ Cytokine Storm Syndrome is characterised by the identify the severity with which the SARS-CoV-2 virus overproduction of immune cells and the cytokines seems to affect some people and ‘bradykinin storm’ themselves because of a dysregulation in the process. might explain the working of the virus in the body. € Cytokines are a large group of proteins that are € However, the cytokine storm is able to explain secreted by specific cells of the immune system. certain causes for the rapid deterioration in some ¾ Reasons: A cytokine storm can occur due to an patients with Covid-19. infection, auto-immune condition (when the body’s ¾ The Bradykinin Hypothesis: immune system attacks healthy cells as in case of € SARS-CoV-2 uses a human enzyme called ACE2 to coeliac disease- an immune disorder that primarily enter into the cells of its host. affects the small intestine), or other diseases. z ACE2 lowers blood pressure in the human body ¾ Signs and symptoms include high fever, inflammation and works against another enzyme known as (redness and swelling), severe fatigue, and nausea. ACE (which has the opposite effect). ¾ In the case of any flu infection, a cytokine storm € The virus causes the levels of ACE to fall in the lungs, is associated with a surge of activated immune and consequently pushes up the levels of ACE2. cells into the lungs, which, instead of fighting off the antigen, leads to lung inflammation and fluid € This happens as a chain reaction and increases build-up, and respiratory distress. the levels of the molecule bradykinin in the cells, causing a bradykinin storm. z Bradykinin is a compound that is related to Chandrayaan-1 Findings pain sensation and lowering blood pressure in the human body. Why in News z Bradykinin storm causes the blood vessels to The recent images sent by Chandrayaan-1 suggest expand and become leaky, leading to swelling that the moon may be rusting along the poles. of the surrounding tissue. ¾ Chandrayaan-1, India’s first mission to the moon, was € Increase in hyaluronic acid: The levels of a substance launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation called hyaluronic acid also increases. (ISRO) in 2008.

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Key Points € With the Artemis programme, NASA will land the first woman and next man on the moon by 2024. ¾ Findings: z India’s first-ever human space missionGaganyaan € Data from the Mineralogy Mapper (M3), one of the instruments on Chandrayaan-1, indicates the aims to send a three-member crew to space for presence of hematite at the lunar poles. a period of five to seven days by 2022 when India completes 75 years of Independence. z Hematite (Fe2O3) is a mineral which is a form of iron oxide, or rust, produced when iron is exposed to oxygen and water. Hypersonic Technology € The sign of this finding is that even though the Demonstrator Vehicle surface of the moon is known to have iron-rich rocks, it is not known for the presence of water and oxygen, which are the two elements needed Why in News to interact with iron to create rust. Recently, the Defence Research and Development z The National Aeronautics and Space Organisation (DRDO) successfully flight tested the Administration (NASA) has also found evidence Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV). of greater quantities ofmetals such as iron and titanium on the moon’s subsurface. Key Points ¾ Possible Reasons Behind Rusting along the Lunar ¾ About: HSTDV is an unmanned scramjet demonstration Poles: aircraft that can travel athypersonic speed. € As per scientists at NASA, earth’s oxygen € It uses hypersonic air-breathing scramjet could be driving the formation of hematite. technology. Earth’s magnetotail (elongated region of the € The vehicle travelled its desired flight path at a of the earth) ferries oxygen to magnetosphere velocity of six times the speed of sound i.e.Mach 6. the moon and also blocks 99% of the solar wind z It describes an aircraft’s speed during certain periods of the moon’s orbit. Mach number: compared with the speed of sound in air, with z The solar wind, a stream of charged particles Mach 1 equating to the speed of sound i.e. that flows out from the sun, bombards earth 343 metre per second. and the moon with hydrogen. z Hydrogen makes it harder for hematite to form. Air Breathing Engine It is a reducer, meaning it adds electrons to the ¾ Air-breathing engines use oxygen from the materials it interacts with. That’s the opposite atmosphere in the combustion of fuel. They include of what is needed to make hematite or iron to the turbojet, turboprop, ramjet, and pulse-jet. rust, which requires an oxidizer, which removes ¾ This system is lighter, efficient and cost-effective electrons. than other systems in use. € Chandrayaan-1 Moon data indicates that the ¾ Worldwide efforts are on to develop the technology moon’s poles are home to water that scientists for air breathing engines for satellite launch are trying to decipher. vehicles. ¾ Chandrayaan-3: It is likely to be launched in early 2021. € Presently, satellites are launched into orbit by € It will be a mission repeat of Chandrayaan-2 and multi-staged satellite launch vehicles that can will include a Lander and Rover similar to that be used only once (expendable). These launch of Chandrayaan-2, but will not have an orbiter. vehicles carry oxidiser along with the fuel for z Planned to land on the South Pole of the Moon, combustion to produce thrust. Chandrayaan-2 was launched on 22nd July 2019. € A propulsion system which can utilise the However, the lander Vikram hard-landed on atmospheric oxygen during their flight will 7th September 2019, crashing India’s dream to considerably reduce the total propellant required become the first nation to successfully touch to place a satellite in orbit. down on the lunar surface in its maiden attempt.

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€ If those vehicles are made reusable, the cost Key Points of launching satellites will further come down ¾ The signal has been named GW190521 and likely significantly. represented the instant that the two black holes ¾ Types of Air Breathing Engines merged. € Ramjet: A ramjet is a form of air-breathing jet € It lasted less than one-tenth of a second. engine that uses the vehicle’s forward motion to € It was calculated to have come from roughly 17 compress incoming air for combustion without billion light-years away, a time when the universe a rotating compressor. was about half its age. z Ramjets work most efficiently atsupersonic ¾ Out of the two, the larger black hole was of 85 solar speeds but they are not efficient at hypersonic masses and the smaller black hole was of 66 solar speeds. masses. Post-merger they created a new black hole € Scramjet: A scramjet engine is an improvement of about 142 solar masses and energy equivalent to 8 over the ramjet engine as it efficiently operates solar masses was released in the form of gravitational at hypersonic speeds and allows supersonic waves, leading to the strongest ever wave detected combustion. by scientists so far. € Dual Mode Ramjet (DMRJ) : A dual mode ramjet € A solar mass is the mass of the sun or more precisely, (DMRJ) is a type of jet engine where a ramjet it is 1.989 x 1030 kilograms, which is equivalent to transforms into a scramjet over Mach 4-8 range, about 333,000 Earths. which means it can efficiently operate both in € Astronomers use a solar mass as a basic unit of subsonic and supersonic combustion modes. mass. Speed Range Mach Number Velocity in m/s ¾ Unusual Mass Category: Subsonic < 0.8 < 274 € The black hole with 85 solar masses falls in an Transonic 0.8–1.2 274–412 “intermediate-mass” range (first-ever to be ) and it Supersonic 1.2–5 412–1715 observed defies the traditional knowledge of how black holes are formed. Hypersonic 5–10 1715–3430 € According to traditional knowledge, stars that High-hypersonic 10–25 3430–8507 could give birth to black holes between 65 and ¾ Site of Test: Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Launch Complex at 120 solar masses do not do so because they APJ Abdul Kalam island off the coast of Odisha. blow themselves apart when they die, without ¾ Implications: India became the fourth country to collapsing into a black hole. have demonstrated this technology after the USA, € In the merger leading to the GW190521 signal, the Russia and China. larger black hole was well within the unexpected € China successfully tested its first waverider range, known as the pair-instability mass gap. hypersonic flight vehicle in 2018. ¾ Suggested Reasons for Unusual Mass: € The researchers suggest that the larger 85-solar- Intermediate- mass black hole was not the product of a collapsing star but was itself the result of a previous merger. Mass Black Hole Black Hole Why in News ¾ It refers to a point in space where the matter is so compressed as to create a gravity field from which Analysis of signals from gravitational waves detected even light cannot escape. in 2019 at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), the USA and the detector Virgo, ¾ The concept was theorized by Albert Einstein in Italy have indicated a black hole with unusual mass. 1915 and the term ‘black hole’ was coined in the mid-1960s by American physicist John Archibald ¾ These waves were a result of a collision between two Wheeler. black holes billions of years ago.

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¾ All the black holes observed so far belong to two € These were proposed by Albert Einstein in categories: his General Theory of Relativity, over a century € One category ranges between a few solar masses ago. and tens of solar masses. These are thought to € However, the first gravitational wave was actually form when massive stars die. detected by LIGO only in 2015. € The other category is of supermassive black holes. These range from hundreds of thousands Flying V Aircraft to billions of times that of the sun from the Solar system to which Earth belongs. Why in News ¾ In April 2019, the scientists at the Event Horizon Telescope Project released the first-ever image of A team of researchers and engineers along with a drone pilot from the a Black Hole (more precisely, of its shadow). Dutch-based Technical University of Delft (TU Delft)have successfully conducted the first € The image was made possible by the Event real test flight of the scaled model of the ‘Flying V’ Horizon Telescope which is a group of 8 aircraft. radio telescopes (used to detect radio waves from space) located in different parts of the Key Points world. ¾ Flying V is a futuristic and fuel-efficient long-distance ¾ Gravitational waves are created when two black aircraft that could one day carry passengers in its holes orbit each other and merge. wings. ¾ The Flying-V design, which derives its name from its noticeable ‘V’ shape, integrates the passenger cabin, the cargo hold and the fuel tanks in the wings. ¾ Computer calculations have predicted that the aircraft’s improved aerodynamic shape and reduced weight will reduce fuel consumption by 20% compared to today’s advanced aircrafts. ¾ The Flying-V carries about the same number of passengers - 314 in the standard configuration – and the same amount of cargo, 160 m3. Gravitational Waves ¾ The original plan for the Flying-V aircraft design came ¾ These are invisible ripples that form when: from TU Berlin student Justus Benad. € A star explodes in a supernova. ¾ The ‘Flying V’ project was first presented at the € Two big stars orbit each other. 100th anniversary of the Dutch airlines KLM, which € Two black holes merge. has also been a partner in the project since its ¾ They travel at the speed of light and squeeze and beginning in 2019. Various business partners including stretch anything in their path. Airbus (an aerospace company), are now involved in the project. € As a gravitational wave travels through space- time, it causes it to stretch in one direction and compress in the other, Any object that occupies that region of space-time also stretches and compresses as the wave passes over them, though very slightly, which can only be detected by specialized devices like LIGO. ¾ Gravitational Waves are a relatively new field of discovery.

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¾ Expected Benefits from IBT and Brain Atlas: Indian Brai € These new population and age-specific Indian Templates: NIMHANS brain templates will allow more reliable tracking of brain development and ageing. Why in News € The templates and atlas will provide more precise reference maps for areas of interest in individual A team of neuroscientists from theNational Institute patients with neurological disorders like strokes, of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) has brain tumours, and dementia. developed and a . Indian Brain Templates (IBT) brain atlas € These will also help pool information more ¾ NIMHANS is a medical institution located in Bangalore, usefully in group studies of the human brain and Karnataka. It is the apex centre for mental health and psychological functions, aiding in understanding neuroscience education in the country andoperates of psychiatric illnesses like Attention Deficit autonomously. Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), autism, substance dependence, schizophrenia, and mood disorders. Key Points ¾ Brain Template: It is a gross representation from Number of various brain images to understand brain functionality in diseased conditions. Giant Radio Galaxies ¾ Background: € The Montreal Neurological Index (MNI) template Why in News that India currently uses is based on Caucasian Indian Researchers working on giant radio galaxies brains, which are different from Asian brains. (GRG) at Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and z The MNI template was made by averaging 152 Astrophysics (IUCAA) Pune, India and Leiden University, healthy brain scans from just a small slice of Netherlands, have found nearly 400 new GRGs. the city’s population in North America. ¾ GRGs are large single structures in the universe. € Some countries have their own scale to measure the brain, whereas India is still dependent on the Key Points Caucasian brain template. ¾ Radio Galaxies: The universe has billions of galaxies ¾ NIMHANS Indian Brain Templates and Brain Atlas: and almost all have supermassive black holes at € Neuroscientists studied over 500 brain scans of the centre. Indian patients to develop five sets of Indian Brain € Some of these black holes are active and produce Templates (IBT) and a brain atlas. jets travelling almost at the speed of light. € IBT provides a scale that will measure an Indian z A black hole is a place in space where gravity brain. When most brain scans are taken, they need pulls so much that even light can not get out. to be compared to a standard brain template — a The gravity is so strong because matter has been model or standard for making comparisons from squeezed into a tiny space. This can happen a group of individual brain scans. when a star is dying. z Validation experiments and comparisons with € These jets are visible in radio light or at radio existing international templates found that using wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. the NIMHANS IBTs for Indian brains significantly € Such galaxies, which have active black holes shooting improved the accuracy of alignment and thereby high-speed jets, are called radio galaxies. noticeably reducing distortions, errors or biases € A radio galaxy is a strong source of electromagnetic in final reports of brain structure and function. radiation or radio waves. € Brain Atlas has been developed for five age groups € They are extremely weak in radio luminosity making covering late childhood to late adulthood (six to it difficult for even a sensitive radio telescope to 60 years). detect them.

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¾ Giant Radio Galaxies: When some of these radio 80%. The efficiency can be raised to almost 100% galaxies grow to enormous sizes, bigger than 33 with exposure to sunlight for 10 minutes. lakh light years across, they are called giant radio z Graphene is known for antibacterial properties. galaxies (GRGs). ¾ Production:All carbon-containing materials, such as € GRGs were discovered in 1974 and until 2016, only cellulose or paper, can be converted into graphene. about 300 GRGs were known. The latest findings The researchers described the production of laser- indicate that they are over 800. induced graphene as a “green technique.” € It is not clearly understood how some objects ¾ Benefits: It is reusable. Can also be produced at low grow to such large scales and what is the fuel of cost. It also resolves the problems of sourcing raw their respective black holes. materials and disposing of non-biodegradable masks. € The length of jets indicates how powerful and active a black hole is as well as about the environment Graphene density of black holes. ¾ It is a single layer (monolayer) of carbon atoms. It is one atom thick. It is the building-block of Graphite. ¾ Significance:The study of GRGs gives important clues to unveiling how these massive black holes accrete ¾ Properties: It is harder than diamond yet more mass and the efficiency with which they produce the elastic than rubber; tougher than steel yet lighter magnificent jets. than aluminium. Graphene is the strongest known material. € Other Properties of Graphene are: Graphene Mask z Lowest resistivity substance known at room Inactivates Coronaviruses temperature. z High thermal stability. Why in News z High elasticity. Recently, the researchers from the City University z High electrical conductivity. of Hong Kong have produced a laser-induced form of z Electron mobility is high at room temperature. graphene masks that inactivate the coronavirus species. z Graphene oxide (GO) membranes can be used to filter common salt from seawater. Key Points ¾ Uses: Its thin composition and high conductivity ¾ Graphene Mask and Coronaviruses: means it can be used in applications ranging from € Initial tests deactivated twocoronavirus species. miniaturised electronics to biomedical devices The researchers are also planning to test this mask like computers, solar panels, batteries, sensors and on the Covid-19 (SARS-Cov-2) virus. other devices. z Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that ¾ Carbon Allotropes: Diamond, graphite and are known to cause illness ranging from the fullerenes (substances that include nanotubes and common cold to more severe diseases such as buckminsterfullerene) are the important allotropes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and of pure carbon. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). € Allotropy is the property of some chemical € The researchers also tested it on E coli (bacteria), elements to exist in two or more different forms, which showed an antibacterial efficiency of around in the same physical state.

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Environment and Ecology

Highlights z African Baobab Tree z Disposal of Cigarette Butts z Project Dolphin z Paddy Stubble Use by PEDA z Review of National Forest Policy, 1988 z Low Ozone Over Brahmaputra River Valley z World Solar Technology Summit z Net Present Value of Forests z UN Special Rapporteurs on EIA 2020 z Significance of Dead Coral Reef z International Day of Clean Air For Blue Skies

¾ Tree of Life: As African baobab is a succulent, which African Baobab Tree means that during the rainy season it absorbs and stores water in its vast trunk, enabling it to produce Why in News a nutrient-dense fruit in the dry season when all around is dry and arid. A recent study published in the journal Scientific Reports has found that the tree ‘African Baobab’ has ¾ Uses: Baobab trees can live for more than a thousand 168 chromosomes. Previous studies estimated that the years and provide food, livestock fodder, medicinal tree has between 96 and 166 chromosomes. compounds, and raw materials. ¾ The study will be useful in genetic conservation efforts. ¾ Threat: Since 2005, 9 of the 13 oldest African baobab specimens and 5 of the 6 largest trees have died or Key Points suffered the collapse and death of their largest or ¾ Type of Trees: Baobabs oldest stems, that may have been caused by the are deciduous trees effects of climate change. ranging in height from 5 to 20 meters. Project Dolphin € Deciduous forest is a vegetation composed primarily of broad-leaved Why in News trees that shed all their leaves during one season. ¾ Found in: The African baobab (Adansonia digitata) Recently, the Indian Prime Minister has announced is one of the nine species of baobab and is native the government’s plan to launch a Project Dolphin in to mainland Africa. They are also found in African his Independence Day Speech. Savannah. ¾ The proposed project is aimed at saving both river € The African savanna ecosystem is a tropical grassland and marine dolphins. with warm temperatures year-round and with its highest seasonal rainfall in the summer. Key Points € It is characterized by grasses and small or dispersed ¾ Project Dolphin will be on the lines of Project Tiger, trees that do not form a closed canopy, allowing which has helped increase the tiger population. sunlight to reach the ground. ¾ It got in-principle approval in December 2019, at the ¾ Oldest Known Angiosperm Tree: Carbon-14 dating first meeting of the National Ganga Council (NGC). places the age of a specimen of African baobab in ¾ It is expected to be implemented by the Ministry of Namibia at about 1,275 years. Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

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¾ A Special Con- € It is also found in the Ganga’s tributaries. servation Pro- ¾ Threats: gramme needs € Dams disturb the migration, breeding cycles and to be taken up for habitat of fish and other prey. Gangetic Dolphin € Pollution. which is the na- € Excessive silting and sand mining especially in tional aquatic an- Assam and lower course of the Ganga. imal and also an indicator species. ¾ Population: As the Gangetic € The Gangetic dolphin census suggests that the dolphin is at the Gangetic dolphin population in India could be top of the food about 2,500-3,000. chain, protect- € As per Ministry of State for Environment, Forest ing the species and Climate Change there are about 1,272 dolphins and its habitat in Uttar Pradesh and 962 in Assam. will ensure the ¾ Status of Conservation: conservation of € Wildlife (Protection), Act 1972: Schedule I. aquatic lives of € IUCN Red List: Endangered. the river. € CITES: Appendix I (most endangered). € An indicator species provides information on the overall condition of the ecosystem and of other € Convention on Migratory Species: Appendix II species in that ecosystem. They reflect the quality (migratory species that need conservation and and changes in environmental conditions as well management or would significantly benefit from as aspects of community composition. international co-operation). ¾ So far, the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), ¾ Conservation Efforts: which implements the government’s flagship scheme € Wildlife Protection Act, 1972: Dolphin was included Namami Gange, has been taking initiatives for saving in its Schedule I in 1986, after the launch of Ganga dolphins. Action Plan in 1985. ¾ Global Experience: The Rhine Action Plan (1987) of z It means they have the highest degree of the International Commission for the Protection of protection against hunting. the Rhine (ICPR), representingSwitzerland, France, z This was aimed at checking hunting and providing Germany, Luxemburg and the Netherlands, helped in conservation facilities such as wildlife sanctuaries. the conservation of thesalmon fish (also an indicator z For instance, Vikramshila Ganges Dolphin species). Sanctuary was established in Bihar under this Act. Gangetic Dolphin € Conservation Plan: The Conservation Action Plan for the Ganges River Dolphin 2010-2020, which ¾ Scientific Name: Pla- identified threats to Gangetic Dolphins and impact tanista gangetica. of river traffic, irrigation canals and depletion of ¾ Features: prey-base on Dolphins populations. € These are generally z The National Ganga River Basin Authority blind and catch their (replaced by National Ganga Council) in 2009 prey in a unique manner. They find their way and and constituted a Working Group under the prey in the river waters through echoes. Patna University to prepare a Conservation € These are also called susu. Action Plan for the Gangetic Dolphin in 2009. ¾ Location: € National Aquatic Animal: In 2009, during the € It is found mainly in the Indian subcontinent, 1st meeting of the National Ganga River Basin particularly inGanga-Brahmaputra-Meghna and Authority, the Gangetic river dolphin was declared Karnaphuli-Sangu river systems. the national aquatic animal.

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€ National Ganga River Dolphin Day: it is observed € Production forestry should focus on a sustainable on 5th October every year by the NMCG. increase in forest productivity from TOFs and RFAs. € To boost production through the RFA, States must Review of devise working plans and demarcate 10% of the forests for plantations. National Forest Policy, 1988 € For TOFs, a synchronised nationwide policy could be developed. Why in News € Increasing wood production will alsopush carbon Recently, the Director-General of Forests has sequestration, and help in mitigating effects of advocated for the amendment of National Forest Policy, climate change. 1988. € Increasing timber production from TOFs can revive the rural economy. ¾ The recommendations are based on a research paper published in 2016 in the Natural Resources Forum, ¾ Review of Export-Import (Exim) Policy: Since the a United Nations Sustainable Development Journal domestic timber production has declined and imports which called for sustainable forest management have increased manifolds, there is a need to review based on certification and a policy characterised by Export-Import Policy. restoration, conservation and production equally. € The domestic demand for timber has grown owing to the increasing population and per capita GDP. Key Points Dependency on imports is not viable as exporters worldwide are shifting to a conservation-based ¾ Data Unavailability: There is a lack of reliable data approach. relating to growing stock, consumption and production of timber, which constrained forecast of supply and € The Policy should be reviewed to rectifythe pricing demand projections. in the market so that it is economically viable to grow trees on farmlands. ¾ Focus on TOFs: € The Exim Policy is a set of guidelines and instructions € The potential of timber production from Trees related to the import and export of goods. The Outside Forests (TOFs) i.e. grown outside Government of India notifies theExim Policy for government Recorded Forest Areas (RFAs) must a period of five years under the Foreign Trade be explored and tapped. (Development and Regulation Act), 1992. z Recorded Forest Area (RFA) refers to all ¾ Revision of Indian Forest Policy: The paper emphasized the geographic areas recorded as forest in on revising the Indian Forest Policy to boost domestic government records. Recorded forest areas production. comprise Reserved Forests (RF) and Protected € The conservation policies must focus on maintaining Forests (PF), which have been constituted under ecological balance and improving biodiversity the provisions of Indian Forest Act, 1927. through protected area management. z According to India State of Forest Report 2011, € The restoration policies must targetreclamation, timber production from government forests is rehabilitation and regeneration of degraded 3.17 million m³ and potential timber production landscapes and wastelands. from TOFs is 42.77 million m³. „ India State of Forest Report (ISFR) is a Background biennial publication ofForest Survey of India ¾ India’s forests are currently governed by the National (FSI), an organisation under the Ministry of Forest Policy, 1988. Environment Forest and Climate Change. ¾ It focuses on environmental balance and livelihood € The Supreme Court ruling in the Godavarman mainly. Case (1996), stopping felling of trees in forest ¾ Criticism: The policy has not been updated in a long areas led to a decrease in domestic production time while the situation of forests and climate has of timber. substantially changed.

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€ Key policies regarding forests and forest management are either missing, delayed or left open-ended. For World Solar Technology Summit example, at present, there is no clear definition of forest that is accepted nationally and states are Why in News left to determine their definition of forests. Recently, the first-ever World Solar Technology ¾ A draft National Forest Policy was released in 2019. Summit (WSTS) was organised by the International Solar The basic thrust of the draft isconservation, protection Alliance (ISA) and Federation of Indian Chambers of and management of forests along with safeguarding Commerce and Industry (FICCI). the interest of tribals and forest-dependent people. ¾ Other Legislations that Govern Indian Forests: Key Points € Indian Forest Act, 1927. ¾ Objectives: € Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016. € To showcase to member countries the state of € Forest Conservation Act, 1980. the art and next-generation solar technologies € Forest Rights Act, 2006. worldwide. € Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. € To give an opportunity to decision-makers and stakeholders to meet, and discuss their own Forestry in India priorities and strategic agenda towards a larger ¾ According to the India State of Forest Report, 2019, integration. tree and forest cover together made up 24.56% € To discuss the recent highlights of solar technologies, (8,07,276 sq km) of India’s area. cost-wise, technology-wise, technology transfers, ¾ In landmark Godavarman Case, the Supreme Court challenges and concerns in the field. defined forests as all areas that are forests in the ¾ Steps Taken by India: dictionary meaning of the term irrespective of the € In spite of having one of the lowest per-capita nature of ownership and classification thereof. carbon emissions in the world, India has pressed € The court also ordered all non-forest activity like ahead with the deployment of renewable energy sawmills and mining to be suspended in forest at a fast pace for lowering carbon footprints. areas and stopped felling of trees in this order. z India has enhanced its installed renewable ¾ Constitutional Provisions: capacity by 2.5 times and increased the solar € Forests and Protection of Wild Animals and installed capacity by more than 13 times. Birds are included in the Concurrent List in z Globally, India ranks 4th in terms of renewable the (Seventh Schedule) of the Constitution of power. India. € India has scaled non-fossil fuel-based power nd z Through the 42 Amendment Act, 1976, generations to 134GW, which is about 35% of Forests and Protection of Wild Animals the total power generation and it is expected to and Birds were transferred from State to increase it to 220 GW by 2022. Concurrent List along with Education, Weights € India is providing capacity-building support to ISA . and Measures and Administration of Justice member countries through its Indian Technical € Article 51 A (g) of the Constitution states that it and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Programme. shall be the fundamental duty of every citizen € Project Preparation Facility has been set up to to protect and improve the natural environment develop bankable Solar Energy projects in ISA including forests and Wildlife. member countries with the help of Export-Import € Article 48 A in the Directive Principles of State (EXIM) Bank of India. , mandates that the State shall endeavour policy € In 2018, India announced about USD 1.4 billion to protect and improve the environment and worth of lines of credit (LOCs) for covering 27 solar to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the projects across 15 countries. These projects are country. in various stages of implementation.

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¾ Solar Energy related Schemes: ¾ Headquarter: Gurugram in Haryana, India. € Solar energy has taken a central place in India’s ¾ As of June 2020, the ISA Framework Agreement has National Action Plan on Climate Change with the been signed by 86 countries, with 68 having also National Solar Mission as one of the key Missions. deposited instruments of ratification. z National Solar Mission (NSM) was launched on 11th January 2010 and is in line with India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions UN Special (INDCs). Rapporteurs on EIA 2020 z Its objective is to establish India as a global leader in solar energy by creating the policy Why in News conditions for solar technology diffusion across the country as quickly as possible. Recently, a group of Special Rapporteurs to the (UN) has written to the Indian government € One Sun, One World, One Grid (OSOWOG): India’s United Nations ambitious cross-border power grid plan which expressing concerns over the draft Environment Impact seeks to transfer solar power generated in one Assessment (EIA) notification 2020. region to feed the electricity demands of others. ¾ Special Rapporteurs are independent experts working € KUSUM Scheme: It aims to replace the use of on behalf of the UN. They work on a country or a diesel in the farm sector with solar energy with thematic mandate specified by the United Nations the target of solarisation of 2.8 million irrigation Human Rights Council (UNHRC). pumps. Key Points € Solar Charkha Mission: It is an enterprise driven scheme and envisages setting up of ‘Solar Charkha ¾ The group has highlighted that the proposed notification Clusters’ which will have 200 to 2042 beneficiaries. appeared to have clauses that obstructed people’s These solar charkhas are operated using solar power, rights to a safe, clean and healthy environment. keeping the environment clean and generating ¾ There are clauses which exempt several large industries sustainable employment for the artisans. and projects from the public consultation, as part € 750 megawatt (MW) solar project which has been of the Environmental Impact Assessment process. inaugurated in Rewa, Madhya Pradesh. € The draft notificationprovides for a reduction of the time period from 30 days to 20 days for the International Solar Alliance public to submit their responses during a public ¾ It is a treaty-based international intergovernmental hearing for any application seeking environmental organisation which was jointly launched by India clearance. and France on 30th November 2015 during the € This time frame is inadequate for the preparation st 21 session of the United Nations Climate Change of views, comments and suggestions and without a Conference of the Parties (COP-21) in Paris, France. meaningful public hearing, the whole EIA process € It was conceived as a coalition of solar-resource- would lack transparency and credibility. rich countries (which lie either completely or partly ¾ The draft notification does not require publication between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of of information or holding of public consultation Capricorn) to address their special energy needs. for projects labelled by the Central government as ¾ Aim: To lower the cost of technology and finance ‘involving strategic considerations’. and thereby facilitate deployment of over 1,000 GW ¾ The 2020 draft notification allows for post-facto of solar energy and mobilize more than USD 1,000 approval for projects which means that the clearances billion into solar power by 2030 in member countries. for projects can be awarded even if they have started € Solar energy is a key source of affordable and construction or have been running phase without reliable energy, thus it could play a significant securing environmental clearances. role in achieving the universal energy access € Post facto approval is the derogation of the goal (SDG 7). fundamental principles of environmental

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jurisprudence and violation of the precautionary ¾ The Day aims to demonstrate the close link of air principle, which is a principle of environmental quality to other environmental/developmental sustainability. challenges and raise public awareness related to air ¾ The group has sought the government’s response on quality at all levels. how the provisions of the notification are consonant with India’s obligations under international law. Key Points ¾ € India is a party to the Rio declaration (also known as Indian Government’s Efforts: the Earth Summit) adopted by the United Nations € It is committed toreducing the air pollution level Conference on Environment and Development in 122 most polluted cities. (UNCED) in 1992, which articulated a catalogue € In 2014, the Air Quality Index (AQI) was launched of environmental principles including sustainable which currently tracks the levels of pollution on development, precautionary principle, and EIA. eight parameters. z Following the Rio Conference 1992, EIA became z These parameters are ground-level ozone, part of the formalised legal framework in India Particulate Matter (PM) 10, PM 2.5, carbon in 1994. monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, € India is also party to the Convention on Biological ammonia and lead. Diversity (CBD) and United Nations Framework z Ground-level ozone and airborne particles on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which contain a are the two pollutants that pose the greatest requirement to have a prior EIA in situations having threat to human health in India. a significant threat to the environment. € The Prime Minister in his Independence day speech ¾ Indian Government’s Response: also highlighted the issue of air pollution and put across the goal of holistic improvement in air € The Environment Ministry Secretary has held that quality in 100 cities by drawing up micro-plans nothing in the proposed EIA, 2020 violates the to target hotspots. UN Declaration of Human Rights and that the rapporteurs’ concerns are “misplaced”. € A brochure on Integrated Measures to Combat Air Pollution under the National Clean Air Programme € The proposed EIA is still a draft and was issued (NCAP) has been launched in the webinar. for public consultation. The imperfections in z In January 2019, NCAP was launched to tackle the existing EIA would be amended in the new the problem of air pollution in a comprehensive notification. manner with a target to achieve 20 to 30% € With regard to post facto clearances, the violation reduction in PM 10 and PM 2.5 concentrations of not taking prior approval would be punished by 2024 keeping 2017 as the base year. as per law and projects that are already running € India has migrated to BS-VI standards, quality would be considered only on merit. petrol, and diesel, which is an important initiative to fight against pollution. International Day z The Bharat Stage (BS) are emission standards instituted by the Government of India to regulate of Clean Air For Blue Skies the output of air pollutants from motor vehicles. z The Environment Ministry is responsible for Why in News deciding the fuel standard in the country. Recently, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) Climate Change has organised a webinar on the occasion implements these standards. of the first-ever International Day of Clean Air For Blue ¾ Suggestions for Improvement: Skies. € States must work with city-specific plans, as every ¾ In December 2019, the United Nations General city has a different source of pollution. Assembly adopted a resolution to observe this day z A city is not equally polluted in all areas so the on 7th September every year, starting from 2020. most effective way to reduce air pollution in cities

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is to identify the hotspots and then disburse report and holds that the concentration of various funds for solutions in these identified areas. parameters analyzed is lower than the prescribed € Use of electric vehicles must be encouraged and limits and will not be toxic. public transport should be modernized. € It added that natural environmental conditions € Augmenting waste management infrastructure, and laboratory stimulating conditions would paving roads to make them dust free and imposing be required to conclude the safety or toxicity of stringent norms on industry and ensuring that cigarette butts to further correlate with human they switch to cleaner fuels. and environmental health risk assessment. € People’s participation is a must to clean the air. ¾ Suggestions: Car-pooling and use of public transport must be € An inter-ministerial or departmental committee promoted. should be constituted to consult at the national level for conducting an impact study of discarded Disposal of Cigarette Butts cigarette and beedi butts and spitting of tobacco products in public places. Why in News € Recycling of cellulose acetate after recovery from cigarette butts may be an immediate solution to Recently, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has the problem. directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to € There is a need for more studies and research so lay down guidelines pertaining to disposal of cigarette that degradation and safety data can be generated and beedi butts within three months. which would be helpful in forming guidelines. ¾ NGT held that tobacco is undoubtedly harmful and it is mainly concerned with the manner of disposal Steps Taken by the Indian of cigarette and beedi butts. Government to Control Tobacco Consumption ¾ WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Key Points (WHO-FCTC): ¾ Background: € It is the first international treaty negotiated under € An NGO ‘Doctors for You’ sought instructions to the auspices of the World Health Organisation. regulate the disposal of cigarette and beedi butts € It was developed in response to the globalization apart from prohibiting the consumption of tobacco of the tobacco epidemic and is an evidence-based in public places. treaty that reaffirms the right of all people to € The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare the highest standard of health. highlighted that cigarette and beedi butts are not € India ratified it in 2004. biodegradable but the Ministry of Environment, ¾ mCessation Programme: Forest and Climate Change noted that these are not listed as hazardous. € It is an initiative using mobile technology for tobacco cessation. ¾ CPCB Report: € India launched mCessation using text messages € A report by CPCB highlighted that the analysis of in 2016 as part of the government’s Digital India the cigarette and beedi butts reflects that their initiative. concentrations detected will not be toxic to humans and the environment. € It uses two-way messaging between the individual seeking to quit tobacco use and programme € Cellulose acetate is a major component (95%) of specialists providing them with dynamic support. the cigarette buttsalong with the wrapping paper and rayon and its degradation studies show that ¾ Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Packaging it will persist for a longer duration. and Labelling) Amendment Rules, 2020: ¾ Findings of a Study: € These rules have been notified by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to amend the 2008 € A study conducted by the Indian Institute of rules which were notified under the Cigarettes Toxicology Research (IITR) approves the CPCB

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and other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Key Points Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and ¾ Biomass Power Plants: PEDA has set up 11 biomass Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) power plants where 97.50 mega watts (MW) of Act, 2003. power is generated. ¾ National Tobacco Control Programme: € In these plants, 8.80 lakh metric tonnes of paddy € The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare stubble is used annually to generate power. launched the programme in 2007-08. ¾ Bio CNG: Eight projects of Bio CNG are under execution € It aims to facilitate the effective implementation in the state. These will need around 3-lakh metric of the Tobacco Control Law, to bring about tonnes of paddy stubble annually. greater awareness about the harmful effects of € India’s largest Bio CNG project, which will produce tobacco as well as to fulfil the obligations under 8,000 m cube biogas per day (equivalent to 33.23 the WHO-FCTC. tonnes of Bio CNG per day) is under execution at Lehragaga tehsil in Sangrur district. The project ¾ Other Efforts: is expected to be commissioned by March 2021. € World No Tobacco Day: Every year, 31st May is ¾ Bioethanol Project: A Bioethanol project of 100 observed as the World No Tobacco Day by WHO kilolitres is being set up at Talwandi Sabo in Bathinda. and global partners. This will require 2 lakh metric tonnes of paddy stubble z The annual campaign is an opportunity to annually. raise awareness on the harmful and deadly € Bioethanol can be used to run vehicles after effects of tobacco use and second-hand blending with diesel and petrol. smoke exposure, and to discourage the use ¾ Advantages of these Projects: After the commissioning of tobacco in any form. of all these projects, Punjab will be able to utilise 1.5 € Since 2007, the Ministry of Health and Family million tonnes (7% of the total) paddy stubble. Welfare has been pushing to introduce stronger € Farmers’ income: Farmers can benefit hugely if graphic health warnings on tobacco packets, they can sell paddy stubble to the industry instead with mixed success. of burning it. € Environment benefits: It will reduce the pollution Paddy caused by stubble burning and also preserve the Stubble Use by PEDA fertility of the soil which is lost due to burning paddy stubble. € Entrepreneurship: The youth, particularly engineers, Why in News graduates in science and technology can start such The Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) in projects under the ‘start-up’ concept, which will association with the Govt. of Punjab, is creating alternatives create entrepreneurship among them. for paddy stubble utilisation. € Employment: Educated unemployed youth in rural ¾ This includes setting up biomass power plants Punjab where such projects will be set up can get and producing Bio CNG from the paddy stubble big job opportunities. biomass. ¾ Limitations:Current usage of stubble in these plants is very small compared to the generation of stubble. Punjab Energy Development Agency Punjab needs varieties of stubble-based industry ¾ It was formed in Sept. 1991 as a state nodal agency where more and more stubble is consumed. for promotion and development of renewable energy ¾ Issues involved with Paddy Stubble: programmes/projects and energy conservation programme in the state of Punjab. € About 20 million tonnes of paddy stubble or paddy crop residue is generated in Punjab annually. Less ¾ PEDA is registered as a Society under the Societies than 5% is being utilized in Bio-gas, Biomass power Act of 1860. generation or other environment-friendly uses.

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The main mode of getting rid of this stubble is Gas. Its objectives include reducing pollution from stubble burning. burning of agricultural / organic waste and utilising z Stubble Burning is a major cause of concern more than 62 million metric tonnes of waste generated because of environmental and health reasons. every year in India. „ Stubble burning is considered to be one of ¾ The Punjab government has provided 74,000 subsidised the factors responsible for smog in Delhi. machines called Super SMS, Happy Seeder and Super Seeders to the farmers for stubble management after z The burning of stubble reduces the soil fertility, besides polluting the environment. harvesting. z Additionally, the heat generated by stubble burning penetrates into the soil, leading to the Low Ozone Over loss of moisture and useful microbes. Brahmaputra River Valley ¾ Other alternatives to utilize paddy stubble: € Torrefaction: Torrefactionis a thermal process to Why in News convert biomass into a coal-like material, which has better fuel characteristics than the original Recently, scientists at the Aryabhatta Research biomass. Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital (Uttarakhand) have evaluated thenear surface ozone in € Fertilizer: The stubble can be used for the the Brahmaputra River Valley (BRV). preparation of the high-grade organic fertilizers by mixing with cow dung and few natural enzymes. ¾ ARIES is an autonomous research institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), € Mechanized Management: Stubble can be managed Government of India. in three ways — by pressing the leftover stubble under the earth; sowing wheat directly in the Key Points standing stubble in the fields and thirdly, by ¾ Scientists analysed thevariability of ozone (O ) and collecting it in bundles.This can be aided by the 3 . use of machines like: other air pollutants over the BRV region ¾ They assessed seasonal characteristics of ozone z Super SMS (Straw Management System): It to identify the emission source of ozone and its cuts and spreads the straw in a uniform manner precursors, especially methane (CH ) and non-methane in the field at the time of harvesting of paddy. 4 hydrocarbons (NMHCs). z Happy Seeder: It can sow wheat directly in such € NMHCs such as , fields in standing paddy stubble (the height of ethane, ethene, propane, propene etc. play an important role in which remains around 18 inches after cutting controlling ozone . with Super SMS). concentrations ¾ They also studied the relationships between the z Super Seeder: It is more advanced and it ploughs like air temperature, wind standing paddy stubble in soil and sows wheat meteorological parameters speed, solar radiation, soil temperature, rainfall, etc. seed simultaneously in a single operation after and in a tropical setting. harvesting. ozone ¾ Findings: Government Initiatives € Scientists have foundrelatively low concentration ¾ Promotion of Agricultural Mechanization for In- of ozone over BRV (Guwahati - Assam) compared Situ Management of Crop Residue - It is a Central to the other urban locations in India. € Sector Scheme to tackle air pollution and to subsidize The pattern of 3O concentrations in the BRV indicated machinery required for in-situ management of crop that it was strongly influenced by local oxides of residue in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh nitrogen (NOx) sources with an adjacent national and NCT of Delhi. highway being the likely major source. ¾ SATAT Scheme: Sustainable Alternative Towards € The mean ventilation coefficient was greater Affordable Transportation (SATAT) scheme was than 6000 m2s during the day in the pre-monsoon launched by the Minister of Petroleum and Natural season indicating pollutant dispersion.

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Net Present Value of Forests

Why in News The Ministry of Mines has requested the Forest Advisory Committee (Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change) to exempt digging exploratory boreholes from Net Present Value (NPV). ¾ In 2018, the Ministry of Coal, the Ministry of Mines and the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had sought to be exempted from forest clearances for exploratory boreholes. z The ventilation coefficient, which is the product of mixing depth and the average wind speed, is an Key Points atmospheric condition which gives an indication ¾ Exploratory Boreholes: An exploratory borehole is of the air quality and pollution potential i.e. the drilled for the purpose of identifying the characteristics, ability of the atmosphere to dilute and disperse location, quantity and quality of a resource (coal, the pollutants over a region. metal or petroleum). z The higher the coefficient, the more efficiently € It is a part of prospecting a site for future use for the atmosphere is able to dispose of the mining and extraction activities. pollutants and better is the air quality. ¾ Net Present Value (NPV): It is a mandatory one-time z Low ventilation coefficients lead to poor payment that a user has to make for diverting forestland dispersal of pollutants causing stagnation and for non-forest use, under the Forest (Conservation) poor air quality leading to possible pollution Act, 1980. related hazards. € Calculation: This is calculated on the basis of the € were observed, High O3 winter concentrations services and ecological value of the forests. likely driven by local biomass burning providing z It depends on the location and nature of the reactivevolatile organic compounds (VOCs) that forest and the type of industrial enterprise contributed to ozone formation. that will replace a particular parcel of forest. z VOCs are compounds that have a high vapor z These payments go to the Compensatory pressure and low water solubility. Afforestation Fund (CAF) and are used for z Many VOCs are human-made chemicals that afforestation and reforestation. are used and produced in the manufacturing z The CAF is managed by the Compensatory of paints, pharmaceuticals, and refrigerants. Afforestation Management and Planning z VOCs are common ground-water contaminants. Authority (CAMPA). € In the pre-monsoon season, an impact of solar € Decided by: The Forest Advisory Committee radiation (SR) on the photochemical formation constituted by the Ministry of Environment,

of O3 was observed. Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) decides z Tropospheric, or ground-level ozone, is created on whether forests can be diverted for projects by chemical reactions between NOx and and the NPV to be charged. VOC. z It is a statutory body constituted by the Forest z It usually increases when pollutants emitted by (Conservation) Act 1980. cars, power plants, industrial boilers, refineries, € Exemptions: Some projects have been provided chemical plants, and other sources chemically exemption from paying NPV like construction of react in the presence of sunlight, impacting Schools, Hospitals, village tanks, laying down of human health. optical fibreetc . Projects like underground mining

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and wind energy plants have been given a 50% printed coral stacks called RUbble Biodiversity Samplers exemption from NPV. (RUBS) to survey cryptic organisms. € Background: In the N. Godavarman Thirumulpad Cryptic organisms v. Union of India case, 2008, the Supreme Court ¾ These are organisms that are morphologically mandated the payment of NPV. indistinguishable(identical in appearance) but are z The Kanchan Gupta Committee developed the genetically distinct. Many species that are classified concept of NPV after this case. as single species but are found to be genetically ¾ Argument by Ministry of Mines: All areas of exploration different are called cryptic species. are not converted into mining. Only about 1% of cases ¾ Examples of cryptic species include the African are converted to mining. elephant. A 2001 study found the elephants were € Payment of NPV at a present rate of 2% or 5% NPV actually two genetically distinct, non-interbreeding of the total forest area in the lease area is one of species, the African bush elephant and the African the major challenges which leads to delay in the elephant. exploration/ prospecting activities. € The 3D-printed coral mimicked surrounding reef ¾ Response from the Forest Advisory Committee : rubble and invited unwitting reef organisms to While it was not possible to do away with NPV, it be monitored. recommended that the MoEF&CC may consider charging NPV on a per borehole basis instead of the € By sampling the RUBS’ structures over time, the present practice of charging 2 or 5%. team were able to identify changes in the cryptic population. Forest Conservation Act, 1980 ¾ Findings: The researchers found the missing link in ¾ The Forest Conservation Act, 1980 stipulated that the coral reef food webs. This data fills important the central permission is necessary to practice knowledge gaps, such as how small cryptic animals sustainable agro-forestry in forest areas. Violation support coral reefs from the bottom of the food chain, or lack of permit was treated as a criminal offence. all the way up to bigger predators. ¾ It puts a restriction on the use of forest-land for € This also helped to know the importance of dead non-forest purposes. coral reef rubble to the ocean ecosystem. ¾ It targeted to limit deforestation, conserve € The RUBS technology provides a new opportunity biodiversity and save wildlife. for reef management, particularly forreef education and awareness. :Coral Reefs Signifcance of Dead Coral Reef ¾ € Coral reefs are large underwater structures composed of the skeletons of colonial marine Why in News invertebrates called coral. According to a recent study by researchers from € Corals extract calcium carbonate from seawater University of Queensland (UQ), Australia, more life can to create a hard, durable exoskeleton that protects be supported by dead coral remains than live corals. their soft, sac-like bodies. These exoskeleton ¾ Dead coral reefs support cryptic organisms like hidden remains of millions of corals pile up with time to sea creatures, including form coral reefs. fishes, snails, tiny crabs and € The corals have a symbiotic relationship with an worms, who hide under its algae called the zooxanthellae. rubble to save themselves z These algae live inside the coral polyp’s body from predation. and provide the coral with food. The polyps, in turn, provide a home and carbon dioxide Key Points for the algae. ¾ Method: The researchers z These algae are responsible for the variety of designed three-dimensional- colours of corals.

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€ Coral reefs cover less than 1 % of the ocean floor coral bleaching due to emission of greenhouse but they are among the most productive and gases and climate change. diverse ecosystems on Earth. z A number of global initiatives are being taken € They are referred to as “the rainforests of the to address the issues, like the International sea” for their biodiversity, Coral Reef Initiative, the US Coral Reef Task € Death of Coral Reefs: When corals become stressed Force etc. due to any changes, including pollution or global z In india, the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), warming, they can expel algae and get bleached, with help from Gujarat’s forest department, is meaning the ‘death’ of the coral reef. attempting a process to restore coral reefs using z There has been increasing concerns of fast paced “biorock” or mineral accretion technology.

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Highlights z Inscription From Renati Chola Era z Moplah Uprising

€ The earliest of this family was Nandivarman (500 AD). Inscription From € Renandu Cholas were the feudatories of the Renati Chola Era Chola dynasty. € These kings claimed that they belonged to Karikala Why in News Chola’s dynasty. € They are said to be the first kingdom to use Telugu A rare inscription dating back to the Renati Chola era in administration and inscriptions, instead of has been unearthed in a remote village of Kadapa district Sanskrit. of Andhra Pradesh. Key Points Chola Dynasty ¾ The Cholas controlled the central and northern parts ¾ The inscription was found engraved on a dolomite of Tamil Nadu from around the 8th-12th century AD. slab and shale, which are part of a fragmentary pillar ¾ Their core area of the rule was the Kaveri delta, excavated from a farmer’s field. later known as Cholamandalam. Their capital was € Dolomite is a sedimentary carbonate rock composed Uraiyur (near Tiruchirapalli town) and Puhar or mostly of calcium magnesium carbonate. Kaveripattinam was an alternative royal residence € Shale or mudstone is a fine-grained sedimentary and chief port town. rock that forms from the compaction of silt and ¾ Tiger was their emblem. clay-size mineral particles. ¾ The Cholas also maintained an efficient navy. ¾ The inscription was written in archaic Telugu. It was ¾ King Karikala was a famous king of the Sangam assigned to the 8th Century AD, when the region was Cholas. under the rule of Chola Maharaja of Renadu. € Many Sangam poems mention the Battle of ¾ Text: The inscription seems to throw light on the Venni where he defeated the confederacy of record of a gift of six Marttus (a measuring unit) of Cheras, Pandyas and eleven minor chieftains. land to a Brahmin Priest. Some lines are indicative of the priority given to morality in those days. € Trade and commerce flourished during his reign. ¾ In July 2020, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) € He founded the port city of Puhar (identical with had found the exact location of Renati Cholas’ capital Kaveripattinam) and constructed 160 km of an in Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh. embankment along the Kaveri River. ¾ € ASI deciphered two inscriptions of Renati Cholas Recently, the Department of Science and Technology belonging to the 7th century. The first inscription (DST) has launched ‘Project Digital Poompuhar’ to speaks of their capital Erikal in Kamalapuram recreate the Chola Dynasty port city (Poompuhar) region in Kadapa, while the other speaks about in Tamil Nadu. the battle of Renati Cholas and Banas. ¾ Recently, the consecration (Kumbhabhishekam) ¾ Renati Cholas: ceremony was held at the Brihadisvara Temple after 23 years in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. The temple was € The Telugu Cholas of Renadu (also called as Renati built by Chola emperor Raja Raja Chola I (985-1014 Cholas) ruled over Renadu region, the present day AD) between 1003 AD and 1010 AD. Kadapa district.

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Cooperation Movement launched by the Congress Moplah Uprising in 1920 along with the Khilafat agitation. € The anti-British sentiment fuelled by these Why in News agitations affected the Muslim Mapillahs (also known as ) of region of Recently, the Indian Council for Historical research Moplahs south Malabar Kerala. (ICHR) has constituted a three-member committee to review the entries in the book Dictionary of Martyrs: € New Tenancy Laws: After the death of Tipu Sultan India’s Freedom Struggle 1857-1947, which was released in 1799 in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, Malabar by the Prime Minister on 7th March 2019. had come under British authority as part of the Madras Presidency. ¾ The book contains an account of the martyrs from z The British had introduced new tenancy laws India’s First War of Independence in 1857, to India’s that tremendously favoured the landlords Independence in 1947. The project for its compilation known as Janmis and instituted a far more was commissioned by the Ministry of Culture to exploitative system for peasantsthan before. ICHR to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the z The new laws uprising of 1857. deprived the peasants of all guaranteed rights to the land, share in the Key Points produce they earlier got and in effect rendered them landless. ¾ Background: A review report submitted to the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) by one of its Khilafat Movement members in 2016 had recommended the delisting ¾ The Khilafat agitation was launched in India in 1919. 387 names including victims ofWagon Tragedy and ¾ It was led by Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali. Malabar /Moplah Rebellion leaders Ali Musliyar and ¾ The demands of the movement were : Variamkunnath Ahmad Haji from the Dictionary of € Control of Turkish Caliphate or Khalifa over islamic Martyrs. sacred places in the erstwhile Ottaman Empire. € The year 2021 will mark the 100th year anniversary € The Jazirat-ul-Arab i.e. Arabia, Syria, Palestine, of the Malabar rebellion of 1921. and Iraq remain sunder Muslim Sovereignty € There has been recent controversy on a film being € Khalifa is left with sufficient territory to defend released on this issue. the Ismaic faith. ¾ Issues involved: The review report of 2016 noted that ¾ The movement was supported by the Indian “almost all the Moplah outrages were communal. National Congress. They were against the Hindu society and done out ¾ Mahatma Gandhi wanted to align it to the Non- of sheer intolerance.” Cooperation Movement to unite Hindus and Muslims € The report also said that none of those who died in against the British rule. the Wagon Tragedy were freedom fighters of India as they hoisted the Khilafat flag and established Indian Council of Historical Research Khilafat and Khilafat courts for a brief period. ¾ ICHR is an autonomous organization, established under Societies Registration Act,1860 in 1972. € Issue of forced conversion of Hindus into Islam by the leaders of the rebellion were also raised ¾ It is under the Ministry of Education. by many organizations. ¾ Objectives € However, many historians view this as a one of the € To bring historians together for exchange of views. first cases of nationalist uprisings in Southern India. € To give a national direction to an objective and scientific writing of history. Malabar Rebellion or Moplah € To promote, accelerate and coordinate research Uprising or Mapillah Revolt (1921) in history and ensure its dissemination. ¾ Reasons: ¾ The council also provides grants, assistance and fellowships for historical research. € The trigger of the uprising came from the Non-

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¾ The Communal Angle: Most of the landlords were nationalist leaders, but as it turned violent they Namboodiri Brahmins while most of the tenants distanced themselves from it. were Mapillah Muslims. ¾ Collapse: By the end of 1921, the rebellion was crushed ¾ The Revolt: Fuelled by the fiery speeches by Muslim by the British who had raised a special battalion, the religious leaders and anti-british sentiments, the Malabar Special Force for the riot. Mopillahs launched a violent rebellion. Numerous actions of violence were reported and series of ¾ Wagon Tragedy: In November 1921, 67 Moplah persecutions were committed bothagainst the British prisoners were killed when they were being transported and the Hindu landlords. in a closed freight wagon from Tirur to the Central ¾ Support: In the initial stages, the movement had Prison in Podanur. They died of suffocation. This event the support of Mahatma Gandhi and other Indian is called the Wagon Tragedy.

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Highlights z Hurricane Nana z Yanomami Tribe of South America z Typhoon Maysak and Typhoon Haishen z Methane Hydrates in Krishna-Godavari Basin

€ The higher the category, the greater the hurricane’s Hurricane Nana potential for propertydamage . ¾ Formation: Why in News € There needs to be warm ocean water and moist, Atlantic Hurricane Nana has made landfall on the humid air in the region. coast of Belize, a country located on the northeast coast € When humid air is flowing upward at a zone of low of Central America. pressure over warm ocean water, the water is released ¾ A few days back, Hurricane Laura made landfall in from the air as creating the clouds of the storm. southwestern Louisiana (South Central USA). ¾ Features: € It has a low-pressure centre and clouds spiralling Key Points towards the eyewall surrounding the “eye”, the ¾ Tropical Cyclone: central part of the system where the weather is € A hurricane is a normally calm and free of clouds. type of storm € Its diameter is typically around 200 to 500 km but called a tropical can reach 1000 km. cyclone, which € The winds blow counterclockwise in the Northern forms over tropi- Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern cal or subtropical Hemisphere. waters. € A tropical cyclone brings very violent winds, € A tropical cyclone torrential rain, high waves and, in some cases, is a rotating low- very destructive storm surges and coastal flooding. pressure weather system that has organised ¾ Different Names: thunderstorms but no fronts (a boundary separating € Hurricane: Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, North two air masses of different densities). Atlantic Ocean and the eastern and central North ¾ Speed of Winds: Pacific Ocean. € Tropical cyclones with maximum sustained surface € Typhoon: Western North Pacific. winds of less than 39 miles per hour (mph) are € Cyclone: Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. called tropical depressions. € Willy-willies: Australia. € Those with maximum sustained winds of 39 mph or higher are called tropical storms. Typhoon Maysak € When a storm’s maximum sustained winds reach 74 mph, it is called a hurricane. and Typhoon Haishen ¾ Scaling of Wind Speed: € The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale is a 1 Why in News to 5 rating, or category, based on a hurricane’s Recently, Korean Peninsula and Japan were hit by maximum sustained winds. two typhoons named Maysak and Haishen.

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Typhoons € In the USA, hurricanes are referred to by English names. ¾ Typhoons are a kind of storm. The storms, depending on where they occur, may be called hurricanes, € The intergovernmental organisation called the typhoons or cyclones. Typhoon Committee which has 14 members € Typhoons: In the China Sea and Pacific Ocean. including Japan, USA and China uses Asian names for typhoons that are contributed by the member € Hurricanes: In the West Indian islands in the countries. Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. z Haishen was a name recommended by China, € Tornados: In the Guinea lands of West Africa and southern USA. while Maysak is a Combodian name. € Willy-willies: In north-western Australia and € Tropical Cyclones: In the Indian Ocean Region. Yanomami Tribe ¾ The scientific name for all these kinds of storms is of South America tropical cyclones. € Tropical cyclones are intense circular storms that originate over the warm tropical oceans Why in News with speed more than 119 kilometres per hour The Yanomami tribe has launched a global campaign and heavy rains. to expel 20,000 gold miners from their land amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Key Points ¾ The Yanomami live in the rainforests and mountains of northern Brazil and southern Venezuela, and are, according to Survival International, the largest relatively isolated tribe in South America.

Key Points ¾ Categorisation: Both typhoons were categorised as a Category 4 hurricane storm. € A Category 4 storm has wind speeds between 130-156 mph and can uproot trees and bring down power lines. € Hurricanes are categorized on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, which rates them on a scale of 1 to 5 based on wind speed. Hurricanes that reach category three or higher are classified as major hurricanes. € Guarani, Kaingang, Pataxó, Hã Hã Hãe, Tupinambá, ¾ Naming: The Maysak typhoon takes its name from a Yanomami, Tikuna and Akuntsu are popular Cambodian word for a type of tree. While, Haishen tribes of the Amazon basin. Amazon is a river of means sea god in Chinese. South America and its basin is the largest tropical € Typhoon Maysak and Haishen are referred to as rainforest in the world. typhoon number 9 and 10 in Japan. € Survival International is an international human ¾ Background of Naming: rights advocacy based in London (UK), which € In Japan the first typhoon to occur after January campaigns for the rights of indigenous and tribal 1st of the year is called typhoon number 1. peoples around the world.

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¾ The tribe numbers around 38,000 today, and its Methane Hydrate members live in contiguous forested territory of ¾ Methane hydrate is a crystalline solid that consists around 9.6 million hectares in Brazil and 8.2 million of a methane molecule surrounded by a cage of hectares in Venezuela. interlocking water molecules. ¾ They live in large, circular houses called yanos or € It is formed when hydrogen-bonded water and shabonos, some of which can hold up to 400 people. methane gas come into contact at high pressures ¾ The Yanomami consider all people to be equal, and and low temperatures such as in oceans. do not have a chief. Instead, all decisions are based ¾ Methane hydrate is an “ice” that only occurs naturally on consensus after long discussions and debates. in subsurface deposits where temperature and ¾ They are speakers of a Xirianá language. pressure conditions are favourable for its formation. ¾ A Brazilian indigenous leader Davi Kopenawa who ¾ Difficult to Handle: If the ice is removed from this secured the land rights of the Yanomami people was temperature/pressure environment, it becomes awarded the Right Livelihood Award-2019, also known unstable. For this reason, methane hydrate deposits as Sweden’s alternative Nobel Prize. are difficult to study and handle. € They cannot be drilled and cored for a study like Methane Hydrates in other subsurface materials because as they are brought to the surface, the pressure is reduced Krishna-Godavari Basin and the temperature rises. € This causes the ice to melt and the methane Why in News to escape. ¾ Several other names are commonly used for Recently, a study on biogenic methane hydrate in methane hydrate. These include methane clathrate, the Krishna-Godavari (KG) Basin has been conducted by hydromethane, methane ice, fire ice, natural gas the researchers at the Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), hydrate, and gas hydrate. Pune. ¾ ARI is an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.

Key Points ¾ Biogenic Methane: It is the methane produced from the metabolic activities of methanogens. € Methanogens are microorganisms that produce methane as a metabolic by-product in hypoxic (low levels of oxygen) conditions. ¾ The research team has identified the methanogens that produced the biogenic methane trapped as ¾ Most methane hydrate deposits also contain small methane hydrate, which can be a significant source amounts of other hydrocarbon hydrates. These of energy. include propane hydrate and ethane hydrate. € The ARI team has documented a predominance Krishna-Godavari Basin of genus Methanosarcina in the KG basin, ¾ An extensive deltaic plain formed by two large east followed by a few other genera Methanoculleus, coast rivers, Krishna and Godavari in the state of Methanobacterium. Andhra Pradesh and the adjoining areas of Bay of ¾ Significance of the Study: Bengal in which these rivers discharge their water € Methane is a clean and economical fuel. is known as Krishna-Godavari Basin. ¾ € It is estimated that one cubic meter of methane The KG Basin is a large basin of continental margin hydrate contains 160-180 cubic meters of methane. located on the east coast of India.

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€ Its land part covers an area of 15000 sq. km. ¾ The site is known for the D-6 block with the biggest € The offshore part covers an area of 25,000 sq. natural gas reserves in India. It was first discovered in km up to 1000 m isobath. 1983 by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation(ONGC). z Isobath is an imaginary line or a line on a map ¾ The basin is home to the Olive Ridley Sea Turtle or chart that connects all points having the (IUCN Status: Vulnerable). same depth below a water surface. € This study revealed maximum methanogenic ¾ The basin contains about 5 km thick sediments diversity in the KG basin, which is one of the with several cycles of deposition, ranging in age prominent reasons to confirm it to be the extreme from Late Carboniferous (306 million years ago) source of biogenic methane in comparison to the to Pleistocene (Great Ice Age). Andaman and Mahanadi basins. ¾ The major geomorphological units of the basin € Even the lowest estimate of methane present in are upland plains, coastal plains, recent flood and the methane hydrates in the KG Basin is twice delta plains. that of all fossil fuel reserves available worldwide.

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Art & Culture

Highlights z Onam Festival z Hindi Diwas z Patrika Gate in Jaipur z Promotion of Buddhist Sites z Rogan Art: Gujarat

z There are a few isolated places in India where Onam Festival demons are worshipped like some areas in Bihar and Bengal where Mahishasur is the king Why in News of Asur tribes. Recently, the festival Onam was celebrated across € Historians see these fights between god and demon Kerala. in the context of fights between brahmins and non-brahmins and tribals in the past. Key Points Asur Tribe ¾ Onam is a major harvest festival in Kerala and ¾ Asur is among the 9 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal is celebrated to honour the home-coming of Asura Groups found in Jharkhand and are Austro-Asiatic king Mahabali who brought peace and prosperity in origin. in Kerala. € Besides Jharkhand, members of the tribe live ¾ Time: It is one of the three major festivals of Kerala, in pockets of Bihar, West Bengal, and a few celebrated during the month of Chingam, the first other states. month in the Malayalam calendar, Kollavarsham. € The 2011 Census put the number of Asur at € The other two major festivals of the state areVishu 22,459 in Jharkhand and 4,129 in Bihar. and Thiruvathira. ¾ The Asurs claim to be descendants of Mahishasura, € The 10-day harvest festival begins on Atham (first day of Onam) and concludes onThiruvonam the buffalo-demon whom Goddess Durga kills after (last day). a spirited fight lasting nine nights. ¾ Celebration:Onam is celebrated by making Pookkalam € It’s this mythology in mainstream Hinduism (the flower rangolis). Other rituals are also performed that’s celebrated in the form of the nine-day- which includes, Vallam Kali (the boat races), Pulikali long Durga Puja but observed as ‘Mahishasura (the tiger dances), Kummattikali (mask dances), Dasain’ among the Asurs, who hold a period of Onathallu (martial arts), among others. mourning during which they largely stay indoors. € The main attraction is the traditionalOnam sadhya ¾ They celebrate festivals likeSarhul, Karma, Dhanbuni, (grand feast). Kadelta, Rajj karma, Dasahara Karam. ¾ God versus Demon Story: € Battles between demons and gods are familiar Patrika Gate in Jaipur to people everywhere. God emerging victorious over evil is an inseparable part of these battles. The recently inaugurated Patrika Gate in Jaipur € However, an exception to this has been the battle (Rajasthan) has been constructed by the Rajasthan Patrika between Mahabali (an asura or demon) and Group of Publications (media conglomerate). Vamana (an avatar of Vishnu), where Mahabali ¾ It is an iconic gate built as a monument under Mission is revered as the unchallenged King of Malayalis. Anupam of the Jaipur Development Authority.

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¾ The gate was € The artisans then carefully twist the paint across constructed to the cloth into motifs and patterns. commemorate € Next, the fabric is folded thereby printing its Jaipur’s recent mirror image. The finer details are then added recognition as a thus completing the Rogan painting. UNESCO World ¾ Recognition: Heritage Site. € The ‘Tree of Life’ design is the most famous design € In 2019, in Rogan painting. It is inspired by traditional Persian Jaipur became the second city of the country designs. The Prime Minister of India, Narendra after Ahmedabadto get the recognition. Modi, gifted Rogan paintings to the USA president, € India has 38 world heritage sites, including 30 Barack Obama, during his visit to the USA in 2014. cultural properties, 7 natural properties and 1 € The nine artists from the Khatri family have six mixed site. national awards and six State awards between them. ¾ Other Important Painting Styles of India: Rogan Art: Gujarat € Kangra Miniature Painting (Himachal Pradesh) € Pattachitra Painting (Odisha) Why in News € Thanjavur Painting (Tamil Nadu) The centuries old tradition of Rogan art (hand painting € Kishangarh School of Painting (Rajasthan): The on cloth), is facing an unprecedented challenge due to well-known painting“Bani Thani” belongs to this pandemic. style of painting. Key Points € Kalamkari Painting (Andhra Pradesh) € Madhubani Painting (Bihar) ¾ About: € Warli Painting (Maharashtra) € The word Rogan means “Oil” in Persian. With origins in Persia, it came to Kutch Hindi Diwas around 300 years ago. € This rare craft is practised Why in News by a lone Muslim family, the Every year, 14th September is celebrated as Hindi Khatris of Nirona Village, Diwas in India. Gujarat. ¾ Technique: Key Points € Rogan is a form of textile painting which uses a rich, ¾ National Hindi Day: brightly coloured paint made from castor oil and natural colors. Castor is a crop commonly grown in € Hindi, written in theDevanagari script, was adopted the Kutch region of Gujarat and the artists source as the official language of the Republic of India th it from the local farmers. on 14 September 1949. ¾ Patterns: z Kaka Kalelkar, Maithili Sharan Gupta, Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Seth Govindadas played an € The intricate motifs – geometric flowers, peacocks, the tree of life, etc. – are drawn from the history important role in the contributions to make and folk culture of the Kutch region. Hindi the official language. ¾ Process: € Besides Hindi, English is the other official language of India (Article 343 of the Constitution). € The castor paste is mixed with natural colours and then is drawn out into a fine ‘thread’ with ametal € Hindi is also an Eighth schedule language. stylus or ‘Kalam’. This metal rod never comes in € Article 351pertains to ‘Directive for development contact with the fabric. of the Hindi language’.

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¾ World Hindi Day: It is observed on 10th January, every year. Promotion of Buddhist Sites € The Day commemorates the anniversary of the first World Hindi Conference held in Nagpur on Why in News th 10 January 1975, which saw 122 delegates from Recently, the Ministry of Tourism has undertaken 30 countries participating in it. development of tourism-related infrastructure and facilities € It was first celebrated in 2006 by former at various Buddhist sites in the country under its flagship Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh with schemes of Swadesh Darshan and PRASHAD. an aim to promote the Hindi language across ¾ India’s Buddhist heritage is not only important from the world. the tourism point of view but is also a binding factor € The World Hindi Secretariat building was that strengthens its relationship with Asian countries, inaugurated in Mauritius in 2018. in line with its Act East Policy. ¾ About the Hindi Language: Key Points € Origin: ¾ Steps Taken to Promote Buddhist Sites: z Hindi got its name from the Persian word Hind, meaning ‘land of the Indus River’. € Swadesh Darshan Scheme: It has included Buddhist th circuit and Spiritual circuit among its 13 thematic z Turkish invaders in the early 11 century named the language of the region Hindi, ‘language of circuits under which Buddhist sites are being promoted. the land of the Indus River’. € PRASHAD Scheme: 30 projects for the development z The modern Devanagari script came into of infrastructure have also been undertaken under existence in the 11th century. the PRASHAD Scheme. € Spoken in Countries Outside India: Hindi is the fifth € Iconic Tourist Sites: Buddhist sites at Bodhgaya, most spoken language among the total languages Ajanta and Ellora have been identified to be spoken in the world. developed as Iconic Tourist Sites (aimed at z It is spoken in Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, enhancing India’s soft power). USA, UK, Germany, New Zealand, UAE, Uganda, € Buddhist Conclave: Buddhist Conclave is organised Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad, Mauritius, and every alternate year with the objective of promoting South Africa. India as a Buddhist destination and major markets ¾ Government Initiatives to Promote Hindi: around the globe. € The Central Hindi Directorate was established € Diversity of Languages: Signages have been installed in 1960 by the Government of India under the in the Chinese language at Buddhist monuments Ministry of Education. in Uttar Pradesh and in theSinhala language (the € Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) official language of Sri Lanka) at Sanchi monuments has established ‘Hindi Chairs’ in various foreign in Madhya Pradesh. universities/institutions abroad. ¾ Swadesh Darshan Scheme: € LILA-Rajbhasha (Learn Indian Languages through € It is a Central Sector Scheme, launched in 2014- Artificial Intelligence) is a multimedia-based 15 for integrated development of theme-based intelligent self-tutoring application for learning tourist circuits in the country. Hindi. € Under the scheme, the Ministry of Tourism provides € E-Saral Hindi Vakya Kosh and E-Maha Shabdakosh Central Financial Assistance (CFA) to state/UT Mobile App, both initiatives of the Department governments for infrastructure development of of Official Language, aim to harness information circuits. technology for the growth of Hindi. € This scheme is envisioned to synergise with other € Rajbhasha Gaurav Puraskar and Rajbhasha Kirti schemes like Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Skill India, Puraskar recognise contributions to Hindi. Make in India, etc. with the idea of positioning the

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tourism sector as a major engine for job creation, destinations was included in the PRASAD driving force for economic growth, building synergy scheme, changing it to PRASHAD. with various sectors to enable tourism to realise € Implementation Agency: The projects identified its potential. under this scheme shall be implemented through ¾ PRASHAD Scheme: the identified agencies by the respective state/UT € The National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation governments. and Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD) was € Objective: launched by the Ministry of Tourism in the year z Rejuvenation and spiritual augmentation 2014-15 with the objective ofholistic development of important national/global pilgrimage and of identified pilgrimage destinations. heritage sites. € The name of the scheme was changed from PRASAD z Follow community-based development and to ‘National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation create awareness among the local communities. and Spiritual, Heritage Augmentation Drive z Integrated tourism development of heritage (PRASHAD)’ in October 2017. city, local arts, culture, handicrafts, cuisine, etc. z After the discontinuation of the HRIDAY to generate livelihood. scheme of the Ministry of Housing and Urban z Strengthen the mechanism for bridging the Development, the development of heritage infrastructural gaps.

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Social Issues

Highlights z Kiran: Mental Health Rehabilitation Helpline z Cooperative Labour in Odisha Tribes

the personal risk to be infected to what economic Kiran: Mental Health prospects might look like. Rehabilitation Helpline € Mental Illness: z There was a shortage of qualified mental health while and Why in News professionals 10.6% of adults 7.3% of adolescents faced mental illness, according The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to a NIMHANS survey in 2015-2016. Greater has launched a 24/7 toll-free helpline ‘Kiran’ to provide prevalence is amongst persons living in Urban support to people facing anxiety, stress, depression, Metros. suicidal thoughts and other mental health concerns. z Treatment Gap ranges from 70% to 92%. ¾ Earlier, the had launched the Ministry of Education z The treatment gap is the number of people ‘Manodarpan’ initiative to provide psycho-social with an illness, disease, or disorder who need support and counselling to students for their mental treatment but do not get it (expressed as a health and well-being. percentage). It can be used as an outcome measure in health care. Key Points € Suicide was the leading cause of death in India ¾ About the Helpline: in 2016 for those aged 15–39 years; 71.2% of the € It will cater to - People in Distress, pandemic suicide deaths among women and 57.7% among induced psychological issues and Mental Health men were in this age group. Emergency. € As per the World Health Organisation (WHO), € It will offer mental health rehabilitation services mental health workforces in India (per 1,00,000 with the objective of early screening, first-aid, population) include psychiatrists (0.3), nurses (0.12), psychological support, distress management, psychologists (0.07) and social workers (0.07). promoting positive behaviours, etc. € As per WHO global health report 2019, out of € It will be available in 13 languages and has 660 every four persons, one person will have some clinical/rehabilitation psychologists and 668 mental problem at a given point of time in their psychiatrists as volunteers. lives. Mental illness is among the leading causes € It is being coordinated by the National Institute of disability and ill- health in the world. for the Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities (NIEPMD), Chennai (Tamil Nadu) and Cooperative National Institute of Mental Health Rehabilitation (NIMHR), Sehore (Madhya Pradesh). Labour in Odisha Tribes z NIEPMD and NIMHR are under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. Why in News € Helpline operators had been sensitisednot to ask The concept of labour cooperatives is popular in the caller for name or any identification details. almost all tribal communities in Odisha including the ¾ Need: Dongria Kondh, Juanga, Lanjia Saura, Saura, Didayi, Paudi € Uncertainties due to Covid-19 pandemic: From Bhuyan and Kandh.

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Key Points Dongria Kondh ¾ Need: Farming on the steep hill slopes requires ¾ About: They derive their name from dongar, meaning more labour which a single family cannot provide. ‘hill’ and are the member of Khond Tribe Therefore, they have evolved an indigenous system ¾ Status: They are a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group. to engage the labour available in the community to ¾ Habitation: They reside in the Niyamgiri hill range accomplish the farming tasks of all the families of of Odisha, around 4,500 ft above sea level. the village. ¾ Language: Kui language (Oral only, not written) ¾ Benefit:These cooperatives ensure all families of the ¾ Beliefs: They worship Niyam Raja, the god of the community are ensured food and no fields remain Niyamgiri Forests. barren. They also strengthen the feeling of collective ¾ Occupation: They sustain themselves from the belongingness among the members. resources of the Niyamgiri forests, practising ¾ Cooperatives in Different Tribes: horticulture and shifting cultivation € Lanjia Saura: All members are bound to participate ¾ Issues: They are currently facing displacement due in constructing terraces for farming on the slopes to the Bauxite mining in the Niyamgiri hills. and designing and creating traditional irrigation € They are also facing severe health problems systems, harnessing hill streams. because of dust coming from the red mud pond € Juanga community: All villagers trek hills, clear (waste generated by the refinery)site . trees and create crop fields. The village council Tribes in Odisha ensures that all members contribute their ¾ Odisha is home to 62 tribal communities — the labour. largest diverse groups of tribal population in India. z The Juanga and Saura are Munda ethnic groups € 13 of them are PVTGs— Bonda, Birhor, Chuktia from Southern Odisha. Bhunjia, Didayi, Dungaria Kandha, Hill Kharia, z They are Austroasiatic tribes i.e. they are believed Juang, Kutia Kondh, Lanjia Saora, Lodha, to be part of the first wave of migration out Mankirdia, Paudi Bhuyan and Saora. of Africa about 60,000 years ago. ¾ Tribal populations are found in the entire seven € Dongria Kondh: This tribe practices at least 10 districts of Kandhamal, Mayurbhanj, Sundargarh, types of cooperative labour sharing within the Nabarangpur, Koraput, Malkangiri and Rayagada, community. and in parts of 6 other districts.

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Security

Highlights z Special Frontier Force: Vikas Battalion z Administration of Assam Rifles

€ The units that comprise the SFF are known as Special Frontier Vikas battalions. Force: Vikas Battalion € They are highly trained special forces personnel who can undertake a variety of tasks which Why in News would normally be performed by any special forces unit. The Special Frontier Force (SFF) unit, referred to as € Women soldiers, too, form a part of SFF units and Vikas Battalion, has been said to be instrumental in perform specialised tasks. preventing Chinese occupation on the Line of Actual ¾ Control (LAC) in Ladakh. Link with Army: The SFF units are not part of the Army but they function under the operational control Key Points of the Army. ¾ History: SFF was established on 14th November 1962 in € The units have their own rank structures which the immediate aftermath of the1962 Sino-India war. have equivalent status with Army ranks. € After the 1962 war, theCentral Intelligence agency € They have their own training establishment (CIA) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) decided to where the recruits to SFF are imparted special train a 5,000-strong force of Tibetans for possible forces training. missions against China. ¾ Major Operations: Operation Eagle (India- € The CIA had been involved in a covert programme Pakistan war in 1971), Operation Bluestar (clearing to train Tibetan guerrillas to fight the Chinese Amritsar’s Golden Temple in 1984), Operation Megh- forces in Tibet since the 1950s. doot (securing the Siachen glacier in 1984) and z The CIA is a civilian foreign intelligence service Operation Vijay (war with Pakistan at Kargil in of the federal government of the USA. 1999) and many counter-insurgency operations in the country. z During the 1950s, CIA and IB established Mustang Base in Mustang in Nepal, which trained Tibetans € Operation Eagle: In 1971, the SFF operated in in guerilla warfare. The Mustang rebels brought the Chittagong hill tracts in East Pakistan (later the 14th Dalai Lama to India during the 1959 Bangladesh) to neutralise Pakistan Army positions Tibetan Uprising. and help the Indian Army advance ahead. € The recruits initially consisted of Tibetan refugees ¾ Criticism: SFF was involved in a joint operation with hailing from the Khampa community and now it the CIA in 1965 to place a nuclear-powered device on has a mixture of Tibetans and Gorkhas. Mount Nanda Devi (Uttarakhand) to monitor China’s € It was previously named Establishment-22 as it nuclear weapons tests. However, the mission had to was raised by Major General Sujan Singh Uban, an be abandoned and the nuclear-powered device was Artillery officer who had commanded 22 Mountain lost on the mountain. Regiment. € The loss of the nuclear-powered sensor was ¾ About: SFF falls under the purview of the Cabinet reported by Indian media outlets in 1978, prompting Secretariat and is headed by an Inspector General a response from the then Prime Minister on Indian who is an Army officer of the rank of Major General. involvement in the mission.

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to be paramount but is proclaimed from various Administration platforms of the Government, to be paramount”. of Assam Rifles ¾ Centre’s Stand: € The in-principle decision, that Assam Rifles like Why in News other Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) should come under the exclusive control of MHA, appears Recently, the Delhi High Court has directed the Centre to have already been taken but the final decision to take a decision on the issue of bringing Assam Rifles has not been made official yet. out of the dual control of the Ministry of Home Affairs € The Centre has asked for a period of further six (MHA) and the Ministry of Defence (MoD). months as the process has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Key Points ¾ Background: Assam Rifles ¾ € A petition was filed by the Assam Rifles Ex- Assam Rifles is aCentral Paramilitary Force under Servicemen Welfare Association seeking direction the Central Armed Police Forces. to the government for placing Assam Rifles under ¾ It came into being in 1835, as a militia called the one control, preferably under the MoD. ‘Cachar Levy’, to primarily protect British Tea ¾ Issue: estates and their settlements against tribal raids. ¾ It significantly € The administrative control of the Assam Rifles contributed to the opening of Assam is with the MHA and the operational control of region to administration and commerce and over Assam Rifles rests with the MoD. time it came to be known as the “right arm of the civil and left arm of the military”. z This duality of administrative control and ¾ operational control leads to problems of Major role post-Independence: coordination. € Conventional combat role during theSino-India War 1962. € The objectives and functions of Assam Rifles are that of military and paramilitary force and € Operations in a foreign land as part of the considering it anything less than that is arbitrary, Indian Peace Keeping Force to Sri Lanka in 1987 unreasonable and in violation of the rights of (Operation Pawan). Assam Rifles personnel. € Peacekeeping role in the North-Eastern areas € There is a disparity in the pay scale between the of India. Assam Rifles personnel operating alongside the ¾ In November 2019, MHA proposed to merge it with Army on similar duties. the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). ¾ Delhi High Court’s Direction: € ITBP is a specialized mountain force, raised in October 1962. € The issue has been pending for nearly three years and now the Centre should resolve it within 12 € It is deployed on border guarding duties from weeks with cooperation from all the stakeholders. Karakoram Pass in Ladakh to Jachep La in Arunachal Pradesh covering 3488 km of Indo- € It noted that “The matter involves servicemen/ China Border. ex-servicemen and whose interest is not only

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Miscellaneous

Highlights z Indira Gandhi Peace Prize 2019 z Real Mango: An Illegal Software

¾ Notable Recipients of Indira Gandhi Peace Prize: Indira Gandhi Peace Prize 2019 € Parliamentarians for Global Action (1986) € UNICEF (1989) Why in News € M S Swaminathan (1999) Sir David Attenborough has been conferred with € Kofi Annan (2003) Indira Gandhi Peace Prize for 2019 at a virtual ceremony. € Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) (2014) Key Points € UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHRC) (2015) € Centre for Science and Environment (2018) ¾ Indira Gandhi Peace Prize: € The Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development is an annual prestigious award Real Mango: An Illegal Software named after former prime minister Indira Gandhi. € It is conferred every year by Indira Gandhi Memorial Why in News Trust since 1986. In a nationwide investigation, Railway Protection € It consists of a citation and a monetary award of Force (RPF) has disrupted the operation ofillegal software Rs. 25 lakh. called “Real Mango” - used for cornering confirmed € The award recognizes creative efforts byindividuals/ Railway reservation. organizations working towards: z Creating new international economic order, Key Points z Promoting international peace & development, ¾ About: Real Mango software is an illegal software z Ensuring that scientific discoveries are used for developed for booking Tatkal tickets. the larger good of humanity and enlarging the ¾ Working: scope of freedom. € Real mango softwarebypasses captcha. ¾ David Attenborough: € It synchronises bank OTP with help of a mobile app € Sir David is an English broadcaster and natural and feeds it to the requisite form automatically. historian. € The software auto-fillsthe passenger details and € He is best known for writing and presenting the payment details in the forms. BBC Natural History Unit. CAPTCHA z The nine natural history documentary series ¾ CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public forming the Life collection that together Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. constitute acomprehensive survey of animal and plant life on Earth. ¾ CAPTCHA determines whether the user is real or a spam robot. € He has worked to make aware about the need ¾ to- preserve and protect biodiversity of the CAPTCHA uses several human validation methods planet, to live in a sustainable and harmonious including math or general knowledge questions, way with all life. visual puzzles and even chess puzzles.

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€ The software logs in to the IRCTC website through possibility of ticket hoarding and black marketing multiple IRCTC Ids. of tickets. € Following these steps multiple tickets can be ¾ Significance: The information supplied by RPF will booked. And it leads to swift online tickets booking help the Centre for Railway Information Systems by agents whereas common people may not get (CRIS) to strengthen security features in the Passenger the tickets booked on their own. This creates the ReservationSystem (PRS).

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Summary Key Points Details

Summary