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INDEX 1. GLOSSARY 2. EXAMPLES FOR MAINS 3. TOPIC OF THE MONTH 4. POLITY 4.1 DNA TECHNOLOGY (USE AND APPLICATION) BILL, 2019 4.2 LATERAL ENTRY INTO THE ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES 4.3 CORRUPTION PERCEPTION INDEX 2020 4.4 NOTIFICATION REGARDING IT RULES 2021 4.5 PRESIDENT’s RULE IN PUDUCHERRY 5. ECONOMY 5.1 NATIONAL RAIL PLAN 5.2 e-NAM (NATIONAL AGRICULTURE MARKET) 5.3 IMPORTANT SCHEMES IN BUDGET 2021-22 5.4 AGEING OF DAMS IN INDIA 5.5 JAL JEEVAN MISSION 5.6 SAKSHAM PORTAL AND SEAWEED MISSION 5.7 MGNREGS 5.8 NATIONAL COAL INDEX 5.9 NATIONAL FOOD SECURITY MISSION (NFSM) 5.10 INCREASED FOREIGN PORTFOLIO INVESTMENTS 5.11 WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION 5.12 INDIA ENERGY OUTLOOK 2021 5.13 DRAFT BLUE ECONOMY POLICY 5.14 MODEL BILL ON CONCLUSIVE LAND TILTING 5.15 ANIMAL HUSBANDRY 5.16 SCHEME OF FUND FOR REGENERATION OF TRADITIONAL INDUSTRIES 5.17 PLI SCHEME FOR IT HARDWARE AND PHARMACEUTICALS 5.18 CURRENCY AND FINANCE REPORT: RBI 6. INTERNATIONAL RELATION 6.1 SRI LANKA SCRAPS EAST CONTAINER TERMINAL AT COLOMBO PORT DEAL 6.2 COUP IN MYANMAR 6.3 CHABAHAR PORT 6.4 IAEA- IRAN DEAL OVER NUCLEAR INSPECTIONS 6.5 CHINA CLAIMS THE THRONE: INDIA’s LARGEST TRADING PARTNER IN 2020 6.6 INDIA AND MAURITIUS A COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC COOPERATION AND PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT 7. ENVIRONMNET 7.1 UTTARAKHAND: GLACIER LAKE OUTBURST 7.2 14 NEW MINOR FOREST PRODUCE ITEMS ADDED 7.3 ECOSENSITIVE ZONES 7.4 THE LANCET COUNTDOWN ON HEALTH AND CLIMATE CHANGE 7.5 COELACANTH 7.6 GANGETIC RIVER DOLPHIN 7.7 HYDERABAD: TREE CITY OF THE WORLD 7.8 MAKING PEACE WITH NATURE: UNEP REPORT 7.9 DECLINING RAINFALL IN CHERRAPUNJI 7.10 GO ELECTRIC CAMPAIGN 7.11 TO ACCESS CARBON FOOTPRINT A CARBON WATCH APPLICATION 7.12 STATE OF ENVIRONMENT REPORT 2021: CSE 7.13 THRESHOLD OF 1% FOR GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISM IN FOOD CROPS IMPORTED IN INDIA 7.14 BIODIVERSITY AT LAKE CHILIKA SPECIAL REFERENCE TO MIGRATORY BIRDS 8. SOCIAL ISSUES 8.1 MEDICAL TERMINATION OF PREGNANCY (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2020 8.2 MISSION INDRADHANUSH 3.0: INTENSIFIED ONE 9. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 9.1 ARJUN MAIN BATTLE TANK MK-1A 9.2 NASA'S MARS 2020 MISSION 9.3 OPERATIONAL GUIDELINES FOR INTEGRATION OF NON-ALCOHOLIC FATTY LIVER DISEASE 9.4 INCOIS: MAPPING OF ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLAND AND LAKSHADWEEP OCEAN FLOOR 10. SECURITY 10.1 OPEN ACCESS TO GEO-SPATIAL SECTOR 10.2 FATF: RETAINS PAKISTAN IN GREY LIST 11. CULTURE 11.1 JAGANNATH TEMPLE 11.2 THOLPAVAKKOOTHU: KERALA 11. 3 AJMER SHARIF DARGAH 11.4 DICKINSONIA 11.5 MAHARAJA SUHELDEV 11.6 AADI MAHOTSAV 11.7 EPIGRAPHICAL INSCRIPTION OF VIJAYNAGARA KING KRISHNADEVARAYA 12. PRELIMS POINT GLOSSARY Effective Revenue Deficit is the difference between revenue deficit and grants for creation of capital assets. Open market operations is the sale and purchase of government securities and treasury bills by RBI or the central bank of the country. NSE co-location scam - The NSE co-location scam relates to the market manipulation at the National Stock Exchange of India, India's leading stock exchange. Allegedly select players obtained market price information ahead of the rest of the market, enabling them to front run the rest of the market, possibly breaching the NSE's purpose of demutualisation exchange governance and its robust transparency-based mechanism Co-lending - Two banks/Bank+NBFCs giving loans to a borrower. Nonfeasance - officer not doing work when required Malfeasance - officer doing wrong/illegal action, mainly for Corruption / vendetta / favoritism. Overfeasance - officer exceeds the limits of his power regardless of whether the action is for good or ill. o E.g. Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) is a statutory corporation so its employees are not considered Govt employees /Civil servants- like the Traditional Secretariat staff, Tehisildar etc. Gujarat State Election Commission (SEC) ordered them election duty for local bodies election- Citing extraordinary shortage of staff due to Corona vaccination drive. 1 | P a g e EXAMPLES FOR MAINS Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam - India for global cooperation by supplying covid vaccine to needy nations rather than vaccine nationalism Hyderabad: Bowenpally agriculture market to run on power generated from vegetable waste (Garbage to Power Plant) Transformation - Jamtara Jharkhand - Jamtara – ‘phishing capital of India’ to library movement - Infamous as India’s ‘phishing capital’, Jharkhand’s tiny Jamtara district now has 45 public libraries diverting youth away from cybercrime. Beggars learning vocational skills for life with dignity – Jaipur – Rajasthan Skill Cooperation Globalisation / Loss of Sovereignty - Super Bowl (Football League of US) features 30-second TV ad on farmers’ protest Transnational actors / Loss of sovereignty - Google threatens to remove its search engine from Australia if govt initiates code of conduct Indore district magistrate seeks forgiveness - Indore District Magistrate Manish Singh has apologised to God for the local administration’s action of dumping homeless people outside the city in the cold weather, which had led to a massive public outrage. Lingayat sub-sect’s quota demand – Regionalism, Presence of casteism in Indian Politics Chamoli Flash Floods - The effects of the climate crisis on Uttarakhand’s weather patterns and their impact on the environment’s capacity to sustain damage being done by the construction of dams makes the state particularly vulnerable. Centre vs Twitter - Content regulation on internet, Freedom of Speech Vs Abusive and Inflammatory content Freedom of Press versus fake news: USA voting software company Smartmatic filed $2.7 billion defamation suit against Fox News for false claims about voter fraud. Donald Trump and his supporters not willing to accept the election result → Capitol Hill Insurrection. 2 | P a g e TOPIC OF THE MONTH ‘BAD BANK’ TO SOLVE THE NPA CRISIS Finance Minister in her Budget speech revived the idea of a ‘bad bank’ by stating that the Centre proposes to set up an asset reconstruction company to acquire bad loans from banks. With banks expected to report even more bad loans this year, the idea of a ‘bad bank’ has gained particular significance. WHAT IS A BAD BANK? A bad bank is a financial entity set up to buy non- performing assets (NPAs), or bad loans, from banks. The aim of setting up a bad bank is to help ease the burden on banks by taking bad loans off their balance sheets and get them to lend again to customers without constraints. After the purchase of a bad loan from a bank, the bad bank may later try to restructure and sell the NPA to investors who might be interested in purchasing it. A bad bank makes a profit in its operations if it manages to sell the loan at a price higher than what it paid to acquire the loan from a commercial bank. However, generating profits is usually not the primary purpose of a bad bank the objective is to ease the burden on banks, holding a large pile of stressed assets, and to get them to lend more actively. ADVANTAGES OF SETTING UP A BAD BANK A supposed advantage in setting up a bad bank, it is argued, is that it can help consolidate all bad loans of banks under a single exclusive entity. The idea of a bad bank has been tried out in countries such as the United States, Germany, Japan and others in the past. The Troubled Asset Relief Program, also known as TARP, implemented by the U.S. Treasury in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, was modelled around the idea of a bad bank. Under the program, the U.S. Treasury bought troubled assets, such as mortgage-backed securities, from U.S. banks at the peak of the crisis, and later resold them when market conditions improved. 3 | P a g e According to reports, it is estimated that the Treasury through its operations earned nominal profits. DISADVANTAGES Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has been one of the critics, arguing that a bad bank backed by the government will merely shift bad assets from the hands of public sector banks, which are owned by the government, to the hands of a bad bank, which is again owned by the government. There is little reason to believe that a mere transfer of assets from one pocket of the government to another will lead to a successful resolution of these bad debts, when the set of incentives facing these entities is essentially the same. Other analysts believe that unlike a bad bank set up by the private sector, a bad bank backed by the government is likely to pay too much for stressed assets. While this may be good news for public sector banks, which have been reluctant to incur losses by selling off their bad loans at cheap prices, it is bad news for taxpayers, who will once again have to foot the bill for bailing out troubled banks. WILL IT REVIVE CREDIT FLOW? Some experts believe that by taking bad loans off the books of troubled banks, a bad bank can help free capital of over ₹5 lakh crore that is locked in by banks as provisions against these bad loans. This, they say, will give banks the freedom to use the freed-up capital to extend more loans to their customers. This gives the impression that banks have unused funds lying in their balance sheets that they could use if only they could get rid of their bad loans. It is, however, important not to mistake banks’ reserve requirements for their capital position. This is because what may be stopping banks from lending more aggressively may not be the lack of sufficient reserves, which banks need to maintain against their loans.