CONTENTS Sl. No. Topic Page No. India needs to be prepared to deal with the growing Sino-Pak 1 1 nexus Crimes against Scheduled Tribes saw 26% rise in 2019: NCRB 2 1 report 3 Three-fold increase in leopard capture, translocation: study 2 4 TRAI’s New Tariff Order/Issues 3 5 United Nations 75 years, its birth/achievements / failures. 4 Coronavirus spike protein, clues to why some patients have 6 6 runaway inflammation 544 New species discovered in the country last year / “Animals 7 7 and Plants Discoveries 2019” 8 China, South Korea join WHO’s COVAX facility 8 9 India’s economy to contract by 10.3% this fiscal, says IMF 9 10 SVAMITVA Scheme 9 11 The STARS Program. 10 12 New research sheds light on declining star formation in Milky Way 11 13 National Authority of Ship Recycling (NASR) 12 14 AZD7442: A cocktail of antibodies to fight Covid-19 13 15 UVIT: India’s first multi-wavelength astronomical observatory 14 16 India fares poorly in hunger index. Global Hunger Index 2020 15 17 Repurposed drugs did not cut down mortality : WHO 16 18 Anti-ulcer drug shows promise in suppressing coronavirus 17 19 Need for India to urgently step up efforts to improve its sex ratio. 17 20 Using holographic imaging to detect viruses and antibodies 18 21 The Human Cost of Disasters Report (2000-2019) 19 22 Uranium Supply from Australia 20 23 Hybrid model of ‘smart’ fence being tested along the LoC 21 24 Ayushman Sahakar Scheme 21 October 2020 [ii] Sl. No. Topic Page No. New research: Coronavirus ‘molecular scissor’ as a target of 25 22 Covid-19 drugs. 26 More than half of farmers oppose farm laws: survey 23 27 Ghar Tak Fibre Scheme 24 28 State Water Grid to overcome flood crisis 24 29 COVIRAP : diagnostic test 25 30 Blue Dot Network 26 31 State of Global Air 2020 report. 27 32 Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill, 2020 28 Scientists discover new organ in the throat while studying prostate 33 31 cancer. Scientists discover over 1,000 stars with planets that might be 34 32 observing Earth for signs of life. 35 NASA is planning to send humans to the moon again by 2024 33 36 Air pollution now biggest health risk in India, says report 35 37 Two new Ramsar Sites. 36 38 Tectonically Active Zone of Himalayas. 37 A 100 million-year-old fish in Kerala, named after a Lord of the 39 39 Rings character. 40 Action Plan for Vulture Conservation 2020-2025. 40 41 The Human Cost of Disasters 2000-2019”, - UNDRR 42 42 International Snow Leopard Day 44 43 What is Atlantification? 46 44 District Development Councils (DDCs). 47 45 Five Eyes (FVEY) group of nations. 48 46 E-VIN network to handle COVID-19 vaccine supply. 49 47 ASER Survey 2020 50 48 Pelagornithids 52 49 Arctic Amplification 53 50 G -20 Anti- Corruption Working Group (ACWG) 55 51 Scientists create 3D atomic map of novel coronavirus replication 56 October 2020 [iii] Sl. No. Topic Page No. mechanism. 52 SERB-POWER Scheme. 57 53 More Contribution to Emissions by Rich 58 54 Dairy production in the Indus Valley Civilization 60 55 Earth observation satellite EOS-01 61 56 Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) 62 57 The road to economic recovery 63 58 Rising Cybercrims 64 CSIR IndiGenome resource of 1029 Indian genomes provides a 59 compendium of genetic variants representing the contemporary 66 Indian population. 60 WWF report on global water scarcity 67 61 Amended land laws for Jammu & Kashmir 68 The importance of Gilgit-Baltistan, and why Pakistan has given it 62 70 provisional province status. 63 Electing the American President 72 64 India-US Relations under Donald Trump 74 65 Electronic Waste Management 76 66 Genome India Project (GIP) 78 67 Coral Reefs, Threats and Protection 81 68 National Income and Women 82 69 Cooling Off Period for Civil Servants 84 70 Pandemic and Neoliberalism 85 71 Public Debt to GDP Ratio of India 87 New Base Year for Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers 72 89 (CPI-IW) 73 Recent Governance Reforms 90 74 Punjab Farm Bills: What, Why and the Way Ahead 92 75 Share Buyback: Meaning and Purpose 94 76 Inflation Targeting: Boon or Bane? 95 77 15 Years of the Right to Information (RTI) Act 96 October 2020 [iv] India needs to be prepared to deal with the growing Sino- Pak nexus With the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting in sight, Pakistan is gearing up to gather support from China to avoid the blacklisting. Reports suggest that Islamabad is likely to persuade the US to support it as it feels it can leverage its much-lauded role as a successful negotiator in the US-Taliban agreement signed on February 29. While Pakistan will have support from Turkey and Malaysia, Beijing is expected to push hard in Pakistan’s favour at the meeting. Pakistan has been on the FATF grey list since June 2018 and even though Islamabad is getting its progress report ready, there is little evidence to suggest that its faith in the use of terrorism as a state policy against India will change. Pakistan’s growing alliance with China has been a major factor that has alleviated international pressure on it, altering its strategic calculus. Beijing’s all-out support to Pakistan provided room to shrink Islamabad’s reliance on the West (especially the US). Importantly, Pakistan’s military build-up has continued with Chinese defence imports despite its economic slowdown and mounting debt. China’s lavish military assistance to Pakistan has been on four critical fronts: Export of Chinese conventional military equipment; support in Pakistan’s nuclear build-up; assistance to Pakistan’s indigenous defence industry and intelligence sharing. It looks like China wants its alliance with Pakistan to serve as an exemplar to smaller nations in South Asia and the Middle East to fulfil its boundless strategic and economic ambition. The Sino-Pak nexus is expected to grow further in the coming years and India needs to be strategically prepared to deal with the implications of the alliance. Crimes against Scheduled Tribes saw 26% rise in 2019: NCRB report Crimes against members of the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the Scheduled Tribes (STs) saw an increase of over 7% and 26% in 2019 compared with the 2018 figures, according to the annual Crime in India 2019 report published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). Due to “non-receipt of data” from West Bengal for 2019, the 2018 data had been used to arrive at national and city-wise figures, the NCRB said. A total of 45,935 cases were registered for committing crimes against the SCs, showing an increase of 7.3% over 2018 when 42,793 such cases were 1 recorded. At 11,829 cases, Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of crimes against the SCs in 2019, followed by 6,794 cases in Rajasthan and 6,544 cases in Bihar, the report said. Rape cases In the number of cases of rape of women belonging to the SCs, Rajasthan topped the list with 554, followed by Uttar Pradesh at 537 and Madhya Pradesh at 510. A total of 8,257 cases were registered for crimes against the STs, an increase of 26.5% over 2018 when 6,528 such cases were registered. Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest number of cases against the STs as it recorded 1,922, followed by Rajasthan, which recorded 1,797 and Odisha 576. The highest number of incidents of rape of tribal women (358) was registered in Madhya Pradesh. A total of 51,56,172 cognisable crimes, comprising 32,25,701 Indian Penal Code ones and 19,30,471 Special and Local Laws crimes were registered in 2019. It showed an increase of 1.6% in registration of cases over 2018 (50,74,635 cases), the NCRB said. A total of 4,05,861 cases of crimes against women were registered in 2019 compared to 3,78,236 cases in 2018, showing an increase of 7.3%. CHRI statement The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), a police reforms advocacy group, said few cases were being registered for specific discriminatory action against the SCs and the STs. Three-fold increase in leopard capture, translocation: study A study conducted across Karnataka indicates that the policy guidelines brought out by the government to mitigate human-leopard conflict and discourage translocation of the animal have had little impact on the ground. The number of leopards captured per month increased more than threefold (from 1.5 to 4.6) after the human-leopard policy guidelines were brought out in 2011. Similarly, there was a threefold increase in the number of leopards translocated per month (from 1 to 3.5). The guidelines for human-leopard conflict management were brought out in April 2011 to reduce conflict with leopards, discourage their translocation, and suggest improved ways of handling emergency conflict situations. 2 In Karnataka, 357 leopards were in conflict situations and were captured between 2009 and 2016, and the final outcome was available in the case of 314 leopards. Of these, 268 were translocated in contravention of the spirit of the policy, 34 were captured and kept in captivity, while 12 died during the capture. These findings have been published in a paper, ‘Policy to on-ground action: Evaluating a conflict policy guideline for leopards in India’, in the Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy. Taking Karnataka as a case study, the researchers analysed pre- and post- guidelines leopard captures, reasons for the captures, and the outcome for the captured leopards.