MAY 2021 IASredefining your google GOOGLE A Magazine by MAY 2021 CONTENTS COVER STORY - THE ELUSIVE PLANET NINE 1. ECONOMY 1.1 Treasury Bill 1.2 India’s March trade deficit widens to $14.11 billion – govt 1.3 Millet farming sees revival in India 1.4 Tata-Mistry judgment: What SC has said about the rights of minority shareholders? 1.5 Working of Pre-pack under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 1.6 Vivad Se Vishwas Scheme 1.7 India Energy Exchange (IEX) 1.8 Payments bank deposit limit doubled by RBI 1.9 Government Securities Acquisition Programme (G-SAP) 1.10 PLI Scheme ‘National Programme on High Efficiency Solar PV Modules’ 1.11 Navigating Fall of Rupee 1.12 Monetary policy review: RBI changes the way it forecasts inflation rate 1.13 India unlikely to go along with US’ global minimum corporate tax proposal 1.14 Currency Chest 1.15 Surge in Wholesale Price Index (WPI) 1.16 RBI’s panel to review ARCs working 1.17 Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) and the National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) 1.18 India’s oil and gas production is falling 1.19 Codex Committee on Spices and Culinary Herbs (CCSCH) 1.20 Govt approves subsidy policy for urea produced through coal gasification 1.21 New SEBI rule for fund manager compensation 1.22 Index of Eight Core Sector Industries 2. INDIA AND WORLD IAS GOOGLE – MONTHLY CURRENT AFFAIRS BOOKLET 1 MAY 2021 2.1 Exercise Shantir Ogroshena 2.2 Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) 2.3 CM Kejriwal to attend World Cities Culture Forum 2.4 La Perouse Joint Exercise 2.5 E9 Initiative 2.6 BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meet 2.7 India-Seychelles High Level Virtual Event 2.8 Singapore calls for India’s reassessment of regional trade pacts 2.9 Hot Springs and Gogra Post 2.10 US keeps India in currency practices monitoring 2.11 USCIRF recommends India for countries of particular concern tag 2.12 India-US Clean Energy Initiative 2.13 Project DANTAK 2.14 Supply Chain Resilience Initiative launched by Australia-India-Japan 3. INTERNATIONAL 3.1 Global Gender Gap Report 2021 3.2 World Happiness Report 2020 3.3 Everyone’s Invited Platform 3.4 What’s in the China-Iran Strategic Cooperation Agreement? 3.5 Saudi Arabia has raised oil shipping costs to Asia 3.6 Fall in Crude Oil Prices 3.7 Ukraine pressures Nato to speed path to membership 3.8 Iran ship in Red Sea blast, suspicion falls on Israel 3.9 Reversing Trump, Biden Restores Aid to Palestinians 3.10 Iran Nuclear Talk 3.11 3,000-Year-Old ‘Lost Golden City’ Found in Egypt 3.12 Japan to release contaminated Fukushima water into the ocean 3.13 Raisina Dialogue 2021 3.14 Valley of the Fallen IAS GOOGLE – MONTHLY CURRENT AFFAIRS BOOKLET 2 MAY 2021 3.15 Pterosaur Species 3.16 UN Food Systems Summit 2021 3.17 International Day for Monuments and Sites 3.18 State of Population Report 2021 3.19 Renewed Tension between Russia and the Czech Republic 3.20 World Press Freedom Index 3.21 Boao Forum for Asia 3.22 UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) 3.23 Tyrannosaurus Rex 3.24 US prepares to recognise Armenian genocide 3.25 Crisis in Chad 3.26 Military Expenditure Report by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) 3.27 Chandler Good Government Index (CGGI) 3.28 Saudi Green Initiative and the Middle East Green Initiative 3.29 World Happiness Report 2021 3.30 Immunisation Agenda 2030 4. NATIONAL 4.1 AIM-PRIME 4.2 MyNEP2020 Platform 4.3 Utkala Dibasa or Utkala Divas 4.4 National Policy for Rare Diseases 2021 4.5 Chenab Arch Bridge 4.6 Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthan Mahabhiyan (PM-KUSUM) 4.7 Supreme Court Portal for Assistance in Court’s Efficiency (SUPACE) 4.8 Civil Defence Volunteer 4.9 Durbar Move 4.10 Govt. to reboot dated Opium strategy 4.11 Interim Appointments for CBI Director 4.12 Jyotirao Phule ‘Tika Utsav (vaccination festival)’ IAS GOOGLE – MONTHLY CURRENT AFFAIRS BOOKLET 3 MAY 2021 4.13 How Punjab govt is trying to involve Arhtiyas in direct payment to farmers? 4.14 Standoff between Delhi govt and FCI 4.15 DGFT Trade Facilitation App 4.16 Goa’s Advanced Antiquities Management System 4.17 President appoints Sushil Chandra as Chief Election Commissioner of India 4.18 “75″ series Pension Awareness 4.19 India Energy Dashboards 4.20 Register of Indigenous Inhabitants of Nagaland (RIIN) 4.21 Jallianwala Bagh Massacre 4.22 New Year Festival in States 4.23 Pilot Project for 100 villages 4.24 Eatsmart Cities Challenge and Transport 4 All Challenge 4.25 Simplification of re-issue process for OCI cardholders 4.26 Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) 4.27 Startup India Seed Fund Scheme 4.28 Supreme Court paves way for appointment of ad-hoc judges in HCs 4.29 Special Task Force (STF) under Article 311 4.30 Legal status of cryptocurrencies in India 4.31 Civil Services Day – April 21 4.32 Cybercrime Volunteer Programme 4.33 Power Grid Infrastructure Investment Trust (PGInvIT) 4.34 Resignation by Judges in the High Court 5. POLITICAL ISSUES, HUMAN RIGHTS AND GOVERNANCE 5.1 Article 244 (A), its relevance for Assam hill tribes, and the politics 5.2 Sankalp se Siddhi 5.3 Haryana Assembly amended rules for conduct of business 5.4 Mukhya Mantri Chiranjeevi Swasthya Bima Yojana (MMCSBY) 5.5 National Security Act (NSA) 5.6 Disqualification of MLAs 5.7 Lab on Wheels Programme IAS GOOGLE – MONTHLY CURRENT AFFAIRS BOOKLET 4 MAY 2021 5.8 Anamaya 5.9 Shaphari: Certification scheme to encourage good aquaculture practices 5.10 NanoSniffer 5.11 India’s stance on ‘refugees’ and ‘illegal immigrants’ 5.12 e-SANTA Web Portal 5.13 MANAS Platform 5.14 Online Grievance Management Portal for Scheduled Castes (SCs) 5.15 National Startup Advisory Council 5.16 DuroKea Series Product 5.17 SVAMITVA Scheme 5.18 Assam Swanirbhar Nari Atmanirbhar Scheme 5.19 Sunidhi Project 6. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 6.1 Novel technique for tracking solar eruptions 6.2 Chaff Rocket 6.3 Wolf–Rayet stars or WR stars 6.4 Classical Swine Fever (CSF) and Sheep Pox 6.5 Muon g–2 vs Standard Model 6.6 What makes India’s double mutant COVID variant, B.1.617 so concerning? 6.7 Sputnik V Vaccine 6.8 HGCO19 Vaccine 6.9 Improvement in Lithium-ion Battery Performance 6.10 Initiatives for National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) 6.11 Coronavirus Transmission is Primarily Airborne 6.12 Whitest Paint 6.13 Dogecoin 6.14 Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) 6.15 Ingenuity Mission on Mars 6.16 Six Minute Walk Test 6.17 Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Mk III Aircraft IAS GOOGLE – MONTHLY CURRENT AFFAIRS BOOKLET 5 MAY 2021 6.18 Oxygen Therapy for COVID-19 Patients 6.19 RESPOND Programme of ISRO 6.20 NASA’s Perseverance mission produced oxygen on Mars 6.21 Significance of the Crew-2 Mission 6.22 Reaching Zero Forum on Malaria Elimination 6.23 Role of nitric oxide in fighting coronavirus 6.24 Brucellosis – Four cows culled at Vithura farm 6.25 Russia to leave the International Space Station 6.26 Zhurong: China’s first Mars Rover 6.27 Harlequin Ichthyosis 6.28 Drug for common bowel disorder found to blunt Covid-19 vaccine response 6.29 NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation) 6.30 Python-5 Missile 6.31 Oldest Water on Earth 6.32 China launches first module of new space station 7. SOCIAL ISSUES AND DEVELOPMENT 7.1 Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin 7.2 Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP) 7.3 Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) 7.4 Aahaar Kranti 7.5 Poshan Gyan 7.6 Gender Samvaad 7.7 Reforms in the National Pension System (NPS) 7.8 Maharashtra’s two-child norm for government employees 7.9 TRIFED joins hands with The LINK Fund for tribal development 8. ENVIRONMENT 8.1 Forest Fire in Bandhavgarh National Park 8.2 Pollution Control Boards to Increase Capacity – NGT Orders 8.3 Frequent Forest Fires in India 8.4 Clean Ganga Fund IAS GOOGLE – MONTHLY CURRENT AFFAIRS BOOKLET 6 MAY 2021 8.5 What happened when the oceans went quiet during the pandemic? 8.6 FIA introduces sustainable fuel into Formula 1 8.7 Doomsday Glacier 8.8 Navegaon-Nagzira Tiger Reserve 8.9 Odisha forest dept claims dolphin population doubled in a year 8.10 New Bamboo-Dwelling Bat Species in Meghalaya 8.12 State of the Global Climate for 2020 8.13 Green New Deal (GND) 8.14 Why fishermen in Odisha’s Ganjam are protesting plan for Blue Flag beaches? 8.15 Himalayan Front Thrust (HFT) 8.16 South Asian Climate Outlook Forum (SASCOF) 8.17 Global Forest Goals Report 2021 IAS GOOGLE – MONTHLY CURRENT AFFAIRS BOOKLET 7 MAY 2021 THE ELUSIVE PLANET NINE For the past few years, planetary astronomers have been extensively debating the possibility of the existence of a large planet in the outermost parts of the solar system, well beyond Pluto. In the early 1990s, two astronomers scanning the skies for faint objects beyond Neptune found the Kuiper belt, containing thousands of objects larger than 100km across. This vast assembly of objects was dubbed the trans- Neptunian objects. It was also realised that Pluto is not the only large object in these outer reaches of the solar system. Sedna (about half the size of Pluto), Quaoar, and Eris (about Pluto-size) were found.