Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 3-Rationalization of subsidies on food in PDS and Fertilizers and need to reform them.
Context
As finance minister presents the budget the FM need to ensure transparency and to fully account for the food subsidy.
The excess buffer stock and need to reform
- A buffer stock norm and actual stock: A buffer stock norm is at 21.4 million tonnes (mt).
- Actual stock far exceeds the norm: The actual stocks of grains with the central pool stood at 75.5 mt.
- Which is 3.5 times what the government needs to hold.
- The economic cost of the excess stock: At its economic cost, the value of the excess stocks with the government stands at Rs 1.6 lakh crore.
- Potential for revenue: There is no better place to find revenue for the FM than to liquidate these stocks.
- Need for the reform in grain management system: Unless the grain management system is reformed, the inefficiency of the grain management system will keep on increasing and the nation will suffer.
Food subsidy reforms
- Link food prices to procurement price: It is the time to revise the central issue of price and link it to the procurement price-say at half the procurement price.
- Limit the population coverage: There is a need to limit this highly subsidised food of Rs 3/kg for rice and Rs 2/kg of wheat to say 40 per cent of the population.
- Move to DBT: The real fundamental reform would be to move towards direct cash transfers for the intended beneficiaries of food subsidy.
Fertiliser subsidy reforms
- Imbalance in the subsidisation: The real problem of this sector is the imbalance in the policy of fertiliser subsidisation.
- While urea (N) is subsidised to the extent of 75 per cent of its cost, phosphatic (P) and potassic (K) fertilisers are subsidised only to the tune of about 25 per cent of their cost.
- Consequences of this imbalance: The result is the highly imbalanced use of N, P and K on farmers’ fields. Which results in
- Giving a very low fertiliser-to-grain response ratio.
- Degrading the soil.
- Degrading underground water.
- Degrading the environment with excessive nitrogen use.
- Discouragement to natural farming: The current fertiliser subsidy discourages those who want to pursue natural farming as they don’t get subsidy anywhere near the amount chemical-based fertilisers do.
- Reforms: There are two ways in which the fertiliser subsidy regime can be reformed.
- Bring nitrogenous fertiliser under NBS: The solution to the imbalance in use is to bring nitrogenous fertilisers under the Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) scheme.
- Cash transfer based on per hectare basis: The second option is to move towards direct cash transfers for fertilisers on a per hectare basis, with some adjustment for irrigated tracts.
- 50,000 Crore saving: The above-mentioned reforms could result in the saving of Rs. 50,000 crores to the public exchequer.
Way forward
- Investing the savings where it matters the most: The savings from the reforms could be invested in-
- Better water management, especially drip irrigation.
- Infrastructure for agri-markets.
- Solar trees: The investments could also be made in setting up the solar trees in the farm to harvest solar power on farmer’s fields with buyback agreements for surplus production.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Cross LoC trade
Tensions between India and Pakistan in 2019 have reduced the already low volumes of trade between the two countries to near zero.
India-Pakistan trade, in the beginning
- In 1948-49, about 56% of Pakistan’s exports were to India, and 32% of its imports came from India.
- From 1948-65, India and Pakistan used a number of land routes for bilateral trade; there were eight customs stations in Pakistan’s Punjab province and three customs checkpoints in Sindh.
- India remained Pakistan’s largest trading partner until 1955-56. Between 1947 and 1965, the countries signed 14 bilateral agreements on trade, covering avoidance of double taxation, air services, and banking, etc.
- In 1965, nine branches of six Indian banks were operating in Pakistan.
Close to vanishing
- Following the terrorist attack on the CRPF convoy in Pulwama in February, India withdrew Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status for Pakistan and raised customs duty on Pakistani imports to 200% .
- In April, India suspended cross-LoC trade to stop the misuse of this route by Pakistan-based elements.
- Pakistan on its part closed its airspace to India for a prolonged period.
- The decisions by both countries, while targeted at hurting the neighbour, have severely impacted the livelihoods of individuals and families involved in cross-border trading activities.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Polio and its vaccine
Mains level: Pulse Polio Programme
The beginning of this year’s Pulse Polio Programme was inaugurated from the Rashtrapati Bhavan itself. To prevent the virus from coming to India, the government has since March 2014 made the Oral Polio Vaccination (OPV) mandatory for those travelling between India and polio-affected countries.
The Pulse Polio Programme
- India launched the Pulse Polio immunisation programme in 1995, after a resolution for a global initiative of polio eradication was adopted by the World Health Assembly (WHA) in 1988.
- Children in the age group of 0-5 years are administered polio drops during national and sub-national immunisation rounds (in high-risk areas) every year.
India is polio-free
- According to the Ministry of Health, the last polio case in the country was reported from Howrah district of West Bengal in January 2011.
- The WHO on February 24, 2012, removed India from the list of countries with active endemic wild polio virus transmission.
- Two years later, the South-East Asia Region of the WHO, of which India is a part, was certified as polio-free.
Back2Basics
What is Polio?
- The WHO defines polio or poliomyelitis as a highly infectious viral disease, which mainly affects young children.
- The virus is transmitted by person-to-person, spread mainly through the faecal-oral route or, less frequently, by a common vehicle (e.g. contaminated water or food) and multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system and can cause paralysis.
- Initial symptoms of polio include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck, and pain in the limbs. In a small proportion of cases, the disease causes paralysis, which is often permanent.
- There is no cure for polio, it can only be prevented by immunization.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Natural Gas Grid (NGG)
Mains level: Natural gas: Its uses and limitations
A study to facilitate the development of a National Gas Grid is to be undertaken soon by a U.S. entity. The Government has last year envisaged developing the NGG.
National Gas Grid
- At present about 16,788 Km natural gas pipeline is operational and about 14,239 Km gas pipelines are being developed to increase the availability of natural gas across the country.
- These pipelines have been authorized by Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) and are at various stages of execution viz. Pre-Project activities/laying/testing/commissioning etc.
Aims and Objective
- To remove regional imbalance within the country with regard to access of natural gas and provide clean and green fuel throughout the country.
- To connect gas sources to major demand centres and ensure availability of gas to consumers in various sectors.
- Development of City Gas Distribution Networks in various cities for supply of CNG and PNG.
NGG Technical Assistance Program
- The India NGG Technical Assistance programme stems from an agreement in September between PNGRB and the US Trade Development Agency (USTDA).
- The study will aim at developing an economic basis for building India’s Natural Gas Grid (NGG).
Utility of the study
- It would provide an update on the gas demand analysis, including anchor consumers, industries, city gas distribution (CGD) and emerging demand centres such as CNG and LNG for road transport.
- The study will take a fresh look at the gas supply analysis too. This includes review of LNG imports, domestic supply, potential transnational gas pipeline imports and virtual pipelines.
- Share of natural gas in India’s energy basket is 6.2% as against 23.4% globally and is expected to increase.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: In-vitro fertilization, White Rhinos
Mains level: Ethical issues surrounding IVF
Researchers had created another embryo — the third — of the nearly extinct northern white rhino. This is seen as a remarkable success in an ongoing global mission to keep the species from going extinct.
What is IVF?
- IVF is a type of assisted reproductive technology used for infertility treatment and gestational surrogacy.
- A fertilised egg may be implanted into a surrogate’s uterus, and the resulting child is genetically unrelated to the surrogate.
- Some countries have banned or otherwise regulate the availability of IVF treatment, giving rise to fertility tourism.
- Restrictions on the availability of IVF include costs and age, in order for a woman to carry a healthy pregnancy to term.
- IVF is generally not used until less invasive or expensive options have failed or been determined unlikely to work.
IVF process
- In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process of fertilization where an egg is combined with sperm outside the body, in vitro (“in glass”).
- The process involves monitoring and stimulating a female ovulatory process, removing an ovum or ova (egg or eggs) from the female ovaries and letting sperm fertilise them in a liquid in a laboratory.
- After the fertilised egg (zygote) undergoes embryo culture for 2–6 days, it is implanted in the same or another female uterus, with the intention of establishing a successful pregnancy.
Types of Rhinos
- The northern white is one of the two subspecies of the white (or square-lipped) rhinoceros, which once roamed several African countries south of the Sahara.
- The other subspecies, the southern white is, by contrast, the most numerous subspecies of rhino, and is found primarily in South Africa.
- There is also the black (or hook-lipped) rhinoceros in Africa, which too, is fighting for survival, and at least three of whose subspecies are already extinct.
- The Indian rhinoceros is different from its African cousins, most prominently in that it has only one horn.
- There is also a Javan rhino, which too, has one horn, and a Sumatran rhino which, like the African rhinos, has two horns.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Drone Census, Drone Categorization
Mains level: Regulation of drones in India
India’s first drone census has seen only 2,500 Ownership Acknowledgment Numbers (OANs) being issued by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) since five days of beginning.
Drone Census
- The MoCA had issued a notice providing a one-time opportunity for voluntary disclosure of all drones and operators starting from January 14.
- The DGCA issued the Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR), Section 3 – Air Transport Series X, Part I, Issue I, dated August 27, 2018 regulates use of drones.
- It provides the process for obtaining Unique Identification Number, Unmanned Aircraft Operator Permit (UAOP) and other operational requirements; there are drones that do not comply with the CAR.
- If a drone is not enlisted by 5 p.m. on January 31, then it will most definitely be confiscated.
- After January 31, only authorised retailers will be allowed to sell them after uploading buyers’ Know your Customer (KYC) and sale invoice, similar to the sale of mobile phones and cars.
Why such move?
- The exercise will give the government a picture of who owns what kind of drone in which part of the country.
- It will help in making policy decisions that should ideally become the base for understanding the scale of operations.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Irrawaddy Dolphins
Mains level: Not Much
146 Irrawaddy dolphins were recently sighted in Chilika Lake of Odisha. The lake has highest single lagoon population of the aquatic mammal in the world.
Irrawaddy Dolphins
- IUCN Status: Endangered
- Scientific Name: Orcaella brevirostris
- Habitats: Lakes, Rivers, Estuaries, and Coasts
- The Irrawaddy dolphin is a euryhaline species of oceanic dolphin found in discontinuous subpopulations near sea coasts and in estuaries and rivers in parts of the Bay of Bengal and Southeast Asia.
- They are also found in coastal areas in South and Southeast Asia, and in three rivers: the Ayeyarwady (Myanmar), the Mahakam (Indonesian Borneo) and the Mekong.
- The total population of these aquatic mammals in the world is estimated to be less than 7,500.
- Of these, more than 6,000 Irrawaddy dolphins have been reported from Bangladesh, while the dolphin distribution in Chilika is considered to be the highest single lagoon population.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: K-4 Missile, Circular Error Probability
Mains level: India's missile nuclear arsenal
India successfully test-fired the 3,500-km range submarine-launched ballistic missile, K-4. The test was carried out by the DRDO from a submerged pontoon off the Visakhapatnam coast around noon.
K-4
- K-4 is a nuclear-capable Intermediate-range submarine-launched ballistic missile developed and tested successfully in the month of January 2020 by DRDO.
- The missile has a maximum range of about 3500 km.
- Once inducted, these missiles will be the mainstay of the Arihant class of indigenous ballistic missile nuclear submarines (SSBN).
- It will give India the standoff capability to launch nuclear weapons submerged in Indian waters.
What’s so special about K-4?
: Circular Error Probability
- India’s Circular Error Probability (CEP) is much more sophisticated than Chinese missiles.
- The CEP determines the accuracy of a missile.
- The lower the CEP, the more accurate the missile is.
- There are very few countries which have managed to achieve this technological breakthrough.
About INS Arihant
- The Advanced Technology Project (ATV) began in the 1980s and the first of them, Arihant, was launched in 2009.
- INS Arihant, the first and only operational SSBN is armed with K-15 Sagarika missiles with a range of 750 km.
- Given India’s position of ‘No-First-Use’ (NFU) in launching nuclear weapons, the SSBN is the most dependable platform for a second-strike.
- Because they are powered by nuclear reactors, these submarines can stay underwater indefinitely without the adversary detecting it.
- The other two platforms — land based and air launched are far easier to detect.
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- In an austerity move, the Union government has decided to reduce wasteful expenditure on items such as travel and food by 20 percent, it is learnt.
- A decision of this effect was taken at a recent meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Investment and Growth (CCIG) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
- All ministries have been directed to reduce wasteful expenditure on travel, food and conferences by 20 percent.
- Note: The CCIG was recently created in June 2019.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 3-Potentials of UPI in increasing digital payments.
Context
UPI has brought digital payments to the common man and it has immense scope for growth.
Zero MDR rate
- Recently the finance minister made the announcement of the zero merchant discount rate (MDR) policy for payments through RuPay debit cards and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) instruments.
- What does it mean? This policy dictates that when a consumer pays a merchant using RuPay or UPI, the bank may not charge the merchant a commission on the sale value that it usually charges a merchant.
- Criticism of the move: Critics of this policy lament that it would begin to reverse the progress India has made in recent years to expand the digital payments network.
Some facts and figures
- Setting up of NPCI: In 2008 the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) was set up as an umbrella organization for operating retail payments and settlements in India.
- UPI: In 2016, NPCI introduced UPI.
- UPI has since registered 100 million users.
- UPI now clocks more than 1 billion transactions every month.
- Growth prospects for mobile payments: According to the NITI Aayog, mobile payments in India are expected to grow nearly 20-fold to $190 billion in the next three years.
- Digital payment for the common man: There are 1 billion mobile phone users in India.
- 420 million users have a feature phone, these users can use the *99# USSD service to dial into 13 different languages.
- Which would connect them to UPI and brings digital payments to the common man.
Need for innovation
- We are far behind: India is far behind china, where 55% of spending is done digitally, compared to only 11% in India.
- The outlook for future growth is mind-boggling.
- There is a need for innovation at three levels.
- First level-Adoption
- A better understanding of human behaviour, technology, use cases and dis-use cases will facilitate the 10x growth necessary in adoption rates to cover the entire population.
- Second level-Policy
- The government has the rare opportunity to develop a data-centric understanding of how the economy conducts itself and uses money, and can set taxes accordingly.
- Third level-Technology
- Voice for authentication: At the technology level, there is an opportunity to use voice as a means for authentication and conduct transactions across multiple local languages.
- Data analysis: Copious amounts of data from payment transactions can be analysed to understand user needs and develop personalized loans and financial solutions at scale.
Taking UPI to Global Level
- UPI in Singapore and UAE: The NCPI is gearing up to take UPI to other countries, beginning with Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.
- NCPI is working with its counterpart in Singapore, the Network for Electronic Transfers for Singapore, to bring UPI live in Singapore.
- The low hanging fruit is to provide payment solutions to Indians travelling abroad.
- Competition with global peers: The bigger and tougher game is to increase its usage among local people in countries outside India.
- This would put UPI in competition with the likes of PayPal and Skrill.
Conclusion
We have seen just the tip, albeit a very substantial tip, of the digital payments iceberg. In the coming years, young business leaders of today must learn to uncover the iceberg itself.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 3- Reforms in banking sector and financial stability, Deposit Insurance and its significance.
Context
The amendments to the FRDI Bill, 2017—now renamed the Financial Sector Development and Regulation (Resolution) Bill, 2019—are being worked out.
Three crucial issues
- Specifics are being worked out in the bill on three crucial issues.
- First issue: The first issue is regarding the increase in the deposit insurance cover of customers.
- Second issue: To iron out the contentious issues related to the bail-in clause
- Third issue: To decide whether this resolution framework should apply to the public sector banks.
- Advantages of the move: At a time when the public sector banks have come under the stress of bad loans, increasing the deposit insurance coverage limit would be a welcome approach.
- Increasing the depositor’s confidence: The move will reinforce depositors’ confidence in the banking system in general, and the public sector banks in particular.
The issue of the government “ownership” of the banks and financial stability
- Ownership of government: The role of the “ownership” of banks towards financial stability is a much-debated issue in the country.
- RBI is positive about govt. ownership: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has attributed a positive role to the government ownership of banks in attaining financial stability.
- The issue of competitive neutrality: Committee to Draft Code on the Resolution of Financial Firms has blamed govt. ownership for causing a “lack of competitive neutrality” in the financial sector.
- Need of level playing field: Committee argued for the need of a “level playing field” for both the public and private sector financial firms for the sake of competitive neutrality.
- The concept of an overarching resolution framework for all financial firms gained traction.
Would the all-encompassing Resolution Corporation be efficacious?
- The FRDI Bill, 2017 sought to amend as many as 20 legislations for the diverse financial sector in this country, which is regulated by various institutions, like-
- RBI for the banks and the non-banking financial corporations.
- Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) for the insurance markets,
- Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for securities markets and mutual funds.
- The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority for pension funds.
- The pertinent question
- The pertinent question is whether an all-encompassing resolution corporation can be really efficacious for the much-discussed financial stability of this country.
Fundamental issues
- Neutrality of ownership
- Different motives behind operations: While private financial institutions are predominantly governed by profit motives, for the public sector agencies, various social obligations, such as “financial inclusion,” assume primacy.
- Reason for commoner’s confidence: It is the sense of the government’s involvement (or ownership) that has forged commoners’ confidence to park their financial savings with them.
- The move may end up destabilising the financial sector: If the sovereign guarantee and resolving power are taken away from the government domain to some resolution corporation, it may destabilise the financial system.
- The Bail-in clause
- Deposit over 1 lakh included in bail-in mechanism: The FRDI Bill 2017 suggests that deposit amounts over and above the cover limit (which currently is at one lakh) will be included in the bail-in mechanism.
- Further, despite the RBI’s caution against financial instability, short-term debts and uncategorised client assets are also currently under this mechanism.
- The falling growth rate of deposits: These provisions and the bill per se came against the backdrop of the Financial Stability Report, 2017 that revealed a 3.3% drop in the year-on-year growth rate of deposits for all scheduled banks in the country.
Conclusion
In the context of decelerating financial stability, the government needs to undertake these resolution reforms with caution that the reforms do not end-up eroding depositors’ faith in the domestic financial institutions.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Relations with Pakistan and need to resume the talks to resolve the issues.
Context
India announced that it will invite all heads of government of Shanghai Co-operation Organisation member countries, including Pakistan.
Significance of the invitation
- First since 2014: The summit will assume significance should Pakistan Prime Minister accept the invitation.
- As it will be the first by a head of government or state of that country to India since former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attended the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister in 2014.
- Hopes belied: Nothing came from that meeting and hopes created by the invitation were belied.
- Failed attempts to engage: Attempts to engage after that failed, including at a previous SCO summit at Ufa in 2015.
Latest events that further reduced the engagement
- Pulwama attack: First, there was the February 2019 Pulwama attack, India’s Balakot response, and Pakistan’s counter-response.
- Article 370: After India did away with Jammu & Kashmir’s special status, India and Pakistan have downgraded even their diplomatic presence in each other’s countries.
- Both the countries withdrew their high commissioners after the Article 370 issue.
- Trade stopped completely: Bilateral trade, which had managed to survive earlier shocks to relations, has stopped completely.
Opportunities presented by SCO summit
- “Inputs of all stakeholders”: In deciding whether to accept the invitation, the Pakistan PM will have to take into consideration “inputs of all stakeholders”.
- A polite way of saying that the final yes or no will rest with the Pakistan Army.
- A chance for a high-level meeting: Even if Imran Khan stays away and sends a minister instead, it would still be a chance for a high-level bilateral meeting.
- The world wants India and Pakistan to engage: The world wants India and Pakistan to engage, and this was evident in the way the UNSC refused to take up the Kashmir issue, saying it was not the forum for it.
- Opportunity for India to make a start: India has declared several times recently that it wants to peel away from historical foreign policy baggage.
- India should make a start with Pakistan by making it possible for such a meeting to take place.
- Making acceptance of invitation easier: India can make it easier for the Pakistan Prime Minister to accept the invitation.
- Resuming trade: A start could be made by resuming trade, which has ground to a dead halt
- Sending High Commissioner back: India can start by sending India’s High Commissioner back to his office in Islamabad.
Conclusion
The SCO summit presents an opportunity for both the countries to end the long hiatus in the relations which is essential for both the countries to resolve the long-standing issues and progress of both the countries.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Monsoon: Its onset and retreat
Mains level: Various factors causing uncertainty in monsoon predictions
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had decided to revise the normal onset and withdrawal dates for the monsoon in some parts of the country from this year.
Onset of Monsoon
- The four-month southwest monsoon season, which brings as much as 70 per cent of the country’s annual rainfall, officially begins on June 1, with the onset over Kerala, and ends on September 30.
- It takes about a month and half after onset on the Kerala coast to cover the entire country; and about a month, beginning from the northwestern parts of the country on Sept. 1 to withdraw completely.
- Although the June 1 date for the onset of the monsoon on the Kerala coast is unlikely to be changed, the dates for onset in many other parts of the country are expected to be revised.
- Mumbai, for example, expects to start getting rain from June 10 the revision is likely to push this date back by a few days.
- Effectively, the monsoon is now expected to have later arrival and withdrawal dates in most parts of the country.
Why was this revision needed?
- The main reason for the revision in the normal dates is the changes in precipitation patterns that have been taking place over the last many years.
- In the last 13 years, for example, only once has the onset over the Kerala coast happened on June 1.
- While two or three days of earlier or later onset falls within the yearly variability in several years the onset happened five to seven days late.
- Similarly, the commencement of withdrawal has happened in the first week of September only twice during this period, and last year, the withdrawal started as late as October 9 — and was completed in around just a week.
Recent peculiarity with the exam
- One of the significant changes being noticed is that rainfall is getting increasingly concentrated within a narrow band of days within the monsoon season.
- So, there are extremely wet days followed by prolonged periods of dry days.
- IMD data show that over several previous years, nearly 95 per cent of monsoon precipitation in 22 major cities of the country had happened over a period of just three to 27 days.
- Delhi, for example, had received almost 95 per cent of its monsoon rainfall over just 99 hours. And half of Mumbai’s monsoon rain had fallen over just 134 hours, or five and a half days, on average.
Regional variations
- Patterns of regional variations in rainfall are also changing
- Areas that have traditionally received plenty of rainfall are often remaining dry, while places that are not expected to get a lot of monsoon rain have sometimes been getting flooded.
- Climate change could be one of the factors driving these changes, but there could be other reasons as well.
What will be the impact of IMD’s move?
For Farmers
- The revisions are meant to reflect the changes in precipitation patterns in recent years.
- New dates will likely nudge farmers in some parts of the country to make slight adjustments in the time of sowing their crops.
- It would definitely have an impact on our agriculture practices — when to start sowing, when to harvest.
- So, even if there is a delay in the arrival of monsoon by three to four days over a region, it would not matter much if there is a fairly good rainfall distribution thereafter.
- The change in dates would affect water management practices as well.
For Industries
- The planning that goes to beat the heat — several cities execute heat action plans — just ahead of the monsoon would have to factor in the need to be prepared for longer periods of heat.
- Rajeevan said many other activities including industrial operations, the power sector, or those using cooling systems, would also need to change their behaviour.
- The power grid can, for example, have more realistic planning for peak periods of electricity consumption in certain months.
Way Forward
- The changed dates are expected to be announced in April, when the IMD makes its first forecast for the monsoon.
- Agro-meteorologists, however, agree that more than the onset, it is the information about the spatio-temporal distribution of rainfall that will be more helpful for farmers.
- Ultimately, the change in normal dates of the onset and withdrawal of the monsoon would help people understand when to expect rains, and to plan their activities accordingly.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Project 39A
Mains level: Capital Punishment and its justification
Trial courts in India delivered 102 death sentences in 2019, over 60% fewer than the 162 death sentences passed in 2018.
Highlights of the Report
- In 2019, fewer death sentences overall were delivered.
- 1 out of 2 sentences for sexual violence-murder; in 3 out of 4 sexual violence-murder death sentences, children were the killer’s victims.
- The courts were, however, especially unforgiving of murders that involved sexual violence — the proportion of death sentences imposed for murders involving sexual offences was at a four-year high in 2019 at 52.94%.
- 2019 also saw the highest number of confirmations by High Courts in four years; 17 out of the 26 confirmations (65.38%) were in offences of murder involving sexual violence.
- The Supreme Court, primarily during the tenure of the previous CJI Gogoi, listed and heard 27 capital cases, the most in a year since 2001.
Project 39A
- These are the headline findings in the fourth edition of The Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics, published by Project 39A at the National Law University (NLU), Delhi.
- Project 39A is a research and litigation initiative focussed on the criminal justice system, and especially issues of legal aid, torture, death penalty, and mental health in prisons.
- The report tracked news of death sentences awarded by trial courts published online by news organisations in English and Hindi.
- It checked these numbers against judgments uploaded to websites of High Court and district courts.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: National E-Mobility Mission Plan, 2020
Mains level: FAME Scheme and its progress
The Supreme Court has sought the response of the government on a petition that alleges the non-implementation of the National E-Mobility Mission Plan, 2020 (NEMMP), which came out in 2012.
National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) 2020
- The plan was launched by the Government of India in 2013 with the objective of achieving national fuel security by promoting electric and hybrid vehicles.
- It had set a target of achieving a sale of seven million EVs by 2020 and thereby aimed to cut total carbon dioxide emissions by three per cent from the ‘do nothing’ scenario.
- The government would provide fiscal and monetary incentives for this industry.
- The plan had made several recommendations for the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), including electric-powered government fleets and public transportation and subsidies for those who opt for EVs.
What was the petition about?
- The petition contended that the governmental apathy has violated the fundamental rights of citizens to health and clean environment guaranteed under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.
- The government had failed in its obligation to mitigate the impact of climate change and air pollution partly attributable to emissions from vehicles that burn fossil fuels.
- Government’s failure to suitably implement these recommendations is the direct cause of air pollution levels that have turned our cities into virtual ‘gas chambers’.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: nCoV
Mains level: Not Much
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has been closely monitoring the situation after the reports of 41 confirmed cases of novel Corona virus (nCoV) including one death from Wuhan, China, 2020.
About Novel Corona Virus
- Corona viruses are large family of viruses, which cause illnesses to people and also circulate in animals including camels, cats and bats.
- They cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
- 2019-nCoV is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans.
- Much remains to be understood about the new coronavirus, which was first identified in China earlier this month.
- Not enough is known about 2019-nCoV to draw definitive conclusions about how it is transmitted, clinical features of disease, or the extent to which it has spread. The source also remains unknown.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: APNA UREA - SonaUgle
Mains level: Not Much
APNA UREA – SonaUgle
- The Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers launched the “APNA UREA – SonaUgle” brand of Hindustan Urvarak & Rasayan Limited (HURL).
- HURL is Joint Venture Company promoted by the three Maharatna Companies i.e. Coal India Limited (CIL), NTPC Limited (NTPC) and Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) as the lead promoters with FCIL and HFCL as other two partners.
- The commissioning of the HURL’s three Units in the states of UP, Bihar and Jharkhand will open forward and backward linkages for business activity in the Eastern part of India.
- It will be instrumental in opening new avenues for the generation of income and employment in the Eastern part of our country.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: TrueNat
Mains level: Menace of TB and its elimination measures
The WHO has endorsed TrueNat, an Indian indigenous molecular diagnostic tool for tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis.
TrueNat
- The TrueNat TB test is a new molecular test that can diagnosis TB in one hour as well as testing for resistance to the drug rifampicin.
- The TrueNat MTB and MTB Plus assays also show comparable accuracy to the TB-LAMP assay as replacement tests for sputum smear microscopy.
- The data for TrueNat MTB-Rif shows similar accuracy to WHO-approved commercial line probe assays.
- It is developed by the Goa-based Molbio Diagnostics.
- The company was provided with technical assistance and resources by the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) to help commercialise Truenat.
- ICMR had assessed and validated the diagnostic tool. It has high diagnostic accuracy as initial test to diagnose TB.
- It will be used as an initial test thus replacing sputum smear microscopy.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: TCEPF, TRAI
Mains level: Telecom regulation in India
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has informed that telecom service providers will need to deposit all unclaimed money of consumers, including excess charges and security deposit, in the Telecommunication Consumers Education and Protection Fund (TCEPF).
Telecommunication Consumers Education and Protection Fund (TCEPF)
- The TCEPF Regulations, 2007 have been amended to provide the basic framework for depositing unclaimed money of consumers by service providers, maintenance of the TCEPF and other related aspects.
- Any unclaimed / unrefundable amount belonging to consumers in the TCEP fund will be utilized for the welfare measures of the consumers.
- With this amendment, service providers will deposit any unclaimed consumer money of any form such as excess charges, security deposit, plan charges of failed activations, or any amount belonging to a consumer, which service providers are unable to refund to consumers.
Why such move?
- The TRAI observed that there is a need to bring clarity among service providers in depositing money which they are unable to refund to the consumers.
- While some service providers were depositing money only on account of excess billing revealed in the audit, others were depositing unclaimed money such as security deposits and plan charges of failed activations.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Yada Yada
Mains level: NA
A new virus detected in Australian mosquitoes has been provisionally named the Yada Yada virus (YYV).
Yada Yada
- It is an alphavirus, a group of viruses that the researchers described as small, single-stranded positive-sense RNA viruses.
- It includes species important to human and animal health, such as Chikungunya virus and Eastern equine encephalitis virus.
- They are transmitted primarily by mosquitoes and (are) pathogenic in their vertebrate hosts.
- Unlike some other alphaviruses, Yada Yada does not pose a threat to human beings.
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