[WpProQuiz 996]
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UPSC PRELIMS 2022: 10 Question solving smart techniques to get 110+ score
Sajal Sir lecture on Smart question solving techniques Knowledge alone is not enough to clear UPSC Prelims. Elimination techniques alone are not enough to crack this exam. One needs both to clear UPSC Prelims from 2014 onwards. Since UPSC Prelims is the toughest exam out of Interview and Mains with over 9.5 lakh aspirants getting disqualified, it’s always better to think about increasing 20-30 marks with your existing knowledge using elimination techniques.
Why is that with the same syllabus, the same study materials and similar syllabus and similar study materials, most candidates score differently? For some, just a reading of the Spectrum book is enough to answer all the Modern History questions, but for others despite reading the same book they are not able to answer the questions
If it’s about prelims exam performance, then aspirants fall into either of these four categories. Which category are you in currently?
1) Prelims score 0-40: They need to work on improving their knowledge first and then learn answering tricks
2) Prelims score 50-70: They have decent knowledge and decent answering tricks.But this is not enough to clear Prelims, they need to be an above average performer. Hence, they must focus on preparing for the topics they have scored less in their mock tests.
3) Prelims score 80-100: They have good knowledge but they need to develop answering tricks. They can do without learning elimination techniques as well, but if they wish to be on the same time learning elimination techniques will guarantee them success.
4) Prelims score 120+: They have excellent knowledge and know all the answering tricks.Sajal Sir lecture on Smart question solving techniques Clearing Prelims is all about Knowledge + Answering Tricks (Tikdams).
These Techniques will be your last minute addition to prelims preparation.
Watch the video and let us know if you have any last minute query or doubt on prelims 2022.
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Govt to reconsider Minority Tag for Hindus in some states
The Union government will initiate a wide consultation with states and other stakeholders to examine a plea as to whether Hindus can be granted minority status in states where their numbers are comparatively less.
Why such move?
- Hindus are merely 1% in Ladakh, 2.75% in Mizoram, 2.77% in Lakshadweep, 4% in Jammu & Kashmir, 8.74% in Nagaland, 11.52% in Meghalaya, 29% in Arunachal Pradesh, 38.49% in Punjab, and 41.29% in Manipur.
Who are the Minorities?
- Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jain and Zorastrians (Parsis) have been notified as minority communities under Section 2 (c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992.
- As per the Census 2011, the percentage of minorities in the country is about 19.3% of the total population of the country.
- The population of Muslims are 14.2%; Christians 2.3%; Sikhs 1.7%, Buddhists 0.7%, Jain 0.4% and Parsis 0.006%.
- Minority Concentration Districts (MCD), Minority Concentration Blocks and Minority Concentration Towns, have been identified on the basis of both population data and backwardness parameters of Census 2001 of these areas.
Who are linguistic minorities?
- Linguistic Minorities are group or collectivities of individuals residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language or script of their own.
- The language of the minority group need not be one of the twenty-two languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
- In other words, linguistic minorities at the State level mean any group or groups of people whose mother tongues are different from the principal language of the State, and at the district and taluka/tehsil levels, different from the principal language of the district or taluka/tehsil concerned.
- The linguistic minorities are therefore identified by the respective States/UTs.
Defining Minorities
- The Constitution recognizes Religious minorities in India and Linguistic minorities in India through Article 29 and Article 30.
- But Minority is not defined in the Constitution.
- Currently, the Linguistic minorities in India are identified on a state-wise basis thus determined by the state government whereas Religious minorities in India are determined by the Central Government.
- The Parliament has the legislative powers and the Centre has the executive competence to notify a community as a minority under Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act of 1992.
Article 29: It provides that any section of the citizens residing in any part of India having a distinct language, script, or culture of its own, shall have the rights of minorities in India to conserve the same. Article 29 is applied to both minorities (religious minorities in India and Linguistic minorities in India) and also the majority. It also includes – rights of minorities in India to agitate for the protection of language.
Article 30: All minorities shall have the rights of minorities in India to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. Article 30 recognises only Religious minorities in India and Linguistic minorities in India (not the majority). It includes the rights of minorities in India to impart education to their children in their own language.
Article 350-B: Originally, the Constitution of India did not make any provision with respect to the Special Officer for Linguistic minorities in India. However, the 7th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1956 inserted Article 350-B in the Constitution. It provides for a Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities appointed by the President of India. It would be the duty of the Special Officer to investigate all matters relating to the safeguards provided for linguistic minorities under the Constitution.
Laws specifying minorities
- There are two such laws:
- 1992 National Commission for Minorities (NCM) Act and
- 2004 National Commission for Minorities Educational Institutions (NCMEI) Act
- Under the NCM Act, the central government has notified only six communities, namely Christians, Sikhs, Muslims, Buddhists, Parsis and Jains, as minorities as the national level.
- The NCMEI Act entitles the six communities notified under the NCM Act to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.
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Plans underway on Creation of Integrated Battle Groups
The Indian Army is in advanced stages of putting together Integrated Battle Groups (IBGs) by reconfiguring its combat formations.
What are IBGs?
- IBGs are brigade-sized, agile, self-sufficient combat formations, which can swiftly launch strikes against an adversary in case of hostilities.
- Each IBG would be tailor-made based on Threat, Terrain and Task and resources will be allotted based on the three Ts.
- They need to be light so they will be low on logistics and they will be able to mobilise within 12-48 hrs based on the location.
- An IBG operating in a desert needs to be constituted differently from an IBG operating in the mountains.
- The key corps of the Army is likely to be reorganized into 1-3 IBGs.
Objective of IBG
- Holistic integration to enhance the operational and functional efficiency, optimize budget expenditure, facilitate force modernization and address aspirations
Structure of the IBG
- While a command is the largest static formation of the Army spread across defined geography, a corps is the largest mobile formation.
- Typically each corps has about three brigades.
- The idea is to reorganise them into IBGs which are brigade-sized units but have all the essential elements like infantry, armoured, artillery and air defence embedded together based on the three Ts.
- The IBGs will also be defensive and offensive. While the offensive IBGs would quickly mobilise and make a thrust into enemy territory for strikes, defensive IBGs would hold ground at vulnerable points or where enemy action is expected.
Why need IBGs?
- After the terrorist attack on the Parliament, the Indian military undertook massive mobilization but the Army’s formations which deep inside took weeks to mobilise losing the element of surprise.
- Following this, the Army formulated a proactive doctrine known as ‘Cold Start’ to launch swift offensive but its existence was consistently denied in the past.
- Its existence was acknowledged for the first time by (Late) Gen Rawat in January 2017.
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Highlights of State of the World’s Birds Report
The State of the World’s Birds, an annual review of environmental resources has revealed that the population of 48% of the 10,994 surviving species of birds is declining.
State of the World’s Birds
- The report is published by the Manchester Metropolitan University.
- It gives an overview of the changes in the knowledge of avian biodiversity and the extent to which it is imperilled.
- The study draws from BirdLife International’s latest assessment of all birds for the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List.
What are the key findings of the study?
- The study found that 5,245 or about 48% of the existing bird species worldwide are known or suspected to be undergoing population declines.
- While 4,295 or 39% of the species have stable trends, about 7% or 778 species have increasing population trends.
- It shows 1,481 or 13.5% species are currently threatened with global extinction.
Where the birds are threatened the most?
- The more threatened bird species (86.4%) are found in tropical than in temperate latitudes (31.7%).
- Such hotspots are concentrated in the tropical Andes, southeast Brazil, eastern Himalayas, eastern Madagascar, and Southeast Asian islands.
What is the importance of birds to ecosystems and culture?
- Birds contribute toward many ecosystem services that either directly or indirectly benefit humanity.
- These include provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services.
- The functional role of birds within ecosystems as pollinators, seed-dispersers, ecosystem engineers, scavengers and predators.
- They not only facilitate accrual and maintenance of biodiversity but also support human endeavours such as sustainable agriculture via pest control besides aiding other animals to multiply.
- For instance, coral reef fish productivity has been shown to increase as seabird colonies recovered following rat eradication in the Chagos archipelago.
- Wild birds and products derived from them are also economically important as food (meat, eggs).
What are the threats contributing to avian biodiversity loss?
- The study lists eight factors, topped by land cover and land-use change.
- The continued growth of human populations and of per capita rates of consumption lead directly to conversion and degradation of primary natural habitats.
- Deforestation has been driven by afforestation with plantations (often of non-native species) plus land abandonment in parts of the global North, with net loss in the tropics.
- The other factors are habitat fragmentation, degradation, hunting and trapping.
Try this PYQ from CSP 2020:
Q.With reference to India’s Biodiversity, Ceylon frogmouth, Coppersmith barbet, Gray-chinned minivet and White-throated redstart are
(a) Birds
(b) Primates
(c) Reptiles
(d) Amphibians
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Places in news: Martand Sun Temple
After Prayers held at the ruins of the eighth-century Martand Sun Temple in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag is deemed to be a violation of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) rules.
About Martand Sun Temple
- The Martand Sun Temple is a Hindu temple located near the city of Anantnag in the Kashmir Valley.
- It dates back to the eighth century AD and was dedicated to Surya, the chief solar deity.
- The temple was destroyed by Sikandar Shah Miri in a bid to undertake mass conversion and execution of Hindus in the valley.
- According to Kalhana, the Temple was commissioned by Lalitaditya Muktapida in the eighth century AD.
- The temple is built on top of a plateau from where one can view whole of the Kashmir Valley.
- From the ruins the visible architecture seems to be blended with the Gandharan, Gupta and Chinese forms of architecture.
Why in news now?
- According to ASI, prayers are allowed at its protected sites only if they were “functioning places of worship” at the time it took charge of them.
- No religious rituals can be conducted at non-living monuments where there has been no continuity of worship when it became an ASI-protected site.
What are the living/non-living monument?
- If some activity, like any kind of worship, has been going on for years in the structure, then it is taken over as a living monument.
- But where no activity has taken place, say an abandoned building, then it is declared a dead monument.
- The latter is difficult to restore because it is generally covered by a lot of overgrowths.
- The best-known example of a living ASI monument is the Taj Mahal in Agra, where namaz is held every Friday.
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Pulitzer Prize and the Indians who have won it
A team of four Indian photographers have won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography for their coverage of the Covid-19 crisis in India.
About Pulitzer Prize
- The Pulitzer is the most coveted award for journalists from across the world.
- It is announced by America’s Columbia University and bestowed on the recommendation of the Pulitzer Prize Board.
Who was Joseph Pulitzer, after whom the awards are named?
- Born to a wealthy family of Magyar-Jewish origin in Mako, Hungary, in 1847, Joseph Pulitzer had a stint in the military before he built a reputation of being a “tireless journalist”.
- In the late 1860s he joined the German-language daily newspaper Westliche Post, and by 25 he had become a publisher.
- In 1884, he was elected to the US House of Representatives from New York’s ninth district as a Democrat.
When were the Pulitzer awards instituted?
- The awards were instituted according to Pulitzer’s will, framed in 1904, where he made a provision for the establishment of the Pulitzer Prizes as an incentive to excellence.
- Pulitzer specified solely four awards in journalism, four in letters and drama, one for education, and five travelling scholarships.
- After his death in 1911, the first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded in June, 1917.
Indians who have won the Pulitzer
- A member of the Ghadar Party in America, journalist Gobind Behari Lal, was the first from India to win the Prize in 1937.
- In 2000, London-born Indian-American writer Jhumpa Lahiri won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for her debut short story collection Interpreter of Maladies.
- In 2003, Mumbai-born Geeta Anand was part of the team at Wall Street Journal that won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on corporate corruption.
- In 2016, Indian-American Sanghamitra Kalita, then managing editor of Los Angeles Times, won the Pulitzer.
The list goes on to date ….
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[Sansad TV] Perspective: Right to Repair
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Context
- Apple recently announced that consumers will have the right to purchase spare components of their products.
- Google also announced plans to expand access to the parts and tools that consumers need to fix their own devices.
- These announcements by big-tech companies follow widespread calls for Right To Repair reforms.
In this article, we will analyze what is the Right to Repair, how it helps consumers like you and me and how will these reforms help in protecting the environment.
Right to Repair Movement: A Backgrounder
What is Right to Repair?
- It refers to proposed government legislation that would allow consumers the ability to repair and modify their own consumer products (e.g. electronic, automotive devices).
- The idea behind “right to repair” is in the name: If you own something, you should be able to repair it yourself or take it to a technician of your choice.
- People are pretty used to this concept when it comes to older cars and appliances, but right-to-repair advocates argue that modern tech, especially anything with a computer chip inside, is rarely repairable.
The Right to Repair movement aims for:
- Easy repair: The device should be constructed and designed in a manner that allows easy repairs
- Access to critical components: End users and independent repair providers should be able to access original spare parts and tools (software as well as physical tools) needed to repair the device at fair market conditions
- No technical barriers: Repairs should by design be possible and not hindered by software programming
- Proper communication: The repairability of a device should be clearly communicated by the manufacturer.
How did it came to existence?
- The average consumer purchases an electronic gadget, knowing that it will very quickly become obsolete as its manufacturer releases newer and more amped up version.
- As your device grows older, issues start to crop up — your smartphone may slow down to a point where it is almost unusable, or your gaming console may require one too many hard resets.
- When this happens, more often than not, you are left at the mercy of manufacturers who make repairs inaccessible and an inordinately expensive affair.
Why is such right significant?
- Lifespan enhancement: The goal of the movement is to increase the lifespan of products and to keep them from ending up in landfills.
- Against planned obsolescence: The electronic manufacturers are encouraging such culture so that devices are designed specifically to last a limited amount of time and to be replaced.
- Scarcity of natural resources: Obsolescence leads to immense pressure on the environment and wasted natural resources.
- Mitigating climate change: Manufacturing an electronic device is a highly polluting process. It makes use of polluting sources of energy, such as fossil fuel.
- Boost to repair economy: Right to repair advocates also argue that this will help boost business for small repair shops, which are an important part of local economies.
Issues with obsolete devices
- Unfair trade practice: For manufacturers, either of these options is a win-win case, because high-priced repairs, as well as new sales, mean more profits.
- High cost to consumers: This often led to higher consumer costs or drive consumers to replace devices instead of repairing them.
- Generation of E-waste: The global community is concerned over the continuously growing size of the e-waste stream.
- Recyclability: Up to 95% of raw materials used to produce electronic devices can be recycled, while the vast majority of newly produced devices use little to none recycled material due to the higher cost.
Why do electronic manufacturers oppose this movement?
Large tech companies, including Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Tesla, have been lobbying against the right to repair.
- IPR violations through reverse engineering: Their argument is that opening up their intellectual property to third party repair services.
- Threats to device safety: Amateur repairers could lead to exploitation and impact the safety and security of their devices.
- Personal data security: Tesla, for instance, has fought against right to repair advocacy, stating that such initiatives threaten data security and cyber security.
- Sheer casualization: Tech giant has allowed repairs of its devices only by authorised technicians and not providing spare parts or DIY manuals on how to fix its products.
Successful implementation of the Right to Repair
(I) United States
- In his executive order to promote economic competition, President Biden called to force tech companies to allow consumers to fix their own electronic devices — either themselves or using a technician of their choice.
- He specifically called out cell phone and tractor manufacturers in the White House’s fact sheet.
- With this, some believe manufacturers of electronic devices may even start making their products more durable and long lasting.
(II) Europe
- Earlier this month, the UK government introduced right-to-repair rules with the aim of extending the lifespan of products by up to 10 years.
- Manufacturers of products like washing machines, TVs and refrigerators are required to make spare parts available to people purchasing electrical appliances.
- The new legislation gives manufacturers a two-year window to make the necessary changes to abide by the new legislation.
Right to Repair in India
The ‘right to repair’ is not recognised as a statutory right in India, but certain pronouncements within the antitrust landscape have tacitly recognized the right.
- Necessary consumer right: Monopoly on repair processes infringes the customer’s’ “right to choose” recognised by the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
- Acknowledgement by agencies: Consumer disputes jurisprudence in the country has also partially acknowledged the right to repair.
- Upholding Competition: In Shamsher Kataria v Honda Siel Cars India Ltd (2017), for instance, the Competition Commission of India ruled that restricting the access of independent automobile repair units to spare parts as anti-competitive.
- Part of consumer welfare: The CCI observed that the practice was detrimental to consumer welfare.
- Laws for recycle: The e-waste (management and handling) rules addresses not only to handle the waste in an environmentally friendly manner, but also has laid down rules about its transportation, storage and recycling.
These regulations have had little impact and a strict law is needed for proper implementation.
Way forward
- If people want to fix things in a timely, safe and cost-effective way, whether by doing it themselves or taking it to a service centre of their choice, providing access to spare parts and information is imperative.
- Well-drafted legislation will not only uphold the right to repair but may aid in striking a much-needed balance between intellectual property and competition laws in the country.
Conclusion
- The Right to Repair is necessarily a battle between the customer and the manufacturer. The right to repair can apply to any industry.
- It’s a win-win situation for consumers if the proposed laws help in ending monopoly and make the repair information available in the public domain.
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Literacy and delivery of services, not religion, influences fertility
Context
The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 5 report that was awaited for nearly six months is finally out. And it provides a heartening outlook.
About NHFS
- Started in 1992-93, it has culminated in the fifth round 2019-21.
- The NFHS is a large, multi-round survey that, inter alia, provides information on fertility, infant and child mortality, the practice of family planning, reproductive health, nutrition, anaemia, quality and utilisation of health and family planning services.
- The surveys provide essential data needed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and other agencies for policy and programme purposes.
- The Ministry assigned the nodal responsibility for the task to the International Institute for Population Sciences(IIPS), Mumbai.
- Several international agencies are involved in providing technical and financial assistance, mainly USAID, DFID, UNICEF, and UNFPA.
Replacement rate achieved
- Replacement rate achieved: The report shows that India has finally achieved the replacement rate of 2.1TFR (Total Fertility Rate is the total number of children a woman will bear in her lifetime).
- In fact, it has gone below the mark to 2.0.
- There are, of course, large interstate variations.
- The lagging states are UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Manipur and Meghalaya.
- Significantly, there were four states which were keeping the figures poor, namely, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
- Two states, Rajasthan and MP, have struggled to get out of this group, while Jharkhand and the two northeastern states have replaced them.
- UP and Bihar because of their sheer size are pulling down the national average.
- Rajasthan and MP have reached the TFR of 2, which shows the success of their efforts.
Influencing factors
- It is not religion as commonly propounded but literacy, especially of girls, income and delivery of family planning, and health services.
- 1] Delivery of services: The figures would have been even better if all those who have been made aware of the benefits of family planning had received the services they desire.
- Making people informed of the need and methods of family planning and motivating them to adopt family planning is difficult enough.
- Having achieved the difficult task, we are not able to provide the services communities need — the “unmet need” — which is still very high at 9.4 per cent.
- If we focus on this issue in a mission mode, the family planning performance will dramatically improve.
- 2] Male attitude towards family planning: They tend to put the onus for birth control on women.
- As many as 35 per cent men believe that using contraceptives is a woman’s responsibility. They ignore the fact that male vasectomy is a much simpler procedure than female tubectomy.
- 3] Acceptance of family planning: Muslim acceptance of family planning has continued through the five surveys spread over three decades at a rate faster than all other communities.
- Though birth control practice among Muslims is still the least – 47.4 per cent (up from 45 per cent in NFHS-4).
- Other communities — for example, Hindus — are not far behind with 58 per cent (up from 56 per cent).
- This means that 42 per cent of the 80 per cent of the population are not practising family planning.
- Education: Women who have not attended school have 2.8 TFR as against 1.8 for those who have completed class XII.
- Poverty: Similar gap of figure one is visible in the context of poverty with the poorest segment having higher TFR than the richest.
Conclusion
The time has come to leave politics behind and work together for achieving the goals set by National Population Policy 2000. Instead of misleading narratives, we need to address the real determinants of fertility behaviour – literacy, income generation and improvement of health and family planning services.
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