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Type: Prelims Only

  • GI(Geographical Indicator) Tags

    Plea seeks GI tag for Arunachal Apatani textile product

    Prelims Only | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Intellectual Property Rights

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Apatani textile, GI tags

    Mains level: Not Much

    An application seeking a Geographical Indication (GI) tag for the Arunachal Pradesh Apatani textile product has been filed by a firm.

    Apatani textile

    • The Apatani weave comes from the Apatani tribe of Arunachal Pradesh living at Ziro, the headquarters of lower Subansiri district.
    • The woven fabric of this tribe is known for its geometric and zigzag patterns and also for its angular designs.
    • The community weaves its own textiles for various occasions, including rituals and cultural festivals.
    • The tribe predominantly weaves shawls known as jig-jiro and jilan or jackets called supuntarii.
    • The traditional handloom of this tribe is a type of loin loom, which is called Chichin, and is similar to the traditional handloom of the Nyishi tribe.

    What makes it special?

    • The people here use different leaves and plant resources for organic dying the cotton yarns in their traditional ways.
    • Only women folk are engaged in weaving.

     

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

     

    Q.Which of the following has/have been accorded ‘Geographical Indication’ status?

    1. Banaras Brocades and Sarees
    2. Rajasthani Daal-Bati-Churma
    3. Tirupathi Laddu

    Select the correct answer using the code given below:

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 and 3 only

    (c) 1 and 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

     

    Post your answers here.

    About Geographical Indication

    • A GI is a sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin.
    • Nodal Agency: Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry
    • India, as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), enacted the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 w.e.f. September 2003.
    • GIs have been defined under Article 22 (1) of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement.
    • GI is granted for a term of 10 years in India. As of today, more than 300 GI tags has been allocated so far in India (*Wikipedia).
    • The tag stands valid for 10 years.

     

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  • Health Sector – UHC, National Health Policy, Family Planning, Health Insurance, etc.

    NITI Aayog releases fourth edition of State Health Index

    Prelims Only | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Health & Education

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: State Health Index

    Mains level: Competitive Federalism

    NITI Aayog has released the fourth edition of the State Health Index for 2019–20.

    State Health Index

    • The State Health Index is an annual tool to assess the performance of states and UTs. It is being compiled and published since 2017.
    • The index is part of a report commissioned by the NITI Aayog, the World Bank, and the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry.
    • The reports aim to nudge states/UTs towards building robust health systems and improving service delivery.

    Components of the index

    • It is a weighted composite index based on 24 indicators grouped under the domains of ‘Health Outcomes’, ‘Governance and Information’, and ‘Key Inputs/Processes’.
    1. Health outcomes: It includes parameters such as neonatal mortality rate, under-5 mortality rate, and sex ratio at birth.
    2. Governance: This includes institutional deliveries, average occupancy of senior officers in key posts earmarked for health.
    3. Key inputs: It consists of the proportion of shortfall in healthcare providers to what is recommended, functional medical facilities, birth, and death registration, and tuberculosis treatment success rate.

    Performance of the states

    • For the fourth year in a row, Kerala has topped a ranking of States on health indicators. Uttar Pradesh has come in at the bottom.
    • Kerala is followed by Tamil Nadu and Telangana, which improved its ranking.

     

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  • Labour, Jobs and Employment – Harmonization of labour laws, gender gap, unemployment, etc.

    Every third informal worker is now registered on E-Shram Portal

    Prelims Only | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Laws, Institutions & Bodies Constituted For The Vulnerable Sections

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: E-Shram Portal

    Mains level: Welfare of the unorganized workers

    Every third informal sector worker in India is now registered on the e-Shram portal with registration on the portal crossing the 14 crore mark in four months.

    About E-Shram Portal

    • The Ministry of Labour and Employment has launched the E-Shram Portal for creating a National Database of Unorganized Workers (NDUW) this year.
    • The E-Shram portal will cover all unorganised workers of the nation and help link them to social security schemes of the Government of India.
    • Aadhaar with mobile number linked is mandatory for the registration.

    Category of unorganized workers covered:

    1. Construction Worker
    2. Migrant Worker
    3. Gig & Platform Worker
    4. Street Vendor Worker
    5. Agriculture Worker
    6. Others

    Broad objectives of this portal

    • Creation of a centralized database of all unorganized workers (UWs)
    • To improve the implementation efficiency of the social security services for the unorganized workers
    • Integration of Social Security Schemes meant for UWs being administered by MoLE and subsequently, those run by other ministries as well
    • Portability of the social security and welfare benefits to the migrant and construction workers
    • Providing a comprehensive database to Central and State Governments for tackling any National Crises like COVID-19 in future

    Benefits of registration

    • Under the scheme, Rs 2.0 Lakh Accidental Insurance cover will be provided to every registered (on E-Shram portal) unorganized worker.
    • Every registered unorganized worker shall be issued an E- Shram card with a unique Universal Account Number (UAN).
    • He/She will be able to access the benefits of the various social security schemes through this Card anywhere anytime.

    Who can register on this Portal?

    Any individual satisfying the following conditions can register on the portal:

    • An unorganized worker (UW).
    • Age should be between 16-59 years.
    • Not a member of EPFO/ESIC or NPS (Govt. funded)

    What is required for registration?

    Following is required to register on the portal:

    • Aadhaar Number
    • Mobile number linked with Aadhaar.
    • Savings Bank Account Number with IFSC code

    Registrations done so far

    • The latest data of the portal shows that the top five States in terms of number of registrations on e-Shram are U.P., West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and Jharkhand.
    • Gender analysis of the data shows that 52.56% are female while 47.44% are male.
    • The data show that 42.64% of the registered workers are other backward classes (OBC) followed by 26.45% from general category, 22.54% from the scheduled caste and 8.38% from the Scheduled Tribe.
    • It also show that over 94% registered workers’ income is ₹10,000 per month or below while over 4% have income in the rage of ₹10,000 to ₹15,000 per month.
    • About 51% workers are farm laborers, 11% in construction, 10% in domestic and household work and 6.5% in the apparel segment.

     

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  • International Space Agencies – Missions and Discoveries

    Study of distant Magnetar reveals facets of the Exotic Star

    Prelims Only | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Awareness in various sc and tech fields

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Magnetars

    Mains level: Not Much

    An international group of researchers has succeeded in measuring for the first time the characteristics of a flare on a distant magnetar.

    What is a Magnetar?

    • Magnetars are the most magnetic stars in the universe.
    • It is a rare compact type of neutron star teeming with energy and magnetism.
    • It is an exotic type of neutron star, its defining feature that it has an ultra-powerful magnetic field.
    • The field is about 1,000 times stronger than a normal neutron star and about a trillion times stronger than the Earth’s.
    • Magnetars are relatively rare objects, with only about thirty having been spotted within the Milky Way so far.

    What is the recent study?

    • The studied magnetar is about 13 million light years away, in the direction of the NGC 253, a prominent galaxy in the Sculptor group of galaxies.
    • Its flare spewed within a few tenths of a second as much energy as the Sun would shed in 100,000 years.
    • It was captured accidentally on April 15, 2020, by the Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor instrument (ASIM) of the International Space Station.
    • This is the first study to characterize such a flare from so distant a magnetar.

    How do magnetars form?

    • During the course of their evolution, massive stars – with masses around 10-25 times the mass of the Sun – eventually collapse and shrink to form very compact objects called neutron stars.
    • A subset of these neutron stars is the so-called magnetars which possess intense magnetic fields.
    • These are highly dense and have breathtakingly high rotation speeds – they have rotational periods that can be just 0.3 to 12.0 seconds.

    What characterizes Magnetars?

    (1) Violent flares

    • The observed giant flare lasted approximately 160 milliseconds and during this time 1039 joules of energy was released.
    • The flare spewed as much energy in a tenth of a second that our Sun will radiate in 100,000 years.

    (2) Starquakes

    • Eruptions in magnetars are believed to be due to instabilities in their magnetosphere, or “starquakes” produced in their crust – a rigid, elastic layer about one kilometer thick.
    • This causes waves in the magnetosphere, and interaction between these waves causes dissipation of energy.

     

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  • Modern Indian History-Events and Personalities

    Who was Archbishop Desmond Tutu?

    Prelims Only | | Mains Paper 1:

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Desmond Tutu

    Mains level: Anti-apartheid struggle in Africa

    Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and veteran of South Africa’s struggle against white minority rule has died on December 26 at the age of 90.

    Try this question from CS Mains 2016:

     

    Q. The anti-colonial struggles in West Africa were led by the new elite of Western-educated Africans. Examine.

    Desmond Tutu (1931- 2021)

    • Tutu was a South African Anglican cleric who in 1984 received the Nobel Prize for Peace for his role in the opposition to apartheid in South Africa.
    • A decade later, he witnessed the ends of that regime and he chaired a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, set up to unearth atrocities committed during those dark days.
    • He was considered the nation’s conscience by both, the black majority and the white minority, an enduring testament to his faith and spirit of reconciliation in a divided nation.

    His notable works

    • During South Africa’s moves toward democracy in the early 1990s, Tutu propagated the idea of South Africa as “the Rainbow Nation”.
    • The term was intended to encapsulate the unity of multi-culturalism and the coming together of people of many different nations, in a country once identified with the strict division of white and black under the Apartheid regime.
    • In 1995 South African Pres. Nelson Mandela appointed Tutu head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which investigated allegations of human rights abuses during the apartheid era.

     

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  • Tribes in News

    In news: Tai Khamti Rebellion

    Prelims Only | | Mains Paper 1: Modern Indian History

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Tai Khamti Rebellion

    Mains level: Various tribal uprisings in India

    The Arunachal Pradesh Deputy CM urged the Centre to recognize the Tai Khamti-British war as India’s first for independence.

    Tai Khamti Rebellion

    • The Tai Khamti Rebellion is the first such war took place in 1839 between the Tai Khamti people and the British.
    • The theatre of this war was some 2,400 km east of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh where the mutiny began.
    • Tai Khamtis resisted colonization by the British. Some 80 British soldiers, including Col. Adam White, were killed in the resultant conflict.

    Who are the Tai Khamti people?

    • The Tai Khamti people, who follow Theravada Buddhism, number a little more than 1,00,000 today and live in areas straddling Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.

    Other revolts in Arunachal

    • Arunachal Deputy CM also batted for recognition of battles between other communities of Arunachal Pradesh and the British.
    • They include a series of Anglo-Abor wars from 1858 to 1911 and the Wancho-British war in Tirap district’s Ninu in 1875.
    • The Abors, now called Adis, inhabit central Arunachal Pradesh, while the Wanchos live in the southern part of the State.

     

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  • International Space Agencies – Missions and Discoveries

    How James Webb Telescope seeks to unlock Universe’s Secrets

    Prelims Only | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: JWST

    Mains level: Not Much

    Today, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the largest and most powerful space telescope ever built, will be launched from French Guiana, on the northeast coast of South America on the European Ariane 5 rocket.

    James Webb Space Telescope

    • JWST is a space telescope jointly developed by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
    • It is planned to succeed the Hubble Space Telescope as NASA’s flagship astrophysics mission.
    • It will conduct a broad range of investigations across the fields of astronomy and cosmology, including:
    1. Observing some of the most distant events and objects in the universe such as the formation of the first galaxies
    2. Detailed atmospheric characterization of potentially habitable exoplanets

    How is it different from other telescopes?

    • JWST is much more powerful and has the ability to look in the infrared spectrum, which will allow it to peer through much deeper into the universe, and see through obstructions such as gas clouds.
    • As electromagnetic waves travel for long distances, they lose energy, resulting in an increase in their wavelength.
    • An ultraviolet wave, for example, can slowly move into the visible light spectrum and the infrared spectrum, and further weaken to microwaves or radio waves, as it loses energy.
    • Hubble was designed to look mainly into the ultraviolet and visible regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
    • JWST is primarily an infrared telescope, the first of its kind.

    Special features of JWST

    (1) Time machine in space

    • Powerful space telescopes, like JWST or the Hubble Telescope, are often called time machines because of their ability to view very faraway objects.
    • The light coming from those objects, stars or galaxies, which is captured by these telescopes, began its journey millions of years earlier.
    • Essentially, what these telescopes see are images of these stars or galaxies as they were millions of years ago.
    • The more distant the planet or star, the farther back in time are the telescopes able to see.

    (2) Farthest from Earth

    • JWST will also be positioned much deeper into space, about a million miles from Earth, at a spot known as L2.
    • It is one of the five points, known as Lagrange’s points, in any revolving two-body system like Earth and Sun, where the gravitational forces of the two large bodies cancel each other out.
    • Objects placed at these positions are relatively stable and require minimal external energy to keep them there. L2 is a position directly behind Earth in the line joining the Sun and the Earth.
    • It would be shielded from the Sun by the Earth as it goes around the Sun, in sync with the Earth.

    (3) Engineering marvel

    • JWST has one large mirror, with a diameter of 21 feet (the height of a typical two-storey building), that will capture the infra-red light coming in from the deep universe while facing away from the Sun.
    • It will be shielded by a five-layer, tennis court-sized, kite-shaped sunscreen that is designed to block the heat from Sun and ensure the extremely cool temperatures that the instruments are built to operate at.
    • Temperatures on the sun-facing side can get as high as 110°C, while the other side would be maintained at –200° to –230°C.
    • The extremely cold temperatures are needed to detect the extremely faint heat signals from distant galaxies.
    • The mirror as well as the sunscreen is so large they could not have fit into any rocket. They have been built as foldable items and would be unraveled in space.

     

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  • Swachh Bharat Mission

    Meendum Manjappai Scheme

    Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Meendum Manjappai Scheme

    Mains level: Not Much

    Tamil Nadu CM has launched the ‘Meendum Manjappai’ Scheme to promote the use of cloth bags by the public and discourage the use of plastic bags.

    Meendum Manjappai Scheme

    • This awareness campaign on using ‘yellow’ cloth bag or ‘manjapai’ as it is called in Tamil, is aimed at encouraging the people to return to the use of this eco-friendly bag and discard the plastic bags.
    • Manjal means turmeric in Tamil which has curative power. The manjapai was an integral part of daily life in the past.
    • Traditionally the manjapais were used for shopping, carrying books, ration and even cash.
    • The state government had enforced a ban on the production, use, storage, distribution, transportation or sale of 14 types of plastics with effect from January 1, 2019.

     

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  • Indian Army Updates

    Indian Army inducts Armoured Engineer Reconnaissance Vehicle (AERV)

    Prelims Only | Security Issues | Mains Paper 3: Indigenization Of Technology

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Armoured Engineer Reconnaissance Vehicles (AERV)

    Mains level: Not Much

    The first batch of next-generation indigenously designed Armoured Engineer Reconnaissance Vehicles (AERV) was inducted by the Indian Army.

    About AERV

    • AERV is indigenously designed and developed by DRDO and manufactured by the Pune unit of Bharat Electronics Limited.
    • It has more than 90% indigenous content.
    • It is a versatile BMP-IIK amphibious Infantry Combat Vehicle (ICV) fitted with instruments for water reconnaissance, land reconnaissance, navigation, and data backup.

    Unique capabilities of AERV

    • AERV is capable of measuring soil bearing capacity on riverbanks.
    • It works to determine if they are motorable for military vehicles on Go-No Go basis (critical parameters for bridge laying), dry and wet gaps in day and night conditions, slopes and height of river banks or canals.”
    • AERVs can navigate terrain using Military Grid Coordinate System, measure and plot underwater beds and water currents of rivers or canals.
    • They can store data from various instruments on Control Console for further analysis and decision-making.

     

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  • Festivals, Dances, Theatre, Literature, Art in News

    ‘Chillai Kalan’ begins in Kashmir

    Prelims Only | History | Mains Paper 1: Arts & Culture

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Chillai Kalan

    Mains level: Not Much

    Kashmir is in a deep freeze as the 40-day harshest spell of winter, locally called ‘chillai kalan’ has started with the minimum temperature already sub-zero in the entire Valley.

    Chillai Kalan

    • Chillai Kalan is the coldest 40-day period of harsh winter of winter in the Jammu and Kashmir region.
    • It is traditionally defined as a seasonal period of harsh winter accompanied by a change in increase in both frequency and quantity of precipitation usually snow.
    • It begins from December 21 and ends on January 31 next year.
    • It is followed by a 20-day long Chillai-Khurd (small cold) that occurs between January 31 and February 19 and a 10-day long Chillai-Bachha (baby cold).
    • According to Persian tradition, the night of 21st December is celebrated as Shab-e Yalda-“Night of Birth”, or Shab-e Chelleh “Night of Forty”.

    Its’ celebration

    • In the Persian tradition, the night of December 21, the longest of the year, is celebrated as Shab-e-Yalda (night of birth) or Shab-e-Chelleh.
    • Dozens of netizens from Kashmir named it the ‘Pheran Day’, after the long woollen gown worn during the winters in Kashmir.
    • Use of a traditional firing pot called Kangri increases.
    • Tap water pipelines partially freeze during this period. The Dal Lake also freezes.
    • The famous tourist resort of Gulmarg receives heavy snow which attracts skier’s from every part of the world.

     

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