💥Join UPSC 2027,2028 Mentorship (July Batch) + XFactor Notes & Microthemes PDF
Talk to Mentor

Civilsdaily

Login

Type: Prelims Only

  • What is Antrix- Devas Multimedia Deal?

    A Canadian court has ordered the seizure of more than $30 million worth of Airport Authority of India’s assets.

    Background

    • In 2005, Devas Multimedia signed an agreement with Antrix —a commercial arm of the IISRO —to provide multimedia services to mobile users using the leased S-band satellite spectrum to be provided by Antrix.
    • In 2011, the UPA-2 government canceled this agreement on the ground that it needed the S-band satellite spectrum for national security and other social purposes.
    • This led to arbitration between Antrix and Devas at the International Chambers of Commerce (ICC) and two bilateral investment treaty (BIT) arbitrations. India lost all three disputes.

    India’s non-compliance

    • AAI and Air India are being targeted because they are Indian public sector entities with overseas assets and serve as a proxy for the government of India.
    • The Canada court can do so through the concept of restrictive immunity.
    • In the meanwhile, the National Company Law Tribunal (India) ordered the liquidation of Devas Multimedia on the ground that the affairs of the company were being carried on fraudulently.

    Why did India cancel the deal?

    • The scandal first came to light when in 2011, the news reported that there were some irregularities in the agreement between Antrix and Devas.
    • They reported the findings of a draft audit report and pointed out discrepancies including financial mismanagement, conflict of interest, non-compliance of rules, and favoritism.
    • This revelation came at the heel of the 2G spectrum scam which was condemned for the high level of corruption.

    How can a Canadian court order the attachment of Indian assets?

    • State immunity — a well-established principle of international law — shields a state and its property against legal proceedings in the courts of other countries.
    • This covers immunity from both jurisdiction and execution.
    • However, there is no international legal instrument in force dealing with state immunity in the municipal legal systems of different countries, which has created an international void.
    • Consequently, countries have filled this void through their national legislations and domestic judicial practices on state immunity.
    • Typically, prominent jurisdictions such as Canada follow the concept of restrictive immunity (a foreign State is immune only for sovereign functions) and not absolute immunity.

    How can assets of AAI be seized when the claim is against India?

    • In execution proceedings, assets of an entity can be seized if that entity is an alter ego of the State that fails to comply with the arbitral award.
    • In other words, if the foreign sovereign exercises such extensive control over the entity, then the presumption that the entity has a separate corporate character is set aside.
    • Thus, the Canadian court must have concluded that the Indian government extensively controls AAI.

    What options does India have?

    • The first option is to comply with the two adverse BIT awards. However, it is highly unlikely that India would do so.
    • The second option is to challenge this decision in an appellate court in Canada as per Canadian law where India can try proving that the ‘extensive control requirement’ is not met in the case of AAI.
    • However, state immunity from execution is purely a procedural hurdle to the enforcement of the BIT award.
    • It cannot justify India’s breach of its international law obligations enshrined in the two BITs and the continued failure to comply with the arbitral awards.

    Back2Basics: New Space India Limited (NSIL)

    • It functions under the administrative control of the Department of Space (DOS).
    • It aims to commercially exploit the research and development work of ISRO Centres and constituent units of DOS.
    • The NSIL would enable Indian Industries to scale up high-technology manufacturing and production base for meeting the growing needs of the Indian space program.
    • It would further spur the growth of Indian Industries in the space sector.

    ANTRIX

    • Antrix Corporation Limited (ACL), Bengaluru is a wholly-owned Government of India Company under the administrative control of the Department of Space.
    • It is as a marketing arm of ISRO for promotion and commercial exploitation of space products, technical consultancy services and transfer of technologies developed by ISRO.
    • Antrix is engaged in providing Space products and services to international customers worldwide.

     

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

  • English is the language of Court: Gujarat HC

    A Division Bench of the Gujarat High Court has asked a convict to speak only in English as that was the language in the higher judiciary referring to Article 348 of the Constitution which mandates that the language of the High Court would be English.

    What is Article 348?

    • It provides for languages to be used in the Supreme Court and in the High Courts and for Acts, Bills, etc
    • Article 348 (1) provides that all proceedings in the Supreme Court and in every High court shall be in English Language until Parliament by law otherwise provides.
    • Under Article 348 (2), the Governor of the State may, with the previous consent of the President, authorize the use of the Hindi language or any other language used for any official purpose of the State.
    • It states that in the proceedings of the High Court having its principal seat in that State provided that decrees, judgments or orders passed by such High Courts shall be in English.

    When is use of other languages permitted?

    • Section 7 of the Official Languages Act, 1963, provides that the use of Hindi or official language of a State in addition to the English language may be authorized.
    • This has to be done with the consent of the President of India, by the Governor of the State for purpose of judgments etc. made by the High Court for that State.

     

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

  • Significance of Delhi government’s recognition to fifth Sikh Takht

    The Delhi Assembly has passed an amendment Bill to the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1971, recognizing Takht Damdama Sahib as the fifth Takht of Sikhs.

    What is a Sikh Takht?

    • A Takht, which means a throne, is a seat of temporal authority for Sikhs.
    • There are five Sikh Takhts, three in Punjab and one each in Maharashtra and Bihar.

    (1) Akal Takht

    • Located in Amritsar, it is the oldest of the Takhts, and considered supreme among the five.
    • It was set up in 1606 by Guru Hargobind, whose succession as the sixth Guru after the execution of his father, Guru Arjan Dev, is considered a turning point in Sikh history.
    • The Akal Takht, a raised platform that he built in front of the causeway leading to the sanctum sanctorum of the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple).
    • It symbolised the coming together of the temporal authority and the political sovereignty of the Sikh community (miri) with the spiritual authority (piri).
    • It is seen as the first marker of Sikh nationalism.

    The other four Takhts are linked to Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru.

    (2) Takht Keshgarh Sahib

    • Located in Anandpur Sahib in Punjab. It was here that Guru Gobind Singh raised Khalsa, the initiated Sikh warriors, in 1699.

    (3) Takht Patna Sahib

    • Guru Gobind Singh was born here in 1666.

    (4) Takht Hazur Sahib

    • In Nanded, where Guru Gobin Singh spent time and where he was cremated in 1708.

    (5) Takht Damdama Sahib

    • In Talwandi Sabo of Bathinda. Guru Gobind Singh spent several months here.

    What does the amendment to the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Act mean?

    • Simply put, it adds one more ex officio member in the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Managament Committee (DSGMC) house.
    • Earlier, there were four ex officio members in the house — the chiefs (jathedars) of the other four Sikh Takhts.

    Is it the first time it has been recognised as the fifth Takht?

    • It was back in 1999 that Takht Damdama Sahib was recognised as the fifth Sikh Takht by the Union Home Ministry.
    • It included it as such in the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925 (Punjab Act VIII of 1925) with a notification dated April 23, 1999.
    • Before that, an SGPC sub-committee had declared it the fifth Takht of Sikhs back in November 1966 after Punjab was carved out as a separate state through the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966.

    How politically significant is the move?

    • It comes ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections, where the, Delhi’s ruling party, has high stakes.

    What is the role of the Sikh Takhts?

    • The Takhts are known to issue hukumnamas (morality orders) from time to time on issues that concern the Sikh community.
    • Akal Takht is supreme among them because it is the oldest and was created by a Sikh Guru himself, say Sikh scholars.
    • Any edict or order concerning the entire community is issued only from Akal Takht.
    • It is from Akal Takht that Sikhs found to be violating the Sikh doctrine and code of conduct are awarded religious punishment (declared tankhaiya).

    Who appoints the jathedars of the Takhts?

    • The three Takhts in Punjab are directly controlled by the SGPC, which appoints the jathedars.
    • The SGPC is dominated by SAD members.
    • It is widely understood that SAD puts the final seal on the appointment of these three jathedars.
    • The two Takhts outside Punjab have their own trusts and boards.

     

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

  • Traditional vaccines just as effective, say US Scientists

    Vaccines like Biological E’s Corbevax and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin that are made by traditional methods are “just as effective” as the latest mRNA technology-based vaccines a/c to US scientists.

    What are Vaccines?

    • A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease.
    • It typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins, or one of its surface proteins.

    Types of Vaccines

    There are several types of vaccines, including:

    • Inactivated vaccines
    • Live-attenuated vaccines
    • Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines
    • Subunit, recombinant, polysaccharide, and conjugate vaccines
    • Viral vector vaccines

    [1] Inactivated vaccines

    • Inactivated vaccines use the killed version of the germ that causes a disease.
    • Inactivated vaccines usually don’t provide immunity (protection) that’s as strong as live vaccines.
    • So you may need several doses over time (booster shots) in order to get ongoing immunity against diseases.
    • Inactivated vaccines are used to protect against: Hepatitis A, Flu (shot only), Polio (shot only), Rabies etc.

    [2] Live-attenuated vaccines

    • Live vaccines use a weakened (or attenuated) form of the germ that causes a disease.
    • Because these vaccines are so similar to natural infection that they help prevent, they create a strong and long-lasting immune response.
    • Just 1 or 2 doses of most live vaccines can give you a lifetime of protection against a germ and the disease it causes.
    • They need to be kept cool in refrigerated conditions.
    • Live vaccines are used to protect against Measles, mumps, rubella (MMR), Rotavirus, Smallpox, Chickenpox, Yellow fever

    [3] Messenger RNA vaccines

    • Researchers have been studying and working with mRNA vaccines for decades and this technology was used to make some of the COVID-19 vaccines.
    • mRNA vaccines make proteins in order to trigger an immune response.
    • mRNA vaccines have several benefits compared to other types of vaccines, including shorter manufacturing times and, because they do not contain a live virus, no risk of causing disease in the person getting vaccinated.

    How does mRNA vaccine work?

    • The mRNA vaccines function differently from traditional vaccines.
    • Traditional vaccines stimulate an antibody response by injecting a human with antigens.
    • mRNA vaccines inject a fragment of the RNA sequence of a virus directly into the cells, which then stimulate an adaptive immune response mRNA fragment is a specific piece of the virus that carries instructions to build the antigen of the virus.
    • An advantage of RNA vaccines is that they stimulate cellular immunity.

     

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

  • Western Disturbances to bring rain in New Delhi

    Under the influence of two consecutive western disturbances, New Delhi is in for a wet spell.

    Western Disturbances

    • A western disturbance is an extratropical storm originating in the Mediterranean region that brings sudden winter rain to the northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent.
    • It is a non-monsoonal precipitation pattern driven by the westerlies.
    • The moisture in these storms usually originates over the Mediterranean Sea, the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea.
    • Extratropical storms are global phenomena with moisture usually carried in the upper atmosphere, unlike their tropical counterparts where the moisture is carried in the lower atmosphere.
    • In the case of the Indian subcontinent, moisture is sometimes shed as rain when the storm system encounters the Himalayas.
    • Western disturbances are more frequent and strong in the winter season.

    Impact: Winter Rainfall and Extreme Cold

    • Western disturbances, specifically the ones in winter, bring moderate to heavy rain in low-lying areas and heavy snow to mountainous areas of the Indian Subcontinent.
    • They are the cause of most winter and pre-monsoon season rainfall across northwest India.
    • An average of four to five western disturbances forms during the winter season.

    Its significance

    • Precipitation during the winter season has great importance in agriculture, particularly for the rabi crops.
    • Wheat among them is one of the most important crops, which helps to meet India’s food security.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q. Consider the following statements:

    1. The winds which blow between 30°N and 60°S latitudes throughout the year are known as westerlies.
    2. The moist air masses that cause winter rains in the North-Western region of India are part of westerlies.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

    (a) Only 1

    (b) Only 2

    (c) Both 1 and 2

    (d) Neither 1 nor 2

     

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”9y7ae6mirv” question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here.[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

     

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

  • Multi Agency Centre (MAC): A common counter-terrorism grid

    The Union government has asked the States to share more intelligence inputs through the Multi Agency Centre (MAC), a common counter-terrorism grid under the Intelligence Bureau (IB).

    Why in news?

    • States are often reluctant to share information on the platform.
    • There are several gaps in sharing critical information at the right time.
    • Plans are afoot for more than a decade to link the system up to the district level.

    About MAC

    • The Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) was formed in December 2001 following the Kargil intrusion and the subsequent overhaul of the Indian national security apparatus suggested by the Kargil Review Committee report.
    • Accordingly, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) was authorized to create a multi-agency centre (MAC) in New Delhi.
    • Now functioning 24×7 as the nodal body for sharing intelligence inputs, MAC coordinates with representatives from numerous agencies, different ministries, both central and state.
    • Various security agencies share real-time intelligence inputs on the MAC.
    • The state offices have been designated as subsidiary MACs (SMACs).
    • As many as 28 organisations, including the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), armed forces and State police, are part of the platform.

    Back2Basics: NATGRID

    • NATGRID is an intelligence-sharing network that collates data from the standalone databases of the various agencies and ministries of the Indian government.
    • It collects and collates a host of information from government databases including tax and bank account details, credit/debit card transactions, visa and immigration records and itineraries of rail and air travel.
    • It came into existence after the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
    • It is accessible to only authorized people from 10 security agencies on a case-to-case basis for investigations into suspected cases of terrorism.
    • It will also have access to the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems, a database that links crime information, including First Information Reports, across 14,000 police stations in India.

    Note: NATGRID data will be made available to 11 central agencies, which are: Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), Intelligence Bureau (IB), National Investigation Agency (NIA), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and Directorate General of GST Intelligence.

     

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

  • Understanding IC15, India’s first Crypto Index

    Superapp CryptoWire recently launched India’s first cryptocurrency index, IC15, which will measure the performance of the 15 most widely traded cryptocurrencies listed on leading crypto exchanges by market capitalization.

    What is IC15?

    • CryptoWire constituted an Index Committee of domain experts, industry practitioners, and academicians that will select cryptocurrencies from the top 400 coins in terms of market capitalization.
    • The eligible cryptocurrency should have traded on at least 90% of the days during the review period and be among the 100 most liquid cryptocurrencies in terms of trading value.
    • Also, the cryptocurrency should be in the top 50 in terms of the circulating market capitalization.
    • The committee will then select the top 15 cryptocurrencies. The index will be reviewed quarterly.

    What is its significance?

    • IC15 can be replicated for creating index-linked products such as index funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
    • Usually, the performance of a mutual fund scheme is assessed with reference to a benchmark, which could be a total return index of the Nifty or the Sensex.
    • IC15 is the first index in India that can act as a benchmark of the underlying cryptocurrency market and the performance benchmark for fund managers.
    • Moreover, robo-advisors, which provide financial advice with moderate to minimal human intervention, can use this index to create investment products at lower costs.

    How  does  IC15  correlate  with other market indicators?

    • IC15’s base value as on 1 April 2018 was 10,000.
    • It would mean that the index has gained 615% in absolute terms to 71,475.48 till 31 December 2021.

    Can  index-based  crypto investment reduce risks?

    • Index investing can be an effective way to diversify against risks as a fund invests in a basket of assets against a few limited coins.
    • However, index-based investing may not fully remove risks associated with investing in crypto assets.
    • Case in point: IC15 saw a 50% plunge in 2018, whereas other asset classes have seen a maximum drop in the range of 3-4%.
    • Further, bitcoin and ethereum have a combined weightage of 77% in the index, making it highly vulnerable to any volatility in these two coins.

    Can crypto funds be launched in India?

    • SEBI has recently asked mutual fund houses not to launch crypto-based funds until the Centre comes out with clear regulations.
    • This means asset management companies for now won’t be able to launch crypto funds based on IC15.
    • However, in the absence of any regulations, crypto platforms can offer products based on the index.
    • Global crypto investment platform Mudrex last year launched Coin Sets—crypto funds based on themes such as decentralized finance or market cap.

     

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

  • [pib] What is Nai Talim?

    The Vice President of India has said that the New Education Policy follows the ‘Nai Talim’ of Mahatma Gandhi by giving importance to the mother tongue as the medium of instruction at the school level.

    What is Nai Talim?

    • The phrase Nai Talim is a combination of two words- Nai Means ‘New’ and Talim – a Urdu word-means ‘Education’.
    • In 1937, Gandhiji introduced the concept of Nai Talim in India. It aimed to achieve Gram Swaraj (liberation of villages).
    • In short, Gandhiji dreamed to make all villages independent; and self-reliant.
    • It is an approach to the total personality development of body, mind and spirit and was based on four principles namely:
    1. Education or learning in mother tongue along with handicraft work,
    2. Work should be linked with most useful vocational needs of the locality,
    3. Learning should be linked with vocational work, and
    4. Work should be socially useful and productive needed for living.

    Gandhiji and Education

    • Gandhi’s first experiments in education began at the Tolstoy Farm ashram in South Africa.
    • It was much later, while living at Sevagram (Wardha) and in the heat of the Independence struggle, that Gandhi wrote his influential article in Harijan about education.
    • In it, he mapped out the basic pedagogy (or teaching) with focus on:
    1. Lifelong character of education,
    2. Social character and
    3. A holistic process
    • Thus, for Gandhi, education is ‘the moral development of the person’, a process that is by definition ‘lifelong’.
    • He believed the importance of role of teacher in the learning process.

     

    Try this PYQ from CSP 2020:

     

    Q. One common agreement between Gandhism and Marxism is

    (a) The final goal of a stateless society

    (b) Class struggle

    (c) Abolition of private property

    (d) Economic determinism

     

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”3i9ahv7hw9″ question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here:[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

     

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

  • Gaganyaan and other new Missions in 2022

    After a rather muted 2021 in terms of satellite launches, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is gearing up for a number of missions in 2022 including the launch of the first unmanned mission of Gaganyaan.

    Gaganyaan Mission

    • Gaganyaan is crewed orbital spacecraft intended to be the formative spacecraft of the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme (IHSP).
    • The IHSP was initiated in 2007 by ISRO to develop the technology needed to launch crewed orbital spacecraft into low Earth orbit.
    • The first uncrewed flight, named Gaganyaan 1, is scheduled to launch no earlier than June 2022 on a GSLV Mark III rocket.
    • ISRO had been working on related technologies and it performed a Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment and a Pad Abort Test for the mission.
    • If completed in meantime, India will become the fourth nation to conduct independent human spaceflight after the Russia, US and China.

    Details of the project

    • The spacecraft is being designed to carry three people, and a planned upgraded version will be equipped with rendezvous and docking capability.
    • In its maiden crewed mission, this capsule will orbit the Earth at 400 km altitude for up to seven days with a two or three-person crew on board.
    • This Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) manufactured crew module had its first un-crewed experimental flight in 2014.
    • DRDO will provide support for critical human-centric systems and technologies like space-grade food, crew healthcare, radiation measurement and protection, parachutes for the safe recovery of the crew module and fire suppression system.

    Other missions this year

    • Earth Observation Satellites: EOS-4 and EOS-6
    • Flights for Crew Escape System of Gaganyaan
    • Chandrayaan-03
    • Aditya Ll
    • XpoSat

    New projects

    • Venus mission
    • DISHA –a twin aeronomy satellite mission
    • TRISHNA, an ISRO-CNES [Centre national d’études spatiales] mission

     

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

  • RBI approves Offline E-Payments

    The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has come out with the framework for facilitating small-value digital payments in offline mode, a move that would promote digital payments in semi-urban and rural areas.

    Offline E-payments

    • Offline digital payment does not require Internet or telecom connectivity.
    • Such payments can be carried out face-to-face (proximity mode) using any channel or instrument like cards, wallets and mobile devices.
    • Such transactions would not require an Additional Factor of Authentication.
    • Since the transactions are offline, alerts (by way of SMS and/or e-mail) will be received by the customer after a time lag.
    • There is a limit of ₹200 per transaction and an overall limit of ₹2,000 until the balance in the account is replenished.

    Conditions applied

    • Payment instruments shall be enabled for offline transactions only after the explicit consent of the customer.
    • That apart, these transactions using cards will be allowed without a requirement to turn on the contactless transaction channel.
    • The customers shall have recourse to the Reserve Bank – Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, as applicable, for grievance redressal.
    • RBI retains the right to stop or modify the operations of any such payment solution that enables small value digital payments in offline mode.

     

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q. With reference to digital payments, consider the following statements:

    1. BHIM app allows the user to transfer money to anyone with a UPI-enabled bank account.
    2. While a chip-pin debit card has four factors of authentication, BHIM app has only two factors of authentication.

    Which of the statements given above is/ are correct? (CSP 2018)

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) Both 1 and 2

    (d) Neither 1 nor 2

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”naidd0dw2j” question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here.[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

     

     

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)