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

Civilsdaily

Login

Type: Prelims Only

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

    What is Meningitis?

    29 September 2021 | Prelims Only | Science and Technology
    Mains GS3: GS3-17.Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, Robotics, Nano-technology, Bio-technology and issues relating to Intellectual Property Rights.

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Meningitis

    Mains level: NA

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched the first-ever global strategy to defeat meningitis, a debilitating disease that kills hundreds of thousands of people each year.

    What is Meningitis?

    • Meningitis is an inflammation of the meninges, the membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord.
    • People of any age can get meningitis.

    What Causes Meningitis?

    • Most cases are caused by bacteria or viruses, but some can be due to certain medicines or illnesses.
    • Meningitis is usually caused by a viral infection but can also be bacterial or fungal.
    • Both kinds of meningitis spread like most other common infections do — someone who’s infected touches, kisses, or coughs or sneezes on someone who isn’t infected.
    • Bacterial meningitis is rare, but is usually serious and can be life-threatening if not treated right away.
    • Viral meningitis (also called aseptic meningitis) is more common than bacterial meningitis and usually less serious.
    • Many of the viruses that cause meningitis are common, such as those that cause colds, diarrhea, cold sores, and the flu.

    What Are the Signs & Symptoms of Meningitis?

    • Meningitis symptoms vary, depending on the person’s age and the cause of the infection.
    • The first symptoms can come on quickly or start several days after someone has had a cold, diarrhea, vomiting, or other signs of an infection.

    Common symptoms include:

    • fever
    • lack of energy
    • irritability
    • headache
    • sensitivity to light
    • stiff neck
    • skin rash

    Treatment

    • Several vaccines protect against meningitis, including meningococcal, Haemophilus influenzae type b and pneumococcal vaccines.
    • If dealt with quickly, meningitis can be treated successfully.

     

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

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • Monsoon Updates

    Cyclone Gulab

    28 September 2021 | Prelims Only | Environment
    Mains GS1: GS1-15.Geographical features and their location- Changes in critical geographical features (including water-bodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Tropical cyclones

    Mains level: Frequent cyclonic activities in India

    As a very rare occasion during monsoons, Cyclone Gulab has been developed in the Bay of Bengal and later made landfall close in Andhra Pradesh.

    Tauktae, Amphan, Fani, Titli, Bulbul, Gaja… And now Gulab. As and when cyclones with intriguing names approach the Indian coasts, a common question comes to our minds: Who names these storms?

     

    This time it is Pakistan, not India, who proposed this name Gulaab!

    About Tropical Cyclones

    • A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure centre, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rains.
    • Depending on its location and strength, a tropical cyclone is referred to by different names, including hurricane, typhoon, tropical storm, cyclonic storm, tropical depression, or simply cyclone.
    • A hurricane is a tropical cyclone that occurs in the Atlantic Ocean and the northeastern Pacific Ocean, and a typhoon occurs in the north-western Pacific Ocean.
    • In the south Pacific or the Indian Ocean, comparable storms are referred to simply as “tropical cyclones” or “severe cyclonic storms”.

    Cyclone Gulab

    • Three factors —in-sync phase of Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO), warm sea surface temperatures over the Bay of Bengal, and the formation of a low-pressure system.
    • The system’s intensification phases between low pressure – well-marked low pressure – depression – deep depression and to finally becoming Cyclone Gulab was rather rapid, even as the system moved closer to the south Odisha – north Andhra Pradesh coast, where it also made landfall.

    What makes Gulab special?

    • India has a bi-annual cyclone season that occurs between March to May and October to December. But on rare occasions, cyclones do occur in June and September months.
    • Cyclones are less common during the June to September monsoon season, as there are limited or almost no favourable conditions for cyclogenesis due to strong monsoon currents.
    • This is also the period when the wind shear — that is, the difference between wind speeds at lower and upper atmospheric levels — is very high.
    • As a result, clouds do not grow vertically and monsoon depressions often fail to intensify into cyclones.
    • So it can be stated that this year, the cyclone season commenced earlier than usual. The last time a cyclone developed in the Bay of Bengal in September was Cyclone Day in 2018.

    Also read

    [Burning Issue] Tropical Cyclones and India

     

     

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

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • Indian Missile Program Updates

    DRDO tests Akash Prime Missile

    28 September 2021 | Prelims Only | Internal Security
    Mains GS3: GS3-16.Achievements of Indians in Science & Technology

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Akash Missile

    Mains level: NA

    The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully tested a new version of Akash Surface to Air missile Akash Prime from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, Odisha.

    About Akash Missile System

    • Akash is a medium-range mobile surface-to-air missile (SAM) system.
    • It is developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and produced by Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL).
    • It can target aircraft up to 50–80 km away, at altitudes up to 18,000 m.
    • It has the capability to neutralise aerial targets like fighter jets, cruise missiles and air-to-surface missiles as well as ballistic missiles.
    • It is in operational service with the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force.

    Upgrade in Akash Prime

    • In comparison to the existing Akash System, Akash Prime is equipped with an indigenous active Radio Frequency (RF) seeker for improved accuracy.
    • Other improvements also ensure more reliable performance under low temperature environment at higher altitudes.

     

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

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • National Mission on Cultural Mapping

    27 September 2021 | Prelims Only | History
    Mains GS1: GS1-01.Indian Culture- Salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: National Mission on Cultural Mapping

    Mains level: Read the attached story

    Having made little progress since its launch in 2017, the National Mission on Cultural Mapping has now been handed over to the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA).

    About the National Mission on Cultural Mapping

    • The NMCM is a mission mode project of the Ministry of Culture. It was incepted in 2015.
    • It is aimed to address the necessity of preserving the threads of rich Indian Art and Cultural Heritage, convert vast and widespread cultural canvas of India into an objective Cultural Mapping while creating a strong “Cultural Vibrancy” throughout the nation.
    • It will identify, collect and record cultural assets and resources. It correlates this to planning and strategizing.
    • A portal and a database listing organisations, spaces, facilities, festivals and events will be created.
    • This database can be used to preserve culture and provide or ameliorate livelihoods.

    Objectives of the Mission

    Under this Mission, at broad-level, there are three important objectives as follows:

    1. National Cultural Awareness Abhiyan: Hamari Sanskriti Hamari Pahchan Abhiyan (Our Culture Our Identity)
    2. Nationwide Artist Talent Hunt/Scouting Programme: Sanskritik Pratibha Khoj Abhiyan
    3. National Cultural Workplace: Centralised Transactional Web Portal with database and demography of cultural assets and resources including all art forms and artists.

    Significance of the mission

    • Revival and safeguarding of oral traditions
    • Fostering Cultural Awareness
    • Cultural Preservation
    • Sustainable Employment to creative industries
    • Optimal Resource Allocation and Utilization:
    • Creation of objective Database for inclusive growth of cultural heritage

     

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

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • International Space Agencies – Missions and Discoveries

    What is Dark Energy?

    27 September 2021 | Prelims Only | Science and Technology
    Mains GS3: GS3-17.Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, Robotics, Nano-technology, Bio-technology and issues relating to Intellectual Property Rights.

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Dark Energy, Dark Energy

    Mains level: Theory of expansion of the universe

    Last week, an international team of researchers has made the first direct detection of dark energy.

    About the Project

    • The XENON1T experiment is the world’s most sensitive dark matter experiment and was operated deep underground at the INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy.
    • The finding also suggests that experiments like XENON1T, which are designed to detect dark matter, could also be used to detect dark energy.

    What is Dark Energy?

    • Dark energy is an unknown form of energy that affects the universe on the largest scales.
    • The first observational evidence for its existence came from measurements of supernovae, which showed that the universe does not expand at a constant rate; rather, the expansion of the universe is accelerating.
    • Prior to these observations, it was thought that all forms of matter and energy in the universe would only cause the expansion to slow down over time.
    • Measurements of the cosmic microwave background suggest the universe began in a hot Big Bang, from which general relativity explains its evolution and the subsequent large-scale motion.
    • Without introducing a new form of energy, there was no way to explain how an accelerating universe could be measured.

    Does it exist?

    • Since the 1990s, dark energy has been the most accepted premise to account for the accelerated expansion.
    • As of 2021, there are active areas of cosmology research aimed at understanding the fundamental nature of dark energy.

    Dark energy Vs Dark matter

    • Everything we see – the planets, moons, massive galaxies, you, me, this website – makes up less than 5% of the universe.
    • About 27% is dark matter and 68% is dark energy.
    • While dark matter attracts and holds galaxies together, dark energy repels and causes the expansion of our universe.

     

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

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • GI(Geographical Indicator) Tags

    GI in news: Goa Cashew Feni

    27 September 2021 | Prelims Only | Economics
    Mains GS3: Intellectual Property Rights

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Cashew Feni, other GI tags in news

    Mains level: NA

    The Goa government’s Feni Policy 2021 has paved the way to take the state’s ‘heritage drink’ forward.

    Sounds strange but an alcoholic beverage has been GI tagged!

    Goa Cashew Feni

    • Feni is a spirit produced in Goa, India.
    • The two most popular types of feni are cashew feni and toddy palm feni, depending on the original ingredient; however, many other varieties are sold.
    • Feni distilleries are usually family-run affairs, and the history of the drink goes back to at least 1585.
    • The feni consumed in South Goa is generally of higher alcohol content (43-45% abv) as compared to the feni produced in North Goa.
    • Commercially packaged feni is available at 42.8% abv.
    • Cashew feni was awarded Geographical Indication registration in 2009 as a speciality alcoholic beverage from Goa.
    • It has been described as a colourless, clear liquid that when matured in wooden barrels develops golden brown tint.

    Must read

    GI Tags in News

     

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

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

    IIT-B develops One-time Programmable Memory

    27 September 2021 | Prelims Only | Science and Technology
    Mains GS3: GS3-16.Achievements of Indians in Science & Technology

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: One-time Programmable Memory

    Mains level: NA

    IIT Bombay researchers have developed a “memory technology” that can, in principle, revolutionise Indian industry and the many applications that need semiconductor chips, such as in the defence sector, automobiles and future aspirations in cell phone manufacturing.

    One-time Programmable Memory

    • Hard disks, flash memory, etc, are examples of memory technology.
    • There is also another form of memory called the one-time programmable memory (OTP) where the memory is written once, stored for a lifetime, and retrieved and used many times.
    • This finds varied uses, one of which is in correcting faulty chips that have been mass produced for specific applications.

    Its utility

    • For instance, think of a chip that helps read off the temperature.
    • Due to a manufacturing defect, the chip may read 100 degree Celsius as 101 degree Celsius.
    • This “offset” of 1 degree may be corrected by storing the error correction parameter in the OTP memory.
    • This is done uniquely for each chip and once stored, the memory corrects the chip’s output for its lifetime.
    • OTP memories are also used for other purposes, mainly three: chip identity, secure information storage and chip calibration for error correction.

    How does it work?

    • To store the correction value, the researchers used eight memory cells, each of which would store one “bit” (that is a value of zero or one).
    • Each of the memory cells consist of an ultrathin silicon dioxide layer which is 10-15 atomic layers thick.
    • This is deposited uniformly over a dinner plate–sized eight-inch silicon wafer to form millions of nanoscale capacitors.
    • The pristine silicon dioxide layer is insulating, passing a very low current [which in digital electronics is read as a “0”].
    • A nanoscale lightning is generated of 3.3 volts to blow the capacitor, leading to a short circuit that produced high current [this is a “1”].
    • Thus, the OTP memory remembers either the “0” state or “1” state through its lifetime.

    Benefits offered

    • The group has successfully demonstrated CMOS 180-nanometre–based, production-ready, eight-bit memory technology.
    • These include successful operation between minus 40 degrees C to 125 degrees C and reliability to ensure excess of 95% yield on eight-bit memories.

    Significance

    • A large fraction of manufactured chips may need to be discarded for faults that can be corrected using this technology.
    • This technology is the first indigenous semiconductor memory technology adoption to manufacturing at 180-nanometre node.
    • Thus, this is a major national milestone for semiconductor innovation.

     

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

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • Modern Indian History-Events and Personalities

    In news: Battle of Chamkaur (1704)

    25 September 2021 | Prelims Only |
    Mains GS1: GS1-02.Modern Indian History- Mid-18th century – Present (significant events, personalities, issues);

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Battle of Chamkaur

    Mains level: NA

    The new Punjab CM represents the Assembly constituency of Chamkaur Sahib, which is of significance in Sikh history.

    For such history-related topics, one must not forget to note the contemporaries of a particular period.

    The Battle of Chamkaur

    • The coalition forces of Mughals and hill rajas led by Wazir Khan, the Nawab of Sirhind, had laid siege to Anandpur Sahib in the hope of capturing Guru Gobind Singh in May 1704.
    • After seven months of fighting and heavy losses, the coalition forces offered a safe passage to the Guru and his followers.
    • The heads of the coalition pledged they would not harm the Guru, his family, or his soldiers.
    • The peace treaty was sent in the name of Emperor Aurangzeb himself.
    • But when Gobind Singh and his followers stepped out of the Anandpur Sahib fort on the night of December 20, they were attacked.
    • Historically, this was where that Guru Gobind Singh lost two of his elder sons in a battle with the coalition forces of Mughals and the hill rajas.

    What happened at Chamkaur Sahib?

    • The Guru, accompanied by panj piaras (the five Sikhs he had initially baptised), his elder sons and around 40 soldiers, regrouped in a fortress-like two-storey house, with high compound walls made of mud.
    • They were surrounded by an army commandeered by Wazir Khan and Sher Mohammed Khan, the younger brother of Malerkotla’s chieftain.
    • The Guru sent out soldiers in small squads for hand-to-hand combat. Two such attacks were led by his sons, both of whom died fighting.
    • Three of the panj piaras — Mohkam Singh, Himmat Singh and Sahib Singh — too died fighting.

    How did the battle conclude?

    • When very few soldiers were left, they decided the Guru should leave so that he could carry on his mission.
    • It was at the Chamkaur fort that panj piaras issued an edict (hukumnama) ordering the Guru to leave.
    • This was the first edict issued by panj piaras after the formation of the Khalsa on April 13, 1699.
    • Before leaving, the Guru gave his attire and distinguishing kalgi to Sangat Singh, a Mazhabi Sikh who resembled him.
    • Three other soldiers too left the fort, and went in separate directions. The following day, the enemy forced their way inside to find only two soldiers who fought till their last breath.
    • Five days later, Guru Gobind Singh’s two younger sons, aged nine and seven, were bricked alive for refusing to convert.

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

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • Climate Change Impact on India and World – International Reports, Key Observations, etc.

    Arctic ice is disappearing: How clouds interact with sea ice change

    25 September 2021 | Prelims Only | Environment
    Mains GS1: GS1-14.Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc.,

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Polynya

    Mains level: Glaciers retreat at the Poles

    Temperatures in the Arctic, for example, have been rising much faster than the rest of the planet. Experts, for the longest time, have attributed the crisis to how clouds interact with sea ice, essentially frozen seawater.

    Role of Polynya

    • Decades of research have pointed that the losses in Arctic Sea ice cover allow for the formation of more clouds near the ocean’s surface.
    • New research by NASA has now shown that more heat and moisture is released through a large hole in sea ice called a polynya, which fuels the formation of more clouds.
    • This traps heat in the atmosphere and hinders the refreezing of new sea ice.

    What is Polynya?

    • A polynya is an area of open water surrounded by sea ice.
    • It is now used as a geographical term for an area of unfrozen seawater within otherwise contiguous pack ice or fast ice.
    • It refers to a natural ice hole and was adopted in the 19th century by polar explorers to describe navigable portions of the sea.
    • There are two main types of polynyas:
    1. Coastal polynyas, which can be found year-round near the Antarctic and Arctic coasts and are mainly created by strong winds pushing the ice away from the coast, and
    2. Mid-sea or open-ocean polynyas, which may be found more sporadically in the middle of an ice pack in certain locations, especially around Antarctica.

    What is the new research about?

    • The research stated that low clouds over the polynya emitted more energy or heat than clouds in adjacent areas covered by sea ice.
    • The polynya did refreeze, but only after the increased cloud cover and heat under the clouds persisted for about a week.
    • The extra clouds and increased cloud radiative effect to the surface remained for some time after the polynya froze.
    • The sea ice acts like a cap or a barrier between the relatively warm ocean surface and the cold and dry atmosphere above, so more heat and moisture from the ocean into the atmosphere.
    • This warming slows down the growth of the sea ice.

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

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • Trade Sector Updates – Falling Exports, TIES, MEIS, Foreign Trade Policy, etc.

    Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS)

    24 September 2021 | Prelims Only | Economics
    Mains GS3: GS3-12.Effects of liberalization on the economy, changes in industrial policy and their effects on industrial growth

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS)

    Mains level: Export promotion schemes in India

    The Directorate General of Foreign Trade has imposed a cap on the total entitlement under the Services Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) at Rs 5 crore per exporter for shipments done in 2019-20 (FY20). The move is expected to benefit small businesses in the services sector.

    About SEIS

    • Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) aims to promote export of services from India by providing duty scrip credit for eligible exports.
    • Under the scheme, service providers, located in India, would be rewarded under the SEIS scheme, for all eligible export of services from India.
    • SEIS was earlier termed as Served from India Scheme (SFIS).

    Eligibility

    • Service Providers of notified services, located in India are eligible for the Service Exports from India Scheme.
    • To be eligible, a service provider (Company / LLP / Partnership Firm) should have a minimum net free foreign exchange earnings of USD 15000 in the preceding financial year to be eligible for duty credit scrips.
    • For proprietorships or individual service providers, minimum net foreign exchange earnings of USD10,000 in the preceding financial year is required to be eligible for the scheme.
    • Also, in order to claim reward under the SEIS scheme, the service provider shall have to have an active Import Export Code (IE Code) at the time of rendering such services for which rewards are claimed.

    Back2Basics: Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS)

    • MEIS was launched with an objective to enhance the export of notified goods manufactured in a country.
    • This scheme came into effect on 1 April 2015 through the Foreign Trade Policy and was in existence till 2020.
    • It intended to incentivize exports of goods manufactured in India or produced in India.
    • The incentives were for goods widely exported from India, industries producing or manufacturing such goods with a view to making Indian exports competitive.
    • The MEIS covered almost 5000 goods notified for the purpose of the scheme.

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

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor