On Oceans and Cryosphere
The new ocean report noted that the global mean sea level had risen by 16 cm between 1902 and 2015, and that the rate of increase had doubled in the last one decade.
The sea levels were rising because of thermal expansion of ocean waters due to rising temperatures as well as due to melting of glaciers and polar ice.
It says that between 2006 and 2015, the Greenland ice sheet lost ice-mass at an average rate of 278 billion tonnes every year, while the Antarctic ice sheet lost a mass of 155 billion tonnes on an average every year.
Snow over areas outside of these two regions, like the glaciers in the Himalayas, together lost an average of 220 billion tonnes of ice every year.
discovered inside diamond mined in SA
While the mantle is dominated by elements such as magnesium and iron, goldschmidtite has high concentrations of niobium, potassium and the rare earth elements lanthanum and cerium.
circular economy (CE) modelthat seeks to restore and regenerate, and also reduce waste by replacing the end-of-life concept
Reduced waste generation through closing the loop using CE and resource efficiency (RE) approaches will not only reduce pollution associated with waste disposal but also save related costs in resolving the short-term trade-offs between growth and environmental sustainability towards enhancing the overall security of human beings.
National Resource Efficiency Policy (NREP), 2019 is guided by few key principles namely, reduction in primary resource consumption to ‘sustainable’ levels, in keeping with achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and staying within the planetary boundaries; creation of higher value with less material through resource efficient and circular approaches; waste minimization; material security and creation of employment opportunities, and business models beneficial to the cause of environment protection and restoration.
big chunk of easy money has never gone into productive investment and employment generation. India’s persistent non-performing asset problem is evidence of the wastage of too much capital, both pre- and post-2008.
the official repo rate has edged down from 6.5% to 5.4%, but India’s core consumer-price inflation rate has come down from just over 6% to about 4.1%
It’s shocking that India is absent from global value chains despite being a major car producer
finished passenger automobiles—have been characterized by very high import tariffs that are anywhere from 60% to as high as 125% in some cases, making India one of the highest import tariff jurisdictions in this sector among major economies
The more important consequence of high protective tariffs is that Indian automobile makers are characterized by low productivity, as compared to other comparable car-producing countries.
Due to low productivity and an inefficiently low scale of production, in general, Indian automobiles are uncompetitive in the global market. It is a telling fact that a country which is the sixth largest automobile manufacturer in the world has barely 1% of global exports, and is largely absent from well-established global value chains (GVCs).
It is noteworthy that the automobile parts industry, which has faced low tariffs (as low as 12.5%) and has been largely deregulated, has been characterized by higher productivity and much better export performance than the completely-built-units sector in the years since liberalization.
So long as the country’s demography is such that more beneficiaries are expected to be born than there are today, the per capita burden of today’s deficit-spending will be lower tomorrow.
For, if a bridge or airport is financed through a deficit today, it is a public good that will last for more than 50 years and whose benefits will be enjoyed by multiple generations.
Japan has the world’s highest debt-to-GDP ratio, at close to 350%. But its debt is still AAA-rated and nobody has said it is unsustainable, even though its demography is unfavourable because its population is shrinking.
The per capita burden of servicing that debt will keep rising for future Japanese generations. One big point in their favour is that most of the debt is held internally. It is like the left pocket owing money to the right. Another favourable point is its near-zero interest rate on sovereign debt.
In the US, which runs the highest deficit in the world (close to $1 trillion), the big point is that all its debt is in a currency that it can print. So it can earn unlimited seigniorage, inflate and thus erode the real value of its debt. Moreover, the world seems to have an insatiable hunger for US sovereign bonds, so financing the debt seems like a cakewalk.
While we loosen our fiscal purse strings, we should not lose focus on the revival of export growth, manufacturing, skill-building and agricultural reforms. The extra fiscal bill can be partly funded by the ambitious sale of government stakes in public sector entities. But running a bigger deficit in these times is a must.
Economist Intelligence Unit
Others by EIU -- World Democracy Index and Inclusive Internet Index
Further India's interests in the Arctic region
Emerge as an exporter of skilled manpower -- scarcity of labour in Russia
supplement India's agri and timber demand
boost to India's diamond industry
access to oil, energy and minerals
Increased economic presence of Indian companies -- lead to increase in tourism
World Gold Council -- India ranks 9th in Gold Reserves (10th if IMF is included)
World Gold Council -- association of gold companies -- independent
Conflict free gold standard -- gold does not support conflict activities
unearthed in Kerala
No vaccine available for H-C
infection of H-C can lead to H-D
H-B -- sexual transmission, H-A -- contaminated food and water, H-C -- infected blood
Institutional mechanism for giving in priniciple approval for the merger of PSBs
headed by FM
set up in 2017
India should deepen its economic linkages with Saudi Arabia through interlocking cross country investments
How vulnerable are our oil and gas assets on the western coast? Specifically, the Mumbai High oil and gas fields, the Jamnagar refinery complex and the LNG regassification terminals in Dahej, Hazira, Dabhol and Cochin
Pakistan is heavily in debt to Saudi Arabia and it depends hugely on the kingdom’s largesse to avoid economic collapse. Saudi Arabia has consequently considerable leverage over Pakistan and the latter in turn cannot afford to ignore Saudi economic interests when war gaming an offensive strategy against India.
Were the Saudis invested in India oil and gas assets, it might deter Pakistan from bringing these assets into their strategic calculus.
“Saudi buffer”
He practised and subscribed to 11 vows. Satya (truth), ahimsa (non-violence), brahmacharya (self-control), aparigraha (non-possession), asteya (non-stealing), abhaya (fearlessness), asvaad (palate), shareer shram (bread-labour) were eight vows for self-regulation, and swadeshi (local), sprushya bhavna (removal of untouchability)and sarva dharma sama bhava (tolerance or equal respect for all religions) were for bringing back rural, decentralised economy and bringing harmony among castes and religion. This has to be woven in education and practice.
For Gandhi, minimalism was not a tool to find freedom. Minimalism was an end in itself and arose out of the ethical obligations to the “other”, which included fellow humans, animals and nature.
In this framework, freedom is achieved not in realising our best self but is implicit in those actions that recognise and respond to the other, especially the weak and the powerless
Gandhi’s minimalism thus traverses a complex ethical web. It calls for intentional living by being conscious and considerate of the diverse and varied relationships we maintain with our own surroundings.
It is not the passion of the self that is at the forefront of this minimalism but our responsibility towards the other. It is in this vein that Gandhi asks us to be “trustees” of this planet, not its owner.
Regional connectivity -- “breakfast in Amritsar, lunch in Lahore, dinner in Kabul” formulation provided a vision that was at once progressive as well as deeply-rooted in the history and shared cultures of the region
Reserve Bank of India released its annual study of state-level budgets
states now spend one-and-a-half times more than the Union government and, in doing so, they employ five times more people than the Centre
not only do states have a greater role to play in determining India’s GDP than the Centre, they are also the bigger employment generators
As such, it is crucial to understand their spending pattern. If, for example, their combined expenditure contracts from one year to the other, then it will bring down India’s GDP.
since 2014-15, states have increasingly borrowed money from the market — a trend captured in the fiscal deficit figure. In fact, their total borrowing almost rivals the borrowing by the Union government. This trend, too, has serious implications on the interest rates charged in the economy, the availability of funds for businesses to invest in new factories, and the ability of the private sector to employ new labour.
Role of farm loan waivers and other difficult policy spendings.
La Niña, the phenomenon in the equatorial Pacific Ocean in which the sea surface temperatures turn unusually cold, is known to strengthen rainfall over the Indian sub-continent during the monsoon months.
The IOD is a phenomenon similar to the ENSO condition observed in the Pacific Ocean which creates the El Niño and La Niña events. The sea surface temperatures in the Indian Ocean get warmer and cooler than normal, and this deviation influences regional atmospheric and weather patterns, notably the Indian monsoon.
While the Pacific Ocean only has an El Niño or a La Niña condition at a time, the Indian Ocean experiences both warm and cold conditions at the same time – hence, a dipole.
One of these poles is located in the Arabian Sea, while the other is in the Indian Ocean, south of Indonesia.
The Indian Ocean Dipole is said to be ‘positive’ when the western pole is warmer than the eastern one, and ‘negative’ when it is cooler.The Indian Ocean Dipole and ENSO are not unrelated. So, positive IOD events are often associated with El Niño, and negative IOD events with La Niña. Therefore, when the IOD and ENSO happen at the same time, the Dipole is known to strengthen the impacts of the ENSO condition.
Many scientists like to describe the monsoon in terms of the movement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone, or ITCZ, a region near the Equator where the trade winds of the northern and southern hemispheres come together.
During the monsoon season, this ITCZ is located over the Indian subcontinent. By September, as the temperature begins to go down, the ITCZ starts moving southwards of the Indian landmass, towards the equator, and further into the southern hemisphere.
The geotail is a region in space that allows the best observations. The region exists as a result of the interactions between the Sun and Earth.
The Sun emits the solar wind, which is a continuous stream of charged particles. These particles are embedded in the extended magnetic field of the Sun. Since the Earth has a magnetic field, it obstructs the solar wind plasma. This interaction results in the formation of a magnetic envelope around Earth (see illustration). On the Earth side facing the Sun, the envelope is compressed into a region that is approximately three to four times the Earth radius. On the opposite side, the envelope is stretched into a long tail, which extends beyond the orbit of the Moon. It is this tail that is called the geotail.
Once every 29 days, the Moon traverses the geotail for about six days. When Chandrayaan-2, which is orbiting the Moon, crosses the geotail, its instruments can study the properties of the geotail
For the CLASS instrument seeking to detect element signatures, the lunar soil can be best observed when a solar flare provides a rich source of X-rays to illuminate the surface. Secondary X-ray emission resulting from this can be detected by CLASS to directly detect the presence of key elements like Na, Ca, Al, Si, Ti and Fe
If there’s a loser, at least in terms of missed opportunities, it may be the countries of South Asia
Vietnam seems to be the consensus pick for winner of the US-China trade war, as Chinese and other manufacturers shift production to the cheaper Southeast Asian nation
African countries, too, are making manufacturing a top priority. Ethiopia alone has opened nearly a dozen industrial parks in recent years and set up a world-class government agency to attract foreign investment. The World Bank has lauded sub-Saharan Africa as the region with the highest number of reforms each year since 2012.
By contrast, in terms of foreign direct investment as a percentage of GDP, South Asia lags both the global average for least-developed countries and sub-Saharan Africa. While South Asia’s total GDP is more than 70% greater than Africa’s, the continent received three-and-a-half times the investment from China that South Asia received in 2012, the most recent year for which the United Nations has published bilateral FDI statistics.
The fantasy, most common in India, that a country might somehow “leapfrog" from a rural, agriculture-heavy economy straight to a services-based economy is just that: a fantasy. South Asia can’t afford to lose this chance to grow its manufacturing sector.
Attracting manufacturing investments will require, first and foremost, that governments in the region acknowledge the competition is passing them by. India, for example, must abandon its overconfidence that investors will come simply for its large population
Secondly, South Asian countries need to undertake a concerted, whole-of-government push to boost investment levels. Specifically, they need to create the conditions manufacturers need to thrive, from steady power supplies to efficient port operations and customs clearance.
The Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mayotte, Reunion, Seychelles
CARICOM - Caribbean Community
PIF - Pacific Islands Forum
Some of them are calling themselves large “Ocean States”. Rightly so. Thanks to the provisions of the Law of the Sea, the ocean states are entitled to large exclusive economic zones (EEZ)
"disconnecting" from employers after work hours
Informal Summits act as supplementary exchanges to annual Summits and other formal exchanges such as the G20 Summit, EU-India Summit and the BRICS Summit among others, and allow for “direct, free and candid exchange of views” between countries, something that may not be possible to do through formal bilateral and multilateral meetings that are agenda driven, where specific issues are discussed, and outcomes are more concretely defined.
in November 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the ASEAN-India Informal Breakfast Summit in Singapore.
Since Informal Summits allow discussion on wide-ranging issues, they are not particularly purpose-specific, and are sometimes considered to play bigger roles in diplomatic dialogue than formal exchanges — the reason is that they tend to be more in-depth, and relatively flexible in intent and the scope of discussion.
China is not the only country with which India has had an Informal Summit. In May 2018, Modi met Russia’s President Vladimir Putin for their first Informal Summit in Russia’s Sochi to discuss international matters in a “broad and long-term perspective”.
The Wuhan Summit achieved a “re-set” of the Sino-Indian relationship after the two-month long border standoff at the India-China-Bhutan trijunction in Doklam. Significantly, at Wuhan, the two leaders decided to give “strategic guidance” to their military, so that issues did not escalate as in the case of the Doklam standoff.
Canadian-American cosmologist James Peebles, 84, won one-half of the Prize for his theoretical work helping us understand how the universe evolved after the Big Bang. The other half went to Swiss astronomers Michel Mayor, 77, and Didier Queloz, 53, for their discovery of an exoplanet that challenged preconceived ideas about planets
relevant for urban planning
the average time spent by a person for commuting each day, which is approximately one hour
In economic terms, it’s around a dozen years ahead of us but the gap is much larger when social indicators are considered
The Chinese economy was 2.5 times the Indian economy at the turn of the century. It is now nearly five times larger.
Indian GDP in 2019 will be around $2.9 trillion. China crossed that mark in 2007. In other words, India is around a dozen years behind China in terms of economic size.
The average Chinese was twice as rich as the average Indian in the year 2000. She is now nearly five times richer. The average income in India in 2019 will be an estimated $2,198. China was at this level in 2006. Once again, it is a gap of a dozen years.
What really distinguishes China from India is the ability of the former to grow rapidly on a sustained basis rather than in short bursts. For example, China doubled its per capital income from the $3,000 level in five short years. This is similar to the rate at which a country such as South Korea achieved in the 1980s.
Around a third of Indian children were stunted in 2014; China faced the problem with the same intensity way back in 1990. Less than a tenth of Chinese children below five years fall prey to stunting today.
In 2016, 81.4% of births in India were in proper medical centres. This has been an impressive improvement. However, China was at 94% as long back as 1990. Almost every birth in China today is overseen by a trained health worker.
In Indian cities, 72.01% of the population had access to at least basic sanitation services in 2017. Compare this with the 77.49% of Chinese city dwellers with access to sanitation in 2000, or the 90.79% today. It is much the same in the rural areas. 52.23% of Indian villagers had access to decent sanitation in 2017. China was at this level in 2005
China is around a dozen years ahead of India in purely economic terms but the gap is far larger when social indicators are considered. It is important to remember that China had crossed India’s current levels of social indicators when its per capita income was far lower than $3000.
A lot of the ongoing discussion about the gap between the two countries focuses on the former rather than the latter. However, they need to be considered together because of the interlinkages
India cannot provide a better quality of life to its citizens unless it maintains rapid economic growth on a sustained basis for at least the next two decades. And rapid economic growth will not be sustainable unless there are investments in human capital, especially if the demographic dividend is to be meaningful.
India has 44 central, 387 state labour laws, 67 central and 1,333 state labour filings and 674 central and 26,484 labour compliances.
Multiplicity of laws, multiple enforcement authorities and multiple licenses, registrations and returns have created an environment which breeds non-compliance and lowers the guard on the very section we intend to protect and safeguard, pushing millions of citizens to informal employment.
What is needed is simplification, rationalization, digitisation of labour laws to make them comprehensive, effective, easy to comply. Subsuming our labour laws based on relevance into four labour codes is our first step in that direction.
Upto 45% wage confiscation due to mandatory social security deductions has led to a large section of the workforce choosing to be informal. I have always believed that the only social security India can afford is more formal jobs, hence, this code is of particular interest to me.
a rare disease has killed five elephants in Odisha.
The disease is caused by a virus called EEHV, or elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus.
can cause a highly fatal haemorrhagic disease in young Asian elephants.
There is no true cure for herpesviruses in animals or in humans -- “Because herpes viruses go latent, we won’t be able to find a ‘cure’ but we hope to collaborate in refining effective treatments and help in the development of a vaccine to prevent EEHV.”
“If elephants in the wild start falling prey to the virus, then treatment will be very difficult,”
EEHV is lethal for young elephants between the ages of one and 12. If a young elephant dies before reproducing, it affects the population of the species as a whole in the concerned geography.
Smoking-related diseases rank among the greatest public health problems of the last century. Smoking, it is feared, will kill around a sixth of the world’s population in the 21st century.
However, it is not enough to see smoking as just another bad habit. Commerce, social factors and the absence of state regulations play important roles in people getting hooked to tobacco.
However, there are positive signs. As per the second Global Adult Tobacco Survey 2016, India has seen the steepest decline in tobacco consumption (17 per cent) in any part of the world.
nicotine is even more addictive than cocaine. Currently, there is no treatment for nicotine addiction. Moreover, nicotine even in its pure form is potentially carcinogenic. A dose of 30-50 mg of nicotine can kill an adult human.
“the use of e-cigarrettes should be regulated”. However, we feel its better to nip the problem in the bud.
The editorial also talks of the rise in the share prices of ITC following the e-cigarette ban. This is inconsequential because cigarette use is declining steadily in India. Globally, the cigarette business is no more lucrative. And, in fact, e-cigarette seems to be the tobacco industry’s biggest hope.
Till date, there is no conclusive evidence that e- cigarettes prove beneficial in quitting cigarettes. On the contrary, it is known that among those who use e-cigarettes to stop smoking, 25 per cent use along it with cigarette and 75 per cent continue to use it even after quitting smoking.
Fears that the end users will not be conventional cigarette users but youngsters who are the prime targets of the e- cigarette industry are not unfounded.
We agree with the editorial that prohibition does not work. But that is true for cigarettes that have a huge consumer base. Since e-cigarettes have a small consumer base, a ban is likely to be effective. India does not manufacture e- cigarettes; so, the country will not suffer revenue losses.
The country is struggling to control multiple addictions — tobacco, pan masala, alcohol, cannabis — among the youth. The government’s decision to ban e-cigarettes is the way forward towards an addiction-free society.
had ancient links with Buddhism and China through the maritime outreach of the Pallava dynasty.
The name Mamallapuram derives from Mamallan, or “great warrior”, a title by which the Pallava King Narasimhavarman I (630-668 AD) was known. It was during his reign that Hiuen Tsang, the Chinese Buddhist monk-traveller, visited the Pallava capital at Kanchipuram.
Narasimhavarman II (c.700-728 AD), also known as Rajasimhan, built on the work of earlier Pallava kings to consolidate maritime mercantile links with southeast Asia.
Tamil-Chinese links continued after the Pallavas, flourishing under the Cholas as the Coromandel coast became the entrepot between China and the Middle East.
“If you want to be a successful global company, you cannot make the statement, ‘I am a successful global company’, unless you are a big deal in Asia."
Sadly, India continues to be among a handful of nations such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and Uzbekistan that have historically had low integration with the rest of the region.
Even the best Indian companies have made little effort to seriously explore Asian markets, especially China and Japan.
Nor has India’s most export-oriented industry—IT services—been able to crack the Asian puzzle.
This kind of concentration is fraught with risk. In the past, once-promising export sectors such as garments saw growth disappear once their primary markets, the US and Europe, imposed higher tariffs.
With decades of experience in global markets, back-end systems and processes configured to meet the most exacting standards, Indian IT companies need to be at the forefront of any concerted push into Asia, which, with Japan and China, is now home to the second and third-largest IT services markets in the world
Admittedly, access to both markets has been difficult, partly because of language and culture issues, but also because of significant non-tariff barriers.
China’s exports to India account for nearly 80% of the two-way trade between the countries, while in case of Japan, the figure is 60%, though that is partially offset by massive Japanese investment in India.
While Indian telecom firms seem keen to use the beleaguered Chinese company Huawei’s hardware, they have no access to China’s vast mobile telecom market, worth nearly $200 billion this year with some 1.5 billion subscribers.
After years of aping Western models of business, it may be useful to consider a structurally different archetype, one that is rooted in an entirely different culture with behaviour patterns that don’t necessarily follow those of Western consumers.
This may be as good a time as any to press the Chinese to give Indian companies access to such markets as IT services, auto and pharma. The companies, in turn, must be ready to do battle in the land of the dragon.
India is reportedly planning to undertake a vast reforestation exercise along the Aravalli hill range that stretches from the Ridge of Delhi to Banaskantha in Gujarat.
What the government appears to have in mind is a “green wall of India", a 1,400km-long and 5km-wide green corridor all the way from Panipat in Haryana to Porbandar in Gujarat.
It would be modelled on the so-called Great Green Wall of Africa that was envisioned to run from Djibouti in the continent’s east to Senegal in its west.
This African green belt, proposed about a decade ago, was meant to act as a defensive flank against climate change, desertification and other forms of land degradation, but has fallen short of its targets for lack of coordination among the countries involved. In contrast, the Indian project is likely to face far fewer hurdles.
The geographical logic behind the proposal is clear. The Delhi metropolitan region’s expansion has resulted in widespread deforestation around the capital.
The Aravalli range, which separates western India’s Thar desert from the relatively green plains to its east, has lost so much green cover that it is losing its ability to act as a natural barrier against the heat and dust that blows in from the west.
Without top-level intervention in favour of vegetation, environmentalists warn, the Thar desert’s expansion could even threaten the “granary of India"—the fertile belts of Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and the Malwa region.
it would help if it is given the status of a national mission.
Multiple calls taken by various governmental agencies have led to seemingly independent and often confusing strategies, resulting in conflict and a very real danger of ineffective execution.
Till date, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITy), the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), and the Niti Aayog have all released national strategy documents, each of them containing recommendations on governing structures, policy, as well as proposals on creation of new agencies. Surprisingly — and worryingly — there is no mention of how (and if) these structures will co-exist towards the goal of a unified AI strategy for the country.
Niti Aayog’s “National Strategy for AI” report allocates a budget of Rs 7,500 crore and recommends setting up Centers for Research Excellence (COREs) in conjunction with academic institutions. It also recommends setting up International Centers for Transformational AI (ICTAIs) in association with leading industry players
The DIPP is next, with a budget of Rs 1,200 crore towards setting up the National AI Mission (N-AIM). The N-AIM is supposed to be the nodal agency for all “AI related activities” in India which will also set up their own “centers of excellence” to promote interdisciplinary research, and assess the performance of various AI-based products in India.
The MEITy on the other hand plans to allocate a Rs 400-crore budget for new technology initiatives as part of the Digital India Programme, including working with the Digital India Corporation to set up yet another apex body for AI called the National Center for Artificial Intelligence (NCAI).
Moreover, sector-specific AI applications, as diverse as facial recognition and crop classification, are being supervised by different state and central-level ministries with seemingly no consolidation around these national AI strategies.
none of the recommendations highlighted earlier have yet been implemented in any useful form — this is in stark contrast to countries like Taiwan, which went from announcing a $36-million project to build a supercomputing platform to boost AI research
WF - It is important that policy-makers and agencies converge their ideas around the groundwork that has been laid to streamline the effective creation and implementation of the country’s national AI strategy.
WF - There is also a need for greater transparency in the timelines and roadmaps associated with these announcements, so that startups, non-governmental organisations and researchers can not only provide their input, but also understand when they can use some of this promised infrastructure if they are to compete at the international level.
Deepak Parekh, chairman of India’s largest mortgage lender HDFC, has slammed a system that regularly bails out companies and other large entities by loan write-offs and waivers, but is “brutally unfair" when it comes to protecting the common man’s savings.
PMC has admitted that it has exposure of ₹6,500 crore to realty firm Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL), an overwhelming 73% of its loan book of ₹8,880 crore. As it turns out, HDIL has allegedly diverted these funds, with PMC in no position to recover its loans
To save PMC from a bank run, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had to limit how much money depositors could withdraw.
As the regulator, RBI is expected to keep watch, but this offers no guarantee. A bank is a business at the end of the day. Money kept in one is subject to risks associated with any business.
By one proposal, depositors could be treated as financial creditors. This would make sense. And if a bankruptcy is to be resolved by offering them shares in lieu of their deposits, then they should accept it as the best they can get. It would be best, of course, if depositors keep track of the performance of their banks, just as investors do.
by WHO -- first such
The report found that globally, over 2.2 billion people have a vision impairment. In a telling finding, the report said that out of these 2.2 billion, 1 billion people are suffering from conditions that are preventable, or unaddressed.
Rural communities, low-income countries and older people bear the brunt of these impairments
In India the rate of cataract surgery has increased nine-fold (6,000 per million population) between 1981 and 2012. This has been possible due to the National Programme for Control of Blindness
launched by the one and only Modiji -- invited all countries to join it
Envisaged as an international knowledge platform where countries can collaborate to make their existing and new infrastructure strong enough to withstand natural disasters, CDRI is the fruition of at least three years of discussions that India has had with more than 40 countries on this subject.
In simple terms, CDRI is an attempt to bring countries together to share and learn from the experiences of one another to protect their key infrastructure — highways, railways, power stations, communication lines, water channels, even housing — against disasters.
Future infrastructure needs to take into account the heightened risks arising out of the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events and other adverse impacts of climate change.
Even existing infrastructure would need to be retrofitted to make them more resilient. Disaster-proofing a project would involve changes in design, and use of newer technologies. These involve additional costs which, however, are only a fraction of the losses that a disaster can bring.
Disaster preparedness and infrastructure creation are largely national endeavours. However, modern infrastructure is also a web of networked systems, not always confined to national boundaries. There are increasing numbers of trans-national and trans-continental highways and railways; transmission lines carry electricity across countries; assets on a river are shared. Damage to any one node can have cascading impacts on the entire network, resulting in loss of livelihoods and disruption in economic activity in places far away from the site of a disaster.
The CDRI secretariat too would be based in New Delhi
This broadly mountainous region covers north-eastern Myanmar, northern Thailand, northern Laos and the north-eastern corner of Vietnam.
This region is a major producer of Papaver somniferum, also known as opium poppy.
The morphine of the opium poppy is extracted from the latex. From this, heroin is produced, which enters the global market via southern China and Hong Kong.
According to a recent United Nations report, drug production has surged in the Golden Triangle. Many of the drug syndicates have switched to lab-produced crystal meth and other synthetic highs.
India has to keep a watchful eye.
India will risk losing intelligence from the U.S. if it allows Chinese telecom major Huawei to be part of its 5G infrastructure
On Kashmir -- the legal questions of how Kashmir is treated is for India to determine internally, and it is in the U.S.’s interests not to intrude on those questions. But at the same time, we hope not to see Kashmir produce a violent military conflict
On China -- China is the most significant geopolitical threat in this next century, for the U.S., India and the world. How we confront that growing Chinese threat is an enormous challenge and the most critical tool for confronting that threat is strong alliances with democracies throughout the region that have shared values, and a critical counterpoint to rising Chinese strength is a strong and rising India. That is in the U.S.’s interests and in India’s interests too.
India and the U.S. are friends and I believe we should be allies. [China’s] values are dramatically inconsistent with the values in the U.S. and India
On India-US trade deal -- We have seen India’s increased purchase of U.S. security and military systems, and also energy, which has an enormous upside. India has enormous needs for energy, which will continue to grow as its economy does and it is important for India to import from friends like the U.S. than from repressive dictatorships like Iran
What was the proposed composition of the NJAC? The CJI was the chair, ex officio, and along with him were the next two senior judges. The Union Minister of Law and Justice was an ex officio member along with two eminent persons.
core functions are now being performed by a body minus the two eminent persons. So, the recommendation and appointment of judges has been taken over by a “new NJAC” and without any apparent protest
CJI had written to the law minister that 43 recommendations made by the collegium were pending with the government and the vacancies in the high courts were to the extent of about 37 per cent. Also, the collegium could not consider the appointment of 10 persons since some information was awaited from the government for varying periods. Who is calling the shots — the government?
It seems to me that the unconstitutional NJAC is rearing its head and is now Frankenstein’s monster. The advice of the two eminent persons postulated by the NJAC is no longer required. Actually, there is now no need to amend the Constitution to bring back the NJAC — it is already in existence with a vengeance.
a crippling blockade of the Nepal border at Birgunj from the Indian side. China stepped in at the time to provide fuel and other essentials.
Modi’s three visits, and agreements for more infrastructure projects, including a rail line from Kathmandu to Raxaul at the border, have clearly not persuaded landlocked Nepal that the only friend it needs in the neighbourhood is India.
Xi’s generous assistance to Nepal of USD 495 million was of a piece with the style with which China makes friends with India’s neighbours.
There is to be a feasibility study on a trans-Himalayan train link between the two countries, and a road link from Kathmandu to Kerung, on Nepal’s border with Tibet, as part of the Belt and Road Initiative. Both connections will increase Nepal’s access to the Chinese economy
To the extent that this pushes up the possibility of Chinese goods flooding India through Nepal, Delhi should be concerned.
But it must also come to terms with the reality that there can be no zero sum games in foreign policy. Viewing relations with neighbouring countries only through the prism of India’s security has its limits. As the region’s largest economy, India needs to find better ways to make friends with its neighbours, and retain these friendships.
Research in elite institutions must focus on the problems of their surrounding environment
The systematic study of such problems and their solutions will lead not only to better development outcomes, but also new science, enterprises and jobs.
The primary responsibility of solving them lies with our scientists and bureaucrats, not politicians. Unfortunately, this is not fully appreciated by our society or accepted by our elite institutions as their mandate.
The result is that our industry imports much of its sophisticated machinery. Our state agencies call on expensive international consultants even in traditional areas such as irrigation. International companies fill our pot-holes with cement, and foreign universities prepare our smart city plans and assess our drinking water systems.
Many of the development problems, for instance, water or public health, are on the State List. Most state departments do not make any provision for research in their budget simply because it may be too disruptive, or that they do not find viable partner institutions.
Thus, “why is my bus late” is as much a question for science to address as “why does a solar eclipse happen”. Only such an approach will enable us to fix our public transport, analyse the droughts of Marathwada or manage the sea of solid waste which drowns us all.
WF -- decentralisation of the agenda of science and democratisation of access to science and its methods
WF -- This will bring real science closer to schools and colleges and allow the community to participate in its own development
WF -- State Science and Technology Councils Programme (SSTCs)
India has the highest percentage of children who suffer from acute undernutrition
102/117
comes in the "serious" category
Welthungerhilfe
Four parameters -- undernourishment, wasting, stunting, child mortality
India behind all BRICS and SAARC nations
In stark contrast to India, which has the world’s largest democracy and one of the biggest economies, most of the countries below India on the GHI — Afghanistan, Haiti or Yemen etc — are either poorly governed or war-torn or ravaged by natural calamities.
Child wasting -- India has worsened
the percentage of children under the age of 5 years suffering from wasting has gone up from 16.5 in 2010 to 20.8 now -- highest in the world where estimates were available
In India, just 9.6 percent of all children between 6 and 23 months of age are fed a minimum acceptable diet
UNICEF
in India, every second child is affected by some form of malnutrition
Among countries in South Asia, India fares the worst (54%) on prevalence of children under five who are either stunted, wasted or overweight. Afghanistan and Bangladesh follow at 49% and 46%, respectively
India also has the highest burden of deaths among children under five per year, with over 8 lakh deaths in 2018
Every second woman in the country is anaemic, as are 40.5% children. One in ten children are pre-diabetic. Indian children are being diagnosed with adult diseases such as hypertension, chronic kidney disease and diabetes.
Why has Make in India failed to deliver? First, a large fraction of the Indian FDI is neither foreign nor direct but comes from Mauritius-based shell companies. Second, the productivity of Indian factories is low.
FDI -- Foreign direct investment (FDI) has increased from $16 billion in 2013-14 to $36 billion in 2015-16. But this remarkable achievement needs to be qualified from two standpoints.
First, FDIs have plateaued since 2016 and second, they are not contributing to India’s industrialisation. FDIs in the manufacturing sector, in fact, are on the wane. In 2017-18, they were just above $7 billion , as against $9.6 billion in 2014-15.
Services cornered most of the FDIs — $23.5 billion, more than three times that of the manufacturing sector. This is a clear reflection of the the Indian economy’s traditional strong points, where computer services, for instance, are remarkably developed. But can a country rely on services without developing an industrial base? The response is clearly no and this is why “Make in India” was initiated.
Foreign investors were invited to make in India, not necessarily for India. But few investors have been attracted by this prospect, and India’s share in the global exports of manufactured products remains around 2 per cent — China’s is around 18 per cent.
According to a McKinsey report, “workers in India’s manufacturing sector are almost four and five times less productive, on average, than their counterparts in Thailand and China”
This is not just because of insufficient skills, but also because the size of the industrial units is too small for attaining economies of scale, investing in modern equipment and developing supply chains. Why are companies small? Partly by choice, because labour regulations are more complicated for plants with more than 100 employees.
Infrastructure is also a problem area. Although electricity costs are about the same in India and China, power outages are much higher in India. Moreover, transportation takes much more time in India.
According to Google Maps, it takes about 12.5 hours to travel the 1,213 km distance between Beijing to Shanghai. A Delhi to Mumbai trip of 1,414 km, via National Highway 48, in contrast, takes about 22 hours.
Average speeds in China are about 100 km per hour, while in India, they are about 60 km per hour. Railways in India have saturated while Indian ports have constantly been outperformed by many Asian countries.
There was clearly a contradiction in the attempt to attract foreign investors to Make in India before completing the reforms of labour and land acquisition laws.
According to the Japanese financial firm Nomura, only three of the 56 companies that decided to relocate from China moved to India.
This Nehruvian legacy was accompanied by a utopian proclivity for pacifism and disdain for the armed forces, rooted in phobia about military coups -- “specific ‘coup-proofing’ strategies to balance the power of the military during India’s first decade”.
Most of these measures have remained in place ever since: The military continues to be excluded from the government’s policy/decision-making process and the armed forces HQs are still subordinated to a civilian Department of Defence.
Wilkinson suggests that the growth of the Central Armed Police Forces from 29,000 in 1961 to 1.1 million in 2017 is another “coup proofing” measure to “balance” the 1.3-million army.
A lack of transparency, however, raises larger questions about the roles of the Raksha Mantri (RM), the Chiefs of Staff and the Defence Secretary vis-a-vis the NSA in the new ambit of national security decision-making.
A CDS must not be created in isolation because, normatively, it carries with it a whole eco-system that could transform India’s national security, if correctly implemented.
Apart from his key role in the nuclear command chain, he would evolve a prioritised tri-service perspective plan for force modernisation and enable fiscal support. This task would be immeasurably facilitated by the issuance of a national security doctrine/strategy which highlights national aims, objectives and interests, and clearly defines the military wherewithal required to achieve them.
The CDS would oversee the integration of the armed forces HQs with the civilian MoD and implement “jointness” amongst the three armed forces, progressively ushering in the theatre command concept. In reality, however, if not empowered adequately or if found in conflict with the NSA, the CDS could easily be reduced to an inconsequential “paper-tiger”.
Another topic that two RMs, in succession, have dwelt upon — albeit in passing — is the principle of “no first use” (NFU) of nuclear weapons embedded in India’s 2003 Nuclear Doctrine. NFU was adopted, not merely as a token of nuclear restraint and responsible conduct, on India’s part, but also because it is, by far, the least burdensome and inexpensive form of nuclear-deterrence.
While ambiguity and doctrinal unpredictability may be useful to keep one’s adversary off-balance, nuclear deterrence is far too serious a matter to be the subject of off-the-cuff public utterances by senior politicians.
Judicial apathy sends terribly wrong signals to future perpetrators, who may justifiably believe that they may ultimately be acquitted, and in any case will be bailed out pending trials.
cquittals in virtually open-and-shut cases have come at regular intervals, as in the Pehlu Khan lynching case. The orders for granting bail by the Jharkhand High Court in the Ramgarh lynching case, by the Allahabad high court in Bulandshahr lynching case, by the Bombay High Court in Dhule lynching case, by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Junaid lynching case, and, by the sessions court in Hapur lynching case, are some of the instances which raise serious question marks on the judicial approach of the courts in India towards such heinous crimes.
All this is compounded by the approach of the police in improperly investigating cases and not taking them to their logical end before the courts. Clearly, the judiciary needs to undergo extensive sensitisation programmes to deal with such matters.
ultimate protector of the Right to Life as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution
Side: Recuse -- to sidelline oneself from proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned due to the possibility of personal bias or prejudice or if he has been a lawyer or judge in the matter at some stage.
expanding engagement between the police forces, intelligence agencies, border management organisations and law-enforcement authorities of the two nations
Security diplomacy has emerged as a major element of China’s international relations in all geographies. The globalisation and digitalisation of the Chinese economy, the growing movement of people across Chinese borders and expanding capital and human assets beyond borders have made law enforcement cooperation with the rest of the world a major priority for China.
The range of issues involved in security diplomacy include tracking down fugitives from Beijing’s anti-corruption campaign, criminals seeking safe haven in other countries, countering terrorism, preventing drug trafficking, assisting Chinese citizens and tourists abroad, and reining in political dissidents active in other countries
With Nepal -- These agreements touched on border management, supply of border security equipment, mutual legal assistance, and collaboration between Nepal’s Attorney General and China’s “Supreme People’s Procurator” (or the prosecutor general).
Nepal’s northern border with China is entirely with Tibet, and Beijing sees security cooperation with Kathmandu as critical in controlling the movement of people across this frontier. Nepal, which was once hospitable to Tibetan refugees fleeing China, now extends full support to Beijing’s law enforcement agencies in tracking and deporting them
In the case of Xinjiang, the focus is on the three Central Asian states (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan) as well as Pakistan and Afghanistan that share a border with the province
number has started to rise after 2017-18
reflection of the little or limited opportunities for the young in rural India to venture out to bigger towns or cities given the slump in construction, real estate and manufacturing and the informal sector besides services, especially the hospitality business.
Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee had recently pointed to what he reckoned is a worrying factor — average consumption expenditure at 2018 prices had fallen from Rs 1,587 per person each month in 2014 to Rs 1,524 in 2017-18 in rural areas, according to NSSO data. Banerjee has suggested raising wages under MGNREGA and farm support prices.
One of the central themes in the new discourse is the alleged loss of Indian “hegemony” over Nepal.
The proposition, however, is based on questionable assumptions. The story of Nepal’s geopolitics is a complicated one. India’s hegemony or primacy in Nepal is somewhat over-stated. It was limited in time and space and always constrained by Nepal’s domestic politics.
Nepal’s strategy is made messier by the deepening domestic divisions on what constitutes the country’s “national interests”.
Delhi has struggled since the middle of the 20th century to sustain the primacy in Nepal it had inherited from the Raj. The emergence of a strong state north of the Himalayas tested India’s claim for an exclusive sphere of influence in Nepal. China’s dramatic rise in the 21st century makes Beijing a far more compelling partner for Kathmandu.
India’s failure was not in an over-reliance on geopolitics, but the neglect of geoeconomics. While the security establishment and the political classes operated as if Nepal was a protectorate of India, Delhi’s economic bureaucracy treated Nepal as a separate entity.
Delhi’s emphasis on economic autarky meant there was no special value attached in India to the commercial interdependence with land-locked Nepal, let alone nurture it.
Vested interests inevitably found space to arbitrage the wide gap in the economic policies of the two nations. Delhi also allowed the border infrastructure to rot over the decades. Delhi’s attempts to revive connectivity with Nepal in recent years have run into India’s traditional problems with project implementation
Delhi should let Nepalese decide what is good for them and tailor India’s own responses accordingly.
Delhi can offer is a new compact with Nepal that can build on the natural geographic and cultural interdependence between the two nations. This time around it must be based on sovereign equality and mutual benefit.
recent “suppressed” NSSO report (PLFS-2018) and the NSS-EUS (2011-12)
The percentage of youth who are currently enrolled in educational institutions is the lowest among Muslims. Only 39% of the community in the age group of 15-24 are enrolled against 44% for SCs, 51% for Hindu OBCs and 59% for Hindu upper castes.
Apart from a diesel genset, there was no electricity supply while at the same time in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh electricity had reached every nook and cranny
many villages remained unconnected by road and the existing pukka roads were mostly courtesy the Indian Army
Till now Ladakh’s communication route remained principally through Srinagar and Jammu. All this is set to change. The Manali-Leh axis will become more important since it will not only be shorter but safer as well in comparison to the Kargil-Srinagar road
With the tunnel below Rohtang being commissioned shortly and another one being planned under the Shinkun La, travel time and distance between Manali and Leh will reduce substantially
There are other areas as well where Ladakh and Himachal can collaborate and learn from each other. Tourism is one such area where the Ladakhis would do well to avoid the mistakes committed in Shimla and Manali.
will the mandarins in North Block prove to be more sensitive than the ones in Srinagar? Only time will tell.
class: center
Lymphatic Filariasis (Hathi Paon) and Visceral Leishmaniasis (Kala-Azar)
Declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the second most common cause of long-term disability after mental illness, Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) is one of the biggest public health challenges that India faces today.
Cross-Himalayan Connectivity Network -- rail link between China and Nepal
National Aids Control Organisation -- in India there were over 21 lakh people living with HIV in 2017, out of which roughly 9 lakh were women.
Maharashtra has the highest prevalence of people living with HIV, with 15 per cent of the cases, followed by Andhra Pradesh (13 per cent), Karnataka (12 per cent), Telangana (10 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (7 per cent).
document that allows an Indian citizen to visit or stay in a state that is protected under the ILP system
The system is in force today in three Northeastern states — Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram — and no Indian citizen can visit any of these states unless he or she belongs to that state, nor can he or she overstay beyond the period specified in the ILP.
issued by the state government concerned
Beijing Platform for Action - 1995
for gender equality
In the years since, definitions of “gender" have expanded to include not just women and girls, but trans, non-binary, and intersex people.
National Crime Records Bureau figures show a 6% spike in crimes against women in 2017.
India’s FLFP, at 24%, is among the lowest in South Asia and appears to be in free fall.
endangered - IUCN
According to the WWF, the main threat to the Gangetic dolphin is the creation of dams and irrigation projects
Part IV-A, 42nd CAA 1976
total - 11: 10 by 42nd, 1 by 86th CAA in 2002 (Children education)
borrowed from Russia
1st, 1951 --
Article 15 was amended by inserting Clause 4, empowering the state to make any special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes or categories of SCs and STs notwithstanding anything in this Article or in Clause 2 of Article 29
Article 19 was amended to secure constitutional validity of zamindari abolition laws and to provide for new grounds of restrictions to the Right of Freedom of Speech and Expression and the right to practice any profession or to carry on any trade or business
Articles 31A and 31B, and the Ninth Schedule were inserted to give protection to land reform laws from being questioned on the ground that they are not consistent with Fundamental Rights.
24th, 1971 --
Articles 13 and 368 amended to remove doubts about Parliament’s power to amend the Constitution including Fundamental Rights further to the judgment of the Supreme Court in the Golaknath case.
The President was obligated to give assent to any Constitution Amendment Bill presented to him.
26th, 1971 --
It repealed Articles 291 and 362 dealing with privy purses, sums of rulers and rights and privileges of rulers of former Indian states.
52nd, 1985 --
Anti-Defection law was provided for in the Tenth Schedule by providing for disqualification of legislators, vacation of seats and splits and mergers.
61st, 1989 --
Minimum voting age reduced from 21 years to 18, by amending Article 326.
77th, 1995 --
Provided for reservation in promotion in services under the state for SCs and STs by inserting clause (4A) in Article 16.
91st, 2003 --
Put a ceiling on number of ministers at the Centre and in states as 15% of the strength of Lok Sabha or the Assembly, and not less than 12 in the states.
99th, 2014 --
Provided for National Judicial Commission to broad-base method of appointment of judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts. This amendment was however, declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2015.
101st, 2016 --
It facilitated the introduction of GST with concurrent taxing powers to the Union and the States and Union Territories with legislatures to make laws for levying GST on every transaction of goods and services.
Secularisation is a social process that involves the privatisation of religion, as in Europe after the Enlightenment
Secularism is not the binary opposite of communalism. The opposite of communalism is religious harmony. Secularism is the diametric opposite of theocracy or the merging of two awesome forms of power — the non-religious and the religious
Democracy and Secularism -- Indian society is fractured in many ways. Vertically, it is fractured along the axis of caste, class and gender. Horizontally, it is divided along the matrix of different belief systems. Different sorts of strategies are needed to deal with different kinds of inequalities and oppressions. The responsibility of reorganising unequal and unjust religious communities on the norms of freedom, equality, and rights falls on democracy. The principle of secularism is intended to ensure equality between these communities. It is not the job of secularism to reorder unequal gender or caste relations. That falls within the province of democracy.
Secularism is today caught in a crisis, not because it is irrelevant, but because it has been subjected to rank overuse and invested with far too many expectations, from solving the issue of national integration to gender justice. Notably, secularism is not a robust concept like democracy or justice; it is a “thin” and a limited procedural concept.
Identification almost always takes place indirectly, because some distant relative innocently uploaded genetic information without intending for it to be used in this manner. As a result, the use of public genetic information ends up with innocent people— who almost always have nothing to do with the crime itself—getting embroiled in an investigation and serving as witnesses to the whereabouts of the suspect.
In the process, the investigation often uncovers private information about them that they did not want to know in the first place, such as the fact that they are related to criminals, or that their parents are not biological, or that they were conceived through adulterous or incestuous relationships. Often, law enforcement agencies threaten them with the public disclosure of such information to push them into cooperating more satisfactorily.
Other relatives, who have not submitted genetic information, also find themselves swept up in the investigation. Once investigators have genetically identified the suspect’s relatives, their first job is to build up exhaustive family trees, turning everyone on those trees into suspects until otherwise eliminated.
Aerial seeding can be used not only to plant various crops but also to spread grasses to large areas of the land after wildfires
Dart seeding is used with the same broad objective as aerial seeding: a plantation in inaccessible areas. The process involves throwing darts containing seeds onto open ground.
asteroid which the AIDA (Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment) is trying to hit
AIDA -- NASA's DART + ESA's Hera
"potentially hazardous" -- size > 140 meters and distance < 0.05 AU
Underreporting -- respondent bias
there is no incentive for people to correctly report their well-being during a survey, especially if there are specific ongoing government schemes to provide products and services
the enumerators may not have the capacity or the commitment to probe for genuine responses. More often than not, they will simply accept the first response that the household gives and are not trained to extract the facts
MoSPI should engage with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to design skill training courses for survey enumerators, supervisors and data quality personnel who could then be used for such surveys
evolve contemporary instruments and tools to better capture information and reduce respondent bias
the focus of all these discussions is an over-reliance on the law to solve what is essentially a social problem. The existing tendency is to act after the occurrence of a crime, instead of being proactive in preventing it.
Immediately after a rape incident, a form of “Macbeth effect"—the tendency of a victim to cleanse herself of the “impurity"—is observed to set in. During an attack, the victim’s mind is not just under severe stress, but in a heightened fight-flight-freeze mode, which makes it difficult to coherently record memories of it.
Myths held by law enforcement agencies
Law enforcement agencies that focus on tangible evidence and the consistency of the victim’s narrative have not understood the behavioural peculiarities associated with this particular crime. This lack of understanding is also one of the major causes of the very low reporting and low conviction rates in such cases.
7 states - 90% of the cases
UP, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, WB, Gujarat, Odisha, MP
Extra Neutral Alcohol (ENA) is the primary raw material for making alcoholic beverages. It is a colourless food-grade alcohol that does not have any impurities. It has a neutral smell and taste, and typically contains over 95 per cent alcohol by volume.
ENA also serves as an essential ingredient in the manufacture of cosmetics and personal care products such as perfumes, toiletries, hair spray, etc. Given its properties as a good solvent
ENA also finds industrial use and is utilised in the production of some lacquers, paints and ink for the printing industry, as well as in pharmaceutical products such as antiseptics, drugs, syrups, medicated sprays.
Like ethanol, ENA is a byproduct of the sugar industry, and is formed from molasses that are a residue of sugarcane processing.
One of the most mysterious of whale species, the narwhal (Monodon monoceros) is of medium size among the giant mammals, and inhabits the freezing waters of the Arctic around Greenland, Canada and Russia.
It’s the only whale that has a tusk; and the narwhal’s tusk is the only one in the animal kingdom that protrudes straight like a lance.
NATO was founded in 1949, and was meant to ensure collective protection for its members — the United States, Canada, and American allies in Europe — against the threat of possible post-War communist expansion and aggression by the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union too, formed its own defence and political alliance with Eastern European nations as a counterbalance to NATO — the Warsaw Pact that was signed in 1955. This alliance was disbanded after the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1991.
With the collapse of the USSR, NATO lost its essential raisons d’etre, and for most NATO members, the primary concern now is the expansionist ambition of China. In his address to the Summit, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg underlined to alliance members that “China is coming closer to us”.
NATO has traditionally focused on Russia and the European neighbourhood, and recognises the need to deter “revisionist” and “militarily advanced” Russia, and the threat posed by rogue nations such as North Korea.
France -- common enemy today is the terrorist groups
The great challenge before NATO is its seeming inability to align the diverging priorities of its member nations. France’s priority at the moment is the eradication of terrorism from northeast Syria, while the US under Trump clearly wants to get out of the Middle East and focus more on the military rise of China.
The challenge is made stronger by the personalities of the leaders — the Europeans are clearly impatient with Erdogan, and Trump’s unpredictability and repeated attacks on European countries and leaders has not endeared him to them.
“I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved” — Babasaheb Ambedkar.
Changes from the BN Srikrishna Committee draft -
draft - must store a copy of all personal data in India, Bill - only individual consent for data transfer abroad
Bill mandates fiduciaries to give the govt any non-personal data when demanded
Bill requires social media companies to develop their own verification mechanisms
while most navies have the capacity to send ships into the deep oceans, a Blue Water Force is able to carry out operations far from its borders, without being required to return to its home port to refuel or re-stock.
According to the Indian Maritime Doctrine, 2015, “The ability to undertake distant operations distinguishes a blue-water navy from a brown-water force. It requires strong integral capacity, including logistics, surveillance, networked operations, etc., and enabling capability, including equipment design, training, doctrine and organisation
388 cases in 2018 registered under WPA
Leopards highest share
The falls are fed by the Zambezi river and define the boundary between Zambia and Zimbabwe in southern Africa.
The falls are also referred to as “The Smoke that Thunders” and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site
has almost dried up due to drought
According to the findings of the study, the levels of oxygen in oceans fell by around 2 per cent from 1960 to 2010.
The deoxygenation of the oceans occurred due to climate change and other human activities (such as the nutrient runoff from farm fertilizers into waterways
water in some parts of the tropics had experienced a 40 per cent to 50 per cent reduction in oxygen.
DSM requires atleast 3 members to function
India has been impacted directly as a result of this situation.
In February 2019, the body said it would be unable to staff an appeal in a dispute between Japan and India over certain safeguard measures that India had imposed on imports of iron and steel products.
Over 20 developing countries met in New Delhi in the summer to discuss ways to prevent the WTO’s dispute resolution system from collapsing all together. Their efforts have not produced the desired results.
Once the body becomes non-functional, countries may be compelled to implement rulings by the panel even if they feel that gross errors have been committed.
This does not bode well for India, which is facing a rising number of dispute cases, especially on agricultural products.
India - Australia
PNG
about to be the world's newest nation
The Assam Accord was a Memorandum of Settlement signed by the Governments of India and Assam, and the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and the All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad (AAGSP) in New Delhi on August 15, 1985.
Foreigners who “came to Assam after 1.1.1966 (inclusive) and upto 24th March, 1971 shall be detected in accordance with the provisions of The Foreigners Act, 1946, and The Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964”, and their names “will be deleted from the electoral rolls in force”.
Clause 6 -- “Constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards, as may be appropriate shall be provided to protect, preserve and promote the culture, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people.”
aimed at ensuring security and a tamperproof tracking system for forensic reports.
Haryana government
included in the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity
13 from India
latest - Kumbh Mela in 2017
extending reservation for SC/STs but doing away with the provision for nomination of Anglo Indians to Lok Sabha and some state Assemblies.
Personal data: Data that identifies an individual
Non-personal data: Data that is anonymised, most probably because it is presented in an aggregated or summary form
Data principal: The individual whose data is being collected and processed
Data fiduciary: The entity that collects and/or processes a data principal’s data
Data processor: The entity that a fiduciary might give the data to for processing, a third-party entity
Right to correction and erasure: Principal’s right to correct and erase their data
Right to data portability: The right to receive the data from the fiduciary in a machine-readable format
The right to be forgotten: The right to restrict continuing disclosure of personal data
Privacy by design: Developing the product and business with privacy concerns in mind
Sensitive personal data: Data related to finances, health, official identifiers, sex life, sexual orientation, biometric, genetics, transgender status, intersex status, caste or tribe, religious or political belief or affiliation. This data can only be sent abroad with Authority approval.
Critical personal data: The government decides the definition from time to time and it cannot be taken outside of India at all.
the United States and China announced a “Phase One” agreement under which the US will reduce some tariffs in exchange for increased Chinese purchases of American farm and energy goods.
Trump - "amazing deal"
headed by PM
The council consists of chief ministers from five states along the Ganga — Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Jharkhand along with nine Union ministers and NITI Aayog vice-chairman.
The Gangetic river dolphins can only live in freshwater, are blind and catch their prey in a unique manner, using ultrasonic sound waves.
These dolphins prefer deep waters and, as per WWF, they are distributed across seven states in India: Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
It is unclear why any nation — where its political leadership has the right mindset — will risk jeopardising an international bilateral partnership that is rooted in both historic sanctity and strategic value.
71-75 -- steady
75 onwards -- military rule
And this precarious relationship reached rock bottom when the BNP and the Jamaat-e-Islami’s coalition government sponsored insurgency activities against the north-eastern states of India between 2001 and 2006 by allowing separatist leaders to use Bangladesh’s sovereign territories for their terrorist operations.
after 2008 -- complete U turn
There are two available strategies the NDA government might opt to pursue in how to deal with the million-plus Muslims in Assam who are now considered infiltrators. These people can either be kept in secured camps or the Indian government can start pushing them back into Bangladesh. And while the first strategy might create an international uproar, the second is likely to completely destabilise the relationship that underpins cooperation between the two neighbours.
same treatment could be veted to Bangladeshi Hindus -- 10 million
Bilateral ties that overcame such strong historic impediments deserve respect, as they were created with hard work, meticulous political strategies, good intent and visionary leadership. Any political strategy that undermines such accomplishments merits reconsideration.
Sexed semen is specially processed semen of bulls from which ‘Y’ chromosomes in sperm cells — which lead to the birth of a male calf — are either removed through a ‘sorting’ process or killed. Semen which has only ‘X’ chromosomes can ensure that a female calf is born.
Considered a financial burden, male calves are either killed or abandoned on the roads by farmers as they do not give milk. This had led to an increasing number of cattle roaming the streets, which has caused fatal road accidents as well. Cows are also abandoned when they stop giving milk. “If a commercial farmer owns a hundred cows and even fifty of them give birth to male calves, he cannot afford to raise them. They become a burden,”
“No, the guarantee of a female calf being born is never 100 per cent. It can be up to 90 per cent. In 10 per cent cases, a male calf might be born despite using sexed semen because even after sorting/killing, some Y chromosomes may pass,”
The failure of the talks underlined starkly the massive gap between what scientists say the world’s nations need to do on climate change, and what the most powerful political leaders on the planet are prepared to even discuss, let alone actually do.
Madrid
There was only one major agenda for the Madrid talks to negotiate and decide — the rules for a new carbon market to be set up under the Paris Agreement. That would have completed the Paris Agreement rulebook that was finalized in Katowice in 2018, without the provisions related to carbon markets on which countries had major disagreements.
CROWN aims to protect people of colour from being discriminated against for their natural hair, especially at the workplace.
California
first -- in Geneva
jointly hosted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Refugee Agency, and the government of Switzerland
has been used in cases of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy.
was the diktat of confidentiality that secured and kept secret all sensitive information on aspects of the governance of the Church.
abolished by Pope Francis
The debate on reservation is highly polarised and, usually, brings out the worst in us. Arguments made by all the sides are logical and extremely passionate. It can be challenging to evolve a middle path that includes opposing perspectives.
On the one hand, there is a school of thought that derides reservation and advocates a merit-based order. On the other hand, there are ferocious supporters of reservation who consider any debate around reforms as blasphemous. Merit is contextual and means different things to different people.
Political reservation was never intended to perpetuate the interests of a single family. The case of Lok Janshakti Party is peculiar. Ram Vilas Paswan, Pashupati Paras (brother), Chirag Paswan (son) and Prince Raj (nephew) are in Parliament from reserved constituencies. The community can see through this hypocrisy.
India has ranked 112th among 153
WEF
used in Lithium-ion batteries
The DRC has the world’s largest deposits of cobalt.
According to the European Commission (EC), more than half the world’s supply of cobalt comes from the DRC, while China produces almost half of the world’s refined cobalt.
The government of Pakistan has issued special permits to the Emir of Qatar and nine other members of the royal family to hunt the houbara bustard, an internationally protected bird species.
The houbara bustard, which lives in arid climates, comes in two distinct species as recognised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, one residing in North Africa (Chlamydotis undulata) and the other in Asia (Chlamydotis macqueenii).
The population of the Asian houbara bustards extends from northeast Asia, across central Asia, the Middle East, and the Arabian Peninsula to reach the Sinai desert.
India’s international migrants are not just from the southern states but also come from the north, including from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar — this is partly due to the demographic dividend of these states.
Of late, there have been changes in the destination choices of Indian migrants. The preference seems to be for non-Anglophone countries despite the integration challenges.
migration studies cannot be confined to labour. While there is much work on labour migration from India, we are yet to study cross-border human trafficking, undocumented migration, small and medium Indian entrepreneurs in different countries, student migration, family migration, left-behind husbands and the challenges faced by migrants in integration.
We need to understand migration through the lens of historians, psychologists, sociologists, geographers and legal specialists.
Gender
Distress migration does not receive enough attention. Such migrants can be victims of human trafficking, workers who do not have proper documents, migrants trapped in a war zone or conflict areas or those who have been involved in workplace place accidents.
We do not know much about Indian migrants jailed in different countries or cheated by fake recruiting agents. We know that the cases of Indian workers dying in the Gulf countries have been on the rise over the years.
The Cambridge Five was a KGB group of British spies who passed information to the Soviet Union during World War II and the early stages of the Cold War.
Global Alliance on Health and Pollution (GAHP) updates findings from The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health
The report uses the most recent Global Burden of Disease data from the Institute of Health Metrics Evaluation.
India highest pollution related deaths -- 2.3 million
“the precious Amazon is teetering on the edge of functional destruction and, with it, so are we.”
The Amazon basin is the world’s largest repository of biodiversity and produces about 20 per cent of the world’s flow of freshwater into the oceans
Dieback -- When the Amazon rainforest reaches its tipping point, which is to say when the level of deforestation has led to there not being enough water for recycling and as result, moisture to induce rainfall, the rainforests will be unable to sustain themselves.
This will lead to a situation when the trees, and in turn, the forest will start to “dieback”. In other words, some trees and eventually the forests will reach the physiological limits of dryness probably induced by droughts and heat stress. Because of this dehydration, the affected trees will begin to die from the tip of their leaves or roots backwards.
involves the purchase and sale of government securities to boost the economy by bringing down long-term interest rates.
US Fed Bank borrowed term
Kudankulam NPS has installed
device is designed to localise and cool the molten core material in case of a meltdown accident.
Molten core material, or corium, is lava-like material that gets formed in the core of a nuclear reactor in the event of a meltdown accident. Such an accident occurs when the nuclear fission reaction taking place inside a reactor is not sufficiently cooled, and the buildup of heat causes fuel rods to melt down. The corium so formed can remain radioactive for several decades, even centuries.
ore catcher is a cone shaped metal structure that weighs about 800 tonnes. The structure is double walled, with the gap between the two walls filled with FAOG (ferric and aluminium oxide granules). The core catcher is filled with a ceramic mixture also including ferric oxide and aluminium oxide, called ‘sacrificial material’.
Ramanujan
Dec 22
Environment Policy -- One-third of global coal exports come from Australia, accounting for 7% of global carbon emissions. The country is the largest exporter of coal and liquefied natural gas in the world, and the energy sector is an important employer here.
storage facilities for rabi onions must be created on massive scale, both at the farmers’ end as well as with traders
the government needs to promote the use of dehydrated onions (flakes, powder, granules) among urban households and bulk consumers (armed forces, hospitals, hotels and restaurants, etc). As onions are sensitive commodities, the government should also keep a buffer stock of dehydrated onions, which have a much longer shelf life
small and marginal farmers should be organised in Farmer-Producer Organisations and direct buying by organised retailers should be encouraged through contract farming, bypassing the mandi system
list of “usual residents of the country”. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, a “usual resident of the country” is one who has been residing in a local area for at least the last six months, or intends to stay in a particular location for the next six months
Unlike the NRC, the NPR is not a citizenship enumeration drive, as it would record even a foreigner staying in a locality for more than six months.
The NPR is being prepared under provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003. It is mandatory for every “usual resident of India” to register in the NPR.
It will be conducted in conjunction with the houselisting phase, the first phase of the Census, by the Office of the Registrar General of India (RGI) under the Home Ministry for Census 2021. Only Assam will not be included, given the recently completed NRC.
The NPR will collect both demographic data and biometric data. There are 15 different categories of demographic data, ranging from name and place of birth to education and occupation, that the RGI is supposed collect in the NPR. For biometric data it will depend on Aadhaar, for which it will seek Aadhaar details of the residents.
also called ‘Mahamana’.
Malaviya is known for founding the Banaras Hindu University
Malaviya rose up the ranks, and became president four times — in 1909 (Lahore), in 1918 (Delhi), in 1930 (Delhi), and in 1932 (Calcutta).
Malaviya was one of the early leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha, and helped found it in 1906. He was a social reformer and a successful legislator, serving as a member of the Imperial Legislative Council for 11 years (1909–20).
acting as a bridge between the Moderates and the Extremists in the Congress.
happens when the moon is farthest from the Earth, which is why it seems smaller. In this type of an eclipse, the moon does not block the sun completely, but looks like a “dark disk on top of a larger sun-colored disk” forming a “ring of fire”.
during a solar eclipse the moon casts two shadows on the Earth, the first one is called the umbra, which gets smaller as it reaches the Earth. The second one is called the penumbra, which gets larger as it reaches the Earth. According to NASA, people standing in the umbra see a total eclipse and those standing in the penumbra see a partial eclipse.
Ministry of Personnel
GGI is a uniform tool that will help in assessing the status of governance and the impact of interventions undertaken by governments across all states and UTs.
GGI will consider 10 sectors: agriculture and allied sectors, commerce and industries, human resource development, public health, public infrastructure and utilities, economic governance, social welfare and development, judicial & public security, environment, and citizen-centric governance.
These sectors will be assessed on the basis of over 50 indicators, which have been assigned different weights. Scores will be summed up to reach composite scores.
Gujarat and Rajasthan
A small swarm on average eats as much in one day as about 10 elephants, 25 camels, or 2,500 people.
Arya Samaj
Book - Hindu Sanghathan
Arya Samaaj -- Hindu reform movement -- Dayanand Saraswati -- 1875 Mumbai -- believes in the infallible authority of the Vedas.
Indian Ocean - Gulf of Oman
On December 27, 1911, the National Anthem was first sung at the Calcutta session of the Congress.
The manoeuvring capability of the Avangard hypersonic missile makes it difficult to predict its trajectory, and gives it the ability to protect itself from air and ballistic missile defences by delivering nuclear warheads to targets
the registration of births and deaths became mandatory, and is carried out under the provisions of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969
According to the Registration of Births and Deaths Act of 1969, the “normal period” for applying for a birth certificate is within 21 days of a child being born.
For instance, in Delhi, the “local authorities concerned” would be the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation or the Delhi Cantonment Board. In the state of Assam, the authority is the Joint Director, Health Services, of any district.
Beyond one year, a birth can be registered only on an order made by the magistrate of the first class or a Presidency Magistrate after the correctness of the birth has been verified.
Dec 27
New holiday added in J&K
The Passage is located between Cape Horn at the tip of South America and the Antarctic Peninsula
called the Impossible row
The Drake Passage is considered one of the roughest waterways in the world because here, layers of cold seawater from the south and warm seawater from the north collide to form powerful eddies, which when combined with strong winds and storms can be treacherous for those attempting to navigate it.
It is also the narrowest stretch in the Southern Ocean and spans approximately 800 km between the southern tip of South America and the northern tip of the West Antarctic Peninsula
For a better understanding of how much water is contained in each winter’s snowfall and how much will be available when it melts in the spring, NASA has launched a seasonal campaign — part of a five-year programme called SnowEx, initiated in 2016-17.
Within its geographic range, SnowEx assesses where snow has fallen, how much there is and how its characteristics change as it melts. It uses airborne measurements, ground measurements and computer modelling.
class: center
retired
Soviet Union
A — Align: Different people at different positions may have competing priorities. A goal congruence has to be achieved across the administrative ecosystem. The three layers of the PM-CM-DM model working in cohesion is the first and most important step towards policy translating into real delivery.
B — Believe:
C — Communicate: At its core, the SBM is a behaviour change programme. A recent study by Dalberg estimated that each rural Indian was reached by SBM messaging about 3,000 times over the past five years. Such was the effectiveness of SBM’s communication.
D — Democratise: Even corporates, NGOs, civil society organisations and other government ministries and departments played a role in mainstreaming sanitation.
E — Evaluate: Organisations such as the World Bank, UNICEF, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and WHO conducted various assessments of sanitation coverage and usage, successes and areas of improvement, as well as the health, economic and social impacts of the SBM. India became the global laboratory for sanitation. Lessons from these studies were incorporated into the programme in real-time.
F — Follow-through: The PM said on October 2 while commemorating the ODF declaration by all states that this is but a milestone and not the finish line. There is a strong focus on not declaring “mission accomplished”, and continuing to work towards sustaining the ODF behaviour and ensuring that no one is left behind.
launched by India a few years ago and has provided an enabling platform for frontline techno-economic alliances.
Enterprises from India are tying up with their counterparts from partnering countries including Canada, Finland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, and the UK.
This industry-led collaboration, with the government as an equal partner, is aimed at supporting the last phase of technology-based high-end, affordable product development — which can connect to both global and domestic markets.
was recently announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York
The CDRI will provide member countries technical support and capacity development, research and knowledge management, and advocacy and partnerships.
It is aimed at risk identification and assessment, urban risk and planning, and disaster risk management.
NITI
16 sustainable development goals (SDG)
Kerala is in the top slot with a score of 70, while Bihar is at the bottom with 50.
On December 29, 1943, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose arrived in Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, for a three-day visit. During the visit, he would hoist the Indian Tricolour at the Gymkhana Ground — today’s Netaji Stadium — at Port Blair.
The Islands were under Japanese occupation during World War II for three years (1942-45), and were formally handed over to Bose’s Azad Hind government on this day, although effective control remained with Japan.
The islands were first controlled by the Dutch, then by the British, and were taken over by the advancing Japanese military during World War II.
The year that just went by witnessed the rare meteorological coincidence of the northeast (winter) monsoon making its onset on the same day as the southwest monsoon withdrew officially.
In 2019, the retreat of the southwest (summer) monsoon was delayed by a record margin, while the northeast (winter) monsoon set in on time.
During NE monsoon, rainfall is experienced over Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh, along with some parts of Telangana and Karnataka.
The dual-hatted role refers to the two hats the CDS wears: one of the permanent Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee which has the three service chiefs as members, and the other of the head of the newly created Department of Military Affairs (DMA) in the ministry. The former is a military role while the latter is a role in the government; it is as the head of DMA that his major responsibilities within the ministry will be discharged.
the service headquarters, and thereby the armed forces, are attached offices in the ministry. They used to come under the Department of Defence so far, but will now fall under the ambit of DMA, and will have an appropriate mix of civilian and military officers at every level.
Attached offices are generally responsible for providing executive direction required in implementation of policies laid down by the department to which they are attached, in this case now the DMA. They also serve as a repository of technical information and advise the department on technical aspects of questions they deal with.
The government has also made it explicitly clear that the CDS will not exercise any military command, including over the three service chiefs. But the service chiefs will be members of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, which will be headed by the CDS.
status of Cabinet Secratary
species of brittle stars, which are relatives of starfish, can see even though it does not have eyes.
lives in the coral reefs of the Caribbean Sea, becomes only the second creature, after a sea urchin species, known to have this ability
extraocular vision is facilitated by the photoreceptor cells found on their bodies.
ight-sensing cells that cover its entire body
The disease ‘EVALI’ is unknown to doctors, and a link between vaping and the lung illness is yet to be concretely established.
Symptoms, according to the CDC, are those in common with other respiratory illnesses, including coughing, chest tightness, shortness of breath, extreme fever or fatigue.
(e-cigarette, or vaping, product use associated lung injury).
Arabic word for Jerusalem, and is responsible for carrying out unconventional warfare and intelligence activities. The force is responsible for training, financing and providing to some extremist groups overseas.
Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)
Phule was born in Naigaon, Maharashtra in 1831 and married activist and social-reformer Jyotirao Phule when she was nine years old.
After marriage, with her husband’s support, Phule learned to read and write and both of them eventually went on to found India’s first school for girls called Bhide Wada in Pune in 1848
in Maharashtra a nationalist discourse was playing out between 1881-1920 led by Bal Gangadhar Tilak. These nationalists including Tilak opposed the setting up of schools for girls and non-Brahmins citing loss of nationality.
the Phules started the Satyashodhak Samaj (Society for Truth-Seeking), through which they wanted to initiate the practice of Satyashodhak marriage, in which no dowry was taken.
trimming of the Railway Board, the powerful body that governs the Indian Railways. From nine, the Board will now have only five Members.
The Cabinet also decided to merge all central service cadres of Railways officers into a single Indian Railways Management Service (IRMS). Now, any eligible officer could occupy any post, including Board Member posts, irrespective of training and specialisation, since they will all belong to IRMS.
The Board will also have independent Members, who will be industry experts with at least 30 years of experience, but in non-executive roles, only attending Board meetings.
The government wants to end inter-departmental rivalries, which it says have been hindering growth for decades.
Several committees including the Bibek Debroy committee in 2015 have noted that “departmentalism” is a major problem in the system. Most committees have said merger of the services in some form would be a solution. The Debroy report recommended merging of all services to create two distinct services: Technical and Logistics. But it did not say how to merge the existing officers.
A separate exam under the Union Public Service Commission is proposed to be instituted in 2021 to induct IRMS officers.
biannual
1,275 sq km — in dense forest (including Very Dense Forest with a canopy density of over 70%, and Moderately Dense Forest with a canopy density of 40-70%)
Of India’s 7.12 lakh sq km forest cover, 52,000 sq km is plantations that, in any case, cannot substitute natural forests in biodiversity or ecological services.
Finer details than before -- missed details of land units smaller than 4 sq km. Now -- scans patches as small as 1 hectare
Switzerland is the “Protecting Power” of the United States’ interests in Iran
The instrument of Protecting Powers is provided for under the 1961 and 1963 Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic Relations. “If diplomatic relations are broken off between two States, or if a mission is permanently or temporarily recalled… the sending State may entrust the protection of its interests and those of its nationals to a third State acceptable to the receiving State,” the 1961 Vienna Convention states.
militant group in Somalia
Iraq
The jus cogens rules have been sanctioned by the Vienna Conventions on the Law of Treaties of 1969 and 1986.
According to both Conventions, a treaty is void if it breaches jus cogens rules.
most efficient
Australia
apable of powering a smartphone for five continuous days — the equivalent of an electric car being able to drive a distance of over 1,000 km.
Centre -- responsible for allocation of required foodgrains to States/UTs, transportation of foodgrains up to designated depots in each State/UT and providing central assistance to States/UTs for delivery of foodgrains from designated FCI godowns to the doorstep of the FPSs
States -- responsible for effective implementation of the Act, which inter-alia includes identification of eligible households, issuing ration cards to them, distribution of foodgrain entitlements to eligible households through fair price shops (FPS), issuance of licenses to Fair Price Shop dealers and their monitoring, setting up effective grievance redressal mechanism and necessary strengthening of Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS)
Coverage -- NFSA covers upto 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population under under Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and priority households. While AAY households, which constitute poorest of the poor are entitled to 35 kg of foodgrains per family per month, priority households are entitled to 5 kg per person per month.
Price -- Foodgrains under NFSA were to be made available at subsidized prices of Rs. 3/2/1 per kg for rice, wheat and coarse grains respectively for an initial period of three years from the date of commencement of the Act (July 13, 2013). Thereafter, prices were to be fixed by the Central Government from time to time, but not exceeding MSP.
DBT active in -- Chandigarh, Puducherry and Dadra and Nagar Haveli
It includes the Midday Meal Scheme, Integrated Child Development Services scheme and the Public Distribution System.
Further, the NFSA 2013 recognizes maternity entitlements.
The Midday Meal Scheme and the Integrated Child Development Services Scheme are universal in nature whereas the PDS will reach about two-thirds of the population (75% in rural areas and 50% in urban areas).
Pregnant women, lactating mothers, and certain categories of children are eligible for daily free cereals.
Pregnant women and lactating mothers and children in the age group of 6 months to 14 years will be entitled to meals as per prescribed nutritional norms under Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and Mid-Day Meal (MDM) schemes. Higher nutritional norms have been prescribed for malnourished children up to 6 years of age.
Pregnant women and lactating mothers will also be entitled to receive maternity benefit of not less than Rs. 6,000 -- restricted to two children
Eldest woman of the household of age 18 years or above to be the head of the household for the purpose of issuing of ration cards.
Food security allowance in case of non-supply of entitled food grains
1975
The beneficiaries under the Scheme are children in the age group of 0-6 years, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
Six services -- Supplementary Nutrition, Pre-school non-formal education, Nutrition & health education, Immunization, Health check-up and Referral services -- last three by MoHFW
Scheme is universal
Sneha shivir
scheme also called as Anganwadi services
All components of ICDS except Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP) are financed through a 60:40 ratio (central : state). The Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP) component was funded through a 50:50 ratio. The North East states have a 90:10 ratio.
Under SNP, beneficiaries are given hot meals along with take-home rations. For children, the quantum of rations and meals received depends on their malnutrition levels.
area around a star where it is not too hot and not too cold for liquid water to exist on the surface of surrounding planets.
NASA reported the discovery of an Earth-size planet, named TOI 700 d, orbiting its star in the “habitable zone”
found by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission, which it launched in 2018.
The find was confirmed by the Spitzer Space Telescope, which sharpened the measurements that TESS had made, such as orbital period and size.
"near extinct" Nepalese language
The massive accumulation of grain stocks is the result of a very inefficient strategy for food management wherein the procurement for wheat and rice (paddy) remains open-ended, but the disbursal of those stocks remains largely restricted to PDS.
The open market operations (OMO) are much less compared to what is needed to liquidate the excessive stocks.
The money locked in these excessive stocks (beyond the buffer norm) is more than Rs 1 lakh crore. Even if the government decides to liquidate half of it, it can garner Rs 50,000 crore to finance at least half of its infrastructure projects.
while the poor under the Antyodaya category should keep getting the maximum food subsidy, for others, the issue price should be fixed at, say, 50 per cent of the procurement price
limit subsidised grain distribution under NFSA to 40 per cent of the population rather than the current 67 per cent
limit the procurement of rice particularly in the north-western states of Punjab and Haryana where the groundwater table is depleting fast, and invite private sector participation in grain management.
late 4th/early 5th century
Varahmihra
Astronomy
Sanskrit
Chinese Paddlefish (Psephurus gladius)
dating back from 200 million years ago, and therefore swimming the rivers when dinosaurs ruled the Earth. Its ancestral home was the Yangtze River.
“functionally extinct”, which means the species continues to exist but it has too few members to enable to reproduce meaningfully enough to ensure survival
Once declared extinct, a species is not eligible for protective measures and conservation funding; therefore, the declaration has significant consequences.
Raja Chari
2024 -- first women and the next man
For the Artemis program, NASA’s new rocket called the Space Launch System (SLS) will send astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft a quarter of a million miles away from Earth to the lunar orbit.
Once astronauts dock Orion at the Gateway — which is a small spaceship in orbit around the moon — the astronauts will be able to live and work around the Moon, and from the spaceship, astronauts will take expeditions to the surface of the Moon.
The astronauts going for the Artemis program will wear newly designed spacesuits, called Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or xEMU.
ARTEMIS (Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence, and Electrodynamics of the Moon’s Interaction with the Sun)
MGNREGA, which is the largest work guarantee programme in the world, was enacted in 2005 with the primary objective of guaranteeing 100 days of wage employment per year to rural households
Secondly, it aims at addressing causes of chronic poverty through the 'works' (projects) that are undertaken, and thus ensuring sustainable development.
Finally, there is an emphasis on strengthening the process of decentralisation through giving a significant role to Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in planning and implementing these works.
Features --
Legal right to work -- for adult members of rural households -- At least one third beneficiaries have to be women -- Wages must be paid according to the wages specified for agricultural labourers in the state under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, unless the central government notifies a wage rate (this should not be less than Rs 60 per day) -- At present, wage rates are determined by the central government but vary across states, ranging from Rs 135 per day to Rs 214 per day
Time bound guarantee of work and unemployment allowance: Employment must be provided with 15 days of being demanded failing which an ‘unemployment allowance’ must be given
Decentralised planning: Gram sabhas must recommend the works that are to be undertaken and at least 50% of the works must be executed by them. PRIs are primarily responsible for planning, implementation and monitoring of the works that are undertaken.
Work site facilities: All work sites should have facilities such as crèches, drinking water and first aid.
Transparency and accountability: There are provisions for proactive disclosure through wall writings, citizen information boards, Management Information Systems and social audits. Social audits are conducted by gram sabhas to enable the community to monitor the implementation of the scheme.
Funding: Funding is shared between the centre and the states. There are three major items of expenditure – wages (for unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled labour), material and administrative costs. The central government bears 100% of the cost of unskilled labour, 75% of the cost of semi-skilled and skilled labour, 75% of the cost of materials and 6% of the administrative costs.
MoRD
The Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 inserted Article 21-A in the Constitution of India to provide free and compulsory education of all children in the age group of six to fourteen years as a Fundamental Right in such a manner as the State may, by law, determine.
Every child between the ages of 6 to 14 years has the right to free and compulsory education. This is stated as per the 86th Constitution Amendment Act via Article 21A. The Right to Education Act seeks to give effect to this amendment
The government schools shall provide free education to all the children and the schools will be managed by School Management Committees (SMC). Private schools shall admit at least 25% of the children in their schools without any fee.
The National Commission for Elementary Education shall be constituted to monitor all aspects of elementary education including quality.
It lays down the norms and standards relating inter alia to Pupil Teacher Ratios (PTRs), buildings and infrastructure, school-working days, teacher-working hours.
It provides for rational deployment of teachers by ensuring that the specified pupil teacher ratio is maintained for each school, rather than just as an average for the State or District or Block, thus ensuring that there is no urban-rural imbalance in teacher postings. It also provides for prohibition of deployment of teachers for non-educational work, other than decennial census, elections to local authority, state legislatures and parliament, and disaster relief.
It provides for appointment of appropriately trained teachers, i.e. teachers with the requisite entry and academic qualifications.
It prohibits (a) physical punishment and mental harassment; (b) screening procedures for admission of children; (c) capitation fee; (d) private tuition by teachers and (e) running of schools without recognition,
It provides for development of curriculum in consonance with the values enshrined in the Constitution
On 7 May 2014, the Supreme Court of India ruled that Right to Education Act is not applicable to minority institutions.
The National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights shall review the safeguards for rights provided under this Act, investigate complaints and have the powers of a civil court in trying cases.
States should constitute a State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) or the Right to Education Protection Authority (REPA) within six months of 1 April, 2010. Any person wishing to file a grievance must submit a written complaint to the local authority..
Appeals will be decided by the SCPCR/REPA. Prosecution of offences requires the sanction of an officer authorised by the appropriate government.
The Right to Education of persons with disabilities until 18 years of age is laid down under a separate legislation- the Persons with Disabilities Act.
It had a clause for “No Detention Policy” which has been removed under The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Act, 2019.
‘Raja Yoga’, ‘Jnana Yoga’, ‘Karma Yoga’
island on Luzon, Philippines
A complex volcano, also called a compound volcano, is defined as one that consists of a complex of two or more vents, or a volcano that has an associated volcanic dome, either in its crater or on its flanks.
The Taal volcano does not rise from the ground as a distinct, singular dome but consists of multiple stratovolcanoes (volcanoes susceptible to explosive eruptions), conical hills and craters of all shapes and sizes, as per NASA’s Earth Observatory. Taal has 47 craters and four maars (a broad shallow crater).
Sinkholes are depressions formed in the ground when layers of the Earth’s surface start collapsing into caverns. They can occur suddenly and without warning, because the land under the surface of the Earth can stay intact for a period of time until the spaces get too big.
Their formation can be caused due to natural processes or human activity. Typically, sinkholes form in areas of “karst” terrains, where the rock below the surface of the Earth can be easily dissolved by groundwater.
Essentially, this means that when rainwater seeps into the ground, the rock below the surface of the Earth starts dissolving, leading to the creation of spaces. This process is a slow and gradual one and can sometimes take hundreds or thousands of years.
Such terrains are most commonly found in areas with limestone, gypsum or carbonate rocks, as per NASA. The formation of karst terrains is dependent on geology and climate.
On the other hand, sinkholes can also be formed due to human activity. According to the British Geological Survey, this can happen due to broken land drains, water mains and sewerage pipes, increased rainfall, storm events, underlying limestone and diverted surface water, among other reasons.
IMD
The Rules, issued under the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, stipulate that only the Home Secretary of the Union or a state can pass an order, and that the order must include the reasons for the decision.
Both are members of plurinational forums like BRICS, BASIC, G-20, G-4, IBSA, International Solar Alliance, and Biofuture Platform.
Under Portuguese colonial rule, Brazil and Goa used to exchanged goods. During this period, coconut and mango crops arrived in Brazil from India for the first time, while Brazil sent cashew here.
Apart from this, Indian cattle breeds were also exported to Brazil, which has now formed over 80% of the country’s livestock; known as ‘Nelore’ locally (after Nellore in Andhra Pradesh)
In 1961, Brazil opposed India’s ‘Operation Vijay’ that liberated Goa from Portuguese rule, and Indo-Brazil relations did not flourish for many decades.
Statues of Mahatma Gandhi have been installed in the Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Londrina.
According to the Embassy, the Indian community in Brazil consists of around 4,700 people, with most of them living in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Manaus.
Under the Pulse Polio programme, all states and Union Territories have developed Rapid Response Teams (RRT) to respond to any polio outbreak in the country. Emergency Preparedness and Response Plans (EPRP) have also been developed by states, indicating steps to be undertaken in case of detection of a polio case.
To prevent the virus from coming to India, the government has since March 2014 made the Oral Polio Vaccination (OPV) mandatory for those travelling between India and polio-affected countries, such as Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Syria and Cameroon.
WEF
India - 76/82
released for the first time
Ministry of Law and Justice issued an Extraordinary Gazette Notification, declaring the United Arab Emirates to be a “reciprocating territory” under Section 44A of the Civil Procedure Code, 1908
The notification also declared a list of courts in the UAE to be “superior Courts” under the same section.
part from UAE, the other countries declared to be “reciprocating territories” are: United Kingdom, Singapore, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Trinidad & Tobago, New Zealand, the Cook Islands (including Niue) and the Trust Territories of Western Samoa, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Aden.
Essentially, orders passed by certain designated courts from a ‘reciprocating territory’ can be implemented in India, by filing a copy of the decree concerned in a District Court here.
The courts so designated are called ‘superior Courts’.
The decision is believed to help bring down the time required for executing decrees between the two countries.
first governor-general to have impeachment trial start against him
In 1786, impeachment proceedings were initiated against Hastings, probing his alleged mismanagement, mistreatment of natives, and personal corruption while in India.
During the trial, Burke rejected Hastings’s argument that ‘Western’ standards of legality could not be applied in the East. Burke insisted that under the Law of Nature, people in India were entitled to the same protection as those in Britain.
Oxfam
The report said that India’s richest 1% hold more than four times the wealth held by the 953 million who make up for the bottom 70% of the country’s population.
Scientists in the United States have named the millimetre-wide robots “xenobots” — after the species of aquatic frog found across sub-Saharan Africa from Nigeria and Sudan to South Africa, Xenopus laevis.
Scientists in the United States have created the world’s first “living machines” — tiny robots built from the cells of the African clawed frog, that can move around on their own.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on Thursday (January 23) asked the government of Myanmar to immediately take “all measures within its power” to prevent atrocities against members of the minority Rohingya Muslim community.
Who took Myanmar to the ICJ?
It was the Republic of the Gambia, a tiny country the size of Tripura, which stretches out as a thin strip of territory on either side of the river Gambia before it empties itself into the North Atlantic Ocean on the west coast of Africa.
The ruling of the court is binding on Myanmar, and cannot be appealed. However, no means are available to the court to enforce it.
In the wake of the India-Pakistan wars of 1965 and 1971, there was migration of people from India to Pakistan. Under the Defence of India Rules framed under The Defence of India Act, 1962, the Government of India took over the properties and companies of those who took Pakistani nationality.
These “enemy properties” were vested by the central government in the Custodian of Enemy Property for India. The same was done for property left behind by those who went to China after the 1962 Sino-Indian war.
The Tashkent Declaration of January 10, 1966 included a clause that said India and Pakistan would discuss the return of the property and assets taken over by either side in connection with the conflict.
However, the Government of Pakistan disposed of all such properties in their country in the year 1971 itself.
The central government, through the Custodian, is in possession of enemy properties spread across many states in the country.
In 2017, Parliament passed The Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2016, which amended The Enemy Property Act, 1968, and The Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971.
The amended Act expanded the definition of the term “enemy subject”, and “enemy firm” to include the legal heir and successor of an enemy, whether a citizen of India or a citizen of a country which is not an enemy; and the succeeding firm of an enemy firm, irrespective of the nationality of its members or partners.
The amended law provided that enemy property shall continue to vest in the Custodian even if the enemy or enemy subject or enemy firm ceases to be an enemy due to death, extinction, winding up of business or change of nationality, or that the legal heir or successor is a citizen of India or a citizen of a country which is not an enemy.
The Custodian, with prior approval of the central government, may dispose of enemy properties vested in him in accordance with the provisions of the Act, and the government may issue directions to the Custodian for this purpose.
Home Ministry
Indiginous groups - Permanent Participants - The number of Permanent Participants should at any time be less than the number of members
1996 - Ottawa Declaration
Himadri -- 2008 -- Norway -- Ministry of Earth Sciences (minister inaugrated)
IndARC -- 2014 -- Designed and developed by scientists from the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) and National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT)
bans for both civil and military purpose
1997 June - BIST-EC 1997 Dec - BIMST-EC 2004 - Nepal and Bhutan
Jarnail Singh Case upheld which of the criterions given by M Nagaraj Case - a. Empirical Data on Inadequate Representation b. Empirical Data on Backwardness- c. Impact on efficiency
Fast Track Courts - a. are established to expeditiously dispose of long pending cases in the District Courts and Session Courts b. receive both central and state fundings c. can give judgements following the principles of natural justice
155 mm/45-calibre gun system is a towed Howitzer designed indigenously by the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB)
It is the first long-range artillery gun to be produced in India and has been billed as a success of the government’s Make in India initiative.
The gun has a maximum range of 36.5 km and has the capability of automatic alignment and positioning
The gun is intended for use in all kinds of terrain. The self-propulsion unit allows it to negotiate and deploy itself in mountainous areas with ease.
Successor to Bofors guns
near Nagpur
Vakataka dynasty
Shaivite
Queen Prabhavatigupta
contemporary of Guptas
officially declared extinct in India in 1952
reintroduction from Namibia
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), bird flu, and now the novel coronavirus (nCOV)
The reason could lie in the busy food markets dotting cities across the country — where fruits, vegetables, hairy crabs and butchered meat are often sold next to bamboo rats, snakes, turtles, and palm civets. Closely packed stalls in busy marketplaces, the Chinese taste for exotic meats, and the high population density of cities create the conditions for the spread of zoonotic infections
WHO -- Some 60% of emerging infectious diseases globally are zoonoses
With a population of nearly 1.4 billion and 50% of the world’s livestock, China’s ecology poses a risk for emerging, re-emerging, and novel diseases that could threaten China and the rest of the world
TI
zero -- highly corrupt
India has slipped spots
NASA’s Spitzer Mission, which studied the universe in infrared light for more than 16 years, will come to an end since it is low on fuel and has been drifting away from Earth for a few years now
Using different infrared wavelengths, Spitzer was able to see and reveal features of the universe including objects that were too cold to emit visible light. Apart from enabling researchers to see distant cold objects
Spitzer could also see through large amounts of gas using infrared wavelengths to find objects that may otherwise have been invisible to human beings. These included exoplanets, brown dwarfs and cold matter found in the space between stars
A recognised political party can have 40 star campaigners and an unrecognised (but registered) political party can have 20
The expenditure incurred on campaigning by such campaigners is exempt from being added to the election expenditure of a candidate. However, this only applies when a star campaigner limits herself to a general campaign for the political party she represents.
Even if the candidate is not present at the star campaigner’s rally, but there are posters with her photographs or her name on display, the entire expenditure will be added to the candidate’s account. This applies even if the star campaigner mentions the candidate’s name during the event.
The difference between fiscal deficit and revenue deficit is the government’s capital expenditure.
if the expenditure is for paying salaries then it is counted as “revenue” expenditure but if it goes into building a road or a factory – that is, something that in turn increases the economy’s capacity to produce more – then it is characterised as “capital” expenditure.
the FRBM Act of 2003 had mandated that, apart from limiting the fiscal deficit to 3% of the nominal GDP, the revenue deficit should be brought down to 0%
This would have meant that all the government borrowing (or fiscal deficit) for the year would have funded only capital expenditure by the government.
Multiplier effect -- the multiplier is less than 1 for revenue expenditure and over 2.5 for capital expenditure
the worst development happened in 2018 when the Union government stopped targeting revenue deficit and instead focussed only on fiscal deficit.
FRBM Act is not an expenditure compressing mechanism, rather an expenditure switching one
The responsibility of declaring an event as an emergency lies with the Director-General of the WHO and requires the convening of a committee of members.
WHO has declared public health emergencies for outbreaks including swine flu, polio and Ebola
There are some implications of declaring a PHEIC for the host country, which in the case of the coronavirus is China. Declaring a PHEIC may lead to restrictions on travel and trade.
IMO 2020
aiming to reduce sulphur emissions
The IMO has banned ships from using fuels with a sulphur content above 0.5 per cent, compared with 3.5 per cent previously.
The new limits are monitored and enforced by national authorities of countries that are members of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) Annex VI.
Under the new policy, only ships fitted with sulphur-cleaning devices, known as scrubbers, are allowed to continue burning high-sulphur fuel.
Alternatively, they can opt for cleaner fuels, such as marine gasoil (MGO) and very low-sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO).
The document is prepared by the Economic Division of the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) under the guidance of the CEA
Once prepared, the Survey is approved by the Finance Minister.
The first Economic Survey was presented in 1950-51. Until 1964, the document would be presented along with the Budget.
The government is not constitutionally bound to present the Economic Survey or to follow the recommendations that are made in it.
The Constitution gives the President and the Governor the power to address a sitting of the legislature. The special power is with regard to two occasions. The first is to address the opening session of a new legislature after a general election. The second is to address the first sitting of the legislature each year.
A constitutional requirement
In the United States, it is referred to as the “State of the Union”
In the United Kingdom, it is referred to as the Queen’s Speech and is part of the ceremony to mark the formal start of the parliamentary year
In the American system, the President has the option of simply sending his written speech to Congress instead of personally going to deliver it
Ambedkar -- He said the President “is the Head of State but not of the executive.
The President or a Governor cannot refuse to perform the constitutional duty of delivering an address to the legislature. But there can be situations when they deviate from the text of the speech prepared by the government.
The Supreme Court Wednesday ruled that no time restriction should ordinarily be fixed for anticipatory bail and that it can continue even until the end of the trial.
As opposed to ordinary bail, which is granted to a person who is under arrest, in anticipatory bail, a person is directed to be released on bail even before arrest made.
The provision empowers only the Sessions Court and High Court to grant anticipatory bail. (S. 438 of CrPC)
major disease in the Northern Hill Zone and the North-Western Plain Zone
spreads easily during the onset of cool weather and when wind conditions are favourable. Rain, dew and fog favour the disease’s development.
affects wheat
Demographic effort -- ratio of the state’s population in 1971 to its fertility rate in 2011 — with a weight of 12.5%.
Income distance criterion -- Income distance is calculated as the difference between the per capita gross state domestic product (GSDP) of the state from that of the state with the highest per capita GSDP, with states with less income getting a higher share in order to allow them to provide services comparable to those provided by the richer ones.
1 in 10 Indians will develop cancer during their lifetime, and 1 in 15 Indians would die of cancer
Globally in 2018, there were 9.6 million cancer deaths, out of which the most were due to lung cancer at 18.4%, followed by colorectum cancer (9.2%), stomach cancer (8.2%), liver (8.2%), breast (6.6%) and cancer of the oesophagus (5.3%)
In India, the six most common cancer types are breast, at 1,62,000, followed by oral (1,20,000), cervical (97,000), lung (68,000) and stomach and colorectal, at 57,000 each
The report said that cancer patterns in India are dominated by a high burden of tobacco-related head and neck cancers.
new natural gas field discovered in UAE
4th largest by size in Middle East
Edible musical instrument made of fermented fruits
Jet streams are narrow bands of strong winds that flow over thousands of kilometres from west to east.
Major jet streams are found near the upper levels of the atmosphere, around 9 to 16 km from the earth’s surface, and can reach speeds of over 320 kph.
The jet streams shift to the north or south depending on the season. During winters, the wind current is the strongest. They are also closer to the Equator during winter.
The major jet streams are the Polar Front, Subtropical, and Tropical jet streams. In India, the Tropical jet stream influences the formation and duration of the summer monsoon.
ESA + NASA
took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida
The mission, which will take the first pictures of the top and bottom of the sun, was launched on an Atlas V rocket
Ecliptic plane -- in which all planets orbit and which is aligned with the sun’s equator
Before SolO, all solar imaging instruments have been within the ecliptic plane -- The new spacecraft will use the gravity of Venus and Earth to swing itself out of the ecliptic plane, passing inside the orbit of Mercury, and will be able to get a bird’s eye view of the sun’s poles for the first time.
In 1990, NASA and ESA had sent the Ulysses mission, which also passed over the sun’s poles but at much farther distances, and did not carry a camera.
Goa is the only state
The Supreme Court has ruled that reservation in the matter of promotions in public posts is not a fundamental right, and a state cannot be compelled to offer the quota if it chooses not to.
No mandamus can be issued by the court directing state governments to provide reservations
Northern Europe
called 'Sabine' in Germany
no private member’s Bill has been passed by Parliament since 1970
To date, Parliament has passed 14 such Bills, six of them in 1956
Atop new Mars rover, a robot that fires lasers to study rocks, and will look for signs of past life on Red Planet.
SuperCam includes a microphone so scientists can listen each time the laser hits a target. The popping sound created by the laser subtly changes depending on a rock’s material properties.
Mars 2020 Rover
The 79-million-year-old fossil that the researchers have found is the oldest tyrannosaur known from northern North America.
"reaper of death"
removed India from developing
Other countries that were removed from the list include Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil, Indonesia and Malaysia.
found in Brazil
The Yaravirus infects amoeba and has genes that have not been described before, something that could challenge how DNA viruses are classified.
does not infect human cells
DAVINCI+ -- Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging Plus
IVO -- Io Volcano Observer is a proposal to explore Jupiter’s moon Io, which is extremely volcanically active
TRIDENT -- This aims to explore Neptune’s icy moon, Triton
VERITAS -- Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy will aim to map Venus’s surface to find out why Venus developed so differently from Earth.
UAE
supergiant star
detected from European Space Organisation’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT)
India had non-legally binding MoUs with the CMS on the conservation and management of Siberian Cranes (1998), Marine Turtles (2007), Dugongs (2008) and Raptors (2016).
Kashi Mahakal -- third after two Tejas -- Varanasi and Indore
T1 - Delhi Lucknow
T2 - Mumbai Ahmedabad
In this model, the corporation takes all the decisions of running the service — fare, food, onboard facilities, housekeeping, complaints etc. Indian Railways is free from these encumbrances and gets to earn from IRCTC a pre-decided amount, being the owner of the network.
He translated into Persian the Bhagavad Gita as well as 52 Upanishads.
Italian traveller Niccolao Manucci gave a graphic description of the day in Travels of Manucci
there are different tiers (hierarchies) of capital (money)
The top tier or T1 has the “equity” capital — that is, money put in by the owners and shareholders -- It is the riskiest category of capital
Then there are different types of bonds (such as AT1 and AT2), which a bank floats to raise money from the market.
Last is the depositor — the one who parks her money in the bank’s savings account.
When something goes wrong, the depositor is paid back first and the equity owner the last. When the going is good, the depositor earns the lowest reward (rate of return) while the equity owners earn the most profits.
founders -- Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, SA, Venezuela
latest entrant -- Congo (2018)
is routinely enforced across the country for dealing with outbreaks of diseases such as swine flu, dengue, and cholera.
In 1897, the year the law was enforced, freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak was punished with 18 months’ rigorous imprisonment after his newspapers Kesari and Mahratta admonished imperial authorities for their handling of the plague epidemic.
Sepsis is a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by the body's immune system overreacting in response to an infection.
This overactive, toxic response can lead to tissue damage, multiple organ failure and death.
In June 2001, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) implemented index-based market-wide circuit breakers.
Circuit breakers are triggered to prevent markets from crashing, which happens when market participants start to panic induced by fears that their stocks are overvalued and decide to sell their stocks.
has slowed over time
discovered inside diamond mined in SA
While the mantle is dominated by elements such as magnesium and iron, goldschmidtite has high concentrations of niobium, potassium and the rare earth elements lanthanum and cerium.
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