Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Welfare schemes for various vulnerable sections of population
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved changes to the post-matric scholarship scheme for students from the Scheduled Castes (SCs), including a new funding pattern of 60-40 for the Centre and States.
Note:
Equality enshrined in the Constitution is not mathematical equality and does not mean all citizens will be treated alike without any distinction.
To this effect, the Constitution underlines two distinct aspects which together form the essence of equality law:
1) Non-discrimination among equals, and
2) Affirmative action to equalize the unequal
About the Scholarship
- It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme and implemented through State Government and UT administration.
- Under the scheme, the government provides financial assistance to students from SCs for higher education at post-matriculation and post-senior-secondary stages, which means Class XI onwards.
- It can be availed by those, whose household incomes are less than Rs 2.5 lakh annually.
What are the new changes?
- States would carry out verification of the students’ eligibility and caste status and collect their Aadhaar and bank account details.
- Transfer of financial assistance to the students under the scheme shall be on DBT [direct benefit transfer] mode, and preferably using the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System.
- Starting from 2021-22, the Central share [60%] in the scheme would be released on DBT mode directly into the bank accounts of the students as per a fixed time schedule.
Why such changes now?
- The changes were aimed at enabling four crore students to access higher education over the next five years.
- Switching from the existing “committed liability” formula, the new funding pattern would increase the Centre’s involvement in the scheme.
Benefits of the scheme
- The changes approved by the Cabinet were aimed at enrolling the poorest students, ensuring timely payments, and maintaining accountability.
- An estimated 1.36 crore students who would otherwise drop out after Class 10 would be brought into the higher education system under the scheme in five years.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Rights to the Electricity Consumers
The Ministry of Power has for the first time laid down Rights to the Electricity Consumers through “Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, 2020”.
Q.What are the new Rights to the Electricity Consumers as envisaged under Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, 2020?
Rights to the Electricity Consumers: A highlight
Following key areas are covered in the Electricity (Rights of consumers) Rules:
- Rights of consumers and Obligations of Distribution licensees
- Release of new connection and modification in an existing connection
- Metering arrangement
- Billing and Payment
- Disconnection and Reconnection
- Reliability of supply
- Consumer as Prosumer
- Standards of Performance of licensee
- Compensation Mechanism
- Call Centre for Consumer Services
- Grievance redressal mechanism
(1) Rights and Obligations
- It is the duty of every distribution licensee to supply electricity on request made by an owner or occupier of any premises in line with the provisions of the Act.
- It is the right of the consumer to have minimum standards of service for the supply of electricity from the distribution licensee.
(2) Release of new connection and modification in an existing connection
- Transparent, simple, and time-bound processes,
- The applicant has an option for online application,
- The maximum time period of 7 days in metro cities and 15 days in other municipal areas and 30 days in rural areas identified to provide new connections and modify existing connections.
(3) Metering
- No connection shall be given without a meter;
- Meter shall be the smart pre-payment meter or pre-payment meter;
- Provision of Testing of meters;
- Provisions for replacement of defective or burnt or stolen meters specified.
(4) Billing and payment
- Transparency in applicable consumer tariff and bills;
- A consumer shall have the option to pay bills online or offline;
- Provision for advance payment of bills.
(5) Reliability of supply
- The distribution licensee shall supply 24×7 powers to all consumers. However, the Commission may specify lower hours of supply for some categories of consumers like agriculture;
- The distribution licensee shall put in place a mechanism, preferably with automated tools to the extent possible, for monitoring and restoring outages.
(6) Consumer as prosumer
- The prosumers will maintain consumer status and have the same rights as the general consumer.
- They will also have the right to set up RE generation units including rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) systems – either by themselves or through a service provider.
- Net metering for loads up to ten kW and for gross metering for loads above ten kW.
(7) Standards of Performance
- The Commission shall notify the standards of performance for the distribution licensees;
- Compensation amount to be paid to the consumers by the distribution licensees for violation of standards of performance.
(8) Compensation mechanism
- Automatic compensation shall be paid to consumers for which parameters on standards of performance can be monitored remotely;
- The standards of performance for which the compensation is required to be paid by the distribution licensee.
(9) Call Centre for Consumer Services
- Distribution licensee shall establish a centralized 24×7 toll-free call center;
- Licensees shall endeavor to provide all services through a common Customer Relation Manager (CRM) System to get a unified view.
(10) Grievance redressal mechanism
- Consumer Grievance Redressal Forum (CGRF) to include consumer and prosumer representatives;
- The consumer grievance redressal has been made easy by making it multi-layered and the number of consumer’s representatives has been increased from one to four.
- The licensee shall specify the time within which various types of grievances by the different levels of the forums are to be resolved. Maximum timeline of 45 days specified for grievance redressal.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Leopard populations in India
Mains level: Tiger and leopard conservation: A success
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has released the Status of Leopards Report.
Confused over Leopard and Cheetah?
The most common difference between these two animals is the patterns on their coat. At first glance, it may look like they both have spots, but in actual fact, a leopard has rosettes which are rose-like markings, and cheetahs have a solid round or oval spot shape.
Indian Leopards
- The Indian leopard (Panthera pardus fusca) is a leopard subspecies widely distributed on the Indian subcontinent.
- It is one of the big cats occurring on the Indian subcontinent, apart from the Asiatic lion, Bengal tiger, snow leopard and clouded leopard.
- It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List because populations have declined following habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching for the illegal trade of skins and body parts.
Leopards in India
- India now has 12,852 leopards as compared to the previous estimate of 7910 conducted 2014.
- More than 60% increase in population has been recorded.
- The States of Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra recorded the highest leopard estimates at 3,421, 1,783 and 1,690 respectively.
- India’s world record tiger survey also estimated the population of leopards and the tiger range was found a home to 12,852 (12,172-13,535) leopards.
Significance
- The increase in Tiger, Lion & Leopards numbers over the last few years is a testimony to the conservation efforts and of the fledgeling wildlife & biodiversity of the country.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Guru Tegh Bahadur
Mains level: Not Much
The Prime Minister has paid tributes to Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji on his Martyrdom Day.
Try this PYQ:
Q. Consider the following Bhakti Saints:
- Dadu Dayal
- Guru Nanak
- Tyagaraja
Who among the above was/were preaching when the Lodi dynasty fell and Babur took over?
(a) 1 and 3
(b) 2 only
(c) 2 and 3
(d) 1 and 2
Guru Tegh Bahadur (1621–1675)
- Guru Tegh Bahadur was the ninth of ten Gurus of the Sikh religion. He was born at Amritsar in 1621 and was the youngest son of Guru Hargobind.
- His term as Guru ran from 1665 to 1675. One hundred and fifteen of his hymns are in Guru Granth Sahib.
- There are several accounts explaining the motive behind the assassination of Guru Tegh Bahadur on Aurangzeb’s orders.
- He stood up for the rights of Kashmiri Pandits who approached him against religious persecution by Aurangzeb.
- He was publicly killed in 1675 on the orders of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in Delhi for himself refusing Mughal rulers and defying them.
- Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib and Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib in Delhi mark the places of execution and cremation of his body.
Impact of his martyrdom
- The execution hardened the resolve of Sikhs against religious oppression and persecution.
- His martyrdom helped all Sikh Panths consolidate to make the protection of human rights central to its Sikh identity.
- Inspired by him, his nine-year-old son, Guru Gobind Singh Ji, eventually organized the Sikh group into a distinct, formal, symbol-patterned community came to be known as Khalsa (Martial) identity.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Metal-CO2 battery
Mains level: Optimization of space missions and thier payloads
India’s planetary missions like Mars Mission may soon be able to reduce payload mass and launch costs with the help of an indigenously developed Metal- CO2 battery with CO2 as an Energy Carrier.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles produce one of the following as “exhaust”:
(a) NH3
(b) CH4
(c) H2O
(d) H2O2
Metal CO2 Battery
- An IIT professor recently demonstrated the technical feasibility of Lithium- CO2 battery in simulated Mars atmosphere for the first time.
- The development of Metal-CO2 batteries will provide highly specific energy density with the reduction in mass and volume, which will reduce payload mass and launch cost of planetary missions.
- Metal-CO2 batteries have a great potential to offer significantly high energy density than the currently used Li-ion batteries.
- They provide a useful solution to fix CO2 emissions, which is better than energy-intensive traditional CO2 fixation methods.
It’s working
- A primary Li-CO2 battery uses pure carbon dioxide as a cathode.
- According to chemical knowledge, Lithium metal can react with CO2 to form lithium oxalate at room temperature.
- While at high temperatures, lithium oxalate decomposes to form lithium carbonate and carbon monoxide gas.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: About the railway line
Mains level: Recent trends in India-Bangladesh ties
Ours and Bangladeshi PM has jointly inaugurated a railway link between Haldibari in India and Chilahati in Bangladesh.
Examine the opportunities and challenges in the adoption PPP model by the Indian Railways.
Haldibari – Chilahati Rail Link
- This rail link being made functional is the 5th rail link between India and Bangladesh.
- It was operational till 1965. This was part of the Broad Gauge main route from Kolkata to Siliguri during partition.
- Trains travelling to Assam and North Bengal continued to travel through the then East Pakistan territory even after partition.
- For example, a train from Sealdah to Siliguri used to enter East Pakistan territory from Darshana and exit using the Haldibari – Chilahati link.
- However, the war of 1965 effectively cut off all the railway links between India and the then East Pakistan.
- So on the Eastern Sector of India partition of the railways thus happened in 1965. So the importance of the reopening of this rail link can be well imagined.
A British-era legacy
- The railway network of India and Bangladesh are mostly inherited from British Era Indian Railways.
- After partition in 1947, 7 rail links were operational between India and the then East Pakistan (up to 1965). Presently, there are 4 operational rail links between India and Bangladesh.
- They are, Petrapole (India) – Benapole (Bangladesh), Gede (India) – Darshana (Bangladesh), Singhabad (India)-Rohanpur (Bangladesh), Radhikapur (India)–Birol (Bangladesh).
Benefits offered by the rail
- The rail link will be beneficial for transit into Bangladesh from Assam and West Bengal.
- It will enhance rail network access to the main ports, dry ports, and land borders to support the growth in regional trade and to encourage economic and social development of the region.
- Common people and businessman of both countries will be able to reap the benefit of both goods and passenger traffic, once passenger trains are planned in this route.
- With this new link coming into operation, tourists from Bangladesh will be able to visit places like Darjeeling, Sikkim, Dooars apart from countries like Nepal, Bhutan etc easily.
- Economic activities of these South Asian countries will also be benefitted from this new rail link.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: PMSSS
Mains level: Special schemes for JK and Ladakh
The Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS) instalment has been released to support J&K and Ladakh students.
Tap to read more about: Reorganization of J&K
About PMSSS
- The PMSSS aims to build the capacities of the youths of J&K and Ladakh by educating, enabling and empowering them to compete in the normal course.
- Under the Scheme, the youths of J&K and Ladakh are supported by way of scholarship in two parts namely the academic fee & maintenance allowance.
- The academic fee is paid to the institution where the student is provided admission after on-line counselling process conducted by the AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education).
- The academic fee covers tuition fee and other components as per the ceiling fixed for various professional, medical and other under-graduate courses.
- In order to meet the expenditure towards hostel accommodation, mess expenses, books & stationery etc., a fixed amount of Rs.1.00 Lakh is provided to the beneficiary and is paid in instalments of Rs. 10,000/- pm directly into students account.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Ayushman Bharat
Mains level: Importance of Public Health Surveillance
NITI Aayog today released a white paper: Vision 2035: Public Health Surveillance (PHS) in India.
Q.Discuss the role of Public Health Surveillance in the success of Ayushman Bharat Abhiyan.
Vision 2035 for PHS
- It is a continuation of the work on health systems strengthening.
- It contributes by suggesting mainstreaming of surveillance by making individual electronic health records the basis for surveillance.
- Public health surveillance (PHS) is an important function that cuts across primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of care. Surveillance is ‘Information for Action’.
Let’s have a look at the executive summary of the vision document:
PHS in India
- Surveillance is an important Public Health function.
- It is an essential action for disease detection, prevention, and control. Surveillance is ‘Information for Action’.
Why need PHS?
- Multiple disease outbreaks have prompted India to proactively respond with prevention and control measures. These actions are based on information from public health surveillance.
- India was able to achieve many successes in the past. Smallpox was eradicated and polio was eliminated.
- India has been able to reduce HIV incidence and deaths and advance and accelerate TB elimination efforts.
- These successes are a result of effective community-based, facility-based, and health system-based surveillance.
- The COVID19 pandemic has further challenged the country. India rapidly ramped up its diagnostic capabilities and aligned its digital technology expertise.
- This ensured that there was a comprehensive tracking of the pandemic.
Highlights of the vision document
- It builds on initiatives such as the Integrated Health Information Platform of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Program.
- It aligns with the citizen-centricity highlighted in the National Health Policy 2017 and the National Digital Health Blueprint.
- It encourages the use of mobile and digital platforms and point of care devices and diagnostics for amalgamation of data capture and analyses.
- It highlights the importance of capitalizing on initiatives such as the Clinical Establishments Act to enhance private sector involvement in surveillance.
- It points out the importance of a cohesive and coordinated effort of apex institutions including the National Centre for Disease Control, the ICMR, and others.
Gap areas in India’s PHS that could be addressed
- India can create a skilled and strong health workforce dedicated to surveillance activities.
- Non-communicable disease, reproductive and child health, occupational and environmental health and injury could be integrated into public health surveillance.
- Morbidity data from health information systems could be merged with mortality data from vital statistics registration.
- An amalgamation of plant, animal, and environmental surveillance in a One-Health approach.
- PHS could be integrated within India’s three-tiered health system.
- Citizen-centric and community-based surveillance, and use of point of care devices and self-care diagnostics could be enhanced.
- To establish linkages across the three-tiered health system, referral networks could be expanded for diagnoses and care.
Moving ahead
- Establish a governance framework that is inclusive of political, policy, technical, and managerial leadership at the national and state level.
- Identify broad disease categories that will be included under PHS.
- Enhance surveillance of non-communicable diseases and conditions in a step-wise manner.
- Prioritize diseases that can be targeted for elimination as a public health problem, regularly.
- Improve core support functions, core functions, and system attributes for surveillance at all levels; national, state, district, and block.
- Establish mechanisms to streamline data sharing, capture, analysis, and dissemination for action.
- Encourage innovations at every step-in surveillance activity.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CO-WIN
Mains level: Vaccination challenges in India
A New Digital platform ‘CO-WIN’ is being used for COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery.
Q.India’s first mass adult vaccination drive against COVID-19 is a difficult task. Explain.
CO-WIN
- This user friendly mobile app for recording vaccine data is working as a beneficiary management platform having various modules.
- The platform will be used for recording vaccine data and will form a database of healthcare workers too.
- The app will have separate modules for administrator, registration, vaccination, beneficiary acknowledgement and reports.
- Once people start to register for the app, the platform will upload bulk data on co-morbidity provided by local authorities.
- In the process of forming database of Healthcare Workers, which is in an advanced stage across all States/UTs, data is presently being uploaded on the Co-WIN platform.
Prioritized group
Prioritized Population Groups include:
- Healthcare Workers in both Government and Private Healthcare facilities
- Frontline Workers including personnel from state and central police department, armed forces, home guard, civil defence organizations, disaster management volunteers and municipal workers and
- Prioritized Age Group, which includes those aged above 50 years & those with co-morbidities
(Note: This is not the sequence, but categorization.)
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Indian Cancer Genome Atlas (ICGA)
Mains level: Burden of non-communicable diseases on India
The Ministry of Science & Technology has inaugurated the 2nd Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) 2020 Conference.
Do you know?
According to the World Cancer Report by the WHO, one in 10 Indians develops cancer during their lifetime and one in 15 dies of the disease!
The Cancer Genome Atlas
- The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) is a landmark project started in 2005 by the US-based National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).
- The idea was to make a catalogue of the genetic mutations that cause cancer.
- This meant collecting tumour samples and blood samples (known as the germline) from patients and processing them using gene sequencing and bioinformatics.
- The TCGA is a continuing effort even after fifteen years and has generated over 2.5 petabytes of data for over 11,000 patients.
- This data is available to researchers all around the world and has been used to develop new approaches to diagnose, treat and prevent cancer.
Indian Cancer Genome Atlas (ICGA)
- On similar lines, the establishment of an ICGA has been initiated by a consortium of key stakeholders in India led by CSIR in which several government agencies, cancer hospitals, academic institutions and private sector partners.
- It is aimed at improving clinical outcomes in cancer and other chronic diseases.
Why need such Atlas?
- Diverse molecular mechanisms- including genetic and lifestyle factors contribute to cancer, posing significant challenges to treatment.
- Therefore, it is necessary to better understand the underlying factors- patient by patient.
- In this context, it is important to create an indigenous, open-source and comprehensive database of molecular profiles of all cancer prevalent in Indian population.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Octane number
Mains level: India's oil sector
The Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas has launched world-class premium-grade Petrol (with Octane number 100) in the country.
What is XP100?
- It is petrol developed by Indian Oil with octane number 100.
- The availability of XP100 puts India in an elite group of countries, having access to such high-quality oil. It will provide high quality and power to the engine.
- It will be rolled out in 15 identified cities across the country in two phases.
- Worldwide, 100 Octane petrol has a niche market for luxury vehicles that demand high performance and is available only in six countries like Germany, USA, etc.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Lead, ingested or inhaled, is a health hazard. After the addition of lead to petrol has been banned, what still are the sources of lead poisoning?
- Smelting units
- Pens pencils
- Paints
- Hair oils and cosmetics
Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
(a) 1, 2 and 3 only
(b) 1 and 3 only
(c) 2 and 4 only
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
What is Octane numbering of Petrol?
- Octane number, also called Antiknock Rating, a measure of the ability of a fuel to resist knocking when ignited in a mixture with air in the cylinder of an internal-combustion engine.
- Engine knock is a tapping, pinging sound that gets louder and more obnoxious as we accelerate.
- The octane number is determined by comparing, under standard conditions, the knock intensity of the fuel with that of blends of two reference fuels: iso-octane, which resists knocking, and heptane, which knocks readily.
- The octane number is the percentage by volume of iso-octane in the iso-octane–heptane mixture that matches the fuel being tested in a standard test engine.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: SDGs
Mains level: India's measure for SDGs
Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
UNDP and Invest India have launched the SDG Investor Map for India, laying out 18 Investment Opportunities Areas (IOAs) in six critical SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) enabling sectors.
Try this PYQ:
Q.The Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE), a UN mechanism to assist countries transition towards greener and more inclusive economies, emerged at:
(a) The Earth Summit on Sustainable Development 2002, Johannesburg
(b) The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development 2012, Rio de Janeiro
(c) The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 2015, Paris
(d) The World Sustainable Development Summit 2016, New Delhi
SDG Investor Map for India
- SDG Finance Facility platform at UNDP in partnership with Invest India, the investment promotion arm of the Government of India has developed this Map.
- The map will help public and private sector stake-holders direct capital towards IOAs, and White Spaces (Areas of Potential) that can contribute to the sustainable development needs of the country.
- The map has identified 18 IOAs and 8 White Spaces across 6 Priority Sectors including Education, Healthcare, Agriculture and Allied Services, Financial Services, Renewable Energy and Alternatives, and Sustainable Environment.
Utility of this map
- Investing in the SDGs at this point is crucial to ‘Building Back Better’ and making the economy and our societies more resilient and sustainable.
- With the COVID-19 pandemic, the financing gap for the SDGs in India has only widened further and decades of development progress is nearly on the verge of reversal.
- Enhanced productivity, technology adoption and increased inclusion are all critical factors that this map uses to identify the most attractive sectors for investors.
Back2Basics: What are SDGs?
- The SDGs or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked goals designed to be a “blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all”.
- They were set in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and are intended to be achieved by the year 2030.
- They are included in a UN Resolution called the 2030 Agenda or what is known as Agenda 2030.
- Countries are expected to take ownership and establish a national framework for achieving these Goals.
- Implementation and success will rely on countries’ own sustainable development policies, plans and programmes.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Lachit Borphukan
Mains level: Not Much
The Prime Minister has paid tribute to Lachit Borphukan on Lachit Diwas.
Try this PYQ:
Q.What was the immediate cause for Ahmad Shah Abdali to invade and fight the Third Battle of Panipat:
(a) He wanted to avenge the expulsion by Marathas of his viceroy Timur Shah from Lahore
(b) The frustrated governor of Jullundhar Adina Beg khan invited him to invade Punjab
(c) He wanted to punish Mughal administration for non-payment of the revenues of the Chahar Mahal (Gujrat Aurangabad, Sialkot and Pasrur)
(d) He wanted to annex all the fertile plains of Punjab upto borders of Delhi to his kingdom
Who was Lachit Borphukan?
- The year was 1671 and the decisive Battle of Saraighat was fought on the raging waters of the Brahmaputra.
- On one side was Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb’s army headed by Ram Singh of Amer (Jaipur) and on the other was the Ahom General Lachit Borphukan.
- He was a commander in the Ahom kingdom, located in present-day Assam.
- Ram Singh failed to make any advance against the Assamese army during the first phase of the war.
- Lachit Borphukan emerged victorious in the war and the Mughals were forced to retreat from Guwahati.
Lachit Diwas
- On 24 November each year, Lachit Divas is celebrated statewide in Assam to commemorate the heroism of Lachit Borphukan.
- On this day, Borphukan has defeated the Mughal army on the banks of the Brahmaputra in the Battle of Saraighat in 1671.
- The best passing out cadet of National Defence Academy has conferred the Lachit gold medal every year since 1999 commemorating his valour.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Guru Teg Bahadur
Mains level: NA
The President of India’s has delivered a special message on the eve of ‘Martyrdom Day’ of Guru Teg Bahadur.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Consider the following Bhakti Saints:
- Dadu Dayal
- Guru Nanak
- Tyagaraja
Who among the above was/were preaching when the Lodi dynasty fell and Babur took over?
(a) 1 and 3
(b) 2 only
(c) 2 and 3
(d) 1 and 2
Guru Teg Bahadur (1621-1675)
- Guru Teg Bahadur was the ninth of ten Gurus of the Sikh religion.
- One hundred and fifteen of his hymns are in Guru Granth Sahib.
- He stood up for the rights of Kashmiri Pandits who approached him against the imposition jizya tax.
- He was publicly killed in 1675 on the orders of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in Delhi for refusing to convert.
- In the words of Noel King of the University of California, “Guru Teg Bahadur’s martyrdom was the first-ever martyrdom for human rights in the world.
- He is fondly remembered as ‘Hind di Chaadar’.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: IRNSS, IMO, NaVIC
Mains level: IRNSS
The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) has been accepted as a component of the World Wide Radio Navigation System (WWRNS) for operation in the Indian Ocean Region by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
Try this PYQ:
With reference to the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), consider the following statements:
- IRNSS has three Satellites in geostationary and four satellites the geosynchronous orbits.
- IRNSS covers entire India and about 5500 sq. km beyond its borders.
- India will have its own satellite navigation system with full global coverage by the middle of 2019.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 1 and 2 only
(c) 2 and 3 only
(d) None
What is IRNSS?
- The IRNSS, with an operational name of NavIC (acronym for Navigation with Indian Constellation) is an Indian regional satellite navigation system that provides accurate real-time positioning and timing services.
- It covers India and a region extending 1,500 km around it, with plans for further extension.
- The system currently consists of a constellation of seven satellites, with two additional satellites on ground as stand-by.
- The constellation is in orbit as of 2018, and the system was expected to be operational from early 2018 after a system check.
- It will provide two levels of service, the “standard positioning service”, which will be open for civilian use, and a “restricted service” (an encrypted one) for authorised users (including the military).
Benefits of the move
- This move will enable merchant vessels to use IRNSS for obtaining position information similar to GPS and GLONASS.
- This will assist in the navigation of ships in Indian ocean waters within the area covered by 50°N latitude, 55°E longitude, 5°S latitude and 110°E longitude (approximately up to 1500 km from Indian boundary).
Back2Basics: International Maritime Organisation (IMO)
- IMO is the UN specialized agency with responsibility for the safety and security of shipping and the prevention of marine pollution by ships.
- Its primary purpose is to develop and maintain a comprehensive regulatory framework for shipping and its remit today includes safety, environmental concerns, legal matters, technical co-operation, maritime security and the efficiency of shipping.
- IMO is governed by an assembly of members and is financially administered by a council of members elected from the assembly.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: PM-FME Scheme
Mains level: Food processing industry and the required reforms
Union Minister for Food Processing Industries has inaugurated the capacity building component of the Pradhan Mantri Formalization of Micro food processing Enterprises scheme (PM-FME Scheme).
The event also sought the launch of the GIS One District One Product (ODOP) Digital Map of India.
Practice question for mains:
Q.What is the PM FME Scheme? Discuss its potential to neutralize various challenges faced by India’s unorganized food industries
PM-FME Scheme
- Launched under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, the PM-FME Scheme is a centrally sponsored scheme.
- It aims to enhance the competitiveness of existing individual micro-enterprises in the unorganized segment of the food processing industry and promote formalization of the sector.
- It seeks to provide support to Farmer Producer Organizations, Self Help Groups, and Producers Cooperatives along their entire value chain.
- Under the PM-FME scheme, capacity building is an important component.
- The scheme envisages imparting training to food processing entrepreneurs, various groups, viz., SHGs / FPOs / Co-operatives, workers, and other stakeholders associated with the implementation of the scheme.
Features of the scheme
- The Scheme adopts One District One Product (ODODP) approach to reap the benefit of scale in terms of procurement of inputs, availing common services and marketing of products.
- The States would identify food product for a district keeping in view the existing clusters and availability of raw material.
- The ODOP product could be a perishable produce based product or cereal-based products or a food product widely produced in a district and their allied sectors.
- An illustrative list of such products includes mango, potato, litchi, tomato, tapioca, kinnu, bhujia, petha, papad, pickle, millet-based products, fisheries, poultry, meat as well as animal feed among others.
- The Scheme also place focus on waste to wealth products, minor forest products and Aspirational Districts.
About ODOP Digital Map
- The GIS ODOP digital map of India provides details of ODOP products of all the states to facilitate the stakeholders.
- The digital map also has indicators for tribal, SC, ST, and aspirational districts.
- It will enable stakeholders to make concerted efforts for its value chain development.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Param Siddhi
Mains level: National Supercomputing Mission
India’s newest and fastest supercomputer, PARAM-Siddhi AI, has been ranked 63rd in the Top500 list of most powerful supercomputers in the world.
Try this MCQ:
Q.The terms Mihir, Param Siddhi and Pratyush are sometimes seen in news are actually:
a)Indigenous Submarines
b)Supercomputers
c)Missiles
d)Satellites
Param Siddhi
- It is a high-performance computing-artificial intelligence (HPC-AI) supercomputer established under National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) at C-DAC.
- It was commissioned by the C-DAC earlier and has been developed in association with chipmaker Nvidia and French IT consulting firm Atos.
- It will help deep learning, visual computing, virtual reality, accelerated computing, as well as graphics virtualization.
- The computer is expected to be used as a platform for academia, scientific research, startups and more.
Other Indian supercomputers
- PARAM-Siddhi is the second Indian supercomputer to be entered in the top 100 on the Top500 list.
- Pratyush, a supercomputer used for weather forecasting at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, ranked 78th on the November edition of the list.
- It was ranked 66th in the June rankings announced by the project.
- Another Indian supercomputer, Mihir (146th on the list), clubs with Pratyush to generate enough computing power to match PARAM-Siddhi.
Who topped the rankings?
- The Top500 project tracks the most powerful supercomputers in the world and is published twice a year.
- Japanese supercomputer Fugaku (442 petaflops) and IBM’s Summit (148.8 petaflops) are the two most powerful supercomputers in the world, according to the list.
- Chinese Sunway TaihuLight is number four on the list (93 petaflops), developed by the National Research Center of Parallel Computer Engineering & Technology (NRCPC) in China.
Back2Basics:
National Supercomputing Mission (NSM)
Petaflop
- A petaflop is a measure of a computer’s processing speed and can be expressed as A thousand trillion floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) A thousand teraflops.
- In computing, floating-point operations per second is a measure of computer performance, useful in fields of scientific computations that require floating-point calculations.
- For such cases, it is a more accurate measure than measuring instructions per second.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Green Energy Convergence Project, EESL
Mains level: Green Energy Convergence Project
The Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) is set to roll out of India’s first Energy Convergence Project in Goa.
Green Energy Convergence Project
- Under the project, EESL and the Department of New and Renewable Energy (DNRE) in Goa will carry out feasibility studies and implementation of decentralized solar energy projects.
- The project aims to connect seemingly independent sectors like Solar Energy, Energy Storage and LED lights to provide solutions, which can enable in decarbonisation and affordable energy access.
- It will include the installation of 100 Megawatt decentralized ground-mounted solar power projects on government land to be used for agricultural pumping.
- It seeks to replace 6,300 agricultural pumps and distribute 16 lakh LED bulbs for rural domestic households.
Benefits of the project
- The projects will accelerate the usage of renewable energy sources, especially for agricultural and rural power consumption in the State.
- They will also contribute to the reduction of peak energy demand through the deployment of energy-efficient pumping and lighting thus contributing to overall sustainability.
About EESL
- A joint venture of NTPC Limited, Power Finance Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation and POWERGRID, the EESL was set up under Ministry of Power to facilitate the implementation of energy efficiency projects.
- EESL is a Super Energy Service Company (ESCO) that seeks to unlock energy efficiency market in India, that can potentially result in energy savings of up to 20 per cent of current consumption.
- It also acts as the resource centre for capacity building of State DISCOMs, ERCs, SDAs, upcoming ESCOs, financial institutions, etc.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Arsenal of Indian Navy
Mains level: Modernisation of Indian Navy
The fifth Scorpene submarine of Project-75 named ‘Vagir’ has been launched at Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) in Mumbai.
In a rare case we would see a question based on various classes of Indian Submarines in the CSP. However, we can expect a question based on Project-75 in the CSP and CAPF exam very well.
About Vagir
- Vagir, ex-Russia, named after the Sand Fish, a deadly deep-sea predator of the Indian Ocean, was commissioned into the Indian Navy on December 3, 1973, and was decommissioned on June 7, 2001.
- In true nautical tradition, it is refurbished under the same name – Vagir.
- It is rebuilt with superior stealth features (such as advanced acoustic absorption techniques, low radiated noise levels, hydro-dynamically optimized shape etc.) and precision-guided weapons.
- The attack can be launched with both torpedoes and tube-launched anti-ship missiles, whilst underwater or on the surface.
What is Project-75?
- The Project 75I-class submarine is a follow-on of the Project 75 Kalvari-class submarine for the Indian Navy.
- In the late 1990s, around the time of Kargil war, a three-decade plan took shape for indigenous construction of submarines.
- It was known to have two separate series of submarine building lines – codenamed Project 75 and Project 75I — in collaboration with foreign entities.
- Under this project, the Indian Navy intends to acquire six diesel-electric submarines, which will also feature advanced air-independent propulsion systems.
- This is for enabling them to stay submerged for longer duration and substantially increase their operational range.
Submarines commissioned till date
- The submarines in the current Kalvari-class take their names from erstwhile decommissioned classes of submarines named Kalvari.
- It included Kalvari, Khanderi, Karanj and Vela class — which included Vela, Vagir, Vagsheer.
- Two submarines of the ongoing project, Kalvari and Khanderi, have been commissioned into the Indian Navy.
- The third submarine, Karanj, is in the last phase of rigorous sea trials.
- The fourth Scorpene, Vela, has commenced her sea trials, whilst the sixth and last submarine, Vagsheer, is being readied for boot together.
Strategic importance of these submarines
- India currently operates one submarine each in nuclear-powered Classes of Chakra and Arihant and in addition to 14 submarines belonging to three classes of Diesel Electric category — Kalvari, Shishumar and Sindhughosh, some of which are ageing.
- The nuclear powered and diesel-electric submarines have their designated roles in the Carrier Battle Groups, which are formations of ships and submarines with Aircraft Carriers at the lead role.
- As per the basic principles of submarine deployment and the minimum requirement for India to create a strategic deterrence, there is a specific number of submarines of both types that India needs to have in active service.
- Currently, India has less number of submarines than what is required with some more of those from both types being at various stages of construction.
Back2Basics: Classes of Submarines in India
- In maritime terms, a class of ships is a group of vessels which have the same make, purpose and displacement.
- In the Navy and Coast Guard in India, the ships belonging to a particular class are named in a specific manner.
- Many times the names have the same first letters, prefixes, similar meanings or the names belong to a particular type of words for example names of cities, persons, mythological concepts, animals, rivers, mountains, weapons, etc.
- The class is generally named after the first vessel in the category. In some cases, a particular class of vessels takes their names from an earlier class of vessels which are now decommissioned.
- Like Kalvari – which means Tiger Shark, Vagir has been named after a Sand Fish, a predatory marine species.
- Khanderi has been named after an Island Fort built by Chhatrapati Shivaji, which played a key role in his Navy. Karanj has also been named after an Island located South of Mumbai.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: PLI scheme and various sectors
Mains level: Moves for Atmanirbhar Bharat
The Union Cabinet has unveiled the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme to encourage domestic manufacturing investments in ten key sectors.
PLI Scheme
- The PLI scheme aims to boost domestic manufacturing and cut down on imports by providing cash incentives on incremental sales from products manufactured in the country.
- Besides inviting foreign companies to set shop in India, the scheme aims to encourage local companies to set up or expand, existing manufacturing units.
UPSC can directly as the sectors included in the PLI scheme. Earlier it was only meant for Electronics manufacturing (particulary mobile phones).
What was the earlier PLI Scheme?
- As a part of the National Policy on Electronics, the IT ministry had notified the PLI scheme on April 1 this year.
- The scheme will, on one hand, attract big foreign investment in the sector, while also encouraging domestic mobile phone makers to expand their units and presence in India.
- It would give incentives of 4-6 per cent to electronics companies which manufacture mobile phones and other electronic components.
- A/c to the scheme, companies that make mobile phones which sell for Rs 15,000 or more will get an incentive of up to 6 per cent on incremental sales of all such mobile phones made in India.
- In the same category, companies which are owned by Indian nationals and make such mobile phones, the incentive has been kept at Rs 200 crore for the next four years.
10 new sectors added
The ten sectors have been identified on the basis of their potential to create jobs and make India self-reliant, include:
- Food processing
- Telecom
- Electronics
- Textiles
- Speciality steel
- Automobiles and auto components
- Solar photo-voltaic modules and
- White goods such as air conditioners and LEDs
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