Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 19-02-2021

Useful compilation of Civil Services oriented - Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 19-02-2021

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• SECTION 1 - TEN NEWS HEADLINES

1. Defence and Military - India, Japan, US, Australia call for democracy in Myanmar - Many countries including India, Japan, Australia and the US on 18-02-2021 called for democracy to be restored quickly in Myanmar following the military coup there. The countries made the comment during their Quad Ministerial Meeting. The military took power in Myanmar on February 1 after alleging fraud in the general elections held in November 2020. The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad or Asian NATO) is an informal forum between these four, maintained via semi-regular summits, information exchanges and military drills. First established in 2008 by Japan's PM Shinzo Abe, it was re-established in 2017, and is gaining some momentum. After the LAC rapproachement with China, India's interest in investing more in maritime Quad may reduce (as per experts), while US will want it to do more. (Five Eyes - The Five Eyes (FVEY) is an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States).
2. Healthcare and Medicine - Maharashtra reports 5,427 new COVID-19 cases, highest in 70 days - Maharashtra on 18-02-2021 reported 5,427 fresh COVID-19 cases, the highest single-day spike recorded in the state in nearly 70 days. With this, the state's coronavirus caseload has reached 20,81,520, of which 40,858 are active. The death toll rose to 51,669 after 38 more people. The grim Covid-19 situation in Maharashtra hits Ministers also - health minister Rajesh Tope and water resources minister Jayant Patil - both tested positive. NCP leader Eknath Khadse and his daughter-in-law and MP Raksha Khadse too have contracted the infection. The spike in cases has forced the Maharashtra administration to tighten the existing SOPs in Mumbai, impose weekend curbs in Amravati and a 10-day lockdown in Yavatmal. Meanwhile, India has vaccinated more than 1 crore so far.
3. Social Issues - Life expectancy in US dropped by a year in 2020: CDC - The life expectancy in US dropped to 77.8 years in first half of 2020 from 78.8 years in 2019, the biggest drop since World War II, according to Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The drop came amid the first COVID-19 wave. Minorities suffered the biggest impact, with African Americans losing nearly three years (shocking) and Hispanics losing nearly two years. Declines were even greater for certain demographics. It decreased 2.7 years for Black people and 1.9 for Hispanic people between 2019 and the first half of 2020. For white people, it decreased by an average 0.8 years. Experts say that during some of the spikes in the COVID pandemic, it became apparent that people of color in America had worse outcomes when infected with the COVID-19 virus. Experts concluded that American life expectancy could falter for years to come, based on the multitude of pandemic-related factors that affect health in ways direct and indirect. (The current life expectancy for India in 2021 is 69.96 years, a 0.33% increase from 2020)
4. World Politics - Dozens held in fresh protests over rapper's jailing in Spain - Spanish Police arrested over 50 people during the second night of protests demanding the release of jailed rapper Pablo Hasél, arrested on charges of glorifying terrorism and insulting royalty. Around 55 people were injured during the protests, including 35 police officers. The Spanish monarchy is currently represented by King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia, and their daughters Leonor, Princess of Asturias, and Infanta Sofía. It has its roots in the Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo founded after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The king Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos is a 51-year-old royal, considered a relatively new king, and ascended the throne in 2014 following the abdication of his father, King Juan Carlos I, on corruption charges (and elephant-hunting in Africa, too!). The fascist dictator Francisco Franco, who ruled Spain from the end of the civil war in 1939 to his death in 1975, personally had chosen Juan Carlos as his successor as head of state in 1969. Juan Carlos won enormous respect among Spaniards for steering the country toward democracy.
5. Science and Technology - Second-largest crypto Ethereum hits record $1,918, surges 160% in 2021 - Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalisation, hit a record high of $1,918.52 in early trade on 18-02-2021. The cryptocurrency's rally came as Bitcoin surpassed the $52,000-mark for the first time. Launched in 2015, Ethereum is an open-source, blockchain-based, decentralized software platform used for its own cryptocurrency, ether, and can support smart contract functionality. It is a global, decentralized platform for money and new kinds of applications. A smart contract is a self-executing contract with the terms of the agreement between buyer and seller being directly written into lines of code. The code and the agreements contained therein exist across a distributed, decentralized blockchain network.
6. World Politics - Australian users face new blocks, on FB - Australian users have been blocked on Facebook from sharing or viewing any form of news content on the platform. The sudden move caused alarm over the public access to the key information. All the local and global news sites became unavailable as well as government health, emergency, and other pages were also blocked. However, later Facebook asserted that it was a mistake. The step by Facebook was in a response to Australia’s proposed law which aims at making tech giants pay for the news content. Companies such as Facebook and Google have argued that the law doesn’t reflect how the internet works and also unfairly penalizes the platforms. Google has taken a different route, and struck deals for revenue sharing. FB isn't doing it so far. 'Big Tech versus Sovereigns' is no longer fiction, it's playing out in full daylight.
7. Constitution and Law - Amendments to Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 - Union Cabinet of India granted its approval to the amendments of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 on February 17, 2021. The amendment seeks to strengthen the child protection set-up and ensure the best interest of children. At present, the Act contains offences under three categories: petty, serious and heinous. In January 2020, the Supreme Court had observed that offences that carried maximum of more than seven years imprisonment, but with no minimum sentence of fewer than seven years should be treated as ‘serious’ and not as ‘heinous’ offences. Prior to this amendment, if a child had committed a ‘heinous offence’, the child (if between the age of 16-18 years), could be tried as an adult and taken out of the protective umbrella of the juvenile justice system. The amendment seeks to prevent that from happening by limiting the ambit and definition of ‘heinous offences’.  Children accused of offences where the maximum sentence is more than seven years but in which no minimum sentence is prescribed will no longer be tried in adult courts, and from now on, district magistrates as well as the additional district magistrates will be allowed to issue adoption orders.
8. Governance and Institutions - PM launches ‘Mahabahu-Brahmaputra’ initiative in Assam - PM Modi virtually launched the ‘Mahabahu-Brahmaputra’ initiative in Assam on February 18, 2021. The Prime Minister also laid the foundation stone of Dhubri Phulbari bridge and performed bhumi pujan for Majuli Bridge construction. The initiative will help provide seamless connectivity to Eastern Parts of India.
9. World Economy - World's 1st Bitcoin ETF debuts in Canada - Investors exchanged $165 million worth of shares as the world's first Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, Purpose Bitcoin ETF, made its debut on 18-02-2021 in Toronto, Canada. The ETF, which directly invests in physical or digital Bitcoin, was approved by the Canadian regulator. Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, hit a fresh record high of over $52,000 on 18-02-2021. An exchange traded fund (ETF) is a basket of securities that trade on an exchange, just like a stock. ETF share prices fluctuate all day as the ETF is bought and sold; this is different from mutual funds that only trade once a day after the market closes.
10. World Politics - Re-energise the peace process: NATO chief to Afghan govt, Taliban - As the May 2021 deadline approaches for NATO to pull out troops from Afghanistan, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg urged Afghan government and the Taliban to step up the pace of peace talks. Chairing a meeting of NATO defence ministers, Stoltenberg said, "The talks are fragile, and progress is slow. So, it is now imperative to re-energise the peace process." The Taliban (Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan) are a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist political movement and military organisation in Afghanistan currently waging war within that country. Since 2016, the Taliban's leader is Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada.

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• SECTION 2 - DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

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• 1. ECONOMY (Prelims, GS Paper 3, Essay paper)

Indian I.T. is targeting $350b revenue by 2025-26

1. Huge hopes: The Indian IT industry is expecting a growth rate of 10% per year to touch a revenue of $300-350 billion by 2025-26. This means the $194 billion Indian tech industry will grow at a much faster clip than the 7.5% growth rate registered since 2016.
2. What is the secret sauce: The growth is to come primarily from digital services, currently 30% of industry revenue, but expected to rise to 50%, totalling to around $170-200 billion of revenue. These figures were discussed at the Nasscom annual Technology and Leadership Forum.
3. NASSCOM says: Today, around 20-30% of revenue comes from digital. Due to acceleration, this will only grow further given the current pandemic situation. To achieve the expected growth, there will have to be “multiple concerted actions” by the industry, including investment by the Indian services providers in building and scaling digital technologies to create differentiated and scalable offerings at a global level.
4. Skilling: It will also include accelerating investments in reskilling talent in new growth areas such as enterprise SAS ecosystem, cybersecurity, data, artificial intelligence, 5G, IoT and product engineering. IT clients are of the view that technology is leading their recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. A big trends that will shape the future of technology will be that tech intensity will increase from 3% of revenue to 5%.
5. Summary: This means digital natives or reinventors will account for 75% of enterprise tech spending in the next five years. To capture this growth, services providers will have to consider changing their focus to new opportunity sets. Technology is also accelerating fundamental shifts and business models worldwide and these new models are expected to account for about $150 billion opportunity for service providers going forward.

 

 

Facebook and Google vs Australian government

1. FB shocks Australia: On February 18th, the world’s largest social network Faebook blocked the sharing of all news articles, Australian or otherwise, as well as banned the sharing worldwide of any articles that originated in Australia. This was a first-of-its-kind blackout, in a long-running battle over who should pay for news online.
2. Australian law: Rather than pay media companies in return for linking to their stories, as a forthcoming Australian law would require, FB opted to block all such links on its platform! Just prior to this, Google, the other big tech firm targeted by the new law, made the opposite decision, signing a deal with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp to carry on linking to stories.
3. Nature of the battle: The new media barons of Silicon Valley are pitted against the old ones of television and the press. Australia’s “news media bargaining code” has been in development for three years, but the argument is older. A decade ago offline media controlled more than 80% of the advertising market in Australia. But advertisers found that digital media are better at reaching their audiences. In the past ten years offline media’s share of the market has fallen by half. The lion’s share has gone to Facebook, which dominates display ads, and Google, which has cornered the search market.
4. Blaming tech giants: Media companies claim that, by showing ads alongside links to their articles—sometimes including short summaries and photos—the tech platforms are in effect monetising content that is not theirs. The platforms retort that, on the contrary, the media firms do better out of the exchange. Facebook says that in Australia in 2020, it sent 5.1 bn clicks to Australian publishers, which it claims were worth A$407m ($317m). If publishers feel they are getting a bad deal, it asks, why don’t they simply stop publishing on Facebook?
5. Let's try this: Under the Australian government’s proposed solution, these tech platforms would be expected to negotiate payments to publishers. In the event that the two parties could not agree, an official arbiter would decide whose suggested payment was fairer (splitting the difference would not be an option). The new rules would also require tech firms to advise publishers in advance of any changes to their ranking algorithm that would affect them. That has left tech giants aghast.
6. French case: In Jan 2021, Google agreed to compensate French ones for linking to their stories. Both companies have recently launched “curated” news products — Google News Showcase and Facebook News — in which payments are made to the creators of content. But Australia’s winner-takes-all arbitration regime is a more alarming prospect than the system in France, where disputes are expected to be settled by the courts. So whereas Facebook walked away, Google blinked. Its three-year deal with News Corp will see it hand over an unspecified amount of money to include content from the publisher’s titles, including in America the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, and in Britain the Times and the Sun, in its News Showcase.
7. Botching it up: Facebook botched the blackout, accidentally banning not just news sites but links to health departments, fire services, a women’s shelter and a project for children with cancer, among others. These mistakes were quickly corrected, but it was a demonstration of the power wielded by the company. PM Scott Morrison wrote in a post on Facebook that the company’s actions to “unfriend Australia” would “only confirm the concerns that an increasing number of countries are expressing about the behaviour of BigTech companies who think they are bigger than governments and that the rules should not apply to them”.

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• 2. ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY (Prelims, GS Paper 3, Essay paper

Delhi vs Haryana on Yamuna’s ammonia levels

1. Yamuna's pain: On at least five instances in 2020, high levels of ammonia in Yamuna have prompted the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) to reduce or stop water production at its plants. Increasing pollution in the Yamuna causes frequent disruption to Delhi’s water supply. Delhi blames Haryana for this, and here is why.
2. What happens when ammonia levels increase: Ammonia is used as an industrial chemical in the production of fertilisers, plastics, dyes and other products, and also occurs naturally in the environment from the breakdown of organic waste matter, including sewage. The recommended concentration in Yamuna is 0.9 ppm keeping in line with Delhi Jal Board’s (DJB) treatment capacity. When it rises beyond this, water production at 3 out of 9 water treatment plants (Wazirabad, Chandrawal and Okhla) have to be stopped or reduced. This impacts water supply to parts of Delhi city.
3. Why blame Haryana: The Yamuna flows into Delhi from Haryana, which has industrial units in Sonipat, close to Delhi’s northern border. A specific area where both Haryana and Delhi agree on is the mixing of two drains carrying drinking water and sewage/ industrial waste/both in Sonipat district. The drain number 8 brings potable water to the capital and drain number 6 carries wastewater. The two drains often mix due to overflow or damage to the wall that separates them. Haryana’s irrigation department is expected to start a tendering process to build a conduit pipeline and prevent the mixing of two drains.
4. Delhi’s concern: Delhi blames Haryana for releasing industrial effluents in the river “despite repeated reminders.” The issue is brought into focus every time the concentration of ammonia increases in the river. The DJB officials state that the spike in pollution level has been more frequent in 2020. Also, Delhi at present receives much less than the share of water they deserve. The DJB asks the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the Upper Yamuna River Board (UYRB) to look into the issue.
5. Solution: The laying of a conduit pipeline to separate drain number 8 and 6 would reduce pollution of potable water. However, it is not clear when this would be completed. The National Green Tribunal-appointed Yamuna Monitoring Committee has also said that fast-track approvals should be given to build a conduit. Moreover, the Committee had also recommended to the Ministry of Jal Shakti to rework the 1994 water sharing pact.
6. Detail of pact: It is a pact among Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. The recommendation is based on the need to revive the Yamuna by releasing more fresh water into it. This would help maintain a certain environmental flow for the river to sustain its functions throughout the year. Meanwhile, Delhi Jal Board should increase its capacity to treat ammonia levels in the water. Ozone-based units to treat ammonia levels up to 4ppm should be installed at Chandrawal and Wazirabad water treatment plants.

 

 

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• 3. FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Prelims, GS Paper 3, Essay paper)

America in Afghanistan - Soviet experience redux 

 

1. US in Afghanistan: Experts are painting a bleak picture of what will happen to Afghanistan if the United States withdraws its remaining 2,500 troops prematurely. Experts feel that transnational terrorist groups will rebuild capabilities that were destroyed following the U.S.-led invasion and be operational again to attack U.S. soil within two to three years.
2. Doha Peace agreement: Under the strange 2020 Doha agreement, the Trump administration promised to remove all U.S. troops in return for the Taliban’s "pledge" to enter into meaningful peace talks with the Afghan government, but without any promises by the Taliban to cease violence. Pakistan played a pivotal role in the Doha deal, and the Afghan government was left out entirely from the discussions! The deal required the Taliban to ensure Afghanistan would not be used by al Qaeda or other terrorist groups to target the United States or its allies.
3. What Taliban did: The Taliban flagrantly disregarded these conditions. They have not ended ties with al Qaeda. Violent attacks are on the rise in Afghanistan, with an increase in targeted killings of government and military officials, and also journalists and civil-society activists. Almost two decades after the 9/11 attacks, the Taliban are stronger than they have ever been since their overthrow in December 2001.
4. 1990s back again: So there is a real concern that Afghanistan could revert back into the breeding ground for extremism that it was in the 1990s. Much will depend on the next steps the Biden administration takes in 2021. Withdrawing U.S. forces too soon could trigger civil war, hand the Taliban victory, and spur the reemergence of terrorist groups that could threaten the West.
5. Lessons from 1980s: The Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 offers important lessons—and warnings—for the United States. Although the present conflict with the Taliban has lacked the bitter intensity of the Soviet occupation, it has lingered far longer. And although the scale is different, understanding the experiences of the Soviet Union leaving Afghanistan, and the withdrawal’s aftermath, provides important lessons on exit strategies for the United States. U.S. and Soviet challenges and uncertainties bear a striking resemblance on several levels: the question of how quickly foreign forces can exit Afghanistan without undercutting security, the ability and capacity of Afghan forces to protect the population, and the perseverance and functional ability of the Afghan government once the foreign troops are gone.
6. Geneva accords: The Soviet withdrawal was formalized as part of the 1988 Geneva Accords between Afghanistan and Pakistan, undersigned by the United States and Soviet Union. Although Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed to respect each other’s sovereignty, Moscow had difficulty enforcing Islamabad’s cooperation—just like Washington would witness post-9/11. In 1989, Soviet leaders discussed Pakistan’s problematic role: “Pakistani border troops are actively participating in military operations on Afghan territory,” a Politburo official had said. Soviet leaders understood that the years following their withdrawal would determine Afghanistan’s future and define the legacy of their intervention.
7. The rise of Taliban: Between 1989 and 1991, Moscow supplied the Afghans with significant financial backing earmarked for capacity-building efforts along with a vast array of weaponry, some of which were used in the struggle against the mujahedeen, an Afghan-Arab amalgamation of Islamist fighters supported by the United States, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia with the goal of driving the Soviets out of Afghanistan. It was from within these groups that the Taliban later emerged.
8. Loya Jirga: Much like post-9/11 Afghanistan under former President Hamid Karzai, then-President Mohammad Najibullah also reinstated the Loya Jirga, a traditional council of Afghan political leaders, tribal elders, and religious figures. Its decisions — based on consensus — are seen as final and binding. The decaying Soviet Union provided financial and military support to Najibullah’s government for three years. It was only after the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991 that support from Moscow dwindled and Najibullah’s government fell apart. In 1992, the mujahedeen captured Kabul. This was seen as a victory for the United States, since the Soviet-supported Najibullah was seen to have been on the wrong side of the Cold War.
9. Dark phase: Competing interests among Afghanistan’s ethnic groups—mainly the Pashtuns, Tajiks, and Uzbeks—soon grew, and they began to carve up Afghan territory among themselves while simultaneously trying to take power from one another. Major cities, including Kabul, were reduced to rubble. The Taliban strategy in seeking to kill Afghan politicians and anyone who questions their agenda has continued unabated. A Pashtun cleric, Mullah Mohammad Omar, emerged as the leader of the Taliban, militants trained in Pakistani madrasas that preached violent jihad. In 1996, they publicly castrated and hung Najibullah in Kabul. By 2001, they controlled around 90 percent of the country. Their brutal five-year regime represents one of the darkest times in Afghanistan’s history.
10. Summary: History is almost about to repeat itself in Afghanistan, if the US withdraws urgently.

 

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• 4. GOVERNMENT SCHEMES (Prelims, GS Paper 2, Essay paper)

Government should force Tech giants to share revenues

• Australian case: There is an ongoing tussle between the government and tech giants Google and Facebook in Australia. The issue is sharing of revenue with news media. Both Google and Facebook have adopted different strategies. Google is trying to sidestep a direct confrontation by striking deals with the bigger media companies (by enrolling them in the Google News Showcase and paying them for that participation), but Facebook has decided to not let members share news in Australia and bar Australian news elsewhere in the world.
• Aggression: Implicit in this aggressive FB bargaining position is the understanding that Australia is too small a market for the tech giants for its potential loss to force these companies to change their conduct. This is the right time for India to join the battle and bring in a law mandating tech giants that harvest advertising revenue by displaying news stories to share revenue with those who create the content they display.
• Indian market: India is a huge market, and an enormous market in the making. No company would willingly forsake a share of this growing pie. Australia accounts for only $4 billion of Google’s annual $181 billion revenue. But India promises much more, whatever its current yield.
• Why do it: Google will be persuaded to strike the kind of deal it has struck with French publishers and now with Australian ones with Indian news media as well. With the equalisation levy, the Indian government does collect some tax from the likes of Google. But by mandating the tech giants to share revenue with the content creators, the government would gain additional tax revenue as well, as Indian companies make additional profits and pay additional taxes. A financially healthy news media is essential for democracy to function. Discouraging practices that erode news media’s revenues is an essential task of good governance.

 

National Creche Scheme

• What it is: National Creche Scheme (earlier named as Rajiv Gandhi National Creche Scheme) is being implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme through States/UTs with effect from 1.1.2017 to provide day care facilities to children (age group of 6 months to 6 years) of working mothers. The Ministry of WCD implements the NCS for the children of working mothers.
• Salient features:

1. Daycare Facilities including Sleeping Facilities
2. Early Stimulation for children below 3 years and pre-school Education for 3 to 6 years old children
3. Supplementary Nutrition ( to be locally sourced)
4. Growth Monitoring
5. Health Check-up and Immunization
6. Crèches open for 26 days in a month and for seven and half (7-1/2) hours per day
7. Number of children in the crèche not more than 25 per crèche
8. User charges levied to bring in an element of community ownership

• Eligibility criteria: The State Government, Voluntary Institutions, Mahila Mandals with the know report of service in the field of child welfare department and registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 or registered as a Public Trust at least for the period for last 2 years are eligible for applying for the financial assistance from the fund.
• Benefits: It helps women to manage both their career as well as their family responsibility, and promotes gender diversity at workplaces. Creche facilities help promote gender equality and democracy by increasing participation of women in the economy.

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• 5. POLITY AND CONSTITUTION (Prelims, GS Paper 2, GS Paper 3)

Disability in students and support facility - Supreme Court 

• Judiciary steps in: The Supreme Court (SC) directed the Central government to frame proper guidelines to regulate and facilitate grant of a facility of a scribe to persons with disability in writing exams. The SC observed that persons suffering from disabilities are also socially backward and entitled to the same benefits of relaxation as Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe candidates in public employment and education.
• A scribe: Scribe is a person who writes or word processes a student's dictated answers in exams.

• Details:

• The story - An appeal was filed by a candidate with Writer’s cramp, a chronic neurological condition which causes extreme difficulty in writing. He was denied a scribe for the Civil Services Exam by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in 2018, on the ground that he did not come within the definition of person with benchmark disability.
• Court’s ruling - (A) Facility of a Scribe - Facility of a scribe can be provided to persons with disabilities other than those having benchmark disabilities as given under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPwD) 2016; (B) Benchmark disability refers to having at least 40% disability of any type recognized under the RPwD Act 2016; (C) Directions to Government - Issued a broader direction to the Union Government in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE) to ensure the framing of proper guidelines which would regulate and facilitate the grant of a facility of a scribe to persons with disability within the meaning of Section 2(s) of RPwD Act where the nature of the disability operates to impose a barrier to the candidate writing an examination. Asked the ministry that while formulating procedures, it may lay down appropriate norms to ensure that the condition of the candidate is duly certified by such competent medical authority as may be prescribed so as to ensure that only genuine candidates in need of the facility are able to avail of it.
• Legal details: Section 2 (s) defines ‘person with disability’. It means a person with long term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairment which, in interaction with barriers, hinders his full and effective participation in society equally with others. The principle of reasonable accommodation in the Act captures the positive obligation of the State and private parties to provide additional support to persons with disabilities to facilitate their full and effective participation in society. The 2016 Act has a more inclusive definition of “persons with disability” evidencing a shift from a stigmatising medical model of disability to a social model of disability which recognises that it is the societal and physical constraint that are at the heart of exclusion of persons with disabilities from full and effective participation in society.
• Writer’s Cramp: This is a specific type of focal dystonia that affects one's fingers, hand, or forearm. Focal dystonia of the hands is a neurological movement disorder. The brain sends incorrect information to the muscles, causing involuntary, excessive muscle contractions. These signals can make one’s hands twist into odd postures. Writer’s cramp is known as a task-specific dystonia. It happens almost only when one performs a particular activity like writing or typing.
• Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016: Disability has been defined based on an evolving and dynamic concept. Benchmark disability refers to having at least 40% disability of any type recognized under the Act.

1. Types - The types of disabilities have been increased from 7 to 21. The Act added mental illness, autism, spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, chronic neurological conditions, speech and language disability, thalassemia, hemophilia, sickle cell disease, multiple disabilities including deaf blindness, acid attack victims and Parkinson’s disease which were largely ignored in earlier Act. In addition, the Government was authorized to notify any other category of specified disability.
2. Reservation - It increased the quantum of reservation for people suffering from disabilities from 3% to 4% in government jobs and from 3% to 5% in higher education institutes.
3. Education - Every child with benchmark disability between the age group of 6 and 18 years shall have the right to free education. Government funded educational institutions as well as the government recognized institutions will have to provide inclusive education.
4. Accessibility - Stress has been given to ensure accessibility in public buildings in a prescribed time frame along with the Accessible India Campaign.
5. Regulatory Body - The Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities and the State Commissioners will act as regulatory bodies and Grievance Redressal agencies, monitoring implementation of the Act.
6. Special Fund - A separate National and State Fund be created to provide financial support to the persons with disabilities.

 

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• 6. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (Prelims, Various GS Papers)

Covid's Amravati variant?

1. Amravati variant: The virus strain spreading in Amravati and Akola of Maharashtra state is “more transmissible” and seems to trigger pneumonia early in Covid patients, as per an adviser to the state. It appears pneumonia is setting in early, thereby increasing the possibility of more deaths if cases rise rapidly. At one Amravati centre, 350 out of 700 people tested positive.
2. Risk to India: Experts said the spread could be from Nagpur till Aurangabad. There is a window of 15 days to contain this outbreak before it spreads to the rest of the state and country. Experts termed the ongoing viral activity in Amravati and Akola districts “extremely unusual” and the rise in cases “exponential”. The only upside till now, he said, is the spread appears to be in “isolated small pockets”.
3. Genomic sequencing: State government officials said genomic sequencing of four patients from Amravati showed “unique mutations”, including E484Q, which is similar to a mutation (E484K) found in South African and Brazilian variants. Four samples from Yavatmal, too, showed unique mutations, including the N440K that first emerged in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. But there are over 240 mutations found so far in India, and there is no need to panic about this. Contact tracing and other public health measures have to be taken to check the spread of cases.
4. ICMR: The ICMR is closely watching the developments in Maharashtra. Reports of lavish marriage parties and gatherings are discouraging. The government needs to dissuade people from attending mass gatherings even while encouraging people to observe preventive measures.
5. Mutations: Experts confirmed they found E484Q mutation (earlier named E484K) in the SARS-CoV-2 strain isolated from the nasal or throat swab samples of four randomly selected Covid patients in Amravati. These should not be confused with mutations seen in the UK strain or the South African strain. The mutation located in the spike protein region helps the strain escape existing neutralizing antibody. This means the existing virus-specific antibodies seen in recovered patients cannot neutralize the strain with E484K mutation. The mutation, experts say, is not unique and has been seen in various other countries.
6. Travel history: There were some travellers in Amravati with history of South Africa visits. In Yavatmal, infected patients number has surged. Experts have found N440K mutation in four Covid patients randomly selected from Yavatmal, but the significance of this mutation in terms of its antibody-escaping capacity is currently being studied. The strain found with E484Q mutation and N440K belongs to the Clade A2 lineage of SARS-CoV-2, which are prevalent in India and Brazil.

 

NASA’s Perseverance lands on Mars

1. NASA Perseverance on Mars: NASA's science rover Perseverance, the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever sent to another world, streaked through the Martian atmosphere on 18-02-2021 and landed safely on the floor of the Jezero Crater.   
2. Robotic vehicle: The six-wheeled rover had survived its perilous descent and arrived within its target zone inside Jezero Crater, site of a long-vanished Martian lake bed. The robotic vehicle sailed through space for nearly seven months, covering 293 million miles (472 million km) before piercing the Martian atmosphere at 12,000 miles per hour (19,000 km per hour) to begin its approach to touchdown on the planet’s surface.
3. 7 min of terror: The spacecraft’s self-guided descent and landing during a complex series of maneuvers that NASA dubbed “the seven minutes of terror” stands as the most elaborate and challenging feat in the annals of robotic spaceflight. NASA says it's the beginning of a new era. The landing represented the riskiest part of two-year, $2.7 billion endeavor whose primary aim is to search for possible fossilized signs of microbes that may have flourished on Mars some 3 billion years ago, when the fourth planet from the sun was warmer, wetter and potentially hospitable to life.
4. Life on Mars: Scientists hope to find biosignatures embedded in samples of ancient sediments that Perseverance is designed to extract from Martian rock for future analysis back on Earth – the first such specimens ever collected by humankind from another planet. Two subsequent Mars missions are planned to retrieve the samples and return them to NASA in the next decade. NASA describes Perseverance as the most ambitious of nearly 20 U.S. missions to Mars dating back to the Mariner spacecraft’s 1965 fly-by.
5. Chopper on Mars: An experimental prototype carried by Perseverance is a miniature helicopter designed to test the first powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet. If successful, the 4-pound (1.8-kg) helicopter could lead to low-altitude aerial surveillance of distant worlds, officials said.
6. History: Perseverance’s immediate predecessor, the rover Curiosity, landed in 2012 and remains in operation, as does the stationary lander InSight, which arrived in 2018 to study the deep interior of Mars. In Feb 2021, separate probes launched by the United Arab Emirates and China reached Martian orbit. NASA has three Mars satellites still in orbit, along with two from the European Space Agency.

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• 7. SOCIAL ISSUES (Prelims, GS Paper 2)

MGNREGS praised by Standing Committee on Labour 

• Praises: The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour in its report “Social Security and Welfare Measures for Inter-State Migrant Workers” praised the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) for providing sustainable livelihood to the unskilled workers including the inter-state migrant labourers.

• Key points:

• Standing Committees Observation: The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 provides for a specific and significant welfare provision, constitutive of the very idea of citizenship. There is no “better scheme” to provide “sustainable livelihood” to unskilled workers. Over 7 crore households (10.43 crore individuals) have already availed of the scheme and 330 crore person days have been created till February 2021 during the current financial year. This is the highest for any year since inception of the scheme in 2006.
• Migrant Workers: 1.08 crore migrant workers returned to their home states during the pandemic (this is a govt. estimate, but experts say it's under-stated). The absence of reliable and authentic data/information on the numbers of migrant workforce and their movement back to their home States following the outbreak of the Pandemic has apparently impacted the relief and rehabilitation measures. There were a number of initiatives launched by the Government (eg: Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana), aimed at benefiting the Migrant Labour. But no guidelines were issued nor enforced for distribution of relief material to stranded Migrant Labourers. No element of Social Audit prescribed.

• Standing Committee's suggestions:

1. Instant and immediate relief: The Covid-19 Pandemic and the resultant challenges and lacunae observed in the system must be addressed so as to strengthen the preparedness to effectively deal with any such emergent situations.
2. Credible database: Credible databases of unorganized workers especially that of migrant labourers be put in place to ensure seamless delivery of relief packages to them at the time of distress. Earlier in december 2020, the Government has decided to create a database of migrant workers, including workers in the informal economy.

• MGNREGS: It is one of the largest work guarantee programmes in the world, launched on 2nd February 2006. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was passed on 23rd August 2005. The primary objective of the scheme is to guarantee 100 days of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household willing to do public work-related unskilled manual work.
• Legal Right to Work: Unlike earlier employment guarantee schemes, the act aims at addressing the causes of chronic poverty through a rights-based framework. At least one-third of beneficiaries have to be women. Wages must be paid according to the statutory minimum wages specified for agricultural labourers in the state under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948.
• Demand-Driven scheme: The most important part of MGNREGA’s design is its legally-backed guarantee for any rural adult to get work within 15 days of demanding it, failing which an ‘unemployment allowance’ must be given. This demand-driven scheme enables the self-selection of workers.
• Decentralised planning: There is an emphasis on strengthening the process of decentralisation by giving a significant role in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in planning and implementing these works. The act mandates Gram sabhas to recommend the works that are to be undertaken and at least 50% of the works must be executed by them.
• Summary: The pandemic has demonstrated the importance of decentralised governance. Gram panchayats need to be provided with adequate resources, powers, and responsibilities to sanction works, provide work on demand, and authorise wage payments to ensure there are no delays in payments. Social Auditing creates accountability of performance, especially towards immediate stakeholders. Hence, there is a need to to create awareness regarding government policies and measures in rural areas.

 

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• 8. MISCELLANEOUS (Prelims, GS Paper 1, GS Paper 2)

Manika Batra wins national table tennis title

1. Congratulations: Manika Batra won the 82nd Senior National Table Tennis Championship. She beaten Reeth Rishya by 8-11, 10-12, 11-1, 11-9, 11-5, 11-6 at the Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex in Panchkula.
2. Highlights: Batra will now compete at two WTT Contender events which will start on February 28, 2021. This was to be followed by the World Olympic qualifiers and Asian Olympic qualifiers in Doha which is scheduled for March 14 and 18 respectively.
3. Manika Batra: She is an Indian table tennis player, and is the top-ranked female table tennis player as of November 2020. She ranked 63rd in world. She specialises in playing the long-pimples on her backhand, not often played by top players. In 2020, she received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award.
4. Achievements: Won silver medal in the under-21 category of the Chile Open in 2011. Represented India in 2014 Commonwealth Games at Glasgow. She finished to the quarterfinalist. Took part in 2014 Asian Games. Won three medals at Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships.

 

India-Singapore CEO Forum - Highlights

1. What it is: The India – Singapore CEO Forum was launched in November 2018. Its 2021 meeting was organized by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and FICCI on February 18.
2. Key points: The Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal stated that both countries can work together in the arena of e-commerce, smart manufacturing, fintech and healthcare. It will help transform India’s own effort to give best to the people. Members of India-Singapore CEO Forum agreed to work for resolving the regulatory issues and processes that is affecting the bilateral trade and investment relations of the countries.
3. Three Bs and Three Ds: India is looking to expand its ties with Singapore on the basis of three Bs namely, Buddhism, Bollywood and Business. The Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations of Singapore, S Iswaran, also emphasized for the greater engagement between businesses from both the countries. He emphasized 3 Ds namely, Development, Diversification and Digital Economy. These would help in building a partnership which in turn will benefit both the countries.
4. India-Singapore relations: Both work together in the fields of cyber security, disaster relief, education and skill development. India had recognized Singapore as an important member of the ASEAN grouping.  Singapore is the largest trade partner of India among ASEAN.

Piramal group to takeover collapsed DHFL

1. RBI approval: The Reserve Bank of India has approved the takeover of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL) by Piramal Group on February 18, 2021.
2. Key points: The decision was taken by RBI after a month a Committee of Creditors of DHFL voted in favor of Piramal’s bid. The bid got the 94 per cent votes, and the resolution plan of the company has been approved by the RBI. The Piramal Group will require to take permission of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to take over the DHFL. The other contender for the debt-ridden NBFC was US-based Oaktree Capital. Piramal Group has offered Rupees 37,250 crore while the Oaktree has offered Rupees 38,400 crore offered by Oaktree. But Piramal group had offered high upfront cash payment.
3. Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd. (DHFL): It is a deposit-taking housing finance company, headquartered in Mumbai. It was established to enable access to economical housing finance for the lower- and middle-income groups in the semi-urban and rural India. The company is the second housing finance company of India.
4. Why collapsed: DHFL stopped payment of interest on bonds in 2019 and it defaulted on its loan obligations. The company's stock fell sharply, and government had to intervene. A resolution plan was made to restructure the debt into equity in the company. In 2019 itself, Enforcement Directorate raided the firm and found links of money laundering activity with respect to the loans given to closely linked firms. In accordance with the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, central bank removed the board of directors DHFL alleging inadequate governance in the company. It's a bankrupt firm now.

 

Oldest DNA recovered from teeth of Siberian mammoths

1. A great find: Scientists have recovered the oldest DNA on record from the teeth of Siberian Mammoths. The DNA was extracted from the molars of mammoths, found in the north-eastern Siberia some 1.2 million years ago. Mammoths were among the large mammals who dominated Ice Age landscapes.
2. Key points: The remains of the mammoths were discovered in the early 1970s. Over time, newere scientific methods to extract the DNA were invented. The oldest of the three mammoths was discovered near Krestovka river, and it was 1.2 million years old. Another was discovered near the Adycha river and was 1 to 1.2 million years old, and the third mammoth was recovered from Chukochya river, around 7,00,000 years old.
3. Mammoths: This was the species of extinct Elephantidae of genus Mammuthus. It was equipped with long, curved tusks and a covering of long hair. Found from the Pliocene epoch to the Holocene some 4,000 years ago, the species existed in Europe, Africa, Asia and North America. It belonged to the family Elephantidae, that comprises two genera of modern elephants and their ancestors. These are terrestrial large mammals with a snout modified into a trunk and teeth modified into tusks. Most genera and species in the family are extinct. Only two genera, Loxodonta and Elephas, are living.
4. DNA: It stands for Deoxyribonucleic acid, composed of two polynucleotide chains. These coil around each other and form the double helix, which carries the genetic instructions for the growth, development, functioning, and reproduction of organisms and viruses. It is a self-replicating material carrying the genetic information of the living organisms.

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• SECTION 3 - MCQs (Multiple Choice Questions)

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