Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 18-03-2021

Useful compilation of Civil Services oriented - Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 18-03-2021

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• SECTION 1 - TEN NEWS HEADLINES

1. Foreign Affairs - China to allow travellers post vaccination - China has made it mandatory for people coming from India and 19 other countries to get themselves inoculated with Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines if they wish to travel to China. State-run Global Times reported that the countries include Pakistan, Australia, South Korea and Nigeria among others. Notably, Chinese-made vaccines are not available in India! An AFP report included the US in the list as well. It reported that the Chinese embassy in the US said it would begin to process “visa applicants inoculated with Chinese Covid-19 vaccines”. Chinese Foreign Ministry, when asked about the rationale of the regulation, told that many countries have floated the idea of linking vaccination status with opening up international travels. “Our proposal to facilitate the travel of those who have been inoculated with Chinese vaccines is made after thoroughly considering the safety and efficacy of Chinese vaccines.” Asked would it not be better if China recognised the vaccines endorsed by WHO, which is yet to approve the Chinese vaccines, it said: “China’s proposal is a meaningful step. We are trying to facilitate international travel.” The WHO has already approved Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is being produced by the Serum Institute in Pune in the name of Covishield.
2. Indian Politics - All India Covid Update - On 17-03-2021, India reported the highest daily COVID-19 cases in 2021 at 28,903. It reported 188 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the COVID-19 death toll to 1,59,044. The total COVID-19 cases in the country stand at 1,14,38,734, while the active cases stand at 2,34,406. Maharashtra’s surge is close to the peak of 24,886 that the state recorded in September 2020. The next highest caseload reported by a state on Wednesday — Punjab at 2,039 cases — is lower than that of Maharashtra cities such as Nagpur, Pune and Mumbai. Punjab is the only major state where the death rate in the second round of infections is higher than in the first. As many as 70 districts have reported a 150 per cent increase in the number of cases over the past few weeks, as per the PM. Amid the spike, PM urged states to take “quick and decisive steps” to stop the emerging “second peak” of the Covid-19 pandemic. For the first time since vaccination was opened up for the general public at the beginning of the month, the Prime Minister flagged multiple concerns emerging from the inoculation drive.
3. Defence and Military - Two artillery systems de-commissioned by the Indian Army - The Indian Army has decommissioned two of its longest-serving artillery systems- the 160 mm Tampella Mortars at Mahajan Field Firing Ranges and the 130 mm Self Propelled M-46 Catapult Guns. The two artilleries have been serving the Indian army for almost 60 years. Customary firing marked the decommissioning ceremony. While the Catapult guns had been in the Army’s inventory for nearly 40 years, the Tampella mortars were inducted after the 1962 India-China war. The 130mm Catapult was a merger of two existing weapon systems — Vijayanta tanks and 130mm M-46 guns. The platform, with a range of more than 27km, filled the need for a mobile artillery gun system to support strike formations on the western borders, after the 1965 and 1971 wars. The 160mm Tampella mortars, with a range of 9.6km, were inducted for the mountainous northern borders. They were imported from the Israeli Defence Forces. The mortars were deployed on the Line of Control (LoC) in the Leepa valley and the Hajipir Bowl, and played a crucial role in the 1999 Kargil conflict. After the 1965 and 1971 wars between India and Pakistan, the Army was in search of mobile artillery gun systems, primarily for the strike formations on the western borders. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) then merged the Vijayanta tanks platform and the 130mm M-46 guns into these indigenous self-propelled gun systems.
4. Constitution and Law - Medical Termination of Pregnancy Bill, 2021 passed by Parliament - The Parliament has passed the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Bill, 2021. The Lok Sabha had already passed the bill on March 17, 2020, while Rajya Sabha gave its approval on March 16, 2021. The Act will ensure the safety and well-being of pregnant women and the proposed increase in gestation limit will provide dignity to women who need to terminate their pregnancy. Currently, abortion requires the opinion of one doctor if it is done within 12 weeks of conception and two doctors if it is done between 12 and 20 weeks.  The Bill allows abortion to be done on the advice of one doctor up to 20 weeks, and two doctors in the case of certain categories of women between 20 and 24 weeks. There are differing opinions with regard to allowing abortions.  One opinion is that terminating a pregnancy is the choice of the pregnant woman, and a part of her reproductive rights.  The other is that the state has an obligation to protect life, and hence should provide for the protection of the foetus.  Across the world, countries set varying conditions and time limits for allowing abortions, based on foetal health, and risk to the pregnant woman.
5. Environment and Ecology - Delhi most polluted capital - Although it is a pandemic year, 2020 is particularly severe for agricultural burning. Farm fires in Punjab have increased by 46.5% from 2019. According to a report by IQ Air, Delhi remains the most polluted capital city in the world. IQ Air is a Swiss air quality technology company which specializes in preventing pollutants in the air and developing air quality monitoring & air cleaning products. In the 2020 report, 106 countries were evaluated. The pollution level is a weighted average, which means that the population of a country affects the reported pollution value. Of the 106 countries monitored, only 24 countries comply with the World Health Organization’s annual PM 2.5 guidelines Bangladesh and Pakistan are countries with lower average PM2.5 levels than India in 2020. When ranked by cities, Hotan is the most polluted city in China, followed by Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh. Delhi’s PM2.5 concentration level in 2020 is 15% higher than the level in 2019, when the city was named the most polluted capital in the world for the second year in a row (based on data from the Central Pollution Control Board). The average pollution level in 2020 is 51.9μg/m³, compared to 58.1μg/m³ in 2019, making India the most polluted country in 2020, and 2019 ranked fifth. Out of 15 most polluted cities in the globe, 13 are in India.
6. Defence and Military - India arms imports down - According to a report by the Swedish think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), India’s arms imports fell by 33% between 2011-15 and 2016-20. Despite the decline in imports, India is still the second largest importer of weapons after Saudi Arabia. The decline in weapons imports between 2011-15 and 2016-20 appears to be mainly due to its complicated and lengthy procurement process and its attempts to reduce dependence on Russian weapons by diversifying its network of weapons suppliers. During these two periods, Russia was the largest supplier of weapons. Between these two periods, Russia’s deliveries fell by 53%, and its share of India’s arms imports fell from 70% to 49%. The United States was India’s second largest supplier of weapons in the 2011-15, but in the 2016-20, India’s imports of weapons from the United States decreased by 46% compared to the previous five years, making the US India’s fourth largest weapon supply country in 2016–20. France and Israel are the second and third largest arms suppliers in 2016-20. India’s plans over the next 5 years: As India is aware of the growing threat from Pakistan and China, and its ambitious plan to produce its own main weapons has been greatly delayed, it is planning a large-scale arms import program. Based on the excellent delivery of its fighter jets, air defense systems, ships and submarines, India’s weapons imports are expected to increase in the next 5 years.  
7. Social Issues - Amend the NCC Act: Kerala High Court - The Kerala High Court ordered the Central government to amend the National Cadet Corps Act (NCC Act) 1948 which excludes transgender persons from joining the National Cadet Corps (NCC). A writ petition was filed in 2020 by a student opposing her exclusion from the NCC unit at the college on the basis of her gender (Transgender). The petition challenged Section 6 of the NCC Act, 1948 which only allows either ‘male’ or ‘female’ cadets. Central government argued that transgender persons cannot be allowed into the NCC as there is no provision for the same. The court took exception to the position and stressed that it goes contrary to Kerala’s Transgender Policy and other applicable statutes. The provisions of the NCC Act, 1948 cannot preclude the operation of the Transgender Rights Act, 2019. The Transgender Rights Act Act was intended to give effect to the rights of transgenders under Article 14, 15, 19, and 21 of the Constitution. Observed that a transgender person is entitled to enroll in the NCC in accordance with her self-perceived gender equality. Ordered the central government to amend Section 6 of the NCC Act 1948 within six months so that the law offers equal opportunities for everyone.
8. Science and Technology - Removal of Heavy Metals from water - A research team at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi has developed a new method for efficient removal of heavy metals from water. Several methods like chemical precipitation, ion exchange, adsorption, membrane filtration, reverse osmosis, solvent extraction, and electrochemical treatment have been used to remove heavy metals from contaminated water. Many methods suffer from high capital and operational costs. Therefore, adsorption is one of the best-suited methods, due to its high efficiency, low-cost, and ease of operation. A research team has developed a fibrous membrane filter using a biopolymer-based material that helps to separate out the heavy metals from water samples. These membranes contain adsorbents materials that attract and hold the metals. These adsorbents contain a large amount of a biopolymer, Chitosan, derived from crab shells that is mixed with a well-known polymer, Nylon. Funding of Research:The study was funded by the Ministry of Mines, Government of India. The researchers have used a process called “solution blowing”, while regular fibre-based adsorbents are produced through a method called “melt blowing”. It is a special technique for manufacturing material with very fine fibers, down to 0.5 μm (in range of micrometers). The fibers are elongated by blowing hot air at high speed concentrically along the fibers. It starts from dissolving the polymer in solvent, e.g. cellulose in ionic liquid. The solution is pumped through a spin nozzle where air is blown at high speed concentrically. Solution blowing produces fibres that are nanometres in diameter, a hundred thousand times thinner than a single human hair. Finer than those produced through the process of Melt Blowing. This increases the surface area of fibers tremendously, resulting in better adsorption of heavy metals. This method also enables blending of higher concentration of natural polymers like chitosan and lignin with synthetic polymers like Nylon.
9. Science and Technology - Moving Black Hole - Scientists have discovered the first moving supermassive black hole whose mass is about three million times that of our Sun. The black hole was travelling within its own galaxy (J0437+2456) which is around 228 million light years away from Earth. Scientists studied 10 faraway galaxies with supermassive black holes in the centre, expecting them to have the same velocity as that of the galaxies they reside in. Focus of their study was the water in the accretion disk (the spiralling mass around a supermassive black hole made of matter that is eventually ingested by the black hole). As the water circles around the black hole before falling into it like liquid in a sink, it produces a laser-like beam of radio light known as a maser. These masers can tell the velocity of black holes very accurately. Of the 10 black holes they studied, only the one at the center of J0437+2456 was unusual. It was not moving at the same velocity as its home galaxy. Besides the empirical evidence, the enormous size of these black holes had led people to imagine them to be stationary objects planted in the middle of galaxies as opposed to objects floating around in space. It is moving with a speed of about 1,10,000 miles per hour inside its galaxy. Possible Causes for the Motion: Two Supermassive Black Holes Merging: Scientists might have spotted the resulting black hole moving in a rearward motion after the merger before settling down in a position.One in a Binary System of Black Holes, where not one but two supermassive black holes might exist within the host galaxy held together by a shared centre of gravity, which they might be orbiting. The twin of the newly-discovered wandering black hole might not be emitting masers, keeping it from being detected by the radio antenna network.
10. Infrastructure - All toll booths to be removed in 1 year - Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on 18-03-2021 said that all physical toll booths in the country will be removed within a year and toll collection will happen via GPS. "The money will be collected based on GPS imaging (on vehicles)," Gadkari said in the Lok Sabha. He added that 93% of the vehicles pay toll using FASTag. FASTag is an electronic toll collection system in India, operated by the National Highway Authority of India. It employs Radio Frequency Identification technology for making toll payments directly from the prepaid or savings account linked to it or directly toll owner. Gadkari was in the eye of a storm recently, due to allegations of bribery by Swedish automaker Scania.

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• SECTION 2 - DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

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

Understanding the Inflation Data for February 2021

• From OEA's office: The Office of the Economic Adviser, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade has released the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for the month of February, 2021. While CPI figures are released by the MoSPI, WPI is handled by the OEA.

• Pointers:

1. Wholesale Price-Inflation - It increased for the second consecutive month to 4.17%. This is the highest since November 2018, when wholesale inflation was at 4.47%. The WPI inflation was 2.03% in January 2021 and 2.26% in February 2020.
2. Reason - Increase in inflation in food articles, fuel & power has led to this surge. Food Inflation: The food articles in February saw 1.36% inflation which in January stood at (-) 2.80%. Retail inflation: Based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), it was at 5.03% in February.

• Wholesale Price Index (WPI): It measures the changes in the prices of goods sold and traded in bulk by wholesale businesses to other businesses. Published by the Office of Economic Adviser, Ministry of Commerce and Industry. It is the most widely used inflation indicator in India. Major criticism of this index is that the general public does not buy products at wholesale price. The base year of All-India WPI has been revised from 2004-05 to 2011-12 in 2017.

• Consumer Price Index: It measures price changes from the perspective of a retail buyer. It is released by the National Statistical Office (NSO). The CPI calculates the difference in the price of commodities and services such as food, medical care, education, electronics etc, which Indian consumers buy for use. The CPI has several sub-groups including food and beverages, fuel and light, housing and clothing, bedding and footwear.

• Four types of CPI: These are - (i) CPI for Industrial Workers (IW), (ii) CPI for Agricultural Labourer (AL), (iii) CPI for Rural Labourer (RL), and (iv) CPI (Rural/Urban/Combined). Of these, the first three are compiled by the Labour Bureau in the Ministry of Labour and Employment. Fourth is compiled by the NSO in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Base Year for CPI is 2012.
• RBI's MPC: The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) uses CPI data to control inflation. In April 2014, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had adopted the CPI as its key measure of inflation.
• CPI vs. WPI: The WPI tracks inflation at the producer level and CPI captures changes in prices levels at the consumer level. WPI does not capture changes in the prices of services, which CPI does.
• Inflation: It refers to the rise in the prices of most goods and services of daily or common use, such as food, clothing, housing, recreation, transport, consumer staples, etc. Inflation measures the average price change in a basket of commodities and services over time, and is indicative of the decrease in the purchasing power of a unit of a country’s currency. This could ultimately lead to a deceleration in economic growth. But a moderate level of inflation is required in the economy to ensure that production is promoted. In India, inflation is primarily measured by two main indices - WPI & CPI - which measure wholesale and retail-level price changes, respectively.

• Knowledge centre:

1. Deflation - Deflation refers to a general decline in prices for goods and services, associated with a contraction in the supply of money and credit in the economy. During deflation, the purchasing power of currency rises over time. Whether the economy, price level, and money supply are deflating or inflating changes the appeal of different investment options. Deflation causes the nominal costs of capital, labour, goods, and services to fall, though their relative prices may be unchanged. Deflation consumers because they can purchase more goods and services with the same nominal income over time. But it may be a danger if persistent. Japan has faced it since late 1980s.
2. Reflation - Reflation is a fiscal (or monetary policy) aimed at expanding output, stimulating spending, and curbing the effects of deflation, after a period of economic uncertainty or a recession. The term may also be used to describe the first phase of economic recovery after a period of contraction. Policies include tax cuts, infrastructure spending, increasing the money supply, and lowering interest rates. {Reducing taxes: Paying lower taxes makes corporations and employees wealthier. It is hoped that extra earnings will be spent in the economy, lifting demand and prices for goods;

• Lowering interest rates: Makes it cheaper to borrow money and less rewarding to stow capital away in savings accounts, encouraging people and businesses to spend more freely; Changing the money supply: When central banks boost the amount of currency and other liquid instruments in the banking system the cost of money falls, generating more investment and putting more money in the hands of consumers; Capital Projects: Large investment projects create jobs, boosting employment figures and the number of people with spending power}

 

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

Gangetic River Dolphin

• Sensational incident: It emerded on social media that a Gangetic Dolphin was beaten to death in Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh. Killing the Gangetic River Dolphin is a punishable offence under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. It enraged many, and brought the issue to limelight.

• Points to note: (a) The scientific name is Platanista gangetica. The Ganges River Dolphin was officially discovered in 1801. It lives in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna and Karnaphuli-Sangu river systems of Nepal, India, and Bangladesh. It can only live in freshwater and is essentially blind. It hunts by emitting ultrasonic sounds, which bounces off of fish and other prey, enabling them to “see” an image in their mind. It is also called ‘susu’. Population of Gangetic river Dolphin is 1200-1800. (b) It is a reliable indicator of the health of the entire river ecosystem. It was recognised as the National Aquatic Animal in 2009, by the Government of India. (c) It is facing many threats. (i) Bycatch: These dolphins and people both favour areas of the river where fish are plentiful and the water current is slower. This has led to fewer fish for people and more dolphins dying as a result of accidentally being caught in fishing nets, also known as bycatch. (ii) Pollution: Industrial, agricultural, and human pollution is another serious cause of habitat degradation. (iii) Dams: Construction of dams and other irrigation-related projects make them susceptible to inbreeding and more vulnerable to other threats because they cannot move to new areas. Dolphins below a dam are threatened by heavy pollution, increased fishing activities and vessel traffic. They also have less food because dams disturb the migration, breeding cycles and habitat of fish and other prey.

• Conservation Status:

1. Indian Wildlife (Protection), Act 1972: Schedule I.
2. International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN): Endangered.
3. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES): Appendix I (most endangered).
4. Convention on Migratory Species (CMS): Appendix II (migratory species that need conservation and management or would significantly benefit from international co-operation).

• Steps taken:

1. Project Dolphin: The Prime Minister announced the government’s plan to launch a Project Dolphin in his Independence Day Speech 2020. It will be on the lines of Project Tiger, which has helped increase the tiger population.
2. Dolphin Sanctuary: Vikramshila Ganges Dolphin Sanctuary has been established in Bihar.
3. Conservation Plan: The Conservation Action Plan for the Ganges River Dolphin 2010-2020, which “identified threats to Gangetic Dolphins and impact of river traffic, irrigation canals and depletion of prey-base on Dolphins populations”.
4. National Ganga River Dolphin Day: The National Mission for Clean Ganga celebrates 5th October as National Ganga River Dolphin Day.

• Wildlife Protection Act, 1972: This Act provides for the protection of the country’s wild animals, birds, and plant species, in order to ensure environmental and ecological security. Among other things, the Act lays down restrictions on hunting many animal species. The Act was last amended in the year 2006. The Act created six schedules which gave varying degrees of protection to classes of flora and fauna. Schedule I and Schedule II get absolute protection, and offences under these schedules attract the maximum penalties. Schedule 5 includes species that may be hunted.

• Related constitutional provisions:

1. Article 48A - It directs the State to protect and improve the environment and safeguard wildlife and forests. This Article was added to the Constitution by the 42nd amendment in 1976.
2. Article 51A - Article 51A imposes certain fundamental duties for the people of India. One of them is to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers, and wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures.

• Knowledge centre:

1. Dolphins versus Sharks - Sharks are fish while dolphins are mammals (like humans). Dolphins, and other mammals, are warm blooded, give birth to live young, nurse their young, are born with hair, and breathe air. Sharks, like other fish, have gills to remove oxygen from the environment, are cold blooded, and have scales. Sharks are known as cartilaginous fish, meaning their skeletons are made of cartilage (like our ears and noses) rather than dense bone. Sharks are part of the elasmobranch family, which includes sharks, rays, skates, and sawfish, while dolphins are part of the cetacean family, which includes toothed and baleen whales, as well as porpoises. Dolphins are known to travel in groups called pods, and are known to be vocal and quite socials. Sharks on the other hand are more solitary and cannot vocalize, however research on shark social behavior is not as well studied as with dolphins.
2. Aquatic mammals - Mammals are primarily terrestrial animals. However, some of them have adopted an aquatic mode of life. The aquatic mammals have evolved from terrestrial mammals. The fact that all of them are not gill-breathers but breathe air through lungs, indicate their original terrestrial mode of life. All the aquatic mammals are really terrestrial lung-breathing forms which have reverted to an aquatic life, and they have done so with remarkable success, the whales being the most successful. They have reverted to water probably because of extreme competition on land for food and shelter. Aquatic mammals are divided into - (1) Amphibious Mammals - These do not live permanently in water. They live on land but go into water for food and shelter. They show only partial aquatic adaptations such as small external ears, webbed feet, flattened nails, etc. Examples include beaver (Castor), musk rat (Ondatra), nutria (Myocaster), otter (Lutra), mink (Mustela) and many others; (2) Aquatic Mammals - These spend most of the time in water and usually come to land for reproduction. The typical examples are seals and hippopotamus; and (3) Marine Mammals - These never come to land and are perfectly at home in water. The typical examples are whales. The adaptations of truly aquatic mammals (Cetacea and Sirenia) are divided into 3 major categories - (i) Modifications of original structures, (ii) Loss of structures, and (iii) Development of new structures.

 

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

Europe’s ultra-cautious vaccine strategy is dangerous

• Strange vaccination management: Europe’s carefully planned vaccination drive has turned into a major crisis. The European Union has fallen behind in rates of vaccination compared with other developed nations, due to a procurement process that failed to be competitive amid global demand. The situation has become so fraught that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on 17-03-2021 that Brussels was considering whether to block vaccine exports to make sure “Europe gets its fair share” — an announcement that drew many angry responses from non-E.U. countries expecting doses.
• Knee-jerk blocking: The supply problem has been compounded this week by a number of European governments’ decisions to block the use of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine because of safety concerns — not only disrupting the supply of the vaccine but potentially causing long-term public concerns about the drug, even if it is later proven safe, as many experts predict. Germany, Italy, Spain, Ireland and France are among the countries that have suspended the use of the vaccine, developed amid much fanfare by researchers at Oxford University and makes up a significant part of the vaccine supply across the continent. (worry is related to a number of blood-clotting incidents, some fatal)
• Correlation not causation: The prevailing view among scientists is that these incidents are likely to be unrelated to the inoculation — essentially, that correlation does not mean causation. Vaccines protect against one thing: the infection or the infection plus disease, but don’t protect you against everything else that might possibly happen to you! Europe’s top drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), is expected to announce the initial results of a safety review soon, hopefully providing some much-needed clarity. But the toll has already been high for Europe either way, with expired doses, surging cases and weakened morale.
• Third wave: Some parts of Europe are now already in their third wave of infections. With every day of vaccination delay, there are hospitalizations and deaths. In Europe, the biggest problem is not recklessness, but cautiousness. The continent was hit hard and early in the pandemic. Its success in the year since has varied across the Europe, with almost all nations — even ones that followed most recommended measures — suffering large tolls.
• Government role: To some extent, this suggests that some elements of the virus’s spread may be out of government control. But getting vaccines in people’s arms is a metric very much in government control. And that’s where Europe’s leaders, including those praised for their reason and technocratic inclinations, such as Germany’s Angela Merkel, have fallen behind the brasher political-decision making of countries including Britain, Israel and the United States, as well as nimbler governments like Chile.
• Difference in approach: Those nations adopted strong-arm tactics to ensure a variety of doses, quickly seeking out independent deals with manufacturers. Most European nations, meanwhile, stuck with the E.U.'s more measured approach and finalized deals later. The sticking point, according to accounts from insiders, was price. Another wrinkle came later, when Europe watched mass rollouts of the vaccine produced by Pfizer and developed by BioNTech — a German company — take place in the United States, Britain and Israel, before the EMA had even approved the drug.
• Inherent weakness of EU: The EMA has now approved four different vaccines. But there have been significant concerns among national regulators about AstraZeneca, which was initially restricted in Germany and elsewhere for use on those over 65 because of limited data for that age group. The move was reversed after results from England, where the vaccine is being widely used, were studied. Leaders saw other countries pausing the drug and made the decision to do so as well, rather than listen to global public health bodies. In some ways, the situation is a product of the strengths and weaknesses of the E.U. It is a 27-member bloc, with a larger and more varied population than the United States, as well as a bigger economy. When it moves in unison, it can be powerful, but its decision-making is often unwieldy and unpredictable.
• The E.U. was, for example, largely able to procure cheaper vaccine doses than the United States through its heft — a significant financial move, considering the supply needed. But its consensus-based decision-making process has contributed to the slow delivery of those doses, potentially negating any economic benefits. Only a handful of E.U. states broke with the bloc’s vaccine orthodoxy. Hungary has vaccinated some of its citizens with Russia’s Sputnik V and Chinese vaccines, citing the need for a broader range than the EMA was approving. Other nations are moving to follow suit, albeit slowly.
• Knowledge centre: (a) European Union - The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of 27 member states (earlier 28) that are located primarily in Europe. Its members have a combined area of 4,233,255.3 km2 and a total population of about 44.7 crore. The EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states in those matters. EU ensures free movement of people, goods, services and capital within the internal market. EU follows common policies on trade, agriculture, fisheries and regional development. Passport controls have been abolished for travel within the Schengen Area. A monetary union was established in 1999, coming into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. It is a sui generis system. (b) Brexit - It is an abbreviation for the term “British exit”, referring to the action of Britain withdrawing from the European Union (EU). Following a UK-wide referendum in June 2016, in which 52% voted in favour of leaving the EU and 48% voted to remain a member, Prime Minister David Cameron resigned. On 29 March 2017, the new British Government led by Theresa May formally notified the EU of the country's intention to withdraw, beginning the Brexit process. The withdrawal was originally scheduled for 29 March 2019. It was delayed by deadlock in the British Parliament after the June 2017 general election, which resulted in a hung parliament in which the Conservatives lost their majority but remained the largest party. This deadlock led to three extensions of the Article 50 process. The deadlock was resolved after a subsequent general election was held in December 2019. In that election, Conservatives led by Boris Johnson won an overall majority of 80 seats. After that, the British Parliament finally ratified the withdrawal agreement. The UK left the EU at the end of 31 January 2020 CET (11 p.m. GMT). This began a transition period that ended on 31 December 2020 CET (11 p.m. GMT).

 

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

Start-Up Village Entrepreneurship Programme

• The story: Women Self Help Groups (SHGs) under the Start-Up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) stepped up as effective frontline responders and reached the last mile ensuring an immediate relief to the rural communities and the most vulnerable population during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
• Points to note: The SVEP is a sub-scheme of the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM), Ministry of Rural Development and has been implemented since 2016. (a) Progress - It has extended business support services and capital infusion to 153 blocks of 23 states as of August 2020. (b) Partner - Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII), Ahmedabad is the technical support partner of SVEP. The EDII is an autonomous and not-for-profit institute, set up in 1983. It is sponsored by apex financial institutions like the IDBI Bank Ltd., IFCI Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd. and the State Bank of India (SBI). It has been assigned the task of setting up Entrepreneurship Development Centers in Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, etc. by the Ministry of External Affairs.
• Aim: It aims to support the rural poor to come out of poverty. It supports people to set up enterprises and provide support until the enterprises stabilise. It provides self-employment opportunities with financial assistance and training in business management and soft skills. It creates local community cadres for promotion of enterprises.
• Features: It addresses three major pillars of rural start-ups namely finances, incubation and skill ecosystems. It promotes both individual and group enterprises, majorly in manufacturing, trading and service sectors. It invests on building the capacities of the entrepreneurs to run the businesses profitably based on the local demand and ecosystem. Investments are also made on the use of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to create standard E-learning modules for minimizing the transmission loss in technical aspects like a business plan and profit and loss account preparations.
• Activities: Activities under SVEP are strategically designed to promote rural enterprises with a few key areas. One of the key areas is to develop a pool of Community Resource Persons-Enterprise Promotion (CRP-EP) who are local and support entrepreneurs setting-up rural enterprises. Another key area is to promote the Block Resource Center (BRC) in SVEP blocks, to monitor and manage the community resource persons, appraise SVEP loan applications and act as the repository of enterprise-related information in the concerned block. BRCs play the role to support a sustainable revenue model to operate effectively and independently. SVEP established local markets/rural haat which motivated entrepreneurs to take up demand-based production, advertise their enterprise and increase earning opportunities. A typical rural haat is mostly indigenous, flexible and multi-layered structure which accommodates the economic activities of various nature. Local market/haat/bazaar serves as an important economic platform where a range of products is traded.
• Steps taken against Covid-19: Women SHGs helped in producing several quality products like masks, protective gear kits, sanitizers and cleaning products across the country. Some of the women SHGs were involved in running community kitchens and served cooked meals to over 5.72 crore vulnerable community members.

 

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

Do IIMs not cherish constitutionally-mandated social diversity?

• Shocking facts: The Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank’s response to a query in Lok Sabha, in March 2021, revealed a severe deficit in the number of OBC, SC, ST candidates recruited as faculty in Central institutes of higher education. It shows the sheer negligence of authorities towards a constitutionally-mandated task/

• The data: More than half of the faculty positions reserved for OBCs in central institutions of higher education are vacant. About 40% of those reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes also remain unfilled. The situation is particularly acute in the elite Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).

1. More than 60% of SC and OBC reserved positions are vacant.
2. Almost 80% of positions reserved for STs have not been filled.
3. This means that out of 24 positions reserved for STs, only five have been filled.

• IITs no better: For the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), data has only been provided for non-faculty positions. To note, both IITs and IIMs have been lobbying for exemption from such faculty quota requirements.
• Central UniversitieS: Within these, vacancies are higher at the level of professors. Out of 709 assistant professor positions reserved for STs at the 42 universities, more than 500 have been filled. But when it comes to professors, only nine positions have been filled out of the 137 reserved for ST candidates. This means 93% of these posts remain unfilled. Less than 1% of the 1,062 professors in central universities are from ST communities. Similarly, 64% of the 2,206 assistant professor positions reserved for OBCs have been filled in the Central Universities. However, less than 5% of the 378 professor positions reserved for OBCs have been filled.
• Government’s response: After the implementation of ‘The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’ Cadre) Act, 2019’, the OBC reservation has been implemented at all levels. The Ministry of Education and University Grants Commission (UGC) continuously monitor the vacancies. The onus of filling up the teaching posts lies on Central Universities which are autonomous bodies created under Acts of Parliament. In fact, in June 2019, UGC had written to all Universities, giving them a six month deadline to fill up their vacancies. The government also issued a warning that grants would be withheld if its directions were violated. According to the data presented in the Lok Sabha, there are now 6,074 vacant positions at the 42 universities. Of this, 75% are in the reserved categories.
• Recommendations made: For the IITs, an official committee suggested that the way out would be to exempt these institutions from reservation! This option is provided for under the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’ Cadre) Act, 2019. Another suggestion is to dereserve lower faculty positions after a year, if suitable candidates from the beneficiary communities are not found. But this cannot be the right course for official policy, as reservations system is widely seen as the shortest path to equality and equity.
• Possible measures to address this: The data only confirm that the trend seen earlier in the IIT system extends to many more institutions. What could help bridge the gap is a better understanding of the lacunae in the education system. The failure to recruit faculty to all the reserved positions is usually attributed to the absence of enough qualified candidates. One of the forward-looking remedial measures suggested by the panel was to start government-sponsored preparatory programmes. This would both equip aspiring faculty and create a pool of research talent. This has merit in the context of management, science and other disciplines. In the short term, it could help qualified individuals overcome the deficiencies of their preparatory years. Such courses would also make these institutions of higher learning more socially responsive. It would help meet the goal of addressing historical deprivation of communities based on caste.

• Knowledge centre:

1. Central Universities - Central Universities are established by an Act of Parliament and are under the purview of the Department of Higher Education in MHRD. These universities have been categorised under Centre (Union Government), given the fact the funds are allocated by the MHRD through UGC. There are 49 Central Universities established in India, of which Allahabad University isthe oldest of all, being established in 1887. The Mahatma Gandhi Central University located in Motihari, Bihar is the youngest of all, established in 2016. But for three States/Union Territories of India, at least one Central University has been established in every state. While, Andhra Pradesh and Goa don’t have any Central Universities, so do the Union Territory, Chandigarh.
2. OBCs - Other Backward Class (OBC) is a collective term used by the Government of India to classify castes which are educationally or socially disadvantaged. It is one of several official classifications of the population of India, along with General Class, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SCs and STs). The National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) was initially constituted by the Central Govt by The National Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1993 (27 of 1993) dated 2.4.1993 and so far the Commission had been reconstituted 7 times up to 2016. The Central Govt has repealed The National Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1993 (27 of 1993) w.e.f 15.8.2018.

 

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

The magic of GPS

• Building block of modern life: Imagine modern life without the Global Positioning System (GPS)! Whether guiding drivers around unfamiliar roads, helping runners keep track of the miles they rack up around their local park or simply pointing to a lost set of keys, GPS has become an essential, invisible layer in our everyday lives.
• GPS depends on: The technology relies on a constellation of satellites that orbit the Earth and transmit radio signals towards the planet’s surface. By picking up the signals from several satellites at once, a receiver on the ground can calculate their position on Earth, precise to a few metres. The ideas behind GPS took several decades and many billions of dollars to develop. No surprise, then, that it was a project of the American military as a way to keep track of their most important assets around the globe. Only an institution like that could realistically have afforded or justified building it.
• Accident begets widespread adoption: The technology became available to civilians in 1983 after a South Korean passenger jet inadvertently strayed into prohibited Soviet airspace and was shot down, killing all 269 passengers on board. The American government realised that if positioning technology had been available to the pilot of the airliner, the tragedy might have been averted.
• Evolution: Modern military satellites can do much more than find your location. By bouncing radio waves off the surface of the Earth, some systems can build up extremely detailed pictures of what is going on there—some are reportedly even capable of detecting enemy submarines by measuring the tiny disturbances left by their wakes in the curvature of the ocean surface. And you are probably by now familiar with the high-resolution pictures and video that satellites record for reconnaissance or to guide missiles. Until now, most of these technologies have remained within armed forces or wrapped up in secretive intelligence agencies. A big part of that has been down to cost—building a satellite and launching it into space are eye-wateringly expensive.
• Small sateliltes arrive: It changed in recent years. A new generation of small satellites that can be built and launched cheaply are bringing to civilians capabilities that were once the preserve of governments alone.  The latest is the ability to listen in (from space) on the faint radio signals used by ships in order to navigate or send messages to each other. Why would anyone—beyond the usual cadre of spies and soldiers—want to do this? For one thing, it turns out to be a useful way to spot illegal fishing.
• Stealing fish: The law of the sea requires fishing vessels to carry GPS-based automatic identification systems (AIS) that broadcast where they are at all times. In mid-2020, however, Ecuadorians watched with concern as 340 foreign boats entered their waters near the Galapagos Islands. Many of the boats had their AIS systems switched off, which provoked worries that they were sneaking into Ecuador’s waters to steal fish. Everyone concerned denied having done anything wrong but radio-signal monitoring, by a cluster of shoebox-sized satellites launched by HawkEye 360, a private company, confirmed the infractions into Ecuador’s economic zone.
• Useful application: It is easy to see how cheap, widely available satellite systems such as this could be used for routine maritime surveillance—not only to protect economic interests but also to prevent damage to marine protected zones or to keep ports secure.

• Knowledge centre -

1. Triangulation and trilateration - Trilateration is a method of surveying in which the lengths of the sides of a triangle are measured, usually by electronic means, and, from this information, angles are computed. Triangulation is a surveying method that measures the angles in a triangle formed by three survey control points. Using trigonometry and the measured length of just one side, the other distances in the triangle are calculated. While trilateration relies on signal strength as an analog for distance, triangulation relies on timing differences in the reception of tags' signals. Because these signals travel at the speed of light, the time differences in transmission are very small. This makes measuring instruments more expensive. As GPS satellites broadcast their location and time, trilateration measure distances to pinpoint their exact position on Earth. While surveyors use triangulation to measure distant points, GPS positioning does not involve any angles whatsoever.
2. Starlink by SpaceX - Starlink is a satellite internet constellation being constructed by Elon Musk's SpaceX, providing satellite Internet access. The constellation will consist of thousands of mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), working in combination with ground transceivers. As of 12 March 2021, SpaceX had launched 1,265 Starlink satellites (including demo satellites Tintin A and B). They plan to launch up to 60 more per Falcon 9 flight, with launches as often as every two weeks in 2021. In total, nearly 12,000 satellites are planned to be deployed, with a possible later extension to 42,000. 

 

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

Population stabilization

• A policy to stabilise numbers: The National Population Policy, 2000, envisaged achieving a stable population for India. One of its immediate objectives was to address the unmet needs for contraception, health care infrastructure, and personnel and provide integrated service delivery for basic reproductive and child health care. It affirmed a commitment to achieve replacement levels of fertility (total fertility rate of 2.1) by 2010. Most of the southern states controlled their population. However, low socio-economic development in northern and central India has led to population explosion in these regions.
• Fears: It was feared that the population explosion would irreversibly impact India’s environment and natural resource base and limit the next generation’s entitlement and progress. Therefore, the government should take measures to control the population in time.
• Need for stabilization: According to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs estimates, India’s population will reach 1.5 billion by 2030 and hit 1.64 billion in 2050. This would make India become the largest populous country, overtaking China. At present, India hosts 16% of the world’s population with only 2.45% of the global surface area and 4% water resources. Globally, the debate over population explosion has erupted after recent ecosystem assessments pointed to the human population’s role in driving other species into extinction and precipitating a resource crunch.
• Fertility rate: Fortunately, by 2020, the national Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of India was around 2.1, which is the Replacement Fertility Rate (RFR) also. That means the birth-side pressure on numbers had subsided, and the higher longevity of Indians was contributing to rising population, largely.

• Associated challenges:

1. Level of education - Lack of education in women results in their early marriages. Not only does early marriage increase the likelihood of more children, but it also puts the woman's health at risk. Fertility usually declines with an increase in the education levels of women. That surely has happened in India now.
2. Socio-economic Factors: The desire for larger families, particularly preference for a male child, also leads to higher birth rates. One of the reasons for this son-preference is the inheritance law favoring women’s rights to ancestral property is far from being implemented. China is already facing a demographic catastrophe because its nearly four-decade-long one-child policy resulted in a strong son preference. In 2021, the Chinese govt. offically accepted its worries on a declining labour force.
3. Inadequate contraceptive use: Women in rural areas of northern states like UP, Bihar are still giving birth to four or more children. This is because the contraceptive prevalence rate is less than 10%. In many districts, women do not use modern family planning methods and rely on traditional contraception methods.
4. Sons of Soil Narrative: Southern states that have achieved population stabilization now face the issue of the elderly will start outstripping the working-age population. Initially, it was thought that younger people from the Central-Northern states might fill the growing gap in services. With the emergence of growing resistance to people from northern states working in southern states, such prospects appear to be uncertain.
5. Politics of population stabilization: The Constitution (84th Amendment) Act 2002, extended the freeze on the state-wise allocation of seats in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha to 2026. It was expected to serve as a motivational measure to pursue population stabilization. But this goal has not been achieved as the population in northern states continued to rise. Now, in the absence of a further extension, it will be politically destabilizing. The 15th Finance Commission report showed it had included the population of 2011 Census also in the horizontal devolution process.
6. Limited time for demographic dividend (DD): The DD is defined as a benefit accruing to a nation if its working age population (15-59 yrs or 15-64 yrs) is more than the rest of the population. India's DD started in 2018 and will last till 2055. It will be of use if youngsters can find enough jobs in the economy, else not.

• Summary: Adopting a women-centric approach will help. Population stabilization isn’t only about controlling population growth but also entails gender parity. A balanced sex ratio is essential to secure social cohesion. So the state needs a women-centric approach wherein they incentivize later marriages and childbirths, make contraception easy for women and promote women’s labor force participation. Action to prevent unwanted pregnancies, particularly in northern states is urgently required. The over-reliance on traditional methods of contraception needs to be swiftly replaced with reliable and easy alternatives. India can learn from its neighborhood. Indonesia and Bangladesh introduced injectable contraceptives right from the late 1980s. Once executed properly, one jab renders protection from pregnancy for three months. ASHA workers can help immensely in this regard. When fertility reduction in the five southern states succeeded, it overturns the conventional wisdom that literacy, education, and development are prerequisites for populations to stabilize. The simple explanation is that fertility decline was achieved because southern governments proactively urged families to have only two children, followed by sterilization immediately after that.
• Conclusion: The population stabilization difference between the southern and northern states is becoming disproportionately skewed. In such a scenario, demographics will eclipse economic growth and destroy the gains from a young populace. Thus, the long-term policy requires a stable population consistent with the requirements of sustainable economic growth, social development, and environmental protection.

 

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

Russia deploys a giant space telescope in Lake Baikal

1. The story: Russian scientists have launched one of the biggest underwater space telescopes of the world on March 13, 2021. This underwater space telescope was deployed deep into universe from pristine waters of Lake Baikal.
2. About the Telescope: The deep underwater telescope was under construction since the year 2015. It is designed to observe the smallest known particles called neutrinos. The telescope has been named as “Baikal-GVD”. It was submerged to the depth of 750-1300 meters across the four kilometres from the shore of Lake Baikal. The floating observatory comprises of strings along with the spherical glass and the attached stainless-steel modules.
3. Purpose: The Baikal telescope will rival Ice Cube which is a giant neutrino observatory under the Antarctic ice at the US research station located at the South Pole.
4. Lake Baikal: It is a rift lake located in the southern Siberia, Russia, between the Irkutsk Oblast in the northwest and Buryat Republic in the southeast. It is the largest freshwater lake by volume across the world, comprising 22 to 23% of the fresh surface water of the whole world! The lake comprises more water than all the five North American Great Lakes combined. The lake is also the World’s deepest lake with the maximum depth of 1,642 m. It is also the oldest lake of the world. With respect to the surface area, it is the seventh-largest lake across the world. The lake is home to several species of plants and animals. The region located to the east of Lake Baikal is also called as the Transbaikalia or Transbaikal. Lake Baikal has been designated as the World Heritage Site by UNESCO in the year 1996.

 

The Spring Equinox

1. What it is: The Spring Equinox is also known as “Vernal Equinox”. In the year 2021, it fell on March 20, 2021. It will technically be occurring at 9.37 in the morning.
2. Key points: March 20 is the most common date for the Spring Equinox. However, it can occur on any date between 19 to 21 March.  March 20 is considered as the first day of the spring as per the astronomical calculation of the seasons. The date is based on the two equinoxes and solstices. The astronomical spring will end on June 21, 2021 which is called as the summer solstice.
3. Background: The Equinoxes have got their name from the Latin word for the equal night. It marks the two points in a year when equator is the closest part of Earth to sun. In the vernal equinox, the northern and southern hemispheres will share the sunlight equally. It means that the planet gets 12 hours of daylight and darkness during those days. This is also complicated by the Earth’s atmosphere affecting the way the sunlight is seen through. The northern or the southern hemisphere points more towards the sun which in turn brings the warmer temperatures of spring and summer for the six months in each year.
4. Vernal Equinox: The Vernal Equinox is also known as the Northward equinox. In the common year, the computed time slippage time is about 5 hours 49 minutes later compared to the previous year. On the other hand, it is about 18 hours 11 minutes in a leap year earlier compared to the previous year. To balance the increases in the common years against the losses of leap years, the calendar date of March equinox drifts in between the 19th March and 21st March.  In astronomy, the March equinox is considered as the zero point of the sidereal time. It is also considered as a reference for calendars and celebrations in several human cultures and religions.

 

World Bank to provide USD 200 million to Bangladesh

1. The story: The World Bank has approved USD 200 million in order to help Bangladesh. This amount will be used to provide support and services to low-income urban youths who have been impacted by COVID 19 pandemic and the migrants who lost their jobs or had to return to the country involuntarily amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
2. RAISE project: The World Bank has come up with the Recovery and Advancement of Informal Sector Employment (RAISE) project. This project aims to benefit around 1.75 lakh poor urban youth by apprenticeship programme, training, micro & self-employment support, and counselling. This project will help around 2 lakh migrants who returned to Bangladesh to reintegrate in domestic labour migrate. It will also help them to prepare for re-migration. Under the project, they will get the cash grants and counselling services on the basis of their needs and aspirations. The project will be benefiting the migrants as well as the urban informal sector to overcome the structural barriers and to gain employment. To provide the support and services, 32 district welfare centres will be set up across Bangladesh. The concessional lending will be provided by the World Bank’s’ International Development Association (IDA) over a 30-year term with the grace period of 5 years.
3. International Development Association (IDA): It is an international financial institution, that offers concessional loans and grants to poorest developing countries. The IDA is a member of World Bank Group, headquartered in Washington D.C. in United States, and set up in the year 1960. The organisation complements the existing International Bank of Reconstruction and Development. It lends the developing countries which are suffering from the lowest gross national income.

The ‘Sinatra Doctrine’

• What it is: The Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) member countries have accepted the “Sinatra Doctrine” as a counter to the increasing China’s aggressiveness to undermine the unity of the European Union through the divide and rule policy.

• Highlights: The Sinatra Doctrine will be based on two pillars:

1. Continuing cooperation with China with respect to address the global challenges like covid-19, climate change & regional conflicts and
2. Strengthening the strategic sovereignty of European Union by protecting the technological sectors of its economy.

• Background: Chinese policy to undermine the European unity was fuelled by leveraging the regional platform in order to get the political favours in the exchange for economic benefits. However, the credit-based offer of China in a neo-colonial fashion was ill-suited for CEE members of EU. Further, the Chinese investments in 12 EU member states which were participating in “17+1 initiative” was approximately 8.6 billion euros in the year 2010 to 2019. On the other hand, the Chinese investment in Finland for the same period was 12 billion euros and in Netherlands it was 10.2 billion euros. Thus, this mismatch between the economic promises and outcome by the Beijing, made the CEE members to adopt the Sinatra doctrine.
• About Sinatra Doctrine
• History: This doctrine was the name which the Soviet government of Mikhail Gorbachev used to describe their policy to allow the neighbouring Warsaw Pact states to determine their internal affairs. The name was taken from the song “My Way” which was popularized by Frank Sinatra. The implementation of the doctrine was part of doctrine of new political thinking by Gorbachev.
• 17+1 initiative: The 17+1 initiative is also known as the “Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries”. It is an initiative by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The initiative promotes the business and investment relations between China and 17 countries of CEE.
• CEE countries: The Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) member countries include- Bosnia, Albania, Herzegovina, Croatia, Bulgaria, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Poland, Slovakia, Serbia and Slovenia.

 

9.1 Today's best editorials to read

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• SECTION 3 - MCQs (Multiple Choice Questions)

Solve the online quiz given, right now. Check scores, and relative performance!

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