Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 15-05-2021

Useful compilation of Civil Services oriented - Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 15-05-2021

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• SECTION 1 - TEN NEWS HEADLINES

1. Science and Technology - China lands rover on Mars - The China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced that its rover Zhurong successfully landed on Mars on 15th May, 2021, after "nine minutes of terror". The rover will study the planet's surface soil and atmosphere, and will also look for signs of ancient life. Zhurong was carried to Mars on Tianwen-1 spacecraft. It is China’s first mission to Mars, and makes it only the third nation — after Russia and the United States — to have landed a spacecraft on the planet. When landing on the moon, spacecraft can use rockets to slow their descent as they approach the lunar surface. That’s possible because the moon doesn’t have an atmosphere. For returns to Earth, spacecraft reentering the atmosphere can deploy parachutes to glide slowly down through the air. Unlike the moon, Mars has an atmosphere, which makes it difficult to use rockets to decelerate. However, the Martian atmosphere is much thinner than Earth’s, making it harder to rely on parachutes. NASA’s Viking 1 made history as the first probe to land safely on Mars. The U.S. space agency has sent several missions since then and its latest, the Perseverance rover, has been on the Martian surface since February 18. On April 19, the US space program became the first to fly an aircraft, the Ingenuity helicopter, on another planet.
2. World Politics - KP Sharma Oli re-appointed Nepal’s PM - The President of Nepal Bidya Devi Bhandari has re-appointed KP Sharma Oli as Nepal’s Prime Minister. Oli retained the top position after the opposition parties failed to put together a coalition government. On May 10, 2021, Oli had lost the trust vote in Parliament. Sher Bahadur Deuba, chief of the main opposition Nepali Congress, had informed his party colleagues and other allies shortly ahead of the deadline that he would not be able to put together a coalition that has majority in the House, and that he was withdrawing from the race. The formal withdrawal by the leader of the main opposition left the President with no option but to invite Oli to form a government again, since he was the leader of the single-largest party.
3. Science and Technology - Three Yaogan-30 satellites launched by China - The eighth group of the three Yaogan-30 satellites has been launched by China. It will join the seven previous groups that were launched in 2017. The eighth group of the satellite has been built with the new multi-satellite network operation mode. Yaogan-34 was described as an optical remote sensing satellite for surveying land resources, urban planning, road network design, crop yield estimation and disaster prevention and reduction. It will also provide information services for the construction of the Belt and Road, China’s regional and global infrastructure development strategy. The launches were China's 12th and 13th of 2021. The country is aiming to launch at least 40 times this year. Also expected in May 2021 was the launch of the Tianzhou-2 cargo and refueling spacecraft to the new Tianhe space station module recently launched by the Long March 5B.
4. Environment and Ecology - Hoolock gibbon - Fourteen years after reports noting that India has two separate species of the gibbon – the hoolock gibbon and the eastern hoolock gibbon – a genetic analysis has proved that there is only one species of ape in India. The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) study has found that there is only one species of Hoolock gibbons and not two in India. The Western Hoolock gibbons (Hoolock Hoolock) are the only apes in India, and the other species, Mishmi Hills gibbons (Hoolock leuconedys), is not here. The CCMB team corroborated the data with mitogenome (genetic information contained in mitochondria) analysis and estimated that the split between two species occurred 1.49 million years ago. The new findings will help design conservation programmes by inter-breeding the two populations and maintain their genetic diversity. Hoolock gibbon was described first in 1834, in the erstwhile kingdom of Assam by American naturalist R. Harlan. Previously eastern and western hoolocks were considered as sub-species but were later classified as species in 2005. Monkeys and apes are both primates, which means they’re both part of the human family tree. While almost all monkeys have tails; apes do not.
5. Environment and Ecology - DeepShake earthquake warning system - DeepShake is an earthquake early warning system which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to predict how the ground will move during a temblor to give several seconds' advance notice that the earthquake is coming. It uses a deep neural network, a type of AI learning, to identify patterns from past earthquakes in order to predict how the shaking from a new quake will travel. This could lead to faster processing and easier generalizability across different earthquake-prone regions. Despite the fact that DeepShake was given no information about the earthquake's location or type, it was able to warn of shaking at other seismic stations in the network between 3-13 seconds before it happened. DeepShake was developed at the Stanford University, USA.
6. Environment and Ecology - 'Mice rain' in Eastern Australia - The government of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia extended a support package of $50 million to farmers to deal with a devastating mouse plague that has affected farmers, community members and residents. To control the plague, the government has now authorised the use of an otherwise outlawed poison called bromadiolone. The current plague is being called one of the worst plagues in decades and started being reported around mid-March in Australia’s eastern states. In some places, residents of affected areas reported mice falling out from roof tops causing “mice rain”. Researchers attributes the plague to an unusually abundant grain harvest, which caused a surplus of mice earlier in the season. Add to this the fact that mice have a short breeding cycle (a pair of breeding mice can give birth to a new litter every 21 days or so) and are not very choosy about food. Rodents (which includes rats and mice) are the second most successful mammals on the planet after humans.
7. World Politics - Israel Palestine clash - Israel bombarded Gaza with artillery and air strikes following a new barrage of rocket fire from the Hamas-run enclave, intensifying a conflict that has claimed more than 120 lives. The Gaza Strip is a self-governing Palestinian territory, located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, that borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the east and north border. Gaza and the West Bank are claimed by the de jure sovereign State of Palestine. The territories of Gaza and the West Bank are separated from each other by Israeli territory. Both fell under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority, but the strip has since the Battle of Gaza in June 2007 been governed by Hamas, a Palestinian fundamentalist militant Islamic organization which came to power in the last-held elections in 2006. It has been placed under an Israeli and US-led international economic and political boycott from that time onwards. Israel threatened but did not carry out land invasion (till May 15th).
8. Constitution and Law - Article 311 of the Constitution - A police officer was dismissed from the service by Mumbai Police Commissioner under Article 311(2)(b) of the Constitution without a departmental enquiry. Suspended police officer Sachin Waze, arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with the Mukesh Ambani terror scare case, was the one dismissed. Article 311 (1) says that no government employee either of an all India service or a state government shall be dismissed or removed by an authority subordinate to the own that appointed him/her. It also says that no civil servant shall be dismissed or removed or reduced in rank except after an inquiry in which s/he has been informed of the charges and given a reasonable opportunity of being heard in respect of those charges. Any government employee dismissed under these provisions can approach either tribunals like the state administrative tribunal – in Waze’s case it would be the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal — or Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) or the courts.
9. Social Issues - Covid-19 could have been controlled - An independent global panel, the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPPR), in its report titled "Covid-19: Make it the Last Pandemic" concluded that the catastrophic scale of the Covid-19 pandemic could have been prevented. The report was requested by World Health Organization (WHO) member states in May 2020. A series of bad decisions meant Covid-19 went on to kill at least 3.3 million people so far and devastate the global economy. Poor strategic choices, unwillingness to tackle inequalities and an uncoordinated system created a toxic cocktail which allowed the pandemic to turn into a catastrophic human crisis. Institutions failed to protect people and science-denying leaders eroded public trust in health interventions. The threat of a pandemic had been overlooked and countries were woefully unprepared to deal with one. Early responses to the outbreak detected in Wuhan, China in December 2019 lacked urgency, with February 2020 a costly "lost month" as countries failed to heed the alarm. The emergence of Covid-19 was characterised by a mixture of some early and rapid action, but also by delay, hesitation, and denial. WHO could have declared the situation a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), its highest level of alarm in January 2020.
10. Indian Politics - Covid Update - India recorded the lowest COVID-19 cases in 18 days as 3.26 lakh tested positive, and new deaths dropped. A total of 3,26,098 tested positive for the virus, with the total rising to 2,43,72,907. Daily deaths declined to 3,890. The government claimed that overall situation (second wave of Covid-19) was stabilising. At a very high level meeting, India's PM explained to experts and others that localised containment strategies were the need of the hour. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee's younger brother Ashim Banerjee succumbed to Covid-19. The state also imposed a two-week total lockdown. Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani said that the state will conduct class 12 board examinations. The exams however will be conducted once the Covid situation is under control. British experts meanwhile are expressing regret why they the country did not put India on the travel red list much earlier, as the new "India variant - B.1.617.2" is now widespread in new infections there. NUMBERS - INDIA - Total cases: 24,372,243; New cases: 326,123; Total deaths: 266,229; New deaths: 3,879; Total recovered: 20,426,323; Active cases: 3,679,691.

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• SECTION 2 - DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

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

Global economic boom coming - with a rider

• A new situation: The world economy is facing a unique situation. After a decade of worries about inadequate demand and spending power in the aftermath of the global financial crisis 2007, signs of insufficient supply are now emerging. A lack of goods, services and people means that newly emerging demand is met slowly or not at all.
• Recovery hit: There are signs that supply bottlenecks can upset the post-pandemic recovery. America is facing the worst of this, where a boom is under way. Consumer spending is growing by over 10% at an annual rate, as people put to work the $ 2 trn-plus of extra savings accumulated in the past year, and more stimulus is still being doled out.
• Two types of bottlenecks: The first relates to supply chains, as there are shortages of everything from timber to semiconductors. The cost of shipping goods from China to America has tripled. In the past year many firms have cut their investment in logistics. Lockdowns have left some container ships stranded. The second bottleneck is in labour markets. In April America created only 2,66,000 jobs, many fewer than the 1m or more that had been expected. Yet job vacancies are at all-time highs, and so firms are struggling to fill positions. Whether generous unemployment benefits are giving people a reason not to look for work,is the question. Plus, it takes time for people to move from dying industries to growing ones.
• Inflation: As booming demand meets tight supply, inflation is in focus. In April 2021, American consumer prices rose by 4.2% year on year, up from 2.6% in March. This reflects “base effects”: oil prices are only as high as they were in 2019, but 272% higher than in April 2020. It reflects also a rise in global prices. China’s factory-gate prices are rising at the fastest rate in over three years. (a) Central banks insist that their maximal stimulus must continue for fear of jeopardising the nascent recovery, and any inflation spike will be “largely transitory”. (b) The Fed will tolerate somewhat above-target inflation for a bit, in part because it expects prices soon to fall back.
• Summary: This approach carries dangers, because inflation may faded slowly. The supply bottlenecks of the early phase of the pandemic in 2020 cleared fast, but there is no guarantee this will happen now. Inflation expectations may also rise if people come to believe that central banks will act slowly and too late. Some fear the Fed will have to raise interest rates to as high as 4.5% to cool the economy. So there's a danger that sharp rate rises rock the markets hard. The recent implosions of Archegos, a hedge fund, and Greensill Capital, a finance firm, are a reminder of the hidden leverage in a financial system that has come to depend on low interest rates.

Taxing the MNCs

• The story: If the tax rates for companies are too high, growth will shrivel. If the rates are too low, resentment of public will rise. Today, the system is reaching breaking-point. Over 40 countries are struggling over how to impose levies on Silicon Valley firms, minting money but not paying enough taxes.
• Deficits: The pandemic is also forcing governments to find ways to plug their fiscal deficits. The Biden administration urgently wants to increase multinationals’ tax rate, given its huge stimulus spending. (a) The best hope for an amicable outcome lies in a forum run by the OECD, where 139 countries hope to agree on new tax principles. (b) Success would represent the most important overhaul to the international architecture in a century. It would also help avoid chaos.
• The taxation of MNCs: In theory, global companies pay taxes based on where they have their headquarters, and where they do the work that produces their profits. An individual firm’s legal affiliates are typically taxed separately, with transfers between them recorded as if on the open market. But in practice, firms cut their tax bills by divorcing their reported profits from where they conduct business. This is easier now due to the rise of intangible assets such as brands. The share of American multinationals’ foreign profits booked in tax havens has doubled since 2000, to 63% in 2018. But they had only 5% of their staff in these places. They booked more profit in Bermuda than in China.
• Tax havens: Such jurisdictions insist that very low tax rates are an expression of their sovereignty. The trouble is that exchequers everywhere are robbed of up to $ 240 bn a year by firms rerouting profits. Taxpayers in America or France are right to feel aggrieved when the income a tech firm generates there is magicked away to Ireland or a shell company in the Caribbean.
• Global tax: A globally co-ordinated minimum tax would blunt the incentive to engage in such drama. Treating companies as a whole, rather than relying on transfer pricing, could reduce the army of advisers running circles around tax authorities. Allocating taxing rights according to where firms really operate would be harder to game, as consumers and staff are less mobile than algorithms.
• What's coming now: OECD is moving in the right direction, with both a minimum tax and a reallocation of taxing rights under discussion. The Biden administration wants a minimum global rate of 21%, but tax havens are crying, so 10-15% is more probable. Some global profits are likely to be freed from the broken “arm’s length” transfer-pricing approach, but only a small slice of them. Bolder reform would be better. Tax authorities should do away with the fiction that intangible capital can be priced accurately through transfer pricing and instead try to reflect where activity takes place, by looking at sales and where employees are. This would benefit not only short-changed advanced economies but also poorer countries, which often lose out too.

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

How children are affected by climate change

• The story: An analysis, based on Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative (ND-GAIN) index, has shown the impact of climate change on children across the world. It was done by Save the Children International, a child rights non-profit organisation.
• Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative: The ND-GAIN is part of the Climate Change Adaptation Program of the University of Notre Dame's Environmental Change initiative (ND-ECI). ND-GAIN's Country Index shows which countries are best prepared to deal with global changes brought about by overcrowding, resource-constraints and climate disruption. The Country Index uses 20 years of data to rank more than 180 countries annually based on their vulnerability and, uniquely, how ready they are to adapt.
• Vulnerability: It is considered in six life-supporting sectors – food, water, health, ecosystem service, human habitat and infrastructure. Overall readiness is measured by considering three components – economic readiness, governance readiness and social readiness. According to the scores for 2018, India ranked 122 and is the 48th most vulnerable country and the 70th least ready country.

• Learning: From the analysis, it emerges that

1. Countries with highest climate risk - Sub-Saharan Africa has 35 of the 45 countries globally at highest climate risk. Climate risk can be defined as a combination of hazard exposure, sensitivity to impact, and adaptive capacity. Chad, Somalia, Central African Republic, Eritrea and Democratic Republic of the Congo are the least capable of adapting to the impact of climate change. Around 490 million children under the age of 18 in 35 African countries are at the highest risk of suffering the impact of climate change.
2. Situation in South Asian region - Of the 750 million children in 45 countries likely to be most affected by climate risk, 210 million are in three South Asian nations — Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
3. Impact of Climate Change on children - Floods, droughts, hurricanes and other extreme weather events will have a deep impact on vulnerable children and their families. Malaria and dengue fever already plague children in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Increasing extreme weather events can lead to new health risks while the health system is already limited. Around 9.8 million people were displaced due to the disasters caused by climate change during the first half of 2020. Most of them were in South and South-East Asia and the Horn of Africa, confirmed the World Meteorological Organisation in its flagship State of the Global Climate report. Children will be impacted by food shortages, diseases and other health threats, water scarcity, or be at risk from rising water levels – or a combination of these factors. Children of the poorest households will be the most-affected.

• India’s scenario:

1. Findings from 2020 PwC report - Disadvantaged and vulnerable populations (including children), indigenous people and local communities dependent on agricultural or coastal livelihoods are at a disproportionately higher risk of adverse consequences due to climate change. Children bear the brunt of climate change as it affects their fundamental rights of survival, protection, development and participation.
2. Other potential effects of climate change on children - They get orphaned, are trafficked, pushed into child labour, undergo loss of education and development opportunities, are separated from families, face trauma, emotional disruption, and illnesses.

• India’s performance in Indices:

1. Climate Change Performance Index - India ranked 10th in CCPI 2021, released by Germanwatch, the New Climate Institute and the Climate Action Network.
2. World Risk Index 2020: India has ranked 89th among 181 countries on the WRI 2020 and is fourth-most-at-risk in South Asia, after Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is released by the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), Bündnis Entwicklung Hilft and the University of Stuttgart in Germany.

• National Climate Vulnerability Assessment Report: It is released by the Department of Science and Technology, it identified Jharkhand, Mizoram, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, and West Bengal as states highly vulnerable to climate change. Some of the Indian Initiatives to Fight Climate Change are -

1. Shift from Bharat Stage-IV (BS-IV) to Bharat Stage-VI (BS-VI) emission norms,
2. National Clean Air Programme (NCAP),
3. UJALA scheme,
4. National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), etc.

• Summary: Scaling up adaptive and shock-responsive social protection systems – such as grants for pregnant mothers and children - is crucial to address the increasing impacts of climate change on children and their families.

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

WHO warning - Pandemic 'far more deadly' in 2021

• The story: The World Health Organization issued a grim warning that the second year of Covid-19 was set to be "far more deadly". It was when Japan extended a state of emergency amid growing calls for the Olympics to be scrapped. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus issued the warning.
• Japan's case: The mood darkened in Japan where the coronavirus state of emergency took in another three regions just 10 weeks before the proposed Olympics, while campaigners submitted a petition with more than 3,50,000 signatures calling for the Games to be cancelled. With Tokyo and other areas already under emergency orders until the end of May, Hiroshima, Okayama and northern Hokkaido, which will host the Olympic marathon, will now join them. The Japanese public opinion is firmly opposed to holding the Games.
• Murderous: The pandemic has killed at least 3,346,813 people worldwide since the virus first emerged in late 2019, according to an AFP tally. The deaths are not stopping, as new mutants run riot. The "Indian sub-variant" B.1.617.2 has reached the UK, and is widespread now.

• India's vaccination: India has started deploying Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, the first foreign-made shot to be used in the country that has been reeling from an explosion in cases and deaths. The approach of "Atmanirbhar Bharat" has now been modified, to get access to as many vaccines as possible.

1. The first token batch of Sputnik vaccines, reportedly 150,000 doses, arrived on May 1 and will be administered from June.
2. A number of leading India-based drugmakers have agreements for local production of Sputnik V with the aim to produce over 850 million doses of the jab per year.
3. (India has been adding roughly as many new Covid cases daily as the rest of the world put together. That has put the government in a tight spot.

• Europe: In Europe, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that the arrival of the B1.617.2 variant, one of those believed to be driving the Indian surge, could delay reopening of society and the economy. Britain's health ministry has tracked the variant in northwest England and in London.

1. Germany has already added the UK back onto its list of "risk areas" requiring extra checks -- but not necessarily quarantine -- for incoming travellers.
2. Elsewhere around the continent, tourist hotspots are opening up. Greece kickstarted its tourism season, hoping to reverse last year's miserable summer.
3. France and Spain launched tourism campaigns this week too.

• USA: In the United States many were confused a day after the top health agency lifted all mask-wearing requirements for fully vaccinated people. The move has raised questions about how to implement it -- the foremost being, how do you tell if a person is fully vaccinated? It has led to a patchwork of regulations around the country. Some states never had mask mandates in the first place. Others lifted them well before the new advice. Some were reviewing the idea, but others such as Maryland and Virginia rushed to implement it.

1. Major companies are also weighing their options. Retail giant Walmart was among those who said Friday it would lift its mask mandate for fully vaccinated staff and customers.
2. United Food and Commercial Workers, a union which represents 1.3 million people, came out unequivocally against. "Essential workers are still forced to play mask police for shoppers who are unvaccinated and refuse to follow local COVID safety measures. Are they now supposed to become the vaccination police?"
3. The WHO also said Friday that even the vaccinated should keep wearing masks in areas where the virus is spreading. "Vaccination alone is not a guarantee against infection or against being able to transmit that infection to others," WHO's chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said.
4. More than 580,000 people have died in the US of Covid-19. But almost 60 percent of US adults have now received one or more doses, while cases are falling fast, and children are also now being vaccinated.

• Summary: The WHO urged wealthy countries to stop vaccinating children and instead donate doses to poorer nations.

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

Cairn Energy sues Air India in US court

• The story: Cairn Energy has sued India's flagship carrier Air India to enforce a $1.2 billion arbitration award that it won in a tax dispute against India. This is a developing twist in a long story that started with India new "retrospective taxation law" in 2012.
• What it does: The move puts up more pressure on India's government to pay the sum of $1.2 billion plus interest and costs that the British firm Cairn was awarded by an arbitration tribunal in December 2020. The body ruled India breached an investment treaty with Britain and said New Delhi was liable to pay.
• What Cairn said: It filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeking to make Air India liable for the judgement that was awarded to Cairn. The lawsuit argued that the carrier as a state-owned company, is "legally indistinct from the state itself." It said that the nominal distinction between India and Air India is illusory and serves only to aid India in improperly shielding its assets from creditors like (Cairn).
• History: In February, Cairn filed a separate case in a U.S. court to recognise and confirm the arbitration award, including payments due since 2014 and interest compounded semi-annually. Later, the Cairn CEO visited the Finance Ministry in Delhi, seeking support on the payment. But India committed nothing. Later India confirmed it would appeal the decision.

MLA-LAD Scheme

• The story: The Rajasthan Government has approved a proposal to provide Rs. 3 crore each from the MLA Local Area Development (LAD) Fund to mobilise resources for Covid-19 Vaccination of the people in the age group of 18 to 44 years. For meeting the expenses, the fund for each legislator has been increased from Rs. 2.25 crore to Rs. 5 crore a year.
• Learnings: This scheme is a version of the MPLAD scheme. (a) Members of Legislative Assembly Local Area Development (MLA-LAD) Scheme - It is the States’ version of a central government scheme - Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLAD). The goal is to create local need based infrastructure, to create assets of public utility and to remove regional imbalances in development. It is implemented in rural areas as well as urban areas of a state. MLAs do not receive any money under this scheme, but the government transfers it directly to the respective local authorities. The legislators can only recommend works in their constituencies based on a set of guidelines. Amounts per MLA varies across the states. Delhi has the highest allocation under MLALAD; each MLA can recommend works for up to Rs. 10 crore each year. The guidelines for use of MLA-LAD funds differ across states. For example, Delhi MLAs can recommend the operation of fogging machines (to contain dengue mosquitoes), installation of CCTV cameras etc. After the legislators give the list of developmental works, they are executed by the district authorities as per the government's financial, technical and administrative rules. (b) Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLAD) - It is a Central Sector Scheme (CSS), and was announced in December 1993 and initially came under the control of the Ministry of Rural Development. Later, in October 1994, it was transferred to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Each year, MPs receive Rs. 5 crore in two instalments of Rs. 2.5 crore each. Funds under MPLAD Scheme are non-lapsable. The goal is to enable MPs to recommend works of developmental nature with emphasis on the creation of durable community assets based on the locally felt needs to be taken up in their Constituencies. Lok Sabha Members can recommend works within their constituencies and elected Members of Rajya Sabha can recommend works within the State they are elected from. Nominated Members of both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha can recommend works anywhere in the country. To create durable assets of national priorities viz. drinking water, primary education, public health, sanitation and roads, etc. Since June 2016, the MPLAD funds can also be used for implementation of the schemes such as Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan), conservation of water through rain water harvesting and Sansad Aadarsh Gram Yojana, etc. The Union Cabinet has given its nod to the temporary suspension of MPLAD Funds during 2020-21 and 2021-22 in view of the adverse impact of the outbreak of Covid-19 in India.
• Criticism: It is inconsistent with the spirit of the Constitution as it co-opts legislators into executive functioning. The second criticism stems from allegations of corruption associated with allocation of works.

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

Article 311 of Indian Constitution

• The story: In 2021, a big scandal emerged related to a police officer in Maharashtra. He was later dismissed from the service by Mumbai Police Commissioner under Article 311(2)(b) of the Constitution without a departmental enquiry.
• The case: The officer Sachin H Vaze was an "encounter specialist" with the Mumbai Encounter Squad, involved with the deaths of as many as 63 alleged criminals. He was suspended for 17 years after his arrest in the custodial death of Khwaja Yunus, but was granted bail and later reinstated in June 2020. He led the Raigad police team in the arrest of Republic TV editor-in-chief, Arnab Goswami. In March 2021, he was arrested again for his role and involvement in the Antilla Bomb Scare, outside the home of India's richest man Mukesh Ambani. He was dismissed from his police position on May 11, 2021.

• Key points: Let us learn about Article 311.

1. Article 311 (1) says that no government employee either of an all India service or a state government shall be dismissed or removed by an authority subordinate to the own that appointed him/her.
2. Article 311 (2) says that no civil servant shall be dismissed or removed or reduced in rank except after an inquiry in which s/he has been informed of the charges and given a reasonable opportunity of being heard in respect of those charges.
3. People Protected under Article 311: The members of Civil service of the Union, All India Service, and Civil service of any State, People who hold a civil post under the Union or any State. The protective safeguards given under Article 311 are applicable only to civil servants, i.e. public officers. They are not available to defence personnel.
4. Exceptions to Article 311 (2): 2 (a) - Where a person is dismissed or removed or reduced in rank on the ground of conduct which has led to his conviction on a criminal charge; or 2 (b) - Where the authority empowered to dismiss or remove a person or to reduce him in rank is satisfied that for some reason, to be recorded by that authority in writing, it is not reasonably practicable to hold such inquiry; or 2 (c) - Where the President or the Governor, as the case may be, is satisfied that in the interest of the security of the State, it is not expedient to hold such inquiry.

• Other recent cases: The Jammu & Kashmir administration set up a Special Task Force (STF) to scrutinise cases of employees suspected of activities requiring action under Article 311(2)(c). Three government employees, including two teachers, were fired using the Article.
• Options for dismissed employees: The government employee dismissed under these provisions can approach either tribunals like the state administrative tribunal or Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) or the courts.
• Other provisions: The Part XIV of the Constitution of India deals with Services under The Union and The State. Article 309 empowers the Parliament and the State legislature to regulate the recruitment, and conditions of service of persons appointed, to public services and posts in connection with the affairs of the Union or of any State respectively. According to Article 310, except for the provisions provided by the Constitution, a civil servant of the Union works at the pleasure of the President and a civil servant under a State works at the pleasure of the Governor of that State (English doctrine of Pleasure). But this power of the Government is not absolute. The Article 311 puts certain restrictions on the absolute power of the President or Governor for dismissal, removal or reduction in rank of an officer.

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

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Mission

• The story: In 2021, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft departed from asteroid Bennu, and commenced a two-year long journey back to Earth. This was a landmark mission, opening up new vistas.

• Details: The OSIRIS-REx is NASA’s first mission to visit a near-Earth asteroid, survey its surface and collect a sample from it.

1. It is the United States’ first asteroid sample return mission, aiming to collect and carry a pristine, unaltered sample from an asteroid back to earth for scientific study.
2. The OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) spacecraft was launched in 2016 for the journey to Bennu. It is a seven-year-long voyage and will conclude when at least 60 grams of samples are delivered back to the Earth (in 2023).
3. As per the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the mission promises to bring the largest amount of extraterrestrial material back to the Earth since the Apollo era. Apollo was the NASA program that resulted in American astronauts’ making a total of 11 space flights and walking on the moon (1968-72).
4. The spacecraft contains five instruments meant to explore Bennu including cameras, a spectrometer and a laser altimeter. The spacecraft’s robotic arm called the Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM), made an attempt to “TAG” the asteroid at a sample site and collected a sample.

• Significance: Scientists will use the asteroid samples to study the formation of the solar system and of habitable planets such as Earth. NASA will also distribute a part of the samples to laboratories worldwide and will reserve about 75% of the samples for future generations who can study it with technologies not yet created.
• Asteroid Bennu: It is an ancient asteroid, currently more than 200 million miles from Earth. It is about as tall as the Empire State Building (US) and is named after an Egyptian deity, and was discovered by a team from the NASA-funded Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research team in 1999. It is known that this asteroid is a B-type asteroid, implying that it contains significant amounts of carbon and various other minerals. Because of its high carbon content, it reflects about 4% of the light that hits it, which is very low when compared with a planet like Venus, which reflects about 65% of the light that hits it. Earth reflects about 30%. Around 20-40% of Bennu’s interior is empty space and scientists believe that it was formed in the first 10 million years of the solar system’s formation, implying that it is roughly 4.5 billion years old. There is a slight possibility that Bennu, which is classified as a Near Earth Object (NEO), might strike the Earth in the next century, between the years 2175 and 2199.
• History: NEOs are comets and asteroids nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits which allows them to enter the Earth’s neighbourhood. Bennu is believed to have been born in the Main Asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and because of gravitational tugs from other celestial objects and the slight push asteroids get when they release absorbed sunlight, the asteroid is coming closer to Earth.
• Why study: Bennu offers scientists a window into the early solar system as it was first taking shape billions of years ago and tossing ingredients that could have helped seed life on Earth. Bennu hasn’t undergone drastic changes since its formation over billions of years ago and therefore it contains chemicals and rocks dating back to the birth of the solar system. It is also relatively close to the Earth.
• Asteroids: These are rocky objects that orbit the Sun, much smaller than planets. They are also called minor planets, and 9,94,383 is the count of known asteroids, the remnants from the formation of the solar system over 4.6 billion years ago. They are divided into three classes: First, those found in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which is estimated to contain somewhere between 1.1-1.9 million asteroids. The second group is that of trojans, which are asteroids that share an orbit with a larger planet. The third classification is Near-Earth Asteroids (NEA), which have orbits that pass close by the Earth. Those that cross the Earth’s orbit are called Earth-crossers.
• Summary: More than 10,000 such asteroids are known, out of which over 1,400 are classified as Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs). PHAs are currently defined based on parameters that measure the asteroid’s potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth. All asteroids with an Earth Minimum Orbit Intersection Distance (MOID) of 0.05 au or less and an absolute magnitude (H) of 22.0 or less are considered PHAs.

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

Covid-19 vaccine for children

• The story: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE for use in children 12 to 15 years. The shot is the first cleared for administration in the younger age group, after the FDA last December approved the vaccine for ages 16 and up. Here is what you need to know about Covid-19 vaccines and children:
• When will children get Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine: Vaccinations of adolescents have started. States are opening up appointments after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Wednesday expanding use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to 12- to 15-year-olds. A key factor is whether a state has enough vaccine doses available to expand access. Supplies have increased considerably since Covid-19 vaccines began rolling out. However, vaccinating children younger than 12 years is months away. Pfizer, which is testing its shot in the younger children, said it expects to have data and request authorization in September.
• Do children need it: Yes, according to most infectious-disease experts. Children can and do get sick from Covid-19, though research shows they typically experience milder cases and are much less likely than adults and the elderly to be hospitalized or die from the virus. As of late March, more than 3.4 million children had been infected with Covid-19, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, including nearly 14,000 hospitalizations and 279 deaths. The emergence of more-contagious variants, including the B.1.1.7 variant that was first identified in the U.K. and is now dominant in the U.S., appears to be sending younger patients to the hospital with a higher frequency, making vaccines in young adults and adolescents all the more urgent.
• Vaccination for school: Local school districts in the US decide whether to require vaccinations, usually based on advice from the CDC and state and local health officials. Most school districts in the country already require students to have received vaccinations for mumps, measles and rubella, as well as polio, diphtheria and chickenpox, though many districts grant exemptions to students with pre-existing health problems or religious beliefs conflicting with the mandate. More than 100 U.S. colleges and universities have said they would require students to be vaccinated.
• Children’s Covid-19 symptoms: The symptoms are pretty much the same for children as they are for adults, according to the CDC. The symptoms include fever or chills, cough, loss of sense of taste or smell, and headaches. Doctors have also been probing links between Covid-19 and a rare inflammatory condition that causes stomach pain, skin rashes and a high fever. One reason why doctors and public-health experts say they hope children will get vaccinated is research indicating they can carry and transmit the virus even if they don’t show any symptoms.
• Any risks to children: Any vaccine comes with the risk of an adverse reaction, and the Covid-19 shots are no different. So far, however, researchers haven’t found evidence the vaccines pose any additional or different risks to children versus adults. The most common side effects to the vaccine, according to the CDC, are flulike symptoms such as fever, muscle aches and chills. Many recipients also experience arm soreness or bruising after receiving the shot. In rare cases, people who have received a Covid-19 vaccine have experienced severe allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis related to chemicals that help package the main ingredient in the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, a compound known as mRNA. Studies indicate there aren’t safety risks for pregnant mothers or their unborn children from the vaccines, and that expectant mothers can pass on immunity-boosting antibodies to their fetuses after getting the shots.
• Summary: The battle against the pandemic is now open on all fronts, and children need full vaccination support as well.

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

Mixing Covid-19 vaccines and reactogenicity

• The story: Researchers at the University of Oxford launched "Com-COV Study", to investigate effects of alternate doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and Oxford-Astra Zeneca vaccine. The researchers concluded that mixing the administration of these doses in a more frequent mild to moderate reactions will increase the reactogenicity of the vaccine.
• Lessons: If the doses of Pfizer-Biotech and Oxford-AstraZeneca are administered at a four-week interval, one after the other, the reactogenicity of the vaccine increases.
• Reactogenicity: The "reactogenicity" of the vaccines refer to the property of the vaccine to produce expected adverse reactions. This may be fever, redness or soreness or swelling at the site of the jab.
• Inferences: Mixing doses might increase work absences the day after immunisation. Accordingly, at least 10% of the participants who got mixed doses reported severe fatigue as compared to that of 3% of those who were inoculated with one dose.
• Why vaccine mixing: As there were vaccine shortages all over the world and supply chain issues, the scientists explored the idea of mixing and matching vaccines. Situations such as rare blood clots in Johnson and Johnson vaccines and Astra Zeneca vaccines are forcing people to have second thoughts of taking their second doses. They are therefore shifting to some other vaccine after taking the first dose of these. (a) Researchers believe that the mixing is done with the vaccines that share the same target. For instance, Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca target spike protein. Some believe that the efficiency of the vaccines increase when they are mixed up. (b) This is because, two different vaccines are created based on two different methods. For instance, AstraZeneca uses Adeno virus found in Chimpanzees and on the other hand Pfizer mRNA vaccine delivers genetic instructions human cells. It directs them to make spike proteins and then teaches the human cells to kill them. (c) The mixed vaccine is called heterologous boost.

Mice Rain in Australia

• Australian mice: The mice population in Australia has increased exponentially, and is causing extensive damages to the cultivated crop and stored food grains. This is being referred to as Mice Rain.
• “Mice Rain”: In some places, the mice are pouring out like a rain as the farmers are cleaning their silos. They  are running out every where. They have even made their way into rural hospitals and bit patients. Above all, a mouse plague is spreading across New South Wales. Tonnes of grains are becoming contaminated with mice droppings.
• Reasons for Mice Rain: These rodents are the most successful mammals in the planet after humans. A pair of breeding mice can give birth to new litter every twenty days. The conditions in Australia were propitious for their growth, now.
• Plague due to Mice Rain: Plague is a life-threatening infectious disease caused by rod shaped bacteria called Yersinia pestis. It is found in animals such as rodents. As their population is increasing, the spread of the disease is also increasing. This means, Yes, the plague is increasing due to Mice rain. In the 13th century, the disease killed millions of lives in the Europe and hence has got its name “Black Death”. It is mainly caused by sneezing, consumption of contaminated food and water, touching a surface that is contaminated with Y Pestis. It also spreads through direct physical contact with the infected person.
• When did the plague begin: It began in mid March in the eastern Australian states. The Government of New South Wales then extended a support package of 50 million USD to farmers to deal with the mouse plague affecting the farmers, residents. The Government also authorised the outlawed poison called Bromadiolone. All these measures are being done to control the “Mice Rain” in the country.

Tianwen-1: Chinese Rover lands on Mars

• The story: On May 14, 2021, the Chinese Spacecraft Tianwen 1 landed on Mars successfully. It was launched in July 2020 on a Long March 5 rocket.
• More: Tianwen 1 has been orbiting Mars for three months now. The lander that carried the Zhurong rover touched down the Martian surface successfully. It landed in the Utopia Planitia region. But when the lander entered the Martian atmosphere, the spacecraft endured “Seven Minutes of Terror” as that of the Mars Perseverance rover of NASA.
• Utopia Planitia of Mars: It is a plain in the northern hemisphere of the planet. The region is mostly flat and smooth but has craters. Also, the region has Aeolian ridges (Aeolian - wind sculpted). Scientists have observed that the region is covered by mud flows. Some even believe that groundwater may have existed long back.
• Seven Minutes Terror of landers: The EDL phase, called the "Entry Descent Landing", is the “Seven Minutes Terror” phase. The phase happens faster than the time taken by the radio signals to reach the Earth from Mars. This means that the spacecraft is on its own during this phase and is thus called the “”seven minutes of terror. The phase begins as the lander enters the Martian atmosphere and thus the name of the phase is prefixed with ‘Entry’. The EDL phase ends when the rocket powered sky crane lowers the lander safely to the martian surface. During this seven minutes several crucial things occur. The Zhurong rover will investigate surface soil characteristics and potential water ice distribution.

Maratha Quota Issue: Centres review petition in SC

• The story: The Government of India filed a review petition in the Supreme Court over its judgement on Maratha reservation in the State of Maharashtra. The Supreme Court had pronounced that the Maratha reservation under the Maharashtra law breaches the 50% ceiling of reservation. The apex court struck down the Maharashtra law.
• What is Central Government's contention: According to Government of India, only the Union Government has the power under the 102nd Constitutional Amendment to identify and list the socially and economically backward classes.
• What is the State Government saying: The population of the backward classes in Maharashtra constitutes to 85% of the state’s population. However, the reservation limit is only 50%. Thus, the socially and economically backward communities should be provided reservation.
• 102nd Constitutional Amendment: The amendment inserted Article 338B and Article 342A in the Constitution. (a) Article 338B: The amendment provided constitutional status to the National Backward Classes Commission. (b) Article 342A: It gives the President powers to notify backward classes.
• Supreme Court Judgement: After the amendment was passed, several state governments filed cases in the Supreme Court. This was because, the State Government had lost its power to identify the backward classes under the amendment. To this the Supreme Court interpreted the amendment in its verdict as follows: Only the president is empowered to identify the Socially and Economically Backward Classes. The States can only make recommendations.

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• SECTION 3 - MCQs (Multiple Choice Questions)

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