Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 10-06-2021

Useful compilation of Civil Services oriented - Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 10-06-2021

• [message]
• SECTION 1 - TEN NEWS HEADLINES

1. Defence and Military - Reforms in Indian defence sector - The Defence Minister released an E-booklet titled ‘20 Reforms in 2020’ highlighting the major reforms undertaken by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in 2020. First, the structural reforms. The post of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) was created to increase efficiency & coordination among the Armed Forces and reduce duplication, while Department of Military affairs (DMA) was established to ensure improved civil-military integration. Second, a boost to swadeshi. To promote ‘Make in India’ in the defence sector, a list of 101 defence items for which there would be an embargo on the import was notified in August 2020, while Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020 was unveiled in September 2020. The increased partnership with the private sector has led to a substantial rise in defence exports. Funding: There was a 10% budget increase in 2020-21 over the previous year. Fourth, pushing innovation. To promote innovation by young minds, five Young Scientists Laboratories of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) were launched in 2020. Fifth, digitalisation of Tribunals The Armed Forces Tribunal began digital hearing for the first time in August 2020. Sixth, strategic connectivity. World’s longest Atal tunnel above 10,000 feet, at Rohtang on the Leh-Manali Highway was inaugurated. Seventh, improving women's participation. Ten streams of Indian Army were opened for giving Permanent Commission to Short Service Commission (SSC) Women officers. All Sainik Schools were thrown open for girl students from academic session 2020-21. Eighth, expansing the NCC. Expanding the reach of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) to remote locations was a major announcement.
2. Indian Economy - RBI’s Bimonthly Monetary Policy, June 2021 - Various decisions were announced by RBI while unveiling Bimonthly Monetary Policy. (i) Policy rate unchanged - The policy repo rate was unchanged at 4% for the sixth time in a row and reverse repo rate at 3.35%. (ii) Growth prospects downsized - India’s GDP growth rate projection was slashed to 9.5% due to uncertainties caused by second wave of COVID-19. (iii) Liquidity boost - Rs.15,000-crore liquidity window to be launched by banks for contact intensive sectors like Hotel and tourism. Also, fresh Rs.16000-crore liquidity line to Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) for on-lending/ refinancing through novel models and structures. (iv) Upper limit for MSMEs revised - The maximum limit for borrowers is enhanced from Rs.25 crore to Rs.50 crore for MSMEs, small businesses and business loans to individuals. Meanwhile, the RBI is pressing ahead with its GSAP programme of purchasing govt. securities as per a set calendar, from the secondary market, rejecting calls for printing of money (i.e. private placement of Govt. debt paper directly with RBI).
3. Governance and Institutions - Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Urban - The Government approved 708 proposals for construction of 3.61 lakh houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Urban (PMAY-U) in 2021. Launched in 2015, PMAY-U is a flagship Mission of Government of India being implemented by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) that ensures a pucca house to all eligible urban households by 2022. All statutory towns as per Census 2011 and towns notified subsequently would be eligible for coverage under the Mission. PMAY-U addresses urban housing shortage among the Economically Weaker Section (EWS), Low Income Group (LIG) and Middle Income Group (MIG) categories including the slum dwellers. It has made a mandatory provision for the female head of the family to be the owner or co-owner of the house under this Mission. It provides assistance to the implementing agencies through States/UTs and Central Nodal Agencies (CNAs) for providing houses to all eligible families/ beneficiaries against demand for houses for about 1.12 crore.
4. Science and Technology - First CAR-T ell therapy - The Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy emerged as a breakthrough in cancer treatment. The IIT Bombay and Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, are working in collaboration to conduct the early phase pilot clinical trial of the “first in India” CAR-T therapy. The CAR-T cells were designed and manufactured at Bioscience and Bioengineering (BSBE) department of IIT Bombay. This work is partly supported by BIRAC-PACE scheme. The TMC-IIT Bombay team are further supported to extend this project for conducting Phase I/II trial of their CAR-T product by DBT/BIRAC, through National Biopharma Mission. The development of CAR-T cell technology for diseases including acute lymphocytic leukemia, multiple myeloma, glioblastoma, hepatocellular carcinoma and type-2 diabetes is supported through DBT. Though this technology has a good therapeutic potential for cancer patients, at present this technology is not available in India. The challenge is to develop the CAR-T therapy in cost-effective manner (currently, it costs Rs. 3-4 crore). The manufacturing complexity is a major reason for the therapy cost.
5. Social Issues - Supreme Court instructs stop to illegal adoption - The Supreme Court has directed the States/UTs to take stringent action against private individuals and NGOs who invite people to illegally adopt children orphaned by the COVID-19 pandemic. It said that it was illegal to invite strangers to adopt children without the involvement of the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA). The CARA is the nodal body for adoption of Indian children, and primarily deals with adoption of orphaned, abandoned and surrendered children through its associated /recognised adoption agencies. It regulates in-country and inter-country adoptions (in accordance with the provisions of The Hague Convention on Inter-Country Adoption, 1993, ratified by Government of India in 2003). CARA is an autonomous and a statutory body of the Union Women and Child Development Ministry. The mandatory registration of CCIs and linking to CARA has been provided in Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. It was set up in 1990. In 2018, CARA has allowed individuals in a live-in relationship to adopt children from and within India.
6. Healthcare and Medicine - Operation Pangea XIV - A record number of fake online pharmacies have been shut down under Operation Pangea XIV targeting the sale of counterfeit and illicit medicines and medical products. The operation coordinated by INTERPOL involved police, customs and health regulatory authorities from 92 countries. Indian agencies also participated in the operation, and the Central Bureau of Investigation is the nodal body for the Interpol in India. It resulted in 1.1 lakh web links including websites and online marketplaces being closed down or removed, the highest number since the first Operation Pangea in 2008. Raising public awareness of the potential dangers of buying medicines online was also part of Operation Pangea XIV.
7. People and Personalities - Anup Chandra Pandey appointed Election Commissioner - The former UP-cadre bureaucrat, Anup Chandra Pandey, was appointed the Election Commissioner of India. He will be joining the poll panel (ECI) as one of the two Election Commissioners. The position became vacant in April 2021, when Sunil Chandra was appointed as the Chief Election Commissioner. Given the immediate working background of some such appointees, demand to have a strong panel-based selection process has gathered pace. Uttar Pradesh assembly elections are due 2022, and Mr Pandey comes from the same cadre.
8. Science and Technology - Various updates - (a) Fastly, the company behind major global internet outage that led to websites of Amazon, Reddit and CNN and others crash worldwide in June, said the incident was caused by a software bug. The bug was triggered when a customer changed their settings. (b) El Salvador has become the first country in the world to officially adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. President Nayib Bukele shared the news on Twitter, writing, "Bitcoin Law has been approved by a supermajority in Salvadoran Congress. 62 out of 84 votes! History!" He said that the move will improve lives and the future of millions. (c) The White House has dropped executive orders of former US President Donald Trump that attempted to ban WeChat and TikTok. A new executive order directs the Commerce Department to undertake what officials describe as an "evidence-based" analysis of transactions involving apps that are controlled by China. The department has been ordered to review security concerns posed by the Chinese-owned apps.
9. Indian Politics - BJP top gun by a long margin - BJP received around Rs.750 crore in political donations from companies and individuals in 2019-20. This was reported by the Indian Express citing the party's contribution report submitted to the Election Commission. This is over five times more than what Congress received (Rs.139 crore). It further reported that NCP got Rs.59 crore in donations in the same period. The total contributions that the BJP received in 2019-20 is expected to be much more than Rs 750 crore since the contribution report only lists donations above Rs 20,000 made by individuals, companies, electoral trusts and associations. The party’s income from electoral bonds was not known yet as it’s yet to submit its annual audit report. The EC has extended the deadline for submission of the annual audit reports for 2019-20 to June 30. The BJP has been the biggest beneficiary of the electoral bonds scheme since its launch in 2018.
10. Indian Politics - Covid Update - (a) India reported 6,148 new COVID-19 deaths as Bihar revised data (adding 3,951 backlog fatalities to its total), making it the worst one-day tally globally. Earlier India had reported its highest single-day toll (4,529) on May 19. India reported less than 1 lakh coronavirus cases for third day in a row as 94,052 people tested positive for the virus in the last 24 hours. (b) Surakshit Hum Surakshit Tum Abhiyaan launched - The NITI Aayog and the Primal Foundation launched Surakshit Hum Surakshit Tum Abhiyaan. It will support the district administrations in providing home care support to COVID-19 with mild symptoms or who are asymptomatic. It has been launched in 112 aspirational districts. (c) Jammu & Kashmir village first to achieve 100% vaccination - Jammu & Kashmir’s Weyan Village in Bandipora district has become the first village in India to achieve 100% vaccination of its adults. The total population in the village is 362 and people had to walk 18 km to get their COVID-19 vaccine shot. (d) NUMBERS - INDIA - Total cases: 29,182,072; New cases: 94052; Total deaths: 359,695; New deaths: 6148; Total recovered: 27,645,225; Active cases: 1,177,152.

• [message]
• SECTION 2 - DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

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

Corrosion and Indian GDP loss

• The story: The International Zin Association made a stunning claim that India loses around 5-7 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) every year due to corrosion. It also stressed upon the need for immediate and appropriate measures by authorities to control further damage.

• Details: The product under consideration here is 'Continuous Galvanized Rebars', value-added rebars for higher life and low maintenance of infrastructure to provide significant cost savings compared to other corrosion resistant rebar systems.

1. These are considered part of emerging, sustainable construction technologies
2. Continuous Galvanized Rebars are value-added rebars for higher life and low maintenance of infrastructure to provide significant cost savings compared to other corrosion resistant rebar systems.
3. These offers on-site formability of the finished product, superior corrosion resistance in concrete at a price cheaper than other corrosion resistant rebar. This technology provides significant cost savings compared to other corrosion resistant rebar systems together with the advantage of preventing corrosion, thereby enhancing the lifetime of the underlying steel.

• Summary: The association says that the value-added rebar market is expected to grow at CAGR of 5-6 per cent in the coming years. The sector may grow further given the infrastructure projects lined up for next decade. With right mandates and pricing, Continuous Galvanized Rebars can prove to be extremely beneficial in preventing corrosion and offer strength to the strictures.

Why Blue Economy mattere

• The story: The term "Blue Economy" is an emerging concept which encourages better stewardship of our ocean or ‘blue’ resources. Similar to the ‘Green Economy’, the blue economy model aims for improvement of human wellbeing and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities.

• Details: India has a unique maritime position, with a 7,517-km long coastline and an Exclusive Economic Zone of over two million sq-km. Having vast ocean resources at their disposal – presenting a huge opportunity for boosting their economic growth and to tackle unemployment, food security and poverty.

1. The resources in these areas can spur India’s economic recovery in a manner that is also beneficial to our climate and environment.
2. International society believes that the blue economy covers three economic forms: (i) Economy coping with global water crisis, (ii) Innovative development economy, and (iii) Development of marine economy.

• Blue versus Ocean economy: The idea of 'blue economy' goes beyond viewing the 'ocean economy' solely as a mechanism for economic growth. In the ocean economy model, large-scale industrial nations sought to exploit the maritime and marine resources, often without a view to the effects their activities have on the future health or productivity of those same resources. For example through shipping, commercial fishing, and the oil, gas, minerals and mining industries. The blue economy is not just about market opportunities; it also provides for the protection and development of more intangible ‘blue’ resources. For example, traditional ways of life, carbon sequestration, and coastal resilience to help vulnerable states mitigate the often devastating effects of climate change. It provides for an inclusive model in which coastal states - which sometimes lack the capacity to manage their rich ocean resources - can begin to extend the benefit of those resources to all.
• Importance: New research for a sustainable ocean economy, co-chaired by the Norwegian Prime Minister (PM), showed that every dollar invested in key ocean activities yields five times i.e. $5 in return, often more. The Government of India (GOI)’s Vision of New India by 2030 highlighted the Blue Economy as one of the 10 core dimensions of growth.
• Synergy with UN SDGs 2030: It supports all of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG14 ‘life below water’. Supporting the increasing demand for renewable energy, offshore regions have tremendous potential in the form of offshore wind, waves, ocean currents including tidal currents, and thermal energy.
• Importance for India: With an over 7,500-km-long coastline spread across nine coastal states, 12 major, and 200 minor ports, India's blue economy supports 95% of the country's business through transportation and contributes an estimated 4% to its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). All the sectors across the blue economy have the potential to engage a large workforce and have been doing so from the past many decades at least in sectors such as fishing, aquaculture, fish processing, marine tourism, shipping and port activities. Engagement in new sectors such as offshore wind, marine biology, biotechnology, and other activities like shipbuilding and ship breaking is also rising extensively.
• Summary:The ocean has a role to play in strengthening resilience to economic and environmental disruptions. Investing in shipping decarbonisation, sustainable seafood production and ocean-based renewable energy provides for better health outcomes, richer biodiversity, more secure jobs and a safer planet for generations to come.

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

Fuel used in logistics has huge savings potential for India

• The story: India can save upro Rs.3.11 trillion worth of fuel till 2050 by deploying clean and cost-effective mode of goods transportation. This is as per a new report from Niti Aayog and Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), whih said India can reduce its cost of logistics by 4% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and reduce 10 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide emissions till 2030 through these measures. Today, logistics comprises about 13% of the total costs for Indian companies, making exports uncompetitive vis-a-vis China.
• Details of the report: The report titled "Fast Tracking Freight in India: A Roadmap for Clean and Cost-Effective Goods Transport", says that due to the rising demand for goods and services, freight transport demand is expected to grow rapidly in the future. While freight transport is essential to economic development, it is plagued by high logistics costs and contributes to rising CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions, and air pollution in cities. It added that India also has the potential to "reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) emissions by 35% and 28%, respectively, until 2050". India handles 4.6 billion tonnes of goods each year, amounting to a total annual cost of ₹9.5 lakh crore (trillion).
• India's clean energy programme: This comes at a time when India is running the world’s largest clean energy programme and is seeking a global leadership role in tackling climate change. As part of this, India is working to push its electric vehicles (EV) programme, with the government approving a ₹18,100 crore production linked incentive (PLI) scheme to make lithium-ion cells, to attract investments worth Rs.45,000 crore.
• Backbone: Freight transportation is a critical backbone of India’s growing economy, and now more than ever, it is important to make this transport system more cost-effective, efficient, and cleaner. Efficient freight transport will also play an essential role in realizing the benefits of existing government initiatives such as Make in India, Aatmanirbhar Bharat, and Digital India.
• Green mobility: As part of India’s biggest-ever push for green mobility, Convergence Energy Services Ltd (CESL) aims to supply 200,000 two-wheeled electric vehicles (EVs) and 300,000 three-wheeled EVs across India. CESL plans to halve the cost of ownership of these vehicles through incentives offered under phase 2 of the Union government’s Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (Fame) scheme, state government subsidies, support from EV makers and carbon credits that will be earned under the United Nations’s Clean Development Mechanism.
• Summary: This transformation will be defined by tapping into opportunities such as efficient rail-based transport, the optimization of logistics and supply chains, and shifts to electric and other clean-fuel vehicles. These solutions can help India save Rs.311 lakh cr cumulatively over the next three decades.

Turkey experiences a ‘Sea Snot’ outbreak

• The story: Turkey’s Sea of Marmara, which connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea, witnessed the largest outbreak of ‘sea snot’ in June 2021. A ‘sea snot’ outbreak was first recorded in the country in 2007.
• Details: The Sea Snot is a marine mucilage that is formed when algae are overloaded with nutrients as a result of water pollution combined with the effects of climate change. The nutrient overload occurs when algae feast on warm weather caused by global warming. It looks like a viscous, brown and foamy substance.
• Concerns: It is a threat to the Marine Ecosystem, and has caused mass deaths among the fish population, and also killed other aquatic organisms such as corals and sponges. It is now covering the surface of the sea and has also spread to 80-100 feet below the surface which eventually can collapse to the bottom and cover the sea floor. The livelihoods of fishermen is affected as well, as the sludge is getting collected in their nets, making them so heavy that they break or get lost. The mucilage coating the strings makes the nets visible to fish and keeps them away. It creates water-borne diseases too, and can cause an outbreak of water-borne diseases such as cholera in cities like Istanbul.
• Steps being taken: The entire Sea of Marmara will be turned into a protected area. Steps are being taken to reduce pollution and improve treatment of waste water from coastal cities and ships. Turkey’s biggest maritime clean-up operation is being launched and called on local residents, artists and NGOs to join hands to extend assistance.
• Nutrient Pollution: It is the process where too many nutrients, mainly nitrogen and phosphorus, are added to bodies of water and can act like fertilizer, causing excessive growth of algae. This process is also known as eutrophication. Nutrients can occur naturally as a result of weathering of rocks and soil in the watershed and they can also come from the ocean due to mixing of water currents. There are more nutrients entering our coastal waters from wastewater treatment facilities, runoff from land in urban areas during rains, and from farming.
• Impact: Severe algal growth blocks light that is needed for plants, such as seagrasses, to grow. When the algae and seagrass die, they decay and in this process the oxygen in the water is used up and this leads to low levels of dissolved oxygen in the water. This, in turn, can kill fish, crabs, oysters, and other aquatic animals.
• World Oceans Day: The World Oceans Day is celebrated every year on 8th June to create awareness about the benefits that mankind gets from the ocean. The Day was designated by the United Nations General Assembly in 2008. Oceans are considered to be the lungs of the planet, a critical part of the biosphere and are a major source of food and medicine. The theme of the World Oceans Day 2021 was 'The Ocean: Life and Livelihoods'. It is especially relevant in the lead-up to the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, which will run from 2021 to 2030.

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

Foreign Affairs update

• Biden's China task force: A China Task Force assembled by the U.S. Department of Defense in February on President Joe Biden’s orders has ended its work without dramatic results. The press release vaguely mentioned various interdepartmental initiatives, some of which are classified. Any increased cooperation on China within the U.S. government may be a good thing, but the changes seem like necessary bureaucratic reform more than anything else. A joint departmental review of supply chains, prompted by the pandemic and concerns over China’s ability to potentially disrupt the supply of critical materials, also wrapped up this week. A new Supply Chain Disruption Task Force will focus on strengthening U.S. production, bringing allies into tighter supply chains, and cutting out Chinese suppliers from playing too critical a role. To actually prevent suppliers from flocking to the cheapest Chinese options will require major investment and coercive measures.
• China's fiery nationalism singes good guys: A number of Chinese intellectuals face online attacks for taking part in a Japanese-sponsored exchange program running since 2008, prompting worries from less extreme Chinese state media that nationalism is out of control. The concern admittedly rings hollow, given how enthusiastically that same media has taken part in stirring nationalism. Some popular WeChat bloggers have broadened their anti-U.S. conspiratorialism into anti-Semitic conspiratorialism—already endorsed by some state media figures.
• Chinese elephants out of the reserve: A herd of 19 lost elephants escaped a nature reserve in Yunnan province and captured the attention of the Chinese public. Although the authorities are tracking them via drone and attempting to return them to a safe location, the elephants have caused a fair amount of damage by breaking into village farmland in search of food. Elephants were once relatively common throughout China. Xiangqi, a Chinese variant of chess, uses elephants as its equivalent for bishops. But over the centuries human expansion forced them into extinction or retreat, and by the 19th century they were confined to a tiny population in the south.
• Semiconductor concerns: The U.S. Senate passed the Endless Frontier Act on 08th June, putting over $250 billion into research as part of technological competition with China and blocking Chinese investment in sensitive areas. Lawmakers have already considerably reduced the bill’s original spending goals, which were far more ambitious. One of the most notable parts of the bill is the $52 billion allocated for the U.S. semiconductor industry. There are a couple of reasons why U.S. policymakers have lately become so focused on semiconductors, the crucial components in computer chips. The first is China’s saber-rattling over Taiwan, which makes up 63 percent of the global semiconductor revenue. On the Chinese side, a failed yearslong plan to boost domestic production has caused concern. There’s also the chip shortage that emerged this year as economic growth resumed after the onset of the pandemic—slowing down global manufacturing of everything from toasters to cars.
• TikTok, WeChat get reprieve in US: The Biden administration has dropped Trump-era attempts to ban or force the sale of uber-popular video app TikTok and ubiquitous Chinese messaging service WeChat. The decision was always likely, given U.S. courts had already blocked both attempts in no uncertain terms. In both cases, the shaky argument for banning the apps was largely based on fears of CCP influence—circumstantial in the case of TikTok and well-documented for WeChat—that didn’t hold up against U.S. law, and especially the First Amendment. Moreover, the Trump administration itself gave up on trying to enforce the TikTok ban. The decision doesn’t mean an end to scrutiny of Chinese technology’s presence in U.S. firms. But it is emblematic of how the Trump team’s chaotic attempts to make headlines on China often ran into legal quagmires.

A revolution called "Bidenomics"

• The story: Only a year ago, Joe Biden was not seen as a potential transformational President. But the reality has been totally different. In a May 27 speech at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland outlining his $6 trillion budget proposal, Biden talked about “creating a new paradigm”: resurrecting America’s beleaguered underclass with a combination of major education, health care, and tax proposals and a new brand of industrial policy and economic nationalism that will, eventually, propel the United States past China and other rising competitors.
• A total revolution: If Biden is able to follow through on this plan, the president will destroy the ruling doctrine of the past 40 years: Reaganomics, or “trickle-down economics.” Biden is setting his sights high, as revealed by the name he has given his programme: the “new bargain,” consciously echoing Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. This is Bidenomics.
• Biden is his own man: The truth is, Biden always had big plans of his own. By the accounts of some of his closest advisors, the new president has long been a pent-up populist who spent his eight years as vice president—on top of 30 years of vying for the White House—pushing hard for a major government expansion of support for America’s long-suffering working class. Biden has long believed U.S. global leadership is entirely dependent on U.S. economic leadership. He also believes its edge has been lost through decades of obsessive deficit reduction and government paralysis, leading to rapidly declining public investment and an undereducated middle class that is desperate for affordable housing, decent public transit, and adequate child and elder care.

• Killing the inequalities: What Biden's talking about is making necessary investments so the US doesn’t just show up as good GDP growth and a stock market but becomes globally competitive to the point where the prosperity it is generating is realized not only by the top 1 or 2 percent but all the way down to the lowest-income communities. That needs correcting inequities that have festered since the Reagan era, and actually embracing a national industrial policy for the first time in decades.

1. Biden is clear that the private sector, by itself, isn’t going to solve the biggest challenges we face — extreme inequality and social disparities, the climate crisis, people dropping out of the labour force, the narrowing of US technological edge.
2. Much of this government-directed, spread-the-wealth thinking comes out of Biden’s more than three decades on Capitol Hill.

• The tax story: The declining middle class took on a greater burden of taxes during the decades after Ronald Reagan. Changes in U.S. tax laws saw labour’s proportion of taxed federal revenue leap from 50 percent in 1950 to more than 80 percent today, and at the same time taxes on corporations fell from 30 percent of GDP to less than 10 percent now, making America’s rich much richer and the working class poor and desperate.

1. With government starved of funds, public research and development fell from 2 percent in the 1960s to a meager 0.7 percent today, the United States became one of the few advanced nations where public investment actually dropped in the past quarter century.
2. Under Biden’s plan, anyone earning more than $400,000 a year will see their taxes increase to pay for his grand plans, while those below that threshold will not. “This is about rebalancing the burden between labor and [corporate] profits”.
3. Biden has proposed a revolutionary new global corporate income tax, and has trotted out a third $2 trillion plan in a hundred days and boasted that his infrastructure spending scheme would be “the largest jobs plan since World War II.” In all, Biden is proposing about $7.5 trillion in new spending, nearly double what the United States spent in inflation-adjusted dollars to win World War II. His budget plan is heavily focused on a flood of new government-led R&D and infrastructure spending and assistance to lower-income Americans. That includes massive subsidies for free community college and health and child care, as well as additional federal funding programs for schools with large concentrations of less advantaged students.

• Summary: Ultimately, Bidenomics could set the stage for protectionist fervor to spread around the globe. Critics have belittled Biden’s approach as Trump’s America First agenda but with a smile! Certainly the nationalism and anti-China rhetoric sound familiar, and are just as dangerous to global prosperity. But Biden is clear about his agenda, and is pursuing it with silent, unstoppable vigour.

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

West can lead, and G-7 will be the vehicle

• The story: The G7 summit of June 2021 will send an indirect message to China. The propaganda line pumped out from Beijing is that the West is in inexorable decline. A successful G7 summit could reinvigorate the idea that the west can provide global leadership in alliance with fellow democracies in Asia and around the world.

• Details: It is the G7’s identity as a club of democracies that gives it renewed significance in an era of rising tension between China and the west. The core seven countries — the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada — first met in the 1970s. At the end of the cold war, Russia was invited to join the group, turning the club into the G8. But the Russian Federation was booted out again after its annexation of Crimea in 2014.

1. The great challenge to the relevance of the G7 is the declining share of the world economy represented by those seven core nations. In the 1970s the G7 nations accounted for some 80 per cent of world gross domestic product. That is now down to about 40 per cent.
2. When the global financial crisis struck the world in 2008, a larger group of countries than the G7 was needed to steer the world economy off the rocks. To deal with that emergency, the Bush administration convened the first ever G20 summit — which included the original G7, plus rising economic powers such as Brazil, India and, above all, China.

• G-20 story: The success of the G20 in organising international action to avert a global depression seemed to confirm that the G7’s moment had passed. There was even speculation that the group might never meet again. As US president, Donald Trump derided the group as outdated. It is the Biden administration’s renewed determination to push back against Moscow and Beijing that has provided the G7 with a renewed reason to exist. But the fact that the G7 no longer represents most of the global economy — and is skewed towards the Euro-Atlantic region — remains a problem.

1. To compensate, the group have invited four guests to the summit: Australia, India, South Africa and South Korea. The fact that three of these guests are Asian countries underlines the group’s role in pushing back against Beijing.
2. Nonetheless, several of the core issues placed on the G7 summit agenda — the pandemic, climate and trade — ultimately require Chinese co-operation. They are global issues that cannot be fixed without the participation of the world’s most populous nation and second-largest economy.

• Global minimum corporate tax: The deal on a global minimum corporate tax rate, which should be signed off at this week’s G7 meeting and then taken to the G20 summit later this year, is a big landmark. The key question in Cornwall will be whether the G7 can find other practical initiatives that go beyond feel-good slogans about vaccinating the world, net-zero emissions and “free and fair trade”.
• Covid: On Covid-19, an obvious step would be to sharply increase funding for Covax, the global vaccination programme. The US and the UK will also be under pressure to start donating more vaccines to the developing world, before they have achieved near-complete vaccination at home. In domestic political terms, that could be difficult. But if the G7 dodges the challenge, China is well placed to become the engine of the global vaccination drive.
• Emissions: Since China is now the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, it would be futile for the G7 to go it alone on climate. But the group could advance the global agenda ahead of the COP26 summit in November by agreeing on some eye-catching joint initiatives — ending subsidies for the coal industry, for example. A global pandemic provides a hugely challenging backdrop for the G7 summit. But a world crisis also provides a unique chance to show leadership. The G7 should take the opportunity — it may not come again.

India's petrol and diesel prices head to the Moon

• The story: Petrol has crossed the Rs 100 mark in at least six states as a result of a Rs 4.9 per litre hike in its price since the beginning of May. Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan blamed a “surge in global crude oil prices” for the rising domestic prices of petrol and diesel.

• Rising crude oil prices: The price of crude oil has risen sharply in 2021 on the back of a recovery in global demand as the world economy recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic. The price of Brent crude has risen by 37.1 per cent to about $71 per barrel from about $51.8 per barrel at the beginning of the year. The price of petrol and diesel are pegged to a 15-day rolling average of the international prices of the petrol and diesel. But current petrol prices are significantly higher than prices in FY14 when the average price of India’s crude basket was $105.5 per barrel. The price of petrol was decontrolled in 2010 while the price of diesel was decontrolled in 2014.

1. In June 2013, when India’s average crude basket was at $101 per barrel, petrol was retailing at Rs 63.09 per litre or about Rs 76.6 per litre, when adjusted for the depreciation in the value of the rupee against the US dollar.
2. In October 2018, when the average cost of India’s crude oil basket was at $80.1 per barrel, the price of diesel peaked at Rs 75.7 per litre.

• Impact of taxes: Increasing central and state taxes on petrol and diesel are the key reason for the prices of petrol and diesel being at record highs, even though the price of crude oil is only 3.5 per cent higher than at the beginning of 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic led to a sharp fall in the demand for crude oil. In Delhi, central and state taxes account for about 57 per cent of pump prices of petrol and about 51.4 per cent of the pump price of diesel. The central government had in 2020 hiked the excise duty on petrol by Rs 13 per litre and on diesel by about Rs 16 per litre to shore up revenues as the pandemic led to a sharp fall in economic activity. While a number of states including Rajasthan, West Bengal, Assam and Meghalaya have reversed hikes in state levies imposed during the pandemic, the central government has not cut central taxes despite calls from the RBI that taxes on auto fuels should be cut to curb inflation. Central levies account for 71.8 per cent of total taxes on diesel and 60.1 per cent of total taxes on diesel in the national capital.
• Summary: The government was not considering any cuts in taxes on petrol and diesel. Its logic is that to fund the expenditure on health sector, fuel taxes are a must.

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

Modi's push for "One Nation One Election"

• The story: The vibrant Indian democracy sees elections to state assemblies frequently. There are demands, mostly from the ruling party BJP, that this creates a lot of dissonance in governance, and hence India must have "One Nation, One Election" and all elections must be held simultaneously. The Prime Minister has personally pushed the idea several times.
• The 2021 case: Elections in four states and one Union territory were held in March-April 2021. Since the political parties could not contain their enthusiasm while campaigining, they are suspected to have contributed to the second wave of Covid infections in a big way.
• The idea: The idea revolves around six issues: (i) Financial costs of conducting elections, (ii) cost of repeated administrative freezes, (iii) visible and invisible costs of repeatedly deploying security forces, (iv) campaign and finance costs of political parties, (v) the question of regional/smaller parties having a level playing field, and (vi) huge power concentration in just one political party.
• History: This idea has been around since 1983, when the Election Commission first mooted it. However, until 1967, simultaneous elections were the norm in India.

1. The first General Elections to the House of People (Lok Sabha) and all State Legislative Assemblies were held simultaneously in 1951-52. That continued in three subsequent General Elections held in the years 1957, 1962 and 1967.
2. Due to the premature dissolution of some Legislative Assemblies in 1968 and 1969, the cycle got disrupted. In 1970, the Lok Sabha was itself dissolved prematurely and fresh elections were held in 1971. Thus, the First, Second and Third Lok Sabha enjoyed full five-year terms.
3. As a result of premature dissolutions and extension of terms of both the Lok Sabha and various State Legislative Assemblies, there have been separate elections to Lok Sabha and States Legislative Assemblies, and the cycle of simultaneous elections has been disturbed.

• Arguments in favour:

1. Economic costs of elections - Directly budgeted costs are around Rs 300 crore for a state the size of Bihar. However, there are other financial costs, and incalculable economic costs. Each election means government machinery misses out on their regular duties due to election duty and related work. These costs of the millions of man-hours used are not charged to the election budget.
2. Policy paralysis - The Model Code of Conduct (MCC) also affects the government's functionary, as no new significant policy can be announced and executed after the elections are announced. (However, a lot of these worries have been proven to be fiction)
3. Administrative costs - There are visible costs of deploying security forces and transporting them, repeatedly. An invisible cost is paid by the nation in terms of diverting these forces from sensitive areas and in terms of the fatigue and illnesses that repeated cross-country deployments bring about.

• Arguments against:

1. Federal problem - Simultaneous elections are almost nearly impossible to implement, as it would mean arbitrarily curtailing or extending the term of existing legislatures to bring their election dates in line with the due date for the rest of the country. Such a measure would undermine democracy and federalism. It would also swing the balance in favour of the most powerful party of the day, which today is the BJP, with huge funding.
2. Against democracy - Forcing simultaneous elections is against democracy because trying to force an artificial cycle of elections and restricting the choice for voters is not correct. It will also mean that the "check" that exists on the party running the Central Govt., due to state elections from time to time, will vanish.
3. Regional parties to suffer - Regional parties will suffer in simultaneously held elections, as voters are quite likely to predominantly vote one way, giving the dominant party at the Centre an advantage. This will destroy the federal spirit of the nation, which the voters may realise later at their own cost.
4. Diminished accountability - Having to face the electorate more than once every 5 years enhances the accountability of politicians and keeps them on their toes. This has been proven repeatedly, most recently in the West Bengal elections 2021.
5. Opaque funding problems - As long as the major source of funding in elections remains the "Electoral Bonds" route, which is totally opaque and swung in favour of just one party, the whole game can be manipulated significanty.  (The electoral bonds' constitutionality is still undecided in the Supreme Court)

• Summary: India's diversity and complexity makes it nearly impossible for a fair system of simultaneous elections to exist. Instead of taking elections as a cost, it may be viewed as an investment in a robust democracy's future. For that, citizens have to be alert and ready to question their governments over performance in issues that matter.

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

If the world doesn't get vaccinated ...

• The story: According to a recent analysis of C.D.C. data by Kaiser Health News, only twenty-two per cent of Black Americans have been vaccinated, and Black vaccination rates are significantly lower than those of whites in almost every state. Much of what has been called vaccine hesitancy is actually a problem of vaccine access.
• Details: Vaccine distribution follows a similar socioeconomic pattern all over the world, with most COVID vaccines going to what are called high- and middle-income countries. By March 2021, those countries had secured more than six billion out of 8.6 billion doses. By May, when less than eight per cent of the world’s population had received one dose, it was estimated that the world’s poorest countries may not be able to vaccinate their populations until 2023. This disparity - vaccine apartheid - is a problem that will not be borne solely by the people living in those locales. It has the potential to undermine the gains made on the virus in places where vaccine adoption is high and a post-pandemic future is starting to feel possible.

• Why the rich should worry: There are two reasons -

1. Simple humanity - If left unchecked, the loss of human life for families and societies worldwide will be staggering. Viruses are international travellers, and over time they mutate. Wherever vaccine coverage is patchy, there is selective pressure for the virus to evolve resistance. Robust virus variants from South Africa, Brazil, the U.K., and India have spread around the world. So far, the first generation of COVID vaccines is holding the line against them, but that protection is not guaranteed. It’s possible that the virus, which has already infected vast numbers of people, won’t evolve in a way that fatally undermines our vaccines.
2. Simple biology - Some epidemiologists think that we have a year or less before the virus breaks through and renders them less effective. Pharmaceutical companies are working on shots that are as effective against the variants as they are against the original virus, but their efficacy hasn’t yet been proved. Humanity must exploit the fact that we have vaccines that are incredibly effective right now.

• Herd immunity: A race to vaccinate the world is not an effort to achieve herd immunity. In the US, Dr. Anthony Fauci had suggested that herd immunity would occur when sixty to seventy per cent of the population was vaccinated. Later it was told that the number was more likely eighty per cent. Most recently, Fauci notched that number upward again, to ninety per cent.
• mRNA: As soon as the mRNA vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna proved to be both safe and effective, countries with deep pockets, like the United States, signed contracts to buy hundreds of millions of doses, eventually contracting for far more than they needed. The same happened later with the vaccines from Oxford University-AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson. This was vaccine nationalism. As early as April 2020, Gavi, a twenty-one-year-old international vaccine alliance, partnered with the W.H.O. and the Oslo-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI) to create COVAX, an initiative aimed at distributing COVID vaccines equitably around the world. Their ambition was to fund vaccine research while also creating mechanisms for any country, regardless of national income, to have access to those vaccines. Participating countries would receive vaccine doses in proportion to their population. But things haven't worked as expected.
• Summary: Increasing vaccine production through technology transfers is insufficient for ending the pandemic. Without equitable global distribution, humans are likely to be dealing with COVID for a very long time. The world has been blessed with vaccines whose effectiveness against this virus is absolutely remarkable, and they give a shot at potentially eliminating the virus right now in very large parts of the world. Sadly, mankind is not using that opportunity.

A novel nuclear reactor

• The story: Bill Gates has not abandoned the business world entirely. On June 2nd 2021, TerraPower, a company he founded in 2008, announced that it would build a demonstration of an exotic, high-tech nuclear-power station. The firm's Natrium reactor is a new design, made by engineers trying to come up with cheaper, simpler nuclear power plants that can provide low-carbon electricity with fewer of the cost and safety worries.
• How different: The Natrium reactor makes two big changes to the standard nuclear-power-plant design. It replaces the liquid water that normally courses through the core with hot, liquid sodium (natrium, in Latin). Instead of using the heat generated by the reactor to make electricity directly, it first employs it to heat a tank of molten salt that acts as a giant battery. This may lead to a cheaper reactor that is better suited to power grids that will increasingly be dominated by intermittent sources of energy such as wind turbines and solar panels.
• Details: Most nuclear power plants are light-water reactors (LWRs), a technology developed in America in the 1950s. They use ordinary water both to cool the reactor core and to increase the intensity of the chain-reaction by moderating the speed of the neutrons that are emitted when uranium atoms split. Thus slowed, these neutrons are more likely to go on to split more atoms in turn. But Natrium employs hot, liquid sodium as a coolant, and dispenses with the moderator entirely. Sodium offers several advantages as a coolant, as liquid sodium's high temperature (around 500°C) makes the reactor more efficient. At the same time, liquid sodium is much less corrosive to pipes than hot water. And though the water in LWRs is pumped through at high pressure, Natrium is designed to operate at close to atmospheric pressure. That means pipes, containment buildings and the like can be less large without affecting safety.
• Storage system: The second big idea is the molten-salt energy-storage system. Solar-thermal systems (different from the photovoltaic ones that generate electricity directly) have used similar tanks to store excess solar energy harvested during the day. In Natrium's case, the sodium coolant transfers heat from the reactor into the molten-salt tanks. A separate set of pipes then removes heat from the tanks and uses it to produce electricity. TerraPower hopes this arrangement will let the new reactor ramp its power output up and down, depending on the price of electricity. This is something that LWRs struggle to do.
• Not a good idea: The Union of Concerned Scientists, an American not-for-profit organisation, argues that sodium’s advantages as a coolant are counterbalanced by drawbacks. One is that a reactor which ran too hot might see its power output rise as a consequence. Unlike water, the loss of which shuts a reactor down for lack of moderation, sodium slightly damps the chain-reaction. If bubbles of sodium vapour formed in the coolant, that damping effect would diminish, risking a dangerous feedback loop of rising temperatures and growing power output. Few countries have as much nuclear experience as France, which generates around 70% of its electricity that way. Yet in 2015 French regulators said they could not determine whether sodium-cooled reactors are significantly safer than modern LWRs.
• Summary: America's government, for its part, thinks the technology has merit, and is chipping in $ 80 m to help TerraPower build the demonstration plant, which should be ready by 2028.

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

Job creation schemes may get extended

• The story: The government is likely to extend the Atmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana that offers incentives to the private sector for creating new jobs as the country stares at high unemployment due to the severe second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The scheme is likely to be extended beyond June 30, 2021.
• Details: Under the scheme, the government pays the provident fund contribution by the employer and employee for a period of two years for new hires by establishments employing up to 1,000. This comes to 24% of basic pay–contributions of 12% each by employer and employee. For enterprises with more than 1,000 workers, the reimbursement is restricted to the employee contribution of 12%. The scheme is applicable for those earning less than Rs 15,000 a month. Launched after the first wave of the pandemic, the scheme was for a nine-month period–October 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021.
• Over 15m jobs lost in May: According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), more than 15 million jobs were lost in May, leading to a sharp jump in the unemployment rate to 11.9%, its highest level in the past one year, compared with 7.9% in April. Total employment fell to 375.5 million in May from 390.8 million in April, as states imposed restrictions in the wake of the second wave. The unemployment rate had fallen to 10.18% in June 2020 after touching the peak of 23% in April and May 2020 amid the nationwide lockdown during the first wave. Both rural and urban centres were hit hard. The urban unemployment rate rose to 14.73% in May from 9.78% in April, according to CMIE. The rural unemployment rate stood at 10.63% against 7.13% in April 2021.
• Measures: The government, which budgeted Rs 22,810 crore for the scheme until 2023, had targeted 5.5 million enrolments but so far there have been only about 2 million registrations as per labour ministry data. This implies the government has enough fiscal room within the budgeted amount to extend the scheme. The PM announced that the government was extending the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana free food programme until November. More measures are in the offing to provide relief in a targeted manner.

Supporting startups developing innovative elderly solutions

• The story: To encourage the youth to find innovative solutions to help senior citizens, the government announced a project to select, support and create a one-stop access point of elderly care products and services by credible startups. The Seniorcare Ageing Growth Engine (SAGE) project will take up the cause of the elderly.
• Details: As part of the project, startups will be selected on the basis of innovative products and services which they should be able to provide across sectors such as health, housing, care centres, apart from technological access linked to finances, food and wealth management and legal guidance. The startups can apply to be a part of SAGE through a dedicated portal which will be open from Saturday. The selection will be done by an independent committee of experts. The first set of selected startups will be hosted on the portal within a period of two months and a fund of Rs 1 crore as one-time equity will be granted to each of them.
• Goal: The SAGE project aims to identify, evaluate, verify, aggregate and deliver products, solutions and services directly to the stakeholders. The ministry will act as a facilitator, enabling the elderly to access the products through these identified startups. The project is shaped by the recommendations of an empowered expert committee report on startups for the elderly. The concept was thought of before the second wave struck.

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

IIT-Kharagpur develops "Early Cyclone Detection Technique"

• The story: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur has developed an early cyclone detection technique which will help in early detection of development or strengthening of tropical cyclones in North Indian Ocean region.
• About:  The IIT developed this technique using Eddy detection technique. It will investigate formative stages and advance detection time of tropical cyclogenesis. This technique was studied under Climate Change Program with support from Department of Science and Technology. The technique was developed with the aim of identifying initial traces of pre-cyclonic eddy vortices in atmospheric column. It also seeks to track its spatio-temporal evolution. Researchers used a coarser grid resolution of 27 kilometres to identify the characteristics of eddy vortices.
• Unique: Earlier, remote sensing techniques were used to detect cyclones earliest. But this detection was possible only after development low-pressure system over warm ocean surface. New technique is based on cyclonic eddies which are prominent features of vertical atmospheric column inducing and developing into a cyclonic depression over warm ocean surface. They could be used to detect prediction of cyclones at early stage. Thus, larger time gap between detection and impact of cyclone could help in preparation activities.
• How study was carried: Researchers conducted the with cases of four post-monsoon severe cyclones namely, Phailin in 2013, Vardah in 2013, Gaja in 2018 & Madi in 2013 and two pre-monsoon cyclones Mora in 2017 & Aila in 2009. They observed, this technique was able to prediction with a minimum of four days lead time for cyclones.

Climate Change in India will hit GDP

• The story: London-based global think tank Overseas Development Institute published its report called “Costs of Climate change in India”. The report analyses economic costs of climate-related risks in country and possibility of increased inequality & poverty.

• Findings: The report claims that climate change will affect India’s economy, and it may lose about 3 to 10 percent of its GDP annually by 2100. The poverty rate may also rise by 3.5 per cent in 2040. India is already experiencing consequences of 1°C of global warming in the form of heavy rainfall. extreme heat waves, severe flooding, rising sea levels and catastrophic storms.

1. India has made rapid progress in boosting incomes and living standards in last three decades. However, if no rapid global action is taken, climate change may reverse development gains of recent decades.
2. Climate change is slowing the pace of poverty reduction and increasing inequality in country. Even if temperatures are contained to two degrees Celsius, India is going to lose 2.6 percent GDP annually. If global temperature is contained to 3 degrees Celsius, loss will magnify to 13.4 percent annually.
3. Climate change will also affect labour productivity through additional channels such as increased incidence of endemic vector-borne diseases like dengue, malaria, chikungunya, Japanese encephalitis etc.

‘Miraculous’ mosquito hack

• The story: In the Yogyakarta city of Indonesia, dengue fever cases have been cut by 77% through a trial that manipulates the mosquitoes spreading dengue.
• The trial: Scientists used mosquitoes infected with “miraculous bacteria” and released them across the cities. These bacteria reduce insect’s ability to spread dengue. The trial used mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia bacteria. Wolbachia doesn’t harm mosquito, but it goes in same parts of its body where dengue virus needs to get into. The bacteria compete for resources and make it much harder for dengue virus to replicate, so the mosquito is less likely to cause an infection when it bites again.
• Learning: According to team of World Mosquito Programme, this method can be a solution to virus that has spread worldwide. The technique is successful and mosquitoes have been released across whole city. This project is targeting to cover more areas with the aim of eradicating dengue.
• Dengue: It is also known as “break-bone fever” as it causes severe pain in muscles and bones. It is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by dengue virus (DENV). Its symptoms usually start three to fourteen days after infection. Common symptoms include high fever, vomiting, headache, muscle pains and joint pains besides a characteristic skin rash.  In 1970, only nine countries had faced dengue outbreaks. Now, mosquito causes 400 million infections in a year.

Bye FDs, Welcome MFs

• The story: A section of traditional Indian investors are moving away from their preferred savings instrument as bank deposit rates drop to historic lows, and are looking at avenues for higher returns despite increased risks. Many small savers who used to rely on bank fixed deposits for guaranteed ‘risk-free’ returns are now increasing their exposure to debt and equity mutual funds. The shift in preference was reflected in the numbers for May—while growth in bank deposit declined, inflows in mutual funds soared.
• Bank deposits: Since crossing the Rs.150 trillion mark in March 2021, bank deposits, which have been growing at 10-11% every month, fell to 9.7% as on 21 May, adding just Rs.32,482 crore between 23 April and 21 May, against Rs.1.2 trillion in the corresponding period of 2020.
• MFs: Mutual funds, on the other hand, saw record net inflows in May at Rs.9,235.48 crore, the highest in 14 months. The buoyancy in the equity markets despite the covid-induced economic slowdown may have added to the optimism.
• RBI's role: The Reserve Bank of India’s accommodative monetary policy has led to an abundance in liquidity, allowing banks to cut deposit rates, as the central bank has lowered the repo rate by 115 basis points since March 2020. While savers are bearing the brunt of the move, policymakers are hopeful that an increase in lending due to lower rates will boost economic growth. For instance, India’s largest lender, State Bank of India, pays 5% interest on its 1-2-year fixed deposits, down from 5.9% in March 2020. Increasingly, small savers have realized that with bank interest rates on a decline for the past few years, inflation-adjusted returns over the long term could only be achieved through investments in mutual funds.
• Inflation: While inflation remains within the RBI’s flexible target of 2-6%, savers will still earn little in terms of real returns on their deposits. Adjusted for inflation, real return on 1-2-year term deposits stood at 0.71%. Inflation measured by the consumer price index (CPI) was at 4.29% in April and SBI’s 1-2-year deposit rate is typically adjusted for inflation to arrive at the real rate. The lower growth rate (y-o-y) in deposits can be partly attributed to base effect and a fall in deposits rate of banks as the weighted average domestic term deposit rate of banks fell by 71 basis points between April 2020 and April 2021. Also, inflows in debt mutual funds and equity mutual funds may have led to the decline in bank deposit value.

• [message]
  

9.1 Today's best editorials to read

• We offer you 7 excellent editorials from across 10 newspapers we have scanned. 

CLICK HERE TO OPEN AND READ!

• [message]
• SECTION 3 - MCQs (Multiple Choice Questions)

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

---