Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 03-07-2021

Useful compilation of Civil Services oriented - Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 03-07-2021

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• SECTION 1 - TEN NEWS HEADLINES

1. Environment and Ecology - Last Ice Area - A new study found that the "Last Ice Area" may be more vulnerable to climate change than suspected. The Last Ice Area, an Arctic region known for its thick ice cover, spans more than 2,000 kms, reaching from Greenland's northern coast to the western part of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. It earned its dramatic name because though its ice grows and shrinks seasonally, much of the sea ice was thought to be thick enough to persist through summer's warmth. But during the summer of 2020, the Wandel Sea in the eastern part of the Last Ice Area lost 50% of its overlying ice, bringing coverage there to its lowest since record-keeping began. If the area is changing faster than expected, the Last Ice Area may not be the refuge for ice-dependent species in a future ice-free summer Arctic. Anamoly - In recent decades, ocean currents have bolstered ice cover in the Last Ice Area with chunks of floating sea ice. But, northward winds transported ice away from Greenland and created stretches of open water that were warmed by the sun. The heated water then circulated under sea ice to drive even more melting.
2. World Politics - Delta rising - Australia’s states closed their borders as new clusters of the Delta variant emerged across the country. Around 80% of Australians are now living under restrictions and their “travel bubble” with New Zealand has been suspended. Just 5% of the population has been vaccinated. Mixing different covid-19 vaccines could boost immunity against the coronavirus, according to researchers at Oxford University. A shot of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine four weeks after one of Oxford-AstraZeneca’s, and vice versa, produced a high level of antibodies. Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s dictator, dismissed senior officials for “incompetence and irresponsibility” related to pandemic prevention. Mr Kim did not admit that there had been a covid-19 outbreak in his country. Last week North Korea again told the World Health Organisation that it had recorded no cases.
3. World Economy - Crypto shock by Binance: One of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges - Binance - froze customers’ ability to withdraw and deposit sterling on its main platform. The firm claimed the function was “suspended for maintenance”. It is unclear whether the incident is related to a decision by the Financial Conduct Authority, a British watchdog, which found that the exchange was not registered in Britain and so was not allowed to operate there. Later Binance said that it had unfrozen sterling withdrawals.
4. Science and Technology - Burning cash to bring net to all - Elon Musk said that Space x, his private rocket company, could spend between $20bn and $30bn on its low-orbit network. The firm has 1,500 satellites which provide broadband to places without fibre connections or 5G. It wants to expand the network to 12,000 satellites. The cost is much higher than previous estimates. As Mr Musk put it: “It’s a lot, basically.”
5. Environment and Ecology - Air pollutants kill faster - New research says that Black Carbon (BC) has adverse effect on human health and leads to premature mortality. The Scientists from the Centre of Excellence in Climate Change Research, supported by the Climate Change programme of Department of Science and Technology (DST), explored the individual and cumulative impact of BC aerosol, fine (PM 2.5), and coarse (PM 10) particulates, and trace gases (SO2, NO2, O3) on premature mortality in Varanasi of Indo-Gangetic plain. They utilized daily all-cause mortality and ambient air quality from 2009 to 2016 to clearly establish a significant impact of BC aerosols, NO2 and, PM2.5 exposure on mortality. Findings: The inclusion of co-pollutants (NO2 & PM 2.5) in the multi-pollutant model increased the individual mortality risks for BC aerosols. The effect of pollutants was more prominent for males, age group 5-44 and, in winter. The adverse effect of pollutants wasn’t limited to current day of exposure but can extend as high as up to 5 days (Lag effect). The mortality rises linearly with an increase in air pollutants level and shows adverse impact at higher levels.
6. Science and Technology - Gamma-Ray Burst (GRBs) - The highest energy afterglow from the most notable Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) explosion from a galaxy 4.5 billion light years away did not follow the evolution expected in standard afterglow models. The detection of high energy photons (TeV Photons) from this GRB provides new insights to unravel the underlying physical processes at work which result in such explosions. The GRB with ultra-high energy photons called GRB 190114C was detected for the first time in 2019 by the Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov Telescopes (MAGIC). The GRB lasted for a brief period, followed by an initial bright flash in high energies known as the ‘prompt emission’. A less luminous but long-lasting counterpart known as the ‘afterglow’ was detected after the prompt emission. Detailed modelling of the recent afterglow indicates that the parameters describing the fraction of energy in electron population and magnetic field are evolving with time and not constant as generally seen in GRBs. The evolution of these parameters, at early times, may play a role in producing the bright TeV emission. [Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are short-lived bursts of gamma-ray light, the most energetic form of light. Lasting anywhere from a few milliseconds to several minutes, GRBs shine hundreds of times brighter than a typical supernova and about a million trillion times as bright as the Sun.]
7. Governance and Institutions - Gender Self-identification - The Spanish government approved the first draft of a bill that would allow anyone over the age of 14 to legally change gender without a medical diagnosis or hormone therapy. Gender self-identification or ‘self-id’ is the concept that a person should be allowed to legally identify with the gender of their choice by simply declaring so, and without facing any medical tests. This has been a long held demand of trans-right groups around the world, as prejudice against trans people remains rampant. As per the advocacy group ILGA (the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association), 15 countries around the world recognise self-ID. They are Denmark, Portugal, Norway, Malta, Argentina, Luxembourg, Ireland, Greece, Costa Rica, Mexico (only in Mexico City), Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Uruguay. What about the process for declaring one’s sex in India? The rights of transgender persons are governed by the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 and the Rules, 2020. Under the Rules, an application to declare gender is to be made to the District Magistrate. Parents can also make an application on behalf of their child. There is no need for transgender persons to go through a medical examination for declaring their desired sex.
8. Indian Economy - National Horticulture Board (NHB) - Union Agriculture Minister inaugurated the new Centre of National Horticulture Board (NHB) at Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. NHB is mandated for integrated development of hi-tech commercial horticulture and post-harvest management/cold chain infrastructure in the country. It is having centers/offices at various locations of the country and atleast one centre is there almost in each state for implementation, monitoring and coordination of its various Schemes and activities. Some of the bigger states like UP and Maharashtra are having more than one centre due to their geography and higher quantum of work.
9. Environment and Ecology - Hottest ever day in Antarctica at 18.3°C - The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed that the hottest ever day in Antarctica was recorded on February 6, 2020, when the temperatures hit 18.3°C. The previous record for the continent was 17.5°C recorded at Esperanza station on March 24, 2015. "Antarctic Peninsula is among the fastest-warming regions of the planet...almost 3°C over the last 50 years," WMO added. Antarctica is known for being the highest, driest, coldest and windiest continent on earth. lthough there are no native Antarcticans and no permanent residents or citizens of Antarctica, many people do live in Antarctica each year. No-one lives in Antarctica indefinitely in the way that they do in the rest of the world. It has no commercial industries, no towns or cities, no permanent residents. The only "settlements" with longer term residents (who stay for some months or a year, maybe two) are scientific bases.
10. Healthcare and Medicine - WHO urges nations to vaccinate 10% of the population by September - WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged nations to vaccinate at least 10% of the population by September 2021, asserting that failure to vaccinate in some countries will impact all countries globally. He warned that "until we end the pandemic everywhere, we will not end it anywhere". Vast inequities in the access to vaccines are fuelling a two-track pandemic, Ghebreyesus added. This is not a good sign for equitable recovery in the global economy.

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• SECTION 2 - DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

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

G-20 OECD tax deal is good for India too now

• The story: The fact that large multinational firms evade huge amounts of taxes by smart planning, and using tax haven loopholes, had irked sovereign governments since long. Year 2021 saw some major steps forward, when teh G-7 and OECD came together on this issue. Now, India too is likely to play ball.
• Changes: To do that, first India will have to roll back the equalisation levy that it imposes on companies such as Google, Amazon and Facebook (when the global tax regime is implemented). The OECD said signatories to the new deal were "130 countries and jurisdictions, representing more than 90% of global GDP." Details of the regime and the implementation schedule would be released in 2021 itself.
• The Indian stand: India favours a wider application of the law to ensure that the country won't collect less under the proposed framework than it gets through the equalisation levy. Finance Ministrty said that the principles underlying the solution vindicates India's stand for a greater share of profits for the markets. It also said that some significant issues including share of profit allocation and scope of subject to tax rules, remained open and needed to be addressed.
• Two pillars of framework: The finance ministry called for "allocation of meaningful and sustainable revenue to market jurisdictions, particularly for developing and emerging economies." The framework has two pillars, one dealing with transnational and digital companies and the other with low-tax jurisdictions to address cross-border profit shifting and treaty shopping.

1. The first pillar ensures that large multinational enterprises, including digital companies, pay tax where they operate and earn profits. Most such companies have so far been paying low taxes by shifting profits to low-tax jurisdictions. "Under Pillar One, taxing rights on more than $100 billion of profit are expected to be reallocated to market jurisdictions each year," the OECD said.
2. The second pillar seeks to put a floor under competition among countries through a global minimum corporate tax rate, currently proposed at 15%. This is expected to generate an additional $150 billion in tax revenues.
3. If implemented, countries such as the Netherlands and Luxembourg that offer lower tax rates, and so-called tax havens such as Bahamas or British Virgin Islands, could lose their sheen.

• India's equalisation levy: In 2016, India imposed an equalisation levy of 6% on online advertisement services provided by non-residents. This was applicable to Google and other foreign online advertising service providers. The government expanded its scope from April 1, 2020, by imposing a 2% equalisation levy on digital transactions by foreign entities operating in India or having access to the local market. Revenue under the levy for the last financial year amounted to Rs 1,492 crore until January 30, about 30% more than the Rs 1,136.5 crore collected in FY20. This levy will have to be withdrawn under the new regime expected to be rolled out in 2023. It is clear India will need to evaluate the revenue expected under the new rules against what it gets from the equalisation levy, besides examining their applicability.
• Wait and watch: Clearly, the final outcome is being watched, as well as the minimum global tax rate that is finally agreed as against proposed 15%. In the first phase, the levy is proposed to cover only the top 100 multinationals with more than 20 billion euros in revenue and profitability above 10%. It will apply in market jurisdictions where the entity derives at least 1 million euros of revenue.
• Summary: The question that now remains is whether India be able to continue to levy EL (equalisation levy) on those companies which are not covered by this.

Goverment's stance on e-commerce FDI policy unchanged

• The story: Indian retail market is huge, and substantial part of it is unorganised. The online e-commerce - e-tail - has done reasonably well in past few years. Major global players operate in the Indian market now, but policy friction is now rising.
• Government's latest stance: Minister Piyush Goyal said the government was about to release the long pending ecommerce policy and clarifications to the existing FDI policy for ecommerce sector, after the draft consumer protection rules for e-commerce are finalized.

1. The government will not change the current policy of foreign direct investment in the e-commerce sector as it has been “crystal clear” since it was announced
2. The government has noted instances where the policy is not being followed in letter and spirit. That aspect will soon be addressed.

• Upset with US: Recently, the Minister had criticised US-based companies for “very blatantly” flouting India’s laws and being “arrogant.”
• Cosumer protection: It was clarified that as regards the final e-commerce policy, the revised rules were given under the consumer protection act. This is a series which involves consumer affairs, FDI policy and e-commerce policy. The government felt it sent a “very strong” message to the world as there used to be criticism that India’s e-commerce policy is skewed against foreign investors. By announcing the e-commerce policy for consumer protection, the govt. demonstrated that its first and foremost concern is the consumer.
• Summary: A serious bone of contention in the FDI rules is that owners of marketplaces cannot hold inventory on their own marketplace. That would make the business model of most e-comm giants difficult to run.

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

End of coal power in UK is near

• The story: Coal is out of favour, and how! Many are talking of "peak coal", and some, like the UK, may phase it out in near future.
• The UK situation: A decade ago, 40 percent of the country’s electricity was generated with coal, but it will end its use of coal-fired power by October 2024, a year earlier than scheduled, as it pushes other countries toward greater climate ambition ahead of a global warming summit it's hosting in November 2021 (Glasgow).
• Dirty fuel not needed: UK authorities feel that while coal powered the industrial revolution 200 years ago (which started from Britain itself), but now was the time for radical action to completely eliminate this dirty fuel from energy systems. And the UK is almost there - coal accounted for just 1.8% of the U.K.'s electricity mix in 2020, with roughly 43% coming from renewable sources such as wind and solar.
• Laws: The UK government plans to introduce legislation on the coal phaseout “at the earliest opportunity,” it said. It will only apply to coal used in electricity generation, not other sectors such as the steel industry. It has come a long way from the days when a thick blanket of coal-fueled smog fell over London in the 1950s. As recently as a decade ago, coal accounted for roughly 40% of the country's power generation.
• Not all are ready: But his proactive action may not be enough to bring everyone along. Experts feel that a country with a de minimus residual coal fleet may not necessarily shame big coal consumers into radical change. There are countries where it's going to be a big deal to transition off coal, and there are countries where it's not.

1. Leaders of the Group of Seven nations agreed in June '21 at the Cornwall summit to end financial support for international coal power generation without carbon capture by the end of the year and to move toward an “overwhelmingly” decarbonized power system by the 2030s.
2. But getting them to commit to an end date for coal power has been harder given domestic politics in places like Japan and the U.S., where it could upend President Biden's infrastructure bill. Germany passed a law in 2020 to end coal-fired power generation by 2038.

• Global downturn: Still, coal has hit the skids globally as costs for mining and generation have grown and more countries have committed to stricter targets for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. Coal is a leading contributor to the growth in emissions, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Research shows that coal needs to be phased out globally by 2040 to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement. The U.K. passed legislation in 2019 to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and has been pushing other countries to commit to coal phaseout dates ahead of the United Nations climate summit being held in Scotland in November '21.

WASH report praises India's drop in open defecation

• The story: India was responsible for the largest drop in open defecation since 2015, in terms of absolute numbers, according to a new report by the Wash Institute, a global non-profit organisation July 1, 2021. The report also noted some progress in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6.
• WASH update: Besides open defecation, the Joint Monitoring Report also emphasised universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) to achieve the United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 in achieving universal access to basic water, sanitation and hygiene services.

1. Within India, open defecation had been highly variable regionally since at least 2006, the report said. In 2006, the third round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) found open defecation to be practiced by less than 10 per cent of the population in four states and the Union Territory of Delhi, but by more than half the population in 11 states.
2. By 2016, when the fourth round of the NFHS was conducted, open defecation had decreased in all states, with the largest drops seen in Himachal Pradesh and Haryana. It showed that progress in curbing open defecation in sub-Saharan Africa was slow.

• Progress on SDG 6: The report also noted progress towards the achieving SDG 6. Between 2016 and 2020, the global population with access to safely managed drinking water at home increased to 74 per cent, from 70 per cent.

1. SDG 6 states that ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030 entails that water must be accessible at source, available when needed and free from any contamination.
2. The report indicated improvement in at-source water resources including piped water, boreholes or tubewells, protected dug wells, protected springs, rainwater and packaged or delivered water.
3. Water sources are considered ‘accessible on premises’ if the point of water collection is within the dwelling, compound, yard or plot, or is supplied to the household through piped supply or tanks.
4. Water is counted as ‘available when needed’ if households report having ‘sufficient’ water. For the purposes of global monitoring, drinking water is considered ‘free from contamination’ if the water is free and safe from contamination of bacteria like E coli.
5. There was an increase in safely managed sanitation services to 54 per cent, from 47 per cent between 2016 and 2020, the report said.
6. Onsite sanitation system, a system in which excreta and wastewater are collected, stored and / or treated on the plot where they are generated had shown a significant global increase, the report said.
7. Globally, access to safely managed sanitation services increased over the 2000-2020 period by an average of 1.27 percentage points per year.

• Sustainability of it: The report noted that in order to ensure long-term sustainability of both centralised and decentralised sanitation, proper funding and investment was required. The report talked about hygiene, especially in the context of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). [It is now recognised by scientists and research studies that people are infected with SARS-COV-2 through exposure to respiratory droplets of infected people] Hence, hand hygiene becomes very important for COVID-19 response and is known to be an effective measure of many diseases.
• Hand hygiene for all: In June 2020, the World Health Organization and Unicef jointly launched the ‘Hand Hygiene for All’ initiative, which aims to improve access to handwashing infrastructure as well as stimulating changes in handwashing practices where facilities are available. Handwashing facilities with soap and water increased to 71 per cent, from 67 per cent, according to the report. However, 3 in 10 people worldwide could not wash their hands with soap and water at home during the COVID-19 pandemic due to lack of water resources.

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

Concentrated power - Xi Jinping's leadership and CPC's 100 years

• The story: As the Chinese Communist Party celebrated its 100th anniversary on 1st of July 2021, nothing else seemed to matter except the “Xi Jinping Thought.”  
• No military parade this time: China’s tech-savvy commissars don’t really need real-life parades to celebrate the party’s centennial. With digital effects and 22,000 spectators filmed by drones, Beijing’s centennial celebration at the National Stadium evoked Chinese triumphs through elaborately choreographed scenes playing out onstage and onscreen: engineering marvels, space probes, precision fireworks, submarines, 2008 Olympics highlights, doctors battling COVID-19, and at one point real-life vintage cargo trucks. The idea is to inform the world "We have arrived".
• From past to future: While some anniversaries appear fixated on the past, this one was focused on the future: not just the future of China and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) but the future of the party leader and president, Xi Jinping. For the first time in decades, ordinary Chinese are being shown that those futures all boil down to the same thing: Xi.
• From Mao to Xi: Not since Mao Zedong died in 1976 has the fate of the Chinese nation seemed to balance so intentionally on a single individual.

1. It seems likely that Xi Jinping’s campaign to jettison the final remnants of a “collective leadership” style and the self-imposed checks and balances on power that China’s post-Mao leaders had observed, will now accelerate.
2. The Communist party itself, with 92 million members, makes up just 6.6 percent of China’s population. Yet of the 2.1 million party members recruited in 2018, only 5,700 came from the army of rural-born migrant workers who represent a third of working-age Chinese. The CCP has thus become a repository of technocrats and business elites. And in the absence of national elections, CCP cadres often equate legitimacy with economic performance.

• No elections, hence economy: Centenary-linked achievements include the opening of a second airport in Chengdu, the inauguration of a high-altitude bullet train in Tibet, and the firing up of two of the world’s largest hydropower turbines in the Baihetan hydropower plant.
• No nihilism please: China is cracking down online on hints of “historical nihilism,” meaning anything that fails to toe the party line. They are doing the same for international criticism of reported human rights abuses in Xinjiang and heavy-handed implementation of national security legislation in Hong Kong, including the recent closure of the pro-democracy Apple Daily. U.S. President Joe Biden called a “sad day for media freedom.” July 1 is also the anniversary of Hong Kong’s reversion to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.
• One man show: Since becoming party head in 2012, Xi Jinping consolidated power quickly, rooting out political rivals, corruption, and political dissent. He’s expected to try to stay on for an unusual third term as head of the party, clinging to power as Mao had done. Today Xi is called “The People’s Leader,” a title previously bestowed on Mao alone. The promotion of “Xi Jinping Thought” is akin to building a personality cult around Xi (second only to that of the late Great Helmsman).

1. 'Xi Jinping Thought' is now the guiding ideology for China.
2. The next year will feature intense political maneuvering and is expected to climax publicly at the 20th Communist Party Congress slated for the fall of 2022. Normally held every half-decade, this gathering is where the party’s succession strategy comes together (and where changes to the all-important Politburo Standing Committee (China’s top decision-making group) are done [today it has seven members]
3. Under Xi, China’s constitution was changed in 2018 to abolish the two-term limit for the office of China’s president, a government post that Xi also holds. The big question now is: Can he hang on as leader of the CCP and head of the party’s Central Military Commission while still dragging his feet over the naming of an heir?

• Transitions are tricky: Political transitions in Western democracies can be messy as seen in 2021. Over the past 100 years, moreover, succession has been the Achilles’ heel of the CCP. In 1976, Mao’s death caused a tussle between the so-called Gang of Four—leftist leaders, including Mao’s wife, who had risen to power with Mao’s blessing during the Cultural Revolution—and his eventual successor, Hua Guofeng, which ended in the Gang’s arrest and trial.
• Summary: Xi Jinping is focusing on internal power consolidation, and it is reflecting in the external aggression shown in recent months. The repeated announcements of a glorious 100 years of the PRC's founding - set to be celebrated on 01st of Oct 2049 - make one wonder if Xi indeed is planning to hang on till then, when he'd be 96 years old (Deng was 92 and active, when he died in 1997).

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

Indian exports shine at $95 billion in June '21 quarter

• The story: India recorded the highest-ever exports of $95 billion during April-June 2021, up 85 per cent year-on year (YoY) and 18 per cent higher than the first quarter of the fiscal year 2019-20. It was 16 per cent more than the previous highest Q1 exports of FY19 ($82 billion) and higher than the earlier peak of exports in Q4FY21 ($90 billion).
• India's exports: While China made itself an exports superpower, and regularly exports nearly $ 2.5 trillion worth of merchandise, India's exports have remained low at $300 billion or so. Now, the government is working towards achieving another all-time high of $400 billion merchandise exports target by the end of the FY2021-22. The Commerce ministry will work with relevant stakeholders to achieve this target.
• Details: The merchandise exports grew 47 per cent YoY to $32.46 billion in June, driven by a robust demand of engineering goods, petroleum products, and gems and jewellery in the external markets. It was despite the severity of the second wave of Covid-19. Sector-specific interventions, involvement of all the stakeholders and functioning of the government as a whole helped in achieving the growth.
• Targets for future: The government has expressed hope services exports in the next five years will touch $500 billion.

1. The $400-billion target for merchandise would be achieved by disaggregating the aim product and sector wise. The government will try to achieve a target of $500 billion in FY23 and $1 trillion merchandise exports annually by the next five years.
2. Several labour-intensive sectors had seen rapid export growth. The exports in the engineering goods sector rose by $5.2 billion over Q1FY20. Likewise, rice exports growth has remained positive since May 2020 and rose by 37 per cent in Q1FY22, compared to Q1 of 2019-20.
3. India’s merchandise imports in June was $41.86 billion, up 96.33 per cent YoY and 2.03 per cent as compared with June 2019. During the quarter ended June, imports more than doubled to $126.14 billion as compared to Apri-June 2020. However, it declined 3.05 per cent from $130.1 billion in April-June 2019.

• Net importer: As a result, India was a net importer in June, with a trade deficit of $9.4 billion, that widened by 1,426.6 per cent over the trade surplus of $0.71 billion in 2020. India was a net exporter in June 2020 due to the disruption caused by the pandemic. Non-oil non-gold imports jumped to $30.2 billion in June '21, from Rs $28.5 billion on average in the past two months, reflecting a pick-up in demand with the gradual unlocking as well as the high commodity prices.
• Encouraging: The sharp rise in non-oil exports was encouraging, reflecting the vaccine-driven revival in activity in many trading partners, as well as the higher prices of commodity exports. The sustenance of non-oil exports at an elevated level will be critical for a downward revision in our projection of a current account deficit of $23-28 billion in FY22.
• SEZs in India: Simplifying the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) rules is on the radar. Also in the works is notification for rates and how various sectors will be compensated for various taxes, as per the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Export Products (RoDTEP) scheme.

Digital India dream - the road ahead (IT + IT = IT)

• The story: India's Prime Minister is a digital believer, and six years of Digital India programme bear his imprint clearly. He expressed his view on the same in July 2021.
• Points to note: The data and demographic dividend combined with India’s proven tech prowess presents massive opportunity for the country, and this decade will be ‘India’s techade’. (techade - technology + decade)

1. Diksha - It stands for "Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing", and serves as National Digital Infrastructure for Teachers. All teachers across the nation will be equipped with advanced digital technology.
2. eNAM - It was launched on 14th April 2016 as a pan-India electronic trade portal linking Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) across the States.
3. eSanjeevani - It is a telemedicine service platform of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
4. DigiBunai - It aids the weavers to create digital artwork and translate the saree design to be loaded to the looms. DigiBunai™ is a first of its kind Open Source software for Jacquard and dobby weaving.
5. PM SVANidhi scheme - The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has launched Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor's AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi), for providing affordable loans to street vendors. It incentivises digital transactions by the street vendors.
6. Digital solutions during Covid-19 - Contact tracing app, Aarogya Setu.
7. Digital India Programme - It was launched in 2015, and has been enabled for several important Government schemes, such as BharatNet, Make in India, Startup India and Standup India, industrial corridors, etc.

• Vision areas: The government wants digital infrastructure as utility for all Indians. It wants governance and services on demand as well. That will mean "digital empowerment" of citizens.
• Goals: India has to be prepared for a knowledge future, and for being transformative and to realize IT (Indian Talent) + IT (Information Technology) = IT (India Tomorrow). This is a new slogan - IT + IT = IT.
• Achievements:

1. Digital payments - The introduction of Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which introduced the benefits of digital payments in every part of the country. From flourishing businesses to modest street vendors, UPI is helping everyone with payments and transactions. This encourages a number of private players to provide alternatives for digital payments which completely transformed the Indian economy.
2. Easing business operations - The Electronic Customer Identification System (e-KYC), the Electronic Document Storage System (DigiLocker) and the Electronic Signature System (eSign) were introduced to help businesses streamline their operations.
3. JAM Trinity and more - What started as a simple step to kick off the JAM trinity (Jan Dhan, Aadhar and Mobile) to weed out leakages in the system, today empowered the entire vaccination drive for Covid, making India only the second nation to USA that administered 20 crore vaccines. However, the Cowin portal was heavily criticised for being English-langauge based, and catering largely to the educated elite.

• Way forward: There are roadblocks in the way of its successful implementation like digital illiteracy, poor infrastructure, low internet speed, lack of coordination among various departments, issues pertaining to taxation etc. These need to be addressed in order to realize the full potential. Six steps that can help are (i) Inculcation of scientific temper, where perception doesn’t drive policy, (ii) Access to data and lower costs of devices especially smartphones, (iii) High speed technology and seamless connectivity (5G, 6G), (iv) Quality and local language content, (v) A secure and safe cyberspace with clear spaces for redressal, ombudsmen, grievance redressal officers, (vi) Renewable energy, seamless power supply, green technology and lastly more services to be brought online with more departments talking to each other.

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

Democracy hurt or served - Government of NCT of Delhi (Amendment) Act, 2021

• The story: The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD)(Amendment) Act, 2021 was passed in 2021, and was criticised as a retrograde law that backtracks on representative democracy. What is the real position?
• Contentious provisions: The GNCTD (Amendment) Act prohibits the exercise of free speech in the Assembly and its committees, and reduces the autonomy of the elected government. It vests several crucial powers in the unelected Lieutenant Governor (LG), thus undermining the functioning of Delhi’s Legislative Assembly, which may lose teeth.

1. The Assembly has no more functional independence worth its name. Its standards of procedure and conduct of business have been firmly tethered to that of the Lok Sabha.
2. It deprives Delhi’s elected MLAs of an effective say in how their Assembly should be run. The Act also prohibits the Assembly from making any rule enabling either itself or its committees - (i) to consider any issue concerned with “the day-to-day administration of the capital” (or) (ii) to “conduct inquiries in relation to administrative decisions”
3. Also, any rule made before the Amendment Act came into effect that runs counter to this formulation shall be void.

• Earlier situation: The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) Act was originally enacted in 1992. Under it, the Legislative Assembly was given the power to regulate its own procedure. It could as well regulate the conduct of its business, subject to limited exceptions concerned with financial matters and scrutiny over the LG's discretionary role. The Act thus sought to realise a delicate balance reflecting Delhi’s unique constitutional position. Delhi never was a full state nor a centrally governed Union Territory. Its unique position stemmed from its position - the seat of the Union government, as well as a sprawling city of crores of citizens requiring regular municipal services.
• Amendements and their impact: A big impact will be on the exercise of free speech in the Assembly and its committees, and the Assembly might fall short of performing its most basic legislative function of holding the executive to account. It cannot guarantee itself the ability to freely discuss the happenings of the capital and articulate the concerns of the electorate. It would be tough for committees to perform this function without the power to conduct inquiries. This negates the ability of committees to function effectively as the Assembly’s advisors and agents. The quality of legislative work emanating from the Assembly is thus ultimately bound to suffer.

Citizens and public provisioning of justice

• The story: A civilisation rests on the pillars of justice for all, everywhere, cheaply. An efficient criminal justice system helps a country politically, socially and economically. Having an efficient police force, unencumbered with political expectations and burdens, is the first step.
• Actual situation: Sadly, it is often that political masters show reluctance to implement the Supreme Court-mandated police reforms of 2006.

1. Police reforms have multidimensional importance in Indians' lives. The social implications of lack of police reforms can be gauged from the report “Crime in India 2019”, published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). As per the report, more than 25,000 cases of assault on women, close to 12,000 rape cases and 4000 “dowry deaths” have been pending trial for 5 to 10 years.
2. The economic cost of the failed criminal justice system is notable, and reflected in the reluctance of foreign companies to set up manufacturing and commercial ventures in India. They see quick settlement of criminal, labour and civil disputes as a precondition.

• Police stations: Besides prevention and detection of crime and maintenance of law and order, police stations in India undertake numerous daily tasks. These put pressure on their overall efficiency, and include (i) verifications and no objection certificates of different kinds to citizens, (ii) crucial documents supply, (iii) verification of domestic help/employees of central and state governments/public sector undertakings/students going abroad for studies, (iv) in special cases the involvement of special branches e.g. passport verification and issues related to foreigners. These NOCs and verifications are not easy to come by, as procedures are non-transparent and timelines are often blurred, thus encouraging corrupt practices.
• Reforms needed: Ensuring time-bound delivery of the above-mentioned services to citizens can make a big difference.

1. Despite the push for digitisation, the online facilities available for getting the above mentioned services are far from ideal. Users face numerous problems. So, States need to invest resources to upgrade their e-portals for providing the 45 identified basic services to the citizens.
2. Adhering to a defined process with a timeline and clear delineation of the levels of police officers involved can ensure transparent and non-corrupt service delivery.
3. Along with English or Hindi, the state languages should also be incorporated for ease of access to all citizens.
4. Investigation and prosecution need improvement and all criminal trials must be completed within a year. Technology-driven service delivery mechanisms can help achieve this.
5. As a structural reform, the officers in investigation wing must not be involved with law and order responsibilities, and vice versa.

• Blast from the past: The Malimath Committee suggested the setting up of a State Security Commission, as recommended by the NPC, to insulate the police from political pressure. The Malimath Committee was given the mandate to review only the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973. The Committee was headed by Justice V.S. Malimath, former CJ of the Karnataka and Kerala High Courts. It began work in 2000 when it was constituted by the Home Ministry, and the Report related to the criminal justice system in India was submitted to Deputy PM L.K. Advani, who was also in charge of the Home portfolio, in 2003. The 158 recommendations of the committee, arrived at after examining several national systems of criminal law, especially the continental European systems, proposes a change from an "adversarial criminal justice system", where the respective versions of the facts are presented by the prosecution and the defence before a neutral judge, to an "inquisitorial system", where the objective is the “quest for truth” and the judicial officer controls the investigation of offences.

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• 6. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (Prelims, GS Paper 3)

Tracking the viruses of the world

• The story: Scientists want to keep an eye on how a single pathogen navigates, mutation by mutation, through a worldwide landscape of adaptation. Just a decade ago, this would have been science fiction, but not any more. The novel coronavirus pandemic made this possible.
• Why not track all: Today, there are at least 264 virus species known to infect humans. Why not track them all, and why not focus on the nearly 8,00,000 which could, in the right circumstances, jump from their habitual hosts into humans and start spreading?

1. Is it possible to identify all such viruses, and create mechanism to identify their jumping from natural to the human world?
2. Such ideas, till 2020, would be laughed away, but not any more.

• Realism: As the pandemic progressed, the cost of tracking pathogens has proven to be the lesser problem to the real world biological limitations. RNA vaccination seemed like a wild idea less than a decade ago, and impractical to implement but now it's happening.
• GIO: The Global Immunological Observatory (GIO) aims to use modern lab techniques to spot incipient health crises before they take off, by providing near-real-time insight into what infections are where. How would it do so? By looking at hundreds of thousands of blood samples every day.

1. The blood stores a history of the immune system written in antibodies. Seeing what antibodies someone’s blood contains can show, for instance, whether they had measles as a child, which flu virus laid them low last winter or which cold virus they sniffed their way through with mild irritation three weeks ago. Even if a pathogen never made them sick, the memory of its attempt to do so may still circulate.
2. The GIO will ideally test every tiny sample of blood for hundreds of thousands of distinct antibodies. Considering how hard large-scale testing for just SARS-COV-2 has proved, this might seem too ambitious. But there are tools like VirScan that may be able to do it.
3. VirScan - It is a platform developed by scientists at Harvard Medical School which looks for antibodies to more than 1,000 strains of 206 different viruses in a single tiny sample of blood using a canny combination of DNA synthesis and DNA sequencing,

• The process: The VirScan team synthesised genes describing the proteins found on the surfaces of all those viral strains—the sort of proteins which, like SARS-COV-2’s spike, are most likely to elicit antibodies. It then used those genes to create thousands of slightly different “phages”—simple and easily mass-produced viruses that infect bacteria. Each phage in this library expresses one of those tell-tale proteins on its surface and the relevant gene in its DNA. Expose a copy of this library, containing billions of phage particles, to someone’s blood and the antibodies which recognise a particular viral protein will bind to the appropriate bacteriophage. Rinse away the phages that are not attached to antibodies—those which have gone unrecognised—then amplify the DNA from all the others and sequence it. The sequencing data reveal what the antibodies recognised.
• A viable idea: Since blood and plasma banks already exist in every city in the world, and blood samples that are collected by doctors and nurses for any number of medical reasons, it can be done. Anonymising the samples and providing them to the GIO could be a simple additional task for any laboratory.

1. One of the advantages would be that it would detect the true prevalence of pathogens, rather than just seeing them when they cause symptoms.
2. It could also reveal the presence of a new virus not represented in the phage library.
3. Some of the antibodies which recognise a given virus will also recognise others to which that virus bears a family resemblance, though not as well. Thus some SARS-CoV-2 antibodies recognise the viruses behind SARS, MERS and some forms of the common cold.

• Imagine if: If GIO had been operating in late 2019 and early 2020, it would have seen antibodies to a range of coronaviruses starting to turn up in various places, a molecular shadow alerting it to a new pathogen it could not yet see directly, but which, after a little sequencing, it would understand intimately. Such anonymised antibody surveillance could be supplemented by sequencing not just of blood. Scientists have shown that the SARS-CoV-2 virus can be detected in waste water and sewage. Using such systems to see where a virus is, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, would give public-health officials useful almost-real-time insights into pockets of infection.
• Summary: Pathogens have crossed between species and people for as long as humans and animals have been in close contact. Measles emerged in people during the domestication of livestock. HIV originated in chimpanzees, influenza in birds and pigs, ebola in bats, which also teem with coronaviruses. Around 1,500 viral species which belong to families known to infect both humans and non-human animals have been discovered to date. The rate of their discovery suggests that mammals and birds together may harbour 1.67m more. Up to 8,27,000 of them could cross over into humans.

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

Vaccines for pregnant women - Issues and concerns

• The story: India's vaccination story began in January 2021, and despite all the hiccups, is progressing to the eventual goal of vaccinating all adults. Now, pregnant women are eligible for vaccination against Covid-19.
• What guidelines say: The Health Ministry announced that pregnant women were eligible for Covid-19 vaccination, at any time of the pregnancy. Guidelines were released detailing the risks, the benefits, and likely side effects of vaccination.

1. Experts are of the view that the benefits of vaccination for pregnant women outweigh the potential risks.
2. Four reasons: (i) Current evidence indicates that pregnant women are at an increased risk of severe illness from Covid-19 compared to non-pregnant women in case they get infected. (ii) Pregnant women with Covid-19 are at higher risk for preterm birth and may have a higher risk of other adverse pregnancy outcomes, including neonatal morbidity. (iii) While most pregnant women will be asymptomatic or have mild disease, their health “may deteriorate rapidly and that might affect the foetal outcome”. (iv) The World Health Organization recommendation for vaccination in pregnant women is when the benefits outweigh the potential risks for groups “… such as pregnant women at high risk of exposure to Covid-19 and pregnant women with co-morbidities that place them in a high-risk group for severe Covid-19 disease”.

• Side effects: The Ministry underlined that Covid-19 vaccines available were safe and protect pregnant women like other individuals. The pregnant person or foetus is likely to remain unaffected. But the long-term adverse effects and safety of the vaccines for foetus and child are not established yet. Like any medicine, a vaccine may have side effects that are normally mild: mild fever, pain at injection site, or feeling unwell for 1-3 days, the guidelines say. Experts remind that a rare adverse reaction (one in 1-5 lakh) within 20 days after vaccination may happen.
• What kind of adverse reaction: The Ministry listed symptoms requiring immediate medical attention:

1. Shortness of breath
2. Chest pain
3. Pain on pressing the limbs or swelling in the limbs
4. Small pinpoint haemorrhages or bruising of the skin beyond the vaccination site
5. Persistent abdominal pain with or without vomiting
6. Seizures in the absence of previous history of seizures, with or without vomiting
7. Weakness/paralysis of limbs or any particular side of the body
8. Persistent vomiting
9. Blurred vision or pain in eyes.

• Who must avoid it: The contraindications for pregnant women are similar to those for the general population: (i) Allergic reaction to a previous dose, and (ii) Allergic reaction to vaccines or injectable therapies, pharmaceutical products, food items.
• Prior Covid cases: The Ministry recommends that such women defer vaccination for 12 weeks from infection or 4 to 8 weeks from recovery. Those who were treated with monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma, or have active Covid-19 infection, should also temporarily avoid vaccination. The guidelines state that the pregnancy status of women should be recorded into the adverse events following immunization (AEFI) notification form while reporting AEFI cases. All adverse events should be reported immediately to CoWIN, and all serious and severe SEFIs to the concerned Medical Officer.
• Covid-19 and foetuses: Although most infected pregnant women (>90%) recover without the need for hospitalisation, “rapid deterioration in health may occur in a few”. Compared with pregnant women without Covid-19, those with symptomatic Covid-19 are at increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, including admission to the ICU, iatrogenic preterm birth, etc. Most newborns (95%) of Covid-positive mothers have been in good condition at birth. Certain categories and conditions such as diabetes, organ transplant recipients, chronic respiratory conditions, those receiving immunosuppression therapies, dialysis and congenital or acquired heart disease, too, put pregnant women at a greater risk of severe illness from Covid-19.

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

14 eligible applicants approved under PLI IT hardware scheme

• The story: The government launched the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme to push manufacturing in India, by providing direct subsidies linked to production and exports volumes. Now, the Union Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) has approved 14 applicants under Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for IT hardware products.
• Key points: The PLI Scheme for IT Hardware provides an incentive of 4% to 2% on net incremental sales over base years of Financial Year 2020.

1. Targeted segments - These are laptops, tablets, personal computers (PCs) and Servers.
2. This scheme proposes production-linked incentives in a bid to boost domestic manufacturing and to attract large investments in value chain of all these IT Hardware products.

• Applicants: There were four companies selected globally including Dell, ICT (Wistron), Rising Stars Hi-Tech (Foxconn) and Flextronics. Under Domestic Companies category, 10 companies like Lava International Limited, Infopower Technologies (JV of Sahasra and MiTAC), Dixon Technologies (India) Limited, Bhagwati (Micromax) Neolync, Netweb, Optiemus, VVDN, Smile Electronics, and Panache Digilife were approved.
• Importance: Approved companies under the PLI scheme are likely to lead to a total production of more than Rs.1.61 lakh crore in next 4 years. Out of the total production, companies approved under IT Hardware companies’ category have proposed for a production of Rs.84,746 crore. Scheme will bring additional investment in IT Hardware manufacturing of about Rs.2,517 crore.
• PLI Scheme: It is an outcome & output-based scheme in which incentives are paid only if manufacturers make goods. It provides for cash incentives for five to seven years. It covers all the sunrise and important sectors under it. Sectors covered under the scheme include networking products, automobile, advanced chemistry, food processing, and solar PV manufacturing.

America leaves Bagram air base finally, giving Taliban a big opening

• The story: Finally, the United States military has left Afghanistan’s Bagram airfield after nearly two decades. It was the site of several military encounters and epicenter of US ‘war on terror’ in Afghanistan in the backdrop of 9/11 terror attacks.
• Points to note: The airfield qwas handed over to Afghan National Security and Defense Force, and has been the site of US military’s war against Taliban and al-Qaida terrorist outfits. It remained staffed by 455th Air Expeditionary Wing of US Force, and was used as a base by rotating units of US Army, Navy, and Marine Corps also used the airfield as a base.
• Story behind: US president Joe Biden had promised the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan completely by September 11. Current withdrawal of 2,500-3,500 US troops from Bagram airbase shows he was serious about it! Now, the United States harbours around 6,500 troops in Afghanistan to protect American embassy in Kabul, and the last US soldier too will leave Afghanistan soon.
• Bagram Airfield: It is also known as Bagram Air Base and is located near ancient city of Bagram. It was largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan. Its distance from Parwan Province is 11 kilometres. It has a single runway which is capable of handling large military aircraft including Lockheed Martin C-5 Galaxy and Antonov An-225. It was staffed 455th Air Expeditionary Wing of U.S. Air Force, a provisional United States Air Force unit.

Maana Patel - First Indian female swimmer to qualify Tokyo 2020 Olympics

• The story: Maana Patel became the first female and only the third swimmer from India to qualify Tokyo Olympics 2021 ticket.
• Details: Maana joins Srihari Nataraj and Sajan Prakash to have qualified for the Olympics. She is a 21-year-old backstroke swimmer from Ahmedabad who have won gold medals in 50 metre backstroke and 200 metre backstroke at National Games, and has won gold in 100 metre backstroke at 60th National School Games (2015) and broke the national record in backstroke. She was selected for Olympic Gold Quest in 2015 making it the first time a swimmer was roped in. In 2018, she secured three gold medals at 72nd Senior National Aquatic Championships.
• Maana Patel: Born on March 18, 2000, she started at the age of seven. At 13, she clocked 2:23.41s in 200m backstroke at 40th Junior National Aquatics Championship in Hyderabad, and in 2019, won six medals (1 gold, 4 silvers, 1 bronze) at 10th Asian Age-group Championships, Bangalore. She has won 11 international, 61 national and 75 state level medals; as of 2016.
• 2020 Summer (Tokyo) Olympics: After a lot of delays, it will be conducted from 23rd July to 8th August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. Originally it was scheduled from 24 July to 9 August 2020. After Tokyo in 1964, this would be Japan's second olympics. Tokyo has become the first city in Asia to host Summer Games twice.

WAKO India Kickboxing Federation now Government recognised

• The story: The Sports Ministry decided to recognise WAKO India Kickboxing Federation as a National Sports Federation (NSF) to promote and develop sport in India.
• Points to note: The WAKO India Kickboxing Federation is affiliated to World Association of Kickboxing Organizations (WAKO) which is a world body for kickboxing. Since November 30, 2020; WAKO has been a provisionally recognised member of International Olympic Committee (IOC). Recommendation to approve WAKO as fully recognised member of Olympic family was taken by IOC in June 2020. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board has approved recommendation for WAKO on June 10, 2021 to become a fully recognized member of Olympic family of sport. Full recognition of WAKO will be finally decided by IOC Session of July 2021 in Tokyo.
• Relevance: This is significant, as now inclusion in Olympic movement is possible. The IAKO is the national federation of kickboxing in India. It was established in 1993 to control and promote kickboxing activities in India. It promotes amateur kickboxing and professional kickboxing across the states, union territories and special armed force. IAKO is the first martial arts federations which has been recognised by School Games Federation of India.
• WAKO: The World Association of Kickboxing Organizations is an international organization of kickboxing which certifies the governing body of amateur kickboxing to develop support & govern amateur level and hold world championship events.

9.1 Today's best editorials to read

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

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• SECTION 3 - MCQs (Multiple Choice Questions)

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

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