WSDP Bulletin (16-08-2021)

(Newspapers, PIB and other important sources)

Prelim and Main

1. Four more sites of India added to Ramsar list as wetlands of International importance. READ MORE
2. Explained: PM Gati Shakti Master Plan that Modi announced on Independence Day READ MORE
3. National Hydrogen Mission launched READ MORE
4. Taliban take Kabul, President Ashraf Ghani flees, America absconds READ MORE
5. Why Modi govt wants to distribute fortified rice & how it will help combat ‘hidden hunger’ READ MORE
6. 6,808 deaths due to hydro meteorological calamities in 3 years: Centre READ MORE

Main Exam 

GS Paper- 1

1. How Can We Understand India’s Fractured Independence? READ MORE

GS Paper- 2

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. Regional identity and being part of the mainstream: The country should be moving toward cooperative federalism, and not coercive federalism READ MORE
2. Revisiting the First Amendment to the Indian Constitution READ MORE

SOCIAL JUSTICE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

1. PDS, National Food Security Act, and Covid-19 READ MORE
2. Hunger Amidst Plenty—Tragedy Continues 75 Years After Independence READ MORE

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

1. What Kabul means in Delhi READ MORE
2. India-UK: The evolution of a post-colonial relationship READ MORE

GS Paper- 3

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

1. Driving a 2nd green revolution via agri-biotech READ MORE
2. Strengthening IBC READ MORE
3. Inflation concerns need to be prioritized READ MORE

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

1. Explained | Where will climate change strike? READ MORE
2. An ambitious climate blueprint READ MORE
3. Deficient rainfall affects paddy, triggers drought fears in Odisha READ MORE

SECURITY

1. The turn in Afghanistan will threaten Indian security READ MORE

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

1. Gene editing: The future of warfare? READ MORE

GS Paper- 4

ETHICS EXAMPLES AND CASE STUDY

1. Has India fulfilled its moral responsibility? The answers to this question are troubling READ MORE
2. The ultimate freedom READ MORE

Questions for MAIN exam

1. ‘Inequality is not inevitable. It is an outcome of the economic system that India has created’. Analyse the statement.
2. ‘Encouraging GM crops is a sure shot to doubling farmers’ incomes and relieving rural distress’. Justify the statement.

QUOTATIONS AND CAPTIONS

• India has moved its gaze away from equality as one of the central pillars of the project of nation-building. It could put our democracy in peril.
• The social inequalities of caste, gender, religion, and region continue to put a disproportionate burden of developmental deficits on marginalised people and communities, including accentuation of economic inequalities as they face the burden of extreme poverty.
• Inequality is not inevitable. It is an outcome of the economic system we have created, which favours a few at the expense of the majority, and the social and political choices we make.
• Reservations for Other Backward Classes (OBC), Scheduled Castes SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) are under unprecedented attack in India. The main anti-reservationist attack is that reservations kill merit.
• The Constitutional idea of merit is derived from Constitutional values such as equality, liberty, fraternity, dignity, social justice, equity, due share and representation as well as the Constitutional ideologies of democracy, secularism and socialism.
• The Constitutional selection and reservation system must be open to all sections of society and should not favour the knowledge or culture of any group over another.
• Encouraging GM crops is a sure shot to doubling farmers’ incomes and relieving rural distress.
• Encouraging home-grown technologies as well and support them with the necessary regulatory steps without any compromise on the science and safety is vital for ‘Doubling farmers’ income’.
• For sustainable growth of any business, social capital through trust and relationships is the necessity of the corporate world in present times.

ESSAY TOPIC

• Inequality is not inevitable. It is an outcome of the economic system that we have created.

50-WORD TALK

• Post-Independence, the project of Indian nation-building is a quest for a free, equal, secular, and just country. This has been the moral trajectory of the nation. As India enters into its 75th year of Independence, it is an opportune moment to ask some fundamental questions about this journey. We must especially examine the paradigm shift India offered to the conceptualisation of democracy by making equality a central tenet of our modern republic.

Things to Remember:

• For prelims related news try to understand the context of the news and relate with its concepts so that it will be easier for you to answer (or eliminate) from given options.
• Whenever any international place will be in news, you should do a map work (marking those areas in maps and also exploring other geographical locations nearby including mountains, rivers etc. same applies for the national places.)
• For economy related news (banking, agriculture etc.) you should focus on terms and how these are related with various economic aspects, for examples if inflation has been mentioned, try to relate with prevailing prices rises, shortage of essential supplies, banking rates etc.
• For main exam related topics, you should focus on the various dimensions of the given topic, the most important topics which occurs frequently and are important from the mains point of view will be covered in ED.
• Try to use the given content in your answer. Regular use of this content will bring more enrichment in your writing.