WSDP Bulletin (21-09-2021)

(Newspapers, PIB and other important sources)

Prelim and Main

1. NCW Launches Country-Wide Capacity Building & Personality Development Program For Women Students READ MORE
2. EPFO adds 14.65 lakh net subscribers in July READ MORE
3. Most internal displacement in East Africa’s Burundi due to rise of Lake Tanganyika READ MORE
4. The Sundarbans: India must protect the world’s largest delta from a dystopian future, and now READ MORE
5. How effective is CPCB in its management of e-waste? READ MORE
6. Western Ghats offer major additions to new flora READ MORE
7. Unique temple for the Hindu Trinity READ MORE

Main Exam

GS Paper- 2

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. A new water policy for India: It marks a shift from the command-and-control approach to nature READ MORE
2. The obsession with ranking: Can the NIRF scale measure and rank the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom? READ MORE
3. Justice in high-profile corporate cases READ MORE

SOCIAL JUSTICE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

1. Why Schools Should Not be Allowed to Open Prematurely READ MORE
2. Modi govt’s e-Shram takes digital literacy for granted. Won’t help unorganised sector workers READ MORE

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

1. With AUKUS dividing the Western bloc, is there a role for India? READ MORE
2. The Aukus effect: Alliance could bolster the Quad’s impact READ MORE
3. Post-Afghanistan geopolitical potpourri READ MORE

GS Paper- 3

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

1. All you wanted to know about bad bank READ MORE
2. The endgame: On the new ‘bad bank’ READ MORE
3. The end of the doing business rankings READ MORE
4. Making the banking sector more vibrant READ MORE

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

1. ‘Climate change is a key driver of financial risk’: RBI READ MORE  
2. On-air pollution, Indian cities must do more READ MORE

GS Paper- 4

ETHICS EXAMPLES AND CASE STUDY

1. Low Ethical Standards Are Common in Medical Education in India READ MORE
2. Peace forAll Beings READ MORE
3. Practise kshama to lead a stress-free life READ MORE

Questions for the MAIN exam

1. Critically analyse the proposal to establish a bad bank to resolve the NPAs with banks.
2. The new security agreement between security Australia, United Kingdom and the United States offers both opportunities and challenges for Quad Nations. Analyse the statement.

QUOTATIONS AND CAPTIONS

• The idea is to go from numbers to information to understanding.
• Guarantees for the ‘bad bank’ may help, but not sufficient to fix lenders’ woes.
• Just reopening schools won’t make an unequal education system more equal without public funding. It may speed up SARS-CoV-2 mutations and risk another brutal Covid-19 wave.
• Properly managed renewable generation can co-exist with other land uses, and, unlike coal-based power, it does not fundamentally change land during use or following its ultimate de-commissioning.
• The eco-system of self-registration as envisaged in the e-Shram portal does not involve employers’ participation in the process. This does not augur well for labour rights in our country.
• The absence of data on the unorganised workers is not by accident but by design. In formalisation of the labour force is perpetuated to reduce labour cost by making labour casual and subsequently anonymous.
• The Aukus is demonstrably a more robust alliance than the Quad, which remains a somewhat ambiguous network of bilateral agreements among members on issues of common interest — including responses to Covid-19, vaccine diplomacy, and so on.
• The Quad, a loose geo-political grouping involving the US, Japan, Australia, and India, was a mechanism designed to offer a counter to China’s expansive strategy in defining its naval borders.
• Simply the apex court considered emotional issues rather than looking into the facts found by the appellate tribunal, which is not a good symptom for corporate governance in professional ways.
• India’s interests lie in deeper strategic cooperation with France and Europe as well as the Quad and the Anglosphere.
• India’s diverse relationships in the West must be deployed in full measure to prevent a split in the Indo-Pacific coalition.
• The diplomatic fallout from the new security agreement between Australia, United Kingdom and the United States [AUKUS] is just about to begin.

50-WORD TALK

• Nagaland becoming Opposition-mukt is bad for democracy. All parties have united to find ‘a permanent political solution for the state.’ Underlying this is a troublesome message, that nobody wants to challenge the militant groups politically or administratively. This is like the state’s democracy going into suspended animation till a settlement.
• Whether it is nuclear-powered submarines, McDonald’s or Coca-Cola, the anti-American sentiment in France is a deep cultural war. The French fury this time, the first big public squabble inside NATO, has led to the recalling of envoys and the cancellation of events. As always, French exceptionalism has to dominate any global debate.

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 map work (marking those areas in maps and also exploring other geographical locations nearby including mountains, rivers, etc. same applies to the national places.)
• For economy-related news (banking, agriculture, etc.) you should focus on terms and how these are related to various economic aspects, for example, if inflation has been mentioned, try to relate with prevailing price 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 occur 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 to your writing.