1. Marching on: The SC insists that females be given the chance in Nov itself to take the NDA entrance exam READ MORE
2. Make departments smart, first: E-governance holds the promise of improving local governance, but only if we pay attention to the basics READ MORE

1. The battle against air pollution READ MORE
2. Breathing death: WHO’s revised air quality levels are in tune with the times. India must implement these quickly READ MORE

1. Make departments smart, first: E-governance holds the promise of improving local governance, but only if we pay attention to the basics READ MORE
2. Meditation is essential to remove the fear of death READ MORE
3. Human resources & regulatory autonomy: Statutory regulatory authorities need autonomy in staffing their organisations with specialists who have integrity and knowledge READ MORE

1. Make departments smart, first: E-governance holds the promise of improving local governance, but only if we pay attention to the basics READ MORE
2. The misuse of law — a challenge to Indian judiciary READ MORE
3. Making light of the law: The police have to be depoliticised if they have to fulfil constitutional mandate READ MORE

(Newspapers, PIB and other important sources)

Prelim and Main

1. Ayushman Bharat PMJAY on completion of three years READ MORE
2. Modi to launch Pradhan Mantri Digital Health Mission on Sept. 27 READ MORE
3. PM CARES not govt fund, functions with transparency, Delhi High Court told READ MORE
4. An Expert Explains: How rare species of Sundarbans are threatened by human activities READ MORE
5. SC introduces Fast and Secured Transmission of Electronic Records system READ MORE
6. Dance of the Lamas READ MORE

Main Exam 

GS Paper- 2

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. Make departments smart, first: E-governance holds the promise of improving local governance, but only if we pay attention to the basics READ MORE
2. The misuse of law — a challenge to Indian judiciary READ MORE
3. Making light of the law: The police have to be depoliticised if they have to fulfil constitutional mandate READ MORE

SOCIAL JUSTICE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

1. Marching on: The SC insists that females be given the chance in Nov itself to take the NDA entrance exam READ MORE

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

1. Another grouping: AUKUS presents both challenges and opportunities for India as a Quad member READ MORE
2. On the climate crisis, a four-point agenda for Quad meeting READ MORE
3. Quad, AUKUS, SAARC… and a divided Asia READ MORE

GS Paper- 3

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

1. Lack of clarity on NMP process, timing READ MORE
2. Role of cooperatives in Indian economy READ MORE
3. Managing risks of a green economy: A rapid transition to renewable energy, which is necessary, will disrupt a number of businesses READ MORE

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

1. The battle against air pollution READ MORE
2. Breathing death: WHO’s revised air quality levels are in tune with the times. India must implement these quickly READ MORE

GS Paper- 4

ETHICS EXAMPLES AND CASE STUDY

1. Meditation is essential to remove the fear of death READ MORE
2. Human resources & regulatory autonomy: Statutory regulatory authorities need autonomy in staffing their organisations with specialists who have integrity and knowledge READ MORE

Questions for the MAIN exam

1. The formation of the new alliance ‘AUKUS’ significantly affects India’s interests in the Indo-Pacific region. Comment.
2. What is e-governance? How urban local bodies can utilize e-governance to build a smart city?
3. ‘AUKUS presents both challenges and opportunities for India as a Quad member’. Analyse.

QUOTATIONS AND CAPTIONS

• The law is the public conscience.
• E-governance holds the promise of improving local governance, but only if we pay attention to the basics.
• AUKUS presents both challenges and opportunities for India as a Quad member.
• With the sudden announcement of AUKUS, a worry for New Delhi is that the U.S. is now promoting a security partnership with its “Anglo-Saxon” treaty allies that it is excluded from, possibly upsetting the balance of power in the region.
• The success of the National Monetisation Plan hinges on the availability of credit and internal resources of the private sector.
• Quad can capitalise on the essence of democracy to further the vision and action related to the climate agenda. It is high time that a comprehensive, inclusive and fair approach to regional cooperation is adopted in dealing with one of the most significant global dangers of this century.
• The World Health Organization’s new metric on pollution levels highlights the scale of India’s challenge. India must focus on cleaning up its power, industry, and transport sectors, set up interim targets, and plan a more nuanced regional approach to provide clean air to its citizens.
• Public Interest Litigations have ensured against derailment of the rule of law and benefited the socially vulnerable sections.
• Statutory regulatory authorities need autonomy in staffing their organisations with specialists who have integrity and knowledge.

50-WORD TALK

• WHO’s new air quality guidelines are bad news for India, which is struggling to meet 2005 benchmarks. They show we are breathing unacceptable levels of pollutants. The response so far of governments and people has been inconsistent or kneejerk. This is an urgent wake-up call if one was even needed.
• We Indians, instead of sorting out our disputes with China on our own on the basis of equality and fairness, have chosen to join the US-led quadrilateral. Essentially an anti-China alliance, the Quad could end up making Asia the theatre of a new cold war and an expensive arms race. Should we allow outsiders to put their guns on our shoulders to fire at China?

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.

ART AND CULTURE

CHAM DANCE

THE CONTEXT: The filmmaker and art historian recently gave a talk on the cham dance form at an online event organised by India Habitat Centre.

ABOUT CHAM DANCE

• The Yogachara school of Buddhism was founded in Kashmir in the fourth century by Asanga and Vasubandhu. This developed into the sophisticated Vajrayana form of Buddhism, which incorporated the Cham dance.
• From Ladakh to Mongolia, the Cham is the deepest form of meditation for the Lamas.
• The purpose of this meditation is for the Lama (priest) to be able to free himself entirely from his own ephemeral personality.
• The Lamas celebrate the victory of good over evil with two days of the monastic dance.
• The costumes and masks are an integral part of the dance.
• All sounds in Cham are sacred mantras. The drum is a reminder of the deep sound that resounded at the beginning of creation and at the moment of the Buddha’s enlightenment.
• Once popularly practised in Ladakh, Lahaul, Spiti, Kinnaur, Tibet, Southern China and Mongolia, today Cham has been kept alive mainly at annual celebrations in parts of Ladakh and Spiti.

SOURCE: TH

INDIAN POLITY, GOVERNANCE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

JABS TO BE GIVEN AT HOME FOR DISABLED

THE CONTEXT: Persons with restricted mobility, disabilities and those with special needs can avail of COVID vaccination at-home facility while following all safety protocols.

ANALYSIS:

• India had already achieved the milestone of vaccinating 66% of its adult population with one dose of the vaccine.
• A detailed SOP had been issued for States and Union Territories for the upcoming festival season, with the direction that relaxations and restrictions be imposed based on weekly case positivity

SOURCE:  TH

SC INTRODUCESFASTER SYSTEM

THE CONTEXT: The Supreme Court has introduced the “Fast and Secured Transmission of Electronic Records” (FASTER) system.

ANALYSIS:

• The system is meant to ensure that undertrials are not made to wait for days on end behind bars to be released because the certified hard copies of their bail orders were late to reach the prison.
• The system would also prevent unnecessary arrests and custody of people even after the court has already granted them its protection. It may even communicate a stay on an execution ordered by the final court on time.
• It is proposed that the e-authenticated copies of the record of proceedings/orders, digitally signed by the authorised officer may be transmitted through the FASTER [Fast and Secured Transmission of Electronic Records] system to the duty-holders of the justice system.

SOURCE:  TH

PM CARES NOT GOVERNMENT FUND

THE CONTEXT: The Central government has informed the Delhi High Court that the PM CARES Fund is not a fund of the Government of India and the amount does not go in the Consolidated Fund of India.

ANALYSIS:

• The affidavit filed by an Under Secretary at Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said the PM CARES Fund is a charitable trust not created by or under the Constitution of India or by any law made by the Parliament or by any State legislature.
• Under Secretary said despite being an officer of the Central government, he was permitted to discharge his functions in PM CARES Trust on an honorary basis.
• Under Secretary said the PM CARES functions with transparency and its funds are audited by an auditor who is a Chartered Accountant drawn from the panel prepared by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
• It said irrespective of whether the trust is a ‘State’ or other authority within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution or whether it is a ‘public authority’ within the meaning of provisions of the Right to Information Act (RTI), it is not permissible to disclose third party information.
• The plea had argued that if the court concluded that the PM CARES Fund is not a ‘State’ under the Constitution, usage of the domain name ‘gov’, the Prime Minister’s photograph, State emblem, among others, has to stop. A Bench of Chief Justice D. N. Patel and Justice Amit Bansal will hear the case on September 27.

SOURCE: TH

ENVIRONMENT, GEOGRAPHY AND AGRICULTURE

PHILANTHROPISTS ANNOUNCE $5 BILLION FOR BIODIVERSITY RESTORATION

THE CONTEXT: An amount of $5 billion of funding was announced for the restoration of global biodiversity at a high-level event on the margins of the UN General Assembly on September 22, 2021.

ANALYSIS:

• The $5 billion pledged will be used over the next 10 years to ensure that 30 per cent of the planet is protected and preserved in the most important places for biodiversity by 2030, according to a statement by the World Wide Fund for Nature.
• The fund will be used to create, monitor, expand and manage protected and conserved areas on land, in freshwater and in the sea.
• Indigenous people, local communities, civil society and governments will be involved in the projects.
• Some 75 financial institutions from around the globe also committed to ending investments harmful to nature at the event. These institutions are worth 12 trillion euros in assets.
• Recent research from WWF has revealed that 39 million jobs could be created if governments reallocated the $500 billion governments spent on harmful subsidies every year to employment which is nature-positive.
• The Green Climate Fund is seeking to expand its investments to restore ecosystems while creating jobs across developing countries.

SOURCE:   DTE

INDIAN ECONOMY

GEM BAGS PRESTIGIOUS CIPS AWARD

THE CONTEXT: Government e-Marketplace (GeM) was announced as the winner in the “Best Use of Digital Technology” category at the CIPS Excellence in Procurement Awards 2021 (CIPS Awards).

ANALYSIS: 

• GeM emerged the winner in this category after competing with some of the biggest and best names in procurement across the public and private sector globally, including GEP, Jaguar Land Rover, Royal Dutch Shell, Vendigital and Shell.
• The CIPS Awards are one of the leading recognitions around procurement globally, which is conducted under the aegis of The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS), London.
• CIPS is a global not-for-profit organisation and professional body dedicated to promoting good practices in procurement and supply management, with a community across 150 countries.
• GeM has brought its technology-driven innovations and strategic business processes in pursuit of three fundamental goals: driving transparency, efficiency and inclusiveness in public procurement.

ABOUT THE GEM PLATFORM

• Government e-Marketplace is a 100% Government owned Section 8 Company set up under the aegis of the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry for procurement of goods and services by Central and State Government organizations.
• The design and development of the GeM platform- its digital features and functionalities, key business processes as well as ancillary offline activities like outreach and training of stakeholders-is guided by these three goals.
• The use of forward-looking technologies has helped GeM to broadly achieve these goals and more, over the past five years.
• GeM offers a cashless, contactless, and paperless experience for sellers and buyers, and serves as an end-to-end solution for procurement of common use goods and services by Government buyers. GeM has completely replaced a previously fragmented public procurement ecosystem by a unified and easy-to-use e-marketplace helping to leverage competitiveness, accessibility, and economies of scale of a diverse, open and transparent procurement system.

SOURCE: PIB

ADB CUTS INDIA’S GROWTH FORECAST TO 10%

THE CONTEXT: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has lowered India’s growth projections for the current financial year by a percentage point to 10 per cent, mainly due to disruptions in economic activity caused by the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

ANALYSIS:

• In April, ADB had projected a growth rate of 11% in 2021-22 for India.
• It also trimmed the growth forecast for Asia as a region from 7.3 per cent to 7.1 per cent for 2021, though it retained the growth projections for China at 8.1 per cent.
• Meanwhile, RBI also trimmed the country’s growth projection by a similar margin to 9.5% in June this year.

SOURCE:THEPRINT

PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

Consider the following statements about Cham Dance:

1. It is a traditional monastic dance form of Lamas in the Ladakh region.
2. The costumes and masks are an integral part of the dance.
3. The Theravada form of Buddhism practised in Tibet has incorporated Cham dance.

Which of the statements given is/are correct?

a) 1 and 2 only

b) 2 and 3 only

c) 3 only

d) 1, 2 and 3

ANSWER FOR SEPTEMBER 23, 2021 PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS (REFER TO RELEVANT ARTICLE)

Q1 Answer: c)

Explanation:

• Three species of rhino—black, Javan, and Sumatran—are critically endangered.
• White rhino- Near threatened
• One-horned rhino- Vulnerable