1. The pursuit of happiness through justice: The great degree of unhappiness in Indian society has a lot to do with the way the law and its institutions operate READ MORE
2. Bureaucracy’s digital challenge: If civil servants don’t use social media appropriately, their role as independent advisers stands threatened READ MORE

1. Explainer: What is green hydrogen and how can it help India mitigate climate change? READ MORE
2. Stricter air quality standards set by WHO are a reminder to governments to clean up their act READ MORE

1. Welfare delivery in the digital world READ MORE
2. More female representation: Structural biases against women must be addressed READ MORE

1. Digital health ID: Technology alone can’t address systemic inadequacies READ MORE
2. PM Modi’s Digital Health Mission Might put Personal Data at Risk, Lead to Exclusion READ MORE

(Newspapers, PIB and other important sources)

Prelim and Main

1. PM dedicates to the Nation 35 crop varieties with special traits READ MORE
2. 4th Indo-US Health Dialogue 2021 concludes READ MORE
3. Country’s first Pan-India helpline for senior citizens READ MORE
4. Pfizer begins the study of mRNA flu vaccine READ MORE
5. Explained: What is Mumbai civic body’s 3D mapping initiative? READ MORE
6. Nitin Gadkari reviews Zojila tunnel work READ MORE

Main Exam  

GS Paper- 2

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. Digital health ID: Technology alone can’t address systemic inadequacies READ MORE
2. PM Modi’s Digital Health Mission Might put Personal Data at Risk, Lead to Exclusion READ MORE

SOCIAL JUSTICE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

1. Welfare delivery in the digital world READ MORE
2. More female representation: Structural biases against women must be addressed READ MORE

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

1. Four geopolitical developments and a window of opportunity for India READ MORE
2. AUKUS won’t derail either Quad or Western unity READ MORE
3. Can Taliban takeover reframe Indian thinking? READ MORE
4. The unspoken risk of Quad and AUKUS: A bigger arms race in the Indo-Pacific READ MORE

GS Paper- 3

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

1. Explained: How the PLI scheme for textiles works READ MORE
2. India must make ‘green’ hydrogen a priority READ MORE
3. Human capital: Need for State-level approach READ MORE

 ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

1. Explainer: What is green hydrogen and how can it help India mitigate climate change? READ MORE
2. Stricter air quality standards set by WHO are a reminder to governments to clean up their act READ MORE

SECURITY

1. Tackling the Maoists: On Left Wing Extremism READ MORE

GS Paper- 4

ETHICS EXAMPLES AND CASE STUDY

1. The pursuit of happiness through justice: The great degree of unhappiness in Indian society has a lot to do with the way the law and its institutions operate READ MORE
2. Bureaucracy’s digital challenge: If civil servants don’t use social media appropriately, their role as independent advisers stands threatened READ MORE

Questions for the MAIN exam

1. Should civil servants use social media in their official capacity? Justify your view.
2. ‘Asian countries caught between the US and China should push for a new paradigm of multilateralism’. Comment.
3. How far do you agree with the view that the digitalisation of health services will push personal data at risk? Suggest the way forward in this regard.

QUOTATIONS AND CAPTIONS

• The great degree of unhappiness in Indian society has a lot to do with the way the law and its institutions operate.
• Bureaucrats should use social media to improve public policies. If they don’t use social media appropriately, their role as independent advisers stands threatened.
• The insurgency has weakened but its potency in select areas has not reduced.
• Developments on the security front herald a period of uncertainty and danger, but with China’s crackdown on its private sector, India’s economic prospects look brighter.
• Investments in research and development can help India tap its ‘green’ hydrogen potential and align its energy sector with climate goals.
• India has the advantage of producing cheap electricity from renewable sources and thus, we have the potential of becoming hydrogen exporters and should not lose this opportunity as we have lost in the case of solar cells and batteries.
• Asian countries caught between the US and China should push for a new paradigm of multilateralism.
• There is a need for micro-level studies that can create evidence-based policy interventions to improve human development.
• It’s important to bridge the digital divide that is preventing millions of people from making the most of technology-based public services. A holistic approach is a way forward to give a new lease of life to the health sector.

ESSAY TOPIC

• Happiness is a measure of the quality of governance.

50- WORD TALK

• Delhi High Court’s message to CM Arvind Kejriwal should be applicable to all politicians: Don’t make promises you don’t intend to keep. AAP government’s stand that CM’s assurance to pay poor tenants’ rent doesn’t constitute an unconditional promise amounts to political chicanery. Kejriwal must realise that voters are much smarter.
• Digital health IDs launched by PM Modi is an innovative addition to India’s growing data banks. But this needs to be matched by better healthcare infrastructure, especially in the public health sector. Without access to good, affordable hospitals, doctors, diagnostic services, health care could end up as welfare optics.

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.

INDIAN POLITY, GOVERNANCE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

1. HELPLINE FOR SENIOR CITIZENS

THE CONTEXT: The Government of India has taken a monumental step towards addressing the challenges and problems they face, through the country’s first Pan-India toll-free helpline – 14567 — called ‘Elder Line’, which provides free information and guidance on pension issues, legal issues, extends emotional support, and even intervenes on the field in cases of abuse, and rescues homeless elderly.

ANALYSIS:

• The intent of ‘Elder Line’ is to provide all senior citizens, or their well-wishers, with ONE platform across the country to connect and share their concerns, get information and guidance on problems that they face on a day-to-day basis, without having to struggle for it.
• Elder Line is a culmination of the initiative of Tata Trusts, India’s oldest philanthropy, which took through its partner, Vijayavahini Charitable Foundation, in 2017, in collaboration with the Government of Telangana in Hyderabad, to help the elderlies in the city.
• Tata Trusts has been and continues to be engaged in strategic philanthropy, to create an impact that is deep, wide and irreversible in millions of lives in the communities that we serve, distinguished by our scale and depth of interventions on issues of national significance.

SOURCE: PIB

ENVIRONMENT, GEOGRAPHY AND AGRICULTURE

2. CROP VARIETIES WITH SPECIAL TRAITS

THE CONTEXT: The Prime Minister dedicated to the Nation 35 crop varieties with special traits. The Prime Minister also dedicated to the nation the newly constructed campus of the National Institute of Biotic Stress Management Raipur.

ANALYSIS:

• The crop varieties with special traits have been developed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to address the twin challenges of climate change and malnutrition.
• Thirty-five such crop varieties with special traits like climate resilience and higher nutrient content have been developed in the year 2021.
• These include a drought-tolerant variety of chickpea, wilt and sterility mosaic resistant pigeon pea, early maturing variety of soybean, disease-resistant varieties of rice and biofortified varieties of wheat, pearl millet, maize and chickpea, quinoa, buckwheat, winged bean and faba bean.
• These special traits crop varieties also include those that address the anti-nutritional factors found in some crops that adversely affect human and animal health.
• Examples of such varieties include Pusa Double Zero Mustard 33, the first Canola quality hybrid RCH 1 with <2% erucic acid and <30 ppm glucosinolates and a soybean variety free from two anti-nutritional factors namely Kunitz trypsin inhibitor and lipoxygenase.
• Other varieties with special traits have been developed in soybean, sorghum, and baby corn, among others.

ABOUT NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF BIOTIC STRESS MANAGEMENT

• The National Institute of Biotic Stress Management at Raipur has been established to take up the basic and strategic research in biotic stresses, develop human resources and provide policy support. The institute has started PG courses from the academic session 2020-21.

SOURCE: PIB

3. LOCKDOWNS SLOWED GREEN ENERGY PUSH

THE CONTEXT: The lockdowns slowed renewable energy installations in India and the pace of such installation is lagging India’s 2022 target, according to a report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEE- FA), a research think tank.

ANALYSIS:

• As part of its commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, India has said that it would install 175 gigawatts (GW) of green energy by 2022 and 450 GW by 2030 but only 7 GW of such capacity was added in the financial year 2020-21.

SOURCE: TH

INDIAN ECONOMY

4. ZOJILA TUNNEL

THE CONTEXT: Road works totalling Rs. 1.5 lakh crore is being undertaken in the Union Territories of J & K and Ladakh. Minister for Road Transport and Highways reviewed the construction work at the Zojila tunnel, likely to be ready by September 2026.

ANALYSIS:

• The 13.5 km tunnel will be Asia’s longest bi-directional tunnel and will allow all-weather connectivity between Ladakh and Srinagar, which is disrupted during the winter months.
• It is located at 11,578 feet above sea level.
• It takes 3.5 hours to travel between Srinagar and Ladakh. The tunnel will reduce the travel time to 15 minutes.
• The Z-Morh tunnel — being developed at Sonmarg — will provide it all-weather connectivity with Srinagar allowing it to remain open to tourists all year round.
• It is likely to be ready by December 2023 and is being developed at a cost of Rs 2,378 crores.

Mountain passes in India:

SOURCE: TH

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

5. 4TH INDO-US HEALTH DIALOGUE 2021

THE CONTEXT: The two-day Dialogue leveraged as a platform to deliberate upon multiple ongoing collaborations in the health sector between the two countries.

ANALYSIS:

• The issues related to areas of concern pertaining to strengthening of epidemiological research and surveillance, vaccine development, One Health, zoonotic and vector-borne diseases, health systems and health policies etc. were discussed during the two-day dialogue.
• MoU signed India and USA for cooperation in Health and Biomedical Sciences
• MoU also signed between Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) & NIAID (NIH) for cooperation on International Centre for Excellence in Research (ICER)

SOURCE: PIB

PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

Q.Which of the following pairs is/are incorrectly matched?

1. Nathu La – Sikkim
2. Lipulekh pass – Himachal Pradesh
3. Jelep La – Arunachal Pradesh

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

a) 1 only

b) 1 and 2 only

c) 2 and 3 only

d) 1, 2 and 3

ANSWER FOR SEPTEMBER 28, 2021 PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS (REFER TO RELEVANT ARTICLE)

ANSWER: C)

Explanation:

• Statement 1 is correct: The mission will include a health ID for every citizen that will also be used as their health account. Personal health records can be linked to this account and viewed with the help of a mobile application
• Statement 2 is correct: A Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR) and Healthcare Facilities Registries (HFR) will act as a repository of all healthcare providers across both modern and traditional systems of medicine.