1. A new global standard for AI ethics READ MORE
2. Offer yourself to the fire of purification READ MORE

1. Climate and Us | An inequitable status quo remains in climate action READ MORE
2. No single-use plastic: There is no case for extending the deadline READ MORE
3. Climate change: How can India’s concretised, dangerously hot cities be cooled down sustainably? READ MORE
4. Improving India’s Poor Environmental Performance READ MORE
5. Monsoon 2022: The North East may be deluged, but the west coast is dry; here is why READ MORE

1. Caste or biradari? How ‘privilege and descent’ plays out among Indian Muslims READ MORE
2. India Society: Its journey from traditional to modern READ MORE

1. A wish list for reform in India’s higher judiciary READ MORE
2. Will the Aadhaar fiasco pave the way for a stronger Data Protection Bill? READ MORE
3. Inter-State Council can help bolster state-centre bond READ MORE
4. SC’s Judgment on Compulsory Vaccination Addresses Executive Accountability READ MORE

(Newspapers, PIB and other important sources)

Prelim and Main

1. US Navy, Iran have tense encounter in Strait of Hormuz READ MORE
2. Explained: The anti-defection law and why it still remains a toothless tiger READ MORE
3. Explained: India’s emerging twin deficit problem READ MORE
4. Explained: Russia has cut gas supplies to Europe; what happens now? READ MORE
5. How a noxious aquatic weed was used to make eco-friendly products, generate employment in rural Bengal READ MORE
6. Spain, Germany battle wildfires amid unusual heat wave READ MORE
7. PM Modi will attend the 14th BRICS summit in virtual format on June 23-24 READ MORE

Main Exam   

GS Paper- 1

1. Caste or biradari? How ‘privilege and descent’ plays out among Indian Muslims READ MORE
2. India Society: Its journey from traditional to modern READ MORE
3. Monsoon 2022: The North East may be deluged, but the west coast is dry; here is why READ MORE

GS Paper- 2

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. A wish list for reform in India’s higher judiciary READ MORE
2. Will the Aadhaar fiasco pave the way for a stronger Data Protection Bill? READ MORE
3. Inter-State Council can help bolster state-centre bond READ MORE
4. SC’s Judgment on Compulsory Vaccination Addresses Executive Accountability READ MORE

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

1. India and Australia: Partners with shared interests and entwined destinies READ MORE
2. Going bigger with BRICS-Plus: The strained India-China relations need to ease off to make it more effective READ MORE
3. IPEF Challenges READ MORE

GS Paper- 3

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

1. Why the communication gap between the MPC and RBI is troubling READ MORE
2. Regional inequalities and resource transfers READ MORE
3. Why the revival of the World Trade Organisation depends on US and China READ MORE

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

1. Climate and Us | An inequitable status quo remains in climate action READ MORE
2. No single-use plastic: There is no case for extending the deadline READ MORE
3. Climate change: How can India’s concretised, dangerously hot cities be cooled down sustainably? READ MORE
4. Improving India’s Poor Environmental Performance READ MORE

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

1. Analysing spectrum auction: The reserve price is expected to dominate the minds of bidders in the months to come READ MORE
2. A new global standard for AI ethics READ MORE

GS Paper- 4

ETHICS EXAMPLES AND CASE STUDY

1. A new global standard for AI ethics READ MORE
2. Offer yourself to the fire of purification READ MORE

Questions for the MAIN exam

1. ‘It is important to align the currency with the financial strength and economic requirements of a country, an overvalued currency can have disastrous consequences’. Comment on the statement.
2. How far do you agree with this view that even after the 25 years of its establishment, BIMSTEC remains fragmented, and no lesson has been learned from the failures or constraints of SAARC? Justify your view.

QUOTATIONS AND CAPTIONS

• The UIDAI’s failed advisory on use of photocopies of Aadhaar cards highlights the need for a tough data protection law, which the new Data Protection Bill was meant to be. However, in its present form it privileges a free and fair digital economy over informational privacy.
• If the objective is to induce trust in digital markets to enable their growth at the cost of informational privacy, accepting the draft Bill in its current form will be problematic.
• From an Indian perspective, the Act East Policy can be best realised if BIMSTEC and ASEAN are seen to be working more closely in identified areas.
• The slow evolution of the institutional framework of BIMSTEC has been fashioned along that of SAARC. No effort seems to have been made to learn from the failures or constraints of SAARC.
• Although there is talk of BIMSTEC being a bridge between South and Southeast Asia, any effort towards building such a link remain invisible. Thus, the prospects of having BIMSTEC move ahead on trade and cooperation with ASEAN is missing.
• As machine-learning models grow in complexity and improve their ability to mimic feelings, they are also becoming more difficult, even for their creators, to understand.
• War against the Covid pandemic has to embrace all the three critical dimensions—testing, tracking, and treatment. Apart from the vaccine, diagnostics and therapeutics too need to be supplied at affordable rates.
• The India-ASEAN upgraded FTA could be a game-changer within the Indo-Pacific region.
• Reduce the IBC’s regulatory cholesterol and court delays if it’s to be the saviour it was conceived as.
• The possibility of Section 66A coming back on the statute book is bleak unless a bigger Supreme Court bench overrules Shreya Singhal.
• It is really important to align the currency with the financial strength and economic requirements of a country, an overvalued currency can have disastrous consequences.
• Gig work in India remains a distressing tale of long work hours, isolation and stagnant careers.

50 WORD TALK

• 22 FIRs and 34 days in jail for Marathi actor Ketaki Chitale for sharing one nasty Facebook post shows how a state can go overboard to crush social media nuisance. And then we complain of overcrowded jails and judicial pendency. High time the higher judiciary ends this petty political vindictiveness.

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 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.

THE INDIAN POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

THE JUDICIAL VALIDITY OF THE TALAQ-E-HASAN MODE OF DIVORCE

THE CONTEXT: Recently, public interest litigation (PIL) seeking to invalidate Talaq-e-Hasan, the prescribed Islamic way of a divorce, has been filed in the Supreme Court.

THE EXPLANATION:

BACKGROUND:

Unlike other religions where marriage has been traditionally viewed as a sacrament, under Muslim law, marriage is a civil and social contract.

Talaq-ul-Sunnat of the divorce sanctioned by Prophet is sub-divided into:

• Talaq-e-Ahsan
• Talaq-e-Hasan
• (iii) Talaq-e-Biddat

What is the PIL about?

• The petition filed by a Ghaziabad-based woman, seeks to make the prescribed Islamic way of divorce Talaq-e-Hasan unconstitutional as it is violative of Articles 14, 15, 21 and 25 of the Constitution.
• The petitioner who claimed to have been unilaterally divorced through the Talaq-e-Hasan mode by her husband Yousuf, also prayed that Section 2 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937 that permits Muslims to practise unilateral divorce be declared void.
• It was argued that the aggrieved lady and her child would be left without a remedy if no intervention was made.

What is Talaq-e-Hasan ?

Talaq-e-Hasan is a type of extra-judicial divorce mentioned under Islam that only men can practice. In this, a man can divorce his wife by saying the word “Talaq” in three instalments over three months.

• It is a revocable form of divorce. Extra-judicial divorce forms are approved by prophet Mohammad and are valid under all schools of Muslim law.
• The husband has to make sure that the wife is not menstruating when he’ll be pronouncing ‘Talaq’.
• There needs to be a gap of one month between all three pronouncements.
• These three months are also known as a period of abstinence.
• The duration for this ‘Iddat period is 90 days or three menstrual cycles or three lunar months.
• In case, the couple starts cohabitation during the abstinence period, the divorce will be revoked.
• The idea behind this period of abstinence is that the evil of divorce doesn’t become final at once.

Though Triple Talaq Is Banned In 2019, Why Is It Challenged?

• In a landmark Shayara Bano v Union of India judgment in 2017, the Supreme Court declared Talaq-e-Biddat unconstitutional. It was a form of extra-judicial divorce when a man pronounces ‘talaq’ thrice in just one sitting and marriage between the two parties gets dissolved.
• Triple talaq was declared unconstitutional by a five-judge bench on grounds of being arbitrary and against the Quran. These are two different forms of divorce and therefore need to be challenged separately.

Will Banning Talaq-e-Hasan Deprive Men of Their Rights?

• Article 25 of the Indian Constitution allows every citizen the freedom to profess, practice and propagate religion. All personal laws, including the Muslim Personal Laws (Shariat) Application Act of 1937, draw their powers from Article 25. Islamic personal laws have recognised extra-judicial divorce procedures and therefore, Shariat Act allows extra-judicial divorce proceedings legally.
• As Muslim women also have the right to practice extra-judicial divorce, a challenge to the constitutional validity of a man’s right to pronounce extra-judicial divorce on his wife is violative of Article 14 and Article15 becomes questionable.

VALUE ADDITION: Talaq- e- Ahsan form: Under this form, once the husband pronounces talaq, there has to be a three-month iddat period to factor in the three menstrual cycles of the woman. This time is meant for reconciliation and arbitration. During this period, if any kind of cohabitation occurs, the talaq is considered to have been revoked.

 

THE SOCIAL ISSUES AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

THE GLOBAL TRENDS REPORT 2022

THE CONTEXT: The 2022 annual Global Trends Report was published by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). June 20 is designated as World Refugee Day by the UN. The theme for World Refugee Day 2022 is whoever, whatever, whenever. Everyone has got a right to seek safety.

THE EXPLANATION:

Who is a refugee?

According to the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention, A refugee is someone who fled his or her home and country owing to “a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion”.

What are the major findings of this year’s report?

• On Earth, 1 in every 78 people is now displaced.
• There were 7 million new internal displacements worldwide, due to disasters. It is a decrease of 23 percent as compared to the last year (2021).
• The largest displacement occurred in China in 2021 (6 million), the Philippines (5.7 million), and India (4.9 million).
• The number of people who were forced to flee their homes has increased in the past decade. It stands at the highest level since records started. By the end of May 2022, more than 100 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide. The reasons cited are violence, war in Ukraine, food insecurity, human rights abuses, climate crisis, and other emergencies from Africa to Afghanistan.
• By 2021 end, the number of people displaced by war, persecution, violence, and human rights abuses was 3 million. This has increased by 8% and has doubled as compared to the figure 10 years ago.
• Importantly, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused the fastest and largest forced displacement crises after World War II from Africa to Afghanistan and beyond.

NOTE: ·         India is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol and does not have a national refugee protection framework. ·         However, it continues to grant asylum to a large number of refugees from neighbouring States and respects UNHCR’s mandate for other nationals, mainly from Afghanistan and Myanmar.

• In India’s case, the report points out that around five million people were internally displaced. The reason cited is due to disasters and climate change in 2021.
• Low and middle-income countries hosted 83% of the world’s refugees. Turkey hosted nearly 3.8 million refugees, the largest population worldwide.
• The number of new individual asylum applications registered globally in 2021 increased by 25% to 1.4 million from 1.1 million. Important to note that it is less than pre-pandemic levels. Also, Unaccompanied or separated children (UASC) accounted for two per cent of new asylum claims. The S. was the most popular choice among refugees to seek asylum, followed by Germany, Mexico, Costa Rica, and France.

VALUE ADDITION:

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):

• It is a UN Refugee Agency and a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting their rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people.
• It was created in 1950 to help millions of Europeans who had fled or lost their homes.
• It is headquartered at Geneva, Switzerland.

POINTS TO REMEMBER: What is Non-refoulement? It is the principle under international law that a person fleeing persecution from his own country should not be forced to return.

THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

INDIA’S EMERGING TWIN DEFICIT PROBLEM

THE CONTEXT: According to the latest ‘Monthly Economic Review’, the Ministry of Finance has painted an overall optimistic picture of the state of the domestic economy. “The World is looking at a distinct possibility of widespread stagflation. India, however, is at low risk of stagflation, owing to its prudent stabilization policies”.

THE EXPLANATION:

• According to the Finance Ministry report, the economic growth outlook is likely to be affected by several factors owing to the trade disruptions, export bans and the resulting surge in global commodity prices —all of which will continue to stoke inflation — as long as the Russia-Ukraine conflict persists and global supply chains remain unrepaired.
• “Also, it stated that the momentum of economic activities sustained in the first two months of the current financial year augurs well for India continuing to be the quickest growing economy among major countries in 2022-23”. But, given the uncertainties, the report highlights two key areas of concern for the Indian economy: the fiscal deficit and the current account deficit (or CAD).

Fiscal deficit

• The report states that “as government revenues take a hit following cuts in excise duties on diesel and petrol, an upside risk to the budgeted level of gross fiscal deficit has emerged”.
• The fiscal deficit is essentially the amount of money that the government has to borrow in any year to fill the gap between its expenditures and revenues. Higher levels of fiscal deficit typically imply the government eats into the pool of investible funds in the market which could have been used by the private sector for its own investment needs.
• At a time when the government is trying its best to kick-start and sustain a private sector investment cycle, borrowing more than what it budgeted will be
• The report underscores the need to trim revenue expenditure (or the money government spends just to meet its daily needs). “Rationalizing non-capex expenditure has thus become critical, not only for protecting growth supportive capex but also for avoiding fiscal slippages”. The “Capex” or capital expenditure essentially refers to money spent towards creating productive assets such as roads, buildings, ports etc. Capex has a much bigger multiplier effect on the overall GDP growth than revenue expenditure.

Current account deficit

The current account essentially refers to two specific sub-parts:

• Import and Export of goods — this is the “trade account”.
• Import and export of services — this is called the “invisibles account”.

If a country imports more goods (everything from cars to phones to machinery to food grains etc) than it exports, it is said to have a trade account deficit. A deficit implies that more money is going out of the country than coming in via the trade of physical goods. Similarly, the same country could be earning a surplus on the invisibles account — that is, it could be exporting more services than importing.

If, however, the net effect of a trade account and the invisibles account is a deficit, then it is called a current account deficit or CAD. A widening CAD tends to weaken the domestic currency because a CAD implies more dollars (or foreign currencies) are being demanded than rupees.

 

THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

THE COSMIC CANNIBALISM

THE CONTEXT: Astronomers have observed for the first time a phenomenon, called, “cosmic cannibalism,” a dead star is ripping apart its planetary system. A star is ending its life so violently that the dead star left behind, called a white dwarf, is disrupting an entire planetary system by sucking in debris from both its inner and outer reaches.

THE EXPLANATION:

What is a white dwarf?

• A White Dwarf is the final evolutionary stage of a star. White Dwarf Stars are called so because they were first discovered in that particular colour.
• Their characteristics include having a mass as that of the Sun, a radius comparable to the Earth and low luminosity.
• Scientists believe that White dwarfs are the end-stage of those states whose mass is insufficient to become a neutron star or a black hole. It is believed that 97% of stars of the Milky Way galaxy are white dwarfs.
• Compared to our sun, a white dwarf has a similar carbon and oxygen mass though it is much smaller in size — similar to Earth. According to NASA, the White dwarf temperatures can exceed 100,000 Kelvin. Despite having too high a temperature, white dwarfs have a low luminosity as they’re so small in size.
• Where a star ends up at the end of its life depends on the mass it was born with. Stars that have a lot of mass may end their lives as black holes or neutron stars. A low or medium mass star (with a mass less than about 8 times the mass of our Sun) will become a white dwarf. A typical white dwarf is about as massive as the Sun, yet only slightly bigger than the Earth. This makes white dwarfs one of the densest forms of matter, surpassed only by neutron stars and black holes.
• This case of cosmic cannibalism was diagnosed with the help of archival data from the Hubble Space Telescope and other NASA observatories.

POINTS TO REMEMBER: ·         The nearest white dwarf is Sirius B located at 8.6 light-years. ·         There are believed to be eight white dwarfs among the hundred-star systems nearest to the Sun. ·         A white dwarf is very hot when it forms, but because it has no source of energy, it will gradually cool as it radiates its energy.

 

VALUE ADDITION:

ABOUT HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE:

• The Hubble Space Telescope is a large telescope in space. NASA launched Hubble in 1990.
• It was built by the United States space agency NASA, with contributions from the European Space Agency.
• Hubble is the only telescope designed to be serviced in space by astronauts.
• Expanding the frontiers of the visible Universe, the Hubble Space Telescope looks deep into space with cameras that can see across the entire optical spectrum from infrared to ultraviolet.
• The Hubble Space Telescope makes one orbit around Earth every 95 minutes.

THE EMERGENCE OF DRUG-RESISTANT TYPHOID STRAINS

THE CONTEXT: According to a study published in the Lancet Microbe, the effectiveness of antibiotics for typhoid fever is threatened by the emergence of resistant strains, as per the large genome sequencing study of the bacteria Salmonella Typhi.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The study sequenced 3,489 S Typhi isolates from 2014-19 from people in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan, and 4,169 samples isolated from over 70 countries during 1905-2018. Strains were classified as MDR if they had genes giving resistance to antibiotics ampicillin, chloramphenicol, and trimethoprim/ sulfamethoxazole.
• According to the researchers, “In recent years, they have seen increasingly resistant strains that are threatening to leave us without effective antibiotics against this bacterium. The strain for which there is only a single oral antibiotic remaining is termed XDR typhoid. Strains resistant to the antibiotic (azithromycin) have been seen in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan.
• Evidence to date suggests that much of the drug resistance in typhoid has evolved within India, so certainly need to be concerned about the appearance of drug resistance in the country.
• Typhoid fever causes 11 million infections and more than 100,000 deaths per year. South Asia accounts for 70% of the global disease burden.
• India’s Health Ministry is considering introducing new typhoid conjugate vaccines into the national immunisation program. Two WHO-prequalified vaccines have been developed in India (by Bharat Biotech (Typbar TCV) and Biological E).

VALUE ADDITION:

• Typhoid fever is a bacterial infection that can spread throughout the body, affecting many organs. Without prompt treatment, it can cause serious complications and can be fatal.
• It’s caused by a bacterium called Salmonella typhi, which is related to the bacteria that cause salmonella food poisoning.
• Typhoid fever is highly contagious. An infected person can pass the bacteria out of their body in their poo or, less commonly, in their pee.

THE PRELIMS PERSPECTIVE

THIS WORD MEANS: BOYFRIEND LOOPHOLE

THE CONTEXT: Recently, US senators reached a bipartisan deal on gun safety measures. The reform outline includes a significant provision to address the ‘boyfriend loophole’.

THE EXPLANATION:

What is the boyfriend loophole?

• It refers to a gap in American federal and some state gun laws that allow access to guns by dating abusers.
• It would prohibit dating partners- not just spouses- from owning guns if they had been convicted of domestic violence.
• The framework says that convicted domestic violence abusers and individuals subject to domestic violence restraining orders would be included in criminal background checks

THE DUTCH DISEASE

• Dutch Disease in economics refers to a phenomenon wherein a country witnesses uneven growth across sectors due to the discovery of natural resources, especially large oil reserves.
• According to the concept, when a country discovers natural resources and starts exporting them to the rest of the world, it causes the exchange rate of the currency to appreciate significantly and this, in turn, discourages the exports from other sectors while encouraging the import of cheaper alternatives.
• While the idea was first proposed by economists Peter Neary and Max Corden in 1982, the term ‘Dutch disease’ was first coined by The Economist in 1977 to describe the decline of the manufacturing industry in the Netherlands.

 

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

QUESTION FOR 22^ND JUNE 2022

Q1. The term “Boyfriend Loophole” is recently seen in the news related to?

a) A new dwarf planet found by NASA

b) It is a small object, passing close to the Sun

c) It is US federal framework for Gun safety measures

d) None

ANSWER FOR 21ST JUNE 2022

Answer: D

Explanation:

• Dutch Disease in economics refers to a phenomenon wherein a country witnesses uneven growth across sectors due to the discovery of natural resources, especially large oil reserves.
• The idea was first proposed by economists Peter Neary and Max Corden in 1982, the term ‘Dutch disease’ was first coined by The Economist in 1977 to describe the decline of the manufacturing industry in the Netherlands.
• In the 1960s, the Netherlands discovered gas reserves in the North Sea. The subsequent ex- port of oil and the appreciation of the Dutch currency made Dutch exports of all non-oil products less competitive on the world market. Unemployment rose from 1.1% to 5.1% and capital investment in the country dropped.

 

Answer: D

Explanation:

Please refer to the given map-

[WpProQuiz 258]