WSDP Bulletin (07-10-2023)

(Newspapers, PIB and other important sources)

Prelim and Main

1. As per GRAP, Stage-I is to be imposed in the entire NCR when the daily average AQI of Delhi touches/ crosses 201 index value READ MORE
2. India Re-elected as President of Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD) for a Third Successive Term READ MORE
3. REC launches ‘SUGAM REC’, a mobile app for 54EC Bonds Investors READ MORE  
4. Two of every five amphibians threatened with extinction, reveals study READ MORE
5. Election Commission briefs observers ahead of Assembly polls in five states READ MORE
6. RBI’s status quo and an indication that rate cuts would have to wait: What’s in store for borrowers, depositors READ MORE
7. Russia may pull out of CTBT: How the treaty tried — and failed — to stop nuclear testing READ MORE
8. When can a bill be designated as a ‘money bill’: SC to hear challenge READ MORE
9. UN launches 10 principles to close Asia-Pacific sustainable finance gap READ MORE

Main

GS Paper- 1

1. Equality and identity: On the findings of the Bihar caste count READ MORE
2. Implement women’s reservation now READ MORE
3. Beyond Politics: Caste Census Is About Deepening India’s Social Justice Paradigm READ MORE
4. Modelling study shows how controversial geoengineering may affect global food production READ MORE

GS Paper- 2

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. Age of Consent: Law Panel Report Simply Diagnoses, Doesn’t Solve the Problem READ MORE
2. In Strong Judgement, SC Comes Down Heavily on ‘Arbitrary Exercise of Power’ by ED READ MORE
3. Law Commission of India and Uniform Civil Code: Looking Back, Looking Forward READ MORE

SOCIAL ISSUES

1. Aligning higher education with the United Nations SDGs READ MORE

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

1. India-China power play gets new life in Maldives READ MORE
2. Reading ‘India Way’ in the Neighbourhood First Policy: Moral Exceptionalism or Strategic Pragmatism? READ MORE

GS Paper- 3

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

1. Revenue riddles: On GST inflows and areas of concern READ MORE  
2. RBI’s Monetary Policy and the art of letting it be READ MORE
3. Rates to stay elevated for longer READ MORE
4. Inflation clouds growth dreams READ MORE
5. De-risking is better than decoupling READ MORE
6. Factsheet of bad loans in the banking sector READ MORE
7. GDP Growth: The Gap Between Reality and Rhetoric READ MORE
8. K-shaped Recovery Dents Growth of Worker Earnings READ MORE

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

1. Over $9 trillion investments in infrastructure resilience, Net Zero needed by 2050 to mitigate climate impact: CDRI READ MORE

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

1. Inspiring colours: On the 2023 Chemistry Nobel READ MORE
2. Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2023 goes to three scientists for quantum dots fundamental to nanotechnology READ MORE

DISASTER MANAGEMENT

1. ‘Sikkim tells us to be very careful before allowing any new hydropower project in the Himalayas’ READ MORE
2. Sikkim serves a warning, govts must heed now READ MORE
3. Deluge of apathy: Sikkim flash flood has claimed several lives after decade-old warnings were conveniently ignored READ MORE
4. Sikkim Flood Was a Disaster Forecast – But Warnings Were Ignored READ MORE

INTERNAL SECURITY

1. In Manipur, another internet shutdown, a conflict intensified READ MORE

GS Paper- 4

ETHICS EXAMPLES AND CASE STUDY

1. Can We Teach Someone to Be Ethical? READ MORE
2. Give us a smile READ MORE

Questions for the MAIN exam

1. Ethics are moral principles that govern behavior. Comment.
2. An urgent review of both the impact of climate change and infrastructure development in hilly areas is needed. Comment on the statement in the wake of the Sikkim glacial lake outburst flood.
3. India’s Neighborhood First Policy is guided by ideas of moral exceptionalism rooted in particular civilizational framings but is not without strategic pragmatism. Critically examine.

QUOTATIONS AND CAPTIONS

• Anything that you will build on the foundations of caste will crack and will never be a whole.
• As India refigures its foreign policy to a region now changed by Armenia’s defeat in Nagorno-Karabakh, it almost certainly will have to seek out other, more stable avenues for its infrastructure ties given the potential of the INSTC project.
• India’s Neighborhood First Policy is guided by ideas of moral exceptionalism rooted in particular civilizational framings, but is not without strategic pragmatism.
• The growing dependence of female workers on self-employment points to increasing economic distress that forced women to shift from household work to informal employment.
• India’s GDP numbers need to be recalculated with a change in methodology. The argument that the discrepancies get evened out is not a strong one.
• The eastern Himalayas require special attention in terms of the potential for earthquakes as well as flood disasters. A special effort needs to be mounted to develop hazard scenarios and models as well as land zonation maps that demarcate areas prone to floods and landslides.
• Nationality is a feeling of oneness which makes those who are charged with it feel they are kith and kin. It is a feeling of ‘consciousness of kind.
• With four decades of experience in political reservation for women in local elections, there’s a compelling case for introducing the bill sooner rather than later.
• The Indian banks, especially the public sector banks, are yet to benchmark the criterion for NPA and keep risk in tolerable limits while disbursing loans.
• Globalisation has become so strong that complete economic decoupling of a country or region is not feasible. De-risking and realignment is the way forward.
• The victory of a pro-China government in the Maldives offers Beijing an opportunity to restore its influence in the Indian Ocean region.
• The rise in extreme weather events should prod the government to rehaul its management of all mountain approaches.
• We need high-elevation meteorological stations for more accurate weather forecasts. Most of us use remote-sensing methods but we also need to develop our capacity in field glaciology.
• Educational institutions have to rethink their approach so that it is in tune with the NEP which will be crucial in realising the 2030 deadline for SDGs.
• It is high time that universities adopted sustainability as a mantra and incorporated SDGs into their institutional strategies, both in daily administration and in teaching and research.
• It has been realised that higher education cannot work in isolation; rather it must be directly integrated with socio-economic development where each activity and transaction has meaningful and multiple impacts on SDGs.
• Every citizen must feel that the universities contribute directly to their well-being and nation-building.

ESSAY TOPIC

• India to awaken the people, it is the women who must be awakened
• What we sow we reap.

50-WORD TALK

• In wake of the Sikkim glacial lake outburst flood, an urgent review of both the impact of climate change and infrastructure development in such areas is needed. India alone can’t do anything about global warming. But it’s imperative to assess the viability, risks of dams generating power from glacier runoff.
• MK Stalin is right to say that National Medical Commission rules are undermining state rights. Linking MBBS seats with state population means southern states can’t raise seats or open new colleges. It amounts to punishing states that actually delivered quality medical education. Instead, add better colleges elsewhere in the country.
• Hiking LPG subsidy for Ujjwala customers by 50% is further backsliding of the government’s proclaimed freebie policy. From making scathing political speeches about opposition’s ‘revdi culture’, PM Modi is himself distributing subsidies with increasing frequency as elections approach. It’s cynical politics that fiscal prudence is being sacrificed for electoral gain.
• Nobody’s above the law of the land, including NewsClick. But UAPA, on top of the already draconian PMLA, peremptory seizure of electronic devices, characterises a heavy-handed State. Just allow the law to play out instead. The goal appears to be to silence critics through shock-and-awe while courts watch on ineffectually.

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.