Dear Aspirants,

This Spotlight is a part of our Mission Nikaalo Prelims-2023.

You can check the broad timetable of Nikaalo Prelims here

Session Details

YouTube LIVE with Parth sir – 1 PM  – Prelims Spotlight Session

Evening 04 PM  – Daily Mini Tests

Telegram LIVE with Sukanya ma’am – 06 PM  – Current Affairs Session

Join our Official telegram channel for Study material and Daily Sessions Here

---

1st Mar 2023

Talk to our mentors for a Roadmap to 2023 Attempt. Click Here

 

• With almost absolute power the Governor-General and viceroy played a significant role in the shaping history of the country. Following are some of these important figures and significant events and major reforms carried out by them.

  Governor Generals of Bengal/India (Period)	Important events/Reforms
  Warren Hastings      (1773-1785)	Regulating Act of 1773. First Governor-General of Bengal. End of the dual system of administration (1765-1772). Supreme Court at Calcutta. Wrote Introduction to the first English translation of Gita. Founded Madarasa Aliya at Calcutta.
  Lord Cornwallis      (1786-1793)	Separation of three branches of service: commercial, judicial and revenue. Permanent Land Revenue Settlement of Bengal-1793. Reformed, modernised and rationalised the civil service. Introduced the Cornwallis Code. Sanskrit College, Varanasi.
  Lord Wellesley      (1797-1805)	Introduction of Subsidiary Alliance System. Fourth Anglo-Mysore war. Fort William College, Calcutta.
  Lord Hastings      (1813-1823)	Anglo-Nepal War (1814-16) Third Anglo-Maratha War-(1817-19) and dissolution of Maratha confederacy. Introduction of Ryotwari System of Thomas Munro, Governor of Madras-1820.
  Lord William Bentinck      (1828-1835)	Charter Act of 1833. Abolition of Sati-1829. Resolution of 1835 and Education reforms and introduction of English as the official language. The annexation of Mysore-1831, Coorg, and Central Cachar-1831.
  Lord Dalhousie      (1848-1856)	Introduction of the Doctrine of Lapse and annexations of Satara-1848, Jaitpur and Sambhalpur-1849, Udaipur-1852, Jhansi-1853, Nagpur-1854 and Awadh-1856. Wood’s Dispatch of 1854. Railway Minute of 1853. Telegraph and Postal reforms. Widow Remarriage Act-1856.
  Lord Canning      (1856-1857)	Establishment of universities at Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. Mutiny of 1857.

  Governor-General and Viceroy of India (Period)	Important events/Reforms
  Lord Canning   (1858-1862)	First Voiceroy of India. Transfer of control from East India Company to the Crown by the Government of India Act 1858 Indian Councils Act-1861
  Lord Mayo      (1869-1872)	Opening of Rajkot College in Kathiawad and Mayo College at Ajmer for political training of Indian Princes. Statistical Survey of India was established. Department of Agriculture and Commerce was established. Introduction of state railways.
  Lord Lytton      (1876-1880)	The Great Famine of 1876 affecting Bombay, Madras, Mysore, Hyderabad, Central India and Punjab. Appointment of Famine Commission under the presidency of Richard Strachey. Vernacular Press Act was passed- 1878. The Arms Act-1878.
  Lord Ripon      (1880-1884)	Education Commission 1882 under William Hunter-1882. Ilbert Bill controversy. Repeal of Vernacular Press Act in 1882. The First Factory Act in 1881 to improve labour conditions. Government resolution on local self government-1882.
  Lord Dufferin      (1884-1888)	Establishment of Indian National Congress.
  Lord Lansdowne     (1888-1894)	The categorisation of civil services into imperial, provincial and subordinate. Indian Councils Act-1892 Durand Commission (1893) was set up to define the Durand Line between India and Afghanistan.
  Lord Curzon      (1899-1905)	Police Commission (1902) was appointed under Sir Andrew Frazer. University Commission (1902) was appointed and Universities Act (1904) was passed. Department of Commerce and Industry was established. Calcutta Corporation Act-1899 Partition of Bengal (1905).
  Lord Minto-II      (1905-1910)	Popularisation of anti-partition and Swadeshi Movements. Split in Indian National Congress at Surat in 1907. Indian Muslim League was established by Aga Khan (1907) Morley-Minto reforms or Indian Councils Act 1909.
  Lord Hardinge-II      (1910-1916)	Transfer of capital from Calcutta to Delhi (1911). Establishment of Hindu Mahasabha (1915) by Madan Mohan Malviya.
  Lord Chelmsford       (1916-1921)	Home Rule League was formed by Annie Besant and Tilak (1916) Lucknow session of Congress (1916). Lucknow Pact between Congress and Muslim League (1916). Champaran Satyagraha (1918), and Satyagraha at Ahmadabad (1918). Montague’s August Declaration. Government of Indian Act- 1919 Jallianwalla Bagh massacre (1919). Non-Cooperation and Khilafat Movements were launched. Foundation of Women’s University at Poona (1916) and Saddler’s Commission was appointed for reforms in educational policy. Appointment of S. P. Sinha as governor of Bihar first Indian to do so.
  Lord Reading      (1921-1926)	The Chaura-Chauri Incident-Feb5, 1922 and withdrawal of Non-Cooperation movement. Moplah rebellion in Kerala (1921). Repeal of the Press Act of 1910 and Rowlatt Act of 1919. Kakori train robbery (1925) Establishment of Swaraj Party (1922). The decision to hold a simultaneous examination for ICS in Delhi and London with effect from 1923.
  Lord Irwin      (1926-1931)	Simon Commission-1928 Appointment of the Harcourt Butler Indian States Commission (1927) Murder of Saunders and Bomb blast in the Assembly Hall of Delhi-1929 Lahore session of Congress 1929 and Purna Swaraj Resolution. Dandi March (12 March, 1929) and launch of Civil Disobedience Movement.
  Lord Willingdon     (1931-1936)	Second Round Table Conference and failure of the conference, resumption of the Civil Disobedience Movement. Announcement of the Communal Award (1932). Poona Pact (1932) Third Round Table Conference 1932. The Government of India Act, 1935. Establishment of All India Kisan Sabha 1936. Establishment of Congress Socialist Party by Acharya Narendra Dev and Jayaprakash Narayan (1934)
  Lord Linlithgow      (1936-1944)	First general elections were held and Congress attained absolute majority (1936-1937). Congress ministers resigned (1937) after the outbreak of WW-II Subhash Chandra Bose elected as the president of Congress-1938. Lahore Resolution by Muslim League for the demand of separate state for Muslims. August Offer by the viceroy-1940. Cripp’s Mission to India Passing of the Quit India Resolution by Congress-1942
  Lord Wavell      (1944-1947)	C Rajgopalachari’s CR Formula (1944) and Gandhi-Jinnah Talks failed. Wavell Plan and the Shimla Conference (1942) Cabinet Mission and Congress accepted its plan 1946 Observance of the ‘Direct Action Day’ (16 August 1946) by the Muslim League. Elections to the Constituent Assembly and formation of Interim Government by the Congress (September 1946). Announcement of the end of British rule in India by Clement Attlee on February 20, 1946
  Lord Mountbatten      (1947-48)	June Third Plan (June 3, 1947) announced. Introduction of Indian Independence Bill in the House of Commons. Appointment of two boundary commissions under Sir Cyril Radcliff for the partition of Bengal and Punjab.

---

Important Acts During British India

In India, the British Government passed various laws and acts before the formulation of the constitution. The Regulating Act of 1773 was enacted as a first step to regulate the working of East India Company. However, the Indian Independence Act, 1947 finally ended the British rule in India and declared India as an independent and sovereign nation with effect from August 15, 1947.

The Regulating Act of 1773

• The Regulating Act of 1773 was enacted as a first step to regulate the working of East India Company
• The Gov of Bengal was made Gov General of Bengal. He was assisted by 4 people. This 4+1 becomes became Supreme Council of Bengal also known as the GG’s Exec Council.
• A Supreme Court was established in Bengal comprising of a chief justice and three other judges

Pitts’s India Act, 1784

• We see a shrinking of the Council from 4 members to 3 members. Hence 3+1 is the renewed GG’s Executive Council.
• Board of control was established to control the civil, military and revenue affairs of the company
• The Court of Proprietors was no more empowered to revoke or suspend the resolution of the directors approved by the Board of Control.

Charter Act of 1833

• The Governor-General of Bengal was made the Governor-General of India. The first Governor-General of India was William Bentinck.
• He was given legislative powers over entire India including the Governors of Bombay and Madras.
• The company lost the status of a commercial body and was made purely an administrative body.
• This Act. was the first law to distinguish between the executive and legislative powers of the Gov General.
• A 4th member was introduced who could only discuss and vote only on the legislative matter.
• Council of India = [(3+1) +  1(4th member also called the Law Member)]
• The first such Law Member was Macaulay. This Council of India was, to a certain extent, the Legislature. Strength of the Executive remained 3+1 .

Charter Act of 1853

• From here on, we see a gradual increase in the membership of the Council and further separation of powers.
• Access to compete in civil services for Indians.
• It brought out the separation in the legislative and executive functions of the Governor-General’s council.
• The 4th member (Law Member)was included as a full-time Member in the GG’s Executive Council. His position was taken by 6 Members referred to as Legislative Councillors.
• Council of India = [(4+1) + 6(Legislative Councillors) + 1 Commander-in-Chief]
• 6 Councillors were,
  1. 1 Chief Judge of SC of Calcutta.
  2. 1 Judge of SC of Calcutta
  3. 4 members of the ICS

Government of India Act, 1858

• India was to be governed by and in the name of the crown through Viceroy, who would be the representative of the crown in India.
• The designation of Governor-General of India was changed to Viceroy. Thus, Governor-General Lord Canning became the first Viceroy of India
• Board of Control and Board of directors were abolished transferring all their powers to British Crown
• A new office ‘secretary of state was created with a 15 member council of India to assist him. Indian Councils Act, 1861
• The major focus of the act was on administration in India. It was the first step to associate Indians to legislation.
• The act provided that the viceroy should nominate some Indians as non-official members in the legislative council.
• The legislative powers of Madras and Bombay presidencies were restored.
  It provided for the establishment of legislative councils for Bengal, North-Western Frontier Province (NWFP) and Punjab.
• Viceroy was empowered to issue ordinances during an emergency without the concurrence of the legislative council.

Indian Councils Act of 1861

• After 1861, the Council was called Imperial Legislative Council(ILC) or Indian Legislative Council(ILC). The Executive was further enhanced by 1 member.
• The Viceroy now had the power to Nominate 6 – 12 Non-Official members in the Legislature who would be holding the office for 2 years.
• ILC = [(5+1) + (Additional Members -> Minimum 6, Maximum 12)]
• The composition of Additional Members was as follows:
  1. 50% Nominated Official Members
  2. 50% Nominated Non-Official Members
• The Act thus sowed the seed for the future Legislative as an independent entity separate from the Executive Council.

Indian Councils Act of 1892 

• Due to the excessive demand of the Congress, the Additional Members were increased. Additional Members -> Minimum 10, Maximum 12.
• ILC = [(5+1) + (Additional Members -> Minimum 10, Maximum 16)]

The composition of Additional Members was as follows:

• Nominated official members (those nominated by the Governor-General and were government officials)
• 5 Nominated Non-Officials (nominated by the Governor-General but were not government officials)
• 4 Nominated by the Provincial Legislative Councils of Bengal Presidency, Bombay Presidency, Madras Presidency and North-Western Provinces.
• 1 Nominated by the Chamber of Commerce in Calcutta.

Indian Councils Act of 1909: The Morley-Minto reforms

• It introduced for the first time the method of election.
• The additional members of the Governor-General Council were increased from 16 to a maximum of 60.
• The composition of Additional Members was as follows:
  1. Nominated official members (those nominated by the Governor-General and were government officials)
  2. Nominated non-official members (nominated by the Governor-General but were not government officials)
  3. Elected Members (elected by different categories of Indian people)
• It provided for the association of Indians in the executive council of the Viceroy and Governors. Satyendra Prasad Sinha joined the Viceroy’s executive council as a law member.
• It introduced Separate Electorate for Muslims.

Indian Councils Act of 1919: The Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms

• Central Legislature thereafter called the Indian Legislature was reconstituted on the enlarged and more representative character.
• The act set up bicameral legislatures at the centre consisting of two houses- the Council of the States (Upper House) and the Central Legislative Assembly (Lower House).
• It consisted of the Council of State consisted of 60 members of whom 34 members were elected and the Legislative Assembly consisted of about 145 members, of whom about 104 were elected and the rest nominated.
• Of the nominated members, about 26 were officials.  The powers of both the Chambers of the Indian Legislature were identical except that the power to vote supply was granted only to the Legislative Assembly.
• The central and provincial subjects were demarcated and separated.
• The Provincial subjects were further divided into Transferred Subjects and Reserved Subjects, the legislative council had no say in the latter. This was known as the system of Diarchy.
• The principle of separate electorate was further extended to Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians and Europeans.
• It provided for the appointment of a statutory commission to report the working of the act after ten years

The Government of India Act 1935

• It marked the next great stride in the evolution of the Legislatures.
• The Federal Legislature was to consist of two Houses, the House of Assembly called the Federal  Assembly and the Council of States.
• The Federal Assembly was to consist of 375 members, 250 to represent Provinces and 125 to represent the Indian States, nominated by the Rulers.
• The representatives of the Provinces were to be elected not directly but indirectly by the Provincial Assemblies.
• The term of the Assembly was fixed as five years.
• The Council of State was to be a permanent body not subject to dissolution, but one-third of the members should retire every three years.
• It was to consist of 260 members.  104 representatives of Indian States, six to be nominated by the Governor-General, 128 to be directly elected by territorial communal constituencies and 22 to be set apart for smaller minorities, women and depressed classes.
• The two Houses had in general equal powers but demands for supply votes and financial Bills were to originate in the Assembly.
• The principle of Separate Electorate was extended to depressed classes, women and workers.
• Provided for the formation of Reserve bank of India

Indian Independence Act, 1947

• The act formalized the Lord Mountbatten Plan regarding the independence of India on June 3, 1947.
• The Act ended the British rule in India and declared India as an independent and sovereign nation with effect from August 15, 1947.
• Provided for the partition of India into two dominions of India and Pakistan
• The office of Viceroy was abolished and a Governor-General was to be appointed in each of the dominions
• The Constituent Assemblies of the two dominions were to have powers to legislate for their respective territories.
• Princely states were free to join any of the two dominions or to remain independent.

---

Talk to our mentors for a Roadmap to 2023 Attempt. Click Here

Form of Government:

1. Autocracy/ Absolute Monarchy – Concentration of power in one unelected hand
2. Democracy – government on the basis of elections
3. Constitutional Monarchy – head of state is king/ queen but acts on the aid and advice of elected council of ministers
4. Republican Govt.- head of state is elected not a monarch

Democracy

Direct -people vote on every issue, they make laws for themselves

Indirect/ Representative – people choose their representatives who make laws on their behalf

Referendum -people voting on certain important issues in representative democracies

Plebiscite – vote where people choose whether or not they want to remain in a state

In representative democracy

Written constitution – Laws can not be in violation of constitution. Constitution is supreme. Two types of laws – ordinary laws and constitutional laws

Unwritten constitution – Laws framed by parliament is supreme i.e parliament is supreme. Ordinary law and constitution law one and the same

So constitution basically limits the power of state. It has to abide by the constitution

Who will interpret the constitution – Judiciary. It can review laws and policies of govt – not violative of constitution i.e Judicial review

Legislature will frame the laws.

Who will implement – Executive

Two systems here

1. Parliamentary form – Executives/ ministers come from Parliament/ must get themselves elected within 6 months.
2. Presidential form – Executive is not part of legislature

System of Govt	Presidential	Parliamentary/ Cabinet form
Executive	Not part of legislature	Part of legislature
Separation of Power	Complete	Incomplete
Responsibility to legislature	Not responsible	Responsible to LokSabha
Term	Fixed term of both legislative and executive	Loksabha and cabinet can be dissolved any time
Govt and state	Both head of govt and state	Head of state, head of govt is PM, real power vests in PM

Titbits

1. In parliamentary form, head of government is prime minister while head of state is president (republic) or monarchy (constitutional monarchy) whereas president is both head of government as well as head of state in presidential form
2. Incomplete separation of power in parliamentary form; complete separation of power in presidential form

Form of Govt

1. Unitary – Only 1 tier of govt for the whole country. Units do not get any power directly from the constitution. There may be local bodies and provinces but parliament delegates power to them
2. Federal – more than 1, generally 2 tier. Units i.e states/ provinces derive power directly from the constitution

Shades of Federalism:

Federal features	Unitary features
Written constitution	Area, names, boundaries of states can be changed
Dual govt, Separate lists – union, state and concurrent	Governor
Judicial review	Integrated and unified Judiciary – Supreme court at top
Rigid constitution – when amending articles having interest of state	Emergency provisions
Bicameral legislature – RS is council of state	CAG, EC, All India services, Single citizenship, single constitution

Note:

1. Federal government is possible only in countries with written constitution
2. 3rd tier of governance i.e Panchayati Raj and Municipalities is not federalism but more decentralisation and local self governance.

Various constitutional doctrines

1. Separation of Powers – among legislative, executive and judiciary so that no one becomes all powerful
2. Checks and Balances-  among the three: for instance, judicial review is judicial check on executive and legislature
3. Doctrine of repugnancy – state law on concurrent list liable to be struck down if inconsistent with central law
4. Doctrine of harmonious reconstruction – Constitutional provisions interpreted not in isolation but to be construed as to harmonize with those other parts
5. Doctrine of pith and substance – finding out the true nature of a statute, an act or a provision created by the State is valid if the true nature of the act or the provision is about a subject that falls in the State list
6. Doctrine of colorable legislation- Whatever legislature can’t do directly, it can’t do indirectly It is most commonly applied wrt article 246 (3 lists)when a Legislature does not possess the power to make law upon a particular subject but nonetheless indirectly makes one
7. Basic Structure – Constitution has some basic structure which can not be amended even if all members of both the house vote to amend that provision (Keshvananda Bharati Case)
8. Judicial review – Constitutional courts to examine whether laws or policies violate the constitution

Historical background

Timeline

1. Regulating Act, 1773 – Governor of Bengal became Governor General of Bengal (not india) i.e Bombay and Madras presidency subordinate, Supreme court in Calcutta
2. Pitts Act 1784 – Board of Control for political affairs, 1st time called British Possession in India
3. Charter Act of 1833 – Centralization complete, Governor General of Bengal became that of India, law member introduced in the council
4. Charter Act 1853 – Open competition for civil services
5. Government of India Act 1858 – Act for good govt, abolished EIC, under direct rule of British govt/ crown now, Secretary of state post created
6. Act of 1861 – Recognition to portfolio system, some indians nominated to council
7. Act of 1892 – same story
8. Act of 1909/ Morley – Minto – element of election introduced, 1st Indian in executive council of viceroy, Separate Electorate
9. Act of 1919/ Montagu – Chelmsford – Dyarchy or dual govt in provinces – transferred and reserved subject, Bicameral legislature
10. GOI Act 1935 – Federation, Autonomy to provinces, 3 lists, residuary powers in viceroy

Titbits:

1. From 1858 under direct control of British govt. Therefore, GOI acts, before that charter act (EIC charter) and regulating act
2. Concurrent list was borrowed from GOI act 1935 as well as Australian constitution. Residuary power vests with centre now while it vested in viceroy in GOI act 1935
3. 1st name is secretary of state and 2nd name is viceroy i.e Montagu and Morley are secretaries

1st Governor General (GG) of Bengal (1773)	Warren Hastings
1st GG of India (1833)	William Bentinck
Last GG and 1st Viceroy (1858)	Lord Canning
1st law member (1833)	Macaulay
1st Indian to Viceroy’s executive council	Satyendra Sinha

Features from other constitution (Only Imp things)

USA	Federalism, Bill of rights, Judicial review, due process of law
Britain	Parliamentary system, Rule of law, Bicameralism
Russia	Fundamental duties, Justice
France	Republic, liberty, equality, fraternity
Ireland	DPSP, Nomination to RS
Australia	Concurrent list, Joint sitting
Canada	Federation with strong centre, residuary powers with centre, office of governor.

Talk to our mentors for a Roadmap to 2023 Attempt. Click Here

---

1. Passive Funds:

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) recently issued a circular on passive funds covering matters related to transparency, liquidity and operational aspects of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and index funds.

What are Passive Funds?

• A passive fund is an investment vehicle that tracks a market index, or a specific market segment, to determine what to invest in.
• Unlike with an active fund, the fund manager does not decide what securities the fund takes on.
• This normally makes passive funds cheaper to invest in than active funds, which require the fund manager to spend time researching and analyzing opportunities to invest in.
• Tracker funds, such as ETFs (exchange traded funds) and index funds fall under the banner of passive funds.

2. Initial Public Offer:

Last year IPO was making huge attention in India after Paytm and Zomato IPOs were open.

What is an IPO?

• Every company needs money to grow and expand.
• They do this by borrowing or by issuing shares.
• If the company decides to opt for the second route of issuing shares, it must invite public investors to buy its shares.
• This is its first public invitation in the stock market and is called the Initial Public Offering (IPO).

How does an IPO work?

• The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) regulates the entire process of investment via an IPO in India.
• A company intending to issue shares through IPOs first registers with SEBI.
• SEBI scrutinizes the documents submitted, and only then approves them.

Who can hold IPOs?

• It could be a new, young company or an old company that decides to be listed on an exchange and hence goes public.

3. Derivatives:

• A derivative is a contract between two parties which derives its value/price from an underlying asset.
• The value of the underlying asset is bound to change as the value of the underlying assets keep changing continuously.
• Generally, stocks, bonds, currency, commodities and interest rates form the underlying asset.

Types of Derivatives

The most common types of derivatives are futures, options, forwards and swaps:

(1) Futures

• Futures are standardized contracts that allow the holder to buy/sell the asset at an agreed price at the specified date.
• The parties to the futures contract are under an obligation to perform the contract. These contracts are traded on the stock exchange.
• The value of future contracts is marked to market every day.
• It means that the contract value is adjusted according to market movements till the expiration date.

 (2) Options

• Options are derivative contracts that give the buyer a right to buy/sell the underlying asset at the specified price during a certain period of time.
• The buyer is not under any obligation to exercise the option.
• The option seller is known as the option writer. The specified price is known as the strike price.

(3) Forwards

• Forwards are like futures contracts wherein the holder is under an obligation to perform the contract.
• But forwards are unstandardized and not traded on stock exchanges.
• These are available over-the-counter and are not marked-to-market.
• These can be customized to suit the requirements of the parties to the contract.

(4) Swaps

• Swaps are derivative contracts wherein two parties exchange their financial obligations.
• The cash flows are based on a notional principal amount agreed between both parties without the exchange of principal.
• The amount of cash flows is based on a rate of interest.
• One cash flow is generally fixed and the other changes on the basis of a benchmark interest rate.
• Swaps are not traded on stock exchanges and are over-the-counter contracts between businesses or financial institutions.

4. What are Agri-Futures?

Like equity, currency or interest rate futures, they allows to buy or sell an underlier at a preset price on a future date. All agri contracts end in compulsory delivery.

• Agri products available for trade include wheat, sugar, chana, soyabean, castor, chilli , jeera futures, etc. Edible oil seeds and oils, spices and items like guar are among the more liquid contracts.
• An objective of futures trading is gains reaching farmers, by establishing an efficient price-discovery platform.
• This has been achieved to a large extent on NCDEX, in products such as castor, chana, soy complex, mustard, guar, cumin, etc.

Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has issued an order suspending futures trading in paddy (non-basmati), wheat, Bengal gram (chana dal), mustard seeds and its derivatives, soyabean and its derivatives, crude palm oil and green gram (moong dal) for a year.

5. Infrastructure Investments Trusts:

The National Highway Authority of India’s first infrastructure investment trust has raised more than Rs 5,000 crore, informed the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways of India.

What are InvITs?

• InvITs are like a mutual fund, which enables direct investment of small amounts of money from possible individual/institutional investors in infrastructure to earn a small portion of the income as return.
• They work like mutual funds or real estate investment trusts (REITs) in features.
• They can be treated as the modified version of REITs designed to suit the specific circumstances of the infrastructure sector.

How are they notified in India?

• SEBI notified the Sebi (Infrastructure Investment Trusts) Regulations, 2014 on September 26, 2014, providing for registration and regulation of InvITs in India.
• The objective of InvITs is to facilitate investment in the infrastructure sector.

Their structure

InvITS are like mutual funds in structure. InvITs can be established as a trust and registered with Sebi. An InvIT consists of four elements:

1. Trustee: He inspects the performance of an InvIT is certified by Sebi and he cannot be an associate of the sponsor or manager.
2. Sponsor(s): They are people who promote and refer to any organisation or a corporate entity with a capital of Rs 100 crore, which establishes the InvIT and is designated as such at the time of the application made to SEBI, and in case of PPP projects, base developer.
3. Investment Manager: It is an entity or limited liability partnership (LLP) or organisation that supervises assets and investments of the InvIT and guarantees activities of the InvIT.
4. Project Manager: It is the person who acts as the project manager and whose duty is to attain the execution of the project and in case of PPP projects.

6. Important Points from RBIs FAQs Page:

What is a Bond?

A bond is a debt instrument in which an investor loans money to an entity (typically corporate or government) which borrows the funds for a defined period of time at a variable or fixed interest rate. Bonds are used by companies, municipalities, states and sovereign governments to raise money to finance a variety of projects and activities. Owners of bonds are debt holders, or creditors, of the issuer.

What is Government Security (G-Sec)?

A Government Security (G-Sec) is a tradable instrument issued by the Central Government or the State Governments. Such securities are short term (usually called treasury bills, with original maturities of less than one year) or long term (usually called Government bonds or dated securities with original maturity of one year or more). In India, the Central Government issues both, treasury bills and bonds or dated securities while the State Governments issue only bonds or dated securities, which are called the State Development Loans (SDLs). G-Secs carry practically no risk of default and, hence, are called risk-free gilt-edged instruments.

• Treasury Bills (T-bills): Treasury bills or T-bills, which are money market instruments, are short term debt instruments issued by the Government of India and are presently issued in three tenors, namely, 91 day, 182 day and 364 day. Treasury bills are zero coupon securities and pay no interest. Instead, they are issued at a discount and redeemed at the face value at maturity.
• Cash Management Bills (CMBs):  In 2010, Government of India, in consultation with RBI introduced a new short-term instrument, known as Cash Management Bills (CMBs), to meet the temporary mismatches in the cash flow of the Government of India. The CMBs have the generic character of T-bills but are issued for maturities less than 91 days.
• Dated G Secs: Dated G-Secs are securities which carry a fixed or floating coupon (interest rate) which is paid on the face value, on a half-yearly basis. Generally, the tenor of dated securities ranges from 5 years to 40 years.

The Public Debt Office: The Public Debt Office (PDO) of the Reserve Bank of India acts as the registry / depository of G-Secs and deals with the issue, interest payment and repayment of principal at maturity. Most of the dated securities are fixed coupon securities.

Fixed Rate Bonds – These are bonds on which the coupon rate is fixed for the entire life (i.e. till maturity) of the bond. Most Government bonds in India are issued as fixed rate bonds.

Floating Rate Bonds (FRB) – FRBs are securities which do not have a fixed coupon rate. Instead it has a variable coupon rate which is re-set at pre-announced intervals (say, every six months or one year). 

Capital Indexed Bonds – These are bonds, the principal of which is linked to an accepted index of inflation with a view to protecting the Principal amount of the investors from inflation.

Inflation Indexed Bonds (IIBs) – IIBs are bonds wherein both coupon flows and Principal amounts are protected against inflation. The inflation index used in IIBs may be Wholesale Price Index (WPI) or Consumer Price Index (CPI). Globally, IIBs were first issued in 1981 in the UK. In India, the Government of India through RBI issued IIBs (linked to WPI) in June 2013.

Special Securities – Under the market borrowing program, the Government of India also issues, from time to time, special securities to entities like Oil Marketing Companies, Fertilizer Companies, the Food Corporation of India, etc. (popularly called oil bonds, fertiliser bonds and food bonds respectively) as compensation to these companies in lieu of cash subsidies These securities are usually long dated securities and carry a marginally higher coupon over the yield of the dated securities of comparable maturity. These securities are, however, not eligible as SLR securities but are eligible as collateral for market repo transactions.

STRIPS – Separate Trading of Registered Interest and Principal of Securities. – STRIPS are the securities created by way of separating the cash flows associated with a regular G-Sec i.e. each semi-annual coupon payment and the final principal payment to be received from the issuer, into separate securities. They are essentially Zero Coupon Bonds (ZCBs). Being G-Secs, STRIPS are eligible for SLR. All fixed coupon securities issued by Government of India, irrespective of the year of maturity, are eligible for Stripping/Reconstitution, provided that the securities are reckoned as eligible investment for the purpose of Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) and the securities are transferable.

State Development Loans: :State Governments also raise loans from the market which are called SDLs. SDLs are dated securities issued through normal auction similar to the auctions conducted for dated securities issued by the Central Government. Interest is serviced at half-yearly intervals and the principal is repaid on the maturity date.

Under the amended RBI Act, the monetary policy making is as under:

• The MPC is required to meet at least four times in a year.
• The quorum for the meeting of the MPC is four members.
• Each member of the MPC has one vote, and in the event of an equality of votes, the Governor has a second or casting vote.

      The resolution adopted by the MPC is published after the conclusion of every meeting of the MPC in     
      according to the provisions of Chapter III F of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.

• On the 14th day, the minutes of the proceedings of the MPC are published which include:
  1. a. the resolution adopted by the MPC;
  2. b. the vote of each member on the resolution, ascribed to such member; and
  3. c. the statement of each member on the resolution adopted.
• Once in every six months, the Reserve Bank is required to publish a document called the Monetary Policy Report to explain:
  1. a. the sources of inflation; and
  2. b. the forecast of inflation for 6-18 months ahead.

Talk to our mentors for a Roadmap to 2023 Attempt. Click Here

Important Rebellions and Peasant Movements

Causative Factors for People’s Uprisings

• Colonial land revenue settlements, heavy burden of new taxes, eviction of peasants from their lands, and encroachments on tribal lands.
• Exploitation in rural society and growth of intermediary revenue collectors, tenants and moneylenders.
• Expansion of revenue administration over tribal lands leading to their loss of hold over agricultural and forest land.
• Promotion of British manufactured goods, heavy duties on Indian industries, especially export duties, leading to devastation of Indian handloom and handicraft industries.

Important Civil Uprisings

(1) Sanyasi Revolt (1763-1800)

• Cause: The disastrous famine of 1770 and the harsh economic order of the British and the restrictions imposed on the pilgrims visiting the holy places.
• Sanyasis were joined by a large number of dispossessed small zamindars, disbanded soldiers and rural poor. They raided Company factories and the treasuries, and fought the Company’s forces.
• Curtailed by: Warren Hastings
• Also referred to as the Fakir Rebellion.
• Important leaders: Majnum Shah, Chirag Ali, Musa Shah, Bhawani Pathak and Debi Chaudhurani
• Anandamath, a semi-historical novel by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, is based on the Sanyasi Revolt.

(2) Revolt in Midnapore and Dhalbhum (1766-74)

• Cause: Introduction of new land revenue system by the English in 1772.
• The zamindars of Midnapore sided with the ryots in case of conflict between the ryots and the English revenue collecting officials.
• Important leaders: Damodar Singh and Jagannath Dhal.

(3) Revolt of Moamarias (1769-99)

• It was a potent challenge to the authority of Ahom kings of Assam.
• The Moamarias were low-caste peasants who followed the teachings of Aniruddhadeva (1553-1624).
• To crush these revolts, the Ahom ruler had to request for British help. The revolt weakened kingdom and it fell to a Burmese invasion and finally came under British rule.

(4) Revolt of Raja of Vizianagaram (1794)

• In 1758, a treaty was made between the English and Ananda Gajapatiraju, the ruler of Vizianagaram, to jointly oust the French from the Northern Circars. In this mission they were successful.
• English refused to honour the terms of the treaty. Anand Raju died before he could seriously tackle the English.
• The East India Company demanded a tribute of three lakh rupees from Vizayaramaraju and asked him to disband his troops. This angered the raja as there were no dues to be paid to the Company.
• The raja supported by his subjects rose up in revolt. The raja died in a battle at Padmanabham.

(5) Resistance of Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja (1797; 1800-05)

• Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja, popularly known as Kerala Simham (Lion of Kerala) or ‘Pyche raja’, was the de facto head of Kottayam (Cotiote) in Malabar region.
• Cause: The Third Anglo-Mysore War (1790-92), extended English paramountcy over Kottayam in violation of an earlier agreement of 1790 which had recognized the independence of Kottayam.

(6) Poligars’(palayakkarargal) Revolt/ (1795-1805)

• The Poligars of Dindigal and Malabar rose up against the oppressive land revenue system under the British during 1801-06.
• In September 1799, in the first Polygar War, the poligars of Tirunelveli District rose up in open rebellion.
• Kattabomma Nayak of Panchalamkurichi was considered as the main leader of the rebellion. Though he managed to escape initially, he was later captured in Pudukottai, and publicly hanged in front of other Polygars as a warning.
• The Second Polygar war of 1800-01, given the magnitude of participation, is also known as the ‘South Indian Rebellion’.
• The suppression was followed by signing of the Carnatic Treaty on July 31, 1801, whereby the British assumed direct control over Tamil Nadu.

(7) Diwan Velu Thampi’s Revolt (1808-1809)

• The East India Company’s harsh conditions imposed on the state of Travancore, after both of them agreed to a subsidiary alliance arrangement under Wellesley in 1805, caused deep resentment in the region.
• Prime Minister Velu Thampi rise against the Company and assisted by the Nair troops. Velu Thampi addressed a gathering in Kundara and was later known as the ‘Kundara Proclamation’.
• The Maharaja of Travancore had not wholly supported the rebellion and defected to the side of the Company. Velu Thampi killed himself to avoid capture. The rebellion petered out.

(8) Kutch or Cutch Rebellion (1816-1832)

• There was a treaty between the British and Maharaja Bharamal II of Kutch in 1816, by which power was vested in the throne.
• The British interfered in the internal feuds of the Kutch and, in 1819, Raja Bharmal II raised Arab and African troops with the firm intention of removing the British from his territory.
• A British resident governed the areas as the de facto ruler with the help of a regency council.

(9) Rising at Bareilly (1816)

• Immediate cause: The imposition of the police tax which aroused the burning indignation of the citizens.
• Several armed Muslims from Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur and Rampur rose in rebellion for the defense of the faith and the Mufti.

(10) Upsurge in Hathras (1817)

• Cause: Progressive increase in high revenues, talukdar Dayaram constantly failed to pay arrears and even committed many acts of hostility by giving harbour to government fugitives.
• So, the Company with a large army attacked Hathras in February 1817.
• Rebels involved: Bhagwant Singh, Raja of Mursan

(11) Paika Rebellion (1817)

• The Paiks of Odisha were the traditional landed militia and enjoyed rent free land tenures for their military service and policing functions on a hereditary basis.
• Cause: British conquest of Odisha in 1803, and the dethronement of the Raja of Khurda had greatly reduced the power and prestige of the Paiks. Further, the extortionist land revenue policy of the Company caused resentment among zamindars and peasants.
• Bakshi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar had been the military chief of the forces of the Raja of Khurda. In 1814, Jagabandhu’s ancestral estate of Killa Rorang was taken over by the Company, reducing him to penury.
• The spark was lighted by the arrival of a body of Khonds into the Khurda territory in March 1817.
• With active support of Mukunda Deva, the last Raja of Khurda, and other zamindars of the region, Bakshi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar led a sundry army of Paikas forcing the East India Company forces to retreat for a time.
• The rebellion came to be known as the Paika Bidroh (rebellion). The rebellion was brutally repressed by 1818. In 1825 Jagabandhu surrendered under negotiated terms.
• The Paik Rebellion succeeded in getting large remissions of arrears, reductions in assessments, suspension of the sale of the estates of defaulters at discretion, a new settlement on fixed tenures and other adjuncts of liberal governance.

(12) Ahom Revolt (1828)

• Cause: Defying on the pledge to withdraw from Assam after the First Burma War (1824-26), the British attempted to incorporate the Ahoms’ territories in the Company’s dominion. This sparked off a rebellion in 1828 under the leadership of Gomdhar Konwar, an Ahom prince along with compatriots.
• Finally, the Company decided to follow a conciliatory policy and handed over Upper Assam to Maharaja Purandar Singh Narendra and part of the kingdom was restored to the Assamese king.

(13) Surat Salt Agitations (1840s)

• Cause: The government’s step to raise the salt duty from 50 paise to one rupee.
• The government withdrew the additional salt levy and its measure to introduce Bengal Standard Weights and Measures in face of people’s determined bid to resort to boycott and passive resistance.

(14) Kolhapur and Savantvadi Revolts

• The Gadkaris were a hereditary military class which was garrisoned in the Maratha forts.
• These garrisons were disbanded during an administrative reorganization in Kolhapur state after 1844. The Gadkaris rose in revolt and occupied the Samangarh and Bhudargarh forts.
• Similarly, the simmering discontent caused a revolt in Savantvadi areas. A number of Sawantwadi rebels were tried for treason and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.
• Ultimately, after the imposition of martial law and meting out brutal punishment to the rebels, the order could be restored in Sawantwadi region.to bring the region under control.

(15) Wahabi Movement

• It was essentially an Islamic revivalist movement founded by Syed Ahmed of Rai Bareilly who was inspired by the teachings of Abdul Wahab (1703-87) of Saudi Arabia and Shah Waliullah of Delhi.
• Syed Ahmed condemned the western influence on Islam and advocated a return to pure Islam and society. Syed Ahmed was acclaimed as the desired leader (Imam).
• A countrywide organization with an elaborate secret code for its working under spiritual vice-regents (Khalifas) was set up, and Sithana in the north-western tribal belt was chosen as a base for operations.
• Since Dar-ul-Harb (territory of War or Chaos) was to be converted into Darul-Islam (the land of Islam), a jihad was declared against the Sikh kingdom of Punjab.
• After the defeat of the Sikh ruler and incorporation of Punjab into the East India Company’s dominion in 1849, the English dominion in India became the sole target of the Wahabis’ attacks.
• The Wahabis played an important role in spreading anti-British sentiments. A series of military operations by the British in the 1860s weakened the Wahabi resistance.

(16) Kuka Movement

• Founded in 1840 by Bhagat Jawahar Mal (also called Sian Saheb) in western Punjab. A major leader of the movement after him was Baba Ram Singh (founded the Namdhari Sikh sect).
• Its basic tenets were abolition of caste and similar discriminations among Sikhs, discouraging the consumption of meat and alcohol and drugs, permission for intermarriages, widow remarriage, and encouraging women to step out of seclusion.
• On the political side, the Kukas wanted to remove the British and restore Sikh rule over Punjab; they advocated wearing hand-woven clothes and boycott of English laws and education and products.
• So, the concepts of Swadeshi and non-cooperation were propagated by the Kukas, much before they became part of the Indian national movement in the early twentieth century.
• As the movement gained in popularity, the British took several steps to crush it in the period between 1863 and 1872. In 1872, Ram Singh was deported to Rangoon.

Peasant Movements

(1) Narkelberia Uprising

• Mir Nithar Ali (1782-1831) or Titu Mir inspired the Muslim tenants in West Bengal to rise against landlords, mainly Hindu, who imposed a beard-tax on the Faraizis, and British indigo planters.
• Often considered the first armed peasant uprising against the British, this revolt soon took on a religious hue. The revolt later merged into the Wahabi movement.

(2) The Pagal Panthis

• The Pagal Panthi, a semi-religious group mainly constituting the Hajong and Garo tribes was founded by Karam Shah.
• But the tribal peasants organized themselves under Karam Shah’s son, Tipu, to fight the oppression of the zamindars.
• They refused to pay rent above a certain limit and attacked the houses of zamindars. The government introduced an equitable arrangement to protect these peasants, but the movement was violently suppressed.

(3) Faraizi Revolt

• The Faraizis were the followers of a Muslim sect founded by Haji Shariat-Allah of Faridpur in Eastern Bengal. They advocated radical religious, social and political changes.
• Shariat-Allah son of Dadu Mian (1819-60) organized his followers with an aim to expel the English intruders from Bengal. The sect also supported the cause of the tenants against the zamindars.
• Most of the Faraizis joined the Wahabi ranks.

(4) Moplah Uprisings

• Cause: Hike in revenue demand and reduction of field size, coupled with the oppression of officials, resulted in widespread peasant unrest among the Moplahs of Malabar.
• The second Moplah uprising occurred after the Moplahs came to be organised by the Congress and the Khilafat supporters during the Non-cooperation Movement.

Tribal Revolts

Causes for Tribal Revolts

• The land settlements of the British affected the joint ownership tradition
• As agriculture was extended in a settled form by the Company government, the tribals lost their land, Shifting cultivation in forests was curbed and this added to the tribals’ problems.
• Exploitation by the police, traders and money-lenders.
• Christian missionaries came to these regions and their efforts interfered with the traditional customs of the tribals. Some general laws were also abhorred for their intrusive nature.

Characteristics of Tribal Revolts

• Tribal identity or ethnic ties lay behind the solidarity shown by these groups.
• The resentment against the imposition of laws by the ‘foreign government’ that was seen as an effort at destroying the tribals’ traditional socioeconomic framework.
• Many uprisings were led by messiah-like figures who encouraged their people to revolt.
• The tribal uprisings were doomed from the beginning, given the outdated arms.

(1) Pahariyas’ Rebellion

• The British expansion on their territory led to an uprising by the martial Pahariyas of the Raj Mahal Hills in 1778.
• The British were forced to usher in peace by declaring their territory as damni-kol area.

(2) Chuar Uprising

• Cause: Famine, enhanced land revenue demands and economic distress goaded the Chuar aboriginal tribesmen of the Jungle Mahal of Midnapore district and Bankura district (in Bengal) to take up arms.
• The most significant uprising was under Durjan (or Durjol) Singh in 1798. Other leaders were Madhab Singh, Raja Mohan Singh.
• The uprising lasted from 1766 to 1772 and then, again surfaced between 1795 and 1816.

(3) Kol Mutiny (1831)

• Cause: Large-scale transfers of land from Kol headmen to outsiders like Hindu, Sikh and Muslim farmers and money-lenders who were oppressive and demanded heavy taxes. Besides, the British judicial and revenue policies badly affected the traditional social conditions of the Kols (inhabitants of Chhotanagpur).
• The Kols resented this and in 1831, under the leadership of Buddho Bhagat, the Kol rebels killed or burnt about a thousand outsiders. Only after large-scale military operations could order be restored.

(4) Ho and Munda Uprisings (1820-1837)

• The Raja of Parahat organized his Ho tribals to revolt against the occupation of Singhbhum. The revolt continued till 1827 when the Ho tribals were forced to submit.
• However, later in 1831, they again organized a rebellion, joined by the Mundas of Chotanagpur, to protest against the newly introduced farming revenue policy and the entry of Bengalis into their region.
• Though the revolt was extinguished in 1832, the Ho operations continued till 1837.

(5) Santhal Rebellion

• Cause: The Santhals of Rajmahal Hills resented the oppression by revenue officials, police, money-lenders, landlords—in general, by the “outsiders’ (whom they called diku).
• The Santhals under Sido and Kanhu rose up against their oppressors, declared the end of the Company’s rule and asserted themselves independent in 1854.
• It was only in 1856 after extensive military operations that the situation was brought under control. Sido died in 1855, while Kanhu was arrested in 1866.
• A separate district of Santhal Parganas was created by the Government to pacify the Santhals.

(6) Khond Uprising

• The Khonds lived in vast hill tracts stretching from Tamil Nadu to Bengal, covering central provinces, and in virtual independence due to the inaccessible mountainous terrain.
• Their uprisings from 1837 to 1856 were directed against the British, in which the tribals of Ghumsar, china-ki-medi, Kalahandi and Patna actively participated.
• The movement was led by Chakra Bisoi in the name of the young Raja.
• The main issue was the attempt by the government to suppress human sacrifice (Mariah), the introduction of new taxes by the British and the influx of Zamindars and money-lenders.
• The British formed a Maria agency, against which the Khonds fought with Tangi, a king of battle-axe, bows-arrows and even swords.
• Latter Savaras and some local militia clans also joined in, led by Radha Krishna Dand Sena. Chakra Bisoi disappeared in 1855 after which the movement petered out.

(7) Early Munda Uprising (1789-1832)

• In the period of 1789-1832, the Munda rose up in rebellion seven times against the landlords, dikhus, money-lenders and the British, who instead of protesting them sided with the oppressors.
• In the post-1857 period with a hope of a better future, many Mundas turned to the Evangelical Lutheran mission, which was overseeing mission work in Chhotanagpur.
• However, many apostates became more militant and broke away, spearheading the cause of seeking redressal of their grievances once they realized that the missionaries could not provide the solution to them.
• Their movement identified as ‘sardariladai’ or ‘war of the leaders’ was fought with the aim of expelling dikhus; and restoration of the Munda domination over their homeland.
• The tribal chiefs rose up against the erosion of Khuntkatti System or Joint tenures.
• While it failed it did not peter out but remained dormant and in need of a charismatic leader. It was given a new life by Birsa Munda in 1899.

(8) Bhils and Kolis Uprisings

• Cause: The Bhils were concentrated in the hill ranges of Khandesh in the previous Maratha territory. The British occupation in 1818 brought in the outsiders and accompanying dislocations in their community life.
• A general Bhil insurrection in 1817-19 was crushed by the British Military forces and though some conciliatory measures were taken to pacify them, they again revolted under the leadership of Seva Ram in 1825 and the situation remained unsettled until 1831 when the Ramosi Leader Umaji Raje of Purandhar was finally captured and executed.
• Minor revolts again took place in 1836 and 1846 as well.
• The Bhils’ local rivals for power, the Kolis of Ahmednagar district, also challenged the British in 1829 but were quickly subdued by a large army contingent.
• The seeds of rebellion, however, persisted, to erupt again in 1844-46, when a local Koli leader successfully defied the British government for two years.

(9) Ramosi Risings

• The Ramosis, the hill tribes of the Western Ghats, had not reconciled to British rule and the British pattern of administration.
• They rose under Chittur Singh in 1822 and plundered the country around Satara.

(10) Khasi Uprising

• The Khasis, Garos, Khamptis and the Singphos organized themselves under Tirath Singh to drive away the strangers from the Brahmaputra Valley.
• The uprising developed into a popular revolt against British rule in the area.

Mass Movements

The Non-Cooperation Movement-  1920-22

Following events acted as the catalysts which finally resulted in the launch of the Non-Cooperation Movement by Gandhiji on August 1, 1920.

Backdrop

• The Rowlatt Act (February 1919), the Jallianwala Bagh massacre (13 April 1919) and martial law in Punjab had belied all the generous wartime promises of the British.
• The Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms satisfied few.
• The treatment meted out to Turkey after the World War-I incensed had incensed the Indian Muslim, which led to the launch of Khilafat movement.

What were the aspects of Non-Cooperation Movement?

• The program of the non-cooperation included within its ambit-
  • Surrender of titles and honours.
  • Boycott of government-affiliated schools and colleges, law courts, foreign cloths and could be included to resignation from government service.
  • Mass civil disobedience.
  • Non-payment of taxes.
• On the other hand, it also included-
  • Establishing national schools and colleges.
  • Establishing panchayats to settle the disputes.
  • Encouraging hand spinning and weaving.
  • Maintaining Hindu-Muslim unity.
  • Observing strict non-violence.
• Several changes were made in Congress’ creed and organisation, which include-
  • The goal of the Congress was changed from attainment of self-government to attainment of Swaraj by peaceful and legitimate means.
  • The Congress was now to have Working Committee of fifteen members to look after its day-to-day affairs (the same proposal made by Tilak in 1916 was not accepted!).
  • The provincial Congress Committees were now to be organized on linguistic basis.
  • Congress was to use Hindi as far as possible.

How the movement unfolded?

• Gandhiji, along with Ali Brothers (who were the foremost Khilafat leaders) undertook nationwide tour during which he addressed hundreds of meetings and met a large number of students.
• R. Das played a major role in promoting the movement and Subhas Bose became the principal of the National College in Calcutta.
• The spirit of unrest and defiance of authority engendered by the Non-Cooperation Movement contributed to rise of many local movements in the different parts of the country.
• In May 1921, the British Government tried through Gandhi-Reading talks to persuade Gandhiji to ask Ali brothers to withdraw from their speeches those passages that contained suggestions of violence.
  • This was an attempt to drive the wedge between the Khilafat leaders and Gandhiji.
• By December 1921, the Government had changed the policy and started repression of the movement.
• Public meeting and assemblies were banned, newspapers gagged, and midnight raids on Congress and Khilafat movement became common.
• In response, Gandhiji declared mass civil disobedience movement would begin in Bardoli taluqa of Surat district.
• But before the launch of the mass civil disobedience, the Chauri Chaura incident on February 5, 1922, resulted in the withdrawal of the movement by Gandhiji.

The Civil Disobedience Movement 1930-31

On 2 March 1930 Gandhiji addressed his historic letter to the Viceroy Irwin in which he first explained at great length why he regarded British rule as a curse. He then informed the Viceroy his plan of action. When Gandhiji reached the Dandi on 6 April 1930 by picking up a handful of salt he inaugurated the Civil Disobedience Movement.

Backdrop

• An announcement on 8 November 1927 of an all-White Simon Commission to recommend whether India was ready for further constitutional progress and on which lines.
• The response in India was immediate. That no Indian should be thought fit to serve on a body that claimed the right to decide the political future of India was an insult no Indian of even the most moderate political opinion was willing to swallow.
• The Congress resolved on the boycott of the commission at its annual session in Madras in December 1927.

How the movement unfolded?

• Once the way was cleared by Gandhiji’s ritual beginning at Dandi, the defiance of salt laws started all over the country.
• The Government’s failure to arrest Gandhiji for breaking the salt law was used by the local level leaders to impress upon the people that ‘the Government is afraid of persons like ourselves’.
• In Tamil Nadu, C. Rajagopalachari led a salt march from Trichinopoly to Vedaranniyam on the Tanjore coast.
• On 23 April, the arrest of Congress leaders in the North-West Frontier Province led to the mass demonstration of unprecedented magnitude in Peshawar.
• In Peshawar, the atmosphere created by the Khudai Khidmatgars contributed to the mass upsurge in Peshawar during which the city was virtually in the hands of non-violent revolutionaries.
• It was increasingly becoming clear that the Government’s gamble of non-interference with the movement would result in its spending itself out.
• On May 4, the Viceroy finally ordered Gandhiji’s arrest.
• Gandhiji’s announcement that he would now proceed to continue his defiance of the salt laws by leading a raid on the Dharasana Salt Works had forced the Government to act.
• Coming as it did at a high point in the movement, it only acted as a further spur to activity, and caused endless trouble for the government.
• Dharsana Satyagraha carried out in the absence of Gandhiji with Sarojini Naidu in the lead, in which Satyagrahis were beaten with the lathis till they fell down.
• This form of Satyagraha was adopted by the people who soon made it a mass affair.
• But the salt Satyagraha was only the catalyst and the beginning, for a rich variety of forms of defiance that it brought in its wake.
• Eastern India became the scene of a new kind of no-tax campaign-refusal to pay the chowkidara tax levied specifically on the villagers.
• In Gujarat, in Kheda district, in Bardoli taluqa in Surat district, and Jambusar in Broach district a determined no-tax movement was in progress.
• P. was setting up another kind of movement- a no-revenue no-rent campaign.
• On January 5, 1931, the Viceroy announced the unconditional release of Gandhiji and all other members of the Congress working committee.
• On March 5, 1931 the fortnight-long discussion culminated in Gandhi-Irwin Pact which was variously described as a truce and a provisional settlement and ended the Non-Cooperation Movement.

The Quit India Movement

‘Quit India’, this powerful slogan launched the legendary struggle which also became famous by the name of the ‘August Revolution’.

Backdrop

• The failure of the Cripps Mission in April 1942 made it clear that Britain was unwilling to offer an honourable settlement and real constitutional advance during the war.
• The empty gesture of the Cripps offer convinced even those Congressmen like Nehru and Gandhiji, who did not want to do anything to hamper the anti-fascist War efforts.
• Other factors that made a struggle both inevitable and necessary were-
  • Popular discontent product of rising prices and war-time shortages.
  • The growing feeling of an eminent British collapse.
  • The manner in which British evacuated from Malaya and Burma leaving the people there to their fate

How the movement unfolded?

• A fortnight after Cripps’ departure Gandhiji drafted a resolution for the Congress Working Committee, calling for Britain’s withdrawal and the adoption of non-violent non-cooperation against any Japanese invasion.
• Congress edged towards Quit India while Britain moved towards arming itself with special powers to meet the threat.
• The historic August meeting at Gowalia Tank in Bombay marked the beginning of the movement. The meeting was unprecedented in the popular enthusiasm it generated.
• The Government, however, was in no mood to either negotiate with the Congress or wait for the movement to be formally launched.
• In the early hours of 9 August, in a single sweep, all the top leaders of the Congress were arrested and taken to an unknown destination.
• The sudden attack by the government produced an instantaneous reaction among the people.
• As soon as the news of the arrest spread lakhs of people flocked to Gowalia Tank where a mass meeting had been scheduled.
• There were similar disturbances on 9 August in Ahmedabad and Poona.
• On the 10^th, Delhi and many towns in U.P. and Bihar, including Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, and Patna followed the suit with hartals, public demonstrations and processions in defiance of the law.
• Meanwhile, many provincial and local level leaders who had evaded arrest returned to their homes through devious routes set about organising resistance.
• As the news spread in the rural areas, the villagers joined the townsmen in recording their protest.
• For the first six or seven weeks after 9 August, there was a tremendous mass upsurge all over the country.
• The brutal and all-out repression succeeded within a period of six or seven weeks in bringing about a cessation of the mass phase of the struggle.
• But in the meantime, underground networks were being consolidated in various parts of the country.
• This leadership saw the role of the underground movement as being that of keeping up the popular morale by continuing to provide the line of command and a source of guidance and leadership to the activists all over the country.

Talk to our mentors for a Roadmap to 2023 Attempt. Click Here

---

1. Arunachal Pradesh:

Pakke Tiger reserve – The Pakke TR has a lowland semi-evergreen, evergreen forest and Eastern Himalayan broadleaf forests. This park got an award for conservation of Hornbill nesting protection.

Mouling NP– Transition b/w tarai and alpine. The Mouling National Park and the Dibang Wildlife Sanctuary are located fully or partly within Dihang-Dibang Biosphere Reserve.

Namdapha NP: It is only park in which you find all types of vegetation from tropical evergreen to alpine.

2. Manipur:

Sirohi NP: Exotic Shirui lily-only in the world.

3. Meghalaya:

Nokrek NP: It forms the core area of Nokrek Biosphere Reserve and it is located in the West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya (Nokrek Highest Peak of Garo Hills).

National Citrus Gene Sanctuary-cum-Biosphere Reserve

Balpakhram NP- tigers: ” land of eternal wind’

4. Nagaland:

Intanki NP: Hornbill, hoolock gibbon (only ape in india)

5. West Bengal:

Neora valley NP: Near Darjeeling. Neora Valley NP offers a unique ecosystem where tropical, subtropical, sub-temperate, and temperate vegetation occurs.

Buxa NP/TR: In Tarai Region, recently a Tiger was spotted.

Padmaja Naidu NP: largest high altitude zoo in country (Darjeeling)- red panda conservation.

6. Madhya Pradesh:

Kanha National Park: Barasingha/Swamp deer imp, tiger, deciduous fores.

7. Odisha:

Nalabana WLS- Chilika lake: Nalabana disappears in rains and re-emerges post monsoon. Chilika is popular for Irrawaddy Dolphin.

Simlipal Biosphere Reserve: Similipal, which derives its name from the ‘Simul’ (silk cotton) tree, is a national park and a tiger reserve situated in the northern part of Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district. In news due to Forest fires.

Satkosia Tiger Reserve: The Satkosia Tiger Reserve spreads across four districts. According to NTCA, Satkosia falls under reserves where “there is a potential for increasing tiger populations”. In news due to Tiger relocation.

Talk to our mentors for a Roadmap to 2023 Attempt. Click Here

---

1. Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs)

• According to the central bank, D-SIBs are financial institutions that are large enough where they cannot be allowed to fall.
• A failure of any of these banks can lead to systemic and significant disruption to essential economic services across the country and can cause an economic panic.
• Therefore, y. In events of distress, the government supports such banks.
• In order to be listed as a D-SIB, a bank needs to have assets that exceed 2 percent of the national GDP.
• ICICI and HDFC are in first slab while SBI is in third. Bucket five represents the most important D-SIBs.

2. HARBINGER 2021 – Innovation for Transformation

• Theme: ‘Smarter Digital Payments’
• RBI’s first global hackathon that invites participants to develop solutions that have the potential to make digital payments accessible, Enhance security of digital payments, Enhance ease of payments.
• In order to be listed as a D-SIB, a bank needs to have assets that exceed 2 percent of the national GDP.
• ICICI and HDFC are in first slab while SBI is in third. Bucket five represents the most important D-SIBs.

3. NEO BANKS

• A neobank is a digital bank that does not have any branches. It is entirely online.
• Neobanks bridge the gap between the services that traditional banks offer and the evolving expectations of new-age customers. they tie up with RBI lesenced banks to provide services like Banking, Loans, Credit card etc.
• Neobanks bridge the gap between the services that traditional banks offer and the evolving expectations of new-age customers.

4. Central Bank Digital Currency

• CBDC or Central Bank Digital Currency is a legal tender issued by the Reserve Bank of India.
• It is an electronic record or digital token of a country’s official currency, which fulfils the basic functions as a medium of exchange, unit of account, store of value, and standard of deferred payment.
• It is same as the currency issued by RBI(Physical form) in digital manner.
• It can be exchanged by Cash well.
• CBDC will eliminate the need for interbank settlement.

5. Co Lending or Co Originating Model

• is a set-up where banks and non-banks enter into an arrangement for the joint contribution of credit for priority sector lending.
• Benefits: Lower cost and Greater Reach.
• NBFCs are required to retain at least a 20 per cent share of individual loans on their books. This means 80 per cent of the risk will be with the banks — who will take the big hit in case of a default.
• NBFCs will be the single point of interface for consumers and they enter into loan agreements with the borrowers.

6. Renewable Energy Certificates

• Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) are a market-based instrument that certifies the bearer owns one megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity generated from a renewable resource.
• The REC received can then be sold on the open market as an energy commodity.
• REC acts as a tracking mechanism for solar, wind, and other green energies as they flow into the power grid.
• In India, RECs are traded on two power exchanges — Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) and Power Exchange of India (PXIL).

7. Waterfall Approach, Agile Approach and Barbell Strategy

• Waterfall: an upfront analysis of the issue, detailed planning and finally meticulous implementation.
• Agile framework is based on feed-back loops, real-time monitoring of actual outcomes, flexible responses, safety-net buffers and so on.
• Barbell Strategy is a dual approach that combines two extremes, one safe and one speculative, and typically emphasizes the requirement for antifragility.

8. Inverted Duty Structure

• An inverted duty structure comes up in a situation where import duties on input goods are higher than on finished goods.
• In other words, the GST rate paid on purchases is more than the GST rate payable on sales.
• When manufacturers cannot set off the taxes paid on raw materials against the tax on the final product, the excess tax paid on inputs gets built into the price of the product.This makes an Indian-made product more expensive than the imported finished product, affecting the competitiveness of Indian makers.

9. Credit Deposit Ratio

• As the name suggests that it is the ratio which shiows how much a Bank lends out of its deposits it has mobilised.
• High ratio means more dependency on deposits for lending purpose as well as high utilisation. Low ratio means Banks are not utilising the deposits properly or they are not earning as much as they can.

10. Important Index/ Report

• Consumer Confidence Index: RBI
• Interest Subvention Report: RBI
• Financial Stability Report: RBI
• RESIDEX: NHB

Talk to our mentors for a Roadmap to 2023 Attempt. Click Here

---

1. ‘Sankalp Smarak’ dedicated to the nation by CINCAN: Recently, Commander-in-Chief Andaman and Nicobar Command (CINCAN) has inaugurated Sankalp Smarak at Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
   What is Sankalp Smarak?
   • Sankalp Smarak is a monument dedicated to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
   • It is a tribute not only to the resolve of the soldiers of the Indian National Army and their innumerable sacrifices but also reminds us of the values enshrined by Netaji himself.

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose & Andaman and Nicobar Islands

•During World War II (1942–45), Japan had conquered the Andaman and Nicobar Islands from the
•British and handed it over to Netaji and his army, the Azad Hind Fauj.
• Netaji then arrived at Andaman and Nicobar Island on 29th December 1943 and declared the island
•free from British rule, much before India got its Independence in 1947.
• On the next day,Netaji hoisted the national flag for the first time on Indian soil, at Port Blair.
• During his visit, he also visited the Cellular Jail and met the freedom fighters lodged there.
• Before his departure, he renamed Andaman as Shaheed (“Martyrs”) Island, and Nicobar as Swaraj (“Freedom”) Island.

2. ‘Askot wildlife sanctuary declared eco-sensitive zone: Askot Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh has been finally declared as an Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ).

About Askot Wildlife Sanctuary
• The Askot Musk Deer Sanctuary, established in 1986, was established to protect the endangered Musk Deer and its habitat.
• The sanctuary area is known as ‘Green Paradise on the Earth’.
• It is located in Askot, a small hamlet in Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh district.
• In the sanctuary there are 2600 plants, 250 birds and 37 mammal species like snow leopard, Himalayan black bear, Himalayan tahr, blue sheep, serow besides musk deer.
•Among the fauna are species like loong, monal, kalij pheasant and cheer pheasant.
• The sanctuary also has rare varieties of 2,600 Himalayan herbs and 250 varieties of birds and 37 varieties of reptiles.

What Are Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZ)?
• Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ) is a buffer or transition zone around highly-protected areas such as National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries.
• The purpose of declaring ESZs is to create some kind of “shock absorbers” to the protected areas by regulating and managing the activities around such areas.

3. : Srinagar is now a part of UNESCO ‘Creative Cities Network: Recently, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated Srinagar as a part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN).

About the designation
• The Srinagar city has been designated the creative city in the field of Crafts and Folk Arts – the only second city in India in this category after
• It will not only provide international recognition for the city of Srinagar but also help it with international funding, networking and vocational
universities and pitching arts as a product.
• With this, Srinagar (the capital city of Jammu and Kashmir) has entered the club of 295 creative cities network across the world.
• Every year, UNESCO seeks applications for various cities across the globe for putting them under its UCCN project.
• In India, the applications are routed through the Ministry of Culture. Indian Cities on UCCN.

4. 39th World Heritage Site of India declared:

Rudreswara Temple, (also known as the Ramappa Temple), Telangana has been inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. It was the only nomination for the UNESCO World Heritage site tag for the year 2019.

About
• A brief description of Rudreswara (Ramappa)Temple
• The Rudreswara temple was constructed in 1213 AD.
• It is also known as ‘Thousand Pillar Temple’.
• It was constructed under the reign of the Kakatiya Empire by RecharlaRudra, a general of Kakatiya king Ganapati Deva.
• The Ramappa temple is named after its architect, Ramappa who executed the work in the temple for 40 years.
• The presiding deity here is RamalingeswaraSwamy.
• The triple shrine (Trikutalayam) is dedicated to Vishnu, Shiva, and Surya.
• The temple stands on a 6 feet high star-shaped platform.
• The walls, pillars, and ceilings adorned with intricate carvings attest to the unique skill of the Kakatiyan sculptors.
• The temple was called the “brightest star in the galaxy of medieval temples of the Deccan” by European travelers.

5. Kuril Islands:

•Kuril Islands are stretched from the Japanese island of Hokkaido to the southern tip of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula separating Okhotsk Sea from the North Pacific ocean.
•It consists of 56 islands and minor rocks.
•The chain is part of the belt of geologic instability circling the Pacific and contains at least 100 volcanoes, of which 35 are still active, and many hot springs.
•Earthquakes and tidal waves are common phenomena over these islands.

6. China constructing bridge to connect Pangong Tso lake:

China is constructing a bridge in eastern Ladakh connecting the north and south banks of Pangong Tso (lake), which will significantly bring down the time for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to move troops and equipment between the two sectors.

About the lake
• Pangong Tso or Pangong Lake is an endorheic lake spanning eastern Ladakh and West Tibet.
• It is divided into five sublakes, called
Pangong Tso
Tso Nyak
Rum Tso (twin lakes)
Nyak Tso
• Approximately 50% of the length of the overall lake lies within Tibet China, 40% in Ladakh India and the rest is disputed and is a de-facto buffer zone between India and China.
• During winter the lake freezes completely, despite being saline water.
• It has a land-locked basin separated from the Indus River basin by a small elevated ridge, but is believed to have been part of the latter in
prehistoric times.

7. Razzaza Lake, Iraq’s second largest lake drying up:

Iraq’s Razzaza Lake was once a tourist attraction known for its beautiful scenery and an abundance of fish that locals depended on. Now, dead fish litter its shores and the once-fertile lands around it have turned into a barren desert.

About the lake
• Razzaza Lake, also known as Lake Milh, Arabic for Salt Lake, is located between Iraq’s governorates of Anbar and Karbala.
• It’s the second largest lake in Iraq and is part of a wide valley that includes the lakes of Habbaniyah, Tharthar and Bahr al-Najaf.
• The lake was constructed as a measure to control floods in the Euphrates and to be used as huge reservoir for irrigation purposes. Iraqis and tourists frequented the lake as a recreational spot to cool down during Iraq’s hot summers.
• Razzaza Lake is the latest victim of a water crisis in Iraq, known as the “Land Between the Two Rivers”, the Tigris and the Euphrates.
• Upstream dams in Turkey, Syria and Iran have shrunk the rivers and their tributaries, seasonal rainfall has dropped and infrastructure has fallen into disrepair.

8. The Crisis in Ukraine’s Donbass Region: President Vladimir Putin recently told his Security Council that Russia should consider
recognising the independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic in Donbass as independent.

About the crisis:
• The Donbass region, comprising the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts
of Ukraine, has been at the centre of the conflict since March
2014 when Moscow invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula.
• In April 2014, pro-Russia rebels began seizing territory (with
Russia supporting them through hybrid warfare) in Eastern
Ukraine and in May 2014, the rebels in the Donetsk and Luhansk
regions held a referendum to declare independence from Ukraine.
• Since then, these predominantly Russian speaking regions (more
than 70% speak Russian) within Ukraine have been witnessing
shelling and skirmishes between the rebels and Ukrainian forces.

Talk to our mentors for a Roadmap to 2023 Attempt. Click Here

---

1. Assam-Meghalaya border dispute partially resolved:

With the signing of a “historic agreement”, Assam and Meghalaya have partially resolved a 50-yearold border dispute in six of the 12 sectors along
their 885-km boundary.

About the Dispute
• Meghalaya was carved out of Assam as a separate state in 1972 but the new state had challenged the Assam Reorganisation Act, 1971, leading to dispute in 12 locations in the border areas.
• These include the areas of Upper Tarabari, Gazang reserve forest, Hahim, Langpih, Borduar, Boklapara, Nongwah, Matamur, Khanapara-Pilangkata, Deshdemoreah Block I and Block II, Khanduli and Retacherra.
• A major point of contention between Assam and Meghalaya is the district of Langpih in West Garo Hills bordering the Kamrup district of Assam.
• Langpih was part of the Kamrup district of Assam during the British colonial period but after India’s Independence in 1947; it became part of the Garo Hills and Meghalaya.
• Another point of contention is the Mikir Hills, which Assam considers to be its part.
• Meghalaya has questioned Blocks I and II of the Mikir Hills, now Karbi Anglong region, being part of Assam.

2. India’s 1st E-waste Park to be in Delhi: The Delhi government will build India’s first electronic waste eco-park in the national capital.

• The e-waste eco-park will consist of an authorized refurbishing market as a secondary product sale market for batteries, electronic goods, laptops, chargers, mobiles and PCs.
• This facility will consist of dismantling, refurbishing, segregation, plastic recycling, material wise storage, and testing, and precious metal extraction facilities, from Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) through high-end technologies.
• There will be end-to-end processing of e-waste and zero landfill will be ensured.
• It will provide integrated and environmentally-safe disposal of e-waste, using innovative technologies.

3. Konark is going to be the first model town in Odisha: Konark is going to be the first model town in Odisha to shift from grid dependency to green energy. The Odisha government has planned to run the Sun Temple completely on solar energy.

About Konark Sun Temple
•The Sun Temple built in the thirteenth century was conceived as a gigantic chariot of Sun God, with twelve pairs of exquisitely ornamented wheels pulled by seven pairs of horses at Konark on the coastline of Odisha, India.
•“Konarka” , the place bears a name composed of two World elements: Kona meaning corner and ARKA meaning the Sun.
•The Sun god worshiped in Ark Kshetra is also called Konark.
•The temple is attributed to king Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Ganga Dynasty about 1250 CE.
•It is dedicated to the Hindu Sun God Surya.
•This temple was called the “Black Pagoda” in European sailor accounts.
•It forms part of the golden triangle of Odisha, along with Puri and
Bhubaneswar, and attracts tourists, pilgrims, and history and art lovers.
• The Sun Temple, Konârak is protected under the National Framework of India by the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (AMASR) Act (1958) and its Rules (1959).

4. Seagrass protection project underway along AP coast: The Centre has initiated a project across the states of Andhra Pradesh,
Maharashtra, and Odisha on enhancing climate resilience of India’s
coastal communities by protecting and restoring India’s natural
ecosystems such as mangroves and seagrasses.

About the Programme
• The project had been undertaken at a total cost of US $130.269
million (around Rs 1,000 crore) which includes a grant of US
$43.419 million by Global Climate Fund (GCF) covering 24
ecosystems in these selected states.
• It aims to strengthen the climate resilience of coastal communities by
protecting and restoring India’s natural ecosystems such as
mangroves and seagrasses.
• Under the programme, study of seagrasses along the coastlines is
prominent.
• Andhra Pradesh coast is an area of major study in the programme.

5. Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh becomes 100th ‘Har
Ghar Jal’ District: Jal Jeevan Mission has achieved the significant milestone of
providing tap water to every home of 100 districts across the country.

About Jal Jeevan Mission
•Jal Jeevan Mission is a central government initiative under the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
•It aims to ensure access to piped water for every household in India.
•The mission’s goal is to provide to all households in rural India safe and adequate water through individual household tap connections by 2024.

6. Himachal Pradesh gets 1st Biodiversity Park at
Mandi: Recently, Himachal Pradesh got the first biodiversity park to make its contribution towards the conservation of endangered Himalayan herbs.

What are Biodiversity parks?
•Biodiversity is the variety of plant and animal life in the world or in a particular habitat.
•Biodiversity is measured by two major components: species richness, and species evenness.
•Biological diversity is a precious resource intended for the continued existence of mankind, and hence, conserving biodiversity is concerned with restoring the equilibrium between humans & the atmosphere.

7. Atal Tunnel makes it to World Book of Records: Recently, Atal Tunnel has officially been certified by the World Book of Records as the ‘World’s Longest Highway Tunnel above 10,000 Feet’, during a landmark ceremony in New Delhi.

8. Chauri Chaura Incident: Recently, 100 years have passed since the Chauri Chaura incident which took place on February 4, 1922 at Chauri Chaura in the Gorakhpur district of British India.

About ‘Chauri Chaura’ Incident
• The incident took place on 4 February 1922 at Chauri Chaura in the Gorakhpur district of the United Province.
• A large group of protesters participating in the Non-Cooperation Movement clashed with police who opened fire.
• In retaliation the demonstrators attacked and set fire to a police station, killing all of its occupants.
• The incident led to the death of three civilians and 22 policemen.
• Mahatma Gandhi, who was strictly against violence, halted the non-co-operation movement on the national level on 12 February 1922, as a direct result of this incident.

09. Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve bags TX2 award: Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (Erode district, Tamil Nadu) has been given the prestigious TX2 award after its tiger numbers doubled to 80 since 2010.

About STR
• Sathyamangalam Wildlife Sanctuary and Tiger Reserve is a protected area and tiger reserve along the Western Ghats in the Erode District of Tamil Nadu.
• First declared as a wildlife sanctuary in 2008 and enlarged in 2011, it covers a forest area of 1,411.6 km2 (545.0 sq mi) and is the largest wildlife sanctuary in Tamil Nadu.
• In 2013, it became the fourth tiger reserve as a part of Project Tiger in the state of Tamil Nadu.

10. : Adi Shankaracharya’s birthplace to become A National Monument:

About Adi Shankaracharya
•Adi Shankaracharya was born in Kalady in Kerala in 788 C.E and disappeared in the year 820 C.E at the young age of 32.
•He was an exceptional child as Adi Shankara had become fluent in Sanskrit by the age of two. By four, he was comfortably reciting scriptures including Vedas.
•The burning quest for attaining superior knowledge from an early age pushed Adi Shankara to leave his home and set on the search for a guru.
•His quest ended with Govid Bhagvatpad at Omkareshwar (Madhya Pradesh) on the bank of Narmada river.
•Adi Shankaracharya championed the Advait branch of philosophy that declared that god and humans were not two. He then set out to spread the message of his guru.

Talk to our mentors for a Roadmap to 2023 Attempt. Click Here

---

Indian polity plays a very crucial role in the Prelims exam. If you want to ensure the cutoff marks then you can not expect a single mistake in Indian polity questions. To ensure that you follow these few pointers. We have also included some examples to ensure that you understand the points

Read the Each keyword very carefully: Polity is a game of words, even a single change will change the answer. 

Consider the following statements:

1. According to the Constitution of India a person who is eligible to vote
   can be made a minister in a State for six months even if he/she is not a member of the Legislature of that State
2. According to the Representation of People Act, 1951, a person
   convicted of a criminal offence and sentenced to imprisonment for five years is permanently disqualified from contesting an election
   even after his release from prison
   Which of the statements given above is are correct?
   (a) 1 only
   (b) 2 only
   (c) Both 1 and 2
   (d) Neither 1 nor 2
   
   In above question, At first S1 seems correct but when we look carefully it says any eligible voter but the criteria is above 25 years. Similarly S2 says Permanently, but it is temporary

Read all the options very carefully: Even if you know that the first option is the correct answer, look for other options as well. There are chances that according to the question it is not the most appropriate one.

The Preamble to the Constitution of India, is
(a) part of the Constitution but has no legal effect
(b) not a part of the Constitution and has no legal effect either
(c) a part of the Constitution and has the same legal effect as any other part
(d) a part of the Constitution but has no legal effect independently of other parts.

In the above question A looks correct but when we read all options then D looks more appropriate.

Go through the PYQs properly: Understanding PYQs will not help in Polity but in the entire paper. For example take a question from 2017

Which one of the following is not a feature to Indian federalism?

(a) There is an independent judiciary in India. 

(b) Powers have been clearly divided between the Centre and the States.

 (c) The federating units have been given unequal representation in the Rajya Sabha. 

(d) It is the result of an agreement among the federating units

Above question indicates that Independent Judiciary is a feature, Now look at 2021 question

Which one of the following in Indian polity is an essential
feature that indicates that it is federal in character?
(a) The independence of judiciary is safeguarded.
(b) The Union Legislature has elected representatives from
constituent units.
(c) The Union Cabinet can have elected representatives
from regional parties.
(d) The Fundamental Rights are enforceable by Courts of
Law

Understand NCERTs carefully: Nowadays UPSC has a tendency to ask questions from NCERTs, especially from 11th ncert. 

Avoid using elimination rules: UPSC expects you to remember Indian Polity therefore the scope is very narrow to use Tikdam rules.

Revision: Most of the questions in Polity are from very spefic chapers or source. They are 11th ncerts, Historical Background, Preamble, Fundamental Rights, DPSPs, Parliament, State Legislature, President, Governor, Supreme Court and High Courts. Make sure that you have the best command on the above topics.

---

Important Acts in News

1. The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization (Amendment) Bill, 2021)

• The Act provides for the bifurcation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) into the Union Territory of J&K and Union Territory of Ladakh. 
• The Act provides that Article 239A of the Constitution, which is applicable to the union territory of Puducherry, shall also apply to the union territory of J&K.  Article 239A provides for the constitution of a union territory of Puducherry with: (i) a legislature, which may be elected, or partly nominated and partly elected, or (ii) a Council of Ministers. 
• In addition to Article 239A, any other provision of the Constitution which refers to elected members of a legislative assembly of a state and is also applicable to the union territory of Puducherry, will apply to the union territory of J&K.
•  The Act specifies that the members of the Indian Administrative Service, the Indian Police Service and the Indian Forest Service serving in the state of J&K would continue to serve in the two union territories, based on allocation decided by the central government.

2. The Inland Vessels Bill, 2021

• The Bill seeks to introduce a uniform regulatory framework for inland vessel navigation across the country.
• The central government will prescribe the: (i) classification, (ii) standards of design, construction, and crew accommodation, and (iii) type and periodicity of surveys, for these vessels.  Construction or modification of such vessels will require prior approval of a designated authority, as prescribed by the central government.
• To operate in inland waters, all such vessels must have a certificate of survey, and a certificate of registration. The certificate of survey will be granted by state governments, in a form as prescribed by the central government.
• The central government will prescribe the minimum number of people that vessels must have, for various roles.
• Vessels will discharge or dispose of sewage, as per the standards specified by the central government.  The central government will notify the list of pollutants which will be prohibited for discharge or disposal.  State governments will grant vessels a certificate of prevention of pollution.
• The Bill provides for a development fund.
• The Bill empowers state governments to delegate certain functions related to non-mechanically propelled inland vessels to their local governments. 

3. The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2021

•  The Act empowers the central government to reserve any mine (other than coal, lignite, and atomic minerals) to be leased through an auction for a particular end-use.The Bill provides that no mine will be reserved for particular end-use.
• The Bill empowers the central government to specify a time period for completion of the auction process in consultation with the state government.  If the state government is unable to complete the auction process within this period, the auctions may be conducted by the central government.
• The Act provides that the period of mining leases granted to government companies will be prescribed by the central government.

4. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill, 2021

• The Code provides a time-bound process for resolving the insolvency of corporate debtors (within 330 days) called the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP).
• The Bill introduces an alternate insolvency resolution process for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), called the pre-packaged insolvency resolution process (PIRP).  Unlike CIRP, PIRP may be initiated only by debtors.
• Application for initiating PIRP may be filed in the event of a default of at least one lakh rupees.
• During PIRP, the debtor will be provided with a moratorium under which certain actions against the debtor will be prohibited.  These include filing or continuation of suits, execution of court orders, or recovery of property.

CIRP: Under CIRP, a committee of creditors is constituted to decide on the insolvency resolution.  The committee may consider a resolution plan which typically provides for the payoff of debt by merger, acquisition, or restructuring of the company.  If a resolution plan is not approved by the committee of creditors within the specified time, the company is liquidated.  During CIRP, the affairs of the company are managed by the resolution professional (RP), who is appointed to conduct CIRP.

5. The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Seventh Amendment) Bill, 2021

• The Bill amends the Constitution to allow states and union territories to prepare their own list of socially and educationally backward classes. 

List of socially and educationally backward classes:

          The National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) was established under the National Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1993.

             The 2021 Bill amends this to provide that the President may notify the list of socially and educationally backward classes only for purposes of the central government.  This central list will be prepared and maintained by the central government.  Further, the Bill enables states and union territories to prepare their own list of socially and educationally backward classes. 

6. The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021

• The bill provides that the electoral registration officer may require a person to furnish their Aadhaar number for establishing their identity. 
• Persons will not be denied inclusion in the electoral roll or have their names deleted from the roll, if they are unable to furnish Aadhaar number due to sufficient cause as prescribed. 
• The Bill provides four qualifying dates in a calendar year, which will be January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1. Earlier it was only 1 i.e. January 1.

7. The Central Vigilance Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2021

•  It replaces the Central Vigilance Commission (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021.  The Bill seeks to amend the Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003.  The 2003 Act provides for the constitution of a Central Vigilance Commission to conduct inquiries into offences alleged to have been committed under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.  
• Under the 2003 Act, the Director of Enforcement is appointed by the central government, on the recommendation of a Committee.This Committee is chaired by the Central Vigilance Commissioner, and includes the Secretaries from the Ministries of Home Affairs, Personnel, and the Revenue Department. 
• The Bill adds that the tenure of the Director may be extended by up to one year at a time, till the completion of five years from the initial appointment.  Such extensions may be granted in public interest, on the recommendation of the Committee.

8. The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2020

• Under the Act, certain persons are prohibited to accept any foreign contribution.  These include: election candidates, editor or publisher of a newspaper, judges, government servants, members of any legislature, and political parties, among others
• The Amendment prohibits the transfer of foreign contribution to any other person.
• The Act states that a person may accept foreign contribution if they have: (i) obtained a certificate of registration from central government, or (ii) not registered, but obtained prior permission from the government to accept foreign contribution
• Under the Act, a person who receives foreign contribution must use it only for the purpose for which the contribution is received.Further, they must not use more than 20% of the contribution for meeting administrative expenses.

9. The Major Port Authorities Bill, 2020

• The Bill will apply to the major ports of Chennai, Cochin, Jawaharlal Nehru Port, Kandla, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Mangalore, Mormugao, Paradip, V.O. Chidambaranar, and Vishakhapatnam.
• The Bill provides for the creation of a Board of Major Port Authority for each major port.  These Boards will replace the existing Port Trusts. 
• Under the 1963 Act, the Board has to seek prior sanction of the central government to raise any loan.
• The Bill provides that the Board may use its funds for providing social benefits(Corporate Social Responsibility)
• The Bill provides for the constitution of an Adjudicatory Board by the central government.

10th May, 2022

Educational Commissions

(1) Charles Wood Despatch – 1854

• Objective: Wood’s despatch proposed several recommendations in order to improve the system of education.
• According to the recommendations, it was declared that the aim of the Government’s policy was the promotion of western education. In his despatch, he emphasized on the education of art, science, philosophy and literature of Europe.
• In short, the propagation of European knowledge was the motto of the Wood’s Despatch.
• According to the despatch, for higher education, the chief medium of instruction would be English.
• However, the significance of the vernacular language was no less emphasized as Wood believed that through the mediums of vernacular language, European knowledge could reach to the masses.
• Wood’s Despatch also proposed the setting up of several vernacular primary schools in the villages at the lowest stage.
• Moreover, there should be Anglo-Vernacular high schools and an affiliated college in the district level.
• Wood’s Despatch recommended a system of grants-in-aid to encourage and foster the private enterprise in the field of education.
• The grants-in-aid were conditional on the institution employing qualified teachers and maintaining proper standards of teaching.

(2) Hunter Commission – 1882

• Appointed by: Viceroy Lord Ripon
• Objective: Hunter Education Commission was a landmark commission with objectives to look into the complaints of the non-implementation of the Wood’s Despatch of 1854; the contemporary status of elementary education in the British territories; and suggests means by which this can be extended and improved.
• Headed by: Sir William Wilson Hunter
• He submitted its report in 1882.

Commission suggestions:

1. There should be two types of education arrangements at the high school level, in which emphasis should be given on giving a vocational and business education and other such literary education should be given, which will help in admission to the university.
2. Arrangement for emphasis on the importance of education at the primary level and education in local language and useful subjects.
3. Private efforts should be welcomed in the field of education, but primary education should be given without him.
4. Control of education at the primary level should be handed over to the district and city boards.

(3) Hunter Commission of 1882 on Primary Education:

• Primary education should be regarded as the education of the masses. Education should be able to train the people for self-dependence.
• The medium of instruction in primary education should be the mother tongue. Normal Schools should be established for the training of teachers.
• The curriculum should include useful subjects like agriculture, elements of natural and physical science and the native method of arithmetic and measurement, etc.
• The spread of primary education for the tribal and backward people should be the responsibility of the Government.
• Fees should be an example to students on the basis of their financial difficulties.

(4) Raleigh Commission – 1902

• Appointed under: Raleigh Commission was appointed under the presidency of Sir Thomas Raleigh on 27 January 1902.
• Objective: To inquire into the condition and prospects of universities in India and to recommend proposals for improving their constitution and working.
• Evidently, the Commission was precluded from reporting on primary or secondary education.
• As a result of the report of the recommendations of the Commission the Indian Universities Act was passed in 1904.
• The main objective of the Act: to improve the condition of education in India and upgrade the system to a better level

Important changes introduced for the upliftment of University Education:

1. Universities were empowered to appoint their own staff including the teaching staff.
2. The number of Fellows of a University was limited within 50 to 100.
3. The number of elected Fellows was fixed at 20 for the Bombay, Madras and Calcutta Universities and 15 for others.
4. The Governor-General was now empowered to decide a University’s territorial limits and also affiliation between the universities and colleges.
5. After the implementation of the provisions of the University Act, though the number of colleges declined, yet the number of students increased considerably.

Government Resolution on Education Policy (1913)

• In 1906, the progressive state of Baroda introduced compulsory primary education throughout its territories. In its 1913
• Resolution on Education Policy, the government refused to take up the responsibility of compulsory education, but accepted the policy of removal of illiteracy and urged provincial governments to take early steps to provide free elementary education to the poorer and more backward sections.

(5) Sadler Commission – 1917

• In 1917, the Calcutta University Commission (Sadler Commission) was appointed by the Government of India under the Chairmanship of Mr. Michel Sadler, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds.

Recommendations:

1. All the teaching resources in the city of Calcutta should be organized so that the Calcutta University may become entirely a teaching university.
2. A separate teaching and residential university should be established at Dacca.
3. There was a need for a coordinating agency. Hence an inter-University Board should be set up.
4. Honors courses should be instituted and they should be distinctly different from the Pass courses.
5. Full time and salaried Vice-Chancellor should be appointed to be the administrative head of the university.
6. The Senate and the syndicate should be replaced by the Court and the Executive Council respectively.
7. Universities should be freed from excessive official control.
8. Government interference in the academic matters of universities should stop.

(6) Hartog Commission – 1929

• Sir Philip Joseph Hartog committee was appointed by the British Indian government to survey on the growth of education in India.
• The Hartog committee (1929), had devoted more attention to mass education than the secondary and University education.
• The Hartog committee highlighted the problem of wastage and stagnation in education at the primary level.
• It recommended the policy of consolidation instead of multiplication of schools. The duration of the primary course was to be fixed to four years.
• It recommended for the improvements in quality, pay, and service conditions of teachers and relating the syllabus and teaching methods to the local environment of villages and locality
• The Hartog committee on education recommended for the promotion of technical and commercial education by universities to control the problem of unemployment.
• The recommendation of the Hartog committee of 1929 was an attempt for consolidation and stabilization of education. The Hartog committee of 1929 was seen as a torchbearer of the government’s effort to improve the quality of education.
• However, these recommendations of Hartog committee of 1929 remained only on paper and could not be implemented due to the great economic depression of 1930-31.

(7) Sargent Plan – 1944

• The Sargent plan of education came after Sir John Sargent was given the task to prepare a comprehensive scheme of education for India in 1944.

Recommendations:

1. Pre-primary education for children between 3 to 6 years of age. Universal, compulsory and free primary or basic education for all children between the ages 6—11 (junior basic) and 11—14 (senior basic).
2. High school education for six years for selected children between the years 11—17.
3. Degree course for three years beginning after the higher secondary examination for selected students
4. Technical, commercial, agricultural and art education for full time and part-time students, girls schools are to teach domestic science.
5. The liquidation of adult illiteracy and the development of a public library system in about 20 years.
6. Full provision for the proper training of teachers.
7. Educational provision is made for the physically and mentally handicapped children.
8. The organization of compulsory physical education.
9. Provision to be made for social and recreational activities.
10. The creation of employment bureaus.
11. The creation of the Department of Education in the centre and in the states.
12. The use of mother tongue is to be used as the medium of instruction in all high schools.

Famine Commissions during British Rule in India

(1) Campbell Commission

• In 1865-66, a famine engulfed Orissa, Bengal, Bihar, and Madras and took a toll of nearly 20 lakhs of lives with Orissa alone loosing 10 lakh lives, since the famine was most severe in Orissa; it is called the Orissa famine.
• The Government officers though forewarned took no steps to meet the calamity.
• The Government adhered to the principles of free trade and the law of demand and supply, the Government did provide employment to the table booked men leaving the work of charitable relief to the voluntary agency.
• But the famine proved a turning point in the history of Indian famines for it was followed by the appointment of a committee under the chairmanship of Sir George Campbell.

(2) Stratchy Commission

• It was set up in 1878 under the Chairmanship of Sir Richard Strachey.
• The commission recommended state interference in food trade in the event of famine. India witnessed another major famine in 1896-97.

(3) Lyall Commission

• It was constituted in 1897 under the Chairmanship of Sir James Lyall. This commission recommended the development of irrigation facilities.

(4) MacDonnell Commission

• It was set up in 1900 under the Chairmanship of Sir Anthony (Later Lord) McDonnel to re-evaluate and recommend changes in report of the previous commission, based on the findings of the recent famine.
• This Commission recommended that the official machinery dealing with a famine must work around the year so that the scarcity of food grains could be controlled well in time.

Law Commission

• Law Commissions in India have a pre-independence origin. The first Law Commission was formed in 1834 as a result of the Charter Act, 1833 under the chairmanship of TB Macaulay.
• The first commission’s recommendations resulted in the codification of the penal code and the Criminal Procedure Code.
• Three other law commissions were constituted before independence by the British government.
• All four pre-independent law commissions have contributed to the statute books immensely.
• After independence, the first Law Commission was constituted in 1955 in a continuance of the tradition of bringing law reforms in the country through the medium of law commissions.
• Second Pre-Independence Law Commission,1853 – Sir John Romilly.
• Third Pre-Independence Law Commission, 1862- Sir John Romilly.
• Fourth Pre-Independence Law Commission, 1879 – Dr Whitley Stokes.

Currency Commission

(1) Mansfield Commission by Dufferin in 1886

• The Indian Currency Committee or Fowler Committee was a government committee appointed by the British-run Government of India on 29 April 1898 to examine the current situation in India.
• Until 1892, silver was the metal on which Indian currency and coinage had largely been based. In 1892, the Government of India announced its intent to “close Indian mints to silver” and, in 1893, it brought this policy into force.

Other Commissions on Currency:

1. Fowler Commission by Elgin II in 1898
2. Babington Smith Commission by Chelmsford in 1919
3. Hilton Young Commission by Linlithgow in 1926

Other Important Commissions

1. Scott-Moncrieff Commission (Irrigation) by Curzon in 1901
2. Fraser Commission (Police Reforms) by Curzon in 1902
3. Hunter Commission (Punjab Disturbances) by Chelmsford 1919
4. Butler Commission (Indian States relation with British Crown) by Irwin in 1927
5. Whiteley Commission (Labour) by Irwin in 1929
6. Sapru Commission (Unemployment) by Linlithgow in 1935
7. Chalfield Commission (Army) by Linlighgow 1939
8. Floud Commission (Tenancy in Bengal) by Linlighgow in 1940

---

6th May 2022

Dear Aspirants,

This Spotlight is a part of our Mission Nikaalo Prelims-2022

Download Habitat app from the Play store Join our Official Civilsdaily Space for GS and CSAT Here

Each Day Counts now, Enroll for PRELIMS MAHASANGRAM 2022 and Learn TIKDAM through lectures. Click HERE

---

 

1.1 Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana

Objective

• To achieve convergence of investments in irrigation at the field level.
• To enhance the recharge of aquifers and introduce sustainable water conservation practices.
• To explore the feasibility of reusing treated municipal wastewater for peri-urban agriculture.
• To attract greater private investments in irrigation.
• To promote extension activities relating to water harvesting, water management and crop alignment for farmers and grass root level field functionaries.

Salient features

• Decentralized State level planning and projectized execution’ structure, in order to allow States to draw up a District Irrigation Plan (DIP) and a State Irrigation Plan (SIP). These plans need to be prepared in order to access the PMKSY fund.
• It will be supervised and monitored by the Inter-Ministerial National Steering Committee (NSC) under PM with Union Ministers of all concerned Ministries. A National Executive Committee (NEC) is to be constituted under the Chairmanship of the Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog to oversee programme implementation.
• PMKSY has been formulated amalgamation ongoing schemes viz. Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP); Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP); and On-Farm Water Management (OFWM) component of National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA).
• Water budgeting is done for all sectors namely, household, agriculture and industries.
• Investments will happen at farm level. So, farmers know what is happening and can provide valuable feedback.
• Recently, the Long Term Irrigation Fund has been instituted under PMKSY in NABARD for funding and fast-tracking the implementation of incomplete major and medium irrigation projects.

1.2 Large Area Certification Scheme

Background

   Despite deep inroads of modern agricultural practices, still, there are large contiguous areas in hills, tribal districts, desert and rained areas in India that continue to remain free from chemical input usage. With little efforts, such traditional/ default organic areas can be brought under organic certification almost immediately.
  Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare under its flagship scheme of Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojna (PKVY) has launched a unique quick certification programme “Large Area Certification” (LAC) to harness these potential areas under Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yajana.

 Salient features

• LAC is a Quick certification process that is cost-effective and farmers do not have to wait for 2-3 years for marketing PGS(Participatory Guarantee System) organic certified products. Whereas As per the established norm of organic production systems, the areas having chemical input usage history are required to undergo a transition period of minimum 2-3 years to qualify as organic. 

• Under LAC, each village in the area is considered as one cluster/group.  
• Documentations are simple and maintained village-wise.
• Plan based on agro-climatic conditions, availability of appropriate technology and natural priorities.
• All farmers with their farmland and livestock need to adhere to the standard requirements and on being verified get certified en-mass without the need to go under conversion period. Certification is renewed on annual basis through annual verification by a process of peer appraisals as per the process of PGS-India.

1.3 NATIONAL FOOD SECURITY MISSION

Objective

• Increasing production of rice, wheat, pulses, coarse cereals and commercial crops through area expansion and productivity enhancement in a sustainable manner.
• Restore soil fertility and productivity at the individual farm level.
• Enhancing farm level economy.

Salient features

• It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme which was launched in 2007.
• The approach of the scheme is to bridge the yield gap in respect of these crops through dissemination of improved technologies and farm management practices while focusing on districts which have high potential but relatively low level of productivity at present.
• Major Components – National Food Security Mission – Rice, National Food Security Mission – Wheat, National Food Security Mission – Pulses,
• National Food Security Mission – Coarse Cereals and National Food Security Mission –Commercial Crops.

1.4 GRAMIN BHANDARAN YOJANA

Objective of this Scheme:

• Create scientific storage capacity with allied facilities in rural areas.
• To meet the requirements of farmers for storing farm produce, processed farm produce and agricultural inputs.
• Promotion of grading, standardization and quality control of agricultural produce to improve their marketability.
• Prevent distress sale immediately after harvest by providing the facility of pledge financing and marketing credit by strengthening agricultural marketing infrastructure in the country.

 

1.5 SOIL HEALTH CARD SCHEME

Objective

• To issue soil health cards every 3 years, to all farmers of the country, so as to provide a basis to address nutrient deficiencies in fertilization practices.
• To strengthen the functioning of Soil Testing Laboratories (STLs) through capacity building, the involvement of agriculture students and effective linkage with Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) / State Agricultural Universities (SAUs).
• To diagnose soil fertility related constraints with standardized procedures for sampling uniformly across states.
• To build capacities of district and state level staff and of progressive farmers for promotion of nutrient management practices.

Salient features

• It is a centrally sponsored scheme launched by the Government of India in 2015.
• It is being implemented through the Department of Agriculture of all the State and Union Territory Governments.
• Assistance is provided to the State Government to issue Soil Health Card and also develop a database to improve service delivery.
• Soil Health Card issued to farmers carry crop-wise recommendations of nutrients and fertilizers required for the individual farms.
• The experts will analyze the strength and weaknesses (micronutrients deficiency) of the soil collected from farms and suggest measures to deal with it.
• It will contain the status of his soil with respect to 12 parameters, namely N,P,K (Macronutrients); S (Secondary nutrient); Zn, Fe, Cu, Mn, Bo (Micro – nutrients); and pH, EC, OC (Physical parameters).

1.6 PM FASAL BIMA YOJANA

Objective

• To provide insurance coverage and financial support to the farmers in the event of natural calamities, pests & diseases.
• To stabilise the income of farmers to ensure their continuance in farming.
• To encourage farmers to adopt innovative and modern agricultural practices.
• To ensure flow of credit to the agriculture sector.
• Intended beneficiary – All farmers including sharecroppers and tenant farmers growing notified crops in a notified area during the season who have insurable interest in the crop are eligible.

Salient features

• It replaced all other existing insurance schemes except the Restructured Weather-Based Crop Insurance Scheme (uses weather parameters as proxy for crop yield in compensating the cultivators for deemed crop loses).
• A uniform premium of only 2% to be paid by farmers for all Kharif crops and 1.5% for all Rabi crops.
• In case of annual commercial and horticultural crops, the premium to be paid by farmers will be only 5%.
• There is no upper limit on Government subsidy so farmers will get claim against full sum insured without any reduction.
• The difference between the premium paid by farmers and the actuarial premium charged was paid by the Centre and state government in the ratio of 50:50.
• It is compulsory for loanee farmers availing crop loans for notified crops in notified areas and voluntary for non-loanee farmers.
• Yield Losses: due to non-preventable risks, such as Natural Fire and Lightning, Storm, Hailstorm, Cyclone, Typhoon, Tempest, Hurricane, Tornado.
• Risks due to Flood, Inundation and Landslide, Drought, Dry spells, Pests/ Diseases also will be covered.
• Post-harvest losses are also covered.
• Mandatory use of technology: Smart phones, drones etc., will be used to capture and upload data of crop cutting to reduce the delays in claim payment to farmers. Remote sensing will be used to reduce the number of crop cutting experiments.
• The Scheme shall be implemented on an ‘Area Approach basis’. Defined Area (i.e., unit area of insurance) is Village or above. It can be a Geo-Fenced/Geo-mapped region having homogenous Risk Profile for the notified crop.
• Presently, 5 public sector insurers (Agriculture Insurance Company of India, United India Insurance Company etc.) and 13 private insurance companies are empanelled for implementation of the scheme.
• Recently, states have been allowed to set up their own insurance companies for implementing the scheme.

1.7 National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture

National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) has been formulated for enhancing agricultural productivity especially in rainfed areas focusing on integrated farming, water use efficiency, soil health management and synergizing resource conservation.

Objectives

• To make agriculture more productive, sustainable, remunerative and climate resilient by promoting location specific Integrated/Composite Farming Systems
• To conserve natural resources through appropriate soil and moisture conservation measures
• To adopt comprehensive soil health management practices based on soil fertility maps, soil test based application of macro & micro nutrients, judicious use of fertilizers etc.
• To optimize utilization of water resources through efficient water management to expand coverage for achieving ‘more crop per drop’.
• To develop capacity of farmers & stakeholders, in conjunction with other on going missions e.g. National Mission on Agriculture Extension & Technology, National Food Security Mission, National Initiative for Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) etc., in the domain of climate change adaptation and mitigation measures.
• To pilot models in select blocks for improving productivity of rainfed farming by mainstreaming rainfed technologies refined through NICRA and by leveraging resources  from other schemes/Missions like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP), RKVY etc.; and
• To establish an effective inter and intra Departmental/Ministerial coordination for accomplishing key deliverables of National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture under the aegis of National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC).

1.8 PARAMPARAGAT KRISHI VIKAS YOJANA

Objective

• Promotion of commercial organic production through certified organic farming.
• pesticide residue free produce and improved health of consumer
• Raise farmer’s income and create potential markets for traders.
• Motivate the farmers for natural resource mobilization for input production.
• Increase domestic production and certification of organic produce by involving farmers.

Intended beneficiary

• Farmers doing organic farming
• Farmers from NE India such as Sikkim
• Food processing industries
• Organic foods – export industry

Salient features

• “Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana” is an elaborated component of Soil Health Management (SHM) under National Mission of Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA).
• Cluster Approach: Fifty or more farmers form a cluster having 50 acre land to take organic farming. Each farmer will be provided Rs. 20000 per acre in three years for seed to harvesting crops and to transport them to market.
• Government plans to form around 10 thousand clusters in three years and cover an area of 5 Lakh hectares under organic farming.

Components –

• Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) certification through cluster approach – mobilization of farmers, form clusters, identification of land resources and training on organic farming and PGS Certification and quality control.
• Adoption of organic village for manure management and biological nitrogen harvesting through cluster approach –action plan for Organic Farming, Integrated Manure Management, Packing, Labelling and Branding of organic products of cluster.

1.9 NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL MARKET (NAM)

Objective

• To promote genuine price discovery
• Increases farmers’ options for sale and access to markets
• Liberal licensing of traders / buyers and commission agents. One license for a trader valid across all markets in the State
• Harmonisation of quality standards of agricultural produce
• Single point levy of market fees, i.e on the first wholesale purchase from the farmer.
• Provision of Soil Testing Laboratories in/ or near the selected mandi to facilitate visiting farmers to access this facility in the mandi itself

Intended beneficiary

• 585 regulated wholesale markets in states/union territories (UTs).
• Farmers
• Local traders
• Bulk buyers, processors
• Farm produce exporters
• Overall economy of the nation

Salient features

• NAM is a pan-India electronic trading portal which seeks to network the existing APMCs and other market yards to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities.
• Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) has been selected as the lead agency to implement it.
• Central government will provide the software free of cost to the states and in addition, a grant of up to Rs. 30 lakhs per mandi or market or private mandis will be given for related equipment and infrastructure requirements.
• New Features added to the scheme such as E-NAM Mobile App, BHIM Payment facility, MIS dashboard for better analysis and insights, grievance redressal mechanism for Mandi Secretaries and integration with Farmer Database to ease the registration and identification process will further strengthen e-NAM.
• Fund Allocation – The Scheme is being funded through AgriTech Infrastructure Fund (AITF).

1.10 Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF)

Objective

• ZBNF is a set of farming methods, and also a grassroots peasant movement, which has spread to various states in India.
• Subhash Palekar perfected it during the 1990s at his farm in Amravati district in Maharashtra’s drought-prone Vidarbha region.
• According to the “zero budget” concept, farmers won’t have to spend any money on fertilisers and other agricultural inputs.
• Over 98% of the nutrients that crops require — carbon dioxide, nitrogen, water, solar energy — are already present in nature.
• The remaining 1.5-2% are taken from the soil,

Four wheels of ZBNF

The “four wheels” of ZBNF are ‘Jiwamrita’, ‘Bijamrita’, ‘Mulching’ and ‘Waaphasa’.

• Jiwamrita is a fermented mixture of cow dung and urine (of desi breeds), jaggery, pulses flour, water and soil from the farm bund.
• This isn’t a fertilizer, but just a source of some 500 crore micro-organisms that can convert all the necessary “non-available” nutrients into “available” form.
• Bijamrita is a mix of desi cow dung and urine, water, bund soil and lime that is used as a seed treatment solution prior to sowing.
• Mulching, or covering the plants with a layer of dried straw or fallen leaves, is meant to conserve soil moisture and keep the temperature around the roots at 25-32 degrees Celsius, which allows the microorganisms to do their job.
• Waaphasa, or providing water to maintain the required moisture-air balance, also achieves the same objective.

1.11 MERA GAON-MERA GAURAV

Objective

• To promote direct interface of scientists withthe farmers and hasten the land to lab process.
• To imbibe a sense of ownership among the agricultural scientists
• To provide farmers with required information, knowledge and advisories on regular basis by adopting villages.

Intended beneficiary

• Scientists with ground level experience
• Farmers

 Salient features

• This scheme involves scientists of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) and state agricultural universities.
• Groups of four multidisciplinary scientists each will be constituted at these institutes and universities. Each group will “adopt” five villages within a radius of maximum 100 km.

1.12 Price Stabilization Fund

Objective: to safeguard the interest of the growers and provide them financial relief when prices fall below a specified level.

Scheme:

• Central Sector Scheme.
• To support market interventions for price control of perishable agri-horticultural commodities.
• PSF will be used to advance interest free loan to State Governments and Central agencies to support their working capital and other expenses on procurement and distribution interventions for such commodities.
• Procurement of the commodities will be undertaken directly from farmers or farmers’ organizations at farm gate/mandi and made available at a more reasonable price to the consumers.
• Initially the fund is proposed to be used for onion and potato only. Losses incurred, if any, in the operations will be shared between the Centre and the States.

Framework and Funding:

• States will set up a revolving fund to which theCentre and State will contribute equally, i.e. 50:50.
• The ratio of Centre-State contribution to the State-level corpus in respect of Northeast States will, however, be 75:25.

1.13 Mission Fingerling

• It is a programme to enable holistic development and management of the fisheries sector in India.
• The mission aims to achieve the target to enhance fisheries production from 10.79 mmt (2014-15) to 15 mmt by 2020-21 under the Blue Revolution.

Programme:

• Government has identified 20 States based ontheir potential and other relevant factors to strengthen the Fish Fingerling production and Fish Seed infrastructure in the country.
• This program will facilitate the establishment of Fingerling rearing pond and hatcheries.
• This will converge in the production of 20 lakh tonnes of fish annually, which will in turn benefit about 4 million families.
• The implementation of this program will supplement the requirement of stocking materials in the country up to a large extent, which is a much needed input to achieve the enhanced fish production.

1.14 Umbrella Scheme Green Revolution — Krishonnati Yojana

Aim

These schemes look to develop the agriculture and allied sector in a holistic and scientific manner to increase the income of farmers by enhancing production, productivity and better returns on produce.

The Schemes that are part of the Umbrella Schemes are :-

1. Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH)
2. National Food Security Mission (NFSM)
3. National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA)
4. Submission on Agriculture Extension (SMAE)
5. Sub-Mission on Seeds and Planting Material (SMSP)
6. Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanisation (SMAM)
7. Sub Mission on Plant Protection and Plan Quarantine (SMPPQ)
8. Integrated Scheme on Agriculture Census, Economics and Statistics (ISACES)
9. Integrated Scheme on Agricultural Cooperation (ISAC)
10. Integrated Scheme on Agricultural Marketing (ISAM)
11. National e-Governance Plan (NeGP-A) The Schemes/Missions focus on creating/strengthening of infrastructure of production, reducing production cost and marketing of agriculture and allied produce.

1.15 Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay SanraksHan Abhiyan (PM-AASHA)

1. The Scheme is aimed at ensuring remunerative prices to the farmers for their produce as announced in the Union Budget for 2018.
2. It is expected that the increase in MSP will be translated to farmers’ income by way of robust procurement mechanism in coordination with the State Governments.

The three schemes that are part of AASHA are:

1. the Price Support Scheme (PSS)
2. the Price Deficiency Payment Scheme (PDPS)
3. the Pilot of Private Procurement and Stockist Scheme (PPPS)

• These three components will complement the existing schemes of the Department of Food and Public Distribution.
• They relate to paddy, wheat and other cereals and coarse grains where procurement is at MSP now.
• PSS – Under the PSS, physical procurement of pulses, oilseeds and copra will be done by Central Nodal Agencies.
• Besides, NAFED and Food Corporation of India will also take up procurement of crops under PSS.
• The expenditure and losses due to procurement will be borne by the Centre.
• PDPS – Under the PDPS, the Centre proposes to cover all oilseeds.
• The difference between the MSP and actual selling/modal price will be directly paid into the farmer’s bank account.
• Farmers who sell their crops in recognised mandis within the notified period can benefit from it.
• PPSS – In the case of oilseeds, States will have the option to roll out PPSS in select districts.
• Under this, a private player can procure crops at MSP when market prices drop below MSP.
• The private player will then be compensated through a service charge up to a maximum of 15% of the MSP.

1.16 Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)

What is the news:

• The Central Government notified a decision to extend the benefit of ₹6,000 per year under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme to all 14.5 crore farmers in the country, irrespective of the size of their landholding.
• Central sector scheme

Objective

○ To provide income support to all farmer families having cultivable land.

○ To supplement the financial needs of the farmers in procuring various inputs to ensure proper crop health and appropriate yields, commensurate with the anticipated farm income.

Salient Features:

• The revised Scheme is expected to coveraround 2 crore more farmers, increasing the coverage of PM-KISAN to around 14.5 crore beneficiaries.
• Responsibility of identifying the landholder farmer family eligible for benefit under the scheme shall be of the State/UT Government.
• The lists of eligible beneficiaries would be published at the village level to ensure transparency.
• Exclusions: Certain categories of beneficiaries of higher economic status such as institutional landholders, former and present holder of constitutional posts, persons who paid income tax in the last assessment year etc. shall not be eligible for benefit under the scheme.
  • Professionals like doctors, engineers and lawyers as well as retired pensioners with a monthly pension of over ₹10,000 and those who paid income tax in the last assessment year are also not eligible for the benefits.
  • For the purpose of exclusion State/UT Government can certify the eligibility of the beneficiary based on self-declaration by the beneficiaries.
• A dedicated PM Kisan Portal will be launched for the implementation of the scheme.
• This is a Central Sector Scheme and will be funded fully by the Government of India

---

It is a part of our Nikaalo Prelims 2022 Initiative. You can join our official space on habitat to ask your doubts with the mentors and decode Prelims.

These keywords are taken from Upinder Singh book which is a very high relevant source for Prelims but bulky for an Aspirant to cover.

---

Agrahara: Land or village gifted by a king 

Ahimsa: Non-injury, non-violence 

Ajivikas: An ancient religious sect, associated with Makkhali Gosala 

Akam: Sangam love poems 

Alvars: The Vaishnava saint-poets of early medieval South India

Anekantavada: The Jaina doctrine of the manifold nature of reality

Antarala: The vestibule or antechamber of a temple

Araghatta: The Persian wheel, or a similar contrivance

Aranyakas: literally ‘forest books’; part of the Vedic corpus

Ardhamandapa: The hall preceding the sanctum in a temple

Ariya-sachchani: The Four Noble Truths related to suffering; an important part of the Buddha’s teaching

Ayyavole: A powerful merchant guild of early medieval South India 

Bands: Small and usually nomadic communities, usually related to each other through kinship

Brahmadeya: Land gifted to Brahmanas, generally by kings.

​​Charana: School of Vedic study 

Charvaka: An atheistic materialism philosophical school, also known as Lokayata

Dhamma: A Pali word (Sanskrit, dharma), referring to the ideal conduct of an individual living in society.

Dhammachakka-pavattana: Pali, literally ‘turning the wheel of dhamma’; the Buddha’s first sermon in the deer park near Benaras 

Dhamma-mahamatas: A new cadre of officials created by Ashoka to propagate dhamma.

Dvija: literally ‘twice born’: Those entitled to the performance of the upanayana (sacred thread) ceremony, which is considered analogous to a second birth, viz., the upper three varnas, namely the Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas.

Four Noble Truths(Ariya-sachchani): An important part of the Buddha’s teaching, viz., there is suffering; it has a cause; it can be eliminated; and the way to eliminate it is to follow the Eight-fold Path

Gahapati: Pali for Sanskrit grihapati, i.e., householder; a wealthy property-owner 

Gaja-Lakshmi: A popular representation of the goddess Lakshmi, flanked by two elephants, sometimes holding jars in their trunks gana: a word which has many meanings, including an oligarchy 

Garbha-griha: The inner sanctum of a temple, where the image of the main deity is placed and worshipped.

Hundikas: Bills of exchange used by traders in early medieval India

Kani rights: Rights over land in early medieval South India, sometimes also associated with certain duties and obligations 

Kara-shasanas: Tax-paying agraharas

kottam: Settlement clusters in the Pallava kingdom, similar to the nadus 

Kraya-shasana: A secular land-sale deed 

Kshatra: Secular power kshatrapa: a viceroy or subordinate ruler of the Scytho-Parthians; a title assumed by kings of the Kshaharata and Kardamaka dynasties

Madhayamaka: A major Mahayana school founded by Nagarjuna, in which the idea of shunyata (emptiness) is of great importance.

Mandapika: A local centre of exchange, in between small periodic markets and larger trade centres Manigramam: a powerful merchant guild of early medieval South India.

Mahakshatrapa: Viceroy, subordinate ruler; a title assumed by some kings of the Kshaharata and Kardamaka dynasties

Menhir: A type of megalithic burial, marked by a single, large, standing stone.

Nagarakkani: Land owned and managed by the nagaram 

Nagarams: Market or commercial centres in early medieval South India N

Agarattar: The corporate organization of the nagaram

Nattar: The leading men of the nadu (locality) in early medieval South India.

Nibbana: A term used often in the Buddhist tradition for liberation from the cycle of birth and death

Niyoga: levirate; the ancient custom of a widow cohabiting with her brother-in-law or another man in order to produce sons.

Paramitas: Perfections whose attainment led to the bodhisattva path; a Mahayana idea Paribbajaka: Pali, literally, ‘wanderer’, renunciant pariharas: exemptions and privileges granted to donees in royal land grants parinibbana: the passing away of the Buddha Patichcha-samuppada: Pali, the law of dependent origination; a part of the Buddha’s teaching

Periyapuranam: A 12th century work containing hagiographies of the Nayanmar saints

Pramanas: grounds of knowledge 

Prashasti: Panegyric 

Pravara: The names of one, two, three, or five supposed ancestral rishis, connected with the gotra system of the Brahmanas

Puram: War poems of the Sangam corpus 

Purva Mimamsa: A school of Vedic exegesis

Samana: A Pali word (Sanskrit shramana); literally, ‘one who strives’, a renunciant 

Samanta: Subordinate ruler; feudatory 

Samhita: A collection of hymns, associated with the Vedas 

Samkhya: A very ancient philosophical school which views the world as consisting of two fundamental categories of purusha (the spiritual principle) and prakriti (matter or nature)

Sandhara: A temple style with an enclosed passage for circumambulation

Sangam literature: Texts in old Tamil, comprising the earliest parts of the Ettutokai, Pattuppattu, and Tolkappiyam.

Sapindas: People who are held to be related to each other, an important category in Dharmashastra discussions on rules of marriage, inheritance, and rules of purity and impurity to be observed among relatives when a person died 

Saptanga rajya: Literally ‘the seven-limbed state’, the Arthashastra concept of the state as consisting of seven elements.

Setthi: Pali (Sanskrit sreshthin); a high-level businessman associated with trade and money-lending 

Shakha: A recension of a Veda

Siddhamatrika: An ancient script, known from the 6th century CE; also known as Kutila

Syadavada: Literally ‘doctrine of maybe’; the Jaina doctrine of the partial nature of all statements about reality

Taniyur: A special status given to certain brahmadeyas in early medieval South India, making them independent of the nadu wherein they were located

Tevaram: A collection of hymns, part of the canon of South Indian Shaiva bhakti

Tipitaka: Pali, literally ‘the three baskets’ or ‘three collections’, Buddhist canonical texts; the Pali Tipitaka is the canon of the Theravada school 

Tirthankara: Literally, ‘ford builder’; a Jaina saint 

Tirumurai: The canon of South Indian Shaiva bhakti 

Tiruttondar-Tiruvantai: A work by Nambi Andar Nambi, which gives a short hagiography of the Nayanmar saints 

Tiruttondar-Tokai: A work by Sundarar, which lists 62 Nayanmar saints torana: the gateway of a shrine

Vatteluttu: An ancient South Indian script used for writing Tamil

Vellala/vellalar: Cultivating groups of South India 

Vellanvagai: Non-brahmadeya villages of early medieval South India; same as ur 

Vendar: The three ‘crowned kings’ of early historical South India, i.e., the Cholas, Cheras, and Pandyas

Viragal: The word for a ‘hero stone’ in the Tamil Nadu area

Yajamana: The person for whom the yajna (sacrifice) is performed and who bears its expenses Yajna: sacrifice 

Yakshas: Deities associated with water, fertility, trees, forests, and the wilderness 

Yakshis: Female deities associated with fertility, consorts of yakshas 

Yavana: Greeks, foreigners from the West 

Yoga: A philosophical school which aimed at focusing the mind to achieve complete tranquility and control 

Yogachara: A major Mahayana school which attached great importance to meditation as a means of attaining the highest goal
Yupa: Sacrificial post

Register for PRELIMS MAHASANGRAM to get TIKDAM videos. Register here

04th May 2022

1. SATHI

The Department of Science & Technology has launched a unique scheme called “Sophisticated Analytical & Technical Help Institutes(SATHI)”.

Objectives of the Scheme

• SATHI will address the problems of accessibility, maintenance, redundancy and duplication of expensive equipment in the institutions.
• This will also foster a strong culture of collaboration between institutions and across disciplines to take advantage of developments, innovations and expertise in diverse areas.

2. National Blockchain Strategy

The ‘National Strategy on Blockchain’ as brought out by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, is the move in the direction towards enabling trusted digital platforms creating blockchain framework for the development of applications based on this technology.

About NBS

• Aim: To provide trusted digital platform for providing e – governance services using blockchain technology.
  
  Objectives
• Creation of trusted digital platforms through blockchain.
• To make India a global leader in Blockchain Technology.
• Provide trusted, secure and transparent service delivery to citizens and businesses.

3. Project MANAV: Human Atlas Initiative

• For the first time, Indian scientists will be mapping every single tissue of the human body to have a deeper understanding of the roles of tissues and cells linked to various diseases.
• Department of Biotechnology (DBT) launched MANAV: Human Atlas Initiative towards improving knowledge on human physiology.
• It is a project funded by DBT, which aims at creating a database network of all tissues in the human body from the available scientific literature.
• It is a project that involves scientific skill development for annotation, science outreach along with handling big data.
• It will involve gaining better biological insights through physiological and molecular mapping, develop disease models through predictive computing and have a holistic analysis and finally drug discovery.
• The student community, who will be the backbone on assimilating the information, will be trained and imparted with skills to perform annotation and curation of information that will ultimately form the online network.
• DBT has invested funds shared between two institutions in Pune – National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS) and Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research (IISER), Pune.
• Besides, Persistent Systems Limited has co-funded the project and is developing the platform.

4. Project Cosmic Microwave Background-Bharat

• CMB stands for Cosmic Microwave Background, and the scientific space project CMB-Bharat has been presented as a proposal to ISRO and is under consideration.
• In the workshop, project CMB-Bharat, which could help us listen to the faintest murmurs of the early universe, was discussed.
• CMB-Bharat is a proposal for comprehensive next-generation Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) mission in international collaboration with major Indian contribution.
• This referred to quantum gravitational waves, which are different from what LIGO detectors had observed that were classical in nature.

5. Phyto-Pharma Plant Mission

Objectives

• Rs 50 crore Mission aimed at conservation and cultivation of endangered and threatened endemic medicinal plants, and discovery of new botanical drugs for unmet medical needs using the rich traditional ethnobotanical knowledge and biodiversity of these states and at the same time also improve the availability of authentic and quality botanical raw material on a sustainable basis for a boom in the phyto-pharmaceutical industry
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Science & Technology

6. Biotech-PRIDE Guidelines

The Union Ministry for Science & Technology has released “Biotech-PRIDE (Promotion of Research and Innovation through Data Exchange) Guidelines” developed by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT)

Biotech-PRIDE

• These guidelines aim at providing a well-defined framework and guiding principle to facilitate and enable sharing and exchange of biological knowledge, information and data.
• They will facilitate this and enable the exchange of information to promote research and innovation in different research groups across the country.
• They will be implemented through the Indian Biological Data Centre (IBDC) at Regional Centre for Biotechnology supported by the Department of Biotechnology.

7. Drone Rules, 2021

Some of the key features are as under:

Number of forms: The rules propose to reduce the number of forms required for manufacturing, importing, testing, certifying and operating drones in India from 25 to six.

Abolishing authorization number: The draft seeks to abolish the unique authorisation number, unique prototype identification number, and certificate of conformance that were previously required for approval of drone flights.

Digital Sky Platform: Digital Sky, a platform launched by the government in December 2018, will become a single-window system for all approvals under the newly proposed rules.

Airspace map: An airspace map segregating the entire landmass of India into Green, Yellow and Red zones will be published on the platform within 30 days of notification of the new rules, the government said. The map will also be machine-readable through an Application Programming Interface (API) for easier plotting of drone flight paths.

Airport Perimeter: The draft rules reduced the airport perimeter from 45 km to 12 km. The rules state that no flight permissions would be required to fly up to 400 feet in green zones and up to 200 feet in the area between 8 and 12 km from the airport perimeter.

Drone corridors: The government will also publish a policy framework for Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) within 60 days of notifying the rules. This will also include frameworks for developing “drone corridors” for the safe transfer of goods by drones.

Drone Promotion Council: The Rules also propose the setting up of a Drone Promotion Council, with the aim of facilitating a business-friendly regulatory regime for drones in India, the establishment of incubators for developing drone technologies and organizing competitive events to showcase drones and counter-drone solutions.

Others: To implement safety features such as “no permission, no take-off”, real-time tracking and geofencing, drone manufacturers, importers and operators will get six months’ time to comply from the date of notification of the rules.

8. CYBER Attacks in India

Common types of cyber-attacks are:

(1) Backdoor Trojan

• A backdoor Trojan creates a backdoor vulnerability in the victim’s system, allowing the attacker to gain remote, and almost total, control.
• Frequently used to link up a group of victims’ computers into a botnet or zombie network, attackers can use the Trojan for other cybercrimes.

(2) Cross-site scripting (XSS) attack

• XSS attacks insert malicious code into a legitimate website or application script to get a user’s information, often using third-party web resources.

Denial-of-service (DoS)

• DoS and Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks flood a system’s resources, overwhelming them and preventing responses to service requests, which reduces the system’s ability to perform.
• Often, this attack is a setup for another attack.

(3) DNS tunnelling

• Cybercriminals use DNS tunnelling, a transactional protocol, to exchange application data, like extract data silently or establish a communication channel with an unknown server, such as a command and control (C&C) exchange.

(4) Malware

• Malware is malicious software that can render infected systems inoperable. Most malware variants destroy data by deleting or wiping files critical to the operating system’s ability to run.

(5) Phishing

• Phishing scams attempt to steal users’ credentials or sensitive data like credit card numbers.
• In this case, scammers send users emails or text messages designed to look as though they’re coming from a legitimate source, using fake hyperlinks.

(6) Ransomware

• Ransomware is sophisticated malware that takes advantage of system weaknesses, using strong encryption to hold data or system functionality hostage.
• Cybercriminals use ransomware to demand payment in exchange for releasing the system. A recent development with ransomware is the add-on of extortion tactics.

(7) Zero-day exploit

• Zero-day exploit attacks take advantage of unknown hardware and software weaknesses. These vulnerabilities can exist for days, months or years before developers learn about the flaws.

9. VAJRA

Objectives –

• The Government of India recently launched VAJRA (Visiting Advanced Joint Research) Faculty scheme by the Department of Science and Technology which enables NRIs and overseas scientific community to participate and contribute to research and development in India. The Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), a statutory body of the Department will implement the Scheme.
• International Faculty / scientists/technologists including Non-resident Indians (NRI) and Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) / Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) are offered adjunct / visiting faculty positions in Indian Institutions / Universities for a period of 1-3 months under this scheme. The faculty can also undertake the role of teaching /mentoring apart from R&D.
• Public funded institutions and national laboratories are allowed to host the VAJRA faculty.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Science & Technology

10. National Initiative for Developing & Harnessing Innovation (NIDHI)

Objectives

A programme to address the complete chain of innovation ecosystem right from scouting to mentoring to scaling up innovations. launched by DST. Establishment of a research park at IIT Gandhinagar has been supported at a cost of Rs.90 cr.

11.Surya Jyoti

Objectives

• In order to capture daylight and concentrate the same inside a dark room, particularly in the urban slum or rural areas which lack electricity supply, a low cost and energy-efficient Micro Solar Dome (Surya Jyoti) has been tested and developed. -Potential users of this device are10 million households.
• According to preliminary estimates, if this technology is adopted in 10 million households only, it has the potential of saving 1750 million units of energy.
• It would also lead to an emission reduction of about 12.5 million ton of CO2 equivalent, hence giving a fillip to the mission of ‘Clean India, Green India’.
• The manufacturing process, being labour-intensive, would also generate huge job opportunities in the economy.
• Nodal Ministry – Department of Science & Technology.

12. Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan

• Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan is running successfully to motivate children to learn Science, Maths and Technology through observation and experimentation.
• It was launched on 9th July 2015 by Late Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Former President of India.
• Nodal Ministry-HRD Ministry.

---

3rd May 2022

 

Register for PRELIMS MAHASANGRAM to get TIKDAM videos.
Register here

1.RAMSAR Convention on Wetlands

Brief Intro–

• The Convention was adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971 and came into force in 1975 after UNESCO, the Convention’s depositary received the instruments of accession from the countries.
• The RAMSAR Secretariat is based at the headquarters of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Gland, Switzerland.
• World Wetlands Day is celebrated on February 2nd.

Key Objectives-

• An intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.

Year-1971

Place – Ramasar

Key Terms-The Montreux Record – a register of wetland sites on the List of Wetlands of International Importance where changes in ecological character are of concern. It is maintained as part of the Ramsar List.

India specific – India currently has 27 sites designated as Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar Sites).

2.The World Heritage Convention

Brief Intro–

The Convention recognizes the way in which people interact with nature, and the fundamental need to preserve the balance between the two.

Key Objectives-

The Convention defines the kind of natural or cultural sites which can be considered for inscription on the World Heritage List under UNESCO

Year-1972

3.Stockholm Conference

Brief Intro–

Stockholm Declaration contains 26 principles. These principles provide the basis of an International Policy for the Protection and improvement of the environment.

Key Point-The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has been established by the UNGA in pursuance of the Stockholm Conference.

Year-1972

4.CITES

Brief Intro–

To ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten the survival of the species in the wild, and it accords varying degrees of protection to more than 35,000 species of animals and plants.

Key Objectives-

• It is a multilateral treaty drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
• Although CITES is legally binding on the Parties – in other words they have to implement the Convention – it does not take the place of national laws.

India Specific –

The Government of India signed the Convention in July 1976, which was ratified in October 1976

5.Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSC)

Brief Intro–

Seeks to establish a uniform global legal regime for compensation to victims in the unlikely event of a nuclear accident. It was adopted on 12 September 1997. It can enter into force after ratification by at least 5 countries having a minimum of 400,000 units of installed nuclear capacity.

Key Objectives-

• It provides a uniform framework for channelling liability and providing speedy compensation after the nuclear accident.
• Seeks to encourage regional and global co-operation to promote a higher level of nuclear safety in accordance with the principles of international partnership and solidarity.
• All states are free to participate in it regardless of their presence of nuclear installations on their territories or involvement in existing nuclear liability conventions.
• It has been framed inconsistent with the principles of the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage (1963) and the Paris Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy (1960).

India Specific –

India has ratified Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSC), 1997 which sets parameters on a nuclear operator’s financial liability.

6.Nuclear security summit

Brief Intro–

The Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) is a world summit, aimed at preventing nuclear terrorism around the globe. The first summit was held in Washington, D.C., United States, on April 12–13, 2010. The second summit was held in Seoul, South Korea, in 2012. The third summit was held in The Hague, Netherlands, on March 24–25, 2014. The fourth summit was held in Washington, D.C. on March 31–April 1, 2016.

Key Objectives-

Aimed at preventing nuclear terrorism around the globe.

India specific-

Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the NSS 2016 in Washington

7.Ashgabat Agreement

Brief Intro–

Ashgabat Agreement is an international transport and transit corridor facilitating transportation of goods between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf.

Key Objectives-

• The transit agreement provides for a transit corridor across Central Asia and the Middle East through the continuous landmass between Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Iran before reaching the Persian Gulf and into Oman.
• The objective of this agreement is to enhance connectivity within Eurasian region and synchronize it with other transport corridors within that region including the International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC).

8.The Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA)

Brief Intro–

The Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) is an inter-governmental forum for enhancing cooperation towards promoting peace, security and stability in Asia.

Key Objectives-

It is a forum based on the recognition that there is close link between peace, security and stability in Asia and in the rest of the world.enhancing cooperation towards promoting peace, security and stability in Asia.

India Specific-

India is a member of CICA

9.Beijing declaration

Brief Intro–

The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA) is an international declaration of women’s rights set up at the UN’s landmark Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995.

Key Objectives-

• The BPfA covers 12 key critical matters of concern and areas for action including women and poverty, violence against women and access to power and decision- making.
• It was supported by 189 countries, including the UK, at the 1995 World Conference.gender equality and the empowerment of all women, everywhere.1995.
• It was the outcome of The Fourth World Conference on Women: Action for Equality, Development and Peace convened by UN.

12.The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC)

Brief Intro–

The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) is a treaty adopted by the 56th World Health Assembly held in Geneva,Switzerland on 21 May 2003.

Key Objectives-

• It became the first World Health Organization treaty adopted under article 19 of the WHO constitution.To protect present and future generations from the devastating health, social, environmental and economic consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke” by enacting a set of universal standards stating the dangers of tobacco and limiting its use in all forms worldwide.
• The FCTC established two principal bodies to oversee the functioning of the treaty: the Conference of the parties and the permanent Secretariat. In addition, there are over 50 different intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations who are official observers to the Conference of the Parties.

India Specific-

India has hosted 7th Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC).

10.G-7

Brief Intro–

• The Group of Seven (G7) is an informal bloc of industrialized democracies—Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States—that meets annually to discuss issues such as global economic governance, international security, and energy policy.
• Russia belonged to the forum from 1998 through 2014—then the Group of Eight (G8)—but was suspended after its annexation of Crimea in March of that year.

11.G-20

Brief Intro– It was started in 1999 as a meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in the aftermath of the Southeast Asian (Tiger economies) financial crisis.

Key Objectives-

• The Group of Twenty (G20) is the premier forum for its members’ international economic cooperation and decision-making.
• It is deliberating forum for the governments and central bank governors from 20 major economies on economic issues and other important development challenges.
• In 2008, the first G20 Leaders’ Summit was held in Washington DC, US. The group had played a key role in responding to the global financial crisis. It comprises total 19 countries plus the European Union (EU), representing 85% of global GDP, 80% of international trade, 65% of world’s population. Its members include Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, India, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Turkey, South Africa, UK, US and EU. 4.The 2016 summit was held in Hangzhou China.
• It was established for studying, reviewing, and promoting high-level discussion of policy issues pertaining to the promotion of international financial stability.

India Specific-

India is a founding member of G-20

12.International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

Brief Intro–

It is a comprehensive international agreement in harmony with the Convention on Biological Diversity, which aims at guaranteeing food security through the conservation, exchange and sustainable use of the world’s plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA), as well as the fair and equitable benefit sharing arising from its use.

Key Objectives-

• It also recognises Farmers’ Rights, subject to national laws the protection of traditional knowledge relevant to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture.
• The right to equitably participate in sharing benefits arising from the utilisation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture;
• The right to participate in making decisions, at the national level, on matters related to the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture.
• It is a comprehensive international agreement in harmony with the Convention on Biological Diversity.

India Specific-

India has signed the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.

13.Marrakesh treaty

Brief Intro–

• The treaty requires signatories to introduce national law provisions that facilitate the availability of published works in formats like Braille that are accessible to the blind and allow their exchange across borders by organizations working for the visually impaired.

Key Objectives-

• The pact will help import of accessible format copies from the member countries by the Indian authorized entities such as educational institutions, libraries and other institutions working for the welfare of the visually impaired.
• The treaty will also ease translation of imported accessible format copies and export of accessible format copies in Indian languages.To create a set of mandatory limitations and exceptions for the benefit of the blind, visually impaired and otherwise print disabled (VIPs).

14.London Declaration

Brief Intro–

• The London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases is a collaborative disease eradication programme launched on 30 January 2012 in London.
• It was inspired by the World Health Organization 2020 roadmap to eradicate or negate transmission for neglected tropical diseases.
• Officials from WHO, the World Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s 13 leading pharmaceutical companies, and government representatives from US, UK, United Arab Emirate, Bangladesh, Brazil, Mozambique and Tanzania participated in a joint meeting at the Royal College of Physicians to launch this project.

15.Declaration of Montreal

Brief Intro–

The Declaration of Montreal on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Human Rights is a document adopted in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on July 29, 2006, by the International Conference on LGBT Human Rights which formed part of the first World Outgames.

Key Objectives-

• The Declaration outlines a number of rights and freedoms pertaining to LGBT and intersex people that it is proposed to be universally guaranteed.
• It encompasses all aspects of human rights, from the guarantee of fundamental freedoms to the prevention of discrimination against LGBT people in healthcare, education and immigration.
• The Declaration also addresses various issues that impinge on the global promotion of LGBT rights and intersex human rights.

16. Istanbul Convention

Brief Intro–

• The Istanbul Convention is the first legally-binding instrument which “creates a comprehensive legal framework and approach to combat violence against women” and is focussed on preventing domestic violence, protecting victims and prosecuting accused offenders. The convention aims at prevention of violence, victim protection and “to end with the impunity of perpetrators.
• The Council of Europe. Only European countries have signed this convention.

17.vienna convention on diplomatic relations

Brief Intro–

It is a treaty that came into force in 1964 2.It lays out the rules and regulations for diplomatic relations between countries as well as the various privileges that diplomats and diplomatic missions enjoy.

Key Objectives-

• One of these privileges is legal immunity for diplomats so that they don’t have to face prosecution as per their host country’s laws.
• The Vienna Convention classifies diplomats according to their posting in the embassy, consular or international organisations such as the UN. A nation has only one embassy per foreign country, usually in the capital, but may have multiple consulate offices, generally in locations where many of its citizens live or visit.
• Diplomats posted in an embassy get immunity, along with his or her family members. While diplomats posted in consulates too get immunity, they can be prosecuted in case of serious crimes, that is, when a warrant is issued.
• Besides, their families don’t share that immunity.It has been ratified by 187 countries, including India.

18.Jaipur Summit

Brief Intro–

• The Forum for India–Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) was launched during Hon’ble Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi’s visit to Fiji in November 2014.
• FIPIC includes 14 of the island countries – Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
• The second summit of the Forum for India Pacific Cooperation (FIPIC-2) in Jaipur on 21-22 August 2015 has made significant progress in strengthening India’s engagement with the 14 Pacific Island countries. Increase Cooperation Between India and 14 Pacific Countries.

Key Objectives-

• Though these countries are relatively small in land area and distant from India, many have large exclusive economic zones (EEZs), and offer promising possibilities for fruitful cooperation.
• India’s focus has largely been on the Indian Ocean where it has sought to play a major role and protect its strategic and commercial interests. The FIPIC initiative marks a serious effort to expand India’s engagement in the Pacific region.
• At this moment, total annual trade of about $300 million between the Indian and Pacific Island countries, where as exports are around $200 million and imports are around $100 million.

19.NPT

Brief Intro–

The NPT is a landmark international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament.

Key Objectives-

• The Treaty represents the only binding commitment in a multilateral treaty to the goal of disarmament by the nuclear-weapon States. Opened for signature in 1968, the Treaty entered into force in 1970.
• To prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament.

India Specific-

India has not signed the treaty as India argues that the NPT creates a club of “nuclear haves” and a larger group of “nuclear have-nots” by restricting the legal possession of nuclear weapons to those states that tested them before 1967, but the treaty never explains on what ethical grounds such a distinction is valid.

20.CTBT

Brief Intro–

• The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) is a multilateral treaty that bans all nuclear explosions, for both civilian and military purposes, in all environments.
• It was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 September 1996 but has not entered into force as eight specific states have not ratified the treaty. Nuclear weapon-free
• The treaty thus awaits signature and ratification from India, Pakistan, and North Korea and in addition requires the United States, China, Israel, Iran and Egypt (which have already signed) to formally ratify it.

India Specific-

Even though it is yet to sign the CTBT, India has supported the treaty’s basic principle of banning nuclear explosions by declaring a unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing. India’s expressed support to the essential requirement of the treaty makes it a de facto member of the CTBT.

21.Convention on biological diversity

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a legally binding treaty to conserve biodiversity has been in force since 1993.

Objectives-

• It has 3 main objectives: The conservation of biological diversity.
• The sustainable use of the components of biological diversity.,fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.
• The CBD, one of the key agreements adopted during the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, is the first comprehensive global agreement which addresses all aspects relating to biodiversity.

22.International Whaling Commission (IWC)

The IWC is an Inter-Governmental Organisation set up by the terms of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) signed in Washington, D.C in 1946. It aims to provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry. The body is the first piece of International Environmental Legislation established in 1946.

23.Global Digital Health Partnership Summit

The Global Digital Health Partnership (GDHP) is an international collaboration of governments, government agencies and multinational organisations dedicated to improving the health and well-being of their citizens through the best use of evidence-based digital technologies.

Objectives-

• Governments are making significant investments to harness the power of technology and foster innovation and public-private partnerships that support high quality, sustainable health and care for all. The GDHP facilitates global collaboration and co-operation in the implementation of digital health services.The GDHP is committed to improving health and care through promoting its principles of equality, co-operation, transparency and responsibility.
• Equality: All participants will have an equal opportunity to participate and contribute to the development of the GDHP deliverables and share in the lessons learnt and outputs of the GDHP.
• Co-operation: Participants are helpful and supportive and participate in debates thoughtfully, constructively and respectfully.
• Transparency: Participants act with openness in their engagement with fellow participants to contribute to improved health services, promote innovation and create safer and healthier communities.
• Responsibility: Participants are responsible for their country’s input through their active contribution to GDHP activities that are guided by the annual work plan. Each participant shall endeavour to ensure that outcomes from meetings, such as tasks appointed to them or in general, are carried out effectively and efficiently. Participants will make decisions and participate in discussions in a transparent and fair manner, using evidence, and without discrimination or bias, ensuring they act in the public interest and not for commercial purposes.

24.TIR

The Convention on International Transport of Goods Under Cover of TIR Carnets is a multilateral treaty that was concluded at Geneva on 14 November 1975 to simplify and harmonise the administrative formalities of international road transport.

Objectives-

• The TIR Convention establishes an international customs transit system with maximum facility to move goods:in sealed vehicles or containers;
• from a customs office of departure in one country to a customs office of destination in another country;
• without requiring extensive and time-consuming border checks at intermediate borders;
• while, at the same time, providing customs authorities with the required security and guarantees.

25. 1 Trillion Trees Initiative

It aims to ensure the conservation and restoration of one trillion trees within this decade. Initiative is led by UNEP and initiated by WEF.

Objectives-

• The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR), 2015-2030, which is the first major agreement of the post-2015 development agenda, identifies investing in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) for resilience and to build back better in reconstruction as priorities for action towards reducing disaster risk.
• Similarly, Goal 9 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognizes disaster resilient infrastructure as a crucial driver of economic growth and development.
• Besides reducing infrastructure losses, disaster resilient infrastructure will also help achieve targets pertaining to reduction in mortality, number of affected people and economic losses due to disasters.

26.International Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)

The Chemical Weapons Convention is an arms control treaty that outlaws the production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons and their precursors.

Key points of the Convention

Objectives-

• Prohibition of production and use of chemical weapons
• Destruction (or monitored conversion to other functions) of chemical weapons production facilities
• Destruction of all chemical weapons (including chemical weapons abandoned outside the state parties territory)
• Assistance between State Parties and the OPCW in the case of use of chemical weapons
• An OPCW inspection regime for the production of chemicals which might be converted to chemical weapons
• International cooperation in the peaceful use of chemistry in relevant areas

27.Convention on Supplementary Compensation for nuclear Damage (CSC)

The Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage is a 1963 treaty that governs issues of liability in cases of a nuclear accident. It was concluded at Vienna on 21 May 1963 and entered into force on 12 November 1977. The convention has been amended by a 1997 protocol. The depository is the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Objectives-

• The Convention on Supplementary Compensation (CSC) aims at establishing a minimum national compensation amount and at further increasing the amount of compensation through public funds to be made available by the Contracting Parties should the national amount be insufficient to compensate the damage caused by a nuclear incident.
• The Convention is open not only to States that are party to either the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage or the Paris Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy (including any amendments to either) but also to other States provided that their national legislation is consistent with uniform rules on civil liability laid down in the Annex to the Convention.

28.Hague Code of Conduct

The International Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation, also known as the Hague Code of Conduct (HCOC), was established on 25 November 2002 as an arrangement to prevent the proliferation of ballistic missiles.

Objectives-

• The HCOC is the result of international efforts to regulate access to ballistic missiles which can potentially deliver weapons of mass destruction. The HCOC is the only multilateral code in the area of disarmament which has been adopted over the last years.
• It is the only normative instrument to verify the spread of ballistic missiles.
• The HCOC does not ban ballistic missiles, but it does call for restraint in their production, testing, and export.

29. Tropical Forest Alliance

Global PPP launched at Rio+20 summit. It aims halving deforestation by 2020 and ending it by 2030 in tropical rainforest countries. The secretariat of the Alliance is hosted by the World Economic Forum.

30.Biological weapons convention

The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction was the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning the production of an entire category of weapons.

Objectives-

• Each State Party to this Convention undertakes never in any circumstances to develop, produce, stockpile or otherwise acquire or retain:
• Microbial or other biological agents, or toxins whatever their origin or method of production, of types and in quantities that have no justification for prophylactic, protective or other peaceful purposes;
• Weapons, equipment or means of delivery designed to use such agents or toxins for hostile purposes or in armed conflict.”
• The United States Congress passed the Bioweapons Anti-Terrorism Act in 1989 to implement the Convention. The law applies the Convention’s convent to countries and private citizens, and criminalizes violations of the Convention.

31.Sendai Framework

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030) is an international document which was adopted by UN member states between 14th and 18th of March 2015 at the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction held in Sendai, Japan and endorsed by the UN General Assembly in June 2015. It is the successor agreement to the Hyogo Framework for Action (2005–2015), which had been the most encompassing international accord to date on disaster risk reduction.

Objectives-

• The Sendai Framework sets four specific priorities for action:
• Understanding disaster risk;
• Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk;
• Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience;
• Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response, and to “Build Back Better” in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

32.Outer Space Treaty

The Outer Space Treaty, formally the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, is a treaty that forms the basis of international space law. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty bans the stationing of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in outer space, prohibits military activities on celestial bodies, and details legally binding rules governing the peaceful exploration and use of space.

33.Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty which extends the 1992 UNFCCC that commits State Parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the premise that

(a) global warming exists and (b) human-made CO2 emissions have caused it.

Objectives-

• The main feature of the Protocol is that it established legally binding commitments to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases for parties that ratified the Protocol.
• The commitments were based on the Berlin Mandate, which was a part of UNFCCC negotiations leading up to the Protocol.
• Minimizing Impacts on Developing Countries by establishing an adaptation fund for climate change.

34.U.N. Frame Work Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

Objectives-

• A framework for international cooperation to combat climate change by limiting average global temperature increases and the resulting climate change, and coping with impacts that were inevitable.
• The primary goals of the UNFCCC were to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions at levels that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the global climate.
• The convention embraced the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities which has guided the adoption of a regulatory structure.

35.Basel Convention

• The industrialized world in the 1980s had led to increasing public resistance to the disposal of hazardous wastes, in accordance with what became known as the NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) syndrome, and to an increase of disposal costs.
• This, in turn, led some operators to seek cheap disposal options for hazardous wastes in the developing countries.
• Environmental awareness was much less developed and regulations and enforcement mechanisms were lacking. The objectives of the convention are to reduce trans-boundary movements of hazardous wastes, to minimize the creation of such wastes and to prohibit their shipment from developed countries to the LDCs.

36.Montreal Protocol

Objectives-

• The protocol set targets for reducing the consumption and production of a range of ozone-depleting substances.
• In a major innovation, the protocol recognized that all nations should not be treated equally.
• The agreement acknowledges that certain countries have contributed to ozone depletion more than others.
• It also recognizes that a nation‘s obligation to reduce current emissions should reflect its technological and financial ability to do so.
• Because of this, the agreement sets more stringent standards and accelerated phase-out time tables to countries that have contributed most to ozone depletion

37.World Conservation Strategy

Objectives-

• It set out fundamental principles and objectives for conservation worldwide and identified priorities for national and international action.
• It is considered one of the most influential documents in 20th-century nature conservation and one of the first official documents to introduce the concept of sustainable development.

38.Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals (Bonn Convention)

Objectives-

• Aims to conserve terrestrial, marine and avian migratory species throughout their range.
• The Convention facilitates the adoption of strict protection measures for endangered migratory species, the conclusion of multilateral agreements for the conservation and management of migratory species, and co-operative research activities.

39.World Sustainable Development summit

• WSDS has replaced TERI’s earlier called Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS). The first DSDS was organised in 2005. It underscored the need for businesses and the private sector to take lead in poverty reduction and to ensure rapid and sustained adoption of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• It had brought together Nobel laureates, decision-makers political leaders from around the world to deliberate on issues related to sustainable development.
• The aim of the summit is to provide various stakeholders with a single platform in order to provide long-term solutions for the benefit of the global community.

40.Kigali Agreement

The Kigali Amendment amends the 1987 Montreal Protocol to now include gases responsible for global warming and will be binding on countries from 2019.

Objectives-

• It also has provisions for penalties for non-compliance.
• It is considered absolutely vital for reaching the Paris Agreement target of keeping global temperature rise to below 2-degree Celsius compared to pre-industrial times.
• Under it, developed countries will also provide enhanced funding support estimated at billions of dollars globally. The exact amount of additional funding from developed countries will be agreed at the next
• Meeting of the Parties in Montreal in 2017 to reduce the emissions of category of greenhouse gases (GHGs) which leads to hydro fluorocarbons (HFCs)

41. Glassgow Summit

The Glasgow meeting was the 26th session of the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP26.

Achievements:

1. Mitigation: The Glasgow agreement has emphasised that stronger action in the current decade was most critical to achieving the 1.5-degree target.
2. Adaptation: Most of the countries, especially the smaller and poorer ones, and the small island states have been demanded that at least half of all climate finance should be directed towards adaptation efforts.
3. Finance: In 2009, developed countries had promised to mobilise at least $100 billion every year from 2020, which did not happen. The developed nations have now said that they will arrange this amount by 2023.
4. Accounting earlier mistakes: Asked the developed countries to provide transparent information about the money they plan to provide
5. Loss & Damage: The frequency of climate disasters has been rising rapidly, and many of these caused large scale devastation. One of the earlier drafts included a provision for setting up of a facility to coordinate loss and damage activities.
6. Carbon markets: This meeting has allowed carbon credits to be used in meeting countries’ first NDC targets to the developing nations.

---

Dear Aspirants,

This Spotlight is a part of our Mission Nikaalo Prelims-2022

Download Habitat app from the Playstore Join our Official Civilsdaily Space for GS and CSAT Here

ENROLL FOR PRELIMS MAHASANGRAM 2022 || 40 Days Prelims Revision Plan with TIKDAM lectures. Click HERE

Important Financial Institutions

---

28 Apr 2022

Development Finance Institutions

The Need of DFIs

Classification of DFIs

All India DFIs	Special DFIs	Investment Institutions	Refinance Institutions	State Level DFIs
Industrial Finance Corporation of India Industrial Development Bank of India Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) ICICI ICICI ceased to be a DFI and converted into a Bank on 30 March 2002. IDBI was converted into a Bank on 11 October 2004.	EXIM Bank IFCI Venture Capitalist Fund Tourism Finance Corporation of India. IDFC.	LIC Union Trust of India. General Insurance Corporation.	National Housing Board. NABARD.	State Financial Corporation. State Industrial Development Corporations.

All India Development Finance Institutions

IFCI	ICICI	IDBI	SIDBI
IFCI was the first DFI to be setup in 1948.	It was setup in January 1995.	The IDBI was initially set up as a Subsidiary of the RBI. In February 1976, IDBI was made fully autonomous.	SIDBI was setup as a subsidiary of IDBI in 1989.
With Effect from 1 July 1993, IFCI has been converted into Public Limited Company.	With effect from April 2002, ICICI has been converted into a Bank.	The IDBI was designated as apex organisation in the field of Development Financing. However, it was converted in a bank wef Oct 2004.	The SIDBI was designated as apex organisation in the field of Small Scale Finance.The Union Budget of 1998-99 proposed the delinking of SIDBI from IDBI.
The key function of IFCI was; granting long-term loans(25 years and above); Guaranteeing rupee loans floated in open markets by industries; Underwriting of shares and debentures; Providing guarantees for industries.	The key functions of ICICI were; to provide long term or medium term loans or equity participation; Guaranteeing loans from other private sources; providing consultancy services to industry.	The key functions of IDBI were; it provides refinance against loans granted to industries; it subscribed to the share capital and bond issues of other DFIs; it also acted as the coordinator of DFIs at all India level.	The key function of SIDBI was; to provide assistance to small scale units; initiating steps for technological up gradation and modernization of SSIs; expanding the marketing channel for the Small Scale Industries product; promotion of employment creating SSIs.
IFCI was a public sector DFI.	The ICICI differed from IFCI and IDBI with respect to ownership, management and lending operation. ICICI was a Private sector DFI.	It was a Public sector DFI.

Investment Institutions

Union Trust of India	Life Insurance Company	General Insurance Corporation
The UTI was setup on Nov 1963 after Parliament passed the UTI Act.	LIC was set up in 1956 after the insurance business was nationalised.	The GIC was formed by the central government in 1971.
The objective of UTI was to channel the savings of people into equities and corporate debts. The flagship scheme of the UTI was called Unit Scheme 64.	The objective of LIC is to provide assistance in the form of term loans; subscription of shares and debentures;resource support to financial institutions and Life insurance coverages.	The GIC had four subsidiaries; National Insurance Co; New India Assurance; Oriental Insurance; and United India Insurance.
In 2002, the Union Cabinet had decided to split UTI into UTI 1 and UTI 2 as a result of the prolonged crisis in UTI.		The General Insurance Nationalisation Amendment Act, 2002, has delinked the GIC from its four subsidiaries.

Commercial Banks

• Organised under the Banking Companies Act, 1956
• They operate on a commercial basis and its main objective is profit.
• They have a unified structure and are owned by the government, state, or any private entity.
• They tend to all sectors ranging from rural to urban
• These banks do not charge concessional interest rates unless instructed by the RBI
• Public deposits are the main source of funds for these banks

What are cooperative banks?

• Cooperative banks are financial entities set up on a co-operative basis and belonging to their members.
• This means that the customers of a cooperative bank are also its owners. They are registered under the States Cooperative Societies Act and they come under the RBI regulation under two laws:

• Banking Regulations Act, 1949
• Banking Laws (Cooperative Societies) Act, 1955
• They aim to promote savings and investment habits among people, especially in rural areas.
• These banks are broadly classified under two categories – Rural and Urban.
• The rural cooperative credit institutions can be further classified into:
• Short-term cooperative credit institutions
• Long-credit institutions

The short-term credit institutions can further be sub-divided into:

• State cooperative banks
• District Central Cooperative banks
• Primary Agricultural Credit Societies

Long-term institutions can either be:

• State Cooperative Agricultural and Rural Development Banks (SCARDBs), or
• Primary Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Banks (PCARDBs)
• Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs) can be further classified into scheduled and non-scheduled.
• The scheduled and unscheduled can either be operating in a single state or multi-state

Regional Rural Banks (RRBs)

• RRBs have Scheduled Commercial Banks operating at the regional level in different states of India. They are recognized under the Regional Rural Banks Act, 1976 Act.
• They have been created with a view of serving primarily the rural areas of India with basic banking and financial services.
• However, RRBs may have branches set up for urban operations and their area of operation may include urban areas too.
• The area of operation of RRBs is limited to the area covering one or more districts in the State.

Their functions

RRBs also perform a variety of different functions. RRBs perform various functions in the following heads:

• Providing banking facilities to rural and semi-urban areas
• Carrying out government operations like disbursement of wages of MGNREGA workers, distribution of pensions etc.
• Providing Para-Banking facilities like locker facilities, debit and credit cards, mobile banking, internet banking, UPI etc.
• Small financial banks etc.

About NABARD

• NABARD is an apex development financial institution in India, headquartered at Mumbai with regional offices all over India.
• It is India’s specialised bank in providing credit for Agriculture and Rural Development in India.
• The Bank has been entrusted with “matters concerning policy, planning and operations in the field of credit for agriculture and other economic activities in rural areas in India”.
• It was established on the recommendations of B.Sivaraman Committee on 12 July 1982 to implement the NABARD Act 1981.
• NABARD supervises State Cooperative Banks (StCBs), District Cooperative Central Banks (DCCBs), and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and conducts statutory inspections of these banks.

About National Housing Bank

• NHB is an All India Financial Institution (AIFl), set up in 1988, under the National Housing Bank Act, 1987.
• The National Housing Policy, 1988 has envisaged the setting up of NHB as the Apex level institution for housing.
• It is an apex agency established to operate as a principal agency to promote housing finance institutions both at local and regional levels.
• It aims to provide financial and other support incidental to such institutions and for matters connected therewith.

EXIM Bank

• EXIM stands for Export-Import
• Export-Import Bank of India is a wholly-owned Govt. of India entity
• Established in 1982
• HQ : New Delhi
• Aim : financing, facilitating and promoting foreign trade of India.
• The EXIM bank extends Line of Credit (loC) to overseas financial institutions, regional development banks, sovereign governments and other entities abroad.
• Thus the EXIM Banks enables buyers in those countries to import developmental and infrastructure, equipment’s, goods and services from India on deferred credit terms.
• The bank also facilitates investment by Indian companies abroad for setting up joint ventures, subsidiaries or overseas acquisitions.

International Financial Services Centres

• IFSCs are intended to provide Indian corporates with easier access to global financial markets, and to complement and promote further development of financial markets in India.
• An IFSC enables bringing back the financial services and transactions that are currently carried out in offshore financial centres by Indian corporate entities and overseas branches/subsidiaries of financial institutions (FIs) to India.
• This is done by offering business and regulatory environment that is comparable to other leading international financial centres in the world like London and Singapore.
• The first IFSC in India has been set up at the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) in Gandhinagar.

Banks Board Bureau

• Banks Board Bureau is an autonomous body of Union Government of India
  It is tasked to improve the governance of Public Sector Banks, recommend the selection of chiefs of government-owned banks and financial institutions and to help banks in developing strategies and capital raising plans
• It will have three ex-officio members and three expert members in addition to Chairman
• Financial services secretary, deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India and secretary- public enterprises are BBB’s ex-officio members

Non-Banking Financial Companies

• A Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) is a company registered under the Companies Act, 1956 engaged in the business of loans and advances, acquisition of shares/stocks/bonds/debentures/securities issued by Government or local authority or other marketable securities of a like nature, leasing, hire-purchase, insurance business, chit business but does not include any institution whose principal business is that of agriculture activity, industrial activity, purchase or sale of any goods (other than securities) or providing any services and sale/purchase/construction of immovable property.
• A non-banking institution which is a company and has a principal business of receiving deposits under any scheme or arrangement in one lump sum or in instalments by way of contributions or in any other manner is also a non-banking financial company (Residuary non-banking company).

NBFCs are doing functions similar to banks. What is the difference between banks & NBFCs?

NBFCs lend and make investments, and hence their activities are akin to that of banks; however, there are a few differences as given below:

1. NBFC cannot accept demand deposits;
2. NBFCs do not form part of the payment and settlement system and cannot issue cheques drawn on itself.
3. Deposit insurance facility of Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation is not available to depositors of NBFCs, unlike in case of banks.
4. Unlike Banks which are regulated by the RBI, the NBFCs are regulated by multiple regulators; Insurance Companies- IRDA, Merchant Banks- SEBI, Micro Finance Institutions- State Government, RBI and NABARD.
5. The norm of Public Sector Lending does not apply to NBFCs.
6. The Cash Reserve Requirement also does not apply to NBFCs.

Classification and Categorization of NBFCs

Asset Finance Company	AN AFC is a company which is a financial institution whose principle business is the financing of physical assets such as automobiles, tractors, machines etc.
Investment Company	AN IC is any company which is a financial institution carrying on its principle business of acquisitions of securities.
Loan Company	LC is a financial institution whose primary business is of providing finance by making loans and advances.
Infrastructure Finance Company	IFC is an NBFC which deploys 75% of its total assets in infrastructure loans and has a minimum net owned fund of Re 300 Crore.
Systematically Important Core Investment Company	CIC is an NBFC carrying on the business of acquisition of shares and securities. CIC must satisfy the following conditions:It holds not less than 90% of its Total Assets in the form of investment in equity shares, preference shares, debt or loans in group companies; Its investments in the equity shares (including instruments compulsorily convertible into equity shares within a period not exceeding 10 years from the date of issue) in group companies constitutes not less than 60% of its Total Assets; (c) it does not trade in its investments in shares, debt or loans in group companies except through block sale for the purpose of dilution or disinvestment; (d) it does not carry on any other financial activity referred to in Section 45I(c) and 45I(f) of the RBI Act, 1934 except investment in bank deposits, money market instruments, government securities, loans to and investments in debt issuances of group companies or guarantees issued on behalf of group companies. (e) Its asset size is ₹ 100 crore or above and (f) It accepts public funds
Infrastructure Debt Fund NBFC	IDF NBFC primary role is to facilitate long term flow of debt into infrastructure projects. Only Infrastructure Finance Companies can sponsor IDF.
Micro Finance NBFC	MFI NBFC is a non-deposit taking NBFC having not less than 85% of its assets in the nature of qualifying assets which satisfy the following criteria:a) loan disbursed by a NBFC-MFI to a borrower with a rural household annual income not exceeding ₹ 1,00,000 or urban and semi-urban household income not exceeding ₹ 1,60,000; b. loan amount does not exceed 50,000 in the first cycle and 1,00,000 in subsequent cycles; c. total indebtedness of the borrower does not exceed 1,00,000; d. tenure of the loan not to be less than 24 months for the loan amount in excess of 15,000 with prepayment without penalty; e. loan to be extended without collateral; f. aggregate amount of loans, given for income generation, is not less than 50 per cent of the total loans given by the MFIs; g. loan is repayable on weekly, fortnightly or monthly instalments at the choice of the borrower

Dear Aspirants,

This Spotlight is a part of our Mission Nikaalo Prelims-2022

Download Habitat app from the Playstore Join our Official Civilsdaily Space for GS and CSAT Here

ENROLL FOR PRELIMS MAHASANGRAM 2022 || 40 Days Prelims Revision Plan with TIKDAM lectures. Click HERE

Important UN Organizations in News

---

27 Apr 2022

United Nation Overview:

• The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945.  It is currently made up of 193 Member States.  The mission and work of the United Nations are guided by the purposes and principles contained in its founding Charter.
• Due to the powers vested in its Charter and its unique international character, the United Nations can take action on the issues confronting humanity in the 21st century, such as peace and security, climate change, sustainable development, human rights, disarmament, terrorism, humanitarian and health emergencies, gender equality, governance, food production, and more.
• The UN also provides a forum for its members to express their views in the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, and other bodies and committees. By enabling dialogue between its members, and by hosting negotiations, the Organization has become a mechanism for governments to find areas of agreement and solve problems together.
• The main organs of the UN are the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Secretariat.  All were established in 1945 when the UN was founded.

Dear Aspirants,

This Spotlight is a part of our Mission Nikaalo Prelims-2022

JOIN THE SPECIAL SESSIONS ON OUR OFFICIAL SPACE

Morning 12:00 PM  – Prelims Spotlight Session

Evening 06:30  PM  – MCQs Session

Evening 08:00 PM  – Tests on Alternate Days

Download Habitat app from the Playstore Join our Official Civilsdaily Space for GS and CSAT Here

26th Apr 2022

---

Preparing for 2023 and not able to plan your preparation?
No worries, Talk to our senior mentors directly.

Fill up this form to schedule a free on-call discussion with senior mentor from Civilsdaily. Once submitted we will call you within 24 hours. Click Here