[WpProQuiz 429]

Prelims Spotlight is a part of “Nikaalo Prelims 2020” module. This open crash course for Prelims 2020 has a private telegram group where PDFs and DDS (Daily Doubt Sessions) are being held. Please click here to register.

Important UN Organizations in News

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02 May 2020

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.

 

Prelims Spotlight is a part of “Nikaalo Prelims 2020” module. This open crash course for Prelims 2020 has a private telegram group where PDFs and DDS (Daily Doubt Sessions) are being held. Please click here to register.

Important Financial Institutions in News

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01 May 2020

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

 

[WpProQuiz 428]

Prelims Spotlight is a part of “Nikaalo Prelims 2020” module. This open crash course for Prelims 2020 has a private telegram group where PDFs and DDS (Daily Doubt Sessions) are being held. Please click here to register.

Important Traditional Crafts, Music and Dance schools in India

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30 April 2020

Indian Festivals

Kumbha Mela	Held at all 4 places every 3 years by rotation (Allahabad, Haridwar, Nashik, Ujjain) Associated rivers : Ganga at Haridwar, the Sangam of the Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati at Allahabad,  Godawari at Nashik, and Shipra at Ujjain Ardha Kumbh Mela  : Haridwar and Prayag every 6 years Purna Kumbh Mela  : Prayag every 12 years Maha Kumbh Mela  : Prayag every 144 years
Holi	last full moon day of  Phalguna
Maha Shivaratri	13th night in Krishna Paksha of Phalguna
Navaratri	9 forms of Shakti are worshipped on 9 nights
Vinayaga Chaturthi	On occasion of birth of Ganesha
Vasant Panchami	Worshiping Saraswati –  the goddess of knowledge, music and art Children are taught to write their first words; Brahmins are fed ; ancestral worship is performed; the god of love- Kamadeva is worshipped People usually wear yellow garments
Ramzan	Muslims refrain from eating, drinking and sexual relations from dawn until sunset Intended to teach Muslims about patience, humility & spirituality
Guru Purnima	Buddhists in the honour of Lord Buddha who gave his first sermon on this day at Sarnath Hindus on this day offer Puja or pay respect to their Guru
Buddha Poornima	Birth anniversary of Lord Buddha
Christmas	Commemorate the birth of Jesus
Easter	Oldest and holiest Christian festival – the day when Jesus Christ was crucified On this day Jesus Christ rose from the dead and ascended into heaven
Thai Pongal	Harvest festival celebrated in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Sri Lanka To thank the Sun God and farmstead livestock Boiling of milk in clay pot symbolize material abundance for household
Muharram	Celebrated on the 1st  month of the Islamic calendar unlawful to fight during this month
Dree Festival	an agricultural rite, which is observed by Apatanis in Arunachal Pradesh involves a sacrifice of fowls, eggs and animals to the sun & moon god to appease these Gods to avoid feminine

Indian Dances

Indian Folk Music

• Baul : It is a type of Bengali music and a religious sect. The lyrics carry influence from Bhakti movement as well as Sufi movement.
• Wanawan : Folk music from Kashmir which is sung during wedding ceremonies.
• Padwani : This music is based on Mahabharata and uses both singing and playing instruments.
• Alha : Song is from Madhya Pradesh and is a heroic ballad song.
• Paani hari : Song is from the state of Rajasthan and is thematically related to water. Songs are generally about women fetching water from nearby well.
• Ovi : Maharashtra and Goan women sing such songs during leisure time.
• Pai song : Songs are mostly from Madhya Pradesh sung during festivals.
• Lavani : Popular folk song from Maharashtra. Music has a powerful rhythm and beats and is suitable for dancing.
• Maand : Developed in the royal circles
• Dandiya raas : Performed in Gujarat and is associated with Holi and Lila of Krishna and Radha at Vrindavan
• Powada : Folk type emerging from Maharashtra
• Khongjom Parva : Important folk music from the state of Manipur.
• Bhagwati : Popular amongst masses of Karnataka and Maharashtra. Musically they are close to ghazals and are sung on a slower pitch.

Classical Dances

The classical dance forms recognised by the Sangeet Natak Akademi and the Ministry of Culture are

• Bharatanatyam, from Tamil Nadu
• Kathak, from Uttar Pradesh and western India
• Kathakali, from Kerala
• Kuchipudi, from Andhra Pradesh
• Odissi, from Odisha
• Sattriya, from Assam
• Manipuri, from Manipur
• Mohiniyattam, from Kerala

Indian Music

MUSIC OF INDIA

The two main traditions of classical music in India are Carnatic music and Hindustani Music. Carnatic Music is found predominantly in the peninsular regions and Hindustani music are found in the northern and central regions.

Hindustani Music

Hindustani music was not only influenced by ancient Hindu musical traditions but also enriched by the Persian performance practices of the Mughals.

Dhrupad is an old style of Hindustani singing, traditionally performed by male singers. The great Indian musician Tansen sang in the Dhrupad style. Dhrupad was the main form of northern Indian classical music but has now given way to Khyal.

Khyal is a form of vocal music in Hindustani music. It was adopted from medieval Persian music It is special as it is based on improvising and expressing emotion.

Another vocal form Tarana are medium to fast-paced songs that are usually performed towards the end of the concert. They consist of a few lines of poetry with rhythmic syllables.

Tappa is a form of Indian semi-classical vocal music. It originated from the folk songs of the camel riders of Punjab and was developed as a form of classical music by Mian Ghulam Nabi Shori.

Thumri is a semi-classical vocal form said to have begun in Uttar Pradesh. The lyrics are typically in Brij Bhasha and are usually romantic.

Ghazal is an originally Persian form of Poetry. In India, Ghazal became the most common form of poetry in the  Urdu language.

Although Hindustani music clearly is focused on vocal performance, recently instrumental Hindustani music is very popular than vocal music especially outside South Asia.

Carnatic Music

Carnatic music is a system of music commonly associated with the southern part of  India especially. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Carnatic music is completely melodic with improvised variations. Purandara Dasa is credited with having founded today’s Carnatic music. He is credited with having elevated Carnatic music from religious and devotional music into the realm of performing art. Carnatic music is usually performed by a small ensemble of musicians consist ing of a principal performer (vocalist ) a violin, mridanga ,and a tamburu. Today Carnatic music is presented by musicians in concerts or recordings either vocally or through instruments.

Important Indian Crafts

ZARI

•  Zari is an even thread traditionally made offine gold or silver used in traditional Indian, Pakistani and Persian garments and curtains, etc. Four types of zari are produced in India, namely, real zari, semi real zari, imitation zari and plastic zari.
•  Real zari is made of silver and electroplated with gold, whereas semi real zari has a composition of copper coated with silver and gold electroplating. Surat is the home of zari industry in India. Other clusters producing zari are Bareilly, Varanasi, Agra, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Vadodara, Lathur, Jaipur, Barmer, etc.

Coir Twisting

•  Coir is a natural, eco-friendly, waterproof and exceptionally tensile fibre extracted from the nuts of coconut palms.
•  It is found in abundance and is used for manufacturing a wide range of eco-friendly toys, mats, brushes, mattresses, wall hangings, key rings, pen stands and other home decoratives.
•  This craft is primarily produced in Odisha (Sakhigopal, Puri, Pipli, Bhubaneswar, Batamangala and Kendrapara). It is also produced in Kerala (Ernakulam).

Folk Painting

•  Indian folk paintings are pictorial expressions of village painters which are marked by the subjects chosen from epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata, Indian Puranas as well as daily events. There are several vibrant folk painting types in India in different stages.
•  The Gond tribe of Madhya Pradesh is engaged in floor and wall painting. Warli is a vivid expression of daily and social events of Warli tribe in Maharashtra. Rajasthan is famous for Phad painting done on cloth.
•  Other types of paintings arc Pilhora painting in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, Madhubani painting of Bihar, Chitrakar painting of West Bengal, Patachitras in Odisha, and Kalamkar Srikalahasti, Andhra Pradesh.

Metal Ware

•  The metal crafts of India display intricate craftsmanship and fine art in shaping gold, silver, brass, copper into exquisitely designed images, idols, jewellery, and utility items. Different categories of handicrafts that come under metal ware are brass metalware of Moradabad, metal bidri work and bell metal in Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and so on.
•  India is the largest brassware producer in the world. Major clusters of brassware are Moradabad, Murshidabad, Madurai, Salem, Cuttack and Haryana.
•  Bidriware is a metal handicraft that originatedinBidar, Karnataka. The term
  ‘Bidriware’ originates from the township of Bidar, which is still the main centre of the unique metalware. It is a form of encrusted metalware, where one metal is inlaid on to another.
•  Bidri products include a diverse range of objects including hukka bases, bowls, boxes, candle stands, trays, jewellery and buttons. It travelled from Iran to Ajmer in Rajasthan in the 13th century AD, and from there to Bijapur and flourished during the reign of the Deccan Sultanate.Itis also practised in Aurangabad district in the state of Maharashtra and Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh. The basic metal used for Bidri is the alloy of zinc and copper.

Filigree and Silverware

•  Filigree is an extremely ancient technique dating back to 4000 years ago. Filigree work is performed on silver and involves significant precision and technicality. Two major clusters of silver filigree in India are Karimnagar in Andhra Pradesh and Cuttack in Odisha.
•  The practice in Karimnagar is about two centuries old. However, it is also practised in Warangal in Andhra Pradesh. Key raw materials used are silver wire, tracing sheet, copper, charcoal, dilute sulphuric acid.

Textile Hand Embroidery

•  In textile hand embroidery, embellishment is made on fabric with threads and sometimes with other materials.
•  There are many popular embroidery clusters such as chikankari and zardozi of Lucknow, katha of Bengal pulkari of Punjab. kutchi embroidery of Gujarat and kashidakari of Kashmir. Zardozi has been traditionally prevalent in Lucknow and the six surrounding districts ofBarabanki, Unnao, Sitapur, Rae Bareli, Hardoi and Amethi.

Textile Hand Printing

•  Hand-printed textiles is a craft in which cloth is dyed with hand or printed using shapes. Various types of hand printing practiced in India are block printing, batik, kalamkari (hand printing by pen) and bandhani (tie and die).
•  Some of the important centres of this craft are in Hyderabad, Machalipattnam, Varanasi, Farrukabad, Bagh, Behrongarh, Indore, Mandsar, Burhanpur, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Kutch, Bagru, Chittroli, Sanganer, Jaipur and Jodhpur.

Prelims Spotlight is a part of “Nikaalo Prelims 2020” module. This open crash course for Prelims 2020 has a private telegram group where PDFs and DDS (Daily Doubt Sessions) are being held. Please click here to register.

Acts and schemes related to Marginalised Sector

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29 April 2020

Nai Manzil Scheme

OBJECTIVES –

• To address the educational and livelihood needs of minority communities lagging behind in terms of educational attainments.
• It aims to provide educational intervention by giving the bridge courses to the trainees and getting them Certificates for Class XII and X from distance medium educational system.
• It seeks to provide trade basis skill training in four courses at the same time of formal education, in field of (i) Manufacturing (ii) Engineering (iii) Services (iv) Soft skills. It intends to cover people in between 17 to 35 age group from all minority communities as well as Madrasa students.
• Nodal Ministry –The Union Ministry of Minority Affairs

Nai Roshni

OBJECTIVES –

• Empower and install confidence in women of minority communities by equipping them with knowledge, tools and techniques to interact with government systems, banks and intermediaries
• Nodal Ministry –The Union Ministry of Minority Affairs

USTAAD Scheme

OBJECTIVES –

• The scheme aims at preserving and promoting the rich heritage of the traditional arts & crafts of the Minority communities. 2.In the light of globalisation & competitive market, these crafts have gradually lost their employability. 3.It also envisages at boosting the skill of craftsmen, weavers and artisans who are already engaged in the traditional ancestral work.
• Nodal Ministry –The Union Ministry of Minority Affairs

Hunar Haat

OBJECTIVES –

• It is aimed at promoting and supporting artisans from Minority communities and providing them domestic as well as international market for display and sell their products.
• The Hunar Haat exhibition has been organised by the National Minorities Development & Finance Corporation (NMDFC) under “USTTAD” scheme In it about 184 master artisans from across the country are showcasing their traditional art and skills at about 100 stalls at the international platform.
• It seeks to provide an excellent platform to artisans belonging to Minority communities from across nation to display their art and skills before domestic and international visitors.
• Nodal Ministry –The Union Ministry of Minority Affairs

Stanapan Suraksha Scheme

OBJECTIVES –

• To promote breastfeeding and keep a tab on “inappropriate” promotion of baby food items. Stanpan Suraksha is first-of-its-kind app deveopled for promoting breastfeeding and baby food promotion reporting mechanism.
• Using it any person can click a photograph of inappropriate baby food promotion around them and related equipment and send it to BPNI.
• The app also has a city-wise database of trained breastfeeding counsellor to educate and provide assistance to mothers during antenatal and postnatal period. It has sign up option for mothers who wish to become a breastfeeding counsellor, pledging for petition and donation.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Tribal Affairs

Eklavya Model Residential Schools

• Eklavya Model Residential School Scheme was started in 1998
• First school was started in the year 2000 in Maharashtra.
• EMRSs have been functioning as institutions of excellence for tribal students.
• In order to further educational opportunities for more ST children, Government has sought to extend the facility of EMRSs in all the 672 Blocks where ST population is more than 50% of the total population in a span of next five years.
• Funds for establishing the school are arranged by both Centre and State government together.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Tribal Affairs

Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme

OBJECTIVES –

• To decrease the dropout rate in the transition from elementary to the secondary stage. Given for Class 9th and 10th.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

Babu Jagjivan Ram Chhatrawas Yojana

OBJECTIVES –

• Educational empowerment of Scheduled castes.
• Central assistance is provided to the implementing agencies viz. State Governments/UT Administrations/ Central and State Universities/ Non-Governmental Organisations/Deemed Universities in the private sector, for construction of fresh hostels/expansion of existing hostel facilities for Scheduled Castes students.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

National Overseas Scholarship Scheme.

OBJECTIVES –

• Financial support to SC and ST students pursuing Master’s level courses and PhD/Post-Doctoral courses abroad.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

Scheme for up-gradation of merit of SC students.

OBJECTIVES –

• Upgrade the merit of SC students by providing them remedial and special coaching in classes IX to XII.
• Income Ceiling: Rs. 3.00 Lakh per annum .
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

Self Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS)

OBJECTIVES –

• To rehabilitate all the remaining manual scavengers and their dependents in alternative occupations.The main features of the Scheme include one-time cash assistance, training with stipend and concessional loans with subsidy for taking up alternative occupations.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

Sugmay Bharat Abhiyaan

OBJECTIVES –

• The target of this scheme is to make at least fifty government buildings disabled-friendly under the campaign in each of the state till the end of 2016 and make 25 per cent of the public transport vehicles under the government as disabled-friendly till mid-2017.
• A remarkable feature of the scheme is that a website will also be made where the people can put their views on the accessibility of any building.
• The international airports in the country and railway stations which come under A1, A and B categories will be made fully disabled-friendly.
• Special set-top boxes will be made available to make watching TV more convenient for the visually impaired. In the next 5 years, almost 200 persons will be trained to speak in sign languages on government TV channels. Government websites will also be made friendlier by using text to speech option.
• Under the scheme, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment will give free motorized tricycles to persons with 70-90% disability.
• A Sugamya Bharat mobile app which can provide information on disabled-friendly public facilities in a city, will be launched under the scheme.
• For awareness, a team of experts will conduct workshops for sensitizing the main parties including builders and activists.
• Nodal Ministry – Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

Disha

OBJECTIVES –

• Early Intervention and School Readiness Scheme.
• This is an early intervention and school readiness scheme for children upto 10 years with the disabilities covered under the National Trust Act.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

VIKAASDay Care

OBJECTIVES –

• A day care scheme for persons with autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and multiple disabilities, above 10 years for enhancing interpersonal and vocational skills.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

SAMARTH Respite Care

OBJECTIVES –

• A scheme to provide respite home for orphans, families in crisis, Persons with Disabilities (PwD) from BPL, LIG families with at least one of the four disabilities covered under the National Trust Act.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

GHARAUNDA

OBJECTIVES –

• Group Home for Adults.
• This scheme provides housing and care services throughout the life of the person with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

NIRMAYA Health Insurance Scheme.

OBJECTIVES –

• This scheme is to provide affordable Health Insurance to persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

SAHYOGI Caregiver training scheme

OBJECTIVES –

• A scheme to set up Caregiver Cells (CGCs) for training and creating skilled workforce of caregivers to care for Person with Disabilities (PwD) and their families.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

GYAN PRABHA Educational support

OBJECTIVES –

• Scheme to encourage people with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities for pursuing educational/ vocational courses.
• Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment.

PRERNA Marketing Assistance.

OBJECTIVES –

• A marketing scheme to create viable & widespread channels for the sale of products and services produced by persons with autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and multiple disabilities
• Nodal Ministry – Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment

[WpProQuiz 426]

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Global Space Missions and Telescopes in News

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28 April 2020

NASA’s ICESat-2 maps Antarctic ice sheet melting

ICESat-2 

• NASA’s ICESat-2 launched less than three months ago has mapped melting ice sheets in Antarctica and the resulting sea level rise across the globe, which could help improve climate forecasts.
• The ICESat-2 stands for Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 .
• It is measuring the height of sea ice to within an inch, tracing the terrain of previously unmapped Antarctic valleys, surveying remote ice sheets, and peering through forest canopies and shallow coastal waters.
• With each pass of the ICESat-2 satellite, the mission is adding to datasets tracking Earth’s rapidly changing ice.
• As ICESat-2 orbits over the Antarctic Ice Sheet, the photon returns reflect from the surface and show high ice plateaus, crevasses in the ice 20 metres deep, and the sharp edges of ice shelves dropping into the ocean.

Unified Geologic Map of the Moon

• The first-ever digital, unified, global, geological map of the moon was released virtually by the  United States Geological Survey (USGS), NASA and the Lunar Planetary Institute.
• The UGM will serve as a blueprint for future human missions and a source of research and analysis for the educators and the general public interested in lunar geology.
• The map is a ‘seamless, globally consistent, 1:5,000,000-scale geologic map’.
• The mapped surface features of the moon included crater rim crests, buried crater rim crests, fissures, grabens, scarps, mare wrinkle ridges, faults, troughs, rilles, and lineaments.

Its’ significance

• The moon’s South Pole is especially interesting because the area is much larger than the North Pole and there could be a possibility of the presence of water in these permanently shadowed areas.
• Further, the South Pole region also contains the fossil record of the early Solar System.
• These present and future moon missions’ success can be further helped by the digital map of the moon.
• The Chandrayaan 2, an active mission also targets the Lunar South Pole for exploration

GRACE-FO Mission

• The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission is a partnership between NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ).
• GRACE-FO is a successor to the original GRACE mission, which orbited Earth from 2002-2017.
• It carries on the extremely successful work of its predecessor while testing a new technology designed to dramatically improve the already remarkable precision of its measurement system.

Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs)

• FRBs are super intense, millisecond-long bursts of radio waves produced by unidentified sources in the space.
• Their discovery in 2007 by American astronomer Duncan Lorimer led to the term ‘Lorimer Bursts’.
• Since then, just a few dozen similar events have been observed in data collected by radio telescopes around the world, building evidence that points to a variety of potential causes.
• Only a handful of emissions have been traced to specific areas of the sky, indicating sources in other galaxies.
• The flash of radio waves is incredibly bright if distant, comparable to the power released by hundreds of millions of suns in just a few milliseconds.
• This intensity suggests powerful objects like black holes and neutron stars could be involved.
• The events were once considered to be largely transient – they seemed to happen once, without obvious signs of a repeat emission. However, a number of such bursts have been identified since then.

Why are they significant?

• First noticed in 2018 by the Canadian observatory the waves have created ripples across the globe for one reason — they arrive in a pattern.
• This gave birth to theories that they could be from an alien civilization.
• Initially, it was believed that the collision of black holes or neutron stars triggers them.
• But the discovery of repeating FRBs debunked the theory of colliding objects.

NASA’s new Mars rover: Perseverance

• The Perseverance rover weighs less than 2,300 pounds and is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab.
• The rover’s mission will be to search for signs of past microbial life. It will also collect samples of Martian rocks and dust, according to the release.
• The rover will also be tasked with studying the red planet’s geology and climate.
• All of NASA’s previous Mars rovers — including the Sojourner (1997), Spirit and Opportunity (2004) and Curiosity (exploring Mars since 2012) — were named in this way.

2020 CD3

• The mini-moon was discovered by some astronomers at NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) in Arizona.
• It is actually an asteroid, about the size of a car; its diameter is about 1.9-3.5 m.
• And unlike our permanent Moon, the mini-moon is temporary; it will eventually break free of Earth’s orbit and go off on its own way.
• Orbit integrations indicate that this object is temporarily bound to the Earth.
• 2020 CD3 was captured into Earth’s orbit over three years ago.
• For CSS, it is only the second such discovery. It previously discovered 2006 RH120, which orbited Earth for some time that year, before it escaped in 2007.

NASA’s InSight Mission

• The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport mission is a robotic lander designed to study the deep interior of the planet Mars.
• It is the first mission dedicated to looking deep beneath the Martian surface.
• Among its science tools are a seismometer for detecting quakes, sensors for gauging wind and air pressure, a magnetometer, and a heat flow probe designed to take the planet’s temperature.
• The InSight mission is part of NASA’s Discovery Program.
• It is being supported by a number of European partners, which include France’s Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA).

Habitable-zone Planet Finder

• NASA’s Kepler mission observed a dip in the host star’s light, suggesting that the planet was crossing in front of the star during its orbit.
• To confirm, researchers turned to an instrument called Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF). It has confirmed that there is indeed an exoplanet.
• HPF is an astronomical spectrograph, built by Penn State University scientists, and recently installed on the 10m Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory in Texas.
• The instrument is designed to detect and characterize planets in the habitable zone — the region around the star where a planet could sustain liquid water on its surface — around nearby low-mass stars.
• The newly confirmed planet, called G 9-40b, is the first one validated by HPF. It is about twice the size of Earth and orbits its star once every six Earth-days.

 Betelgeuse

 

• Using the European Space Organization’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have noticed the unprecedented dimming of Betelgeuse.
• It is a red supergiant star (over 20 times bigger than the Sun) in the constellation Orion.
• Along with the dimming, the star’s shape has been changing as well, as per recent photographs of the star taken using the VISIR instrument on the VLT.
• Instead of appearing round, the star now appears to be “squashed into an ova”.

NASA announced it has selected four Discovery Program investigations to develop concept studies for possible new missions.

What are the new missions?

• Two proposals are for trips to Venus, and one each is for Jupiter’s moon Io and Neptune’s moon Triton.
• After the concept studies are completed in nine months, some missions ultimately may not be chosen to move forward.

DAVINCI+

• DAVINCI+ stands for Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging Plus.
• This will analyse Venus’s atmosphere to understand how it was formed and evolved, and if it ever had an ocean.
• This will advance understanding of the formation of terrestrial planets.

IVO

• Io Volcano Observer is a proposal to explore Jupiter’s moon Io, which is extremely volcanically active.
• This will try to find out how tidal forces shape planetary bodies.
• The findings could further knowledge about the formation and evolution of rocky, terrestrial bodies and icy ocean worlds in the Solar System.

TRIDENT

This aims to explore Neptune’s icy moon, Triton, so that scientists can understand the development of habitable worlds in the Solar System.

VERITAS

Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy will aim to map Venus’s surface to find out why Venus developed so differently from Earth.

Pale Blue Dot

• The ‘Pale Blue Dot’ is one of the most iconic images in the history of astronomy.
• It shows Earth as a single bright blue pixel in empty space within a strand of sun rays, some of which are scattering from and enlightening the planet.
• The original image was taken by the Voyager 1 mission spacecraft on February 14, 1990 when it was just beyond Saturn.
• At the behest of astronomer Carl Sagan, the cameras were turned towards Earth one final time to capture the image.
• After this, the cameras and other instruments on the craft were turned off to ensure its longevity.

About Voyager 1

• Voyager 1 is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977.
• Having operated for more than 42 years, the spacecraft still communicates with the Deep Space Network to receive routine commands and to transmit data to Earth.
• At a distance of 148.67 AU (22.2 billion km) from Earth as of January 19, 2020 it is the most distant man-made object from Earth.
• The probe’s objectives included flybys of Jupiter, Saturn, and Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.

The Family Portrait of the Solar System

• The Pale blue dot image was a part of a series of 60 images designed to produce what the mission called the ‘Family Portrait of the Solar System’.
• This sequence of camera-pointing commands returned images of six of the solar system’s planets, as well as the Sun.

Solar Orbiter (SolO) Probe

• The Solar Orbiter, a collaborative mission between the European Space Agency and NASA to study the Sun, took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
• Carrying four in situ instruments and six remote-sensing imagers, the Solar Orbiter (called SolO) will face the sun at approximately 42 million kilometres from its surface.
• Before SolO, all solar imaging instruments have been within the ecliptic plane, in which all planets orbit and which is aligned with the sun’s equator.
• The new spacecraft will use the gravity of Venus and Earth to swing itself out of the ecliptic plane, passing inside the orbit of Mercury, and will be able to get a bird’s eye view of the sun’s poles for the first time.

Spitzer Space Telescope

• The Spitzer Space Telescope is a space-borne observatory, one of the elements of NASA’s Great Observatories that include the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray.
• Using different infrared wavelengths, Spitzer was able to see and reveal features of the universe including objects that were too cold to emit visible light.
• Apart from enabling researchers to see distant cold objects, Spitzer could also see through large amounts of gas using infrared wavelengths to find objects that may otherwise have been invisible to human beings.
• These included exoplanets, brown dwarfs and cold matter found in the space between stars.
• Spitzer was originally built to last for a minimum of 2.5 years, but it lasted in the “cold” phase for over 5.5 years. On May 15, 2009 the coolant was finally depleted and the “warm mission” began.

Thirty Metre Telescope

• The TMT is a proposed astronomical observatory with an extremely large telescope (ELT) that has become the source of controversy over its planned location on Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii in the US state of Hawaii.
• It is being built by an international collaboration of government organisations and educational institutions, at a cost of $1.4 billion.
• “Thirty Metre” refers to the 30-metre diameter of the mirror, with 492 segments of glass pieced together, which makes it three times as wide as the world’s largest existing visible-light telescope.
• The larger the mirror, the more light a telescope can collect, which means, in turn, that it can “see” farther, fainter objects.
• It would be more than 200 times more sensitive than current telescopes and would be able to resolve objects 12 times better than the Hubble Space Telescope.

Artemis Mission

• In 2011, NASA began the ARTEMIS (Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence, and Electrodynamics of the Moon’s Interaction with the Sun) mission using a pair of repurposed spacecraft and in 2012 the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft studied the Moon’s gravity.
• For the program, NASA’s new rocket called the Space Launch System (SLS) will send astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft a quarter of a million miles away from Earth to the lunar orbit.
• The astronauts going for the Artemis program will wear newly designed spacesuits, called Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or xEMU.
• These spacesuits feature advanced mobility and communications and interchangeable parts that can be configured for spacewalks in microgravity or on a planetary surface.

Bhibha Constellation and Santamasa Planet

Ionospheric Connection Explorer

• NASA has launched a satellite to explore the mysterious, dynamic region where air meets space.
• The satellite — called ICON, short for Ionospheric Connection Explorer — rocketed into orbit following a two-year delay.
• The refrigerator-size ICON satellite will study the airglow formed from gases in the ionosphere and also measure the charged environment right around the spacecraft which is at a level of 580 kilometres above the Earth’s surface.
• The ionosphere is the charged part of the upper atmosphere extending several hundred miles (kilometres) up.
• It’s in constant flux as space weather bombards it from above and Earth weather from below, sometimes disrupting radio communications.

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)

• The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite missions began on June 18, 2009.
• It is a robotic spacecraft currently orbiting the Moon.
• It studies the Moon’s surface, clicks pictures, and collects data that help in figuring out the presence and possibility of water ice and other resources on the Moon, as well as plan future missions to it.
• The primary mission of the LRO, managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, located in Greenbelt, Maryland, was to measure the entire lunar surface to create a high-resolution 3-D map of the Moon.
• The map with ~50-centimeter resolution images would aid in the planning of future robotic and crewed missions.
• In addition, LRO would map the Polar Regions and search for the presence of water ice

K2-18b

• About 110 light years from Earth, an exoplanet eight times the mass of Earth orbits a star. Called K2-18b, it was discovered in 2015 by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft.
• The researchers used 2016-17 data from the Hubble Space Telescope and developed algorithms to analyse the starlight filtered through K2-18b’s atmosphere.
• The results revealed the molecular signature of water vapour, also indicating the presence of hydrogen and helium in the planet’s atmosphere.
• It resides in a habitable zone — the region around a star in which liquid water could potentially pool on the surface of a rocky planet.
• Scientists have found signatures of water vapour in the atmosphere of K2-18b. The discovery of water vapour is not the final word on the possibility of life.
• That makes it the only planet orbiting a star outside the Solar System that is known to have both water and temperatures that could support life.

Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment (AIDA)

• It is an ambitious double-spacecraft mission to deflect an asteroid in space, to prove the technique as a viable method of planetary defence.
• The mission, which includes NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), is known as the Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment (AIDA).
• The target is the smaller of two bodies in the “double Didymos asteroids” that are in orbit between Earth and Mars.
• Didymos is a near-Earth asteroid system. Its main body measures about 780 m across; the smaller body is a “moonlet” about 160 m in diameter.
• The project aims to deflect the orbit of the smaller body through an impact by one spacecraft.
• Then a second spacecraft will survey the crash site and gather the maximum possible data on the effect of this collision.

Parker Solar Probe

• It is part of NASA’s “Living with a Star” programme that explores different aspects of the Sun-Earth system.
• The probe seeks to gather information about the Sun’s atmosphere and NASA says that it “will revolutionise our understanding of the Sun”.
• It is also the closest a human-made object has ever gone to the Sun.
• During the spacecraft’s first two solar encounters, the instruments were turned on when Parker was about 0.25 AU from the Sun and powered off again at the same distance on the outbound side of the orbit.
• For this third solar encounter, the mission team turned on the instruments when the spacecraft was around 0.45 AU from the Sun on the inbound side of its orbit.
• It will turn them off when the spacecraft is about 0.5 AU from the Sun on the outbound side.

TOI 270

• It is the name of the dwarf star and the planetary system recently discovered by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).
• TOI 270 is about 73 light years away from Earth, and is located in the constellation Pictor.
• Its members include the dwarf star, which is 40 per cent smaller than the Sun in size and mass, and the three planets or exoplanets (planets outside the solar system) that have been named TOI 270 b, TOI 270 c, and TOI 270 d.
• These three planets orbit the star every 3.4 days, 5.7 days, and 11.4 days respectively. In this system, TOI 270 b is the innermost planet.

About Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)

• TESS is NASA’s latest satellite to search for planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets.
• The mission will spend the next two years monitoring the nearest and brightest stars for periodic dips in their light.
• TESS is expected to transmit its first series of science data back to Earth in August, and thereafter periodically every 13.5 days, once per orbit, as the spacecraft makes it closest approach to Earth.
• These events, called transits, suggest that a planet may be passing in front of its star.
• TESS is expected to find thousands of planets using this method, some of which could potentially support life.

Tiangong-2

• Tiangong means “Heavenly Palace”. It was 10.4 metres long and 3.35 metres wide at its widest point, and weighed 8.6 metric tonnes.
• It was launched on September 15, 2016 and, in late 2016, hosted two Chinese astronauts for 30 days in what was China’s longest manned space mission so far.
• The recently decommissioned space lab followed the Tiangong-1, China’s first space station, which crashed into the southern Pacific Ocean on April 1, 2018 after Chinese scientists lost control of the spacecraft.
• China had launched Tiangong-1 in 2011 as proof-of-concept of technologies for future stations. The lab was visited by two teams of Chinese astronauts for 11 days and 13 days respectively.

About Hayabusa2

• Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft, which successfully made its second touchdown on asteroid Ryugu has become the first ever space probe to gather material from beneath the surface of an asteroid.
• Launched in December 2014, the probe is a follow-up of Hayabusa, which explored the asteroid Itokawa in 2005.
• Hayabusa was the first mission to return an asteroid sample to Earth.
• The asteroid mission first reached Ryugu — a kilometre-wide asteroid, with a relatively dark surface and almost zero gravity — in June 2018 and made its first touchdown on the surface in February 2019.
• A month later the spacecraft hit the surface of Ryugu with a pellet and created a 10-metre-wide crater.
• It also exposed the materials under the asteroid’s surface that were so far protected from the harsh effects of cosmic rays and charged particles of solar wind blasting through space.

About PUNCH Mission

• NASA has selected an US-based Indian researcher to lead its PUNCH mission which will image the Sun.
• PUNCH stands for “Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere,” is focused on understanding the transition of particles from the Sun’s outer corona to the solar wind that fills interplanetary space.
• It will consist of a constellation of four microsatellites that through continuous 3D deep-field imaging, will observe the corona and heliosphere as elements of a single, connected system.
• This is a landmark mission will image regions beyond the Sun’s outer corona.
• The Sun and the solar wind are one interconnected system, but these have until recently been studied using entirely different technologies and scientific approaches.

• Scientists in South Africa have launched the world’s first optical telescope linked to a radio telescope, combining “eyes and ears” to try to unravel the secrets of the universe.
• The latest move combines the new optical telescope MeerLITCH — Dutch for ‘more light’ — with the recently-completed 64-dish MeerKAT radio telescope, located 200 kilometres away.
• This is the eye, with the MeerKAT being the ears as a radio telescope.
• The MeerLITCH uses a main mirror just 65 cm in diameter and a single 100 megapixel detector measuring 10 cm x 10 cm.
• Astronomers have previously had to wait for a cosmic incident to be picked up by a radio telescope and then carry out optic observations afterwards.
• The project has been six years in the making by a joint-team of South African, Dutch and British scientists.

Ultima Thule

• NASA has found evidence for a unique mixture of methanol, water ice, and organic molecules on Ultima Thule’s surface — the farthest world ever explored by mankind.
• Ultima Thule is a contact binary, with two distinctly differently shaped lobes.
• At about 36 kilometres long, it consists of a large, strangely flat lobe — nicknamed “Ultima” — connected to a smaller, somewhat rounder lobe — dubbed “Thule” — at a juncture.
• Officially named (486958) 2014 MU69, it earned the nickname Ultima Thule following a public contest in 2018.
• It is located in the Kuiper Belt, a disc in the outer Solar System (beyond Neptune) that consists of small bodies including Pluto.
• 2014 MU69 was discovered in June 2014 by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope but is so distant that many of its characteristics remain to be understood.

About the mission

• New Horizons, a space probe that was launched in 2006, became the first mission to visit Pluto in 2015.
• Travelling farther into the Kuiper Belt, the nuclear-powered space probe has come within 3,500 km of Ultima Thule.
• Images taken revealed that the object may have a shape similar to a bowling pin, or a “snowman”, or a peanut spinning end over end, or could be two objects orbiting each other.
• Flyby data showed that Ultima Thule is spinning like a propeller with the axis pointing approximately toward New Horizons.
• NASA released a composite of two images taken by New Horizons’ high-resolution Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager.

Chang’e-4

• In January, the Chinese spacecraft Chang’e-4 — named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology — became the first ever craft to touch down on the far side of the lunar surface.
• The team landed its probe in the Von Karmen Crater in the Aitken Basin at the Moon’s south pole — home to one of the largest impact craters known in the solar system.
• Scientists have said they could be a step closer to solving the riddle behind the Moon’s formation, unveiling the most detailed survey yet of the far side of Earth’s satellite.

Cassini Mission

• Launched in 1997, the Cassini mission is a cooperation between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.
• It has sent back thousands of stunning images and made numerous discoveries about the ringed planet and its moons.
• Cassini–Huygens is an unmanned spacecraft sent to the planet Saturn.
• Cassini is the fourth space probe to visit Saturn and the first to enter orbit. Its design includes a Saturn orbiter and a lander for the moon Titan.
• The lander, called Huygens, landed on Titan in 2005.

China’s BeiDou navigation satellite, a rival to US GPS, starts global services

• China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), touted as a rival to the widely-used American GPS, has started providing global services.

BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS)

• Named after the Chinese term for the ‘Big Dipper’, the BeiDou system started serving China in 2000 and the Asia-Pacific region in 2012.
• It will be the fourth global satellite navigation system after the US GPS, Russia’s GLONASS and the European Union’s Galileo.
• The positioning accuracy of the system has reached 10 metres globally and five metres in the Asia-Pacific region.
• Its velocity accuracy is 0.2 metres per second, while its timing accuracy stands at 20 nanoseconds, he said.
• Pakistan has become the first country to use the BeiDou system ending its reliance on the Global Positioning System (GPS).

GRAPES-3 Experiment

• For the first time in the world, researchers at the GRAPES-3 muon telescope facility in Ooty have measured the electrical potential, size and height of a thundercloud that passed overhead on December 1, 2014.
• GRAPES-3 (Gamma Ray Astronomy PeV EnergieS phase-3) is designed to study cosmic rays with an array of air shower detectors and a large area muon detector.
• It aims to probe acceleration of cosmic rays in the following four astrophysical settings.
• It is located at Ooty in India and started as a collaboration of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India and the Osaka City University, Osaka, Japan.

Asteroid ‘99942 Apophis’

• On April 13, 2019, a near-Earth asteroid will cruise by Earth, about 31,000 km above the surface.
• The asteroid, called 99942 Apophis, is 340 m wide.
• At one point, it will travel more than the width of the full Moon within a minute and it will get as bright as the stars in the Little Dipper, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
• It is rare for an asteroid this size to pass by Earth so close.
• Although scientists have spotted small asteroids, on the order of 5-10 metres, flying by Earth at a similar distance, asteroids the size of Apophis are far fewer in number and so do not pass this close to Earth as often.
• Among potential lessons from Apophis, scientists are hoping they can use its flyby to learn about an asteroid’s interior.
• Apophis is one of about 2,000 currently known Potentially Hazardous Asteroids, and scientists also hope their observations might help gain important scientific knowledge that could one day be used for planetary defence.

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Important British Commissions and Committees

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27 April 2020 

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.

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 and he made the following recommendations:
• 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).
• High school education for six years for selected children between the years 11—17.
• Degree course for three years beginning after the higher secondary examination for selected students
• Technical, commercial, agricultural and art education for full time and part-time students, girls schools are to teach domestic science.
• The liquidation of adult illiteracy and the development of a public library system in about 20 years.
• Full provision for the proper training of teachers.
• Educational provision is made for the physically and mentally handicapped children.
• The organisation of compulsory physical education.
• Provision be made for social and recreational activities.
• The creation of employment bureaus.
• The creation of the Department of Education in the centre and in the states.
• 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

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.

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.

Lyall Commission

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

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

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:

• Fowler Commission by Elgin II in 1898
• Babington Smith Commission by Chelmsford in 1919
• Hilton Young Commission by Linlithgow in 1926

Other Important Commissions

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

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[WpProQuiz 425]

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Important International Economic Organizations

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25 April 2020 

Bank for International Settlements (BIS)

• Bank for International Settlements (BIS) – is an intergovernmental organization of central banks which “fosters international monetary and financial cooperation and serves as a bank for central banks.”
• It is not accountable to any national government.
• The mission of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is to serve central banks in their pursuit of monetary and financial stability, to foster international cooperation in those areas and to act as a bank for central banks.
• The Basel Committee for Banking Supervision (BCBS), while technically separate from the BIS, is a closely associated international forum for financial regulation that is housed in the BIS’ offices in Basel, Switzerland
• The BCBS is responsible for the Basel Accords, which recommend capital requirements and other banking regulations that are widely implemented by national governments.
• The BIS also conducts research on economic issues and publishes reports.

European Central Bank (ECB)

• The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central bank responsible for monetary policy of those European Union (EU) member countries which have adopted the euro currency.
• This region is known as the eurozone and currently comprises 19 members.
  The principal goal of the ECB is to maintain price stability in the euro area, thus helping preserve the purchasing power of the euro.
• The European Central Bank (ECB) is headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It has been responsible for monetary policy in the Euro area since January 1, 1999.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central bank of the combined Eurozone.
• The ECB coordinates EU monetary policy, including setting the region’s target interest rates and controlling the supply of the Euro common currency.
• The ECB’s primary mandate is to achieve price stability through low inflation.

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is the inter-governmental organisation established to stabilize the exchange rate in the international trade.
• It helps the member countries to improve their Balance of Payment (BOP) condition thorough the adequate liquidity in the international market, promote the growth of global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade.
• It is one of the Bretton woods twins, which came into existence in 1945, is governed by and accountable to the 189 countries that make up its near-global membership.

Objectives of IMF:

• To promote international monetary co-operation.
• To ensure balanced international trade
• To ensure exchange rate stability
• To eliminate or to minimize exchange restrictions by promoting the system of multilateral payments.
• To grant economic assistance to members countries for eliminating the adverse balance of payment
• To minimize the imbalances in quantum and duration of international trade.

IMF Quota & Voting Rights

• Quotas was assigned to member countries reflecting their relative economic power & credit deposit to IMF
• Subscription was to be paid 25% in gold or currency convertible into gold (effectively the dollar, which was the only currency then, still directly gold convertible for central banks) and 75% in the member’s own currency
• Members were provided voting rights in proportion to their quota, hence member countries with higher quota have a higher say at IMF

Special Drawing Rights

• Special drawing rights (SDRs) are supplementary foreign exchange reserve assets defined and maintained by the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
• SDR is not a currency, instead represents a claim to currency held by IMF member countries for which they may be exchanged.
• The value of an SDR is defined by a weighted currency basket of four major currencies: the US dollar, the euro, the British pound, the Chinese Yuan and the Japanese yen
• The central bank of member countries held SDR with IMF which can be used by them to access funds from IMF in case of financial crises in their domestic market

Reverse Tansche

• A certain proportion of a member country’s quota is specified as its reserve tranche.
• The member country can access its reserve tranche funds at its discretion and is not under an immediate obligation to repay those funds to the IMF.
• Member nation reserve tranches are typically 25% of the member’s quota.

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an inter-governmental organization founded in 1961 to accelerate economic progress and world trade.
• It is a very unique organization where 34 Democracies work together with market economies and 70 non-member economies promote economic growth, prosperity, and sustainable development.
• The setting of the OECD reflects the peripheral discussion forum based on the policy research and analysis that helps governments in order to shape their policies that may lead to a formal agreement among member governments or be acted on in domestic or other international stages.
• Most OECD members are high-income economies with a very high Human Development Index (HDI) and are regarded as developed countries.
• The OECD headquarters at Paris, France. The OECD is funded by contributions from member states.

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

• The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) was established in 1964. It is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations Generally Assembly for promoting the development-friendly integration of developing countries into the world economy.
• UNCTAD grew from the view that existing institutions like GATT (now WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and World Bank were not properly organized to handle the particular problems of developing countries.

Functions of UNCTAD

• UNCTAD Objective is to maximize the trade, investment and development opportunities of developing countries and assist them in their efforts to integrate into the world economy on an equitable basis.
• It functions as a forum for intergovernmental deliberations, supported by discussions with experts and exchanges of experience, aimed at consensus building.
• It undertakes research, policy analysis and data collection for the debates of government representatives and experts.
• It provides technical assistance tailored to the specific requirements of developing countries, with special attention to the needs of the least developed countries and of economies in transition.

United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)

• The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) serves as the United Nations’ regional hub promoting cooperation among countries to achieve inclusive and sustainable development.
• Established in 1947 with its headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand.
• The largest regional intergovernmental platform with 53 Member States and 9 associate members, ESCAP has emerged as a strong regional think-tank offering countries sound analytical products that shed insight into the evolving economic, social and environmental dynamics of the region.
• The Commission’s strategic focus is to deliver on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which is reinforced and deepened by promoting regional cooperation and integration to advance responses to shared vulnerabilities, connectivity, financial cooperation and market integration.
• ESCAP’s research and analysis coupled with its policy advisory services, capacity building and technical assistance to governments aims to support countries’ sustainable and inclusive development ambitions

UN-ESCAP providing results-oriented projects, technical assistance and capacity building to member States in the following areas:

• Macroeconomic Policy, Poverty Reduction and Financing for Development
• Trade, Investment and Innovation
• Transport
• Environment and Development
• Information and Communications Technology and Disaster Risk Reduction
• Social Development
• Statistics
• Subregional activities for development
• Energy

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)

• United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) was established by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations (UN) in 1958 as one of the UN’s five regional commissions, ECA’s mandate is to promote the economic and social development of its member States, foster intra-regional integration, and promote international cooperation for Africa’s development.
• Made up of 54 member States, and playing a dual role as a regional arm of the UN and as a key component of the African institutional landscape, ECA is well-positioned to make unique contributions to address the Continent’s development challenges.
• ECA’s strength derives from its role as the only UN agency mandated to operate at the regional and subregional levels to harness resources and bring them to bear on Africa’s priorities. T
• o enhance its impact, ECA places a special focus on collecting up to date and original regional statistics in order to ground its policy research and advocacy on clear objective evidence; promoting policy consensus; providing meaningful capacity development; and providing advisory services in key thematic fields.

ECA’s thematic areas of focus are as follows:

Macroeconomic Policy
Regional Integration and Trade
Social Development
Natural Resources
Innovation and Technology
Gender
Governance
Statistic

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)

• The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) was set up in 1947 by ECOSOC. It is one of five regional commissions of the United Nations.
• UNECE’s major aim is to promote pan-European economic integration. UNECE includes 56 member States in Europe, North America and Asia. However, all interested United Nations member States may participate in the work of UNECE. Over 70 international professional organizations and other non-governmental organizations take part in UNECE activities.
• Providing legal frameworks and assistance activities through instruments like the UNECE Multilateral Environmental Agreements.
• Developing expertise and policy solutions in areas such as resource efficiency, environmental performance, environmental democracy, sustainable transport, sustainable energy, sustainable housing, green real estate markets, and sustainable forest products.
• Measuring sustainable development and improving capacities for environmental monitoring and assessment.
• Encouraging eco-innovations and green investment.
• Raising awareness to change behavioral patterns towards sustainable consumption and production, for example through the UNECE Strategy for
• Education for Sustainable Development.
• Developing green standards, for example the standards for cleaner and smarter vehicles developed by the World Forum for the Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations.
• The Customs Convention on International Transport of Goods under Cover of TIR Carnets, 1975 (TIR Convention) is an international customs transit system under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)
• India has become the 71st nation to join the United Nations TIR (Transports Internationaux Routiers) Convention.

World Bank Group

• The World Bank Group (WBG) is a family of five international organizations that make leveraged loans to developing countries.
• It is the largest and most famous development bank in the world and is an observer at the United Nations Development Group.
• Its five organizations are the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

The World Bank (IBRD)

• IBRD provides loans and other assistance primarily to middle income and poor but creditworthy countries at interest rates slightly lower than that offered by other financial institutions but with long term maturity<countries which have the capacity to repay the loan amount with interest>

Origins: IBRD, as the name suggests, was created in 1944 to help Europe reconstruct/ rebuild after World War II. To be a member of IBRD, a country has t join IMF first.

Main function:

• Long-term capital assistance to its member-countries for their reconstruction and development
• It works closely with the rest of the World Bank Group to help developing countries reduce poverty, promote economic growth, and build prosperity.

Other functions of IBRD Bank –

• Supports long-term human and social development that private creditors do not finance.
• Preserves borrowers’ financial strength by providing support in times of crisis, when poor people are most adversely affected
• Promotes policy and institutional reforms (such as safety net or anti-corruption reforms)
• Creates a favourable investment climate to catalyze the provision of private capital
• Facilitates access to financial markets often at more favorable terms than members can achieve on their own
• Resources of the Bank consist of the capital and borrowings.

 

International Development Association

• The International Development Association (IDA) is the part of the World Bank group that helps the world’s poorest countries.
• Overseen by 173 shareholder nations, IDA aims to reduce poverty by providing loans (called “credits”) and grants for programs that boost economic growth, reduce inequalities, and improve people’s living conditions.
• IDA complements the World Bank’s original lending arm—the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). IBRD was established to function as a self-sustaining business and provides loans and advice to middle-income and credit-worthy poor countries.
• IBRD and IDA share the same staff and headquarters and evaluate projects with the same rigorous standards.
• IDA is one of the largest sources of assistance for the world’s 771 poorest countries, 39 of which are in Africa, and is the single largest source of donor funds for basic social services in these countries.
• IDA lends money on concessional terms. This means that IDA credits have a zero or very low-interest charge and repayments are stretched over 25 to 40 years, including a 5- to 10-year grace period. IDA also provides grants to countries at risk of debt distress.
• In addition to concessional loans and grants, IDA provides significant levels of debt relief through the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI).
• IDA’s work covers primary education, basic health services, clean water and sanitation, agriculture, business climate improvements, infrastructure, and institutional reforms.

IFC

Largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector in developing countries established in 1956

Objectives of the IFC

• To further economic development by encouraging the growth of private enterprise in member-countries
• Invests in private enterprise in member-countries in association with private investors and without a Government guarantee, in cases where sufficient private capital is not available on reasonable terms
• Seeks to bring together investment opportunities, private capital of both foreign and domestic origin, and experienced management
• Stimulates conditions conducive to the flow of private capital – domestic and foreign – into productive investments in member-countries
• IFC investment normally does not exceed 40% of the total investment of the enterprise.
• In case of its investment by equity participation, it does not exceed 25% of the share capital.

IFC and India

• IFC makes strategic investments and advisory interventions to promote inclusive growth, help address climate change impacts, and encourage global and regional integration
• In India, IFC is sharpening its focus on increasing access to energy, finance and healthcare; providing the sustainable infrastructure; and boosting regional linkages

Focus Areas –

Building infrastructure
Facilitating renewable energy generation
Promoting cleaner production, energy and water efficiency
Supporting agriculture for improved food security
Creating growth opportunities for small businesses
Helping reform investment climate

The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA)

• It is an international financial institution which offers political risk insurance and credit enhancement guarantees. Such guarantees help investors protect foreign direct investments against political and non-commercial risks in developing countries.
• MIGA is a member of the World Bank Group and is headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States. It was established in 1988 as an investment insurance facility to encourage confident investment in developing countries.
• MIGA’s stated mission is “to promote foreign direct investment into developing countries to support economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve people’s lives”. It targets projects that endeavour to create new jobs, develop infrastructure, generate new tax revenues, and take advantage of natural resources through sustainable policies and programs.
• MIGA is owned and governed by its member states, but has its own executive leadership and staff which carry out its daily operations. Its shareholders are member governments which provide paid-in capital and have the right to vote on its matters.
• It ensures long-term debt and equity investments as well as other assets and contracts with long-term periods. The agency is assessed by the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group each year.

International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)

• It encourages the flow of foreign investment to develop countries through arbitration and conciliation facilities
• Except for ICSID, India is a member of the other four groups <We don’t like external interference such as arbitration in our decision-making process, hence not the member of ICSID>

Let’s revise World Bank in brief

Name	Main Function	Comment
IBRD (WB)	Infrastructure loan to poor middle income but credit worthy countries at just below market rates	India founder member, largest recipient of loan
IDA	Soft loan at virtually zero rate for poverty eradication to poorest countries	India founder largest recipient, has crossed the per capita threshold for funding but will continue to receive IDA funds
IFC	Private sector arm of WB group, supports private enterprises in developing countries	India founder, IFC launched India’s offshore masala bond
MIGA	Provide a guarantee to investors against non-commercial political risk	India not a founding member
ICSID	Resolve disputes through arbitration and conciliation	India not a member

World Trade Organization (WTO)

• The WTO is an intergovernmental organization that is concerned with the regulation of international trade between nations.
• The WTO officially commenced on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, signed by 123 nations on 15 April 1994.
• It replaced the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which commenced in 1948.
• It is the largest international economic organization in the world.

Functions of WTO

• The WTO deals with regulation of trade in goods, services and intellectual property between participating countries.
• It provides a framework for negotiating trade agreements and a dispute resolution process aimed at enforcing participants’ adherence to WTO agreements, which are signed by representatives of member governments and ratified by their parliaments.

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[WpProQuiz 401]

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Constitutional Developments under British/ British Administrative Measures

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24 April 2020 

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.

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Important IR Pacts in News

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23 April 2020 

Joint Press Statement 14th Meeting of India-France Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism

• India and France held the 14th Meeting of Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism in New Delhi on February 28, 2020
• Both sides condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and stressed the need for strengthening international cooperation to combat terrorism in a comprehensive and sustained manner.
• They exchanged views on current counter-terrorism challenges including countering radicalization, combating the financing of terrorism, preventing the use of the internet for terrorist purposes, threats posed by internationally designated terrorist entities as well as cross-border terrorism in South Asian region.
• Both sides stressed upon the need to deny safe havens and sources of financing to terrorists.
• It was decided that the next meeting of the Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism shall be held in France in 2021 on a mutually convenient date.

US-Taliban Pact

• The US and Taliban signed an agreement for “Bringing Peace to Afghanistan”, which will enable the US and NATO to withdraw troops in the next 14 months.
  The pact is between the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban” and the US.
• The four-page pact was signed between Zalmay Khalilzad, US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, political head of the Taliban.

Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership

• Prime Minister Modi and President Trump pledged to deepen defence and security cooperation, especially through greater maritime and space domain awareness and information sharing; joint cooperation; exchange of military liaison personnel; advanced training and expanded exercises between all services and special forces; closer collaboration on co-development and co-production of advanced defence components, equipment and platforms; and partnership between their defence industries.
• Prime Minister Modi and President Trump resolved to enhance the security of their homelands through cooperation and to jointly fight international crimes like human trafficking, terrorism and violent extremism, drug-trafficking and crimes in cyberspace.

List of MoUs/Agreements exchanged and announced during State Visit of President of Portugal

• Memorandum of Understanding for Cooperation for Setting Up a National Maritime Museum
• Heritage Complex in Lothal (Gujarat) between Portuguese Ministry of Defence and the Indian Ministry of Shipping.
• MOU between Economic and Food Safety Authority (ASAE) and DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce or co-operation in the field of industrial and intellectual property rights Co-operation Agreement on Maritime Transport and Port Development between India and  Portugal.
• MoU between the Portuguese Diplomatic Institute and Foreign Service Institute for training

Israel-Palestine Peace Plan

• The Israel-Palestine peace plan or the West Asia peace plan is the proposal unveiled by U.S. President Donald Trump
• This plan seeks to address most of the contentious issues in the conflict.
• The solutions, Mr. Trump has proposed to almost all of these issues, favour the Israeli positions.
• He seeks to give to the Israelis, Jerusalem and part of the West Bank.
• With his plan, he is actually pushing to revive the stalled two-state talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians, but on his own terms.

What is the plan?

• The Palestinian refugees, who were forced out from their homes during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that followed the declaration of the state of Israel in historic Palestine, would not be allowed to return.
• Jerusalem would be the undivided capital of Israel, with Palestine gaining its capital in the east of the city.
• In return, Israel would freeze further settlement activities on the West Bank for 4 years (the time for negotiations).
• During this period, the Palestinian Authority should dismiss its current complaints at the International Criminal Court against Israel and refrain itself from taking further actions.
• It should crack down on certain terrorist groups like the Hamas

US-Guatemala Asylum Deal

• In July 2019, the then President of Guatemala signed an asylum deal with the US.
• Under the “safe third country” agreement, migrants have to apply for asylum in the first country they land in.
• If they fail to do so and proceed to the second country, they can be sent back to the first country.
• The US first signed such an agreement with Canada in 2002.

What is the US-Guatemala agreement

• In 2019, the US administration signed “safe third country” agreements with the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.
• This made it more difficult for refugees to seek asylum in the US.
• This agreement allowed the US to send asylum seekers from third countries to Guatemala.
• So far, Guatemala is the only country which has implemented the agreement.
• Unless migrants apply for protection in Guatemala before proceeding to the US, they are sent back to Guatemala

Indo-German Partnership

• German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the first foreign leader to visit India after Jammu and Kashmir was officially bifurcated into two Union Territories on October 31
• Germany and India signed 17 agreements and five joint declarations of intent in fields spanning space, civil aviation, maritime technology, medicine, yoga and education.

PM Modi’s Saudi Visit – Future Investment Initiative Forum

• The forum is formally called the Future Investment Initiative and was launched in 2017.
• The Indian PM will be joining Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, U.S. President Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
• Other leading international figures also join at the annual international forum popularly known as “Davos in the Desert”.
• It seeks to elevate Saudi Arabia’s international economic engagement.
• It is part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s (MbS’s) efforts to rapidly transform Saudi the economy under the “Vision 2030” that he unveiled in 2016.

Mamallapuram Summit – India and China

• PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping recently held an informal summit in the ancient coastal town of Mamallapuram or Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu.
• The two countries convened their first Informal Summit in central China’s Wuhan in April 2018, where they exchanged views on issues of global and bilateral significance.
• Irrespective of the rhetoric of a Wuhan spirit, the relationship is facing difficulties, reflected in a number of disputes between the two countries.

Informal Summits

• Informal Summits act as supplementary exchanges to annual Summits and other formal exchanges such as the G20 Summit, EU-India Summit and the BRICS Summit among others.
• It allows for direct, free and candid exchange of views between countries, something that may not be possible to do through formal bilateral and multilateral meetings that are agenda-driven.
• Informal Summits may not take place on a fixed annual or biennial schedule; they are impromptu in the sense that they take place when a need for them is perceived by the concerned nations.

Wuhan Spirit

• Wuhan Spirit is in line with the five principles of peaceful coexistence (Panchsheel) jointly advocated by China and India in the 1950s.
• Wuhan Spirit highlighted To form the “backbone” of economic globalization, and they should jointly make positive contributions to global peace and development.
• To cooperate, for the first time ever, on a joint project in Afghanistan.
  China has indicated that India’s refusal to join the Belt and Road Initiative will not come in the way of economic cooperation.

Extradition Treaty between India and Belgium

• Recently, the Union Cabinet has approved the signing and ratifying of the Extradition Treaty between the Republic of India and the Kingdom of Belgium.
• This will replace the pre-Independence Extradition Treaty between Great Britain and Belgium of 1901 that was made applicable to India through the exchange of Letters in 1958.
• The Treaty provides a legal framework for seeking the extradition of terrorists, economic offenders, and other criminals from and to Belgium.

Multilateral Export Control Regimes

• MECR is voluntary and non-binding agreements created by the major supplier countries that have agreed to co-operate in their effort to prevent and regulate the transfer of certain military and dual-use technology.
• It aims at preventing the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD).
• They are independent of the United Nations.
• Their regulations apply only to members and it is not obligatory for a country to join.
• India is now a member of three of the four MECRs, except the Nuclear supplier Group.

There are currently four such regimes under MECR

• The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), for the control of nuclear-related technology.
• The Australia Group (AG) for control of chemical and biological technology that could be weaponized.
• The Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) for the control of rockets and other aerial vehicles capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction.
• The Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies.

Joint Economic Trade Committee

• JETCO provides a forum to United Kingdom companies to enhance their links and develop new partnerships with India business and decision-makers.
  Government to Government negotiations, which address issues of market liberalization and market access, are conducted through the JETCO process.
• The UK India Business Council plays a key role in feeding the views of the UK business community into JETCO process with a view to achieving favourable outcomes for UK companies.
• One of the key objectives of the JETCO process is to unveil opportunities for London’s most prominent institutional investors to invest in India.

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Prelims Spotlight is a part of “Nikaalo Prelims 2020” module. This open crash course for Prelims 2020 has a private telegram group where PDFs and DDS (Daily Doubt Sessions) are being held. Please click here to register.

National Parks, Biosphere Reserves, Wildlife Sanctuaries in India – Part 2

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22 April 2020 

India is one of the 17 megadiverse countries of the world. With only 2.4% of the world’s land area, 16.7% of the world’s human population and 18% livestock, it contributes about 8% of the known global biodiversity, however, putting enormous demands on our natural resources. India is home to world’s largest wild tigers population and has a unique assemblage of globally important endangered species like Asiatic lion, Asian Elephant, One-horned Rhinoceros, Gangetic River Dolphin, Snow Leopard, Kashmir Stag, Dugong, Gharial, Great Indian Bustard, Lion Tailed Macaque etc. The following steps have thus been taken to protect and manage the wildlife of the country:

 

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Prelims Spotlight is a part of “Nikaalo Prelims 2020” module. This open crash course for Prelims 2020 has a private telegram group where PDFs and DDS (Daily Doubt Sessions) are being held. Please click here to register.

Important Sessions of Indian National Congress

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21 April 2020 

Important sessions of Congress

• 1885- 1st, Bombay, presided by W.C. Banerjee
• 1887- Badruddin Tyabji became 1st Muslim to preside over congress session
• 1907- Surat, Ras Bihari Ghosh not Bose, split in Congress between moderates and extremists
• 1916- Lucknow, Reunion on congress, Lucknow pact between Congress and Muslim league
• 1919 – Amritsar, Motilal Nehru Jallianwala Bagh Massacre is condemned
• 1920 – Nagpur C.Vijayraghavachair a new constitution for reorganized
• 1924 – Belgaum Mahatma Gandhi.
• 1927 – Madras M.A.Ansari, adoption of Independent Resolution, resolved to boycott the Simon Commission
• 1929- Lahore, J.L. Nehru, Purna Swaraj Resolution
• 1931- Karachi, Vallabh Bhai, Resolution on Fundamental Rights and National Economic Programme.
• 1936 – April, Lucknow Jawaharlal Nehru, urged the Congress to adopt Socialism as its goal
• 1938- Haripura, S.C. Bose, National Planning Committee under J.L. Nehru

Leaders of the session

• Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee was the president of the first session of the Indian National Congress.
• Annie Beasant was the first female President of the Indian National Congress.
• Sarojini Naidu was the first Indian woman president of the Indian National Congress.
• Badruddin Tyabji was the first Muslim President of the Indian National
  Congress.
• Rahimtulla Sayani was the second Muslim President of the Indian National
  Congress.
• George Yule was the first European President of the Indian National Congress.
• Dadhabhai Naoroji was the first Parsi President of the Indian National Congress.
• Sankaran Narayan was the first & the only Keralite President of the Indian National Congress Session.
• Hakim Ajmal Khan was the only person to be appointed as the President of INC, All India Muslim League & All India Khilafat Committee.

 

 

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