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 INDEX

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 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

BCG vaccine

• The BCG vaccine was developed in 1921 in France to be used against Tuberculosis.
• It is composed of a live, weakened strain of the bacterium Mycobacterium bovis (causative agent
of tuberculosis in cattle) which related to mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria which
causes tuberculosis in humans.
• The vaccine provokes the body to develop antibodies to attack TB bacteria thus creating
an adaptive immune response like other vaccines.
• However, unlike other vaccines, the BCG vaccine may also boost the innate immune system
i.e. first line defence that keep a variety of pathogens from entering the body or from
establishing an infection.
• The efficiency rate of the vaccine is around 60 per cent and the results also vary between
countries.
• Globally, the practice is to administer it to children below one year of age as most children
acquire natural clinical/ sub-clinical tuberculosis infection by the age of one year. This too
protects against severe forms of childhood tuberculosis e.g. TB meningitis and military disease.
• In India, BCG vaccine was first introduced in 1948 and was then made a part of universal
immunisation programme and administered to millions of children at birth or soon after it.
• BCG vaccine has proved quite effective against the SARS infection also.
• Recent studies showed that it is effective in controlling blood sugar in people with diabetes
type 1 and maintained better sugar levels for the next five years. It has also been found effective
as bladder cancer therapy and increasing survival of low birth weight children.

Vertically transmitted infection

• A vertically transmitted infection is an infection caused by pathogens (such

as bacteria and viruses) that use mother-to-child transmission, that is, transmission directly
from the mother to an embryo, fetus, or baby during pregnancy or childbirth.
• It can occur when the mother gets an infection as an intercurrent disease in pregnancy.
Nutritional deficiencies may exacerbate the risks of perinatal infections.

• Bacteria, viruses, and other organisms are able to be passed from mother to child. Several
vertically transmitted infections are included in the TORCH complex:

1. T – toxoplasmosis from Toxoplasma gondii

2. O – other infections (see below)
3. R – rubella
4. C – cytomegalovirus
5. H – herpes simplex virus-2 or neonatal herpes simplex

FELUDA TEST

• It is a paper-based test strip developed by CSIR scientists to detect the new coronavirus
within an hour.
• The test uses the cutting-edge gene-editing tool- Crispr-Cas9 to target and identify the
genomic sequences of the novel coronavirus in the samples of suspected individuals.

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POOL TESTING

• Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) issued an advisory for using pooled samples for
testing of COVID-19.
• In a pooled testing algorithm, samples of multiple individuals are put together in a tube and
screened through the RT-PCR test.
• In case the pooled test turns out to be positive, individual samples are tested, which is referred
to as pool de-convolution.
• If there’s no positive result, all individual samples in the pool are regarded as negative.
• ICMR has advised that while more than two samples can be pooled together, the number
should not exceed five samples to avoid sample dilution.
• This method can be used in areas where the prevalence of COVID-19 is low, which means a
positivity rate of less than two percent. In areas with a positivity rate between two to five
percent, sample pooling of PCR screening may be considered in a community survey of
surveillance among asymptomatic individuals.

Chitra Gene LAMP-N

• It is a diagnostic test kit that can confirm COVID-19 in 2 hours at low cost.
• It has been developed by Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and
Technology, Trivandrum under the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
• It detects the N Gene of SARS- COV2 using reverse transcriptase loop-mediated
amplification of viral nucleic acid (RT-LAMP) technology, and can detect two regions of the
gene, which will ensure that the test does not fail even if one region of the viral gene undergoes
mutation during its current spread.

KARMI Bot

• It is a robot deployed by a government hospital in Ernakulam, Kerela to serve food and

medicines to coronavirus patients with an aim to reduce risk of infections for doctors and
health workers.
• The robot is developed by ASIMOV robotics, a company working under maker village of Kerala
start up mission.

Covid-19 Quarantine Alert System (CQAS)

• The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has shared a Standard Operating Procedure

(SOP) with all telecom service providers regarding the application called COVID-19 Quarantine
Alert System (CQAS).
• CQAS collects phone data, including the device’s location, on a common secured platform and
alerts the local agencies in case of a violation by COVID patients under watch or in isolation.
• The DoT and the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), in coordination with telecom
service providers, have developed and tested the application.

Centre for Development of Telematics

• C-DOT was established in August 1984 as an autonomous Telecom R&D Centre of DoT.
• It is a registered society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
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 • It is a registered ‘public funded research institution’ with the Department of Scientific and
Industrial Research, Ministry of Science & Technology.

Global Positioning System

• The Global Positioning System is a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), used to
determine the ground position of an object. It is a US-owned utility that provides users with
Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) services.

Radio-Frequency Identification
• Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) is the use of radio waves to read and capture
information stored on a tag attached to an object. A tag can be read from up to several feet
away and does not need to be within the direct line-of-sight of the reader to be tracked.

Wi-Fi
• Wi-Fi is the name of a wireless networking technology that uses radio waves to provide
wireless high-speed Internet and network connections. WiFi network enables connection
between two or more devices wirelessly for data sharing purposes.

NATIONAL ANALYTICAL PLATFORM FOR DEALING WITH

INTELLIGENT TRACING, TRACKING AND CONTAINMENT (NAADI)
• The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has prepared a data science-based tool
to make easy the task of tracking the movements of Covid-19 patients or quarantined people across
the country.
• The system has been named National Analytical Platform for Dealing with Intelligent Tracing,
Tracking and Containment (NAADI).
• The information generated by the tool would be accurate up to a metre and would be of much help
for the medical professionals, law enforcement agencies and data scientists.

FOMALHAUT B
• Recently, researchers have confirmed that the earlier discovered exoplanet Fomalhaut b is not an
exoplanet but a giant cloud of dust left over from the collision of two planetesimals that dispersed
over time.
• Fomalhaut b, located 25 light-years from Earth was one of the first exoplanets ever discovered in
visible light by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in 2004.
• Initially it appeared as a bright, cool dot moving briskly across the sky but ten years later, that dot
disappeared.
• Exoplanets are the planets that orbit around stars other than the Sun. They are very hard to see
directly with telescopes as they are hidden by the bright glare of the stars they orbit.

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JUNE ALMEIDA
• June Almeida was a virologist who visualised the first human coronavirus.
• The first human coronavirus named B814, was discovered in 1965 by scientists DJ Tyrell and
MLBynoe, years after the disease was found in animals. They isolated a virus from the nasal washings
of a male child who had symptoms and signs of a common cold.
• In 1967, Almeida collected the samples and attempted to visualise them using a microscope,
through a technique called electron microscopy.
• An electron microscope blasts a specimen with a beam of electrons and then records the
particles’ interactions with the specimen’s surface. Since electrons have much shorter
wavelengths than light, this shows scientists an image with much finer, smaller detail.
• She was able to visualize the virus by introducing it to antibodies. The virus latched
itself on to the antibodies, and its structure could then be seen using negative staining—
where the background is strained, leaving the specimen untouched and, therefore, visible.

Supercomputer using Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Healthcare

Analytics based Research, Covid-19 (SAMHAR)
• It was announced by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) under the
aegis of the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM), a Ministry of Electronics & Information
Technology (MeitY) and Department of Science & Technology (DST) initiative, in association with
NVIDIA & OpenACC.
• The hackathon is open to Researchers, Academicians, MSMEs, Startups and Industries
with an objective to bring out Innovative and Implementable Ideas for Prediction,
Forecasting and Building Healthcare Models that could revolutionize the way we interpret
science of pandemic outbreaks using AI technology on Supercomputers.

Saiyam app
• In order to effectively track the home-quarantines citizens and ensure they are actually
staying in the home, a mobile application named Saiyam has been developed by the Pune
Municipal Corporation under Smart Cities Mission (SCM).
• The Mobile Application has GPS tracking so that whenever quarantined citizens leave their
homes, City Administration gets alerted and the local ward or the local police station gets
informed, who then visit the family

CovidGyan: Science-based website on COVID 19 launched

• The Ministry of Science & Technology has announced a new Science-based website
“CovidGyan” which aims to fight misinformation related to Coronavirus disease.

About CovidGyan:

• It is a multi-institutional, multi-lingual Science communication initiative, it will provide

factual aspects of this pandemic outbreak to the public domain.
• The topics covered range from the exact behaviour of the novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-
2), transmission dynamics of the Corona flu and its diagnostics to innovative technologies to

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 scale up the fight, means of coping up with physical distancing, and critical assessment
of communications.
• Since its launch, it has been widely shared by the scientific community through various social
media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
• The initiative is the brainchild of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Indian Institute
of Science (IISc), and Tata Memorial Centre (TMC). Several other prominent partners have since
joined this noble effort including Vigyan Prasar, IndiaBioscience, and the Bangalore Life
Science Cluster (BLiSc), which includes Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative
Medicine (InStem), Centre for Cellular And Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), and National Centre
for Biological Sciences (NCBS).

Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences

• It is an autonomous research institute under the Department of Science and Technology
(DST), Government of India.
• DST provides core support to the Centre in the form of a grant-in-aid for conducting basic and
applied research in nano and soft matter sciences.
• CeNS is located at Jalahalli, Bengaluru.
o It is being mentored by Nano-Mission of the Government of India.
o It is engaged in materials research at all relevant length scales.
• The current activities are focussed on a variety of metal and semiconductor nanostructures, liquid
crystals, gels, membranes and hybrid materials.
• The Centre was established in 1991 by an eminent liquid crystal scientist, Prof. S. Chandrasekhar,
FRS. After years of expansion and name changes, in 2014, it became the Centre for Nano and Soft
Matter Sciences (CeNS).

Types of Vaccine
Live-attenuated vaccines

• Live vaccines use a weakened (or attenuated) form of the germ that causes a disease.
• Because these vaccines are so similar to the natural infection that they help prevent, they create a
strong and long-lasting immune response.
o Just one or two doses of most live vaccines can give you a lifetime of protection against a germ
and the disease it causes.
• The limitation of this approach is that these vaccines usually cannot be given to people with
weakened immune systems
• Live vaccines are used against: Measles, mumps, rubella (MMR combined vaccine), Rotavirus,
Smallpox among others.

Subunit, recombinant, polysaccharide, and conjugate vaccines

o They use specific pieces of the germ — like its protein, sugar, or capsid (a casing around the germ).
They give a very strong immune response.
o They can also be used on people with weakened immune systems and long-term health problems.
o These vaccines are used to protect against: Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type b) disease, Hepatitis B,
HPV (Human papillomavirus), Pneumococcal disease among others.
o Toxoid vaccines

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 o Toxoid vaccines use a toxin made by the germ that causes a disease. Toxoid vaccines are used to
protect against: Diphtheria, Tetanus

Inactivated Vaccines
• Active pathogens are grown in large numbers and then killed either by a chemical or heat. Although
the pathogen is killed, or made to lose its reproduction capacity, various parts of the pathogen are
intact. E.g The antigen (the chemical structure) that is recognised by the immune system is left
unimpaired.
• When this dead microbe is introduced in the body, the immune system is tricked to respond by
producing antibodies against specific antigens still left intact, without knowing that the pathogen is
defective.
• As the pathogen is dead, it cannot reproduce nor cause even a mild disease. Thus, it is safe to
administer to even people with lesser immunity, like the old and those who have comorbidity.
• Inactivated polio vaccine and the rabies vaccine are made this way.

Reverse Transcription-based Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification (RT-

LAMP)
• It is a simple quantitative detection method.
• In this method, a DNA copy of the viral RNA is generated by reverse transcriptase, and
then isothermal amplification is carried out to increase the amount of total DNA.
o A reverse transcriptase (RT) is an enzyme used to generate complementary DNA (DNA) from an
RNA template, a process termed reverse transcription.
o Isothermal amplification enables rapid and specific amplification of DNA at constant temperature
(60-65 °C).

Planetary Engulfment
• In the universe, planets accompany host stars (like the Sun is the host star for the planets of the
Solar system).
• As the host star evolves off the main sequence to become a white dwarf, the planets
with sufficiently close orbits can be engulfed during the giant phase.
• Planetary engulfment events involve the chemical assimilation of a planet into a star's external
layer.
o This can cause a change in the chemical pattern of the stellar atmosphere in a way that mirrors
the composition of the rocky object engulfed.

Big Bang Nucleosynthesis

• It is the leading explanation about how the universe began. At its simplest, it says that the
universe started with a small singularity and then inflated over the next 13.8 billion years to the
cosmos currently observed.
• The Universe's light-element abundance is another important criterion by which this theory is
verified.
• It is now known that the elements observed in the Universe were created in either of two ways.

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 • Light elements (namely deuterium, helium, and lithium) were produced in the first few minutes of
the Big Bang, while elements heavier than helium are thought to have their origins in the interiors of
stars which formed much later in the history of the Universe.
• The theory predicts that roughly 25% the mass of the Universe consists of Helium. It also
predicts about 0.01% deuterium, and even smaller quantities of lithium.

Thalassemia
• It is a blood disorder passed down through families (inherited) in which the body makes an abnormal
form or inadequate amount of hemoglobin.
• Thalassemia is caused by mutations in the gene that make hemoglobin.
• The disorder results in large numbers of red blood cells being destroyed, which leads to anemia.
• Hemoglobin is the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen.

Indian Red Cross Society

• Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) was established in 1920 under the Indian Red Cross Society Act.
• The President of India is the President and the Union Health Minister is the Chairman of the
Society.
• The Indian Red Cross is a voluntary humanitarian organization providing relief in times of
disasters/emergencies and promotes health & care of the vulnerable people and communities.
• The Mission of the Indian Red Cross is to inspire, encourage and initiate at all times all forms of
humanitarian activities so that human suffering can be minimized and even prevented and thus
contribute to creating more congenial climate for peace.
• It is a leading member of the largest independent humanitarian organization in the world,
the International Red Cross & Red Crescent Movement.
• The movement has three main components,

o International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC),

o 192 National Societies and International Federation of Red Cross
o Red Crescent Societies.

e-Raktkosh Portal
• e-Raktkosh portal is a Centralized Blood Bank Management System.
• It is a comprehensive IT solution to standardize and streamline the standard operating procedures,
guidelines and workflow of blood banks across the nation.
• It was inaugurated on 7th April 2016 by then Minister of Health and Family Welfare (MoHWFW)
• It enforces Drug & Cosmetic Act, National blood policy standards and guidelines ensuring proper
management of blood.

Blood Disorder
• A blood disorder is any condition that impacts one or more parts of the blood, usually interfering
with its ability to work correctly.
• Blood disorder can be categorised as Common Blood Disorder like anaemia and Rare Blood
Disorder like thalassemia.

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 Types of Blood Disorder
• Blood Disorders Affecting Red Blood Cells like Anemia, Pernicious anemia (B12 deficiency), Aplastic
anemia, Autoimmune hemolytic anemia etc.
• Blood disorders that affect White Blood Cells like Lymphoma, Leukemia, Multiple myeloma.
• Blood Disorders Affecting Blood Plasma like hemophilia
• Blood Disorders Affecting Platelets like thrombocytopenia.

CSIR’s Plan for Mycobacterium w

• CSIR has also planned to evaluate Mw for faster recovery of hospitalised Covid-19 infected
patients and minimise the spread of disease through them as well for providing preventive
treatment (prophylaxis) to persons coming in contact with Covid-19 infected patients like
family members and health care workers.

Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles

• These are land-based, generally nuclear-armed ballistic missiles with a range of more than 5,500
km. E.g. India’s Agni V.
• There are also Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBM). E.g. India’s Dhanush
• Ballistic missiles are initially powered by rockets after which they follow an unpowered, free-falling
trajectory toward their targets.
o They are classified by the maximum distance that they can travel, which is a function of how
powerful the missile’s engines (rockets) are and the weight of the missile’s payload.
o Established in April 1987, the voluntary Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) aims to limit
the spread of ballistic missiles and other unmanned delivery systems that could be used for
chemical, biological, and nuclear attacks. India is its member.

Antiviral nano-coatings
• Recently, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) has approved the use of antiviral
nano-coatings on anti-Covid-19 masks.
• The antiviral nano-coating has been developed using N9 blue silver which will be modified to
form nanocomplexes with Zinc (Zn, atomic number-30) compounds to achieve a synergistic effect.
Subsequently, it will be applied as coatings on facemasks and other Personal Protection Equipment
(PPEs).
o Nano-coatings have 99.99% effectiveness and these can work on multiple levels at the same
time like antiviral, bacterial and fungal and self-cleaning.
o These can be applied to various surfaces such as glass, metal, stone, textiles and
plastics by spraying or dipping.

Multi-system Inflammatory State

• It is a rare illness that causes inflammation of the blood vessels leading to low blood pressure. It
affects the entire body as it causes a build-up of fluid in the lungs and other organs.
• Patients suffering from it require intensive care to support the lungs, heart and other organs.
• Symptoms:
o Abdominal and gastrointestinal symptoms.
o Cardiac inflammation.
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 o Overlapping symptoms of Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) and Kawasaki disease as well.

Toxic Shock Syndrome

• It is a rare condition which is caused by certain bacteria which enter the body and release harmful
toxins.
• It could be fatal if not treated in time.
• Symptoms: High temperature, headache, sore throat, cough, diarrhea, dizziness or fainting, difficulty
breathing and confusion.

Kawasaki Disease
• It is an acute inflammatory disease of the blood vessels and usually occurs in children
below the age of five.
• The inflammation in the coronary arteries that are responsible for supplying blood to the
heart results in enlargement or in the formation of aneurysms (swelling of the wall of an
artery), leading to heart attacks.
• Symptoms: Fever, rashes, redness of the cornea, red and cracked lips, a red tongue and lymph
node enlargement of the neck.

National Science and Technology Management Information

• The National Science and Technology Management Information System (NSTMIS) is a division of the
Department of Science and Technology (DST).
• It has been entrusted with the task of building the information base on a continuous basis on
resources devoted to scientific and technological activities for policy planning in the country.

National Blood Transfusion Council

• The National Blood Transfusion Council (NBTC) was constituted in 1996 under the Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare.
• Objective: To promote voluntary blood donation, ensure safe blood transfusion, provide
infrastructure to blood centres, develop human resources and formulate and implement the Blood
Policy.
• NBTC is the apex body in relation to all matters pertaining to operation of blood centres.
• The NBTC is the central body that coordinates the State Blood Transfusion Councils (SBTCs) and also
ensures involvement of other Ministries and other health programmes for various activities related
to Blood Transfusion Services (BTS).

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research

• CSIR was established by the Government of India in September 1942 as an autonomous body.
• It is known for its cutting edge R&D knowledge base in diverse S&T areas.
• Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has been ranked first in the Nature Ranking
Index-2020.
o The Nature Index provides a close to real-time proxy of high-quality research output and
collaboration at the institutional, national and regional level.

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Computer Emergency Response Team-India
• It is an organisation of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India,
with the objective of securing Indian cyberspace.
• It is the nodal agency which deals with cybersecurity threats like hacking and phishing.
• It collects, analyses and disseminates information on cyber incidents, and also issues alerts on
cybersecurity incidents.
• CERT-IN provides Incident Prevention and Response Services as well as Security Quality Management
Services.

Corona-Killer 100
• Corona-Killer 100 is an automated disinfecting Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) developed
by Garuda Aerospace - an ISO- 9001 company.
• These drones will aid in the sanitation of public places, hospitals and tall buildings up to 450 feet
amid Covid-19 outbreak.
• It is equipped with fuel efficient motors that enable the drone to be deployed for 12 hours a day.
• Drone operations are faster, longer & safer than manual spraying by workers who can become
potential carriers of Covid-19.
• It also consists of patented autopilot technology, advanced flight controller systems.

Year of Awareness on Science and Health (YASH)

• The National Council for Science & Technology Communication (NCSTC), Department of Science &
Technology (DST) has launched a programme on health and risk communication ‘Year of Awareness
on Science & Health (YASH)’ with focus on Covid-19.
• The programme is a comprehensive and effective science and health communication effort for
promoting grass-root level appreciation and response on health.
• The programme is aimed at minimizing risks at all levels with the help of public communication
and outreach activities, promoting public understanding of common minimum science for
community care and health safety measures like:

o personal sanitation and hygiene,

o physical distancing,
o maintaining desired collective behaviour and so on.
• It aims to reduce the fear of risks and build confidence with necessary understanding for
adopting sustainable healthy lifestyles and nurturing scientific culture among masses and
societies.

Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms

• Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) is one of the centers for technology-
based innovation and entrepreneurship in the field of life sciences under the Department of
Biotechnology (DBT).
• It intends to develop state-of-the-art technologies and to provide training on these technologies to
academia and industry.

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Blood plasma

• Blood plasma is a yellowish liquid component of blood that holds the blood cells in whole blood in
suspension.
• It is the liquid part of the blood that carries cells and proteins throughout the body. It makes up
about 55% of the body's total blood volume.
• Plasma also called Blood Plasma is the single largest component of human blood.
• Functions:
a) maintain blood pressure and volume
b) Supply critical proteins for blood clotting andimmunity
c) Carries electrolytes such as sodium and potassium to our muscles and
d) Helps to maintain a proper pH balance in the body which supports cell function.

National gene fund

• As per the Protection of Plant Variety and Farmers Rights Act, 2001 Section 45, “National Gene Fund”
has been constituted to receive (or give) contributions from
• The Breeder will have to pay royalty which will go to the National Gene Fund
• The amount of the benefit sharing to a variety will have to be deposited by the breeder of such
variety to the National Gene Fund.
• If someone gives a claim that the genetic material possessed by him was used in the development of
the seed variety by the breeder then the claimant will get benefit sharing from the National Gene
Fund.

Schedule H1
• Aims to check to check the indiscriminate use of antibiotics, anti-TB and some other drugs.
• Cannot be sold without a valid prescription.
• Package of the drugs has mandatory warning printed in a box with a red colour border.
• Labels of any Schedule H drug must display the text "Rx" on the top left corner of the label Schedule
X Includes narcotic and psychotropic substances-based drugs.
• Cannot be sold without a valid prescription.
• Drug retailer has to preserve the copy of prescription for two years

Convalescent plasma therapy

• It seeks to make use of the antibodies developed in the recovered patient against the
coronavirus.
• The whole blood or plasma from such people is taken, and the plasma is then injected in
critically ill patients so that the antibodies are transferred and boost their fight against the virus.

Science and Technology of Yoga and Meditation (SATYAM)

• A new programme called SATYAM-“Science and Technology of Yoga and Meditation” has been
launched by the Ministry of Science and Technology to strengthen research in the areas of yoga
and meditation.
• Main objective of the programme: To harness knowledge obtained in academic institutions
and other related agencies for finding Science & Technology -led solutions that would enable the
government to cope with stress and strain associated with fast changing social, economic,
environmental and professional circumstances

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Wi-Fi CALLING (VoWiFi)
• It makes use of high speed Internet connection, available via broadband, to make and receive high
definition (HD) voice calls.
• This is not much different from a voice call using WhatsApp or any other over-the-top messaging
platform, but here the call is from one number to another, and not using an app.
• Wi-Fi Calling can be configured on compatible smartphones by upgrading operating systems to the
version that supports Wi-Fi Calling, and enabling this in Settings.
• Airtel says it will soon be compatible with all broadband services and Wi-Fi hotspots, and rolled out
in other locations

Biogenic Methane
• It is emitted by livestock, waste treatment and wetlands.
• Biogenic methane is a short-lived gas and degrades into the atmosphere over the decades.
• It is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Autoclave and microwave treatment

• Autoclaving is a low-heat thermal process where steam is brought into direct contact with
waste in a controlled manner and for sufficient duration to disinfect the wastes.
• For ease and safety in operation, the system should be horizontal type and exclusively designed for
the treatment of bio-medical waste.
• For optimum results, pre-vacuum based system is preferred against the gravity type system.

Optical computing is the use of photons in computation.

• Photons, effectively massless and incredibly fast, are generated using diodes or lasers. The photons
take the place of electrons in more traditional computers and are used to represent the flow of
data. Lacking the size limitation of electrons, photon based transistors can be incredibly small
which increases potential computing power.
• The need for Optical Computer emerged from the fact that conventional computers are limited by
the slow time response of electronic circuits and also the building up of heat damages the electronic
components.
• The working principle of Optical Computer is similar to the conventional computer except with
some portions that performs functional operations in Optical mode. Photons are generated by
LED’s, lasers and a variety of other devices.
• They can be used for encoding the data similar to electrons

The Science and Technology of Yoga and Meditation (SATYAM)

• Programme was conceptualized in 2015 by the Department of Science and Technology
(Ministry of Science and Technology) under its Cognitive Science Research Initiative (CSRI).
• Scientists and academicians with research backgrounds in ‘Yoga and Meditation’ and having regular
positions can participate in the programme.
• Under SATYAM, the Department of Science and Technology has invited proposals to study
appropriate intervention of yoga and meditation in fighting Covid-19 and similar kinds of viruses.

TECHNOLOGY FACILITATION MECHANISM (TFM)

• 2030 Agenda for Sustainable development announced the launch of a ‘Technology Facilitation
Mechanism’ in order to support the implementation of SDGs.

Copernicus Program
• Copernicus is the world’s largest single earth observation Program and is directed by the
European Commission in partnership with the European Space Agency.

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 • It aims at providing accurate, timely and easily accessible information to, among other things,
improve the management of the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate
change, and ensure civil security.
• The objective is to use vast amount of global data from satellites and from ground-based,
airborne and seaborne measurement systems to produce timely and quality information in the
domains of environment and security on a global level.
• India has joined Europe’s satellite data sharing pool.
The arrangement makes provisions for European Commission to provide India with full open
access to the data from the Copernicus Sentinel family of satellites using high bandwidth
connections, free of cost.

Ribosome
• The ribosome is a cell organelle made of ribosomal RNA molecules and proteins that form a
factory for protein synthesis in cells.
• In 1955, George E. Palade discovered ribosomes and described them as small particles in the
cytoplasm that preferentially associated with the endoplasmic reticulum membrane.
• Ribosomes occur both as free particles in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells and as particles
attached to the membranes of the endoplasmic reticulum in eukaryotic cells.
• Along with other scientists, Palade discovered that ribosomes performed protein synthesis in
cells, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1974 for his work.
• Each ribosome has a large component and a small component that together form a single unit
composed of several ribosomal RNA molecules and dozens of proteins.
• The ribosome is responsible for translating encoded messages from messenger RNA molecules
to synthesize proteins from amino acids

McrBC
• McrBC — a complex bacterial protein which helps prevent viral infections in a bacterial cell and
functions as a molecular scissor.
• This is the first report of the high-resolution structure from India determined using electron
cryomicroscopy, commonly known as cryo-EM.
• The pathbreaking structure of the McrBC was published last month in two prestigious, peer-
reviewed scientific journals — Nature Communications and Nucleic Acids Research and is said
to be a major step towards understanding the working of the molecular scissors.
• The determination of the McrBC’s structure has long-term implications in ‘phage therapy’ and
could help combat drug-resistant infections in the future.
• Phages are groups of viruses that infect and kill bacterial cells and phage therapy is the
therapeutic use of bacteriophages to treat bacterial infections.

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CollabCAD
• Jointly launched by Atal Innovation Mission,National Informatics Centre (NIC) and NITI Aayog
on April 13, 2020.
• CollabCAD is a digital software system that will help students in creating 3D designs.
• It initiative aims to provide a great platform to students of Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs) across
country to create and modify 3d designs with free flow of creativity and imagination

Atal Jai Anusandhan Biotech Mission

• Undertaking Nationally Relevant Technology Innovation (UNaTI).

• It is expected to transform the Health, Agriculture and Energy sectors during the next 5 years.
• This mission includes the following missions-
• GARBH-ini - A Mission to promote Maternal and Child Health and develop prediction tools for
preterm birth.
• IndCEPI - A Mission to develop affordable vaccines for endemic diseases,
• Development of Biofortified and Protein-Rich wheat - contributing to POSHAN Abhiyan,
• Mission on Antimicrobial Resistance for Affordable Diagnostics and Therapeutics
• Clean Energy Mission - Innovative Technology interventions for Swachh Bharat.

What is a multi-system inflammatory state?

• It’s a severe immune response that can affect the body in multiple ways, most importantly by
making the blood vessels leaky, a condition called Kawasaki disease.
• This leads to low blood pressure and a build-up of fluid in the lungs and organs.
• It is extremely serious. Patients need urgent intensive care to support the heart, lungs and
sometimes other organs such as the kidneys.

What is TSS?
• Toxic shock syndrome (TSS) is a rare life-threatening condition caused when certain bacteria
enter the body and release harmful toxins. If not treated in time, the condition could be fatal.
• Symptoms include high temperature, flu-like symptoms including headache, sore throat, cough,
diarrhea, dizziness or fainting, difficulty breathing and confusion.
• Some patients suffering from TSS may need ICU admissions.

HCARD
• It is a robot to assist frontline COVID-19 healthcare warriors.
• It helps in maintaining physical distance from those infected by coronavirus.
• Developed by Durgapur-based CSIR lab, Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute.
• This robot can be controlled and monitored by a nursing booth with a control station having
such features as navigation, drawer activation for providing medicines and food to patients,
sample collection and audio-visual communication.
• HCARD stands for Hospital Care Assistive Robotic Device (HCARD.

Deep nudes
• Deep nudes are computer-generated images and videos.
• Cybercriminals use Artificial Intelligence (AI) software to superimpose a digital composite
(assembling multiple media files to make a final one) on to an existing video, photo or audio.
• Because of how realistic deepfake images, audio and videos can be, the technology is vulnerable
for use by cybercriminals who could spread misinformation to intimidate or blackmail people.

Uses of concave mirrors

• Concave mirrors are commonly used in torches, search-lights and vehicles headlights to get
powerful parallel beams of light.
25
 • They are often used as shaving mirrors to see a larger image of the face.
• The dentists use concave mirrors to see large images of the teeth of patients.
• Large concave mirrors are used to concentrate sunlight to produce heat in solar furnaces

Deep nudes
• Deep nudes are computer-generated images and videos.
• Cybercriminals use Artificial Intelligence (AI) software to superimpose a digital composite
(assembling multiple media files to make a final one) on to an existing video, photo or audio.
• Because of how realistic deepfake images, audio and videos can be, the technology is vulnerable
for use by cybercriminals who could spread misinformation to intimidate or blackmail people.

What is a spike protein?

• A viral spike protein is like a key that “unlocks the door” to gain access to the cells of a specific host
— humans, in this case.
• The researchers defined the structure of 2019-nCoV’s spike protein using a technique called
cryogenic electron microscopy, or “Cryo-EM”.
• This involves cooling the protein to below -150 degree Celsius so that it crystallises and then its
structure can be determined with near-atomic resolution.

Pulse oximeters
• These are medical devices that monitor the level of oxygen in a patient’s blood and alert the
health-care worker if oxygen levels drop below safe levels allowing rapid intervention.
• It can help identify a potentially deadly condition in Covid-19 patients called ‘Covid pneumonia’
sooner and more effectively and thus help save more lives.

The Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API)

• It is the part of any drug that produces its effects. Some drugs, such as combination therapies,
have multiple active ingredients to treat different symptoms or act in different ways.
• APIs, also called bulk drugs, are significant ingredients in the manufacture of drugs. The Hubei
province of China is the hub of the API manufacturing industry.

Raw material vs API

• API and raw material are often confused due to the similar usage of the two terms. Raw material
refers to chemical compounds that are used as a base to make an API.

Flue-gas desulfurization (FGD)

• It is a set of technologies used to remove sulfur dioxide (SO 2) from exhaust flue gases of fossil-
fuel power plants, and from the emissions of other sulfur oxide emitting processes such as waste
incineration.

About Proton therapy

• Proton therapy is a type of Radiation therapy which is also called proton beam therapy.
• It uses protons rather than x-rays to treat cancer. At high energy, protons can destroy cancer
cells.
• It can also be combined with x-ray radiation therapy, surgery, chemotherapy, and/or
immunotherapy.
• Like x-ray radiation, proton therapy is a type of external-beam radiation therapy.
26
 • In India, Tata Memorial Centre (TMC), a grant-in-aid Institution under Department of Atomic
Energy, has initiated collaboration with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and Tata
Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) for research in proton therapy.

“PolyCrack” Technology:
• Indian Railway’s first Waste to Energy Plant uses “PolyCrack” Technology.
• In Polycrack Technology, waste is processed and reformed in 24 hours. The only drawback is
that it requires larger area.
• The technology involves de-polymerization, cracking, reforming, scrubbing, particle
filtration and rapid quenching.
• The major benefit of the method is that it does not require pre-segregation.

What is Project Soli?

• Project Soli, driven by Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) team, was first
showcased back in 2015.
• The idea is that a radar chip can be used to detect hand movements and gestures to interpret
what they could mean.
• It’s only recently that Google figured out how to reduce the size of this radar chip and fit it on the
front of the smartphone, still ensuring accuracy

AJIT Microprocessor
• IIT Bombay develop the country’s first indigenously designed and fabricated microprocessor AJIT.
• It is a medium-sized processor which can be used inside a set-top box, as a control panel for
automation systems, in a traffic light controller or even robotic systems.
• This innovation would reduce the country’s imports and make India self-reliant in electronics

S&T schemes
• SUPRA: The Scientific and Useful Profound Research Advancement (SUPRA) intends to fund
exploration of new scientific and engineering breakthroughs with global impact.
• IRHPA: The Intensification of Research in High Priority Areas (IRHPA) program of the Science
and Engineering Research Board (SERB) supports proposals in high priority areas from the
viewpoint of advances in fundamental science.
• SERB was set up as a statutory body in 2009 under the Department of Science and Technology
to promote and fund research in different scientific disciplines.
• NIDHI Scheme: National Initiative For Developing And Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI) is an
end to end plan for startups to double the number of incubators and startups in the duration of
five years.
• MANAK Scheme: MANAK (Million Minds Augmenting National Aspirations and Knowledge)
intends to trigger innovations from annually 10 lakh school children throughout the country to
convert their ideas into prototypes, preparing the children for challenges of future like
innovation and entrepreneurship and helping them harness the power of their ideas.
• SATHI Scheme: Sophisticated Analytical & Technical Help Institutes (SATHI) intends to create
centres housing equipment dedicated to the needs of MSMEs and startups for rapid prototyping
developed at the cost of Rs 125 crore each to connect industry with academia.

Hypoxia
• It is a condition wherein there is not enough oxygen available to the blood and body tissues.
• Hypoxia can either be generalised, affecting the whole body, or local, affecting a region of the
body.
• Normal arterial oxygen is approximately 75 to 100 millimetres of mercury (mm Hg) and normal
pulse oximeter readings usually range from 95 to 100%.
• Values under 90% are considered low.
• When levels fall below 90%, patients could begin experiencing lethargy, confusion or mental
disruptions because of insufficient quantities of oxygen reaching the brain.
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 • Levels below 80% can result in damage to vital organs.

Silent Hypoxia
• It is a form of oxygen deprivation that is harder to detect than regular hypoxis because patients
appear to be less in distress.
• Covid pneumonia, a serious medical condition found in severe Covid-19 patients, is preceded by
silent hypoxia.
• Many Covid-19 patients with oxygen levels below 80% look at ease and alert. There have been a
few cases of oxygen levels below 50% as well.
• Those with such low levels of oxygen would normally appear extremely ill but not in silent
hypoxia cases.
• In many cases, Covid-19 patients with silent hypoxia did not exhibit symptoms such as shortness
of breath or coughing until their oxygen fell to acutely low levels, at which point there was a risk
of acute respiratory distress (ARDS) and organ failure.

Pulse Oximeter
• It is a test used to measure the oxygen level (oxygen saturation) of the blood.
• The device measures the saturation of oxygen in red blood cells (RBCs) and can be attached to a
person’s fingers, toes, nose, feet, ears or forehead.
• The method is easy and painless and the device can be reused or disposed of after use.
• It is generally used to check the health of patients with known conditions that affect blood
oxygen levels like heart and lung conditions.

Optoelectronics

• It is the study and application of electronic devices and systems that source, detect and control light,
usually considered a sub-field of photonics

Permanent wilting point (PWP)

Or wilting point (WP) is defined as the minimum amount of water in the soil that the plant requires not
to wilt.

A gene mutation
• It is a permanent alteration in the DNA sequence that makes up a gene, such that the
sequence differs from what is found in most people.
• Gene mutations can be classified in two ways:

o Hereditary mutations are inherited from a parent and are present throughout a person’s
life in virtually every cell in the body
o Acquired (or somatic) mutations occur at some time during a person’s life and are present
only IN certain cells, not in every cell in the body

What is styrene?
• It is a flammable liquid that is used in the manufacturing of polystyrene plastics, fiberglass,
rubber, and latex.
• Also known as ethenylbenzene, vinylbenzene, and phenylethene, Styrene is an organic
compound with the chemical formula C6H5CH=CH2.
• This derivative of benzene is a colorless oily liquid although aged samples can appear yellowish.
The compound evaporates easily and has a sweet smell, although high concentrations have a

28
 less pleasant odor..

Network Slicing
• Network slicing allows operators to separate the packet traffic layer from the control layer,
supporting multiple applications and services running in parallel for a range of users who
require different levels of quality, latency, and bandwidth.

National Cancer Grid

• National Cancer Grid (NCG) is a network of major cancer centers, research institutes, patient groups
and charitable institutions across India with the mandate of establishing uniform standards of
patient care for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer, providing specialized training
and education in oncology and facilitating collaborative basic, translational and clinical research
in cancer.
• It was formed in August 2012.
• NCG managed by Tata Memorial Centre (TMC)

Huntington Disease (HD)

• It is a progressive genetic disorder which affects the brain.

• It causes uncontrolled movements, impaired coordination of balance and movement, a decline in
cognitive abilities, difficulty in concentrating and memory lapses, mood swings and personality
changes.
• The HTT genes are involved in the production of a protein called huntingtin. They provide the
instruction for making the protein.
• Mutated genes provide faulty instructions leading to production of abnormal huntingtin
proteins and formation of clumps.
• These clumps disrupt the normal functioning of the brain cells, which eventually leads to death
of neurons in the brain, resulting in Huntington disease.
No cure exists, but drugs, physiotherapy and talk therapy can help manage some symptoms.

Augmented reality (AR)

• It adds digital elements to a live view often by using the camera on a smartphone. Examples of
augmented reality experiences include Snapchat lenses and the game Pokemon Go.

Virtual reality (VR)

• It implies a complete immersion experience that shuts out the physical world. Using VR devices
such as HTC Vive, Oculus Rift or Google Cardboard, users can be transported into a number of
real-world and imagined environments such as the middle of a squawking penguin colony or
even the back of a dragon.

Mixed Reality (MR)

• It experience, which combines elements of both AR and VR, real-world and digital objects
interact.
• Mixed reality technology is just now starting to take off with Microsoft’s Holo Lens one of the
most notable early mixed reality apparatuses.

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Extended Reality (XR)
• It is an umbrella term that covers all of the various technologies that enhance our senses,
whether they’re providing additional information about the actual world or creating totally
unreal, simulated worlds for us to experience.
• It includes Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) technologies.

Smart India Hackathon or SIH

• Is a flagship program and nationwide initiative by MHRD’s Innovation Cell (MIC) and AICTE.
• It provide students a platform to solve some of the pressing problems we face in our daily lives,
and thus to inculcate a culture of product innovation and to create a mindset to solve problems.

Arktika-M satellite
• To be Launched by Russia to monitor the Arctic climate and environment.
• Remote-sensing and emergency communications satellite

African Swine Fever (ASF)

• It is a highly contagious and fatal animal disease. It infects domestic and wild pigs, resulting in
hemorrhagic fever.
• first detected in Africa in the 1920s.
• mortality is close to 100%(reason - No Cure)
• spreading can only be stopped by culling the animals.
• not a threat to humans as it only spreads from animals to other animals.
• News - 2,800 pigs have died in Assam since February due to the virus

ASTRA Missiles
• News - India to increase the range of ASTRA missiles.
o It is Beyond-visual-range all-weather air-to-air missile developed by DRDO.
o first air-to-air missile developed by India.
o Current Target Range up to 110 kmPlanned Range would be 160km
o Speed - Mach 4.7
o They are integrated with Sukhoi Su-30 MKI aircrafts.
o There are also plans to integrate the missiles with other aircrafts like Dassault, MiG-29,
HALTejas.

Spike LR Missiles
• Recently, Indian Army successfully test fired these missiles at Mhow(MP)
• 4th generation Anti-Tank missileswith Fire and forget capabilityTarget Range up to 4 km.
• India - 33rd country in the world to have Spike missile.
• Developed by Israel. India acquired them through transfer of technology.
• It is man-portable and has its own vehicle-launch and helicopter-launch variants.

Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD)

• It is a quantitative estimate of the amount of aerosol present in the atmosphere.
• Measures the extinction of a ray of light as it passes through the atmosphere.
• Can be used as a proxy for surface PM2. 5
• News - aerosol levels in northern India at the beginning of April were the lowest in 20 years.
(Resason- Lockdown). Aerosols contribute significantly in DELHI-NCR Pollution.

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Aerosols

• Tiny solid and liquid particles suspended in the atmosphere are called aerosols
• Examples - Windblown dust, sea salts, volcanic ash, smoke from wildfires, pollutents from factories
etc
• Depending upon their size, type, and location, aerosols can either cool the surface, or warm it.

Cosmic Yeti Galaxy

• University of Arizona(USA) Scientists have discovered traces of a big galaxy called as ‘Cosmic
Yeti’ in early universe.
• 12.5 billion light years away
• The galaxy is producing stars at a rate 100 times faster than our own.
• Some of the biggest galaxies in early universe matured extremely quickly.
• The discovery provides new insights into the first growing steps of some of biggest galaxies in
universe.

International Space Station (ISS)

• It is a habitable artificial satellite in Low Earth orbit(average altitude 400km).

• Launched in 1998
• It is a joint project between five space agencies: NASA (USA), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA
(Europe), and CSA (Canada).
• ISS serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which crew members
conduct experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology, and other fields.
• It is used for testing of spacecraft systems and equipment required for missions to the Moon and
Mars.

Crew Dragon Demo-2 Mission

• Crewed spaceflight to the International Space Station(2 Astronauts would fly).
• To be launched on 27th May 2020 jointly by NASA and SpaceX.
• Launch Rocket-Falcon-9
Commercial Crew Programme
• It's for sending astronauts to International Space Station administered by NASA.
• Under the programme, the private vendors operate crew vehicles to carry astronauts to the
International Space Station.
Demo-1
• It was a Unmanned Space flight launched in March 2019.
• It was also a part of Commercial Crew Programme

Cartostat-3
• Its a imaging and mapping, third generation Earth observation satellite
• Launched by ISRO from Sriharikota in November 2019.
• Launch Vehicle - PSLV-C47, set into Sun Synchronous Orbit
Features of the satellite
• Panchromatic-Captures all visible colors of light
• Hyperspectral-Captures light from electromagnetic spectrum.
• Multispectral-Captures light within specific ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum.

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RT-LAMP
• It is a technique for the amplification of RNA. It is used in the detection of viruses.
• In this method, a DNA copy of the viral RNA is generated by reverse transcriptase, and then
isothermal amplification is carried out to increase the amount of total DNA.

ChitraGeneLAMP-N
• It is a diagnostic test kit that can confirm COVID19 in 2 hours at low cost.
• Developed by SreeChitraTirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum, an
Institute of National Importance, of the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
• The test detects the N Gene of SARS- COV2 using reverse transcriptase loop-mediated
amplification of viral nucleic acid (RT-LAMP).

MK 54 Lightweight Torpedo
• News - US govt has approved its Sale to India
• MK 54 lightweight torpedo was known as the Lightweight Hybrid Torpedo (LHT).
• It weighs around 608 pounds, while its warhead weighs around 96.8 pounds and is highly
explosive.
• These torpedoes are used by surface ships, fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters and are
primary anti-submarine warfare weapon.

Zoonosis

• It is an infectious disease caused by a pathogen( bacteria, viruses, parasites, etc), originated from
animals (usually vertebrates).
• Examples
CoVID-19, Ebola, Swine Flu etc

Symbiosis

It is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological
organisms, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasitic.

Blue Hole?

• It is a marine cavern(cavelike) formed by the dissolution of rocks rich in carbonates.

They are cut off from the ocean and do not receive freshwater from rains. They are anoxic in nature.
• InNews- recently YANGLEY Blue Hole was discovered in South China Sea, with 300 m depth it's the
largest Blue Hole known.

Geofencing
• Geofence is a virtual perimeter for a real-world geographic area.
• Geofencing is a location-based service in which an app or other software uses GPS, RFID, Wi-Fi
or cellular data to trigger a pre-programmed action when a mobile device or RFID tag enters or
exits a virtual boundary set up around a geographical location(geofence).
• News - States now Requires approval of HOME SECRETARY to get information from Dept of
Telecom on violations of Geofence

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Blood Plasma Therapy for COVID-19
• Technically called “convalescent-plasma therapy".
• It uses the immune power gained by a recovered person to treat a sick person.
• Blood serum from the person who has recovered from CoVID-19, rich in antibodies, is then
administered to a COVID-19 patient.

Antibodies?

• They are a Specific type of proteins secreted by immune cells called B lymphocytes when they
encounter an invader, such as a novel coronavirus.
• They identify and mark the invading virus and White blood cells gets rid of the infection.

Cytokine Storm?
• A cytokine storm is an overproduction of immune cells and their activating compounds
(cytokines).
• In a flu infection, it is often associated with a surge of activated immune cells into the lungs.
• The resulting lung inflammation and fluid buildup can lead to respiratory distress and can be
contaminated by a secondary bacterial pneumonia — often enhancing the mortality in patients.
• Of all the possible compounding effects of COVID-19, the cytokine storm is one of the most
feared.

MadhubanGajar - Biofortified Carrot

• Developed by Shri VallabhhaiVasrambhaiMarvaniya, a farmer scientist from Gujarat.
• Contains high β-carotene and iron content.

Genomic Sequencing

• It is a Technique used to read and interpret genetic information found within DNA or RNA.
• India became the fifth country in the world to sequence the genome of the
SARS-CoV2.

Applications

• It helps track the transmission route of the virus.

• To determine how quickly the virus is adapting as it spreads.
• It identifies targets to therapies, Vaccine n Anti Viral drug development

'TrueNat'
• A tuberculosis testing machine to be used for COVID-19 screening tests.
• Approved by ICMR

Positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus (or (+)ssRNA virus)

• It is a virus that uses positive sense single stranded RNA as its genetic material.
• Single stranded RNA viruses are classified as positive or negative depending on the sense or polarity
of the RNA.

33
 • The positive-sense viral RNA genome can serve as messenger RNA and can be translated into protein
in the host cell.

COVID-19 - Terms in News

Index Case
The first documented case of an infectious disease or genetically transmitted condition or mutation in a
population, region, or family.

Incubation period
It is the time elapsed between exposure to a pathogenic organism, a chemical, or radiation, and when
symptoms and signs are first apparent

SAANS: ‘Social Awareness and Action to Neutralise Pneumonia

• By the Union Ministry for Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) in November 2019
a mass awareness campaign to reduce child mortality due to pneumonia through mobilising
people for preventive practices such as breastfeeding, and age appropriate complementary
feeding, immunization, good quality air etc.
• To train health personnel and other stakeholders to provide prioritised treatment to control the
disease

Ultraviolet Light:
• UV light from the sun has shorter wave lengths, not visible to the naked eye.
• UV radiation’s classified into UV-A, UV-B and UV-C rays according to their wavelength.
• The shorter the wavelength, the more harmful the UV radiation
Classification
• UV-C:Short-wave length. most harmful but are completely absorbed by the Earth’s atmosphere
and does not reach the Earth’s surface.
• UV-B:Medium-wavelength.
• Biologically active but cannot penetrate beyond the superficial skin layers.
• Responsible for delayed tanning and burning.
• Exposure to UV-B rays can cause DNA and cellular damage in living organisms.
• UV-A:Relatively long-wavelength.
• Accounts for approximately 95% of the UV radiation reaching the Earth's surface.

Central Insecticides Board & Registration Committee(CIBRC)

• (CIBRC) was set up by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in the year 1970 to
regulate the import, manufacture, sale, transport, distribution and use of insecticides.
• The insecticides are regulated under Insecticides Act, 1968 and Insecticides Rules, 1971.
• The Central Insecticides Board (CIB) advises the Central Government and State Governments on
technical matters arising out of the administration of Insecticides Act
• To import or manufacture any insecticide, registration is required at the Registration
Committee.
• Scientists are studying the use of ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) to detect the virus in
public places and disinfect contaminated public spaces to stop the transmission of the virus.

Dark Fiber
• Dark Fiber also known as unlit Fiber is an unused optical fiber that has been laid but is not currently
being used in fiber-optic communications
• Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee (CIBRC) has recommended to ban the
use of antibiotics streptomycin and tetracycline
• Benefits of Streptomycin:
34
 o Important use for previously treated tuberculosis (TB) patients.
o Used in multidrug-resistant TB patients and in certain cases of TB meningitis (brain TB).
o The (WHO) recognises streptomycin as a critically important medicine for human use.

Scheme for Promotion of manufacturing of Electronic Components and

Semiconductors.( SPECS)
• The scheme aims to offer the financial incentive of 25% of capital expenditure for the
manufacturing of goods that constitute the supply chain of electronic products.
• The scheme will help offset the disability for domestic manufacturing of electronic components
and semiconductors in order to strengthen the electronic manufacturing ecosystem in the
country.

Dry ice, sometimes referred to as "Cardice" or as "card ice" is the solid form of
carbon dioxide.
• It is used primarily as a cooling agent.
• Its advantages include lower temperature than that of water ice and not leaving any residue
• It is useful for preserving frozen foods, ice cream, etc., where mechanical cooling is unavailable

Southern blotting

It is a laboratory technique used to detect a specific DNA sequence in a blood or tissue sample

National Cancer Tissue Biobank (NCTB),

It is a joint initiative of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India and
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

Huntington Disease (HD)

• It is a progressive genetic disorder which affects the brain.

• It causes uncontrolled movements, impaired coordination of balance and movement, a decline in
cognitive abilities, difficulty in concentrating and memory lapses, mood swings and personality
changes.
• The HTT genes are involved in the production of a protein called huntingtin. They provide the
instruction for making the protein.
• Mutated genes provide faulty instructions leading to production of abnormal huntingtin proteins and
formation of clumps.
• These clumps disrupt the normal functioning of the brain cells, which eventually leads to death of
neurons in the brain, resulting in Huntington disease.
• No cure exists, but drugs, physiotherapy and talk therapy can help manage some symptoms.

National Cancer Grid

• National Cancer Grid (NCG) is a network of major cancer centers, research institutes, patient
groups and charitable institutions across India with the mandate of establishing uniform
standards of patient care for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer, providing
specialized training and education in oncology and facilitating collaborative basic, translational
and clinical research in cancer.
• It was formed in August 2012.
35
 • NCG managed by Tata Memorial Centre (TMC)

Jumping Genes
• The scientists have recently discovered a technique using “jumping genes” for genetic editing. It
could offer a seamless, safer alternative to CRISPR-Cas9 process.
• The technique could allow edited genes to be more precisely inserted into genomes, possibly
addressing concerns with current CRISPR systems that can lead to off-target editing and random
deletions or even cancer.

Prebiotics
• Prebiotics are a group of nutrients that are degraded by gut microbiota.
• Prebiotics are non-digestible substances, found in fiber. They serve as food for probiotic bacteria
and stimulate their growth in the large intestine.
• They pass through the small intestine only partially digested, and so once they reach the colon,
they are able to be fermented by the bacteria there.

Network Slicing
Network slicing allows operators to separate the packet traffic layer from the control layer, supporting
multiple applications and services running in parallel for a range of users who require different levels of
quality, latency, and bandwidth.

What is styrene?
• It is a flammable liquid that is used in the manufacturing of polystyrene plastics, fiberglass,
rubber, and latex.
• Also known as ethenylbenzene, vinylbenzene, and phenylethene, Styrene is an organic
compound with the chemical formula C6H5CH=CH2.
• This derivative of benzene is a colorless oily liquid although aged samples can appear yellowish.
• The compound evaporates easily and has a sweet smell, although high concentrations have a
less pleasant odor..

Optoelectronics

• It is the study and application of electronic devices and systems that source, detect and control light,
usually considered a sub-field of photonics

What is Project Soli?

• Project Soli, driven by Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) team, was first showcased
back in 2015.
• The idea is that a radar chip can be used to detect hand movements and gestures to interpret what
they could mean.
• It’s only recently that Google figured out how to reduce the size of this radar chip and fit it on the
front of the smartphone, still ensuring accuracy

Vigyan Jyoti

• The programme aims to tap 100 girl students 550 districts from 2020-2025.

36
 • The programme comes under the aegis of Department of Science &Technology(DST).
• The programme will cover girl students grade 9 to 12. It will choose students based their percentile.

Radio frequency (RF)

It is the oscillation rate of an alternating electric current or voltage or of a magnetic, electric or

electromagnetic field or mechanical system in the frequency range from around 20 kHz to around 300
GHz.

Cold fusion is a hypothesized type of nuclear

• This reaction that would occur at, or near, room temperature.

• It would contrast starkly with the "hot" fusion that is known to take place naturally within stars
and artificially in hydrogen bombs and prototype fusion reactors under immense pressure and
at temperatures of millions of degrees, and be distinguished from muon-catalyzed fusion.
• There is currently no accepted theoretical model that would allow cold fusion to occur.

DNA OF THINGS (DOT)

• DoT encodes digital data into DNA molecules, which are then embedded into objects.
• While Internet of things is a system of inter-connected computing devices, DoT creates objects which
are independent storage objects.

Dollo’s law

• It is called as law of irreversibility.

• It states that an organism never returns exactly to a former state, even if it finds itself placed in
conditions of existence identical to those in which it has previously lived.
• It always keeps some trace of the intermediate stages through which it has passed.
• It simply means that evolution always moves forward and an organism cannot redevelop an organ
or attribute discarded by its ancestors

A Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)

• It uses focused beams of electrons to render high resolution, three dimensional images.
• These images provide information on topography, morphology, and composition.
• SEMs use a beam of electrons rather than a beam of light. An electron source located at the top of
the microscope emits a beam of highly concentrated electrons.

Tissue culture

• In tissue culture, new plants are grown by removing tissue or separating cells fromthe growing tip of
a plant.
• The cells are then placed in an artificial medium where they divide rapidly to form a small group of
cells or callus.

37
 • The callus is transferred to another medium containing hormones for growth and differentiation.
• The plantlets are then placed in the soil so that they can grow into mature plants. Using tissue
culture, many plants can be grown from one parent in disease-free conditions.
• This technique is commonly used for ornamental plants

Polyethylene Terephthalate(PET)

• It is a highly valued packaging material because it is strong yet lightweight, nonreactive, economical,
and shatterproof.
• It is a polymer of ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid.

PAROS

• The Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) is a UN resolution that advocates for a
ban on the weaponization of space
• It was conceived of during the Cold-war era
• The PAROS resolution acknowledges the limitations of Outer Space Treaty in preventing of an
arms race in outer space.

WHAT ARE AWACS?

• Known as ‘eyes in the sky’
• Air-borne radar systems mounted on aircrafts for scanningand surveillance.
• With a 360-degree span, they are deployed to carry outsurveillance on enemy Air Defence
systems and to prepare an Air Situation Picture useful in aerial combats.

CURRENT FLEET OF AWACS IN IAF

PHALCON
• AWACS procured from Israe.
NETRA
• Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) system indigenously developed by DRDO.
• Mounted on an Embraer aircraft was for the 1st time used in an aerial combat by IAF in the
Balakot airstrike

Global Bio-India Summit, 2019

• Global Bio-India Summit, 2019’ was held in Delhi. It was India’s first largest biotechnology conference
• It was organised by The Department of Biotechnology (under Ministry of Science and Technology)
and Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC).
• It showcased the potential of India’s biotech sector to the international community.
• BIRAC is a not-for-profit, Public Sector Enterprise, set up by Department of Biotechnology (DBT).
• It acts as an Interface Agency to strengthen and empower the emerging Biotech enterprise to
undertake strategic research and innovation, addressing nationally relevant product development
needs.

Muons

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 • Muons and other particles are produced when cosmic rays bombard air particles surrounding the
earth.
• The muons produced can have positive or negative charge. When a positively charged muon falls
through a cloud, it loses energy.

Glass Fibre Reinforced Gypsum Concrete

• Glass Fibre Reinforced Gypsum (GFRG) Panel known as Rapidwall is a building panel made-up of
calcined gypsum plaster, reinforced with glass fibers. The panel was originally developed by FRG
Building System Australia and since 1990 is being used for mass scale building construction.
• Now, these panels are being produced in India

The 14th National Health Profile (NHP) 201

• It is an annual publication released by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI).
• The first NHP was released in 2005.
• It covers all the major information on Demography, Socio-Economic Status, Disease Morbidity &
Mortality, Healthcare Finance, Human Resources in Health and Healthcare Infrastructure.

Green Propellants
• ISRO is developing green propellants for use in future rocket & satellite propulsion systems.
It has made a beginning by developing an eco-friendly solid propellant to eliminate the emission
of chlorinated exhaust products from rocket.
• The propellants are based on Glycidyl Azide Polymer (GAP) as fuel and Ammonium Di Nitramide
(ADN) as oxidizer.
• It has successfully developed ISROSENE, which is a rocket grade version of kerosene as an
alternative to conventional hydrazine rocket fuel.
• It has already used Liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen combination in cryogenic upper stage of GSLV
MK-III.

Helpline Bharosa
To relieve the distress of the student community during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government has
launched Central University of Odisha Helpline “Bharosa’

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 INDIAN ECONOMY
OPEN MARKET SALE SCHEME (OMSS)

• Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS) refers to selling of foodgrains by Government /

Government agencies at predetermined prices in the open market from time to time to
enhance the supply of grains especially during the lean season and thereby to moderate the
general open market prices especially in the deficit regions.
• In addition to maintaining buffer stocks and making a provision for meeting the requirement of
the Targeted Public Distribution Scheme and Other Welfare Schemes (OWS), Food Corporation
of India (FCI) on the instructions from the Government, sells wheat and rice in the open
market.
• For transparency in operations, the Corporation has switched over to e- auction for sale under
Open Market Sale Scheme (Domestic).
• The FCI conducts a weekly auction to conduct this scheme in the open market using the
platform of commodity exchange NCDEX (National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange
Limited).
• The State Governments/ Union Territory Administrations are also allowed to participate in
the e-auction, if they require wheat and rice outside TPDS & OWS

NCDEX (National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Limited)

• It was established in 2003 as a commodities exchange dealing primarily in agricultural

commodities in India with its headquarters in Mumbai.
• Barley, wheat, and soybeans are some of the leading agricultural commodities traded on the
NCDEX.

Special Liquidity Facility for Mutual Funds (SLF-MF)

• The SLF-MF is on-tap and open-ended and will be available to all LAF (liquidity adjustment
facility) eligible banks.
• On-tap is a term used to describe a feature where something is available whenever needed as
against during a particular period.
• Open-ended implies that there is no restriction on the amounts that banks are allowed to
borrow.
• LAF eligible banks: All the Scheduled Commercial Banks are eligible to participate in LAF
auctions except the Regional Rural Banks.
• Under it, the RBI shall conduct repo operations of 90 days tenor at the fixed repo rate.
• It means that RBI will lend money to banks at current repo rate of 4.4%.
• Funds availed under the SLF-MF must be used by banks exclusively for meeting the liquidity
requirements of MFs byo extending loans to MFs
• Uundertaking outright purchase of repos against the collateral of investment grade corporate
bonds, commercial papers (CPs), debentures and certificates of Deposit (CDs) held by MFs.

Investment Portfolio of Banks

• The banks are required to classify their entire investment portfolio under three categories viz.
Held to Maturity, Available for Sale and Held for Trading.

40
 • The investments under the Available for Sale and Held for Trading categories should be
marked to market periodically.
• Mark-to-market refers to the reasonable value of an account that can vary over a
period depending on assets and liabilities.

• Mark-to-market provides a realistic estimate of a financial situation.

• The investments under the Held to Maturity category need not be marked to market as in
the case of Permanent securities.

Targeted Long-term Repo Operations

• LTRO is a tool that lets banks borrow one to three-year funds from the RBI at the repo rate,
by providing government securities with similar or higher tenure as collateral.
• It is called 'Targeted' LTRO as in this case, the RBI wants banks opting for funds under this
option to be specifically invested in investment-grade bonds.
• The TLTRO was introduced by the RBI to help companies, including financial institutions,
manage their cash flow issues in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Restart of open market operations

• The Reserve Bank Of India (RBI) has decided to conduct simultaneous purchase and sale of
government securities under Open Market Operations (OMO) for ₹10,000 crore each on April
27, 2020 considering the current and evolving liquidity and market conditions.
• Such Open Market Operations are known as ‘Operation Twist,’ which was used by the RBI in
December, 2019 for the first time.

Open Market Operations

• Open Market Operations (OMO) is one of the quantitative monetary policy tools which
is employed by the central bank of a country to control the money supply in the
economy.
o Other monetary policy tools are such as repo rate, cash reserve ratio and statutory
liquidity ratio, etc.
• OMOs are conducted by the RBI by way of sale or purchase of government securities (g-
secs) to adjust money supply conditions.
o RBI carries out the OMO through commercial banks and does not directly deal with the
public.
• The central bank sells g-secs to remove liquidity from the system and buys back g-secs to
infuse liquidity into the system.

Government Security
• A G-Sec is a tradable instrument issued by the Central Government or the State
Governments.

41
 • It acknowledges the Government’s debt obligation. Such securities are:

o Short term securities

▪ They are usually called treasury bills, with original maturities of less than one
year- presently issued in three tenors, namely, 91 day, 182 day and 364 day.
o Long term securities

▪ They are usually called Government bonds or dated securities with original
maturity of one year or more.
• In India, the Central Government issues both treasury bills and bonds or dated
securities while the State Governments issue only bonds or dated securities, which are
called the State Development Loans (SDLs).
• G-Secs carry practically no risk of default and, hence, are called risk-free gilt-edged
instruments.

National Policy on Biofuels, 2018

▪ It categorises biofuels in various categories to enable extension of appropriate financial and
fiscal incentives under each category.
o Basic Biofuels or First Generation (1G): Bioalcohols, Biodiesel, etc.
o Advanced Biofuels or Second Generation (2G): Ethanol, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)
to drop-in fuels, etc.
o Third Generation (3G): Butanol.
o Fourth Generation (4G) : Fuel from genetically engineered crops.
▪ It expands the scope of raw material for ethanol production by allowing use of sugarcane
juice, sugar containing materials like sugar beet, sweet sorghum, starch containing materials
like corn, cassava, damaged food grains like wheat, broken rice, rotten potatoes which
are unfit for human consumption.
▪ Objective:
o To achieve 20% ethanol-blending and 5% biodiesel-blending by the year 2030.
o It also expands the scope of feedstock for ethanol production and has provided
for incentives for production of advanced biofuels.

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Commodity Markets Outlook
• It provides market analysis for major commodity groups - energy, metals, agriculture,
precious metals, and fertilizers.
• The report forecasts prices for 46 key commodities, including oil.
• It is published by the World Bank in April and October.

Open Budget Survey

• The Open Budget Survey is part of the International Budget Partnership's Open Budget
Initiative, a global research and advocacy program to promote public access to budget
information and the adoption of accountable budget systems.
• It is a biennial survey.
• The survey covers 117 countries.
• It rates the level of budget transparency across countries on a scale of 0-100, based on several
normative, internationally comparable indicators.

International Budget Partnership

▪ The International Budget Partnership (IBP) is a collaborative effort of multiple actors –
including civil society, state actors, international institutions and the private sector.
▪ IBP was formed in 1997 to promote transparent and inclusive government budget processes
as a means to improve governance and service delivery in the developing world.

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 ▪ It intends to bring citizens participation in open, inclusive budgeting processes to shape
policies and practices that promote equity and justice on a sustainable basis.
o IBP’s focus on citizens and civil society organizations (CSOs) was driven by the
pioneering civil society budget monitoring efforts in a small number of middle-income
countries in the early 1990s.
▪ IBP’s ultimate aim is to ensure that public resources are used more effectively to fight poverty
and promote equitable and sustainable development in countries around the world.

Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, 2003

▪ The FRBM Act was enacted by the Parliament in 2003 to institutionalize fiscal discipline,
reduce fiscal deficit, and improve macroeconomic management.
▪ The government was supposed to wipe out revenue deficit and cut fiscal deficit to 3% of GDP
by 2008-09, thus bringing much needed fiscal discipline.
o Fiscal deficit is the total expenditure excluding revenue receipts, loan recoveries and
receipts from disinvestment etc. It is a measure of the government borrowing in a year.
▪ The Act applies only to the central government and the States have to enact suitable
legislation to adopt the rules under the FRBM Act.
▪ The implementation of the Act was put on hold in 2007-08 due to the global financial crisis
and the need for fiscal stimulus.
▪ In 2012, the FRBM Act was amended and it was decided that the FRBM Act would target an
effective revenue deficit in place of revenue deficit.
o Effective revenue deficit excludes capital expenditure from revenue deficit and thus
provides space to the government to spend on formation of capital assets.
▪ In 2017, the FRBM Review Committee headed by former Revenue Secretary, NK
Singh submitted its report to the Central Government. Few important recommendations
being-
o A debt to GDP ratio of 60% should be targeted with a 40% limit for the centre and 20%
limit for the states;
o Creation of an autonomous Fiscal Council;
o An “escape clause”, i.e. the government can deviate from the targets in case of a national
calamity, national security, etc.
• The government used an escape route in its Budget for FY20, by taking a deviation of 0.5
percentage points from the fiscal deficit targets set out earlier.
▪ During the presentation of the Budget 2020-21, the government fixed the fiscal deficit target
for the year 2020-21 at 3.5% of the GDP.

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MSMEs in India

o In February 2018, the Union Cabinet decided the criterion of an annual turnover (in line
with the imposition of GST) for defining MSMEs.

• Formally, MSMEs were defined in terms of investment in plant and

machinery/equipment. But this criterion for the definition was criticized because credible
and precise details of investments were not easily available by authorities.
According to the proposed definition (which is yet to be formally accepted), the categorisation
would be:
• Micro Enterprise : An annual turnover less than Rs 5 crores.
• Small Enterprise : An annual turnover between Rs 5 crores and Rs 75 crores.
• Medium Enterprise: An annual turnover less than Rs 250 crores.
Statistical Data about MSMEs in India:
• Total Number of MSMEs: According to the Annual Report of the Department of MSMEs
(2018-19), there are 6.34 crore MSMEs in the country.
• Rural-Urban Distribution: Around 51% of these are situated in rural India and 49% of
them are situated in urban India.
• Employment: Both rural and urban MSMEs together employ over 11 crore people but
55% of the employment happens in the urban MSMEs.
• Category-wise Distribution: 99.5% of all MSMEs fall in the micro category. While micro
enterprises are equally distributed over rural and urban India, small and medium ones
are predominantly in urban India.
• Social Distribution of MSMEs: About 66 % of all MSMEs are owned by people belonging
to the Scheduled Castes (12.5%), the Scheduled Tribes (4.1%) and Other Backward
Classes (49.7%).
• Gender Ratio in MSMEs: The gender ratio among employees is largely consistent across
the board at roughly 80% male and 20% female.
• Geographical Distribution: Seven Indian states account for 50 % of all MSMEs. These are
Uttar Pradesh (14%), West Bengal (14%), Tamil Nadu (8%), Maharashtra (8%),
Karnataka (6%), Bihar (5%) and Andhra Pradesh (5%).

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“RESTART” Conference
A digital conference on ‘Rebooting the Economy through Science, Technology, and Research
Translations (RESTART)’ was organised on the occasion of the National Technology Day (May 11).

▪ The conference was organized by the Technology Development Board (TDB), an

autonomous organization of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) along with
the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
▪ CII is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry-led and industry-managed organization.

CHAMPIONS Portal for MSME

Recently, the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) has launched CHAMPIONS
portal.

▪ The CHAMPIONS stands here for Creation and Harmonious Application of Modern
Processes for Increasing the Output and National Strength.
▪ It is a technology driven Control Room-Cum-Management Information System which
utilises modern information and communication technology (ICT) tools.
o In addition to ICT tools including telephone, internet and video conference, the system is
enabled by Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics and Machine Learning.
o It is also fully integrated on a real time basis with the Government of India’s main
grievances portal Centralized Public Grievances Redress and Monitoring
System (CPGRAMS) and the Ministry’s other web based mechanisms.
o The entire ICT architecture is created in house with the help of the National Informatics
Centre.

Economic Stimulus-I

Recently, the Union Finance Minister announced liquidity measures for businesses, especially Micro,
Small and Medium enterprises (MSMEs), as part of the first tranche of Atmanirbhar Bharat
Abhiyan.

▪ The announced measures also form a part of the Rs. 20-lakh-crore economic stimulus
package to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.
▪ This economic stimulus includes both liquidity financing measures and credit guarantees.

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Salaried Workers and Taxpayers:
• The deadline for income tax returns for the financial year 2019-20 has been extended, with
the due date now pushed to November 30, 2020.
• The rates of Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) and Tax Collection at Source (TCS) have been cut
by 25% for the FY 2020-21.
• The statutory Provident Fund (PF) payments have been reduced from 12% to 10% for
both employers and employees for the next three months.

NBFCs, Housing Finance Companies and Microfinance Institutions:

• Many of these institutions serve the MSME sector financially and will be supported through a
Rs.30,000 crore investment scheme fully guaranteed by the Centre.
• Further, an expanded partial credit guarantee scheme worth Rs.45,000 crores also has
been offered, of which the first 20% of losses will be borne by the Centre.
o For instance, if the government provides a 100% credit guarantee up to an amount of Rs
1 crore to a firm, it means that a bank can lend Rs 1 crore to that firm; in case the firm
fails to pay back, the government will repay all of Rs 1 crore. If this guarantee was for
the first 20% of the loan, then the government would guarantee to pay back only Rs 20
lakh.

Power Distribution Companies:

• As these companies are facing an unprecedented cash flow crisis and thus will receive Rs.
90,000 crore liquidity injection.

Real Estate and Contractors:

• Contractors (those dealing with the construction/ works and goods and services contracts)
will get a six month extension for completion of work from all Central agencies, and also get
partial bank guarantees to ease their cash flows.
• Registered real estate projects will get a six-month extension for registration and completion
of Real Estate Projects under Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA) with
Covid-19 to be treated as a “force majeure” event.
o A Force Majeure (FM) means extraordinary events or circumstances beyond human
control such as an event described as an Act of God (like a natural calamity).

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Global Tenders to be Disallowed:
• Indian MSMEs and other companies have often faced unfair competition from foreign
companies and would be difficult to compete in the future due to Covid-19 pandemic.
• Therefore, global tenders will be disallowed in government procurement tenders upto
Rs 200 crores.

Liquidity Measures for Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs)

• New Definition of MSMEs:
The definition of an MSMEs has been expanded to allow for higher investment limits and
the introduction of turnover-based criteria.
o Earlier MSMEs were defined on the basis of the limit of investment in machinery or
equipment.
o The ‘turnover’ is the more efficient way to identify an MSME as it allows a lot of firms,
especially in the services sector like mid-sized hospitals, hotels and diagnostic centres to
be eligible for benefits as an MSME.
• There will be no difference between a manufacturing MSME and a services MSMEs.

Infusion of Liquidity:
• Instead of directly infusing money into the economy or giving it directly to MSMEs,the
government will offer credit guarantees for MSMEs.
• Emergency Credit Line: The collateral free loans of worth Rs. 3 lakh crores will be
available for MSMEs. It will ensure access to working capital to resume business activity and
safeguard jobs for 45 lakh MSMEs.
• The above measure is available for MSMEs that have an already outstanding loan of Rs. 25
crore or those with a turnover less than Rs 100 crore.
• The loans will have a tenure of 4 years and they will have a moratorium of 12 months (that
is, the payback starts only after 12 months).
• Subordinate Debt Scheme : The loans of amount Rs 20,000 crore will be provided to MSMEs
that were already categorised as “stressed”, or struggling to pay back.
o In this case, the government provides partial guarantee.

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 • Equity Infusion: Fund of Funds with corpus of Rs 10,000 crores will be set up which will
provide equity funding for MSMEs with growth potential and viability.

Credit Guarantees to MSMEs

Description:
• A Credit Guarantee Schemes (CGS) by the government assures the bank that its loan will
be repaid by the government in case the MSME falters.

Reasons for Introduction of CGS:

• Though, there was an option to pump liquidity via the banks but banks suspect any new loans
due to rising Non-Performing Assets (NPAs).
• Thus, the government faced a dual problem where banks had the money but were not willing
to lend to the credit-starved sections of the economy, while the government itself did not
have enough money to directly help the economy.
• The credit guarantees solve dual issues faced by the government.
Implications:
▪ Such CGS creates moral hazards as borrowers remain assured of paying back and the lender
remains assured of receiving credit amounts. Subsequently, the government is forced to pay
the amount.

Economic Stimulus-II
Recently, the Union Finance Minister announced the short term and long-term measures for supporting
the poor, including migrants, farmers, tiny businesses and street vendors as part of the second tranche
of Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.

▪ The announced measures also form a part of the ₹20 lakh crore economic stimulus package to
deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.
▪ Earlier, the Economic Stimulus-I was announced which includes both liquidity
financing measures and credit guarantees.
Key Points

Free Food Grains Supply

▪ Allocation of additional food grain to all the States/UTs (5 kg per migrant labourer and 1
kg chana per family per month) for two months (May and June, 2020) free of cost.
o This move is an extension of the Pradhan Mantri Gharib Kalyan Yojana.
▪ Eligibility: Migrant labourers not covered under National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013
or without a ration card in the State/UT in which they are stranded at present.
o There are an estimated 8 crore migrant workers, housed in government and privately
run relief camps across the country since the lockdown.
▪ The entire outlay of ₹3500 crore will be borne by the Government of India.

One Nation One Ration Card

• 67 crore beneficiaries covering 83% of Public Distribution System (PDS) population will be
covered by National portability of Ration cards by August, 2020 and 100% National
portability will be achieved by March, 2021.
• One Nation One Ration Card is part of Technology Driven System Reforms and will
enable migrant workers and their family members to access PDS benefits from any Fair
Price Shop in the country.

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 o This will ensure that the people in transit, especially migrant workers can also get the
PDS benefit across the country.

Scheme for Affordable Rental Housing Complexes for Migrant Workers and Urban Poor
▪ This scheme will be launched soon and under this, the Central Government will provide ease
of living at affordable rent.
▪ Under this:
• Government funded houses in the cities will be converted into Affordable Rental
Housing Complexes (ARHC) under PPP mode (Public Private Partnerships) through
concessionaires.

Interest Subvention for Shishu MUDRA loanees

▪ Government of India will provide Interest subvention of 2% for prompt payees for a period
of 12 months to MUDRA Shishu loanees, who have loans below ₹50,000.
▪ The current portfolio of MUDRA Shishu loans is around ₹1.62 Lakh crore. This will
provide relief of about ₹1,500 crore to Shishu MUDRA loanees.

Credit Facility for Street Vendors

▪ A scheme will be launched to facilitate easy access to credit to Street vendors and enable
them to restart their businesses.
▪ It is expected that 50 lakh street vendors will be benefited under this scheme and credit
of ₹5,000 crore would be provided.
▪ Bank credit facilities for initial working capital up to ₹10,000 for each enterprise will be
extended.

Extension of Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme

• The Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme for Middle Income Group (MIG, annual income
between ₹6 and ₹18 lakhs) will be extended up to March 2021.
• This subsidy scheme comes under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban).
▪ This will benefit 2.5 lakhs middle income families during 2020-21 and will lead
to investment of over ₹70,000 crore in housing sector.
▪ This will create a significant number of jobs by giving a boost to the Housing sector and will
stimulate demand for steel, cement, transport and other construction materials.

Creating Employment using CAMPA Funds

▪ Approximately ₹6,000 crore of funds under Compensatory Afforestation Management &
Planning Authority (CAMPA) will be used.
▪ The funds will be utilised in afforestation and plantation works, artificial regeneration, forest
management, soil & moisture conservation works, forest protection, forest and wildlife
related infrastructure development, wildlife protection and management etc.
▪ Government will grant immediate approval to these plans which will create job
opportunities in urban, semi-urban and rural areas and also for Tribals.

Additional Emergency Working Capital through NABARD

▪ National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) will extend additional
re-finance support of ₹30,000 crore for meeting crop loan requirements
of Rural Cooperative Banks (RCBs) and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs).
• This refinance will be front-loaded (uneven distribution with a greater proportion at
one time and smaller ones at other time) and available immediately.
▪ This is over and above ₹90,000 crore that will be provided by NABARD to this sector in the
normal course.
▪ This will benefit around 3 crore farmers, mostly small and marginal and will meet their
post-harvest Rabi and current Kharif requirements.

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Credit Boost to Kisan Credit Card Scheme
▪ It is a special drive to provide concessional credit to Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman
Nidhi (PM-KISAN) beneficiaries through Kisan Credit Cards.
▪ It will inject additional liquidity of ₹2 lakh crore in the farm sector.
▪ 2.5 crore farmers will be covered and fisherman and animal husbandry farmers will also
be included in this drive.

Various surveys
▪ Employment and Unemployment Surveys (EUS) conducted by National Sample Survey
(NSS)
▪ Economic Census is conducted by NSO, MoSPI and has no fixed periodicity and recently the 7th
Economic Census was conducted (2019).
▪ Periodic Labour Force Survey is conducted by National Statistics Office (NSO) to produce
annual statistics of employment and unemployment characteristics for both rural and urban
areas, along with quarterly estimates for urban areas.
▪ Census (of the population) is conducted by Registrar General and Census Commissioner
under Ministry of Home Affairs after every 10 years. The 2020 census will be digital.
▪ Annual Labour Force Survey by Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE)

Duty credit scrip

▪ Duty credit scrip is an important export promotion incentive (under Foreign Trade Policy 2015-
20) provided by the government to exporters in which government gives tax incentives to the
exporters.
▪ The government gives a receipt/paper to the exporter worth some percentage (2% to 5%) of the
export value.
▪ This paper the exporter can use to adjust against tax payment for example import duty on raw
materials used for exports or other taxes on manufacturing processes.

Rent seeking
▪ Rent seeking means engaging in or involving in the manipulation of public policy or economic
conditions as a strategy for increasing profits.
▪ For example, lobbying for government contracts by changing the terms and conditions of the
bidding contract.

Companies Fresh Start Scheme, 2020 and revised LLP Settlement Scheme, 2020
▪ Ministry of Corporate Affairs introduces the “Companies Fresh Start Scheme, 2020” and
revised the “LLP Settlement Scheme, 2020” to provide relief to law abiding companies and
Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) in the wake of COVID 19.
▪ These schemes incentivise compliance and reduce compliance burden during the unprecedented
public health situation caused by COVID-19.

What is a LLP?
▪ A Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) is a partnership in which some or all partners have limited
liability. It therefore exhibits elements of partnerships and corporations.
▪ In an LLP, one partner is not responsible or liable for another partner’s misconduct or
negligence.

Business Immunity Platform:

▪ The platform is designed as a comprehensive resource to help businesses and investors get real-
time updates on India’s active response to COVID-19 (Coronavirus).
▪ This dynamic and constantly updating platform keeps a regular track on developments with
respect to the virus, provides latest information on various central and state government
initiatives, gives access to special provisions, and answers and resolves queries through emails
and on WhatsApp.

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 ▪ It is the active platform for business issue redressal, operating 24/7, with a team of dedicated
sector experts and responding to queries at the earliest.

Samadhan challenge
▪ The Innovation Cell of the Ministry of Human Resources Development and All India Council for
Technical Education in collaboration with Forge and InnovatioCuris launched a mega online
challenge – SAMADHAN – to test the ability of students to innovate.
▪ The students participating in this challenge will search and develop such measures that can be
made available to the government agencies, health services, hospitals and other services for
quick solutions to the Coronavirus epidemic and other such calamities.

Wings India 2020

▪ Wings India 2020, a flagship event of the Indian Civil Aviation industry will be held at Begumpet
Airport, Hyderabad from 12-15 March 2020. It is organized by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Govt. of
India, AAI and FICCI.
▪ ‘Wings India 2020’- a four-day event themed: “Flying for All’’ is an international platform focused on
the new business acquisition, investments, policy formation and regional connectivity in the civil
aviation industry.

Crowdfunding

▪ It is a method of raising capital through the collective effort of a large number of individual
investors.
▪ This approach taps into the collective efforts of a large pool of individuals, primarily online via social
media and crowdfunding platforms and leverages their networks for greater reach and exposure.

Currency Depreciation
▪ Currency depreciation is a fall in the value of a currency in a floating exchange rate system.
▪ In a floating exchange rate system, market forces (based on demand and supply of a currency)
determine the value of a currency.

Rupee depreciation
▪ It means that rupee has become less valuable with respect to dollar.
▪ Some of the factors that influence the value of a currency:
1) Inflation
2) Interest rates
3) Trade deficit
4) Macroeconomic policies
5) Equity market. etc

Food Corporation of India (FCI)

▪ FCI is a Public Sector Undertaking, under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public
Distribution.
▪ It was established as a statutory body in 1965 under the Food Corporations Act 1964.
▪ It was established against the backdrop of a major shortage of grains, especially wheat.

Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), 2010

▪ Foreign funding of voluntary organizations in India is regulated under FCRA act and is
implemented by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

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 ▪ The Acts ensures that the recipients of foreign contributions adhere to the stated purpose for which
such contribution has been obtained.
▪ Under the Act, organisations are required to register themselves every five years.

Effective Labour Input (ELI) Method

Earlier, it was assumed that all categories of workers contribute equally. New method addresses
differential labour productivity issue by assigning weights to different categories of workers based on
their productivity.

Total Factor Productivity (TFP)

▪ It is ratio of total Output (e.g. GDP) and weighted average of inputs (e.g. labour & capital).
▪ A higher TFP implies higher growth with the same set of labour and capital employed.

Gender Social Norms Index

The first Gender Social Norms Index was recently released by the UN Development Programmme
(UNDP).

About the index

▪ This index measures how social beliefs obstruct gender equality in areas like politics, work, and
education, and contains data from 75 countries, covering over 80 percent of the world’s
population.
▪ The index found new clues to the invisible barriers women face in achieving equality –
potentially forging a path forward to breaking through the so-called “glass ceiling”.

Acceptance Development Fund

▪ RBI announced setting up of Acceptance Development Fund to improve the last- mile payments
network in rural India to transact digitally.
▪ It will be operationalized as a banksponsored development fund solely to improve payment
infrastructure in Indian small towns and villages especially in Tier III to Tier VI centers, where
most daily transactions are in cash.

CATEGORIES OF NBFCS
▪ Asset Finance Company : Principal business is financing physical assets such as automobiles,
tractors, housing etc.
▪ Investment Company : Principal business is acquisition of securities.
▪ Loan Company : Principal business of providing loans
▪ Infrastructure Finance Company : NBFC that deploys at least 75% of its total assets in
infrastructure loans
▪ Infrastructure Debt Fund : NBFC to facilitate the flow of long term debt into infrastructure
projects
▪ NBFC-MFI : Provides Microfinance

REGULATION OF NBFCS
▪ Different categories of NBFCs are regulated by different regulators
▪ Most NBFCs are regulated by RBI, however not all.
▪ Venture Capital Fund/Merchant Banking companies/Stock broking companies are
registered with SEBI.
▪ The Insurance Companies are regulated by IRDA
▪ Chit Fund Companies are regulated by the respective State Governments
▪ Nidhi Companies are regulated by Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India

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HELICOPTER MONEY
▪ It is a hypothetical concept put forward by the economist, Milton Friedman.
▪ This involves the central bank of the country printing currency notes and distributing it to the
people free of cost. The idea here is to promote demand in the economy during recession.

Database on Indian Economy (DBIE)

▪ The Database on Indian Economy (DBIE) is the most popular data communication channel of
disseminating large volume of macro-economic and financial sector data for researchers, market
participants and various other stakeholders.
▪ It is launched by RBI.

TYPES OF CAPITAL
For the purposes of CRAR, the capital of the banks is classified as Tier 1 Capital and Tier 2 capital

TIER 1 CAPITAL
▪ Also called ‘Core Capital’ it majorly constitutes the investment by the owners of the bank.
(Shareholders)
▪ Thus it majorly represents equity and disclosed reserves
TIER 2 CAPITAL
▪ It represents “supplementary capital” such as undisclosed reserves, revaluation reserves,
general loan-loss reserves, hybrid (debt/equity) capital instruments, and subordinated debt of
the financial institution. etc.

SERVICE TRADE RESTRICTIVE INDEX

▪ Ministry of Commerce and Industry, of India has found problems with the current methodology
of Services Trade Restrictiveness Index developed by OECD.
▪ Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) will develop a Services Trade Restrictiveness Index for
India.
▪ OECD releases Services Trade Restrictive Index.

WIPO TREATIES
▪ The Union Cabinet has approved the proposal for India’s Accession to the Nice, Vienna and
Locarno Agreements dealing with examination of trademarks and designs.
▪ All these multi-lateral agreements are administered by WIPO.
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NEGATIVE INTEREST RATE POLICY (NIRP)
▪ Under the NIRP, the banks would be required to pay interest to the central bank if they park
their surplus reserves.
▪ This encourages the banks to provide loans to the borrowers at cheaper rates instead of parking
their surplus reserves with the Central Bank.
▪ This policy is usually followed in developed economies such as Japan, Denmark, Sweden,
Switzerland etc.

LONG TERM REPO OPERATIONS (LTRO)

▪ New policy tool used by the RBI to inject more liquidity into the Economy.
▪ Similar to the term repos, but with a longer maturity period of 1 year and 3 years.
▪ Through the LTRO, the RBI seeks to inject long term liquidity into the economy at a lower
interest rate.

CACP recommends MSP based on the following formula

▪ A2+FL costs formula may be used for fixation of MSP.
▪ A2+FL considers actual cost plus imputed value of family labour in the production of a
crop.

DIGITAL SERVICES TRADE RESTRICTIVENESS INDEX

▪ Released by OECD
▪ It measures barriers that affect trade in digitally enabled services across all OECD and countries.

PRODUCE Fund
▪ Producers Organization Development and Upliftment Corpus (PRODUCE) Fund.
▪ Government had created PRODUCE Fund with a corpus of Rs 200 crore in NABARD for the
promotion of 2,000 FPOs in the country.

A government bond or sovereign bond

▪ A government bond or sovereign bond is a form of debt that the government undertakes
wherein it issues bonds with the promise to pay periodic interest payments and also repay the
entire face value of the bond on the maturity date.
▪ So far, the government has only issued bonds in the domestic market.
▪ Sovereign bonds can be denominated in both foreign and domestic currency.

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FDI trend
• DPIIT is the nodal agency for FDI .
• FIPB has been abolished .
Two ways of FDI
1) Automatic route and
2) Approval route .
• Singapore is top investment country and mauritious is second in FDI.
Among sectors, telecommunications garnered the maximum FDI at $4.2 billion, followed by
services sector ($2.8 billion)

ADVANCED ULTRA SUPER CRITICAL (AUSC) THERMAL POWER

PLANT
• World's first AUSC will be constructed at NTPC's Sipat power plant in Chhattisgarh. (It is a JV of
BHEL and NTPC).
• It will be 800 MW technology demonstration plant. Once operational it will be most efficient
power plant in the world.
• Developed of AUSC power plant is part of National Action Plan for Climate Change.

ULTRA MEGA RENEWABLE ENERGY POWER PARKS (UMREPP)

Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has developed a scheme to develop UMREPP under the
existing Solar Park Scheme.

BEEKEEPING DEVELOPMENT
• Beekeeping development committee report . Committee was headed by Bibek Debroy
• India is 8th largest producer of honey in the world. (China is first).

Flagship Reports of ILO:

• World Employment and Social Outlook
• World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends
• Global Wage Report
• World Social Protection Report.

HOW IS GI TAG DIFFERENT FROM A TRADE MARK?

• A trade mark is a sign which is used in the course of trade and it distinguishes goods or
services of one enterprise from those of other enterprises.
• Whereas a geographical indication is an indication used to identify goods having
special characteristics originating from a definite geographical territory.

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TOBIN TAX
• It is a proposal of imposing a small tax on all foreign exchange transactions with the
objective to discourage destabilizing speculation and volatility in the foreign exchange
markets.
• Proposed by the Nobel prize-winning economist James Tobin (1918–2002). It is more
formally known today as a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT), or less formally a Robin Hood tax.

Sukhna Lake

• It is a rain-fed lake, located within Chandigarh and its catchment area falls both in Punjab and
Haryana.
• The Punjab and Haryana High Court has invoked its parens patriae jurisdiction to declare the lake as
a legal entity for its survival, preservation and conservation.
• Earlier, the Uttarakhand High Court declared the rivers Yamuna and Ganga as legal or juridical
persons, enjoying all the rights, duties and liabilities of a living person.

Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Shramev Jayate Karyakram

• It is an umbrella scheme with five scheme under it as follows

• A dedicated Shram Suvidha Portal: That would allot Labour Identification Number (LIN) to nearly 6
lakhs units and allow them to file online compliance for 16 out of 44 labour laws
• An all-new Random Inspection Scheme: Utilizing technology to eliminate human discretion in
selection of units for Inspection, and uploading of Inspection Reports within 72 hours of inspection
mandatory
• Universal Account Number: Enables 4.17 crore employees to have their Provident Fund account
portable, hassle-free and universally accessible
• Apprentice Protsahan Yojana: Will support manufacturing units mainly and other establishments by
reimbursing 50% of the stipend paid to apprentices during first two years of their training.
• Revamped Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana: Introducing a Smart Card for the workers in the
unorganized sector seeded with details of two more social security scheme

Debt financing

Debt financing means when a firm raises money for working capital or capital expenditures by selling
bonds, bills, or notes to individual and/or institutional investors. In return for lending the money, the
individuals or institutions become creditors and receive a promise to repay principal and interest on the
debt

Under investment
An underinvestment problem is an agency problem between shareholders and debt holders where a
leveraged company foregoes valuable investment opportunities because debt holders would capture a
portion of the benefits of the project, leaving insufficient returns to shareholders

Debt overhang
Debt overhang refers to a debt burden so large that an entity cannot take on additional debt to finance
future projects. The burden is so large that all earnings pay off existing debt rather than fund new
investment projects, making the potential for defaulting higher. Debt overhangs can lead to
57
underinvestment, which stunts growth, making recovery even more difficult.

Growth recession
An expression coined by economists to describe an economy that is growing at such a slow pace that
more jobs are being lost than are being added.

The lack of job creation makes it ‘feel’ as if the economy is in a recession, even though the economy is
still advancing.

Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve (ISPRL)

• Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL) is an Indian company responsible for
maintaining the country's strategic petroleum reserves.
• ISPRL is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Oil Industry Development Board (OIDB), which
functions under the administrative control of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
• ISPRL maintains an emergency fuel store of strategic crude oil enough to provide 10 days of
consumption Strategic crude oil storages are at three underground locations in Mangalore,
Visakhapatnam and Padur (Udupi, Karnataka).
• Indian refiners maintain 65 days of crude storage, so India has overall reserve oil storage of 87
days.
• ISPRL have been filling ISPRL’s caverns at Mangaluru and Udupi with crude oil to make the
best use of the low international crude prices.

BILATERAL NETTING
• A bilateral netting agreement enables two counterparties in a financial contract to offset claims
against each other to determine a single net payment obligation that is due from one
counterparty to the other.
• Indian financial contract laws do not permit bilateral netting, however, they do allow multi-
lateral netting where parties can offset claims against each other through a central counterparty.

Significant Economic Presence

• The government had introduced the concept of significant economic presence (SEP) in line with
its plan to tax digital companies in the Finance Act, 2018.
• SEP was defined to mean, among other things, systematic and continuous soliciting of business
activities or engaging in interaction with such number of users as may be prescribed in India
through digital means.
• This provision was earlier proposed to be effective from assessment year 2021-22, but has now
been deferred to 2022-23.

Golidilock economy
A concept of economy where economy of country is not to hot and not to cold.

Apiary on Wheels
• ‘Apiary on Wheels’, a unique concept designed by KVIC (Ministry of Micro,Small & Medium
Enterprises) for the easy upkeep and migration of Bee Boxes having live Bee colonies,
• Apiary on Wheels is a platform which can carry 20 Bee Boxes from one place to another without
any difficulty.

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WHAT IS HORTICULTURE?
• Horticulture is the branch of agriculture concerned with intensively cultured plants directly
used by man for food, medicinal purposes and aesthetic gratification.
• It is the cultivation, production and sale of vegetables, fruits, flowers, herbs, ornamental or
exotic plants.

TYPES OF HORTICULTURE
• Pomology: Planting, harvesting, storing, processing, and marketing of fruit and nut crops.
• Olericulture: Producing and marketing vegetables.
• Arboriculture: Study, selection and care of individual trees, shrubs or other perennial woody
plants.
• Ornamental Horticulture: It has two subparts-
• Floriculture: Production, use and marketing of floral crops.
• Landscape Horticulture: Production and marketing of plants used to beautify the outdoor
environment

REFINED OIL PALM IN RESERVED CATEGORY OF IMPORTS

• Director General of Foreign Trade has changed import category of imported Oil Palm
from 'free list' to 'restricted list'.
• Putting refined palm oil in restricted category means an importer will require license or
permission for inbound shipment.
• This restriction is product specific and not country specific

Stable coin
Stable coin is a type of crypto currency whose price is backed by a reserve asset like gold / dollar / fiat
currency e.g. Facebook’s proposed ‘Libra’, Tether, Base coin, and True USD.

‘Libra’
• It is a blockchain based cryptocurrency to be launched in 2020 by Facebook's subsidiary
company 'Calibra', using programming language 'Move.
• Unlike Bitcoin, this Libra coin’s exchange rate will be stable because Libra's value backed with
Financial assets like G-sec, fiat currencies.
• You can buy Libra with Fiat Money → stored in Calibra wallet. Libra can also be reconverted to
fiat money.

Gross Fixed Capital Formation

• Gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) refers to the net increase in physical assets (investment
minus disposals).
• It does not account for the consumption (depreciation) of fixed capital.
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 • It is a component of expenditure approach to calculating Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
• GFCF is not a measure of total investment, because only the value of net additions to fixed assets
is measured, and all kinds of financial assets, as well as stocks of inventories and other operating
costs are excluded.

INNOVATORS GROWTH PLATFORM

• Platform on stock exchanges where start-ups can list and trade on their shares.
• It is a platform where listing norms such as IPO norms, pre-issue capital etc are eased for start
ups

Pay Commission: Associated terms

• Dearness Allowance (DA): It’s given by an employer to protect the employees against rise in
inflation. In government services, both working employees and retired pensioners are given dearness
allowance.
• House Rent Allowance (HRA:): rent allotted by the employer for employee's accommodation
(house).
• Gratuity : It’s a lump sum amount “x” given by an employer to the employee for rendering services
continuously for “y” number of years. Usually given at retirement. Norms governed under Payment
of Gratuity Act, 1972
• One Rank One Pension (OROP): 2015 govt. promised equal pension to military personnel retiring in
the same rank with the same length of service, regardless of the date of retirement. Although, Ex-
servicemen unhappy about the base year & calculation formula.

Fiscal Slippage
If government has targeted to keep the fiscal deficit within 3.3% percent of GDP, but if it crosses that limit,
it’s called ‘Fiscal Slippage’

Fiscal Glide
in 2018, instead of immediately reducing the Fiscal deficit to 3.0% FM promised to reduce it to 3% in 2020-21
like a glider gradually descending on its landing target. Hence subsequent Finance Ministers keep reiterating
that we’ll continue on that ‘Fiscal Glide’ path.

Mercantilism
An economic theory from pre-capitalist times which held that a country’s prosperity depended on its
ability to generate large and persistent surpluses in its foreign trade with other countries.

Development bank
• Recently govt announced setting up a development bank as a slew of measures to boost the
economy and financial market sentiments.
• Provide long-term credit for capital intensive investments spread over a long periode.
• Due to these social benefits, they are often supported by governments or international
institutions in the form of tax incentives and administrative mandates for private sector banks
and financial institutions to invest in their securities.
• Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI) was the first development bank in India.
• Following Narasimham Committee reports on financial sector reforms, development finance
institutions were disbanded and got converted to commercial banks.
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Minimum Import Price (MIP)
• It’s the price below which a commodity can’t be imported. This is usually done for protecting
domestic industries against cheap imports.
• E.g. Government imposed MIP on pepper and arecanut in 2018-19

Digital Communications Commission

• The Telecom Commission was set up by the Government of India vide the Resolution dated 11th
April, 1989 with administrative and financial powers of the Government of India to deal with
various aspects of Telecommunications.
• The Government, vide Resolution dated 22nd October, 2018, has re-designated the 'Telecom
Commission' as the 'Digital Communications Commission'.
• DCC was formerly called ‘Telecom Commission’.
• It is the top decision-making body in Department of Telecommunications (DoT), under Union
Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
• Members: Telecom secretary is ex-officio chairperson of DCC. The full-time members of panel
include DoT’s Additional Secretary, Member (finance), Member (services) and Member
(technology).
• The part-time members of body are NITI Aayog’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Department of
Economic Affairs (DEA) secretary and Ministry of Electronics and IT secretary.
• The Digital Communications Commission is responsible for:
o Formulating the policy of Department of Telecommunications for approval of the
Government;
o Preparing the budget for the Department of Telecommunications for each financial year and
getting it approved by the Government; &
o Implementation of Government's policy in all matters concerning telecommunication

Types of subsidies
• Given in direct cash (or bank transfer): PM KISSAN 6k, LPG Pahal ~200 per cylinder.
• Given in kind: free school bags, uniform and books to the poor children, free medicines in
public hospitals, free insurance.
• Indirect subsidies: cheap fees in government colleges, cheap kerosene, cheap rea, cheap crop
insurance premium etc. Here govt. is paying some money to an organization so they may provide
goods/services @cheap rate to the beneficiary.
• Regulatory subsidies: e.g. if State Electricity Regulatory Commission directs companies- that
electricity to farmers must NOT to be beyond ₹ “x” per unit.
• Procurement subsidies: e.g. FCI purchasing at food grains from farmers at minimum support
price (MSP).
• Interest subsidies / subvention: govt pays “x%” interest on agriculture, MSME, affordable
housing loans.

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TYPES OF FUNDS

• Mutual Fund: A mutual fund collects money from investors and invests the money, on their
behalf, in securities (debt, equity or both). It charges a small fee for managing the money.
• Debt funds aim to generate returns for investors by investing their money in avenues like
bonds and other fixed-income securities.
• Credit-risk funds are debt funds which have at least 65% of their investments in less than AA-
rated (i.e. in lower-rated) papers.
• Held-to-maturity securities are purchased to be owned until maturity. E.g bonds.
• Adjusted non-food Bank Credit includes non-food bank credit and total non-statutory liquidity
ratio (SLR) investments of banks in commercial papers, shares and bonds/debentures.
• Capital Market exposure refers to the percentage of a portfolio, invested in a particular type of
security, market sector or industry.
It is also known as the exposure amount an investor can lose from the risks unique to a
particular investment.
• Large Exposures Framework: The large exposures framework sets prudent limits to large
exposures of banks, which may result in a concentration of its assets to a single counterparty or
a group of connected counterparties.
• To address this concentration risk, RBI has fixed limits on bank exposures.
• As per current guidelines of RBI, a bank’s exposure to a single borrower is restricted to 15% and
to a borrower group 40% of capital funds.

Consortium lending
Consortium lending is a process under which several banks finance a borrower based on common
appraisal and documentation, and conduct joint supervision and follow-up exercises.

Financial Secrecy Index (FSI)

Released by- Tax Justice Network (TJN), an independent international network.

NPA Divergence
Divergence is the difference between RBI’s assessment and that reported by the lender/ banks.

Customer Outreach Initiative

The Government had announced in September the launch of Customer Outreach Initiative by Public
Sector Banks (PSBs) to improve credit delivery and support the needs of the economy, with particular
focus on MSMEs, NBFCs, corporates, retail and agriculture sector borrowers, without compromising
prudential lending.

Interest subvention scheme

• Under the interest subvention scheme, the central government provides short term crop loan up
to one year for a loan up to Rs. 3 lakhs.
• The Central government provides an interest subvention of 2 per cent for these short term crop
loans.
• The RBI circular notes that interest subvention of 2 per cent will be calculated on the crop loan
amount from the date of its disbursement/drawal up to the date of actual repayment of the crop
loan by the farmer or up to the due date of the loan fixed by the banks whichever is earlier,
subject to a maximum period of one year.
• For Farmers repaying the loan promptly an additional 2 per cent interest subvention is
provided. This brings down the effective rate of short-term crop loans works out to be 4 per cent
per annum.

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What Is a Collateralized Borrowing and Lending Obligation - CBLO?
• A collateralized borrowing and lending obligation (CBLO) is a money market instrument that
represents an obligation between a borrower and a lender as to the terms and conditions of a
loan.
• Collateralized borrowing and lending obligations allow those restricted from using the
interbank call money market in India to participate in the short-term money markets.

Bharatkosh-The Non-Tax Receipt Portal (NTRP)

• Or Bharatkosh portal is the initiative of Controller General of Accounts to provide one-stop
services to deposit any fees/fine/other money into the Government Account.
• The portal provides a one-stop platform to citizens /corporates/other users for making online
payment of Non-Tax Receipts to the Government of India.

Multiparty Interim Appeal-Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA),

• 16 Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), covering
a large share of world trade, have announced an arrangement on the settlement of trade disputes
between them.
• Known as the Multiparty Interim Appeal-Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA), the arrangement
bridges a crucial gap in the WTO system that results from the WTO Appellate Body’s temporary
inability to hear appeals.
• The MPIA uses Article 25 of the WTO Dispute Settlement Undertaking to enable appeals within the
existing WTO framework and, in so doing, preserves binding WTO dispute settlement between
the MPIA parties.

Initiatives by MSME Ministry

UAM (Udyog Aadhaar Memorandum)

• To register an enterprise as MSME, its entrepreneur has to fill up an Udyog Aadhaar
Memorandum(UAM)-free online form to MSME ministry.
• He’ll be allotted a unique Udyog Aadhar id linked with his personal Aadhar number.
• Udyog Aadhar id helps applying for various Govt. schemes for MSME

Udyami Mitra Yojana

Toll-free helpline mainly to help the first generation entrepreneurs.

India Inclusive Innovation Fund

For promoting grassroot innovations

SFURTI
Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries to setup clusters of Khadi, Coir, Handicraft;
& help the entrepreneurs inside them.

CGTMSE
Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) funded by MSME Ministry and
SIDBI to help the MSE Entrepreneurs get loans without collateral from the banks.

MSME Samadhaan
• MSME Act, 2006 requires State Governments to establish Micro and Small Enterprise Facilitation
Council (MSEFC).
• If a buyer (Govt org of Union/State) is not paying money to MSME supplier within specified time
limit, then MSEFC can order him to pay money with interest rate.

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 • MSME Ministry’s ‘MSME SAMADHAAN’ webportal helps filing online complaint for delayed
payments.

MSME- Sampark
MSME Ministry’s webportal to connect jobseekers (passed out trainees / students of MSME Technology
Centres) to recruiters

Udyam Sangam, Udyam Samvad

MSME ministry organizes such Workshops, Conventions, Mela usually at Delhi.

Mid cap funds

• Mutual funds launch sector-specific funds to attract investments. Similarly, they mobilise
resources from investors with an objective of investing in mid-cap shares.
• The Fund Manager chooses the mid-cap shares that can become a part of the portfolio. His job is
to outperform the benchmark like the CNX Midcap 200 indexes in terms of the returns.
• There are thousands of funds world over that focus on investing in medium or small-cap
companies.

Mezzanine financing
• Mezzanine financing is defined as a financial instrument which is a mix of ‘debt and equity’
finance.
• It is a debt capital that gives the lender the rights to convert to an ownership or equity interest
in the company. It is listed as an asset on company’s balance sheet. As it is treated as equity in a
company’s balance sheet, it allows the company to access other traditional sources of finance.

Difference between scheduled commercial banks and cooperative banks

• While commercial banks are fully controlled by RBI, Cooperative banks are partially regulated by
RBI (Lay down rules for their capital adequacy, risk control, and lending norms) and their
registration, audit, management, and resolution in the case of distress is regulated by Registrar
of Co-operative Societies.
• UCBs are structured as co-operatives, with their members carrying unlimited liability, whereas
commercial banks are structured as joint-stock companies.
• While in the case of commercial banks, there is a clear distinction between shareholders and its
borrowers, in the case of a UCB, borrowers can become shareholders

Cage culture
• It is an aquaculture production system where fish are held in floating net pens.
• Cage culture of fish utilizes existing water resources but encloses the fish in a cage or basket
which allows water to pass freely.
• Between the fish and the pond permitting water exchange and waste. In view of the high
production attainable in cage culture system, it can play a significant role in increasing the
overall fish production in India.
• Suitable locations in India’s long coastline, vast brackish water areas available in coastal states
and other underutilized water bodies can be better utilized by adopting cage culture.
• Since the investment is low and requires very little / no land area, this farming method is ideal
for small scale fisher folks as an alternative income source.
• Budget 2020-21, promotes growing of algae, sea-weed and cage culture

What is Minimum Reserve System

• Under the Minimum Reserve System, the RBI has to keep a minimum reserve of Rs 200 crore
comprising of gold coin and gold bullion and foreign currencies. Out of the total Rs 200 crores,
Rs115 crore should be in the form of gold coins or gold bullion.

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 • The purpose of shifting to MRS was to expand money supply to meet the needs of increasing
transactions in the economy.
• The minimum reserve is a token of confidence and doesn’t have any practical connection with
amount new currencies issued by the RBI
• Under the Minimum Reserve System, RBI can issue unlimited amount of currency by keeping the
reserve. But RBI follows some principle or rule for issuing new currencies based upon economic
growth and transaction needs of the people.

Trade war
A trade war happens when one country retaliates against another by raising import tariffs or placing
other restrictions on the opposing country's imports.

Currency war
A currency war refers to a situation where a number of nations seek to deliberately depreciate the value
of their domestic currencies in order to stimulate their economies.

HELICOPTER MONEY
• It is a hypothetical concept put forward by the economist, Milton Friedman.
• This involves the central bank of the country printing currency notes and distributing it to the
people free of cost. The idea here is to promote demand in the economy during recession.

Consol Bonds
• Consol bond (also known as perpetual bond) is a fixed income security with no maturity date.
• It is often considered a type of equity, rather than debt.
• The major benefit of these bonds is that they pay a steady stream of interest payments forever.
However, these bonds can be redeemed at issuer's discretion.

Trade war

• A trade war happens when one country retaliates against another by raising import tariffs or
placing other restrictions on the opposing country's imports.

Currency war
• A currency war refers to a situation where a number of nations seek to deliberately depreciate
the value of their domestic currencies in order to stimulate their economies by stimulating
exports.

SARFAESI Act 2002

• An effective tool for recovery of bad loans (like NPA).

• allows banks and other financial institution to auction residential or commercial properties (of
Defaulter) to recover loans.
• Provides for setting up of asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) and asset securitization
companies (SCs) to deal with NPAs.
• Provides the legal framework for securitization activities in India.
• law does not apply to unsecured loans, loans below ₹100,000 or where remaining debt is below
20% of the original principal.

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 • News - Supreme Court Verdict : Co-operative Banks come under the SARFAESI Act and
Parliament has legislative competence to provide procedures for recovery of loans under the
Sarfaesi Act.

Securitization
• Its conversion of an asset(like Loan), into marketable securities for raising cash by selling them.
• Asset Reconstruction
Its buying of bad loans/ NPAs by a Company from banks and financial institutions(FIs), so that
banks/FIs could make recovery of their bad loan

BharatMarket
• A national e-commerce marketplace
• To be launched by Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) for all retail traders in
collaboration with several technology partners.
• It will provide end-to-end services in the logistics and supply chains, from manufacturers to
end consumers.
• It aims to bring 95 per cent of retail traders onboard the platform, who will be the shareholders
and the portal will be run exclusively by the traders
Kisan Sabha App
• Developed by CSIR-Central Road Research Institute (CSIR-CRRI), New Delhi.
• To connect farmers to the supply chain and freight transportation management system.
• It aims to provide the most economical and timely logistics support to the farmers amidst the
Cobid-19 pandemic.
• It also intends to increase the profit margins for farmers by minimizing interference of
middlemen.

Maharatna status to Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited and Power Grid

Corporation of India
• In October 2019
• By Ministry of Heavy Industry and Public Enterprises
• Total Maharatna Public Sector Enterprises (PSUs): 10 nos.
1. Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL)
2. Coal India Limited (CIL)
3. Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL)
4. Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL)
5. National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC)
6. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC)
7. Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL)
8. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL)
9. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL)
10. Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCI)

Maharatna Status :
• Introduced in 2009
• objective to empower mega CPSEs to expand their operations and become Indian
Multinational Companies (MNCs).

Criteria for Maharatna status

• Having Navratna status.
• Average annual turnover of more than Rs. 25,000 crore, during last 3 years.
• Average annual net worth of more than Rs. 15,000 crore, during last 3 years.
• Average annual net profit after tax of more than Rs. 5,000 crore, during last 3 years
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 • Should have significant global presence and international operations
• Listed on Indian stock exchange with minimum prescribed public shareholding limit under SEBI
regulations.

Benefits
• Greater operational and financial autonomy
• Boards of these PSUs can make equity investments to undertake financial joint ventures (JV) and
wholly owned subsidiaries and undertake mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in India as well as
abroad. ( subject to a ceiling of 15% of net worth, and limited to Rs 5,000 crore in one project)
• The Boards can also structure and implement schemes relating to personnel as well as human
resource management and training.
• Holding companies can float fresh equity, transfer assets, divest shareholding in subsidiaries.

Special Liquidity Facility for Mutual Funds (SLF-MF) Of 50k Crores.

• RBI is to conduct repo operations of 90 days at the fixed repo rate.
• The SLF-MF is on-tap and open-ended. Banks would submit their bids to avail funding
• The scheme is available from 27 April till May 11 or up to utilization of the allocated amount.
• Funds to be used exclusively for meeting the liquidity requirements of
(1) extending loans,
(2) undertaking outright purchase of and/or repos against the collateral of investment grade
corporate bonds, commercial papers (CPs), debentures and certificates of Deposit (CDs) etc.

Quantitative easing

• It means printing money to monetise government deficits, but the govt has to pay back for the
assets that the central bank buys.
• In News - Authorities world over considering it for recovering from CoVID-19 triggered Economic
losses.

Sectors in which FDI is prohibited

• Lottery businesses.
• Gambling and betting.
• Chit funds.
• Nidhi Company.
• Trading in Transferable Development Rights (TDRs).
• Real estate business excluding construction and REITs
• Manufacturing of cigars, cheroots, cigarillos and cigarettes etc.
• Sectors not open to private sector investment such as atomic energy, railway operations etc.

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 INTERNAL SECURITY

MAZE RANSOMWARE

• Recently, IT services provider Cognizant had faced Maze ransomware attack.

• A ransomware attack infects computers in a network and encrypts files on these
computers and then demands a ransom to recover the files.
• Maze ransomware transfers the data onto its server and holds until a ransom is paid to recover
it. If the ransom is not paid, the attackers publish the data online.
• In 2019, Global cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Security identified three prominent
ransomwaresRyuk, Purga and Stop. India was attacked by all three groups of ransomwares.

National Security Council

▪ It is a three-tiered organization that oversees political, economic, energy and security
issues of strategic concern.
▪ India formed it in 1999, where all aspects of national security are deliberated upon by it.
▪ NSC acts as the apex body, headed by the Prime Minister.
o It operates within the executive office of the Prime Minister of India, liaising between
the government’s executive branch and the intelligence services, advising leadership on
intelligence and security issues.
▪ The Ministers of Home Affairs, Defence, External Affairs and Finance are its members.
▪ NSC comprises of the three tier structure- Strategic Policy Group (SPG), the National
Security Advisory Board (NSAB) and the National Security Council Secretariat.
o The SPG chaired by the Cabinet Secretary is the principal forum for inter-ministerial
coordination and integration of the relevant inputs.
o The NSAB undertakes long-term analysis and provides perspectives on issues of
national security.

TECHSAGAR

• An online portal launched by National Cyber Security Coordinator's office in partnership with
the Data Security Council of India (DSCI).
• It provides actionable insights about capabilities of the Indian Industry, academia and research across
technology areas like Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), etc.

Vishing
• Voice phishing is a form of criminal phone fraud, using social engineering over the telephone
system to gain access to private personal and financial information for the purpose of financial
reward.
• It is sometimes referred to as 'vishing' - a portmanteau of "voice" and phishing.
• Landline telephone services have traditionally been trustworthy; terminated in physical
locations known to the telephone company, and associated with a bill-payer.
• Voice phishing is typically used to steal credit card numbers or other information used in
identity theft schemes from individuals

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E-EYE SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM

• The e-eye is a software-based system where high resolution thermal and infrared cameras capture all
activities.
• This system of surveillance is being expanded to keep track of tigers in wildlife sanctuaries and to
prevent poaching and animal-human conflict.

Global Terrorism Index (GTI)

• Global Terrorism Index is released by Australian Think Tank Institute for Economics and
peace.
• The GTI report issued by the IEP is based primarily on the Global Terrorism Database (GTD)
collated by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to
Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland, besides other sources.
• India has moved to the seventh position from the previous year’s eighth in the annual Global
Terrorism Index (GTI) 2019.
• The countries ahead of it are Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Syria, Pakistan and Somalia.

The 'Cold Start' doctrine

• Of the Indian Armed Forces envisages swift deployment of troops on the western border within
days if a situation of a full-blown war arises.
• This doctrine aims to allow Indian forces to conduct sustained attacks while preventing a
nuclear retaliation from Pakistan.

GARUD Portal
• It is designed and developed by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
• It is launched for providing fast track conditional exemptions to government agencies for COVID-19
related drone operations
• It stands for Government Authorisation for Relief Using Drones (GARUD) portal.

Resistance Front (TRF)

A terror organization who is responsibility for the recent attack on Army in J&K.

Narcotics Control Bureau

• It is the nodal drug law enforcement and intelligence agency of India
• It is responsible for fighting drug trafficking and the abuse of illegal substances.
• HQ - New DelhI
• Founded – 1986
• It comes under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

DARKNET
• It refers to the deep hidden internet platform that can only be accessed with specific software,
configurations, or authorization.
• With its end-to-end encryption, darknet is very tough to crack when it comes to investigating
criminal activities.
• USAGE
1. Narcotics and drug trade.
2. Cyber crime (cracking, file corruption, etc.)
3. File sharing (personal files, pornography, illegal or counterfeit software, etc.)
4. To protect the privacy rights of citizens from targeted and mass surveillance

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 5. Sale of restricted goods on darknet markets
6. Whistleblowing and news leaks
• In News - The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has arrested the country’s first ‘darknet’
narcotics operative.

Data Security Council of India

• It is a not-for-profit, industry body on data protection in India.

• Setup by NASSCOM, it is committed to making the cyberspace safe, secure and trusted by
establishing best practices, standards and initiatives in cyber security and privacy.

Difference between Brent and WTI

▪ Brent crude oil originates from oil fields in the North Sea between the Shetland Islands and
Norway, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is sourced from US oil fields, primarily in
Texas, Louisiana, and North Dakota.
▪ WTI with a lower sulphur content (0.24%) than Brent (0.37%), is considered "sweeter".
▪ Both oils are relatively light, but Brent has a slightly higher API gravity, making WTI the
lighter of the two.
o American Petroleum Institute (API) gravity is an indicator of the density of crude oil
or refined products.
▪ Brent crude price is the international benchmark price used by the OPEC while WTI crude
price is a benchmark for US oil prices.
o Since India imports primarily from OPEC countries, Brent is the benchmark for oil
prices in India.
▪ Cost of shipping for Brent crude is typically lower, since it is produced near the sea and it
can be put on ships immediately. Shipping of WTI is priced higher since it is produced in
landlocked areas like Cushing, Oklahoma where the storage facilities are limited.

India’s Step in Ensuring Food Security

▪ The Union Agriculture Minister participated in an Extraordinary virtual meeting of G-
20 Agriculture Ministers to address the issue of Covid-19 impacts on food security, safety and
nutrition.
o The G-20 Agriculture Ministers virtual meeting was organized through video
conferencing by the Saudi Presidency.
o The G-20 nations resolved to have international cooperation in the backdrop of the
Covid-19 pandemic, to avoid food wastages and losses, maintain the continuity of the
food supply value chain across borders.
o They also resolved to work together for food security and nutrition, share best practices
and lessons learnt, promote research, responsible investments, innovations and reforms
that will improve the sustainability and resilience of agriculture and food systems.
o Agreed to develop science based international guidelines on stricter safety and
hygienic measures for zoonosis control.
▪ The Government of India has exempted all agriculture operations during the lockdown
period and ensured continued availability of essential agriculture produce and supply, while
adhering to protocol of social distancing, health and hygiene.
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Border Roads Organisation
▪ It was conceived and raised in 1960 by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru for coordinating the speedy
development of a network of roads in the North and the North Eastern border regions of the
country.
▪ It works under the administrative control of the Ministry of Defence.
▪ It has diversified into a large spectrum of construction and development
works comprising airfields, building projects, defence works and tunneling and has endeared
itself to the people.

Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project

▪ The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme of Telangana is a multi-purpose irrigation project on
the Godavari River in Kaleshwaram, Bhupalpally, Telangana.
▪ The project starts at the confluence point of Pranahita River and Godavari River.
▪ Originally called Pranahita-Chevella project in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, it was redesigned,
extended and renamed as Kaleshwaram project in Telangana in 2014.

Mission Kakatiya
▪ It is a flagship programme launched by the Government of Telangana which aims
at rejuvenation of water tanks and other water storage structures to provide assistance
and help to the small and marginal farmers of the state.

Mission Bhagiratha
▪ It is a project for safe drinking water for every village and city household in Telangana
State.
▪ It aims to provide piped water to 2.32 crore people in 20 lakh households in urban and 60
lakhs in rural areas of Telangana.
▪ The project will supply clean drinking water to all households in the state through water
sourced from River Godavari and River Krishna.

Central Equipment Identity Register

• It will be a central repository or database of all mobile phones connected to networks across
India.
• Every mobile network provider in India has an Equipment Identity Register (EIR), or a database
of the phones connected to its network.
• Department of Telecommunications (DoT) under the Ministry of Communications has initiated a
CEIR for mobile service providers.

Glass Fibre Reinforced Gypsum Concrete

• Glass Fibre Reinforced Gypsum (GFRG) Panel known as Rapidwall is a building panel made-up of
calcined gypsum plaster, reinforced with glass fibers. The panel was originally developed by FRG
Building System Australia and since 1990 is being used for mass scale building construction.
• Now, these panels are being produced in India

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PAROS

• The Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) is a UN resolution that advocates for a ban
on the weaponization of space.
• It was conceived of during the Cold-war era.
• The PAROS resolution acknowledges the limitations of Outer Space Treaty in preventing of an arms
race in outer space.

Domestic territory of a country includes the following:

• Political frontiers of the country including its territorial waters.

• Ships, and aircrafts operated by the residents of the country between two or more countries for
example, Air India’s services between different countries.

• Fishing vessels, oil and natural gas rigs and floating platforms operated by the residents of the
country in the international waters or engaged in extraction in areas where the country has
exclusive rights of operation.

• Embassies, consulates and military establishments of the country located in other countries, for
example, Indian embassy in U.S.A., Japan etc.

It excludes all embassies,

Consulates and military establishments of other countries and offices of international organisations
located in India.

EAT RIGHT MOVEMENT

• Launched by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India
• SAI has prescribed a limit for Total Polar Compounds (TPC) at 25% in cooking oil to avoid the
harmful effects of reused cooking oil.
• The movement aims to cut down salt/sugar and oil consumption by 30% in three years
• It also aims to engage and enable citizens to improve their health and well-being by making the
right food choices

Basic Reproductive Ratio (R0)

• It tells the average number of people who will catch the disease from one contagious person.
• It is pronounced as R-nought.
• The larger this number, the more contagious is the disease caused by the virus and the faster it will
spread in the community.

An amicus curiae

• An amicus curiae literally, means "friend of the court" is someone who is not a party to a case and
may or may not have been solicited by a party and who assists a court by offering information,
expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case; and is typically presented in the
form of a brief.
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 • The decision on whether to consider an amicus brief lies within the discretion of the court.

CollabCAD

• Jointly launched by Atal Innovation Mission,National Informatics Centre (NIC) and NITI Aayog on April
13, 2020
• CollabCAD is a digital software system that will help students in creating 3D designs
• It initiative aims to provide a great platform to students of Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs) across country
to create and modify 3d designs with free flow of creativity and imagination

Business Correspondents
• Business Correspondents are retail agents engaged by banks for providing banking services at
locations other than a bank branch/ATM.
• Banks are required to take full responsibility for the acts of omission and commission of the BCs
that they engage and have, therefore, to ensure thorough due diligence and additional
safeguards for minimizing the agency risk.
• Basically, BCs enable a bank to expand its outreach and offer limited range of banking services at
low cost, as setting up a brick and mortar branch may not be viable in all cases.
• BCs, thus, are an integral part of a business strategy for achieving greater financial inclusion.
Seismic noise
• In geology (study of rocks), seismic noise refers to the relatively persistent vibration of the
ground due to a multitude of causes.
• This noise includes vibrations caused due to human activity, such as transport and manufacturing.
• Scientists first observed this seismic noise — everything recorded on seismograms that cannot be
attributed to earthquakes — at the end of the 19th century.
• It is the unwanted component of signals recorded by a seismometer and makes it difficult for
scientists to study seismic data that is more valuable.
• Apart from geology, seismic noise is also studied in other fields such as oil exploration, hydrology,
and earthquake engineering.

Cillage'
• City + Village; A synergistic combination created by bridging the knowledge gap between a
city and a village that would also bridge the income gap between the two.
• In the knowledge era, with emphasis on capability and capacity building of rural youth in terms of
holistic education, appropriate technology and enhanced livelihood.

Herd immunity or population immunity

• A population with a high number of members with immunity to a particular disease or pathogen
may give protection from that infection to the small number of its non-immune members. This is
as a result of there being too few susceptible persons in the “herd” for the infection to circulate.
This is known as “herd immunity or population immunity.”
• Immunization OR Active immunity of children can go well beyond saving individual lives. It
can also help in preventing largescale outbreaks of diseases as well as keeping a disease under
control (or sometimes even eliminated or eradicated e.g. polio) in the area
• Innate immunity - We are all born with some level of immunity to invaders. Human immune
systems, similarly to those of many animals, will attack foreign invaders from day one. This
innate immunity includes the external barriers of our body — the first line of defense against
pathogens — such as the skin and mucous membranes of the throat and gut. This response is
more general and non-specific. If the pathogen manages to dodge the innate immune system,
adaptive or acquired immunity kicks in.

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 • Adaptive (acquired) immunity - This protects from pathogens develops as we go through life.
As we are exposed to diseases or get vaccinated, we build up a library of antibodies to different
pathogens. This is sometimes referred to as immunological memory because our immune
system remembers previous enemies.
• Passive immunity - This type of immunity is “borrowed” from another source, but it does not
last indefinitely. For instance, a baby receives antibodies from the mother through the placenta
before birth and in breast milk following birth. This passive immunity protects the baby from
some infections during the early years of their life

Water Scarce Cities (WSC)

• Water Scarce Cities (WSC) is the World Bank’s initiative that offers a holistic perspective to
urban water security in scarcity conditions. It is working towards shifting mindsets across the
world, demystifying urban water management, and engaging with water-scarce cities to develop
concrete solutions.
• WSC is based on the belief that building communication and connections between fast growing
urban centers impacted by water scarcity is a promising way to facilitate constructive
international cooperation, push the envelope on technological innovation, and integrate lessons
learned into new policymaking and practice.

Matterhorn Mountain (Switzerland)

• The Matterhorn is a mountain of the Alps Mountain range, straddling the
main watershed and border between Switzerland and Italy Mont Blanc :
• Mont Blanc is the Highest mountain in the Alps and Highest in the Europe
• Mont Blanc is between the border of Italy and France

Jaga Mission
• Implemented by Odisha.
• Jaga Mission is acclaimed as the World’s largest slum land titling project, benefiting a million
urban poor living in the slums.
• The Mission is being executed in collaboration with Tata Trusts and Norman Foster
Foundation.
• The Odisha Government has won the World Habitat Award, a global recognition, for its
ambitious initiative, Jaga Mission.

Avangard
• The Avangard is a nuclear-capable, hypersonic boost-glide vehicle which has been
recently deployed by Russia.
• The missile is capable of hitting target in excess of 6000 km and can travel at a speed of 20 Mach (20
times the speed of sound).
• The missile is capable of carrying nuclear or conventional payloads.

English channel
• It seperates United Kingdom (Uk) and France
• It joins North sea with North Atlantic Ocean

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4P1000 INITIATIVE

• Tribal Perspective through Bamboonomics(Delhi Declaration of TRIFED)

• TRIFED will involve the tribal community of India for rehabilitating the degraded land without
compromising the income of the poor in the garb of environmentally friendly development.
Bamboonomics has been designed in such a way that while doing the environmental services, the
tribals will be earning.
• This international initiative was launched by France at COP 21 (2015).
• Aim: To demonstrate that agriculture, and in particular agricultural soils can play a crucial role where
food security and climate change are concerned.

Geological epoch

• In geochronology, an epoch is a subdivision of the geologic timescale that is longer than an age but
shorter than a period
• The current epoch is the Holocene Epoch of the Quaternary Period.

Juice jacking

• Juice jacking is a type of cyber-attack involving a charging port that doubles as a data connection,
typically over USB. This often involves either installing malware or surreptitiously copying
sensitive data from a smart phone, tablet, or other computer device.
• The power/data cable that we see in public charging stations, provides unauthorizedaccess to
attackers during the charging process; leveraging illegitimate access to get our personal
information taken away.
• This is known as Juice Jacking – a type of cyber attack which originates from USB charging
portinstalled at public places such as airports, cafes, bus stands, etc.
• Once the device is plugged-in and connection is established, it either installs malware or
secretively copies sensitive data from a smartphone, tablet, or any other computer device

Highest tiger - MP
Highest Rise - Mp
Highest Density - Jim corbett np

UPOV
• The International Union for the Protection of NewVarieties of Plants (UPOV) is an inter
governmental organization.
• The mission of UPOV is to provide and promote aneffective system of plant variety protection,
with the aim of encouraging the development of new varieties of plants, for the benefit of
society.
• India is not a member country of UPOV.

Nairobi work programme

• The Nairobi work programme (NWP) is a mechanism under the Convention to facilitate and
catalyze the development, dissemination, and use of knowledge that would inform and support
adaptation policies and practices.
• The programme was established at COP11 (2005) through decision 2/CP.11 and named the
"Nairobi work programme on impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation to climate change" at
COP12 in Nairobi (2006).

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 • The NWP operates under the overall guidance of the Chair of the SBSTA, with assistance from
the secretariat, and contributions from Parties and other relevant stakeholders.

MEDICAL WASTE
• Red Bin for plastic waste such as bottles, syringes, etc.
• Yellow Bin for infectious wastes such as cotton, bandage, placenta, etc.
• Blue Bin for glass bottles like discarded medicines
• Black Bin for needles without syringes, metal articles,

Are plants and animals pH sensitive?

Our body works within the pH range of 7.0 to 7.8.
• Living organisms can survive only in a narrow range of pH change.
• When pH of rain water is less than 5.6, it is called acid rain.
• When acid rain flows into the rivers, it lowers the pH of the river water.
• The survival of aquatic life in such rivers becomes difficult

pH& Tooth decay

• pH change as the cause of tooth decayTooth decay starts when the pH of the mouth is lower than
5.5.
• Tooth enamel, made up of calcium phosphate is the hardest substance in thebody.
• It does not dissolve in water, but is corroded when the pH in themouth is below 5.5

Panel on Tropical Cyclones

• The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Economic and Social Commission for Asia
and the Pacific (ESCAP) jointly established the Panel on Tropical Cyclones (PTC)in 1972 as an
intergovernmental body.
• Its membership comprises countries affected by tropical cyclones in the Bay of Bengal and
the Arabian Sea.
• The Panel is one of the five regional tropical cyclone bodies established as part of the WMO
Tropical Cyclone Programme (TCP) which aims at promoting and coordinating the planning and
implementation of measures to mitigate tropical cyclone disasters on a worldwide basis

ADB’s COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support (CARES) Program

• Started to provide immediate requirements to governments in the face of this global crisis.
• The CARES Programme is provided as the first support to meet the immediate requirements of
the government.
• The Program will contribute directly to the improvement of access to health facilities and care,
as well as social protection for more than 800 million people.
• The Program is funded through the COVID-19 pandemic response option (CPRO) under ADB’s
Countercyclical Support Facility.
• The CARES Program will be provided with a USD 2 million technical assistance grant to support
the government to strengthen its operational framework and efficient targeting, delivery, and
monitoring and evaluation of its pro-poor economic package, as well as its health sector and
social protection interventions.

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What is an “immunity passport”?
The idea for the “immunity passport” or a “back to work” pass is this: If you’ve been infected with SARS-
CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and recover, then you have immunity that will protect you from
getting the disease again for some amount of time.

Indian Ocean Tsunami Ready (IOTR) Programme

• It is a community performance based programme that facilitates tsunami preparedness as an active

collaboration of the public (community), community leaders, and national and local emergency
management agencies.
• It is instituted by Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO.

Lucky Latitude
• Refers to the geographical regions where the practice of domestication of wild plants and animals
began to happen for the first time in human history.
• It includes land that lies between the latitudes of 20 and 35 degrees north in the Old World,
and 15 degrees south and 20 degrees north in the Americas

Jagdishpur-Haldia and Bokaro-Dhamra Natural Gas Pipeline (JHBDPL) project

• The 2,655-km-long JHBDPL project is also known as the “Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga” project.
• It aims at covering five Eastern states — Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West
Bengal — by 2020. It has been recently decided to extend the project to North East adding
another 750-km up to Guwahati and later to all the state capitals of the north-east region.
• The project is being implemented by the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL).
• This pipeline project does not pass through Madhya Pradesh.

Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas

• Aqueduct's global water risk mapping tool helps companies, investors, governments, and
other users understand where and how water risks and opportunities are emerging worldwide.
• The Aqueduct tool used by the World Resources Institute (WRI) ranks countries on the basis
of water risk scores which are determined using 13 indicators of water risk.
• Baseline Water Stress (BWS): One-quarter of the world’s population faces extremely high
levels of baseline water stress.

ATULYA
• DRDO comes with new technology to disintegrate coronavirus
• A microwave sterilizer named as ‘ATULYA’ can be operated in portable or fixed installations and
helps in disintegrating the virus by differential heating in the range of 56 to 60 Celsius
temperatures.

VISION ZERO
• Concept of 'Vision Zero' is fast gaining international acceptance. It aims promote and improve
occupational health and safety standards in the country.
• It has been developed by International Social Security Association, world's leading international
organisation for social security institutions, government departments and agencies.

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 • A conference on the VISION ZERO was organised by Directorate General Factory Advice and Labour
Institutes, Ministry of Labour and Employment.

Charter Act 1813

• Renewed the charter of East India Company
• Ended companies commercial Monopoly except for the tea trade and trade with China
• Allotted one lakh rupees for education
• Christian Missionary were permitted to propagate English and Christianity
• Financial provision for revival of Indian literature and Science

Charter Act of 1833

• Final step towards centralisation
• G-G of Bengal was made G-G of IndiaCivil and military powers - vested in G-G( First = William
Bentinck)
• Legislative powers = Exclusively with G-G of India.
• Governors of Bombay and Madras were relieved of Legislative power
• East India Company was made purely administrative body.
• Attempted to introduce open competition for selection of civil servants but rollback due to
opposition from court of directors
Vande Bharat Mission
In one of the largest evacuation exercises, the government will operate 64 flights from May 7 to 13 to
bring home thousands of Indian nationals stranded abroad due to the coronavirus lockdown
under 'Vande Bharat Mission'

Kailash Mansarovar

• To Hindus it is the earthly embodiment of the dominant mountain of heaven, Meru, and the
residence of Lord Shiva and his consort Goddess Parvati.
• The Kailash range’s supreme peak lies in the Chinese-occupied Tibet at the height of 6,675 meters.
• The pilgrimage to Kailash and to the sacred Mansarover lake that lies 30 km to its south, is run
exclusively by a government organization, the Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam (KMVN).
• The organization works in collaboration with the Government of India’s Ministry of External Affairs
and the Government of China.

‘Urkund’:

• Urkund’ is Swedish anti-plagiarism software.

• Recently, the University Grants Commission (UGC) announced that all universities in India will get a
final subscription to access the ‘Urkund’ from September 1, 2019.
• While Turnitin (US anti-plagiarism software) is more commonly used by global academics, it was
found to be 10 times more expensive without a proportionate increase in features or reliability.

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Willingdon Island
• Willingdon Island is a seaport located in the city of Kochi, Kerala.
It is the largest man-made/artificial island of India and is surrounded by backwaters (a part of a river
in which there is little or no current).
• It was carved out of Vembanad Lake and is connected via road and rail. The island is connected to
the mainland by the Venduruthy Bridge.
• It is a major commercial centre and is home to the Kochi Naval Base of the Indian Navy, the Central
Institute of Fisheries Technology and the Port of Kochi.
• It was named after the Viceroy Lord Willingdon and was created artificially in 1936 during his rule to
improve the trade relations of British India with the rest of the world.

VIX index:

• VIX (Volatility index) is an index used to measure the near term volatility expectations of the
markets.
• The India VIX was launched by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in 2010.
• VIX value is among the important parameters that are taken into account for pricing of options
contracts, which are one of the most popular derivative instruments.

Exercise Pitch Black

• A biennial multi-national warfare exercise, hosted by Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).
• In 2018 Indian Air Force (IAF) for the first time participated with air assets and in earlier exercises it
had participated as an observer.
• Participating countries - Australia, Canada, France (New Caledonia), Germany, Indonesia,
Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and the United States.

The Equator Prize

It organized by the Equator Initiative within the United Nations Development Programme is
awarded biennially to recognize community efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation
and sustainable use of biodiversity.

Nij system of indigo cultivation:

• There were two main systems of indigo cultivation – nij and ryoti.
• Within the system of nij cultivation, the planter produced indigo in lands that he directly
controlled
• He either bought the land or rented it from other zamindars and produced indigo by directly
employing hired labourers.

Ryoti System Of indigo cultivation:

• The rest was under an alternative mode of cultivation – the ryoti system (Indigo on the land of
ryots).
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 • Under the ryoti system, the planters forced the ryots to sign a contract, an agreement (satta).

Kalapani Area
• An Indian territory in Uttarakhand state
• It is marked by the Kalapani river, one of the headwaters of the Kali River in the Himalayas.
Kalapani along with Lipulekh Pass, forms the route to Kailash–Manasarovar, an ancient
pilgrimage site.
• The area is disputed by Nepal since 1997
• News- Recently, Nepal has Strongly protested against Kailash-Manasarovar link Road built by
India. The road connects Uttarakhand'sDharchula to the Lipulekh pass.

Smart fertilizers

• It is water insoluble Fertilizers

• Nutrients are released on the demand of the plant,
• Fertilizer molecule functions like a nutrient storehouse providing a continuous nutrient
supply.
• Benefits - Dosage reduction and yield improvement, sustainable agriculture, soil conservation
etc

Mission Sagar

• Launched by Ministries of Defence and Ministry of External Affairs

• to provide Food Items, COVID related Medicines including HCQ Tablets and Special Ayurvedic
Medicines,
• To five Island nations in the Indian Ocean
(Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar and Comoros)
• Indian Naval Ship Kesari has been deployed for the mission.

‘Covid-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Project’

AIIB has approved US$ 500 million for ‘Covid-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems
Preparedness Project’ initiated by India.
Project

• Covers the entire India and addresses the needs of infected people, at-risk populations, medical
and emergency personnel and service providers, medical and testing facilities, and national and
animal health agencies.
• Implemented by National Health Mission (NHM), the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)
and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

NSafe

• An antimicrobial and washable face mask, (recently developed amidst CoVID 19 Crisis).
• Launched by IIT Delhi startup ‘Nanosafe Solutions’
• Its reusable up to 50 launderings, thus greatly reduces the cost of use.
• has 99.2% bacterial filtration efficiency

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Length of Boundary India Shares In Decreasing Order
TRICK :- BACHPAN
Bangladesh China Pakistan

States With Bicameral System = KAMBUJ Tv (KAMBOJ , is one of 16

mahajanapadas)
• K – Karnataka
• A – Andhra Pradesh
• M – Maharastra
• B – Bihar
• U - Uttar Pradesh
• J – Jammu &Kasmir
• T - Telangana

Styrene gas
News - May 7, 2020, styrene gas leaked from LG Polymers plant near Visakhapatnam and killed many
lives.
• Highly poisonous and flammable gas
• used in the manufacturing of polystyrene plastics, fiberglass, rubber, and latex.
• It's also found in vehicle exhaust, cigarette smoke, natural foods(fruits and vegetables)
• Health impact - due to Exposure
• Respiratory problems, irritation in the eyes, irritation in the mucous membrane, and
gastrointestinal issues.
• In Long term, It could also lead to cancer and depression in some cases.

Members of Mekong-Ganga Cooperation = LIMCa TV

L- Laos
I- India
M- Myanmar
Ca- Cambodia (not China, Pay attention)
T- Thailand
V- Vietnam

Countries around Baltic Sea

One day in the midst of Baltic Sea, RuDe Germany SELL Poland & Finland :
RuDe Germany SELL Poland & Finland :
• Ru- Russia
• De- Denmark
• Germany
• S- Sweden
• E- Estonia
• L- Latvia
• L- Lithuania
• Poland
• Finland

Toman
Iran’s new Currency, would replace Rial.

Operation SamudraSetu
Launched by Indian Navy to repatriate Indian citizens from overseas.

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8 Core Industries of India = CCC FRENS
C- Coal
C- Crude Oil
C- Cement
F- Fertilizers
R- Refinery Products
E- Electricity
N- Natural Gas
S- Steel

Indian states sharing border with Bhutan = SAAB

Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, west Bengal

Indian states sharing border with Myanmar = ARUNA MAMI

ARUNAchal, NAgaland, MAnipur , MIzoram

GARUD Portal
Launched by DGCA to fast-track exemptions of coronavirus-related drone operations.

GoRa Ghaghara K BaG M PunYaSoTa :

GoRa Ghaghara K BaG M - left bank tributaries
PunYaSoTa- right bank tributaries

Go- Gomati
Ra- Ramganga

Ghaghara

K- Koshi
Ba- Bagmati
G- Gandak

M- Mahananda

Pun- Punpun
Ya- Yamuna

So- Son
Ta- Tamsa

Mnemonic - important tributaries of Godavar

ShiBaKaKa Sab TIPPu --- Left bank tributaries
Shi- Shivana
Ba- Banganga
Ka- Kadva
Ka- Kadam
Sab- Sabari
T- Taliperu
I- Indravati
P- Pranhita

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Pu- Purna

SiPraMaMa Ki DiaNa- Right bank Tributaries

Si- Sindphana
Pra- Pravara
Ma- Majira
Ma- Manair
Ki- Kinnerasani
D- Darna
Na- Nasardi

BoBBLE
• Bay of Bengal Boundary Layer Experiment
• BoBBLE is a joint India-UK project
• It seeks to examine the impact of ocean processes in the Bay of Bengal on the monsoon system.
• It is a project funded by the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences and the Natural Environment
Research Council of UK.
Key Processes in BoB
1. Southwest Monsoon Current (SMC) is controlled by both local (wind stress curl) and
remote
(equatorial wave propagation) factors.
2. High Salinity Core (HSC) of the SMC has its origins in the western equatorial Indian Ocean,
reaching the BoB via the Somali Current, the Equatorial Undercurrent and the SMC.
3. Seasonal reversals that occur at the Somali Current and SMC junctions act as ‘railroad
switches’ diverting water masses to different basins in the northern Indian Ocean.

eCovSens

• It is a biosensor that can detect the novel coronavirus in saliva samples.

• Developed by National Institute of Animal Biotechnology (NIAB), Hyderabad.
• It consists of a carbon electrode and the coronavirus antibody.
• An electrical signal is generated when the antigen and antibody binds.
• Gives result in just 30 seconds.

Important fold mountains:

U ARe A Himalaya
U :- Ural Mountain.
A :- Alps Mountain.
R :- Rocky Mountain.
A :- Andes Mountain.
H :-Himalaya.

Tropic of Cancer Passes through eight states:

Trick:- West Me Gujarat Rajasthan, Mujhe Jharkhand ChahiyeTha.
W- West Bengal
M- Madhya Pradesh
G- Gujarat
R- Rajasthan
M- Mizoram
J- Jharkhand

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C- Chattisgarh
T- Tripura

New Names for Trppical Cyclones

• 169 names released by IMD(Indian Meteorological Department) for Indian Ocean Region.
• Contributed by 13 countries - India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Thailand, Qatar, UAE,
Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Iran.

Regulating Act 1773

• First step by British government to regulate and control affairs of East India Company.
• It recognised political and administrative functions of the company
• The Act laid the foundations of Central administration
• Features
o Governor of Bengal was appointed as Governor General of Bengal( first - Warren
Hastings )
o Governor of Bombay and Madras made subordinate to governor general of Bengal
o Supreme Court of Calcutta was established (1 chief justice and 3 judges).
o Servants of company were not allowed - private trade and bribes/presents from
natives
o Court of directors were to report the British government

Daporijo Bridge
• Inaugurated on Subansiri River, a tributary of Brahmaputra.
• Development- by BRO(Border Roads Organisation)
• It will allow the speedier movement of men and logistics material towards the Line of Actual
Control (LAC) with China.

Pitt's India Act of 1784

• Political and commercial functions of company were distinguished
• Board of Control - political functions (civil-military and revenue affairs)
• Court of Directors for commercial function
• First time called companies territory as British possessions in India.
• It declared British government had the Supreme control over companies affairs

Charter Act – 1853

• Last in charter series
• Separation of legislative and executive functions of Governor-Generals Council
• Central Legislative Council to be functioned as Mini parliament.
• Open competition for civil service and it was opened to Indians( On recommendations of
Macaulay committee appointed in 1854 committee on Indian Civil service.
• Local representation in Indian Legislative Council introduced 4 out of 6 members to be
appointed by local governments of Bombay Madras, Bengal and Agra.

Government of India Act 1858

• Also called as 'Act for the Good Governance of India'.

• Abolished East India company and transferred all power to Crown.
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 • G-G of India was made Viceroy of India( Lord Canning was first).
• Ended the dual government system (removed Board of Control and court of directors).
• Secretary of State - new office created, which had complete authority and control over Indian
Administration. He was a member of British cabinet.
• Council of India(15 Members) was created to assist secretary of state. It was a advisory body and
chairman was secretary of state.

Indian councils Act 1861

• Beginning of representative Institutions by associating Indians
• Viceroy to nominate some Indian members as non-official members.
• Decentralization process initiated Legislative powers restored to Bombay and Madras.
• new legislative Councils for North West frontier province and Punjab.
• Portfolio system was recognised (introduced by Canning)member of Viceroy Council was made
in charge of particular department.
• Viceroy empowered to issue emergency ordinances valid for 6 months

Indian Council Act 1892

• Introduced Limited and indirect election
• Increased non-official members in Central and provincial legislative councils but official majority
retained
• Increased functions of Legislative councils such as discussing budget and asking questions to
executive
• Provided for nomination of some non-official members to Indian Legislative Council and provincial
legislative councils.

Indian Council Act of 1909

• Also called as Morley-Minto Reforms
• Salient Provisions
o Expansion of the Legislative Councils(both Central and Provincial).
o Introduced separate electorate(Communal representation).
o Separate constituencies were marked for the Muslims and only Muslim community
members could elect their representatives.
o The act empowered the members to discuss the budget and move resolutions before
it was approved finally.
o They were given rights to ask supplementary questions and move resolutions to on
matters related to loans to the local bodies.
o The members given right to discuss matters of the public interest.

Government of India Act 1919

• Based on the report of Edwin Montagu(Secretary of State) and Lord Chelmsford(Viceroy). Hence,
called as Montagu-Chelmsford reforms or Montford reforms.
• Features
• Provincial Government
• Executive:
• Dyarchy was introduced, two classes of administrators – Executive Councillors and Ministers.
• Subjects were divided into two lists
• Reserved list (Under Governor) consisted of law and order, irrigation, finance, land revenue, etc.

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 • Transferred List(Under Ministers) - education, local government, health, excise, industry, public
works, etc.
• Ministers were responsible to legislature, whereas executive councillors were not.
• Ministers were nominated from the elected members of the legislative council.
• The Secretary of State and Governor-General could interfere in matters under the reserved list but
this interference was restricted for the transferred list.
• Legislature:
• Number of elected members were increased (Now about 70% were elected).
• Some women could also vote.
• The governor’s assent was required to pass the bill. He had veto power and could issue ordinances.
• Features – Continued
• Central government
• Executive:
• Governor-General(G-G) =chief executive authority
• G-G executive council - 3 out of 6 members to be Indian.
• G-G was vested with ordinance making power and could also certify bills rejected by the central
legislature
• Two lists for administration – central and provincial
• Legislature:
• A bicameral legislature was set up with Legislative Assembly(145 members) andCouncil of State(60
Male members).
• legislators could ask questions and also vote a part of the budget(only 25%)
• Governor-General
• G-G assent was required for a bill to become law.
• He could enact a bill without the legislature’s consent.
• provided for Limited franchise based on property, tax and education.
• Extended Communal representation to Indian Christians, Sikhs, Anglo-Indians, and Europeans.
• Other Features
• Provided for the first time, the establishment of a public service commission in India.
• provided for setting up a statutory commission to study the working of the Act.(Hence, Simon
Commission 1927).
• created an office of the High Commissioner for India in London.

GoI Act 1935

• Establishment of an All-India Federation (provinces and princely states).
• Division of powers through Three lists
o Federal List ( 59 items),
o Provincial List ( 54 items)
o Concurrent List (36 items).
• Residuary powers were vested in Viceroy. (federation never came into being as the princely
states did not join it.)
• Provinces
▪ Dyarchy abolished
▪ introduced ‘provincial autonomy’.
▪ introduced responsible governments the governor was required to act with the
advice of ministers responsible to the provincial legislature.
• Centre
o dyarchy introduced. However, this provision of the Act did not come into operation at all.
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 o bicameralism introduced in 6 of 11 provinces.
o Council of India was abolished( established by GoI act 1858).
• franchise extended, about 10% total population got the voting right
• communal representation extended. separate electorates for depressed classes (scheduled
castes), women and labour (workers).
• Reserve Bank of India was established.
• provided for the establishment of Federal Public Service Commission, Provincial Public
Service Commission and Joint Public Service Commission
• provided for the establishment of a Federal Court, which was set up in 1937.

Social Vaccine
• It stands for social and behavioural measures used by governments to raise public
consciousness about unhealthy situations.
• It is done through Social Mobilization
• Example - CoVID -19 pandemic - advocacy for social distancing, use of Masks etc.
• It was highly successful in controlling the pandemic of HIV/AIDS.

MyBookMyFriend campaign
• Launched on 23rd April - World Book Day
• To promote Book Reading
• By HRD Minister on Social Media

World Book Day - 23rd April

Organised by UNESCO to promote reading, publishing, and copyright.

COVSACK

• It is CoVID-19 Sample Collection Kiosk.

• Developed by DRDO
• A patient walks into the Kiosk cabin and a health care professional from outside the cabin collects
samples with oral swabs.
• Significance
o Speedy sample collection, the system is ready in less than 2 minutes for the next use.
o Cost effective (about 1 lakh per system)
o System is safe to use.

Antecedent River
• River that maintains its original course and pattern despite the changes in underlying rock
topography.
Examples
Indus, Sutlej, Ganga, Brahmaptra, Subansiri, Kosi.
• Superposed River
River that forms over horizontal beds that overlie folded and faulted rock with varying
resistance.
Examples
Chambal, Damoder, Subarnrekha, Banas

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Pool Testing
• It refers to screening of a pooled sample from 2 or more individuals .Individual patients are
screened only if the pool tests positive.
All individual samples in a negative pool are regarded as negative.
• Significance
-Speeding Up tests
-Cost savings
• In News- Recently ICMR has approved pool testing for a pool of 5 individuals.

CollabCAD

• It is a collaborative network of software systems, which provides engineering solution to 2D and 3D

product design
• Launched jointly by NITI Aayog& National Informatics Centre (NIC), under Atal Innovation Mission.

BardoliChheerha(Nor Westers)

• It is a local storm of Summer in Assam and West Bengal.

• These dreaded evening thunderstorms are also called as ‘Kalbaisakhi’
• These showers are useful for tea, jute and rice cultivation.

‘Tamanna’ (Try And Measure Aptitude And Natural Abilities)

• Launched by: MoHRD, CBSE and NCERT in 2019.
• It is an online aptitude test to help students(of 9th and 10th) make the right career choices, by
making right subject choices in 11th and 12th standard.

SRESTHA

New R&D organisation to serve the future technology needs of Railways

Nivaran:
It is the grievance redressal portal launched by the Ministry of Railways. It is the first IT application to
be launched on the Rail Cloud. It is a platform for resolution of service related grievances of serving and
former railway employees.

Operation Swarna
Operation Swarn is launched by the Railway Ministry to improve services in Rajdhani and Shatabdi
Express trains. Under the project, the Indian Railways will focus attention on 10 key areas —
punctuality, cleanliness, linen, coach interiors, toilets, catering, staff behaviour, security, entertainment,
housekeeping and regular feedback.

S3WAAS

• Secure, Scalable and Sugamya Website as a Service

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 • It is a website generating and deployment product hosted on the National Cloud of NIC.
• It leverages technology to generate secure websites using GIGW compliant templates which are
highly customizable and can seamlessly be deployed on a scalable software defined
infrastructure.

DRDO’s UV Developments:

DRDO has recently developed automated contactless UV-C devices namely DRUVS (Defence Research
Ultraviolet Sanitiser)for mobile sanitize and NOTESCLEAN for currency sanitize

BiPAP ventilator SwasthVayu

• National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Bangalore has developed BiPAP

ventilator named SwasthVayu, a non-invasive (involves use of masks or similar device) breathing
support device, for the use of non-critical non-ICU cases of Covid-19.
• BiPAP stands for Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure. It is a type of positive pressure ventilator

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 INTERNATIONAL BODIES AND REPORTS

What is Medical Diplomacy?

• In the recent years, health has been adapted as a strategic foreign policy and diplomatic concern for
many countries and regions of the world.
• Medical Diplomacy is an emerging field that addresses the dual goals of improving global health and
bettering international relations.
• It mainly a component of soft power which involves winning hearts and minds of people in countries
by exporting medical care, expertise and personnel to help those who need it most.
• It is concerned not only with the economic effect of poor health on development or of pandemic
outbreaks on the global market place but also the gain from the growing global market in health
goods and services
• It also reinforces health as a social value and human right, supporting the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals, advocating for access to medicines and primary health care, and calling for high
income countries to invest in a broad range of global health initiatives.

COVID Action Platform

Launched by the World Economic Forum (WEF), it aims to convene the business community for
collective action, protect people's livelihoods and mobilise support for the COVID-19 response.

COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund

Launched by the World Health Organisation (WHO), it supports the fundraising plan to fight the
pandemic.

Fast track financing

Launched by the World Bank, it aims to support countries in their efforts to fight COVID-19 as well as
face wide range of consequences in the post-COVID world.

Public Health Emergency of International Concern

• A PHEIC is defined in the IHR as, “an extraordinary event which is determined to constitute a
public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease and to potentially
require a coordinated international response”.
• Some instances of PHEIC are H1N1 influenza pandemic (2009), west Africa Ebola epidemic
(2014), Zika virus outbreak (2016) etc.

Global Report on Food Crisis 2020

• This report was highlighted to show links between conflict and rising levels of acute food
insecurity.
• 135 million people in 55 countries experienced acute food insecurity in 2019 nearly 60% of
whom lived in conflict or instability.
• Yemen will see the world’s worst food and malnutrition crisis in 2020 as the number of
acutely food-insecure people there is “expected to exceed 17 million”.

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 • The report is produced by the Global Network against Food Crises, an international alliance
working to address the root causes of extreme hunger.

UN75
• To mark its 75th anniversary in 2020, United Nations has launched large and inclusive global
conversation on the role of global cooperation in building the future we want, named UN75.
• Through UN75, United Nations will encourage people to put their heads together to define how
enhanced international cooperation can help realize a better world by 2045, UN’s 100th
anniversary.
• Anyone can join the conversation in all 193 UN Member states, online and offline or in formal
and informal dialogues.
• UN75 dwells on three big questions:
• What kind of future do we want to create?
o Are we on track?
o What action is needed to bridge the gap?
• It has following three components:
o Connecting people, by bringing together diverse groups, especially those not often
heard, to shape a new global dialogue.
o Amplify their voices by creating open channels for people to talk and be heard
o Inspire action by providing feedback, sharing and advocating solutions.

Compact 2025 is an initiative

• Its an initiative of IFPRI for ending hunger and under nutrition by 2025.
• It brings stakeholders together to set priorities, innovate and learn, fine-tune actions, build
on successes, and share lessons to accelerate progress.
• Eliminating hunger and under nutrition is key to ending extreme poverty.
• Doing so paves the way for achieving multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

UN World Food Programme

• World Food Programme (WFP) is the leading humanitarian organization saving lives and
changing lives, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to
improve nutrition and build resilience.
• The WFP was established in 1963 by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) and the
United Nations General Assembly.

UNGA Resolution on Covid-19

Recently, the United Nations General Assembly has adopted a resolution, calling for global
cooperation to ensure ‘equitable and fair’ access to medicines, vaccines and medical equipment for all
nations to battle the Covid-19 pandemic.

The resolution:
• Prevent any undue stockpiling of essential medical supplies.
• Recognised the importance of international cooperation and effective multilateralism to
ensure that all States have in place effective national protective measures, access to and flow of
vital medical supplies, medicines and vaccines.
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 • Encourages member states to work in partnership with all relevant stakeholders to increase
research and development funding for vaccines and medicines.
• Called to bolster coordination with the private sector towards rapid development,
manufacturing and distribution of diagnostics, antiviral medicines, personal protective
equipment and vaccines, adhering to the objectives of efficacy, safety, equity, accessibility, and
affordability.

United Nations General Assembly

• The General Assembly is the main deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the UN.
• All 193 Member States of the UN are represented in the General Assembly, making it the only UN
body with universal representation.
• Each year, in September, the full UN membership meets in the General Assembly Hall in New
York for the annual General Assembly session, and general debate, which many heads of state attend
and address.
• Decisions on important questions, such as those on peace and security, admission of new
members and budgetary matters, require a two-thirds majority of the General Assembly.
Decisions on other questions are by simple majority.
• The President of the General Assembly is elected each year by assembly to serve a one-year term of
office.

World Press Freedom Index

• It has been published every year since 2002 by Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) or
Reporters Without Borders.
• Based in Paris, RSF is an independent NGO with consultative status with the United
Nations, UNESCO, the Council of Europe and the International Organization of the
Francophonie (OIF).
o OIF is a 54 french speaking nations collective.
• The Index ranks 180 countries and regions according to the level of freedom available to
journalists.
• The parameters include pluralism, media independence, media environment and self-
censorship, legislative framework, transparency, and the quality of the infrastructure that
supports the production of news and information.

World Organisation for Animal Health

• OIE is an intergovernmental organisation responsible for improving animal health

worldwide.
• In 2018, it had a total of 182 Member Countries. India is one of the member countries.
• OIE standards are recognised by the World Trade Organization as reference international
sanitary rules.
• It is headquartered in Paris, France.

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

• This think tank is an independent international institute dedicated to research into

conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament.
• It was established in 1966 at Stockholm (Sweden).
• It provides data, analysis and recommendations, based on open sources, to policymakers,
researchers, media and the interested public.

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Global Forest Resources Assessment

• The FRA presents a comprehensive view of the world’s forests and the ways in which the
resource is changing.
• It supports the development of sound policies, practices and investments affecting forests and
forestry.

Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID)

• Early in March, India became the fifth country in the world to sequence the genome of the novel
Coronavirus, or Covid-19, and share its data with the international community.
• What is GISAID?
o It is a public platform started by the WHO in 2008 for countries to share genome
sequences.
o Created as an alternative to the public domain sharing model, GISAID’s sharing
mechanism took into account the concerns of Member States by providing a publicly
accessible database designed by scientist for scientist, to improve the sharing of
influenza data.

Global Microscope on Financial Inclusion Report

• Produced by Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the research and analysis division of The
Economist Group
• Report was first published in 2007 and was originally developed for countries in Latin American
and Caribbean regions but in 2009 it was expanded into a global study
• It is a benchmarking index that assesses enabling environment for financial access in 55
countries across 5 categories

Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

• It is the principal body for coordination, policy review, policy dialogue and recommendations on
economic, social and environmental issues, as well as implementation of internationally agreed
development goals.
• It has 54 Members, elected by the General Assembly for overlapping three-year terms.
• It is the United Nations’ central platform for reflection, debate, and innovative thinking on
sustainable development.
• Each year, ECOSOC structures its work around an annual theme of global importance to
sustainable development.
• This ensures focused attention, among ECOSOC’s array of partners, and throughout the UN
development system.
• It coordinates the work of the 14 UN specialized agencies, ten functional commissions and five
regional commissions, receives reports from nine UN funds and programmes and issues policy
recommendations to the UN system and to Member States

Trusteeship Council

• It was established in 1945 by the UN Charter, under Chapter XIII.

• Trust territory is a non-self-governing territory placed under an administrative authority
by the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations.
• A League of Nations mandate was a legal status for certain territories transferred from the
control of one country to another following World War I, or the legal instruments that contained
the internationally agreed-upon terms for administering the territory on behalf of the League of
Nations.
• United Nations trust territories were the successors of the remaining League of Nations
mandates, and came into being when the League of Nations ceased to exist in 1946.

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 • It had to provide international supervision for 11 Trust Territories that had been placed under
the administration of seven Member States, and ensure that adequate steps were taken to
prepare the Territories for self-government and independence.
• By 1994, all Trust Territories had attained self-government or independence.
• The Trusteeship Council suspended operation on 1 November 1994

Three Seas Initiative (3SI)

• The Three Seas Initiative (3SI) is a forum that brings together Twelve European Union
member
states between the Adriatic Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea.
• Members- Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania,
Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
• Aim-To promote economic growth, security and a stronger and more cohesive Europe.

GLOBAL SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT REPORT (GSDR)

• The First edition of GSDR was released in 2019. It is published every four years.
• It has been drafted by an independent group of 15 scientists appointed by the United Nations
Secretary General

ARCTIC COUNCIL
• The Arctic Council is the leading intergovernmental forum promoting cooperation, coordination
and interaction
among the Arctic States, Arctic indigenous communities and other Arctic inhabitants on common
Arctic issues.
• The Ottawa Declaration lists the following countries as Members of the Arctic Council:
Canada, the Kingdom of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Russian Federation,
Sweden and the United States.
• Observer status in the Arctic Council is open to non-Arctic states.
• India is an observer at the Arctic Council.

Financial Action Task Force (FATF) :

• It is an intergovernmental body established in 1989 by G-7 countries in Paris, France.
• The objectives of the FATF are to set standards and promote effective implementation of measures
for combating: Money laundering; Terrorist financing; and threats to the integrity of the
international financial system.
• FATF issues a list of ‘Non-Cooperative Countries or Territories’ (NCCTs), commonly called the
(FATF Blacklist).
• FATF Blacklist - These countries are considered to be uncooperative in international
efforts against money laundering and terrorism financing.
• FATF Grey List - The Countries added to this list are with deficiencies in anti-money
laundering and/or countering the financing of terrorism, for which they have developed an
action plan with the FATF.

BIOFIN
• The Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) is a global partnership that helps government’s cost, plan
and pay for action on biodiversity conservation and its sustainable use.
• It was launched in 2012.

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 • The BIOFIN methodology is being used by 19 countries to analyze, calculate and develop strategies to
generate the funds they need to meet national biodiversity targets.
• The initiative is run by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with support
from the Governments of Germany, Switzerland and the European Union.

UNHRC - Geneva
SCO + AIIB - Beijing
BRICS + NDB - Shanghai
ADB - Manila
NATO - Brussels
ISA - Delhi

World Bank report

1.Ease of Doing Business
2.World Development Report
3.Global Economic Prospect (GEP) Report
4. Remittance Report
5. Ease of Living Index
6. India Development Update
7. Global Financial Development Report
8. Energy Efficiency Implementation Readiness
9. Human Capital Index (Prepared as a part of World development Report)
10. Regulatory Indicators for Sustainable Energy (RISE)
11.Logistics Performance Index
12. Report : A Glass Half Full: The promise of Regional Trade in South Asia
13. Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2018: Piecing Together the Poverty Puzzle
14. Human Capital Index (Prepared as a part of World development Report)

'Madrid Protocol':
Madrid Protocol
1) sets forth basic principles applicable to human activities in Antarctica.
2) Article 7 of this protocol prohibits all activities relating to Antarctic mineral resources, except
for scientific research.

Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA)

• It is a worldwide alliance of more than 800 grassroots groups, non-governmental organizations,
and individuals in over 90 countries
• It seeks to catalyze a global shift towards environmental justice by strengthening grassroots social
movements that advance solutions to waste and pollution.

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 • It advances successful, community-driven waste solutions through systems change and policy
advocacy.

National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research

• National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) was established as an autonomous
Research and Development Institution of the Ministry of Earth Sciences in 1998.
• It is located in Goa.
• It is the nodal agency for planning, promotion, coordination and execution of the entire gamut of
polar and southern ocean scientific research in the country as well as for the associated logistics
activities.
• Its responsibilities include:
• Management and upkeep of the Indian Antarctic Research Bases “Maitri” and “Bharati”, and the
Indian Arctic base “Himadri”.
• Management of the Ministry’s research vessel ORV Sagar Kanya as well as the other research
vessels chartered by the Ministry.
• Scientific research activities being undertaken by several national institutions and organizations
in Antarctica, the Arctic and in the Indian Ocean sector of the Southern Ocean.

Asian Development Bank

• ADB is a regional development bank established on 19th December 1966.
• ADB now has 68 members, 49 from within Asia.
• Japan holds the largest proportion of shares in ADB followed by the USA.
• It aims to promote social and economic development in Asia.
• ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the
Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty.
• ADB is headquartered in Manila, Philippines.

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation

• It was established on 8th December 1985 with the signing of the SAARC Charter in Dhaka
(Bangladesh).
• It has 8 members: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and
Afghanistan.
• Afghanistan became its newest member at the 13th annual summit in 2005
• The Headquarters and Secretariat are at Kathmandu, Nepal.
• Principles:
o Respect for the principles of sovereign equality, territorial integrity, political
independence, non-interference in the internal affairs of other States and mutual benefit.
o Such cooperation shall not be a substitute for bilateral and multilateral cooperation but
shall complement them.
o Such cooperation shall not be inconsistent with bilateral and multilateral obligations.

G-20
• The G20 is an informal group of 19 countries and the European Union, with representatives of
the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
• The G20 membership comprises a mix of the world’s largest advanced and emerging economies,
representing about two-thirds of the world’s population, 85% of global gross domestic product,
80% of global investment and over 75% of global trade.
• The members of the G20 are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India,
Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the
United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.
• It does not have any permanent secretariat or headquarters.

Mekong–Ganga Cooperation (MGC)

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 • Established in 2000, at Vientiane, Laos (at First MGC Ministerial Meeting)
• Member countries - 6
India, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
• Areas of Cooperation - tourism, culture, education, and transportation.
• Name comes from the Ganga and the Mekong, two large rivers in the region.

Global Energy Review Report 2020

• By International Energy Agency (IEA)
• Global energy demand declined by 3.8% in the first quarter of 2020 compared to that of 2019
• CO2 Emissions decline in 2020 could be 8% lower than in 2019, which would be the lowest
level of emissions since 2010.
• India experienced a reduction in its energy demands by 30% as a result of the nation-wide
lockdown.

Export Control Regimes

Nuclear Suppliers Group

Formed - 1974 ( as a response to Indian Nuclear Test of 1974)

Members- 48

Objective - to prevent nuclear proliferation by controlling the export of materials, equipment and
technology that can be used to manufacture nuclear weapons.

India has not been able to secure membership due to opposition from China.

Trigger List - maintained by IAEA.

These items could only be exported to non-nuclear states if certain International Atomic Energy Agency
safeguards were agreed to or if exceptional circumstances relating to safety existed.

Export Control Regimes

Wassenaar Arrangement
• The Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods
and Technologies
• established 1996, Wassenaar( Netherlands)
• Secretariat - Vienna, Austria.
• Members - 41
• Objective - to contribute to regional and international security and stability
• Means - by promoting transparency and greater responsibility, in transfers of conventional
arms and dual-use goods and technologies such as battle tanks, armored combat vehicles
(ACVs), large-caliber artillery, etc.
• not a treaty, hence is not legally binding

Australia Group
• An informal group -estbd in 1985 (after the use of chemical weapons by Iraq in 1984) to help
member countries to contain the spread of chemical and biological weapons, through
regulation of exports.
• Members – 43
• Mexico, all OECD members, the European Commission, European Union, Ukraine, and Argentina.

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India joined in 2018
• It maintains export controls on a uniform list of 54 compounds, that can be used in the
manufacture of chemical weapons.
• Delegations representing the members meet every year in Paris, France.

Regional Specialize Meteorological Centre(RSMC)

• Works under WMD - 6 centres worldwide

• responsible for the distribution of information, advisories, warnings and Naming of the Tropical
Cyclones.
• RSMC - New Delhi works under IMD and is responsible to name the cyclones in the region of
Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea.
• The suggestion of names of cyclones is given by India, Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar,
Pakistan, Oman, Sri Lanka and Thailand
• News - The decision was taken during the 45th session of Panel on Tropical Cyclones (PTC) held
by World Meteorological Organization(WMO).

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT)

• News - Recently, USA has accused China and Russia of conducting nuclear tests with low yields,
in violation CTBT.
• It is a multilateral treaty that bans all nuclear explosions, for both civilian and military
purposes, in all environments.
• adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1996.
• 168 states have ratified the CTBT and another 17 states have signed but not ratified it will enter
into force 180 days after the Treaty has been ratified by 44 States, listed in Annex 2 of the
Treaty.
• Eight States that needs to ratify - China, North Korea, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the
United States.
• States NOT Signed - India, North Korea and Pakistan
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO)
• founded - 1996
• headquartered - Vienna.
• It promotes the Treaty so that it can enter into force.

Export Control Regimes

Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR)

• Formed in 1987 by the G-7 counries.
• Members - 35 (India - 35th Member- joined in 2016)
• Informal, voluntary grouping of countries
• Aims to check the proliferation of missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) Capable of
min 500kg (WMD) payload, with range of at least 300km.
• Also focuses on any equipment/ software/technology that can enable a nation to produce
such systems.
• Not a treaty, hence not legally binding
• It coordinates individual national export licensing policies towards a common export
policy that regulates the sale of any such systems.
• MTCR maintains a common list of items, including dual-use technology and
components, which can be used to deliver WMDs.

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International Criminal Court (ICC)
• It is an intergovernmental, international tribunal
• Established- 2002, by Rome Statute of 1998.
• Seat - The Hague, Netherlands.
• The ICC has jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide,
crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
• It is intended to complement existing national judicial systems.

International Court of Justice

• Judicial branch of the United Nations (UN) - hence called as World Court
• Established- 1945 by UN Charter
• HQ - Peace Palace, The Hague.
• The court settles legal disputes submitted to it by states
• It provides advisory opinions on legal questions submitted to it by duly authorized
international branches, agencies, and the UN General Assembly.
• ICJ Consists of 15 judges elected to 9-year terms by the UN General Assembly and the UN
Security Council.
• It is a successor to the Permanent Cou rt of International Justice.

Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA)

• Intergovernmental organization @Hague(Netherlands)
• Established in 1899
• Not a court, but an organiser of arbitration tribunals.
• Not part of ICC or ICJ
• It strives to resolve issues involving territorial and maritime
boundaries, sovereignty, human rights, international investment, international and
regional trade.

Euro Corona bonds

• Corona bonds would be a collective debt amongst EU member states, with the aim of providing
financial relief to Eurozone countries battered by the coronavirus.
• The funds would be mutualised and supplied by the European Investment Bank, with the debt
taken collectively by all member states of the European Union.

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 ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

Disaster Management (DM) Act, 2005

• The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) under the DM Act is the nodal central
body for coordinating disaster management, with the Prime Minister as its Chairperson. The
NDMA lays down policies, plans and guidelines for management of disaster.
• Similarly, State, District and Local level Disaster Management Authorities were established,
manned by high functionaries. All these agencies are envisaged to work in coordination.
• NDMA so far formulated 30 Guidelines on various disasters including the ‘Guidelines on
Management of Biological Disasters, 2008.
• The 2019 National Disaster Management Plan issued also deals extensively with Biological
Disaster and Health Emergency. This is the broad legal framework within which activities to
contain COVID-19 are being carried out by the Union and State governments.

COP26

• It was scheduled to be held in Glasgow, Scotland in November 2020, now postponed to 2021,
due to COVID-19 pandemic.
• This conference was set to have been the first "global stocktake" that was outlined in the Paris
Agreement.
• 'Global stocktake' refers to a proposed review of the impact of countries' climate change
actions.

Southern Annular Mode (SAM)

The Southern Annular Mode (SAM), also known as the Antarctic Oscillation (AAO), refers to the (non-
seasonal) north-south movement of the strong westerly winds that blow almost continuously in the
mid- to high latitudes of the southern hemisphere.

World Earth day 2020: Digital Celebration

• Google marked the 50th anniversary of the Earth Day with a special interactive doodle
dedicated to one of the smallest and most critical organisms - the bees.
• As people have to stay inside their homes amid Covid-19 lockdown, World Earth Day 2020 is
all set to be celebrated digitally. People who plan on participating can join ’24 hours of action’.
• One can also take 22 challenges that include measuring your carbon footprint, doing a plastic
audit, skype a scientist, work for the earth, zero waste for one day and consume 1 meal per day
this week on a plant-based diet.

Earth Day Network

• Earth Day Network is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to diversify, educate and
activate the environmental movement worldwide.
• EDN main office is located in Washington DC, USA.
• 22 March: World Water Day
• 22 April: Earth Day
• 22 May : World Biodiversity Day
• Recently the Earth Hour was observed on 28th March, 2020. It encourages people to switch off
the lights from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm as per their local time.

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Petersberg Climate Dialogue
• It has been hosted by Germany since 2010 to provide a forum for informal high-level
political discussions, focusing both on international climate negotiations and
the advancement of climate action.
• The virtual XI Petersberg Climate Dialogue was co-chaired by Germany and the United
Kingdom (UK) and was attended by about 30 countries including India.

• The UK is the incoming Presidency of the 26th Conference of Parties (COP 26) to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
• COP 25 was held at Madrid, Spain in December 2019.
• This year’s dialogue was crucial because of the efforts to contain coronavirus as well as
countries preparing to move into the implementation phase of the Paris Agreement
2015 in the post-2020 period.

IDEAthon on ‘The Future of River Management’

• Recently, the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) and the National Institute of Urban
Affairs (NIUA) organized an IDEAthon on “The Future of River Management’.
• The IDEAthon sought to brainstorm the learnings from Covid-19 pandemic, the following lockdown
and its impact on river management.
• It examined how the social angle of rivers can be leveraged on to address other crises.
• It sought to create a framework called River Management in a city’s Urban river management plan.
• It aimed to garner more attention towards river management and also highlight the interconnectivity
of cities with the river.
• Namami Gange (implemented by the NMCG) and NIUA plan to bring out a policy paper based on the
deliberations of the IDEAthon for river management.

Sal Forest Tortoise

• Sal Forest Tortoise is also known as the elongated tortoise (Indotestudo elongata).
• Habitat: It is widely distributed over eastern as well as northern India and Southeast Asia.
• IUCN Red List: Critically Endangered.
• CITES: Appendix II
• Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972: Schedule IV
• Threat: Hunted for food, local use such as decorative masks and international wildlife trade.

Tropical Forest Alliance 2020

• Founded at Rio+20.
• It is a global public-private partnership dedicated to collaborative action to realize sustainable
rural development and better growth opportunities based on reduced deforestation
andsustainable land use management in tropical forest countries.
• Aims to halve deforestation by 2020 and end it by 2030.
• TFA is funded by the governments of Norway, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands
• Secretariat is hosted at the World Economic Forum.

Chile-Madrid Time for Action declaration

• COP25 passed the declaration calling on countries to improve their current pledges to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions.
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 • It also endorsed to help poor countries that are suffering the effects of climate change, although
any new funds were not allocated for the purpose.
• It called on the “ urgent need" to cut planet-heating greenhouse gases in line with the goals of
the 2015 Paris climate change accord.

What is biofortification?
• Bio fortification is the process of increasing nutritional value of food crops by increasing the
density of vitamins and minerals in a crop through either conventional plant breeding;
agronomic practices or biotechnology.
• Examples of these vitamins and minerals that can be increased through biofortification include
provitamin A Carotenoids, zinc and iron.
• How does Biofortification differ from food fortification?
• Biofortification has the increased nutritional micronutrient content imbedded in the crop being
grown. Food fortification increases the nutritional value of foods by adding trace amounts of
micronutrients to foods during processing.

What is International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme?

• The International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) is a research programme that
studies the phenomenon of global change.
• This programme envisions coordinating international research on global-scale and regional-
scale interactions between Earth's biological, chemical and physical processes and their
interactions with human systems.
• It was launched in 1987 by International Council of Scientific Union.
• This programme envisions coordinating international research on global-scale and regional-
scale interactions between Earth's biological, chemical and physical processes and their
interactions with human systems
Sustainable Livelihoods and Adaptation to Climate Change

• NIRDPR launches training programme of Sustainable Livelihoods and Adaptation to Climate

Change.
• National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRDPR) is a Hyderabad-
based autonomous organisation under the Union Ministry of Rural Development.
• It has launched a training programme of SLACC to help Rural Poor Farm Holds adapt to
Climate Change and sustain their livelihoods.
• The first batch Community Resource Persons and National Resource Persons from
Madhya Pradesh and Bihar states have begun receiving training classes in Hyderabad.
• The impact of Climate Change on farmers, especially small and marginal ones is high in
any part of the country.
• The programme will help the community at the grassroots level to combat the impact of
climate change.

“State of the World’s Nursing” report

WHO, along with the International Council of Nurses (ICN) and the Nursing Now campaign, has released
a report titled, “State of the World’s Nursing”.

DUGONG
• It is a medium-sized marine mammal.
• It is a species of sea cow found throughout the warm latitudes of the Indian and western Pacific
Oceans..
• herbivorous marine mammal.

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 • Habitat- The dugong is largely dependent on seagrass communities for subsistence
• It can be found from East Africa to Australia, including the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Pacific.
• Threat- Hunting for their meat, oil, skin, bones, and teeth, Threats to sea grass, Climate change etc.
• IUCN Red List Status- Vulnerable (VU).
• Wildlife Protection Act, 1972- Schedule I
• CITES - Appendix I

IPCC
• Created in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP)
• Headquarter: Geneva
• Objective: To provide governments at all levels with scientific information that they can use to
develop climate policies. IPCC reports are also a key input into international climate change
negotiations.
• Composition:The IPCC is an organization of governments that are members of the United
Nations or WMO. The IPCC currently has 195 members.

Global Environment Monitoring System (GEMS)

• It was introduced in 1975 at the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment.
• It is a global operation that collects information to better understand and protect the Earth’s
environment.
• This effort is made with the cooperation of other countries, who contribute data to the GEMS

Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary

• It is located in Wayanad, Kerala
• This biodiversity hotspot is an integral part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve.
• It is bounded by protected area network of Nagarhole and Bandipur of Karnataka in the
northeast, and on the southeast by Mudumalai of Tamil Nadu.
• The wildlife sanctuary comes under Protect Elephant

Survey of India
• It is the National Survey and Mapping Organization of the country under the Department of
Science & Technology.
• It was established in 1767 and is the oldest scientific department of the Government of India.
• It is headquartered at Dehradun, Uttarakhand.
• The Survey of India acts as adviser to the Government of India on all survey matters, viz Geodesy,
Photogrammetry, Mapping and Map Reproduction.
• Geodesy is the science of accurately measuring and understanding the Earth's geometric shape,
orientation in space and gravity field.

Biodiversity Heritage Sites:

• Under Section 37 of Biological Diversity Act, 2002 (BDA) the State Government in consultation with
local bodies may notify in the official gazette, areas of biodiversity importance as Biodiversity
Heritage Sites (BHS).
• “Biodiversity Heritage Sites” (BHS) are well defined areas that are unique, ecologically fragile
ecosystems.
• Terrestrial, coastal and inland waters and, marine having rich biodiversity comprising of any one or
more of the following components:
• Richness of wild as well as domesticated species or intra-specific categories
• High endemism
• Presence of rare and threatened species

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 • Keystone species
• Species of evolutionary significance
• Wild ancestors of domestic/cultivated species or their varieties
• Past pre-eminence of biological components represented by fossil beds and
• Having significant cultural, ethical or aesthetic values and are important for the maintenance
of cultural diversity, with or without a long history of human association with them.

Jim Corbett National Park

• Jim Corbett National Park is the oldest national park in India and was established in 1936 as
Hailey National Park to protect the endangered Bengal tiger.
• It is located in Nainital district and Pauri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand and was named after
Jim Corbett, a well-known hunter and naturalist.
• The park was the first to come under the Project Tiger initiative.
• The park encompasses the Patli Dun valley formed by the Ramganga River. It protects parts of
the Upper Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests and Himalayan subtropical pine forests eco
regions. It has a humid subtropical and highland climate.
• The core area forms the Jim Corbett National Park while the buffer contains reserve forests as
well as the Sonanadi Wildlife Sanctuary

About Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve (GNBR):

• The Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve encompassesa large part (some 85%) of the island of
Great Nicobar.
• It incorporates two National parks of India, which were gazetted in 1992: the larger Campbell
Bay National Park on the northern part of the island, and Galathea National Park in the southern
interior
• The 6,381 inhabitants of the region derive a wide variety of biological resources from their
environment such as medicinal plants and other non-timber forest products.
• In year 2013 it was included in the list of Man and Biosphere program of UNESCO to promote
sustainable development based on local community effort and sound science.
• The Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve also incorporates territories and traditional lands of the
indigenous Nicobarese and Shompen peoples.

Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund

• Its global programme to provide financial and technical assistance to NGOs, to protect critical
eco systems, like biodiversity hotspots.
• Launched in 2000.
• A joint biodiversity conservation initiative of World Bank, l'Agence Française de Dévelopment,
Conservation International, EU, Global Environment Facility and Japan.

Under2 Coalition
• It is a coalition of a sub national governments that aims to achieve greenhouse gases emissions
mitigation. It started as a memorandum of understanding, which was signed by twelve founding
jurisdictions on May 19, 2015 in Sacramento, California.
• Although it was originally called the Under2 MOU, it became known as the Under2 Coalition in
2017. As of September 2017, the list of signatories has grown to 177 jurisdictions which
combined encompasses 1.2 billion people and 39% of the world economy.
• The Under2 Coalition, a Memorandum of Understanding by sub national governments to reduce
their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions towards net-zero by 2050, is generating a unique

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 precedent for bold climate leadership, with its member states and regions surpassing 200
in number.

Earth Day
• Earth Day is an annual event celebrated around the world on April 22 to demonstrate support
for environmental protection.
• Earth Day 2020 is the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day.
• COVID-19 has shifted the global emphasis to Digital Mobilizations. Individual activities such as
education and cleanups are encouraged where local conditions permit.
• Earth Challenge 2020, is a mobile phone app that allows users to take photos and upload them
to provide local data on key environmental issues, from air quality to plastic pollution.
• Earth Day Network, organiser of the original Earth Day.

United Nations High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF)

• Its establishment mandated in 2012 by the outcome document of the United Nations
Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), "The Future We Want".
• It replaced the Commission on Sustainable Development, which had met annually since
1993

India and SDG

• NITI Aayog has been entrusted with the role to co-ordinate SDGs.
• MOSPI has developed National Indicator Framework for monitoring of various SDG goals
at the national level.
• SDG Unit has been created in Social Statistics Division (SSD) of Central Statistics Office.

MESOPHOTIC CORALS
• A Mesophotic coral reef (meso meaning middle and photic meaning light) is characterized by the
presence of both light dependent coral and algae, and organisms that can be found in water with
low light penetration.
• They normally grow between 30 and 40 metres and up to 150 metres in tropical and subtropical
water.
• The most common species at the mesophotic level are corals, sponges and algae.
• The corals ranges can overlap with Deep-water coral but are distinguished by the presence of
zooxanthellae and their requirement for light.

Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology (ROAM)

About ROAM
• The Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology (ROAM) is a tool produced by IUCN
and the World Resources Institute (WRI).

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 • It provides a flexible and affordable framework for countries to rapidly identify and analyse
areas that are primed for forest landscape restoration (FLR) and to identify specific priority
areas at a national or sub-national level.
• The tool includes rigorous analysis of spatial, legal and socio-economic data and draws on
consultations with key stakeholders to determine the right type of interventions.
• In India, this tool is being piloted in Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh. Therefore through ROAM
India can design its tree-based programmes better to meet climate goals.

Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary

• The Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary is also known as the Jeypore Rainforest.
• It is located in the Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts of Assam.
• Dehing is the name of the river that flows through this forest and Patkai is the hill at the foot of
which the sanctuary lies.
• Fauna: Rare fauna found in the region include Chinese pangolin, flying fox, wild pig, sambar, barking
deer, gaur, serow and Malayan giant squirrels.
• Flora: Dehing Patkai is a deciduous rainforest interspersed with semi-evergreen and lush green flora.

FOREST RIGHT ACT, 2006

• It provides for a rights-based, democratic and decentralized governance of forests. Rights
recognized under FRA.
• Individual forest rights (IFR) to legally hold forestlands that the forest dwelling communities
have been residing on and cultivating prior to 13 December 2005.
• Community rights (CRs) of ownership, use and disposal of ‘minor forest produce’, also known as
non-timber forest produce (NTFP). CRs include rights of grazing, collection of firewood, fish and
other such products from water bodies, as well as rights to biodiversity and intellectual
property, including those related to traditional knowledge.
• Community forest resource (CFR) rights to protect, regenerate, conserve or manage forest resources
for sustainable use, providing for community governance of forests

Koundinya Wildlife Sanctuary

• In Andhra Pradesh.
• Koundinya Wildlife Sanctuary is the only sanctuary in Andhra Pradesh with a population of Asian
elephants.
• The sanctuary is covered by southern tropical dry deciduous and thorn forests.
• Apart from Elephant, some of the animals found in the sanctuary are: sloth bear, panther, cheetal,
chowsingha, sambar, porcupine, wild boar, jungle cat, jackal, jungle fowl, starred tortoise and
slender loris.

What is CarbFix?
• CarbFix is the industrial process to capture CO2 and other sour gases from emission sources and
permanently store it as rock in the subsurface. The process can furthermore be applied in relation to
direct capture of CO2 from air.
• In the current CarbFix2 project, supported by The European Union, we are demonstrating how this
secure, cost-effective and environmentally benign method to reduce atmospheric CO2 levels can be
applied world-wide.

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Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs)

• IT is an umbrella term commonly used to include areas that contribute to the global persistence of
biodiversity, including vital habitat for threatened plant and animal species in terrestrial, freshwater
and marine ecosystems.
• Sites qualify as global KBAs if they meet one or more of 11 criteria, clustered into five categories
• threatened biodiversity
• geographically restricted biodiversity
• ecological integrity
• biological processes and, irreplaceability.

National Resource Efficiency Authority (NREA)

It will be constituted under the Environment Protection Act, 1986. It will be based in the MOEFCC. It
will oversee, administer and review implementation of the NREP.

National Resource Efficiency Board

It is an inter- ministerial body. It will provide necessary guidelines on aspects critical to the
implementation of resource efficiency across all sectors.

MOEFCC constituted Resource Efficiency Cell (RE Cell)

With aim to institutionalize resource efficiency for sustainable consumption and production. RE Cell
has drafted the NREP.

Asian brown cloud

• The Indian Ocean brown cloud or Asian brown cloud is a layer of air pollution that recurrently
covers parts of South Asia, namely the northern Indian Ocean, India, and Pakistan.
• Viewed from satellite photos, the cloud appears as a giant brown stain hanging in the air over
much of South Asia and the Indian Ocean every year between January and March, possibly also
during earlier and later months.
• The term was coined in reports from the UNEP Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX)

Allen’s Rule.
Mammals from colder climates generally have shorter ears and limbs to minimise heat loss.

This is called the Allen’s Rule.

Natura 2000
It is a network of core breeding and resting sites for rare and threatened species and some rare natural
habitat types which are protected in their own right.

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Bioplastics

• It is a Plastic made of Plants like maize, wheat or sugarcane or any other biological
material instead of petroleum.
• Benefits- Biodegradable, Eco-friendly, Sustainable Development, enviornment conservation
through reduction in plastic pollution.
• Disadvantages
cropland expansion , Deforestation, threat Food Scarcity , Industrial waste generation

Atmosphere & Climate Research-Modelling Observing Systems & Services (ACROSS)

scheme

• An umbrella scheme with 9 sub-schemes.

• Objective - to provide a reliable weather and climate forecast for betterment of society.
• It includes warnings for cyclone, storm surges, heat waves, thunderstorms etc.
• The schemes will be implemented in an integrated manner by 4 institutes of Ministry of Earth
Sciences –
1. India Meteorological Department (IMD),
2. Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM),
3. National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting
4. Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Service

LaCONES
• Laboratory for the Conservation Of Endangered Species
• @Hyderabad - under CSIR's Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB)
• It is India's only facility for conservation of endangered species using modern biotechnology
• News - Recently, LaCONES has helped Amrabad Tiger Reserve (Telangana), to restore the
population of Mouse Deer.

HariyaliMahotsav
• The Mahotsav is a mass plantation drive that was conducted in New Delhi.
• Mass initiatives conducted during Mahotsav
• Rain water harvesting
• Increasing people participation

mHariyali App
• The mobile application was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to
encourage public engagement in planting trees and Green drives.
• People can now upload information/photos of any plantation done by them.
• The application provides automatic geo–tagging of plants, hence enables periodically monitor
the plantation.

NGT over COVID-19 Bio-Medical Waste disposal

• Recently, National Green Tribunal(NGT) has observed gaps in compliance of the Bio Medical
Waste Management Rules, 2016, applicable to the disposal of waste generated out of handling
CoVID-19 disease.
• Further NGT ruled that there is a need for revision of the guidelines for ‘Handling, Treatment
and Disposal of Waste Generated during Treatment, Diagnosis, Quarantine of COVID-19 Patients’
issued by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) recently.

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INDIAN PEAFOWL (PEACOCK)
• The numbers of India’s national bird, the Indian Peacock, has increased dramatically over the
past few decades.
• The increase in numbers of the species has been attributed to a combination of the bird expanding
its range, conservation efforts and associated penalties forpoaching under Schedule I of the Wildlife
Act.
• ‘Least Concern’ on the IUCN Red List

“The Future of Earth, 2020” report.

• The South Asia Future Earth Regional Office, the Divecha Centre for Climate Change and
the Indian Institute of Science have released “The Future of Earth, 2020” report.
• The report has been prepared with the aim of reducing carbon footprint and halting global
warming below 2 degree Celsius by 2050.
• Five Global Risks according to report
• Climate change
• Extreme weather
• Biodiversity loss
• Food crisis
• Water crisis

Nilgiri Marten
• Endemic to the Western Ghats
• Nilgiri Marten looks like a civet or a mongoose and it most prefers higher altitudes.
• Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List
• Schedule II, Part 2 of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972.

Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules 2018

• Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 were amended in 2018. The rules have been extended
to village Panchayats as well. Earlier, it was limited to municipal districts.
• It laid special emphasis on the phasing out of Multilayered Plastic (MLP), which are ‘non-
recyclable, or non-energy recoverable, or with no alternate use’.
• The idea of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) was introduced in the Plastic Waste
Management Rules, 2016. It is also part of Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules
2018.

The Peace Forest Initiative

• The Peace Forest Initiative is an initiative of South Korea to use ecological restoration as
a peace-building process.
• It aims at addressing the issue of land degradation in conflict-torn border areas and would go
a long way in alleviating tensions and building trust between communities living there and
between enemy countries in particular.
• A global initiative to promote peace through land restoration was signed by the United Nations
Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the Korea Forest Service (KFS).
• The initiative was launched at the UNCCD COP14 in New Delhi.

Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs)

• In India, tribal population makes up for 8.6% of the total population.

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 • Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) are more vulnerable among the tribal groups. Due to
this factor, more developed and assertive tribal groups take a major chunk of the tribal development
funds because of which PVTGs need more funds directed for their development.
• In 1973, the Dhebar Commission created Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs) as a separate category, who
are less developed among the tribal groups. In 2006, the Government of India renamed the PTGs as
PVTGs.
• PVTGs have some basic characteristics - they are mostly homogenous, with a small population,
relatively physically isolated, absence of written language, relatively simple technology and a slower
rate of change etc.
• Among the 75 listed PVTG’s the highest number are found in Odisha (13), followed by Andhra
Pradesh (12), Bihar including Jharkhand (9) Madhya Pradesh including Chhattisgarh (7) Tamil Nadu
(6) Kerala and Gujarat having five groups each.

"Bipalium"?

• The hammerhead worm (Bipalium sp.) is a terrifying and toxic terrestrial flatworm.
• It is both a predator and a cannibal and is basically a large planarian that lives on land.
• While the distinctive-looking worms don't pose a direct threat to human beings, they are
invasive species that eradicate earthworms.

Rhizofiltration

• It is a water remediation technique that involves the uptake of contaminants by plant roots.
• Rhizofiltration is used to reduce contamination in natural wetlands and estuary areas.

Other such techniques of bioremediation are:

• Mycoremediation: A form of bioremediation in which fungi are used to decontaminate the area.
• A similar process, using fungal mycelia to filter toxic waste and microorganisms from water in soil.
• Phytoextraction / phytoaccumulation is the process by which plants accumulate contaminants into
the roots and above ground shoots or leaves.
• Phytotransformation or phytodegradation refers to the uptake of organic contaminants from soil,
sediments, or water and their transformation to more stable, less toxic, less mobile form.
• Phytostabilization is a technique in which plants reduce the mobility and migration of contaminated
soil
• Leachable constituents are adsorbed and bound into the plant structure so that they form unstable
mass of plant from which the contaminants will not re-enter the environment.

A honeypot:
• A honey pot is a system intended to mimic likely targets of cyber attackers for security
researchers to monitor cyber criminal behavior.

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 • Honey pots are used to trap attackers into thinking that they have penetrated a network,
allowing time for defenders to analyze their threat parameters and generate appropriate threat
indicators to block an impending attack.

Ozone Layer Hole Over Arctic Closed

• Reason is the recent polar vortex. ( and Not reduced pollution levels amidst Covid-19
lockdowns)
• Ozone Hole
It refers to a region in the stratosphere where the concentration of ozone becomes
extremely low in certain months.
• Polar vortex
• It is a large area of low pressure and cold air that surrounds both of Earth's poles.
• They always exist, but weakens during the summer and strengthen in the winter.

PRACRITI
• PRACRITI = Prediction and Assessment of CoRona Infections and Transmission in India
• A web-based dashboard for predicting the spread of Covid-19.
• Developed by IIT Delhi.
• It gives detailed state-wise and district-wise predictions of Covid-19 cases.

Anthurium
• It is one of the best domestic flowering plants in the world.
• It purifies the surrounding air and remove harmful airborne chemicals like formaldehyde,
ammonia, toluene, xylene, and allergens..

News
• D Vasini Bai, from Kerala, has developed 10 varieties of Anthurium.
• National Innovation Foundation-India (NIF) has facilitated large scale production of four
highly demanded varieties through tissue culture technique at the Indian Institute of
Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bangalore.

Colombo Declaration on Sustainable Nitrogen Management

• In October 2019, the member states of the United Nations endorsed a Road Map for action on
nitrogen challenges.
• It was organized by Sri Lanka with the support of the UN and its member nations.
• The aim of the Declaration is to halve nitrogen waste by 2030.
• Environment ministers and officials from more than 30 countries attended the event
• The event endorsed UN plans for a campaign called “Nitrogen for Life”.

Bio Medical Waste Management Rules, 2016

• Biomedical waste(BMW) comprises human & animal anatomical waste, treatment apparatus
like needles, syringes and other materials used in health care facilities.
• Scientific and Eco friendly disposal of BMW through segregation, collection minimises the
adverse impact on health workers and on the environment.
• Total BMW generation in the country is 484 TPD out of which 447 TPD is treated

Features of BMW Rules 2016

• The ambit of the rules has been expanded to include vaccination camps, blood donation camps,
surgical camps or any other healthcare activity.
• Chlorinated plastic bags, gloves and blood bags to be phased out within two years.

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 • Pre-treatment of the laboratory waste, microbiological waste, blood samples and blood bags
through disinfection or sterilisation on-site in the manner as prescribed by WHO or NACO.
• Provide training to all its health care workers and immunise all health workers regularly
• Establish a Bar-Code System for bags or containers containing bio-medical waste for disposal.
• Report major accidents; (g) Existing incinerators to achieve the standards for retention time in
secondary chamber and Dioxin and Furans within two years.
• BMW has been classified in to 4 categories instead 10 to improve the segregation of waste at
source.
• Procedure to get authorisation simplified.
• State govt to provide Land for BMW treatment plants.

Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund

• Its global programme to provide financial and technical assistance to NGOs, to protect critical
ecosystems,like biodiversity hotspots
• Launched in 2000
• A joint biodiversity conservation initiative of World Bank, l'AgenceFrançaise de
Dévelopment, Conservation International, EU, Global Environment Facility and Japan.

Green Water??
• Rainfall water in Soil that is available for plant growth.
• Phthalates
Pollutant in Plastic, Pencils, shoes, rubber etc.
• Cragger
A member of Carbon reduction group.

‘StrandHogg’ Bug

• It's a Software Bug in Android operating system.

• This bug allows real-time malware applications to pose as genuine applications and are able to
access user data of all kind.

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MISCELLANEOUS TERMS

Saffron cultivation
• GI tag, Kashmir saffron would gain more prominence in the export market.
• Saffron cultivation is believed to have been introduced in Kashmir by Central Asian
immigrants around the 1st Century BCE.
• It has been associated with traditional Kashmiri cuisine and represents the rich cultural
heritage of the region.
• It is a very precious and costly product.
• In ancient Sanskrit literature, saffron is referred to as ‘bahukam’.
• It is cultivated and harvested in the Karewa (highlands) of Jammu and Kashmir.
• Uniqueness: The features which differentiates it from other saffron varieties available the
world over are:
• It is the only saffron that is grown at an altitude of 1,600 m to 1,800 m above mean sea
level.
• It has longer and thicker stigmas, natural deep-red colour, high aroma, bitter flavour,
chemical-free processing.
• It also has a high quantity of crocin (colouring strength), safranal (flavour) and
picrocrocin (bitterness).
• Types: There are three types of saffron available in Kashmir — Lachha Saffron,
Mongra Saffron and Guchhi Saffron.
• Uses :
• As a spice. It also helps in revitalizing health.
• It is used in cosmetics and for medicinal purposes.
• Iran is the largest producer of saffron and India is a close competitor

• Anti-smog gun is a device that sprays nebulised water droplets into the atmosphere to
reduce air pollution.
• Connected to a water tank and mounted on a vehicle, the device could be taken across the city to
spray water to settle dust and other suspended particles.
• It can spray water up to a height of 50 metres and the results were positive as the spray acts like
rain and settles dust particles and also PM 2.5.
• Pavagada Solar Park - Pavagada Solar Park is a solar park in Pavagada taluk, Tumkur district,
Karnataka.
• It was completed in 2019, the park has a capacity of 2,050 MW and is the World's second largest
photovoltaic power station after 2245 MW Bhadla Solar Park.

• Kamuthi Solar Park – It is a photovoltaic power station in Kamuthi, Ramanathapuram district,

90 km from Madurai, in the state of Tamil Nadu

• Rhizofiltration is a water remediation technique that involves the uptake of contaminants by

plant roots.

• Rhizofiltration is used to reduce contamination in natural wetlands and estuary

areas.
• Other such techniques of bioremediation are:
• Mycoremediation: A form of bioremediation in which fungi are used to decontaminate
the area.
• A similar process, using fungal mycelia to filter toxic waste and microorganisms from
water in soil.
• Phytoextraction / phytoaccumulation is the process by which plants accumulate
contaminants into the roots and above ground shoots or leaves.
• hytotransformation or phytodegradation refers to the uptake of organic contaminants from
soil, sediments, or water and their transformation to more stable, less toxic, less mobile form.
• Phytostabilization is a technique in which plants reduce the mobility and migration of contaminated
soil.
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 • Leachable constituents are adsorbed and bound into the plant structure so that they form unstable
mass of plant from which the contaminants will not re-enter the environment.

Bhadla Solar Park

• Bhadla Solar Park is the world largest solar park as of March 2020 located in India which is
spread over a total area of 10,000 acres (40 km2) in Bhadla, Phalodi tehsil, Jodhpur district,
Rajasthan, India.
• The park has total capacity of 2,245 MW.

E-waste (Management) Amendment Rules, 2018

• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has amended the E-
Waste Management Rules, 2016.
• The amendment in rules has been done with the objective of channelizing the E-waste generated in
the country towards authorized dismantlers and recyclers in order to formalize the e-waste
recycling sector.

Some of the salient features :

• The e-waste collection targets under EPR have been revised and will be applicable from
October, 2017.
• The phase-wise collection targets for e-waste in weight shall be 10% of the quantity of waste
generation as indicated in the EPR Plan during 2017-18, with a 10% increase every year until
2023.
• After 2023 onwards, the target has been made 70% of the quantity of waste generation as
indicated in the EPR Plan.
• Separate e-waste collection targets have been drafted for new producers.
Producer Responsibility Organizations (PROs) shall apply to the Central Pollution Control
Board (CPCB) for registration to undertake activities prescribed in the Rules
• The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) may conduct random sampling of electrical and
electronic equipment placed on the market to monitor and verify the compliance of reduction of
hazardous substances.

Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules 2018

• Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 were amended in 2018. The rules have been extended
to village Panchayats as well. Earlier, it was limited to municipal districts.
• It laid special emphasis on the phasing out of Multilayered Plastic (MLP), which are ‘non-
recyclable, or non-energy recoverable, or with no alternate use’.
• The idea of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) was introduced in the Plastic Waste
Management Rules, 2016. It is also part of Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules
2018.

“The Future of Earth, 2020” report.

• The South Asia Future Earth Regional Office, the Divecha Centre for Climate Change and
the Indian Institute of Science have released “The Future of Earth, 2020” report.
• The report has been prepared with the aim of reducing carbon footprint and halting global
warming below 2 degree Celsius by 2050.
• Five Global Risks according to report
• Climate change
• Extreme weather
• Biodiversity loss
• Food crisis
• Water crisis

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Flue-gas desulfurization (FGD)
Flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) is a set of technologies used to remove sulfur dioxide (SO 2) from
exhaust flue gases of fossil-fuel power plants, and from the emissions of other sulfur oxide emitting
processes such as waste incineration.

Tent Turtle

• It is a species of turtle that gets its name from its tent-like appearance.
• Kachuga tecta is found in parts of northern India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh, along the plains of
Ganga, Indus, and Brahmaputra rivers.
• It is listed in schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
• IUCN status – Least concern.
• This omnivorous species inhabits slow-running rivers and stagnant water bodies such as ponds,
puddles, tanks, roadside ditches.
• Possession of this species of turtles is strictly prohibited as it is a scheduled species as per the
Wildlife Protection Act, 1972

Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA)

• It is a worldwide alliance of more than 800 grassroots groups, non-governmental organizations, and
individuals in over 90 countries
• It seeks to catalyze a global shift towards environmental justice by strengthening grassroots social
movements that advance solutions to waste and pollution.
• It advances successful, community-driven waste solutions through systems change and policy
advocacy.

The Bangkok Declaration on Combating Marine Debris in ASEAN Region

• Was adopted by leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which
includes four of the world’s top polluters.
• Just five Asian countries — China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand — dump more
than half of the eight million tonnes of plastic waste that end up in oceans every year, according to a
2017 Ocean Conservancy report.
• The region has come under fire for not doing enough to tackle its mounting trash troubles, with
single-use plastic and sub-par waste management adding to the problem.

About Global Carbon Project

• The Global Carbon Project was formed in 2001 to help the international science community to
establish a common, mutually agreed knowledge base that supports policy debate and action to slow
the rate of increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
• It is a Global Research Project of Future Earth and a research partner of the World Climate Research
Programme.

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Readiness for Investment in Sustainable Energy (RISE)
• It is developed by the World Bank Group, is a suite of indicators that assesses the legal and
regulatory environment for investment in sustainable energy.
• It establishes a framework for better depicting the national enabling environment to attract
investment into sustainable energy.
• RISE is aimed at policymakers who focus on actions within their control. Creating this
environment is directed by policymakers—the primary constituency RISE aims to influence.
RISE supports the achievement of the objectives of the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL)
initiative.

SOUTH ASIAN CLIMATE OUTLOOKFORUM

• It was established in 2010, by the South Asian Members of the World Meteorological
Organization, as a platform where meteorologists from South Asian Association of Regional
Cooperation (SAARC) countries along with Myanmar, could discuss some of the common
weather and climate related matters
• Countries under SASCOF — Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and
Maldives

Allen’s Rule.

• Mammals from colder climates generally have shorter ears and limbs to minimise heat loss.
• This is called the Allen’s Rule.
• The gradual and fairly predictable change in the species composition of a given area is
called ecological succession.

SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY FOR ALL (SUM4ALL)

• It is a growing global coalition of over 50 leading actors in the transport and mobility space with a
shared vision to transform the future of mobility.
• World Bank will perform the secretariat functions of SuM4All initiative

MEDICAL WASTE

• Red Bin for plastic waste such as bottles, syringes, etc.

• Yellow Bin for infectious wastes such as cotton, bandage, placenta, etc.
• Blue Bin for glass bottles like discarded medicines
• Black Bin for needles without syringes, metal articles,

Asian brown cloud

• The Indian Ocean brown cloud or Asian brown cloud is a layer of air pollution that recurrently covers
parts of South Asia, namely the northern Indian Ocean, India, and Pakistan.
• Viewed from satellite photos, the cloud appears as a giant brown stain hanging in the air over much
of South Asia and the Indian Ocean every year between January and March, possibly also during
earlier and later months.
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 • The term was coined in reports from the UNEP Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX)

Swamp wallaby
• It is a marsupial related to the kangaroo, is pregnant throughout its adult life.
• It typically conceives a new embryo days before delivering the newborn from its previous
pregnancy
• It is a small macro pod marsupial of eastern Australia. It is likely the only mammal pregnant and
lactating all lifelong
• IUCN Status: Least Concerned

Environment Education Awareness and Training (EEAT)

• It is a central sector scheme of the Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change continuing
since 1983
• The basic objective to promote environmental awareness among all sections of the society and to
mobilize people’s participation for conservation of environment.
• The objectives of the scheme are achieved through the implementation of four programmes namely
National Green Corps, National Environment Awareness Campaign, Seminars/ Workshops and
National Nature Camping Programme.

About Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve (GNBR):

• The Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve encompassesa large part (some 85%) of the island of Great
Nicobar.
• It incorporates two National parks of India, which were gazetted in 1992: the larger Campbell Bay
National Park on the northern part of the island, and Galathea National Park in the southern interior
• The 6,381 inhabitants of the region derive a wide variety of biological resources from their
environment such as medicinal plants and other non-timber forest products.
• In year 2013 it was included in the list of Man and Biosphere program of UNESCO to promote
sustainable development based on local community effort and sound science.
• The Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve also incorporates territories and traditional lands of the
indigenous Nicobarese and Shompen peoples.

GREEN FIRECRACKER

• Swas, Star, and Safal are less polluting green firecrackers that are developed by the National
Environmental and Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), a Council of Scientific and Industrial
Research (CSIR) lab
• SWAS stands for safe water releaser, SAFAL stands for safe minimal aluminum and STAR stands for
safe thermite cracker.
• These crackers are 15-20 percent cheaper than the conventional ones.
• STAR eliminates usage of Potassium nitrate and sulphur.
• SAFAL has less usage of aluminum as compared to commercial crackers.
• The firecrackers have a unique property of releasing water vapour.

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Jim Corbett National Park

• Jim Corbett National Park is the oldest national park in India and was established in 1936 as
Hailey National Park to protect the endangered Bengal tiger.
• It is located in Nainital district and Pauri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand and was named after
Jim Corbett, a well-known hunter and naturalist
• The park was the first to come under the Project Tiger initiative.
• The park encompasses the Patli Dun valley formed by the Ramganga River. It protects parts of
the Upper Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests and Himalayan subtropical pine forests
ecoregions. It has a humid subtropical and highland climate.
• The core area forms the Jim Corbett National Park while the buffer contains reserve forests as
well as the Sonanadi Wildlife Sanctuary

Health Effects Institute (HEI)

• It is a non-profit corporation chartered in 1980 as an independent research organization to
provide high-quality, impartial, and relevant science on the health effects of air pollution
• It is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.

State of Global Air Report

• It brings into one place the latest information on air quality and health for
countries around the globe.
• It is produced annually by the Health Effects Institute and the Institute for Health Metrics and
Evaluation’s Global Burden of Disease project as a source of objective, peer-reviewed air quality data
and analysis.

Brown to Green Report

• The 2019 Brown to Green Report has been published by the Climate Transparency partnership, an
international research collaboration.
• The report is the most comprehensive review of G20 countries’ climate performance, mapping
achievements and drawbacks in their efforts to reduce emissions, adapt to climate impacts and
green the financial system
• Findings of report
o Carbon emissions from the world’s 20 biggest economies, including India, are rising.
o None of the G20 countries have plans that will help them achieve the target.
o Many of the current 2030 climate targets under the Paris Agreement (Nationally
Determined Contributions or NDCs) are too weak, with about half of the G20 countries
projected to meet or overachieve their inadequate NDCs.

Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure (PIC) For Certain

• Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade

• It was adopted in September 1998 and entered into force in 2004
• It’s jointly administered by the United Nation &Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
and UN Environment (UNEP).

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 • It creates legally binding obligations for the implementation of the Prior Informed Consent
(PIC) procedure. It built on the voluntary PIC procedure, initiated by UNEP and FAO in 1989.

What is International Geo sphere-Biosphere Programme?

• The International Geo sphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) is a research programme
that studies the phenomenon of global change.
• This programme envisions coordinating international research on global-scale and regional-
scale interactions between Earth's biological, chemical and physical processes and their
interactions with human systems.
• It was launched in 1987 by International Council of Scientific Union.
• This programme envisions coordinating international research on global-scale and regional-
scale interactions between Earth's biological, chemical and physical processes and their
interactions with human systems

The Nagoya Protocol

On Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their
Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity, also known as the Nagoya Protocol on Access and
Benefit Sharing is a 2010 supplementary agreement to the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity.

Chile-Madrid Time for Action declaration

• COP25 passed the declaration calling on countries to improve their current pledges to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions.
• It also endorsed to help poor countries that are suffering the effects of climate change, although any
new funds were not allocated for the purpose.
• It called on the “ urgent need" to cut planet-heating greenhouse gases in line with the goals of the
2015 Paris climate change accord.

GBIF—the Global Biodiversity Information Facility

• Is an international network and research infrastructure funded by the world's governments and
aimed at providing anyone, anywhere, open access to data about all types of life on Earth.
• Coordinated through its Secretariat in Copenhagen, the GBIF network of participating countries and
organizations, working through participant nodes, provides data-holding institutions around the
world with common standards and open-source tools that enable them to share information about
where and when species have been recorded.

Wise Use
Ramsar Convention defines the ‘wise use’ of wetlands as “the maintenance of their ecological character,
achieved through the implementation of ecosystem approaches, within the context of sustainable
development”

Chinkara gazelles

• Survives in the dry habitats and does not require much water for their survival.
• IUCN Status: Least Concern

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Chinkara Wildlife Sanctuary
Karnataka’s State Board for Wild Life has notified Bukkapatna Chinkara Wildlife sanctuary in Tamakuru
District.

Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) Agreement

It involves payments to the managers of land or other natural resources in exchange for the
provision of specified ecosystem services over-and-above what would otherwise be provided in the
absence of payment

Honolulu Strategy
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the United States and UNEP created
the Honolulu Strategy—a planning tool to reduce plastic pollution and its impacts.

Pollution and Health Metrics: Global, Regional and Country Analysis report
• by the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution (GAHP)
• Provides a ranking of pollution deaths on global, regional and country levels.

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 INDIAN POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

DARPG’s National Monitoring Dashboard on COVID 19 Grievances

• Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions launched DARPG’s National
Monitoring Dashboard on COVID 19 Grievances today.
• The National Monitoring Dashboard was developed and implemented
at https://darpg.gov.in where COVID 19 related grievances received in CPGRAMS with all
Ministries/ Departments and States/ Union Territories are monitored on priority basis by a
technical team of DARPG.
• The National Monitoring Dashboard was developed by DARPG in pursuance of the
recommendations of the Empowered Group of Officers 10 constituted under the Disaster
Management Act 2005 on Public Grievances and Suggestions to ensure timely implementation of
COVID 19 Response Activities.

COVID INDIA SEVA

• Launched by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for providing real time solutions to
Covid- 19 related queries.
• People can post their queries to the COVID INDIA SEVA twitter handle for getting swift replies
from the team of trained experts.
• This initiative is aimed at enabling transparent e-governance delivery at large scales
especially in crisis situations like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic
YUKTI Portal
• Young India Combating COVID with Knowledge, Technology and Innovation (YUKTI) Portal is a
unique portal and dashboard to monitor and record the efforts and initiatives of MoHRD.
• The portal helps in critical issues related to student promotion policies, placements related
challenges and physical and mental well-being of students in these challenging times.

VidyaDaan 2.0

• VidyaDaan 2.0 was launched due to the increasing requirement for e-learning content for
students (both school and higher education) in the backdrop of COVID-19 and due to urgent
need to integrate digital education with schooling to augment learning.
• Content will be monitored by a panel of academic experts and released for use on the DIKSHA
app to children across country continue learning anytime and anywhere.
• States and Union Territories can initiate their own program as part of VidyaDaan 2.0

PRACRITI
PRACRITI is the acronym for PRediction and Assessment of CoRona Infections and Transmission in
India.

• Prediction of Covid-19 Cases

o The dashboard gives detailed State-wise and district-wise predictions of Covid-19 cases in
India for a three-week period.
o The data is updated on a weekly basis to accommodate various effects due to
administrative interventions, severity of viral strain, change of weather patterns.
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 o It also accounts for the effect of different lockdown scenarios such as the effect of locking
down district boundaries, and implementing different levels of lockdown within a district.
o It also includes the effect of movement of population across district/state borders in the
wake of Covid-19.
▪ Provides R0 Value
o PRACRITI provides the R0 values of each district and State based on data available from the
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA),
and the World Health Organization (WHO). Reduction of R0 is key in controlling and
mitigating Covid-19 in India.
o Reproduction number (R0):
• Reproduction number (R0), pronounced ‘R naught’ refers to the number of people to
whom the disease spreads from a single infected person.
• For instance, if an active Covid-19 patient infects two uninfected persons, the R0 value is
two.

SVAMITVA Scheme
Union Minister of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj has issued guidelines regarding
the SVAMITVA scheme. The scheme was launched on the National Panchayati Raj Day (April 24).

• SVAMITVA (Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village

Areas) scheme is a collaborative effort of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, State Panchayati
Raj Departments, State Revenue Departments and Survey of India.
• Aim: To provide an integrated property validation solution for rural India.
o It is a scheme for mapping the land parcels in rural inhabited areas using drone
technology and Continuously Operating Reference Station (CORS).
o The mapping will be done across the country in a phase-wise manner over a period of four
years - from 2020 to 2024.

e-Gram Swaraj Portal

▪ Aim: To bring in better transparency and strengthening of the e-Governance in Panchayati
Raj Institutions (PRIs) across the country through decentralized planning, progress
reporting and work-based accounting.
▪ It will also assist in enhancing the credibility of Panchayats which would induce greater
devolution of funds to PRIs.
▪ It will help in establishing a strong financial system by integrating the PRIASoft and Public
Financial Management System (PFMS).
▪ The PRIASoft (Panchayati Raj Institutions Accounting Software) is the Online Payment Module
whereby Gram Panchayats are carrying out online payments to the vendors and service
providers.
o The main objective of introducing such a module is to have a sound financial management
system in the Panchayats leading to their greater credibility and image.
▪ These endeavours are also congruent to that of Digital India Programme which is to
transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.

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iGOT
▪ The Department of Personnel and Training launches online training platform- iGOT in the
fight against COVID-19. The platform is called iGOT — Integrated Government Online Training.
▪ Key features of the platform:
o It is set to be hosted on the Human Resources Development Ministry’s DIKSHA platform.
o The iGOT platform delivers curated, role-specific content, to each learner at their place
of work or home and to any device of their choice.

Cabinet Secretariat
▪ Article 352 defines the term “cabinet” as the Council consisting of the Prime Minister and other
Ministers of Cabinet rank under Article 75.
▪ Cabinet Secretariat is the office which provides secretarial assistance to the Cabinet.
▪ It functions directly under the Prime Minister.
▪ The administrative head of the Secretariat is the Cabinet Secretary who is also the ex-offico
Chairman of the Civil Services Board.

Civil Services Boards

▪ The functions of the Civil Services Boards would be to make recommendations for all
appointments of the cadre officers and examine the cases of officers, who are proposed to be
transferred before completion of minimum period of service as specified under IAS, IPS and IFS
(Cadre) Rules.
▪ These Boards may consider for transfer before the tenure fixed under these Rules and
recommend the competent authority the names of officers for transfer before completion of
minimum tenure with reasons to be recorded in writing.
▪ Generally, the Chief Secretary will be the Chairman of the Board and senior IAS/IPS/IFS
secretaries will be its members while the Secretary GAD would be the Member-General
Secretary. Boards will be according to different cadres to which officers belong.

About Digital census 2021

▪ As all previous censuses in India have been paper-based. A mobile app will be used in Census
2021. It will be a transformation from paper census to digital census.
▪ The 2021 census is the 16th Indian census.
▪ The government was set to spend `12,000 crore on the 2021 Census as well as for the
preparation of the National Population Register (NPR).
▪ This mammoth nationwide exercise will be carried out in 16 languages.
▪ The census will have its reference date as March 1, 2021, but for snow-bound Jammu and
Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand it will be October 1, 2020.

Cabinet Committee on Investment

▪ This Committee will identify key projects required to be implemented on a time-bound basis.
▪ This applies to projects involving investments of Rs 1,000 crore or more, or any other critical
projects, as maybe specified by it, with regard to infrastructure and manufacturing.
▪ It will prescribe time limits for giving requisite approvals and clearances by the ministries
concerned in identified sectors. It will also monitor the progress of such projects.

Cabinet Committee on Employment and Skill Development

▪ This is supposed to provide direction to all policies, programmes, schemes and initiatives for
skill development.
▪ The objective is increasing the employability of the workforce for effectively meeting the
emerging requirements of the economy.
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 ▪ It facilitates mapping the benefits of demographic dividend.
▪ The committee is required to enhance workforce participation, foster employment growth and
identification.
▪ It will work towards removal of gaps between requirement and availability of skills in various
sectors.
▪ The panel will set targets for expeditious implementation of all skill development initiatives and
to periodically review the progress in this regard.

UMMID(Unique Methods of Management and treatment of Inherited Disorders)

▪ The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has started the UMMID(Unique Methods of
Management and treatment of Inherited Disorders) Initiative which is designed on the concept
of ‘Prevention is better than Cure’.
▪ UMMID aims to create awareness about genetic disorders amongst clinicians to establish
molecular diagnostic in hospitals.

YUKTI web-portal

• YUKTI (Young India Combating Covid with Knowledge, Technology and Innovation) is a unique
portal and dashboard to monitor and record the efforts and initiatives of MHRD.
• It will also cover the various initiatives and efforts of the institutions in academics, research
especially related to Covid-19, social initiatives by institutions and the measures taken for the
betterment of the total wellbeing of the students

Right to be forgotten (RTF) in India

▪ The At present, the right to be forgotten is not well-established in India.
▪ The draft Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018 provides a limited right to be forgotten. Unlike the
GDPR, the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018 only provides for prevention of continuing
disclosure of personal data and not the deletion of personal data.
About Right to be Forgotten (RTF)
▪ It refers to the ability of individuals to limit, de-link, delete, or correct the disclosure of personal
information on the internet that is misleading, embarrassing, irrelevant, or outdated.
▪ Such disclosure, may or may not be a consequence of unlawful processing by the data fiduciary.

Minority Educational Institutions

▪ The term ‘minority’ has not been defined anywhere in the Constitution.
Article 30 grants the following rights to minorities, whether religious or linguistic:
▪ All minorities shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their
choice.
▪ The compensation amount fixed by the State for the compulsory acquisition of any property of a
minority educational institution shall not restrict or abrogate the right guaranteed to them. (added
by the 44th Amendment Act of 1978)
▪ In granting aid, the State shall not discriminate against any educational institution managed by a
minority.
▪ Minority educational institutions are of three types:
1) Institutions that seek recognition as well as aid from the State.
2) Institutions that seek only recognition from the State and not aid.
3) Institutions that neither seek recognition nor aid from the State.

Anuradha Bhasin vs Union of India (2020)

▪ Fundamental Rights Under Article 19 :

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 ▪ The judgement declared that the freedom of speech and expression and the freedom to practice
any profession or carry on any trade, business or occupation over the medium of Internet enjoys
constitutional protection under Article 19(1)(a) and Article 19(1)(g) respectively.
▪ It also ruled that such freedom is not absolute, the restrictions imposed on it should be in
consonance with the mandate under Article 19(2) and Article 19(6) of the Constitution.
▪ Territorial Extent of Internet Suspensions:
It had also directed authorities to pass internet suspension orders with respect to only those
areas, where there is absolute necessity of such restrictions to be imposed.

SC Judgement - Rights of Minority Institutes are not Absolute

▪ SC held that the fundamental and religious rights of minorities and rights available under
Article 30 are not violated by provisions carved out in Section 10D of the MCI and Dentists
Act(Provisions regarding NEET Exam).
▪ The right to freedom of trade or business is not absolute, but subject to reasonable
restrictions in the interest of the students’ community to promote merit, recognition of
excellence, and to curb the malpractices.
▪ The constitutionality of the NEET examination has been upheld.
▪ Providing admission to non-minority students will also not interfere with the right of a
Minority Educational Institution to manage its affairs for the benefit of the Minority
Community.

Article 30 of the Constitution

▪ Article 30 (1) promises to all linguistic and religious minorities the ‘right to establish’ and the
‘right to administer’ educational institutions of their own choice.
▪ Article 30 (2) restricts the State from making discrimination in the matter of providing help to
any educational institution on the ground that it is managed by a religious minority or linguistic
minority.

Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Ordinance 2020

▪ Background
During current CoVID-19 pandemic, there have been instances of attacks on members of
healthcare services.
▪ Features
o 'Violence' will include harassment and physical injury and damage to property.
o Healthcare service personnel include public and clinical healthcare service providers
(doctors, nurses, paramedical workers etc)
Or any other persons empowered to prevent the outbreak of the disease.
o The penal provisions can be invoked in instances of damage to property.
o Acts of violence are made cognizable and non-bailable offences.
▪ Punishments
o Imprisonment for a term of three months to five years, and with fine of Rs.50,000/- to
Rs.2,00,000/-.
o In case of grave offence, imprisonment shall be for a term of six months to seven years
and with fine of Rs.1,00,000/- to Rs.5,00,000/-.
o Offender shall pay compensation to the victim, twice the fair market value for
damage of property.

The Epidemic Diseases Act

• The Act came into effect amidst the outbreak of the bubonic plague in Bombay.
• This colonial-era act is India’s solitary law that has been historically used as a framework for
containing the spread of various diseases including cholera and malaria.
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 • The law authorises the Central and state governments to take “exceptional measures and
prescribe egulations” to be observed by the citizens to contain the spread of a disease.
Section 2 of the act states that State Government may take measures and prescribe regulations
for the inspection of persons travelling.

Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020

▪ The Ordinance is called Epidemic Disease (Act) Ordinance 2020, which states that "No person shall
indulge in any act of violence against healthcare service personnel or cause any loss or damage to
any property during the epidemic".
▪ The amendment makes acts of violence cognizable and non-bailable offences.
▪ Commission or abetment of such acts of violence shall be punished with imprisonment for a term of
three months to five years, and with fine of Rs. 50,000/- to Rs. 2,00,000/-.
▪ In case of causing grievous hurt, imprisonment shall be for a term six months to seven years and with
fine of Rs. 1,00,000/- to Rs. 5,00,000/-.
▪ In addition, the offender shall also be liable to pay compensation to the victim and twice the fair
market value for damage of property or the loss caused (as may be determined by the court).

Fifth Schedule of the Constitution

▪ The Fifth Schedule under Article 244 of the Constitution contains provisions regarding administration
of Scheduled Areas other than in Northeast India.
▪ At present, Scheduled Areas have been declared in the States of Andhra Pradesh (including
Telangana), Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Odisha and Rajasthan.
▪ Scheduled Area in a State is notified by order of the President, after consultation with the Governor
of that State.
▪ Governor submits a report, annually or whenever President requires, regarding administration of
such areas.
▪ Each state having ‘Scheduled Areas’ must have a Tribal Advisory Council consisting of 20 members.
▪ Three-fourths of the members have to be representatives of scheduled tribes in State Legislative
Assembly.
▪ The Governor is empowered to direct that any particular law of parliament and state assembly is
either not applicable or can be applied with certain ‘modifications and exceptions’ to scheduled
areas.

Reservation in the Indian Context

▪ It is a form of affirmative action whereby a percentage of seats are reserved in the government
service and educational institutions for the socially and educationally backward communities and
the Scheduled Castes and Tribes who are inadequately represented in these services and institutions.
▪ 10% Reservation to Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) was recently provided by 103rd
Constitutional Amendment Act, 2018. It amended Articles 15 and 16 to provide reservation to
economically weaker section in admission to educational institutions and government posts.
▪ Reservation is provided to Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward
Classes (OBCs) at the rate of 15%, 7.5% and 27% respectively in case of direct recruitment on all
India basis by open competition.

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 ▪ Persons with Disability Act, 1995 provides for reservation for persons with disabilities in India. Under
the Act, persons with disabilities got 3% reservation in both government jobs and higher educational
institutions.

Constitutional Provisions regarding Reservation

▪ Article 15 (4) allows the State to make any special provision for the advancement of any socially and
educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. This
provision was extended to admission in educational institutions by 93rd Amendment Act, 2006
(except minority educational institutions)
▪ Article 16 (4) allows State to make any provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in
favour of any backward class of citizens which, in the opinion of the State, is not adequately
represented in the services under the State.
▪ Article 46 states that the State shall promote with special care the educational and economic
interests of the weaker sections of the people, and, in particular, of the Scheduled Castes and the
Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation.
▪ Article 243D provides reservation of seats for SCs and STs in every Panchayat.
▪ Article 243T provides reservation of seats for SCs and STs in every Municipality.
▪ Article 330 states that seats shall be reserved in the Lok Sabha for the Scheduled Caste and
Scheduled Tribes.
▪ Article 332 of the Constitution of India provides for reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes
and the Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assemblies of the States.

Judicial pronouncements regarding Reservation

State of Madras vs Champakam Dorairajan (1951)

▪ The Supreme Court upheld decision of Madras High Court, which struck down a Government
Order of 1927 regarding caste-based reservation in government jobs and educational
institutions.
▪ This judgement also made basis of of adding Article 15(4) by the First Constitutional
Amendment Act, 1951.

Indra Sawhney vs. Union of India (1992)

▪ The 9 Judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court by 6:3 majority held that the decision of
the Union Government to reserve 27% Government jobs for backward classes – with
elimination of Creamy Layeris constitutionally valid.
▪ The reservation of seats shall only confine to initial appointments and not to promotions, and
the total reservations shall not exceed 50 per cent.

M. Nagaraj vs. Union of India (2006)

▪ A five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court validated parliament’s decision to extend
reservations for SCs and STs to include promotions with three conditions:
▪ State has to provide proof for the backwardness of the class benefitting from the reservation.
▪ State has to collect quantifiable data showing inadequacy of representation of that class in
public employment.
▪ State has to show how reservations in promotions would further administrative efficiency.

Jarnail Singh v. Lachhmi Narain Gupta (2018)

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 ▪ The Supreme Court held that the government need not collect quantifiable data to
demonstrate backwardness of public employees belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the
Scheduled Tribes (SC/STs) to provide reservations for them in promotions.

e-Courts Project
▪ The e-Courts project was conceptualized on the basis of the “National Policy and Action Plan
for Implementation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the Indian
Judiciary – 2005” submitted by e-Committee, Supreme Court of India with a vision to
transform the Indian Judiciary by ICT enablement of Courts.
▪ The e-Courts Mission Mode Project, is a Pan-India Project, monitored and funded by the
Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India for the District
Courts across the country

What is Legal Information Management and Briefing System (LIMBS)

▪ LIMBS is an online database of government related litigation with details of 2.91 lakh cases.
▪ It was launched in 2016 and aims to eventually bring information on all government-related cases to
the database and enable their tracking
▪ The integrated legal divisions (ILDs) will have legal advisers and drafting counsels.
▪ LIMBS is in line with PM’s Digital India Mission with an aim to digitalize the entire process of court
cases for their persuasive monitoring.
▪ Ministry of Law and Justice envisaged a vision of digitizing court cases, interoperability of data
among various applications and promoting ease of government business through LIMBS.
▪ It is a web-based application having unified database to digitalize all court cases where Government
of India is one of the respondents.
▪ To ensure seamless flow of information, LIMBS promulgates collaborative approach to bring all the
different stakeholders viz. officials of ministries, nodal officers, advocates, arbitrators, claimant,
respondents and etc. on a common platform with an aim to avoid duplicity of content.
▪ It allows to enter court case details of all types of courts viz. Supreme Court, High Court, Tribunals,
District and Session Courts etc. to easily access all information from one unified database.
▪ It provides complete solution to Arbitration cases right from registration of claimant, uploading the
claim, capturing information about daily proceedings etc.

Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems

▪ It is a project under Indian government for creating a comprehensive and integrated system for
effective policing through e-Governance.
▪ The project is implemented by National Crime Records Bureau
▪ The Project will interconnect about 15000 Police Stations and additional 5000 offices of supervisory
police officers across the country
▪ It will digitize data related to FIR registration, investigation and charge sheets in all police stations.
▪ It would help in developing a national database of crime and criminals
▪ The full implementation of the project with all the new components would lead to a Central citizen
portal having linkages with State level citizen portals that will provide a number of citizen friendly
services.
▪ The total outlay for the project is 2000 crore rupees, and also includes Operation and Maintenance
phase for additional five years up to March 2022.

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Interoperable Criminal Justice System (ICJS)
▪ Implementation of ICJS will ensure
▪ Quick data transfer among different pillars of criminal justice system, which will not only enhance
transparency but also reduce processing time.
▪ Enable National level crime analytics to be published at increased frequency, which will help the
policy makers as well as lawmakers in taking appropriate and timely action.
▪ Enable pan-India criminal/accused name search in the regional language for improved inter-state
tracking of criminal movement.

Bureau of Outreach and Communication (BOC)

▪ It was setup in 2017 by integration of erstwhile Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity
(DAVP), Directorate of Field Publicity (DFP) and Song & Drama Division (S&DD).
▪ It provides communication solutions to various agencies of the government.
▪ It is engaged in educating people, both rural and urban, about the Government’s policies and
programmes to evoke their participation in developmental activities.
▪ It is headed by Director General (DG) and manned by with officers of Indian Information Service and
Ex-cadre personnel of erstwhile DAVP, DFP and S&DD.

National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA)

▪ NIUA is an institute for research, training and information dissemination in urban development and
management.
▪ It is located in New Delhi, India.
▪ It was established in 1976 as an autonomous body under the Societies Registration Act.
▪ The Institute is supported by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs,Government of India, State
Governments, urban and regional development authorities and other agencies concerned with urban
issues

SAMARTH ERP

Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has developed an e-governance platform ‘SAMARTH
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)’ under the National Mission of Education in Information and
Communication Technology Scheme (NMEICT).

Key Points

▪ SAMARTH ERP is an open source, open standard enabled robust, secure, scalable, and
evolutionary process automation engine for Universities and Higher Educational
Institutions.
▪ Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) refers to a type of software used to manage day-to-
day business activities such as accounting, procurement, project management, risk
management and compliance, and supply chain operations.
▪ ERP in a University can improve management and administration.
▪ The platform has been implemented at the National Institute of Technology (NIT),
Kurukshetra, a participating unit under the World Bank-supported Technical Education
Quality Improvement Program (TEQIP).
▪ It would automate the processes of the enhancement of productivity through better
information management in the institute by seamless access to information and proper
utilization of information.
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 National Bodies , Reports and Initiatives

Some reports
▪ United Nations Secretary General, released a report titled “Shared Responsibility, Global Solidarity:
Responding to socio-economic impacts of Covid-19”.
▪ International Energy Agency (IEA) released a report called “Global Energy Review 2020: The impacts
of the Covid-19 crisis on global energy demand and CO2 emissions.

COVID-19 AND INDIA’S LEGAL FRAMEWORK

• Various states invoked the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 to pass orders and guidelines on
social distancing measures, closure of establishments and limitation on activity
• Disaster Management Act, 2005 (DM Act), was then invoked by the Central government to
impose a blanket lockdown.
• The Seventh Schedule to the Constitution does not have an explicit entry on disaster
management. Hence, Parliament had to resort to Concurrent List entry 23 on “Social
security and social insurance; employment and unemployment” to trigger provisions of the Act.

Disaster Management Act, 2005 and CoVID-19

• CoVID-19 was declared as a “notified disaster” allowing the central government wide
powers by laying down policies, plans and guidelines for disaster management to ensure a
timely and effective response to the disaster
• Section 72 of the DMA, 2005, provides that the provisions of the Act, will have an overriding
effect on all other laws

National Mission on Education through Information and Communication

Technology
▪ The Mission, launched in 2009, is a landmark initiative of the Ministry of Human Resource
Development (MHRD), with the objective of seamlessly providing quality educational content
to all the eligible and willing learners in India.
▪ It has been envisaged to leverage the potential of ICT, in the teaching and learning process for
the benefit of all the learners in Higher Education Institutions.
▪ Initiatives under the Program
o SWAYAM: The Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds' (SWAYAM) is an
integrated platform for offering online courses, covering school (9th to 12th) to
Postgraduate Level. The online courses are being used not only by the students but also
by the teachers and non-student learners, in the form of lifelong learning.
o SWAYAM Prabha: It is an initiative to provide 32 High Quality Educational Channels
through DTH (Direct to Home) across the length and breadth of the country on a 24X7
basis.
o National Digital Library of India (NDL): It is a project to develop a framework of virtual
repository of learning resources with a single-window search facility. Presently, there are
more than 3 crore digital resources available through the NDL.

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 o Spoken Tutorial: They are 10-minute long, audio-video tutorials, on open source
software, to improve employment potential of students. It is created for self learning,
audio dubbed into 22 languages and with the availability of an online version.
o Free and Open Source Software for Education (FOSSEE): It is a project promoting the
use of open source software in educational institutions. It does that through instructional
material, such as spoken tutorials, documentation, such as textbook companions,
awareness programmes, such as conferences, training workshops, and internships.
o Virtual Lab: This is a project to develop a fully interactive simulation environment to
perform experiments, collect data, and answer questions to assess the understanding of
the knowledge acquired.
o E-Yantra: It is a project for enabling effective education across engineering colleges in
India on embedded systems and robotics.

Data Security Council of India (DSCI)

▪ It is a not-for-profit, industry body on data protection in India, setup by NASSCOM,
▪ It is committed to making the cyberspace safe, secure and trusted by establishing best practices,
standards and initiatives in cyber security and privacy.
▪ DSCI has collaborated with Ministry of electronics & IT (MeitY) and Google India to launch a
nationwide awareness campaign ‘Digital Payment Abhiyan’.

National Centre for Disease Control

▪ The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), formerly the National Institute of
Communicable Diseases (NICD), had its origin as the Central Malaria Bureau, established at
Kasauli (Himachal Pradesh) in 1909.
▪ NICD was transformed into the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) with a larger
mandate of controlling emerging and re-emerging diseases in 2009.
▪ It functions as the nodal agency in the country for disease surveillance, facilitating
prevention and control of communicable diseases.
▪ It is also a national level institute for training specialized manpower for public health,
laboratory sciences and entomological services and is involved in various applied research
activities.
▪ The Institute is under administrative control of the Director General of Health
Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
▪ The Institute has its headquarters in Delhi.

PM-CARES Fund:

▪ Prime Minister has announced the constitution of the PM's Citizen Assistance and Relief in
Emergency Situations(PM-CARES) fund.
▪ It is a dedicated national fund with the primary objective of dealing with any kind of emergency or
distress situation like posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
▪ Chairman: Prime Minister
▪ Members: Defence Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister.
▪ Exemption: The donations to this fund will be exempted from income tax under section 80(G).
▪ The contributions by the corporates will qualify as part of Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR)
spending.

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TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE DIGITAL LIBRARY (TKDL
▪ It is an initiative to prevent misappropriation of country’s traditional medicinal knowledge at
international Patent offices.
▪ It is checking bio piracy.
▪ CSIR is the implementing agency of TKDL project.
▪ Ministry of Ayush in collaboration with CSIR has established TKDL.

National Payments Corporation of India

▪ NPCI is an umbrella organization for all retail payments systems in India.
▪ It was set up with the guidance and support of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian
Banks’ Association (IBA).
▪ NPCI was established with following objectives –
o To consolidate and integrate the existing multiple systems into a nation-wide uniform
and standard business process for all retail payment systems
o To facilitate an affordable payment mechanism to benefit the common man across the
country and propel financial inclusion.

‘Sagar Vani’
▪ The ‘Sagar Vani’ is a software platform where several dissemination modes will be Incorporated
into a single central server.
▪ The ‘Sagar Vani’ includes Voice Call, Multi Lingual SMS, Audio Advisory, Mobile Apps (User /
Admin modules), Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), GTS, Email, Digital Display Boards, Fax,
IVRS, Radio and Television transmission units, Cloud Channels, etc.
▪ Sagar Vani also has the capability to give access to different stakeholders such as the State
Fisheries department, NGOs, Disaster Management Authorities, and others so that they also shall
be able to further circulate these alerts and ocean information to the community of user

Complaint Management System (CMS)

▪ Launched by the Reserve Bank of India, CMS is a software application to facilitate RBI’s grievance
redressal process.
▪ It aims to improve customer experience in timely redressal of grievances.
▪ Customers can lodge complaints against any regulated entity with public interface such as
commercial banks, urban cooperative banks, NBFCs.
▪ The complaint would be directed to the appropriate office of the Ombudsman/Regional Office of the
RBI.
▪ Complainants can also voluntarily share feedback on their experience in obtaining redressal.

SAMVAY

▪ MHRD had launched a scheme on Skill Assessment Matrix for Vocational Advancement of Youth
(SAMVAY) on 11th November 2014 for Credit Framework to support students mobility
▪ Under National Skills Quality Framework (NSQF). SAMVAY was created to support mobility of
students between various levels of general education, community colleges and Bachelor of
Vocational Courses (B.Voc) courses run by polytechnics and colleges approved by UGC and
AICTE.
▪ It allows vertical and lateral mobility within the vocational education system and between the
current education system. Hence pair 2 is not correctly matched.

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DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing):
▪ DIKSHA will accelerate and amplify solutions, experiments and innovations that are underway,
and is being attempted in the areas of teacher training and professional development. States
and TEIs have the autonomy and choice to repurpose and extend DIKSHA to suit their own
needs and purposes.
▪ DIKSHA is for the benefit of Teachers in Schools, Teacher Educators and Student Teachers
in Teacher Education Institutes (TEIs).

SWAYAM PRABHA
▪ It is an initiative to provide 32 high quality educational channels through DTH (Direct to Home)
across the length and breadth of the country on 24X7 basis. This would enable to deliver e-
education in a most cost effective manner.
▪ The Department of Space has allotted two Transponders of GSAT-15 for the same. The
subscribers of free DTH service of Doordarshan (Free dish) would be able to view these
Educational channels using the same set Top Box and TV. No additional investment would be
required.

National Informatics Centre

▪ NIC provides network backbone and e-Governance support to the Central Government, State
Governments and UT Administrations.
▪ NIC has been closely associated with the Government in different aspects of Governance besides
establishing a Nationwide State-of-the-Art information and communication technology
(ICT) Infrastructure.
▪ It is under the aegis of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology It was
established in 1976 and is located in New Delhi.

Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya

▪ PM-JAY offers a sum insured of Rs.5 lakh per family for secondary care (which doesn’t
involve a super specialist) as well as tertiary care (which involves a super specialist).
▪ It is an entitlement-based scheme that targets the beneficiaries as identified by latest Socio-
Economic Caste Census (SECC) data.

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 ▪ Once identified by the database, the beneficiary is considered insured and can walk into
any empanelled hospital.
▪ The insurance cost is shared by the centre and the state mostly in the ratio of 60:40.

GOVERNMENT INSTANT MESSAGING SYSTEM (GIMS)

▪ It is an Indian equivalent of popular messaging platforms, such as WhatsApp and Telegram, for
secure internal use.
▪ Designed and developed by National Informatics Centre
▪ It is being packaged for employees of Central and state government departments and
organisations for intra and inter organisation communications.
▪ It is being developed as a secure Indian alternative without the security concerns attached with
apps hosted abroad or those owned by foreign entities.
▪ Like WhatsApp, GIMS employs end-to-end encryption for one-to-one messaging.

SAMARTH scheme

▪ It is a new skill development scheme for Capacity Building in Textile Sector with following
▪ Providing placement oriented skilling programme to incentivize the efforts of the industry in creating
jobs in the organized textile and related sectors
▪ Promoting skilling and skill up-gradation in the traditional sectors through respective Sectoral
Divisions/organizations of Ministry of Textiles
▪ Providing livelihood to all sections of the society across the country

SRESTHA

New R&D organisation to serve the future technology needs of Railways

Nivaran
It is the grievance redressal portal launched by the Ministry of Railways. It is the first IT application to
be launched on the Rail Cloud. It is a platform for resolution of service related grievances of serving and
former railway employees.

NATIONAL WETLAND COMMITTEE

▪ National Wetland Committee replaces Central Wetlands Regulatory Authority (CWRA)
▪ NWC will be headed by the MoEFCC Secretary, to monitor implementation of these rules.
▪ NWC has a merely advisory role. These include –
o Advising the central government on proposals received from states/UTs for “omission of
the prohibited activities”
o Prescribing norms and guidelines for integrated management of wetlands based on
wise-use principle.
o Recommending trans-boundary wetlands for notification.
o Reviewing the progress of integrated management of Ramsar Convention sites.

Operation Swarna
Operation Swarn is launched by the Railway Ministry to improve services in Rajdhani and Shatabdi
Express trains. Under the project, the Indian Railways will focus attention on 10 key areas —
punctuality, cleanliness, linen, coach interiors, toilets, catering, staff behaviour, security, entertainment,
housekeeping and regular feedback.

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NATIONAL STATISTICAL COMMISSION (NSC)
▪ NSC to become nodal body for all core statistics in country.
▪ Core statistics include national income statistics like GDP, jobs data, industry
data and budgetary transactions data
▪ The NSC is the apex advisory body on statistical matters, but its suggestions are not binding
on the government.

SECURE: It is under Ministry of Rural development

SECURE(Software for Estimate Calculation Using Rural Rates for Employment) aims to improve quality of
works through detailing of technical specifications, tasks and workflows
Bharat Padhe Online
▪ The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has launched two new initiatives -
Bharat Padhe Online Campaign and YUKTI web-portal - for improving and monitoring the
online education ecosystem in India.
▪ ‘Bharat Padhe Online’ is a week-long campaign upto 16th April, 2020 for crowd sourcing of ideas for
improving the online education ecosystem of India.
▪ It aims to invite all the best brains in India to share suggestions solutions directly with the HRD
Ministry to overcome constraints of online education while promoting the available digital
education platforms.
▪ Students and teachers are the main target audience in it.

NABVENTURES
▪ It is a subsidiary of NABARD. It has launched a new venture capital fund in order to provide
funding support to agri-related enterprises.
▪ The Nabventures has been set up in order to support start-ups in the field of the agriculture by
providing them necessary financial support.
▪ NABARD has been contributing to other funds till now and this is the first time that NABARD
has launched a fund of its own.

TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE DIGITAL LIBRARY (TKDL)

▪ It is an initiative to prevent misappropriation of country’s traditional medicinal knowledge at
international Patent offices.
▪ It is checking bio piracy.
▪ CSIR is the implementing agency of TKDL project.
▪ Ministry of Ayush in collaboration with CSIR hasestablished TKDL.

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.

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 ▪ Nodal Ministry –Ministry of Tribal Affairs

Marine Products Export Development Authority

▪ The MPEDA was set up under Section (4) of MPEDA Act, 1972.
▪ It is a statutory body functioning under the Department of Commerce.
▪ The MPEDA is responsible for development of the marine products industiy with special
reference to exports.
▪ It has its headquarters at Kochi.

e-GramSwaraj Portal and Mobile App

▪ Launched by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.
▪ It will provide the Gram Panchayats with a single interface to prepare and implement their Gram
Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP).
▪ The portal will ensure real time monitoring and accountability.

Swachh Survekshan 2020.

▪ The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has announced the results of the first (April-
June) and second (July-September) quarters of Swachh Survekshan 2020.
▪ Swachh Survekshan 2020 is the 5th edition of the annual urban cleanliness survey conducted by the
Ministry.
▪ Swachh Survekshan 2020 is evaluated for each quarter (and NOT annually) on the basis of monthly
updation of Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) online Management Information System (MIS) by
cities along with citizen’s validation on the 12 service level progress indicators.
▪ Ranks for Swachh Survekshan 2020 have been assigned based on the population in two categories of
the cities : 1 lakh and above with sub-categories of 1-10 lakh and 10 lakhs and above and Less than 1
lakh (under this category, the rankings are given zone and population-wise).
▪ It includes five zones namely, North, East, Northeast, South and West.

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Programme.

▪ The programme provides specific interventions targeted towards the vulnerable groups including
children below 6 years and women.
▪ Under it, anganwadi centres across India serve nutritious meals (hot cooked meals) to children and
nursing mothers.
▪ It is being implemented by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
▪ It is a centrally sponsored scheme and provides a package of six services namely supplementary
nutrition, pre-school non-formal education, nutrition & health education, immunization, health
check-up and referral services.
▪ About 87 lakh children aged up to 6 years are beneficiaries of the scheme,they are served by nearly
90,000 anganwadis.

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All India Democratic Women's Association
▪ It is an independent left oriented women's organisation committed to achieving democracy,
equality and women's emancipation.
▪ It was founded in 1981 as a national level mass organisation of women.
▪ Its members are from all strata in society, regardless of class, caste and community. About two-
thirds of the organization's strength is derived from poor rural and urban women.
▪ It upholds secular values and challenges and resists cultural practices demeaning to women and
believes that the emancipation of women in India requires fundamental systemic change.

Swarnima Scheme:
▪ The Swarnima Scheme was introduced by the National Backward Classes
▪ Finance and Development Corporation (NBCFDC) for the welfare of Women. Under this scheme,
term loan will be provided to women entrepreneurs belonging to the target group
(backward classes).
▪ The scheme is implemented by the State Channelising Agency (SCA) which also acts as the nodal
agency.
▪ The National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation was incorporated in
1992 as a non profit company under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
▪ It works for promoting economic and developmental activities for the benefit of Backward
Classes and assisting the weaker section of these classes in skill development and self-
employment.

Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana

▪ It is a sub component of the Deendayal Antodaya Yojana - NRLM (DAY-NRLM).
▪ It seeks to improve the present status of women in Agriculture, and to enhance the opportunities
available to empower her.

Kisan Rath App

▪ By Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare
▪ Kisan Rath App aims to facilitate Farmers and Traders in identifying right mode of
transportation for movement of farm produce ranging from food grain (cereal, coarse cereal,
pulses etc), Fruits & Vegetables, oil seeds, spices, fiber crops, flowers, bamboo, log & minor
forest produce, coconuts etc

Aspirational Districts Programme

• Districts that are affected by poor socio-economic factors.
• 115 districts are identified from 28 states
• Programme focuses on 5 major areas - Education, Health and Nutrition, Financial Inclusion,
Agriculture and Water Resources and Skill Development.

Surakshit Dada-Dadi& Nana-NaniAbhiyan

• Launched by NITI Ayog with Piramal Foundation, on 5 May 2020
• Ensure the wellbeing of the senior citizens amidst CoVID-19 pandemic.
• Targets to reach 2.9 million senior citizens spread in 25 Aspirational Districts (Jharkhand, Bihar,
Assam, Madhya)
• It focuses on behaviour change, access to services, early detection & tracking of COVID19
symptoms.

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GRID Report 2020
▪ Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID)
▪ Released by Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre( IDMC), Genava.
▪ India - 5 million people have been displaced. World - 33 Million
▪ Reasons - social and economic vulnerability, hazard intensity and high population.

‘YuvaSahakar’- Cooperative Enterprise Support and Innovation Scheme

▪ National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) has launched a youth-friendly scheme
for attracting them to cooperative business ventures.
▪ NCDC has created a dedicated fund with liberal features enabling youth to avail the scheme.
▪ The scheme will be linked to Rs 1000 crore ‘Cooperative Start-up and Innovation Fund
(CSIF)’ created by the NCDC

YUKTI Portal
▪ Young India Combating Covid with Knowledge, Technology and Innovation (YUKTI)
▪ It is a unique portal to monitor and record the efforts and initiatives of MHRD.
▪ It will also cover the various initiatives and efforts of the institutions in academics,
research especially related to Covid-19.

Contact Tracing Technology

▪ Contact tracing is the process of identifying, assessing, and managing people, exposed to a
disease to prevent onward transmission.
▪ Technology by Google and Apple.
▪ Working
▪ COVID-19 patients would have to declare their status to the respective apps voluntarily.
following this, all people whose Android/iOS smartphones were detected nearby such patients,
would get notified.
▪ Bluetooth-based technology feature would make it work without downloading an app.

Shri Shakti Challenge

▪ By GoI on MyGOV platform
▪ Solution Challenge for Startups, Entrepreneurs and individuals for proposing technology
solutions in the field Bioinformatics, datasets, Apps for diagnosis etc that can be leveraged for
strengthening the fight against Corona.
▪ A total prize money of INR 22,50,000 has been committed by UN Women

AarogyaSetu
▪ A mobile application BY GoI
▪ To connect health services and the people in the fight against COVID-19.
▪ Helps informing the users about the potential risk of infection, best practices and relevant
medical advisories

National Interlinking of Rivers Authority (NIRA)

▪ The Central government is working on the establishment of an exclusive body to implement projects
for linking rivers
▪ The proposed body is expected to take up both inter-State and intra-State projects
▪ It will also make arrangements for generating funds, internally and externally
(As of now, National Water Development Agency (NWDA) is responsible for the formulation of
proposals of the linking of rivers)
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National Internet Exchange of India
▪ NIXI is a not for profit Organization under section 8 of the Companies Act 2013, and was registered
on 19th June, 2003.
▪ NIXI was set up for peering of ISPs among themselves for the purpose of routing the domestic
traffic within the country, instead of taking it all the way to US/Abroad, thereby resulting in
better quality of service (reduced latency) and reduced bandwidth charges for ISPs by saving on
International Bandwidth.
▪ NIXI is managed and operated on a Neutral basis, in line with the best practices for such initiatives
globally.

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 ART AND CULTURE
Raja Ravi Varma
▪ Born into Travancore royal family
▪ Varma worked on both portrait and landscape paintings and is considered among the first
Indian artists to use oil paints.
▪ Apart from painting Hindu mythological figures, Varma also made portraits of many Indians as
well as Europeans.
▪ His most famous works includeDamayanti Talking to a Swan,Shakuntala Looking for Dushyanta,
Nair Lady Adorning Her Hair, and Shantanu and Matsyagandha.
▪ In 1904, the British colonial government awarded Varma with the Kaiser-i-Hind Gold Medal.
▪ In 2013, a crater on the planet Mercury was named in his honour.

Dholavira
▪ Dholavira, also known as Kotada (which means large fort), is located in Khadir island of the Rann of
Kutchch, Gujarat.
▪ It has two seasonal streams: Mansar in the north, and Manhar in the south.
▪ It is one of the two largest Harappan sites in India, and 5th largest in the subcontinent.
▪ It passed through all the stages of the Harappan culture from circa 2900 BC to 1500 BC.
▪ Town Planning: It consisted of a bipartite ‘citadel’, a ‘middle town’ and a ‘lower town’, two ‘stadia’,
an ‘annexe’, a series of reservoirs all set within a fortification running on all four sides

NOMINATED BY INDIA FOR WORLD HERITAGE SITE

National Council of Science Museums (NCSM)
▪ National Council of Science Museums (NCSM), an autonomous body under the Ministry of
Culture,is the largest network of science centres/museums in the world functioning under
single administrative control.
▪ It is primarily engaged in spreading the culture of science in the society especially among
students with a motto of ‘Communicating Science to Empower People’ through its network of
Science Centres spread across India

First Buddhist Council: 400 BC

▪ Held soon after the mahaparinirvana of the Buddha
▪ patronage of king Ajatshatru
▪ Presided by - monk Mahakasyapa ,
▪ At Rajgriha, in the Sattapani Cave.
▪ The idea was to preserve Buddha’s teachings (Sutta Pitaka) and rules for disciples (Vinaya
Pitaka).

Second Buddhist Council : 383 BC

▪ Held to settle a dispute on Vinaya Pitaka(Rules of discipline)
▪ Held at Vaishali
▪ patronage of King Kalasoka
▪ presided by Sabakami.
▪ The dispute was on 10 Points such as storing salt in horn, eating after midday, eating once etc
▪ Disputes were not settled and paved the way for emergence of Buddhist sects - Sthaviravada,
Mahasanghika and Sarvastivada.
Fifth Buddhist Council: 1871
▪ Held at Mandalay, Burma.
▪ patronage of King Mindon.
▪ Presided by Jagarabhivamsa, Narindabhidhaja, and Sumangalasami.

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 ▪ The idea was to recite all the teachings of the Buddha and examine them systematically if
any of them was dropped or altered.
Sixth Buddhist Council : 1954
▪ Held at Yangoon, Burma
▪ patronage of Burmese Government led by Prime Minister U Nu.
▪ Presided by - MahasiSayadaw and BhadantaVicittasarabhivamsa.
▪ It was aimed to preserve the genuine Dhamma and VinayaPitaka.

Thumri
▪ Thumri is a vocal genre or style of Indian music.
▪ Originated in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, mainly in Lucknow & Benares, around 18th century.
▪ It is said to have begun in Uttar Pradesh with the court of Nawab Wajid Ali.
▪ A romantic & erotic style of singing; also called “the lyric of Indian classical music”.
▪ Lyrics are typically in Brij Bhasha and are usually romantic & religious. Compositions are
mostly on love, separation and devotion.
▪ Various episodes of the lives of Lord Krishna & Radha is portrayed.
▪ Three main gharanas of thumri — Benaras, Lucknow and Patiala.

Jain Council
▪ First Jain Council
Held at Patliputra in 3rd Century B.C. and was presided by Sthulbhadra.
▪ Second Jain Council
o Held at Vallabhi in 512 A.D. and was presided by Devardhi Kshmasramana.
o Final Compilations of 12 Angas and 12 Upangas
o Basadis: Jain monastic establishment or temples in Karnataka

Mahavira principles and vows

The three principles of Jainism, also known as Triratnas (three gems),
Trick KFC
▪ right Knowledge
▪ right Faith
▪ right Conduct.

Trick--to remember vows

COAST
▪ Chastity ,
▪ no Own property,
▪ Ahimsa,
▪ no Steeling,
▪ Truthfulness

Length of Boundary India Shares - Decreasing Order

TRICK :- BACHPAN
Bangladesh China Pakistan Nepal

Vishwa Shanti Stupa (World Peace Pagoda)

• Recently a grand celebration was held to mark the 50th anniversary of establishment of Vishwa
Shanti Stupa (World Peace Pagoda).
• Vishwa Shanti Stupa is a large Buddhist stupa located in Ratnagiri Hill in Rajgir.

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 • There are 4 golden statues of Lord Buddha in this Stupa, with each representing his life periods
of birth, enlightenment, preaching and death.
• Peace pagodas all around the world, have been built under the guidance of a Buddhist monk
from Japan named Nichidatsu Fujii.
• Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, he devoted his life to promote non-violence. In 1947, he began
constructing Peace Pagodas as shrines to world peace, which became a symbol of universal
peace and acceptance

BHAONA
▪ Bhaona is a traditional form of entertainment, with religious messages, prevalent is Assam, India.
▪ It is a creation of Mahapurusha Srimanta Sankardeva, written in the early sixteenth century. He
created the form to convey religious messages to villagers through entertainment. Later Srimanta
Madhavdeva also wrote some plays.
▪ The plays of bhaona are popularly known as Ankiya Nats and their staging is known as bhaona.
▪ Bhaona is generally staged at xatras and namghars in Assam.
▪ There are some special characteristics of Bhaona like the plays, dialogues, costumes, ornaments,
entry and foot-steps of the characters.
▪ These characteristics helps to differentiate Bhaona from other plays.

Contributions of Dr. Ambedkar

▪ Journals: Dr. Ambedkar launched various journals like:
▪ Mooknayak (1920)
▪ Bahishkrit Bharat (1927)
▪ Samatha (1929)
▪ Janata (1930)
Books:
▪ Annihilation of Caste
▪ Buddha or Karl Marx
▪ The Untouchable: Who are They and Why They Have Become Untouchables Buddha and His
Dhamma
▪ The Rise and Fall of Hindu Women
Organisations:
▪ Bahishkrit Hitkarini Sabha (1923)
▪ Independent Labor Party (1936)
▪ Scheduled Castes Federation (1942)

Chak-Hao- GETS GI TAG- MANIPUR

▪ Chak-Hao, the scented glutinous rice which has been in cultivation in Manipur over
centuries.
▪ It is characterized by its special aroma. It is normally eaten during community feasts and is
served as Chak-Hao kheer.
▪ The application for Chak-Hao was filed by the Consortium of Producers of Chak-Hao (Black
Rice), Manipur and was facilitated by the Department of Agriculture.

Gorakhpur terracotta- GI TAG

▪ The terracotta work of Gorakhpur is a centuries-old traditional art form, where the potters make
various animal figures like, horses, elephants, camel, goat, ox, etc. with hand-applied
ornamentation.

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 ▪ The application was filed by Laxmi Terracotta Murtikala Kendra in Uttar Pradesh.

Silambam
▪ Silambam is an ancient martial art of Tamil Nadu. It is not included in UNESCO's
Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
▪ Silambam is a weapon-based martial art form and is traditionally performed by fighting with
long sticks.
▪ It is one of the oldest martial arts in the world, nearly over 5,000 years old.
▪ Silambam is an ancient Dravidian warfare and finds mention in Sangam Literature such as
Silapathikaram.
▪ There are three kinds of Silambam being practised – Por
Silambam (warfare), Silambattam (folk dance) and Potti Silambam (sport).

Thrissur Pooram:
▪ Thrissur Pooram is an annual Hindu festival held in Kerala.
▪ It is held at the Vadakkunnathan Temple in Thrissur every year on the Pooram day – the day
when the moon rises with the Pooram star in the Malayalam Calendar month of Medam.
▪ It is the largest and most famous of all poorams.
▪ Thrissur Pooram was the brainchild of Raja Rama Varma, famously known as Sakthan
Thampuran, the Maharaja of Cochin (1790–1805).

Upasaka
▪ Is the term used for the lay worshippers of Buddha.
▪ Bhikshus were the Buddhist monks.
▪ Mahaparinirvana is the event of Buddha’s death at Kushinagar.
▪ Vajrayana which means the ‘Vehicle of the Thunderbolt’, is the tantric school of Buddhism.

GATKA
▪ Gatka is the name of an Indian martial art associated with the Sikhs of the Punjab and the Tanoli and
Gujjar communities of the mountainous regions of northern Pakistan who practice an early variant
of the martial art.
▪ It is a style of stick-fighting, with wooden sticks intended to simulate swords.
▪ The Punjabi name gatka properly refers to the wooden stick used.

'Hori Habba'
▪ Is a popular bull-catching event in Karnataka.
▪ It is held during the harvest season. It is an ancient folk game native to Haveri district, and played on
the lines of Jallikattu in Tamil Nadu and Kambala in Dakshina Kannada district.

Goura – Gauri

This festival celebrates the pastoral life of the people of Chhattisgarh. ▪️The gathering sees the rituals of
‘gedi’, ‘raut nacha’ and ‘panthi nritya’ in the traditional attire.

Gedi

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 It is a form of dance of the Gond people, who are spread widely throughout Madhya Pradesh and
Chhattisgarh, and is one of India’s prominent tribal groups.

SARAIS of Medieval India.

▪ They provided temporary accommodation to Indian and foreign travellers, pilgrims, merchants,
traders, etc.
▪ They ringed the city and dotted the vast space of the Indian subcontinent.
▪ They were largely built on a simple square or rectangular plain.
▪ They were public areas which were thronged by people of varied cultural backgrounds.
▪ This led to cross-cultural interaction, influences and fusion of different belief systems .
▪ These are not related to storage of imperial or military goods.

Kolam painting
▪ Kolam is a geometric line drawing composed of curved loops.
▪ It is drawn around a grid pattern of dots.
▪ This drawing is made by using rice flour, chalk, chalk powder or rock powder.
▪ It is widely practised by female family members in front of their houses in south India, especially in
Tamil Nadu state.

Svapnavasavadattam:
The plot of the drama is drawn from the romantic narratives about the Vatsa king Udayana and Vasavadatta,
the daughter of Pradyota, the ruler of Avanti.

Malavikagnimitra
It is a Sanskrit play by Kalidasa. It is based on some events of the reign of Pushyamitra Shunga.
The play tells the story of the love of Agnimitra, the Shunga Emperor at Vidisha, for the beautiful hand-
maiden of his chief queen.

Avadanas:

• The development of Mahayana Buddhism led to the composition of numerous avadanas; these are
texts on life history and teachings of Buddhism.
• Most of these texts were composed in what is now known as Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit with the sole
objective of communicating the teachings of Mahayana Buddhism to the people.
• Examples of important books of this genre were Mahavastu and Divyavadana.
• Divyavadana comprises 38 legends, including some about the great Buddhist emperor Ashoka.
• The most famous and largest work is classified as Mahavastu, it includes miraculous events in the life
and former lives of the Buddha.

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Thrissur Pooram
▪ Thrissur Pooram is an annual Hindu festival held in Kerala. It is celebrated on the day when the
star sign “Pooram” occurs in the Malayalam month of “medam (April-May)”.
▪ The festival was the brainchild of Raja Rama Varma, famously known as Sakthan Thampuran, the
Maharaja of Cochin (1790–1805).
▪ Pooram officially begins with Kodiyettam (flag hoisting ceremony) in which all the participating
temples of the festival are present.
▪ The Pooram consists of ten temples in and around Thrissur and is considered to be a ceremony
where these deities come together to pay obeisance to Lord Shiva at the Vadakkunnathan
Temple, located in the centre of the town.
▪ One of the hallmarks of the festival is the percussion ensemble consisting of traditional instruments
like chenda, maddalam, edakka, thimila and kombu.

Sohrai Khovar Paintings:

▪ A traditional and ritualistic mural art. Practised by local tribal women during local harvest and
marriage seasons using local, naturally available soils of different colours in the area of Hazaribagh
district of Jharkhand.
▪ Style features a profusion of lines, dots, animal figures and plants, often representing religious
iconography i.e. visual image and symbols.
It has been painted on the walls of important public places in Jharkhand.

The Kalabhra Revolt

▪ After the eclipse of the Cholas, the Cheras, and the Pandyas, the only important event is a revolt led
by the Kalabhras in the sixth century.
▪ The Kalabhras were tribal people who captured power, particularly by defeating the Cholas, and
ruled for seventy five years.
▪ The Kalabhras are called evil rulers, who overthrew innumerable kings and established their hold on
the Tamil land.
▪ The Kalabhra revolt was a powerful peasant protest directed against the landed brahmanas.
▪ They put an end to the brahmadeya rights(land grants) granted to the brahmanas in numerous
villages.
▪ It appears that the Kalabhras were of Buddhist persuasion as they patronized Buddhist monasteries.

Geographical Indication (GI)

▪ It is an insignia on products having a unique geographical origin and evolution over
centuries with regard to its special quality or reputed attributes.
▪ It is a mark of authenticity and ensures that registered authorized users or at least those
residing inside the geographic territory are allowed to use the popular product names.
▪ GI tag in India is governed by Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration & Protection)
Act, 1999.
▪ It is issued by the Geographical Indications Registry (Chennai).

Benefits of GI Tag
▪ It provides legal protection to Indian Geographical Indications thus preventing unauthorized
use of the registered GIs by others.
▪ It promotes economic prosperity of producers of goods produced in a geographical territory.

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 ▪ The GI protection in India leads to recognition of the product in other countries thus boosting
exports.

LATEST GI TAG 2019-20

▪ Sirsi Supari - Karnataka

▪ Erode Turmeric - Tamil Nadu
▪ Marayoor Jaggery - Kerala
▪ Dindigul Lock & Kandangi Saree -Tamil Nadu
▪ Tawlhlohpuan & Mizo Puanchei - Mizoram
▪ Tirur Betel Leaf - Kerala
▪ Panchamirtham of Palani Murugan Temple - Tamil Nadu
▪ Rasgola - Odisha
▪ Kolhapuri Chappal - Maharashtra & Karnataka
▪ Kandhamal Haldi (Turmeric) - Odisha
▪ Sriviliputtur Palkova Sweet - Tamil Nadu
▪ Darjeeling Green, White Tea - West Bengal
▪ Gamosa, Chokuwa rice - Assam
▪ Sohrai and Kohbar Art - Jharkhand
▪ Chak-Hao, Black rice - Manipur
▪ Gorakhpur terracotta - Uttar Pradesh
▪ Kovilpatti Kadalai Mittai - Tamil Nadu
▪ Kashmir saffron - Jammu & Kashmir

Chak-Hao- GETS GI TAG- MANIPUR

▪ Chak-Hao, the scented glutinous rice which has been in cultivation in Manipur over
centuries.
▪ It is characterized by its special aroma. It is normally eaten during community feasts and is
served as Chak-Hao kheer.
▪ The application for Chak-Hao was filed by the Consortium of Producers of Chak-Hao (Black
Rice), Manipur and was facilitated by the Department of Agriculture.

Tirur Vetilla
▪ Recently, Tirur vettila has obtained a Geographical Indication (GI) tag.
▪ Tirur Vettila is a type of betel leaf which is grown in Tirur and nearby areas of Malappuram
district of Kerala.
▪ It is unique for its significantly high content of total chlorophyll and protein in fresh leaves.

Pooram Festival
Kerala's annual festival, celebrations are dedicated to goddesses Durga.

146
 PLACES IN NEWS

#World #Africa
Recently Sudan’s main opposition coalition and the ruling military council signed a final power-sharing deal
that paves the way for a transitional government, and eventually elections, following the overthrow of long-
time leader Omar al-Bashir.

Sudan

▪ It is a country in Northeast Africa.

▪ It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea- NE, Eritrea- east, Ethiopia-SE, South Sudan- south,
the Central African Republic to the SW, Chad to the west, and Libya NW.
▪ The capital is Khartoum, located at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile.
▪ Since 2011, Sudan is the scene of ongoing military conflict in its regions South Kordofan and
the Blue Nile.

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#World #Sea
Persian Gulf
▪ Persian Gulf has been in news recently in the context of ongoing tensions between Iran and USA.
▪ It is a shallow marginal sea of the Indian Ocean that lies between the Arabian Peninsula and south
western Iran.
▪ The body of water is an extension of the Indian Ocean (Gulf of Oman) through the Strait of Hormuz.
▪ Countries surrounding the Persian Gulf- Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, United
Arab Emirates and Oman.

Strait of Hormuz
▪ It is a strait between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
▪ It provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean and is one of the
world's most strategically important choke points.

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#World #Africa
Somalia
▪ It is a country located in the Horn of Africa.
▪ It is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, the Gulf of Aden to the north,
the Guardafui Channel and Somali Sea to the east, and Kenya to the southwest.
▪ It has the longest coastline on Africa's mainland.
▪ Since 1990s Somalia has witnessed a civil war and Islamic militancy.
▪ The Somali Dervish movement was an armed resistance to the colonial powers – particularly
the British – in the Horn of Africa, between 1899 and 1920.

HORN OF AFRICA
▪ It is a peninsula in Africa. It consists of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia.
▪ It extends hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea and lies along the southern side of the Gulf
of Aden.

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#World #Mapping
Algeria is at a political impasse after inability of major groups to come to an agreement regarding new
elections, after popular protests forced President AbdelazizBouteflika to resign.
Algeria
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 ▪ It is the largest country in Africa.
▪ It an integral part of the Maghrib region and is an Arab country.
▪ It is bounded to the east by Tunisia and Libya; to the south by Niger, Mali, and Mauritania; to
the west by Morocco and Western Sahara.
▪ Major cities in Algeria include Algiers, Oran, Constantine and Annaba.

#World #Africa
Corruption allegations against President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has triggered small but rare protests in Cairo and
other Egyptian cities.
Egypt
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 ▪ It is a country in the northeast corner of Africa.
▪ It is bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the NE, the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea to the
east, Sudan to the south, Libya to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north.
▪ Egypt overtook South Africa and became Africa's second largest economy (after Nigeria).
▪ It is the third-most populous in Africa (after Nigeria and Ethiopia), and the fifteenth.

#World #Africa
New York Times newspaper has recently highlighted Russia’s increasing involvement in
civil war in Central African Republic.
Central African Republic (CAR)
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 ▪ It is a landlocked country in Central Africa.
▪ It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the NE, South Sudan to the east, the DR of
the Congo to the south, the Republic of the Congo to the SW and Cameroon to the west.
▪ Most of the CAR consists of savannas, but also includes an equatorial forest zone in the
south.

Central African Republic Civil War

It is an ongoing civil war in the CAR involving the government, rebels from the Séléka (Muslim rebel militia
groups) coalition, and anti-balaka militias.

#World #Africa
Eritrea–Ethiopia
The Nobel Peace Prize for 2019 has been awarded to Abiy Ahmed Ali, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia for his
decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighboring Eritrea.

Eritrean Ethiopian War:

▪ In 1993, Eritrea broke from its federation with Ethiopia, becoming an independent country that
was located strategically at the mouth of the Red Sea on the Horn of Africa.
▪ Independence was the outcome of a 30-year war by Eritrean liberation fighters against
Ethiopia, which had annexed the small multiethnic territory to its north in 1962.
▪ Just over five years after Independence, however, war broke out between the two countries over
the control of Badme — a border town of no apparent significance.

#World #Africa
Ethiopia
It is a landlocked country in the NE part of Africa, known as the Horn of Africa.
It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the NE, the de facto state of Somaliland
and Somalia to the east, Kenya to the south, South Sudan to the west and Sudan to the NW.

Danakil Depression- NE Ethiopia

▪ It is one of the world’s hottest places, as well as one of its lowest, at 100 metres below sea level.

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 ▪ At the northern end of the Great Rift Valley, and separated by live volcanoes from the Red Sea,
the plain was formed by the evaporation of an inland water body.

Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD)/ Millennium Dam / Hidase Dam

▪ It will be Africa’s biggest hydropower project (6.45 GW) when completed as well as the seventh
largest in the world.
▪ It is being built on the world’s longest river Nile (north-flowing river in Africa), in the lowlands of
Ethiopia.

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The Gaza Strip and The West Bank (Palestinian Territories)
▪ It had been occupied by Egypt and Jordan, respectively, since the 1948 war until 1967.
▪ Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the Six-Day War of 1967 and has since
maintained control.
▪ In 1980, Israel officially absorbed East Jerusalem and has proclaimed the whole of Jerusalem to be
its capital.
▪ The inclusion, though never formally amounting to legal annexation.
▪ In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip from Egypt,
the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria.

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 ▪ The two-state solution to the Israeli– Palestinian conflict envisages an independent State of
Palestine alongside the State of Israel, west of the Jordan River.

Oman
▪ It is a located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia.
▪ Located in a strategically important position at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.

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 ▪ It shares land borders with the United Arab Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west,
and Yemen to the southwest, and shares marine borders with Iran and Pakistan.
▪ The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the southeast and the Gulf of Oman on the northeast.

India and Oman Exercises-

▪ Ex-Eastern Bridge-V- Joint air force Ex.
▪ Al Nagah- Joint armed forces Ex.
▪ Naseem al Bahr- Joint naval forces Ex.

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#World #Mapping
Eighteen UN troops and two civilians were wounded in a mortar attack on a military base in northern Mali in
fresh violence in the war-torn West African country.

Mali
▪ It is a landlocked country in West Africa.
▪ It share borders on the north reach deep into the middle of the Sahara Desert, while the
country's southern part, where the majority of inhabitants live, features the Niger and Senegal
rivers.
▪ The country's economy centers on agriculture and mining.
▪ Some of Mali's prominent natural resources include gold, being the third largest producer of gold in
the African continent, and salt.

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#World
Strikes and protests have been held on the Greek islands of Lesbos, Samos and Chios over the government's
handling of migrants arriving from Turkey.

Samos
▪ It is a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea and off the coast of Asia Minor, from which it
is separated by the 1.6-kilometre wide Mycale Strait.
▪ It is also a separate regional unit of the North Aegean region, and the only municipality of the
regional unit.

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 ▪ In ancient times Samos was an especially rich and powerful city-state, particularly known for
its vineyards and wine production.
▪ It is the birthplace of the Mathem -atician Pythagoras (Pythagorean Theorem).

#World
Turkey, Greece in row over Kardak islets in the Aegean.

Imia/Kardak Islets
▪ It is a pair of small uninhabited islets in the Aegean Sea, situated between the Greek island chain of
the Dodecanese and the SW mainland coast of Turkey.
▪ It was the object of a military crisis and subsequent dispute over
sovereignty between Greece and Turkey in 1996.

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 ▪ This dispute is part of the larger Aegean dispute, which also comprises disputes over
the continental shelf, the territorial waters, the air space, the Flight Information Regions (FIR) and
the demilitarization of the
Aegean islands.
▪ The European Union backed the Greek side on the Imia dispute, and warned Turkey to refrain from
any kind of threat or action directed against the sovereignty of Greece.

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#World
Bolivia’s President Evo Morales has resigned due to protests over an alleged rigging in election.
Bolivia
▪ It is a landlocked country located in western-central South America.
▪ Its geography varies from the peaks of the Andes in the West, to the Eastern Lowlands, situated
within the Amazon Basin.
▪ It is bordered to the north and east by Brazil, to the southeast by Paraguay, to
the south by Argentina, to the SW by Chile, and to the NW by Peru.

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#World
Venezuela
▪ It s a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and
many small islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea.
▪ It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south.

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 ▪ It has territorial disputes with Guyana, formerly United Kingdom, largely concerning the Essequibo
area and with Colombia concerning the Gulf of Venezuela.
▪ It has the world's largest known oil reserves and has been one of the world's leading exporters of
oil.
▪ The excesses and poor policies of the incumbent government led to the collapse of Venezuela's
entire economy.
▪ The country struggles with record hyperinflation, shortages of basic goods, unemployment,
poverty etc.

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