Daily Prelims Notes 18 June 2022

  • June 18, 2022
  • Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
  • Category: DPN
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Daily Prelims Notes

18 June 2022

1. Tribute paid to Maharaja Gulab Singh on his 200th Coronation Day

Subject: History

Section: Personalities

Context:

  • Gulab Singh Jamwal(1792–1857) was the founder of Dogra dynasty and the first Maharaja of the topa Rajput princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, the second largest princely state under the British Raj, which was created after the defeat of the Sikh Empire in the First Anglo-Sikh War.
  • During the war, Gulab Singh stayed aloof which helped the British victory, and even became prime minister of the Sikh Empire for the final 38 days of conflict.
  • The Treaty of Amritsar (1846) formalized the sale by the British to Gulab Singh for 7,500,000 Nanakshahi Rupees of all the lands in Kashmir that were ceded to them by the Sikhs by the Treaty of Lahore, prior to which his brother Raja Dhian Singh was the longest serving prime minister of the Sikh Empire from 1818 to 1843.
  • Diwan Kirpa Ram, the “Maharajah’s private secretary and the son of Dewan Jwala Sahai, the Maharajah’s Prime Minister“, of the Diwans of Eminabad family, wrote the first biography of Gulab Singh titled Gulabnama in the 19th century in Persian.
  • Maharaja Gulab Singh was not only a warrior and able administrator but also a secular person as there was complete freedom of worship during his regime.

2. From Emergency to Gujarat riots, lessons of past deleted from NCERT textbooks 

Subject : History

Section: Personalities

Context:

  • The deleted topics include:
    • 2002 Gujarat riots
    • Emergency’s draconian impact on people and institutions
    • Protests and social movements such as Narmada BachaoAndolan, Dalit Panthers and Bharatiya Kisan Union.
    • how the Tawa Matsya Sangh fought for the rights of displaced forest dwellers of Satpura forest of Madhya Pradesh is also removed.
    • Chapters on Jawahar lal Nehru, Sedition and Naxalism.
  • This is the third textbook review since 2014.
  • The first one took place in 2017, in which the NCERT made 1,334 changes, including additions, corrections and data updates, in 182 textbooks.
  • The second review was initiated in 2019 to reduce the burden on students.
  • The official rationale for the latest exercise is to reduce curriculum load further to help students make a “speedy recovery” in learning, which has been hit by Covid disruptions.

NCERT

  • The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is an autonomous organisation set up in 1961by the Government of India to assist and advise the Central and State Governments on policies and programmes for qualitative improvement in school education.
  • The major objectives of NCERT and its constituent units are to:
  • undertake, promote and coordinate research in areas related to school education
  • prepare and publish model textbooks, supplementary material, newsletters, journals and develops educational kits, multimedia digital materials, etc.
  • organize pre-service and in-service training of teachers
  • develop and disseminate innovative educational techniques and practices
  • collaborate and network with state educational departments, universities, NGOs and other educational institutions
  • act as a clearing house for ideas and information in matters related to school education; and act as a nodal agency for achieving the goals of Universalization of Elementary Education.
  • In addition, NCERT is an implementation agency for bilateral cultural exchange programmes with other countries in the field of school education.
  • NCF provides the framework for creation of the school syllabi and the writing of textbooks, while giving guidelines on teaching practices in India.
  • It addresses four issues:
  • Educational purpose
  • Educational experience
  • Organization of experience
  • Assessing learner

3. Ancient Monuments Act to be made flexible

Subject : History

Section: Art and Culture

Context:

  • The government is working to bring amendments to the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (AMASR) Act-1958.
  • The AMASR Act, 1958, was amended in 2010, according to which 100-metre radius of an ASI-protected monument is “prohibited area”, and hence, no construction is allowed there, while the next 300-metre is “regulated area”, where permissions are required before executing any structural changes.
  • The ministry is looking to rationalize these prohibited and regulated zones following controversies over development projects pertaining to different monuments.
  • The amendment will also give more teeth to the ASI to remove encroachments from regulated zones around the monuments and hold the local authorities liable.
  • The plan is also to review the list of ASI-protected monuments and drop some from the ASI purview and pass on to the respective state archaeology departments for upkeep so that unnecessary burden can be shed off.
  • On the other hand, a review will also enable the ASI to take certain other monuments of ‘national importance’ under its wings.
  • Next year, as India hosts G20 countries, some of the meetings will be held at important ASI sites
  • So, the plan is also to look at areas around some of those sites and add required infrastructure for those high-profile meetings.

4. Genetically modified maize and soy

Subject : Science and technology

Section: Biotechnology

Context:

  • China to adopt genetically modified maize and soy.

Genetically modified maize and soy

  • The Chinese National Crop Variety Approval Committee cleared the path for cultivating genetically modified (GM) crops in the country.
  • China plans to approve more genetically modified (GM) maize varieties. Currently, China imports genetically modified maize and soybean but prohibits domestic cultivation of the crops.
  • The change in regulations would potentially lead to an improvement in yields. This is aligned with China’s ambition of becoming self-sufficient in essential grains and oil seeds in the coming years.

Impact on other countries 

  • It will have an impact on the long-term growth of the domestic agricultural sector of other countries like South Africa.
  • If maize and soybean yields improve in the coming years, China’s import dependence could lessen.
  • There are lessons here for the African countries, most of which have resisted the cultivation of genetically modified crops. South Africa is the exception.
  • With the African continent currently struggling to meet its annual food needs, using technology, genetically modified seeds, and other means should be an avenue to explore to boost production.

Genetically modified crops:

  • A GM or transgenic crop is a plant that has a novel combination of genetic material obtained through the use of modern biotechnology.
    • For example, a GM crop can contain a gene(s) that has been artificially inserted instead of the plant acquiring it through pollination.
  • Conventional plant breeding involves crossing of species of the same genus to provide the offspring with the desired traits of both parents.
  • Cross breeding can take a long time to achieve desired results and frequently, characteristics of interest do not exist in any related species.
  • Bt cotton is the only GM crop that is allowed in India. It has alien genes from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) that allows the crop to develop a protein toxic to the common pest pink bollworm.
  • Herbicide Tolerant Bt (HtBt) cotton, on the other hand is derived with the insertion of an additional gene, from another soil bacterium, which allows the plant to resist the common herbicide glyphosate.
  • In Bt brinjal, a gene allows the plant to resist attacks of fruit and shoot borers.
  • In DMH-11 mustard, genetic modification allows cross-pollination in a crop that self-pollinates in nature.

Advantages of genetically modified crops like maize:

  • Along with increased yield, genetically modified seeds have benefits such as lowering insecticide use, encouraging more environmentally friendly tillage practices and crop yield improvements.
  • A reduction in the global maize and soybeans prices would be positive for consumers and the livestock and poultry sectors. This is much needed as the world has been in a period of elevated food prices over the past two years.

5. The illegal tiger-farming business

Subject: Environment

Section: Biodiversity

Context:

  • The illegal tiger-farming business is thriving in parts of Asia.

Tiger conservation efforts and associated problems:

  • As the world celebrates the Year of the Tiger in 2022, humans continue to threaten the cat’s long-term survival in the wild by killing, buying and selling tigers and their prey, and encroaching into their last shreds of habitat.
  • With the world’s second Global Tiger Summit and important international meetings on biodiversity and endangered species looming, it’s a crucial year for tigers.
  • Under a 2007 CITES decision, tigers should be bred only for conservation purposes.
    • Evidence shows that this decision is being disregarded by some Asian nations, including China, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand.
    • Farming tigers for their parts, like pigs and chickens, violates an international treaty, though it continues in Laos, China, Vietnam and Thailand. The illicit trade also violates Laos’s commitment to convert tiger farms to zoos and stop breeding.
    • But CITES has done little to enforce it, which could be done through sanctions.

State of the tiger, in India and globally:

  • The 2nd Global Tiger Summit is scheduled for September 5 in Vladivostok, Russia.
  • In 2010, at the first summit, tiger range governments committed to doubling numbers in their countries by the next Year of the Tiger in the Chinese zodiac, which is 2022.
  • In November 2022, parties to CITES, the convention on the global wildlife trade, signed by 184 nations including Laos, China, Thailand and Vietnam, will convene in Panama.
  • There have been mixed results, with some populations rising, others stable — and some falling.
  • While tigers in South Asia are comparatively well-protected, there’s still serious poaching in Southeast Asia
  • India has 70% of the global tiger population. Tigers in India are increasing in some areas, largely due to their extraordinary resilience and improved enforcement of laws, according to the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI).
  • Law enforcement has dismantled numerous criminal trafficking gangs, but the WPSI tallied 56 poaching and seizure deaths in 2021, the most since 2001.

6. Flooding Submerges Northeastern Bangladesh 

Subject: Geography

Section: Flooding

Context:

  • Worst Flooding in Decades Submerges North eastern Bangladesh .

Floods in northeast Bangladesh 

  • Days of heavy rain at the beginning of monsoon season have caused widespread flooding in northeastern Bangladesh, leaving millions stranded and vast areas inundated
  • Major rivers in the two northeastern districts of Sylhet and Sunamganj have swollen to dangerously high levels because of heavy downpours.
  • In Sylhet, the Surma River was flowing 70 centimeters above the danger level.

Surma river

  • Barak River originates from the Manipur hilly areas of India.
  • At Karimganj district of south Assam, it divides into two branches. 
  • The north branch which is known as the Surma River enters into the Sylhet depression of Bangladesh. 
  • Main source of the Surma river is Barak. This depressed area is called the Surma River basin. The river is fed by tributaries from the Meghalaya hills.
  • The Meghna is formed inside Bangladesh above Bhairab Bazar by the combination of the Surma and Kushiyara rivers. Down to Chandupura, Meghna is hydrographically referred to as the Upper Meghna. After the Padma joins, it is referred to as the Lower Meghna.

7. Central bank unveils Payments Vision 2025: RBI bats for CBDC, regulation of fintechs, BNPL

Subject: Economy

Section: Monetary Policy

Context: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has unveiled the Payments Vision 2025 document which proposes a host of innovative payment systems and regulation of BigTechs, fintechs, buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) systems, and introduction of a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Salient features of Payments Vision 2025:

  • The Payments Vision 2025 has the core theme of E-payments for everyone, everywhere, every time (4Es).
  • It aims to provide every user with safe, secure, fast, convenient, accessible and affordable e-payment options
  • It proposed enabling of geotagging of digital payment infrastructure and transactions and revisiting guidelines for prepaid payment instruments (PPIs), including closed system PPIs
  • It proposed a framework for regulation of all significant intermediaries in payments ecosystem and link credit cards and credit components of banking products to UPI
  • It proposed bringing in enhancements to Cheque Truncation System (CTS), including One Nation One Grid clearing and settlement perspective, and creating payment system for processing online merchant payments using internet and mobile banking
  • It also proposed regulation of BigTechs and FinTechs in the payments space
  • It recommended that the buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) system should be examined, and issuance of appropriate guidelines on payments involving BNPL should be explored

Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC):

  • It is a legal tender issued by a central bank in a digital form
  • It is similar to a fiat currency issued in paper and is interchangeable with any other fiat currency.
  • CBDC will be backed by block chain technology
  • Finance Minister announced the launch of the Digital Rupee — a central bank digital currency (CBDC) — 2022-23 onwards

8. First grassroots innovation-based standards formulated by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)

Subject: Polity

Section: National Organisation

Context:The first official standard for a grassroots innovation has been set up for clay cooling cabinet Mitticool developed by Shri Mansukh Bhai Prajapati, from Wankaner, in Gujarat.

What is the IS 17693: 2022 Non-electric Cooling Cabinet Made of Clay or Mitticool Refrigerator?

  • It is the first standard rooted in a grassroots innovation – Mitticool Refrigerator. Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) developed an Indian Standard for Mitticool Refrigerator.
  • The standard specifies the construction and performance requirements of a cooling cabinet of the natural refrigerator made out of clay which operates on the principle of evaporative cooling
  • The standard helps in the endeavour of BIS to fulfil 6 of out 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely 1 (No poverty), 2 (Zero hunger), 5 (Gender equality), 7 (Affordable and clean energy), 9 (Industry, innovation, and infrastructure), and 12 (Responsible consumption and production)

Application of Mitticool Refrigerator:

  • It may be used to store perishable foodstuff without the need of electricity
  • It provides a natural coldness to foodstuffs so that they remain fresh without deteriorating their quality
  • The standard can help grassroots innovations march hand-in-hand with innovations in the formal sector
  • Some benefits that are expected to accrue to the innovation are – facilitation of trade and commerce, improvement of processes and making them more efficient, guidance in consistent functioning and quality, simplifying comparison of products and services, promoting further technological developments.

The Impact of Mitticool Refrigerator:

  • It played a lead role in reviving the pottery culture, tradition, and heritage; connecting people back to roots in better, healthier ways.
  • It promotes sustainable consumption; economically empowering the indigent community; working towards green and cool earth, economic development and employment generation.
  • It also contributing towards rural women upliftment and making them financially independent

Bureau of Indian Standards:

  • It is the National Standards Body of India under Department of Consumer affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution
  • It is established by the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016 which came into effect on 12 October 2017.
  • Its main function is the harmonious development of the activities of standardization, marking and quality certification of goods

9. NMA to work towards strengthening Rukmini Krishna Yatra between Arunachal Pradesh and  Gujarat

Subject: History

Section: Art and Culture

Context: National Monumental Authority (NMa) planned to strengthening Arunachal’s age old cultural connect with Gujarat through Rukmini and Bhagwan Krishna story

Concept:

  • NMA is aiming for  monument preservation and organising  a Rukmini Krishna Yatra between Arunachal Pradesh and Gujarat on a large scale and to promote it at the national level
  • It is planned that people from Gujarat visit Bhishmak Nagar and vice versa to increase cultural tourism between far eastern and far western corners of the nation
  • It is aimed at promoting  idea of national unity and Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat vision
  • The NMA team visited legendary Bhishmak Nagar ruins of Rukmini palace and met several village elders who narrated beautiful saga of Rukmini’s marriage to Shri Krishna that is still sung in Idu Mishmi tribal songs
  • In Porbandar,  Krishna’s marriage with Arunachal’s Rukmini is also celebrated.

Why it is important?

Arunachal Pradesh needs a very special attention for preservation of its cultural memory as the verbal history transferred from one generation to other is fast disappearing since  village elders and Igus (traditional healers and priests) are dwindling in numbers

National Monumental Authority:

  • National Monuments Authority (NMA) under the Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India has been setup as per provisions of The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains AMASR (Amendment and Validation) Act, 2010 which was enacted in March, 2010.
  • The important function of NMA is also to consider grant of permissions to applicants for construction related activity in the prohibited and regulated area.

Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat

It was announced on 31st October, 2015 on the occasion of the 140th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

Objectives of Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat

  • To celebrate the Unity in Diversity of our Nation and to maintain and strengthen the fabric of traditionally existing emotional bonds between the people of our Country;
  • To promote the spirit of national integration through a deep and structured engagement between all Indian States and Union Territories through a year-long planned engagement between States;
  • To showcase the rich heritage and culture, customs and traditions of either State for enabling people to understand and appreciate the diversity that is India, thus fostering a sense of common identity
Daily Current Affairs Prelims Notes