Daily Prelims Notes 23 October 2020

October 23, 2020
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN

Table Of Contents

Subject: Modern History

Context: All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) welcomed the four farm legislations passed by the Punjab Assembly and urged all other States to follow the model.

Concept:

In 1936, at the Lucknow session of the Congress, All India Kisan Sabha was formed with Sahajanand as its first president
All India Kisan Sabha is also known as ‘Akhil Bhartiya Kisan Sabha.’ The secretary of this association was NG Ranga.
The motives of the All India Kisan Sabha were:

To abolish the Zamindari system,

To reduce land revenue,

To institutionalize credit.

Rift between AIKS and INC:

A good number of the INC leaders were Zamindars themselves, while the peasants and workers came from another class. Thus this class clash within the INC was a hurdle, in implementing all the schemes that were visualized by Gandhi, Nehru and others.
So, by and large, the INC failed to meet all the promises they had claimed to fulfil to the peasants. The peasants thus became disillusioned with the INC government.
Thus, the All India Kisan Sabha felt betrayed by the INC and this is why, when in 1942, Mahatma Gandhi gave a call for the Quit India Movement, the peasant leaders such as Swami Sahajanand Saraswati appealed to the peasants not to support Gandhi or the INC.
The peasant movement started being dominated by the socialists and communists and in the INC Haripura session, the rift between INC and AIKS became evident.
In May 1942, CPI took over AIl India Kisan Sabha all across the country.
There are two organisations at present working under the name AIKS (following the split of Communist Party of India in 1964):

All India Kisan Sabha – Communist Party of India’s Peasant Wing

All India Kisan Sabha – Communist Party of India-Marxist’s Peasant Front; also known as All India Kisan Sabha (36 Canning Lane).

Additional Information: Various state Kisan Sabhas

Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha – 1929 by Sahajanand Sarawsati
UP Kisan Sabha – 1918 by Gauri Shankar Mishra and Indra Narayan Dwivedi and was supported by Madan Mohan Malaviya.
Awadh Kisan Sabha – 1920 by Baba Ramachandra.

2. KARACHI SESSION

Subject: Modern History

Context: Harsh Madder wrote in The India Forum of the significance of the word “fraternity” in our Constitution’s Preamble.

Concept:

Scholars have long noted a few milestones in the history of India’s constitution-making. A major one was the 1931 “Fundamental Rights” resolution of the Indian National Congress.
The Karachi session was presided by Sardar Patel. The congress adopted a resolution on Fundamental Rights and Economic Policy which represented the Party’s Social, Economic and Political programme.
The Karachi Session of the Congress endorsed the Gandhi-Irwin Pact and reiterated the goal of “PoornaSwaraj”. It passed a resolution to dissociate itself from and disapprove the political violence in any shape.
Some of the important Karachi resolutions are ,

Basic civil rights of freedom of speech, Freedom of Press, Freedom of assembly, Freedom of association,

1. Equality before law
2. Elections on the basis of Universal Adult Franchise
3. Free and compulsory primary education.
4. Substantial reduction in rent and taxes
5. Better conditions for workers including a living wage, limited hours of work.
6. Protection of women and peasants
7. Government ownership or control of key industries, mines, and transport.
8. Protection of Minorities.

Congress made this agenda- the basis of its political programme for the next many years to come.

3. RAMLILA

Subject: Art & Culture

Context: The world famous Ramnagar Ramlila – which many consider to be the oldest in the world, being over 200 years old – began in Varanasi.

Concept:

The Traditional performance of Ramayana was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008.
Ramlila, literally means “Rama’s play”, is a performance based on Ramayana epic. Ramlila recalls the battle between Rama and Ravana and consists of a series of scenes that include song, narration, recital and dialogue.
Ramlila is performed during the festival of Dussehra every year across northern India. Out of them the most representative Ramlilas are performed in Ayodhya, Vrindavan, Almora, Sattna, Madhubani, Ramnagar and Benares.
Staging of Ramlila is based on the Ramacharitmanas. Ramlilas recount episodes from the Ramacharitmanas through a series of performances. Ramacharitmanas are sacred texts devoted to the glory of Rama. It was composed in the Awadhi dialect of Hindi by Tulsidas in the 16th century with an objective of making the Sanskrit epic available to all.
The performance of Ramlila lasts for ten to twelve days, but Ramlilas performed in some places like Ramnagar may last for an entire month. The Ramlila holds the distinction of bringing the whole population together, without distinction of caste, religion or age.
However, in the recent past owing to the development of mass media the play has experienced reduction in the audience thereby losing its principal role of bringing people and communities together.

Additonal Information: Khon Ramlila

Khon Ramlila is a masked form of Ramlila art of Thailand.
It’s a form of masked dance depicting the scenes of Ramlila. It has no dialogues and background voices narrate the whole story of Ramayana. It is also famous for its beautiful attire and golden masks.
It is included in the list of UNESCO’s Intangible cultural heritage.

4. NUTRIE CEREALS

Subject: Health

Context: As the government sets to achieve its agenda of a malnutrition-free India and doubling of farmers’ incomes, the promotion of the production and consumption of nutri-cereals seems to be a policy shift in the right direction.

Concept:

Millets

Millet is common term to categorize small-seeded grasses that are often termed nutri-cereals or dryland-cereals.
It mainly includes sorghum, ragi, pearl millet, small millet, proso millet, foxtail millet, barnyard millet, kodo millet etc.
The three major millet crops currently growing in India are jowar (sorghum), bajra (pearl millet) and ragi (finger millet).
Major producers include Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Haryana.

Benefits

They are adapted to harsh environment of semi-arid tropics.
They require low or no purchased inputs, thus they are backbone for dry land agriculture.
Millets are nutritionally superior to wheat and rice owing to their higher levels of protein with more balanced amino acid profile, crude fibre and minerals such as Iron, Zinc, and Phosphorous
Millets are important staple cereal crop for millions of small holder dryland farmers.
They offer nutrition, resilience, income and livelihood for farmers even in difficult times.

Additional Information:

Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has endorsed India’s call for declaring 2023 as the “International Year of Millets”.

5. CPI -IW

Subject: Economy

Context: Base year of Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers revised from 2001 to 2016.

Concept:

Consumer Price Index or CPI is the measure of changes in the price level of a basket of consumer goods and services bought by households. CPI is a numerical estimation calculated using the rates of a sample of representative objects the prices of which are gathered periodically.

The CPI captures changes in price level at the consumer level.
Changes in prices at the producer level are tracked by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI).
CPI can capture the change in the prices of services which the WPI cannot.

Various Indices of CPI are :

CPI – Industrial Workers (CPI -IW): It tries to measure the alterations over a time period on the prices of a fixed basket of goods and services utilised by Industrial Workers.
CPI – Agricultural Labourers (CPI -AL): This index measures the change in the price of commodity basket consumed by the agricultural labourers. It is this used to revise minimum wages for agricultural labour in different States.
CPI – Rural Labourers: This index measures the change in the price of commodity basket consumed by the rural labourers.
Theabove indices are published monthly by Labour Bureau under the Ministry of Labour and Employment for all India as well as States and Union Territories.
Since the above three indices covered only a segment of the population and not the overall nation, we Designed three more indices of CPI.
CPI – Rural: This index measures the change in the price of commodity basket consumed by the rural population
CPI – Urban: This index measures the change in the price of commodity basket consumed by urban population
CPI – Combined: It is computed by combining CPI Rural and CPI Urban Index The base year for the above three indices is 2011-12 and are published monthly by the National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

6. INS KAVARATTI

Subject: Defence

Context: INS Kavaratti, the indigenously built Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) stealth corvettes by Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata, was formally inducted into the Indian Navy .

Concept:

INS Kavaratti (P31) is an anti-submarine warfare corvette of the Indian Navy built under Project 28.
It is the last of four Kamorta-class corvettes under various stages of induction with the Indian Navy.
Kavaratti is capable of fighting under nuclear, biological and chemical environments.
It will be a frontline warship of the Indian Navy with advanced stealth features and a low radar signature .
This will also enhances its anti-submarine warfare capability.
The ship’s weapons and sensors suite is predominantly indigenous and showcases the nation’s growing capability in this niche area.

7. NAG MISSILES

Subject: Defence

Context: The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) carried out the final user trial of the Nag Missile at the Pokhran firing range.

Concept :

Nag is a third-generation, fire-and-forget, anti-tank guided missile developed by India’s state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to support both mechanised infantry and airborne forces of the Indian Army.
It is an all weather conditions with day and night capabilities and with a minimum range of 500m and maximum range of 4 km.
Nag can be launched from land and air-based platforms. The land version is currently available for integration on the Nag missile carrier (NAMICA)
The helicopter-launched configuration, designated as helicopter-launched NAG (HELINA), can be fired from Dhruv advanced light helicopter(ALH) and HAL Rudra (ALH WSI) attack helicopter.

8. H1 B VISA

Subject :International Relation

Context: The State Department has proposed not to issue temporary business visas for H-1B speciality occupations which allowed several companies to send their technology professionals for a short stay to complete jobs on site in the U.S.

Concept:

It is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ graduate level foreign workers in specialty occupations. It requires,
Theoretical or technical expertise in specialized fields such as in IT, finance, accounting, architecture, engineering, mathematics, science, medicine, etc.
Any professional level job that usually requires a bachelor’s degree or higher can come under the H-1B visa for specialty occupations.
The US H1-B visa is designed to be used for staff in specialty occupations. H-1B has an option of green card application..
H-1B visa holders can bring their spouse and children under 21 years of age to the US under the H4 Visa category as dependents.
An H4 Visa holder is allowed to remain in the US as long as the H-1B visa holder remains in legal status.
While an H4 visa holder is not eligible to work in the US, they may attend school, obtain a driver’s license and open a bank account while in the US.

Green Card:

It is officially known as a Permanent Resident Card.
It is issued to immigrants to the US under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 1952.
It allows a person to live and work permanently in the US.