Mains Factly July 2022

  • October 10, 2022
  • Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
  • Category: Friday Factly
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ESSAY

Tags: Essay

  • India gets its first Adivasi President in Droupadi Murmu on July 21, 2022. Her political rise from a Panchayat post to that of Presidential candidate is a success story. Her nomination as the National Democratic Alliance’s presidential candidate happened in concurrence with the 30th anniversary of the passage of the Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act. The Act came into effect on April 24, 1993. It empowered state governments to take the necessary steps that would lead to the formalisation of Gram Panchayats and help them operate as units of self-governance. She was elected to the Odisha Legislative Assembly in 2000 while serving as a PRI official in a Rairangpur Nagar panchayat. She has been elected to the Assembly twice. She served as the Governor of Jharkhand from May 8, 2015 to July 12, 2021. (Also: GS2)
  • 200 cr vaccine doses is the story of Atmanirbhar Bharat.(Also: GS3)
  • Justice Nagarathna remarked how the poor and marginalised in India are still having to tie a cloth tightly around their stomach to ward off hunger pangs.(Also: GS2)
  • India’s sporting culture is becoming stronger due to the perfect mix of the energy of youth and the enabling environment. Sports is beautiful because they have the inherent power to unite and bring people and societies closer.
  • Planting trees has become like atoning your environmental sin. This is a very dangerous solution to the kind of environmental problems we have, because we are forgetting the role of different ecosystems.
    • The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) placed ecosystem services into four main groups: (i) provisioning, for example, food, fibre, water; (ii) regulating, for example, climate, water quality; (iii) supporting, for example, soil formation, nutrient cycling; and (iv) cultural, for example, aesthetic and recreation
  • The purpose of education is to develop character, empathy, courage and prepare students to deal with the challenges of life. Education can enable India to reach the pinnacle of success. Society is looking upon us with expectations and hope to make it happen. Our educational aspiration is not only for earning degrees and certificates but also to achieve global good.
  • Purpose of NEP is to develop citizens who combine national pride with global good with the spirit of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’. (Also: GS2)

GS-1

Tags: GS1

Mapping:

  • Mekedatu multi-purpose project involves building a balancing reservoir across the Cauvery River near Kanakapura in Ramanagaram district.

Society:

  • Minister insisted Sarpanch in Gujarat’s Mehsana, Meenaba Zala that she removed her veil before he accepted the souvenir as part of his felicitation. (Women empowerment and Patriarchy )

Geography

  • India has achieved replacement level fertility, with 31 States and Union Territories reaching a Total Fertility Rate (an average number of children per woman) of 2.1 or less.
  • Between 2012 and 2020, the country added more than 5 crore additional users for modern contraceptives, thereby increasing their use substantially.

GS-2

Tags: GS2

Polity

  • Kerala Assembly holds 61 sittings in 2021, the highest in the country. Kerala assembly convened for 61 days, followed by Odisha (43) and Karnataka (40) during the period.
  • Kerela assembly promulgated 144 ordinances despite holding sittings for 61 days, highest in the country.
  • The United Nations General Assembly declared that everyone on the planet has a right to ahealthy environment, a move backers say is an important step in countering the alarming decline of the natural world. (Also: GS3)

International Relations

  • Indiaexported goods worth $40 billion to Africa in FY22, its imports were higher at $49 billion, partly due to oil purchases from countries like Nigeria. According to an Exim Bank study, there is a potential to further boost trade by $48 billion per annum in the medium term. (India-Africa Relations)

Health

  • FRESH is an acronym for Focusing Resources on Effective School Health, an inter-agency framework developed by UNESCO, UNICEF, WHO, and the World Bank, launched at the Dakar Education Forum, 2000, which incorporates the experience and expertise of these and other agencies and organizations. It is a worldwide program for improving the health of school children and youth.

Governance

  • Uttar Pradesh today has 14 officers in the rank of Director General of Police (DGP) and 42 in the rank of Additional DGP. The bureaucracy is even fatter. UP has 29 officers in the rank of Chief Secretary/Additional Chief Secretary, 28 officers in the rank of Principal Secretary, and 61Secretaries. It is the same story across the country. The Government of Indiahas nearly 91officers in the rank of Secretary (excluding those in the PMO, Niti Aayog and National Security Council Secretariat) and 21 in the rank of DGP. (Civil-Services Reforms)
  • A robust ICT enabled platform named as “Poshan Tracker” management application has been launched which provides a view of the activities at the Anganwadi Centre (AWC), service deliveries of Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) and beneficiary management for pregnant women, lactating mothers and children.
  • A strong government does not control everything or everyone. It controls the system’s impulse to interfere. A strong government is one that is not restrictive but responsive. A strong government does not move into every domain. It limits itself and makes space for people’s talents. A strong government’s strength lies in its humility to accept that it cannot know or do everything. (Also: Essay)
  • The Centre for Law and Democracy classifies it among the top five laws in the world. The RTI empowers us to participate in the policymaking process, by providing access to information relating to the functioning of all public authorities. Ignoring the plight of RTI users facing death for keeping our democracy alive is a threat to democracy itself.
  • NEP will replace the Macaulay era of education that trained Indians in subservience and would make India a ‘Vishwa guru’ with its novel approach on education.

GS-3

Tags: GS3

Economy

  • As per new report by RBI on remittances, Maharashtra emerged the top recipient State (with about 35 per cent of the total share) surpassing Kerala (about 10 per cent).
  • The Competition Commission of India has since its inception dealt with as many as 846 cases (till June 2022) as regards abuse of dominant position.
  • Trust-based taxation system introduced by the government has resulted in improved collections and increase in the number of return filings. (Also: GS4)
  • There is no official estimate of the amount of money deposited by Indian citizens and companies in Swiss banks. However, recent media reports have stated that funds of Indians in Swiss banks have risen in 2021 as compared to 2020.
  • India needs to create 20 million jobs annually.
  • In 8 yrs, 22 crore youth applied for jobs , only 7.22 lakh were selected. That the number of candidates selected for government jobs has been declining since 2014-15, with 2019-20 being the only exception: DOPT.
  • The ‘employment in public and organised private sectors’ published by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI): between 1980 and 1990, every one percentage point of GDP growth (nominal) generated roughly two lakh new jobs in the formal sector. That is, if India’s GDP grew by 14% every year in the 1980s, it can be said that it created roughly 28 lakh new formal jobs.In the subsequent decade from 1990 to 2000, every one percentage point of GDP growth yielded roughly one lakh new formal sector jobs, half of the previous decade. In the next decade between 2000 and 2010, one percentage point of GDP growth generated only 52,000 new jobs. The RBI stopped publishing this data from 2011-12, but one can safely infer using proxy data that in the 2010-2020 decade, the number of new jobs generated for every percentage of GDP growth fell even further.

  • Singapore (27.01%) and USA (17.94%) have emerged as top 2 sourcing nations in FDI equity flows into India in FY2021-22 followed by Mauritius (15.98%), Netherland (7.86%) and Switzerland (7.31%). It may be noted that as per the UNCTAD World Investment Report (WIR) 2022, in its analysis of the global trends in FDI inflows, India has improved one position to 7th rank among the top 20 host economies for 2021.
  • More than 6 crore Indians have fallen into extreme poverty in 2020, while the number of Indian billionaires grew from 102 to 143 during the pandemic period. Their wealth rose from ₹23.1 lakh crore in March 2020 to ₹53.2 lakh crore in November 2021. About 84 per cent of households in India suffered a decline in income. The richest 98 have the same wealth ($657 billion) as the 555 million people — bottom 40 per cent.(Inequality)
  • If each of the 10 richest Indian billionaires were to spend $1 million daily, it will take them 84 years to exhaust their current wealth. They have seen their combined fortunes more than double during the pandemic.
  • For the first time ever, the annual turnover of khadi gram udyog (village industries) has crossed ₹ 1-lakh crore. This is why in the past eight years, this sector has generated over 1.5 crore new employment opportunities at the village level.(InclusiveGrowth)
  • India remains 70 to 80 percentimport dependent, with import crossing ₹63,000 crore in 2021-202 in medical devices.
  • Over the 30 years from 1950 to 1980, India’s gross domestic product (GDP) or national income, grew at an annual average of5 per cent; and in the following two decades, 1980-2000, it grew at 5.5 per cent, 2000-2015, the economy grew at an annual average of 7.5 per cent, with the so-called ‘golden years of growth’, 2003-2008.

Environment

  • “Without soil conservation, there is no food security”: Hon’ble VP Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu
  • One in three species threatened with extinction.
  • According to NASA the average annual temperature of the last eight years have been the hottest ever recorded through direct measurements since the 1880s. (Also: Essay)
  • India generates around three million tonnes of medical wastes every year and the amount is expected to grow at eight per cent annually.
  • Around 34 million hectares (mha) crop area has been damaged due tonatural calamities, mostly floods and landslides in just the first three months of 2022, according to data shared in Parliament July 26, 2022. Over 59,000 livestock have also died during this time. In 2021-22 total0.34 mha crop area was damaged in the whole year.

The highest damage of 0.24 mha was seen in Assam, which has been ravaged by floods since May this year. The second-highest damage to crops has been observed in Punjab, where 81,420 ha have been impacted. This was followed by Andhra Pradesh.

  • According toUN: Nearly 10 million children were displaced due to weather-related shocks in 2020
  • About 89 per cent of groundwater is used for irrigation Along with the increased exploitation, the net irrigated area using groundwater also increased from 7.30 million hectares (mha) in 1960-61 to about 48 mha in 2018-19.

  • Urban India alone generates nearly 0.15 million tonnes per day of MSW, with per capita generation ranging between 0.30 kg per day to 0.45 kg per day. The volume of waste is projected to reach 165 million tonnes by 2031 and 436 million tonnes by 2050, if existing policies, programmes and management strategies are not adequately addressed.

Tiger

  • On World Tiger Day July 29, 2022, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)confirmed a sobering news that the tiger has gone extinct in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. The reasons, according to tiger experts, are poaching and habitat loss.
  • The last time a tiger was seen in Cambodia was 15 years ago, with a camera trap. It is therefore almost certain that there are no tigers in Cambodia anymore.
  • 70% of the global tiger population, 70% of Asiatic lions and more than 60% of leopard population in India
  • According to Status of Tigers Report 2018 tigers were observed to be increasing at a rate of 6 per cent per annum in India from 2006 to 2018.
  • There were nine tiger reserves when Project Tiger started in 1973. Now, India has 50 tiger reserves.
  • Seventy per cent of the world’s tigers are in India and the conservation effort has been a huge success
  • Seventeen of India’s 50 tiger reserves are approaching their peak carrying capacity. In fact, nearly a third of the country’s tigers today live outside protected areas (PA).
  • The precautionary principle in environmental law requires anticipatory action to be taken to prevent harm. This harm can be prevented even on a reasonable suspicion. The principle of precaution involves the anticipation of environmental harm and taking measures to avoid it or to choose the least environmentally harmful activity. (Also: GS4)
  • About 70 per cent of the world’s poor population was directly dependent on wild species.

Science & Technology

Health

Anti-biotic resistance:

  • WHO has called antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – a growing public health concern as a silent pandemic.
  • AMR is already responsible for up to 7, 00,000 deaths a year. Unless urgent measures are taken to address this threat, we could soon face an unprecedented health and economic crisis of 10 million annual deaths and costs of up to $100 trillion by 2050
  • CDDEP researchers had warned that the world’s antibiotic consumption could double from 2015 levels by 2030, sans policy intervention
  • The use of antibiotics had shot up 65% from 2000 levels by 2015, and the WHO had already flagged
  • Since 2009, there have been six PHEIC declarations: the 2009 H1N1 (or swine flu) pandemic, the 2014 polio declaration, the 2014 outbreak of Ebola in Western Africa, the 2015–16 Zika virus epidemic, the 2018–20 Kivu Ebola epidemic, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Never before in history have three infectious diseases (poliomyelitis, Covid-19, and Monkeypox) been declared PHEIC at the same time. Regrettably, this will not be the last time.

Disaster Management

  • Africa witnesses 63% increase in number of zoonotic outbreaks in a decade.
  • Silchar flood man-made; embankment breached: Assam Chief Minister(Man-made Disaster)
  • According to a United Nations Environment Programme report, adaptation related costs in developing countries could reach $140-300 billion by 2030. According to a World Meteorological Organisation study, in 2020 alone, India lost $87 billion due to cyclones, floods and droughts

Security:

  • Jama Masjid protest: People mobilised through WhatsApp groups, say police. (Security Challenges through Social Media)
  • Over 2,000 personnel, including 47 Gazetted Officers of the CAPF lost their lives on operational duties during the last three years.

GS-4

Note: All example are taken from news article reported in July 2022 in various newspapers.

Misuse of position and Corruption                                                                                                            

  • Example of misuse of power, lack of objectivity, partisan behaviour,lack of integrity :

Divisional Commissioner says SDM decided to ‘pick and choose’ for razing the building of trader whom he allegedly owed money. A preliminary inquiry into the razing of the wall of a shop owned by a furniture trader in Moradabad last week has revealed procedural lapses by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) while ordering the demolition of the alleged illegal structure.

  • CBI filed a chargesheet against arrested Gujarat cadre IAS officer Kankipati Rajesh and a proprietor of a private firm in a bribery case. (Misuse of authority)
  • West Bengal teacher recruitment scam an example of lack of probity in government process.
  • The Indian Railways dismissed Satish Agnihotri as the managing director of the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), the government’s prestigious bullet train project. Officials in the board said that Agnihotri was facing allegations, including that of misuse of official position and diverting funds in an unauthorised manner to a private company. (Issues of Lack of integrity, quid pro -quo, Lack of probity in government contracts)
  • A Delhi Court on Friday convicted former Coal Secretary HC Gupta and former Joint-Secretary in the Ministry of Coal (MoC), KS Kropha, for criminal conspiracy, cheating, and corruption in allocating Lohara East coal block in Maharashtra.

Quality of Service

  • Portion of Bundelkhand Expressway develops potholes week after opening, pic goes viral. (Quality of Service)

Business Ethics

  • Section 4 of the Competition Act 2002 prohibits the abuse of dominance by any enterprise or group of enterprises. (Business ethics,Also: GS3)

Politics and Ethics

  • 5 held for promising RS seats, governorship. (Politics and Ethics)
  • Increasing political defections

Media Ethics

  • Ill-informed&agenda-drivenTV debates on issues involving justice delivery cannot be the guiding factor in deciding court’s verdict: Hon’ble CJI NV Ramana (MediaEthics)

The media all over the world has voluntarily accepted that code of ethics should cover at least the following areas of conduct.

  1. Honesty and fairness; duty to seek the views of the subject of any critical reportage in advance of publication;
  2. duty to correct factual errors; duty not to falsify pictures or to use them in a misleading fashion;
  • duty to provide an opportunity to reply to critical opinions as well as to critical factual reportage;
  1. appearance as well as reality of objectivity; some codes prohibit members of the press from receiving gifts’
  2. respect for privacy;
  3. duty to distinguish between facts and opinion;
  • duty not to discriminate or to inflame hatred on such grounds as race, nationality, religion, or gender; some codes call on the press to refrain from mentioning the race, religion or nationality of the subject of news stories unless relevant to the story; some call for coverage which promotes tolerance;
  • duty not to use dishonest means to obtain information;
  1. duty not to endanger people;
  2. general standards of decency and taste;
  3. duty not to prejudge the guilt of an accused and to publish the dismissal of charges against or acquittal of anyone about whom the paper previously had reported.
  • Recalling Emergency days, Hon’ble CJI Ramana urges media for ‘honest journalism’.

Honesty, speaking and acting truthfully, is more than not lying, deceiving, stealing, or cheating. It entails showing respect towards others and having integrity and self-awareness. Honesty is the foundation for trust and key in social relationships; it gives us hope, confidence, compassion and improves decision-making.

Citizen Duty

  • ‘Nation First should be the guiding principle for parties’ and the ‘Right to protest should be exercised in a peaceful, Gandhian‘ “Citizens and political parties have many constitutional avenues open to them, including protests”- Former President Shri Ramnath Kovind (Also: Essay)

Professional Ethics

  • Telangana Governor, Tamilisai Soundararajan discharged her duties as a doctor and saved the life of an Additional Director General of Police-rank IPS officer on board an Indigo flight from Delhi to Hyderabad. (Professional Ethics of doctor)

Attitude:

  • Spain’s Government Equality Ministry launched a summer campaign Thursday encouraging women to reject “stereotypes “and “aesthetical violence”—a reference to social pressure some women feel to conform to beauty ideals. (Attitude)

Emotional intelligence

  • A 16-year-old boy, who allegedly shot dead his mother for scolding him for playing the online game PUBG, showed no remorse over his action, the Lucknow police said, adding that the minor’s grandmother has lodged a murder complaint against him. (Emotional Intelligence, Addiction)

International Ethics

  • Europe accused of ‘double standard’ on Ukrainian refugees(A double standard is a principle or policy that is applied in a different manner to similar things, without proper justification. Essentially, this means that a double standard occurs when two or more things, such as individuals or groups, are treated differently, when they should be treated the same way)
  • Pope Francis offered a sweeping apology to Indigenous people on their native land in Canada, fulfilling a critical demand of many of the survivors of church-run residential schools that became gruesome centres of abuse, forced assimilation, cultural devastation and death for over a century (Importance of forgiveness)

Work Ethics:

  • Hon’ble CJI N V Ramana termed outgoing Supreme Court judge Justice AM Khanwilkar as a “hard-working and disciplined judge”. This can be used in Work Ethics.
  • SC judge said “The courts can start their work at 9am and rise at 11.30am for a half an hour break and then finish the day’s work by 2pm. By doing this, judges will get more time to do more things in the evening.”(This can be used in work culture and performance)

Minister Civil Servant Relationship

  • Punjab Health Minister under fire for forcing Surgeon to lie down on Dirty Mattress. The relationship between minister and public servant should be of mutual trust and respect.