Taj Mahal UNESCO World Heritage Site TOPIC: Art & Culture Section: Architecture Context- There are no historical records to prove that Shah Jahan ordered the hands of workers to be chopped off. Concept- About the Heritage: UNESCO describes it as a “masterpiece of architectural style in conception, treatment and execution”. The Taj Mahal […]

    Sarkaria Commission TOPIC: Polity Context- On February 13, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called her Tamil Nadu counterpart M K Stalin and suggested a meeting of CMs of non-BJP ruled states over the “constitutional overstepping and brazen misuse of power by (their) Governors”. Concept- About Sarkaria Commission: The Sarkaria Commission was set […]

    Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) TOPIC: Polity Context- Ahead of the counting of votes for the Assembly elections in five states, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday accused the ruling BJP of “stealing” votes and claimed that his party workers intercepted a truck carrying EVMs in Varanasi. Concept- All available EVMs in […]

    HC pulls up Meghalaya govt over coal mining Subject: Environment Section: Pollution Context: The Meghalaya High Court Monday directed the state government to set up a committee “without any political interference “to implement the ban on rat-hole coal mining put in place by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and the Supreme Court Concept: […]

    Sin goods and sin tax Subject: Economy Section: Fiscal Policy Concept: Sin goods are goods which are considered harmful to society. Examples of sin goods: Alcohol and Tobacco, Candies, Drugs, Soft drinks, Fast foods, Coffee, Sugar, Gambling, etc. Taxes levied by the government on sin goods called Sin Tax. A sin tax is […]

    RBI interest subsidy scheme Subject: Economy Section: Monetary Policy Exporters get subsidy under the ‘Interest Equalisation Scheme for pre and post-shipment Rupee Export Credit’. Under the scheme, large manufacturing and merchant exporters get an interest subsidy of 3% on pre- and post-shipment rupee credit for the outbound shipment of 416 products (tariff lines). […]

    Crude oil and stagflation Subject: Economy Section: Economic Growth Context: Imported inflation, end of easy monetary policy and supply chain disruption has the potential of pushing an economy into stagflation. Concept: Stagflation is said to happen when an economy faces stagnant growth as well as persistently high inflation. In other words, the worst […]

    Crude oil price dynamics and impact  Subject : Economy Section :Inflation Context: Russia is the third largest producer of oil in the world and, more importantly, the world’s largest exporter of oil and gas and the second largest exporter of crude oil after Saudi Arabia. So, disruption of supplies due to the ongoing […]

    Foreign exchange swap Subject: Economy Section: External sector Context: On March 10, the RBI will sell USD 5 billion to banks that have bid at the lowest currency premium. The intent here is that the central bank acquires dollars from the seller, charging the lowest premium possible for the two-year tenor. Accordingly, banks […]

    Rupee-Rouble trade Subject : Economy Section : External sector Concept: Rupee-Rouble trade, as the name suggests, is a settlement arrangement where a Russian bank keeps enough INR deposits to pay off the Indian exporters to Russia in INR. Correspondingly on the flip side, an Indian bank keeps enough Rouble deposits in Russia to […]