Daily Prelims Notes 7 August 2021

August 7, 2021
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN

Daily Prelims Notes

7 August 2021

Table Of Contents

Subject: Environment

Context: The Geneva-based Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will release the first part of its Sixth Assessment Report, the periodic status check that has now become the most widely accepted scientific view of the state of the Earth’s climate.

About the Sixth Report:

This part of the report will present the latest scientific understanding of the climate system, how and why it is changing, and the impact of human activities on this process.
REGIONAL FOCUS: The Sixth Assessment Report will put much more emphasis on regional assessment.
EXTREME EVENTS: In the last few years, there has been significant advancement in attribution science, allowing scientists to say whether a particular event was a result of climate change. Attribution science is likely to get important space in the report.
CITIES: The Sixth Assessment Report is expected to present specific scenarios the climate change impacts on cities and large urban populations, and also implications for key infrastructure.
SYNERGIES: IPCC is expected to present a more integrated understanding of the situation, cross-link evidence and discuss trade-offs between different options or pathways, and also likely to cover social implications of climate change action by countries.

Previous Assessment Reports:

The five previous assessment reports that have come out since the IPCC was established in 1988 have formed the basis of international climate change negotiations. and the actions that governments across the world have been taking in the last three decades to restrict the rise of global temperatures.
The First Assessment Report led to the setting up of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The Second Assessment Report was the basis for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
The second and third parts of the report, dealing with the expected impacts of climate change, and the actions required to prevent the worst impacts, are slated to come out next year.
The fourth assessment report, which came out in 2007, won the IPCC the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Fifth Assessment Report, which came out in 2014, guided the Paris Agreement.
In the immediate future, the IPCC report could serve as the most important warning towards the rapidly closing window of opportunity to halt the rise in temperatures to unacceptable levels, and propel the governments to take more urgent actions.

About Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC):

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the international body for assessing the science related to climate change.
It was set up in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to provide policymakers with regular assessments of the scientific basis of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation.
The IPCC does not conduct its own research.
IPCC reports are neutral, policy-relevant but not policy-prescriptive.

2. Arabian Sea Cyclones

Subject: Geography

Context: Studies using a 50-year (1970-2019) extreme weather events dataset of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) have shown that in recent decades, there has been increased occurrences of extreme weather events, including extremely severe cyclonic storms.

About:

An analysis of past data of cyclones over the North Indian Ocean (Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea) during the period 1891–2020 indicates that the frequency of extremely severe cyclonic storms has increased in recent years over the Arabian Sea since 1990, and remained the same over the Bay of Bengal.
The highest loss of lives occurred during Cyclones Tautkae, 2021, 118 deaths), Amphan (2020, 98 deaths), Titli (2018, 78 deaths) and Nilam (2012, 75 deaths), the data showed.
One of the reasons that we are seeing more and more storms and cyclones in the tropical regions, especially regions like Arabian Sea, is because of rapid ocean warming.
The Arabian Sea is one of the fastest warming basins across the global oceans.

Tropical Cyclone:

Tropical cyclones represent a circulatory motion of air towards a low-pressure centre.
In these cyclones, the wind blows counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere.
They develop in the tropics and move from east to west.
Most of the tropical cyclones develop in the doldrums region.
They are associated with violent winds and heavy rainfall and represent destructive weather phenomena.
The eye is a region of mostly calm weather at the center of tropical cyclones.
The cyclone’s lowest barometric pressure occurs in the eye and can be as much as 15 percent lower than the pressure outside the storm.
Due to the mechanics of a tropical cyclone, the eye and the air directly above it are warmer than their surroundings.

3. Art & Culture: Paintings

Subject: Art and Culture

Context: Year-long celebrations marking 150 years of Abanindranath Tagore have begun with a host of online workshops and talks paying tributes to the leading light of the Bengal School of Art.

Abhindranath Tagore:

Abanindranath Tagore (1871 –1951) was the principal artist and creator of the “Indian Society of Oriental Art”.
He was also the first major exponent of Swadeshi values in Indian art, thereby founding the influential Bengal school of art, which led to the development of modern Indian painting.
He was also a noted writer, particularly for children. Popularly known as ‘Aban Thakur‘, his books Rajkahini, Buro Angla, Nalak, and Khirer Putul were landmarks in Bengali language children’s literature and art.
Tagore sought to modernise Mughal and Rajput styles to counter the influence of Western models of art, as taught in art schools under the British Raj.
Along with other artists from the Bengal school of art, Tagore advocated in favour of a nationalistic Indian art derived from Indian art history, drawing inspiration from the Ajanta Caves.

Bengal School of Art:

It is also called the Renaissance School or the Revivalist School, as it represented the first modern movement of Indian art.
Its leading artist was Abanindranath Tagore and its theoretician was E.B. Havell, the principal of the Calcutta School of Art.
They broke away from the convention of oil painting and the realistic style, and turned for inspiration to medieval Indian traditions of miniature painting and the ancient art of mural painting in the Ajanta caves.
They were also influenced by the art (wash technique) of Japanese artists who visited India at that time to develop an Asian Art movement.
Associated Persons: Nandalal Bose and Kshitindranath Majumdar
Popular Paintings: Bharat Mata, My Mother, Journey’s End, etc.
Popular Books: Rajkahini, Nalak, Buro Angla and Khirer Putul etc.

Nandlal Bose: To mark the 1930 occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s arrest for protesting the British tax on salt, Bose created a black on white linocut print of Gandhi walking with a staff. It became the iconic image for the non-violence movement.

4. She-cession

Subject: Government Schemes

Context: Seventy per cent of businesses run by women in India have reported a fall in revenue and one in five claimed its revenues had been completely wiped out, according to a joint report by Bain & Co, Google, and AWE Foundation on small businesses owned by women.

Context:

A new term “She-cession” is used to express, how badly the Covid pandemic has hit women-owned businesses. The term she-cession to describe the coronavirus-induced recession because, in a rare turn of events, women’s unemployment is higher than men’s unemployment.
It’s normally the other way around in times of economic downturn. During the Great Recession, the gender differential in job losses was so pronounced that analysts dubbed the crisis a man-cession.
The man-cession, where 78% of jobs lost were held by men, resulted in the largest gender unemployment gap (as high as 2.5%) since World War II.

Several interventions are on to help women-led businesses regain their mojo.

Sheroes: A women-only social network, recently launched Shop on Sheroes, a social commerce platform. The biggest challenge in being a small business owner is to scale the business from one’s circle of influence. Over a thousand entrepreneurs have joined the Shop on Sheroes initiative within 6-7 weeks of its launch. Several women entrepreneurs are smartly pivoting to social commerce, using platforms like Instagram to be discoverable — and it is paying of
Fund Femme: A new database of women and non-binary owned businesses that has been launched by marketing communications agency Wunderman. The global platform allows consumers to discover, and shop from, women and non-binary business owners across beauty, fashion, food, homeware, technology, health and wellness, travel, fitness, arts and culture, media and charities.
Upskilling sessions: The longer-term plan is to organise mentoring sessions and help upskill entrepreneurs in areas of technology and finance.
A joint report with the World Bank and OECD on small businesses revealed that by the end of 2020, almost a third of small businesses on Facebook had increased their digital sales compared to before Covid-19 pandemic “It has become easier to get access to a larger audience with social media tools.

5. Disengagement and De-escalation along the Line of Actual Control

Subject:Geography

Context: India and China have undertaken disengagement from Gogra area of eastern Ladakh following an agreement at the 12th round of Corps Commander talks, the Army said on Friday.

Context:

The conflict on border started at Pangong Tso in May 2020. Later on, with talks going on the clashes between military happened at Galwan valley which claimed dead soldiers on both sides.
Indian troops surprised the Chinese by occupying dominating heights on the south bank of Pangong Tso and in the larger Chushul sub-sector.
Since then, many rounds of talks at different levels took place.
Indian troops positioned themselves on Gurung Hill, Magar Hill, Mukhpari, Rechin La and Rezang La. They also have direct view of China’s Moldo Garrison, and the strategic Spanggur Gapwhich can be used to launch offensives — as the Chinese did in 1962.
India and China share a 3,488 km long boundary. Unfortunately, the entire boundary is disputed. The line, which delineates the boundary between the two countries, is popularly called the McMahon line, after its author Sir Henry McMahon.
Post-1962 war, the boundary came to be known as Line of Actual Control (LAC). It is a military held line.
Gogra post is the second friction area from which disengagement has been carried out after Pangong Tso in Febrary as part of efforts for overall disengagement and deescalation along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh to end the standoff

Pangong Tso

Pangong Tso is an endorheic lake (landlocked) that is partly in India’s Ladakh region and partly in Tibet.
Nearly two-thirds of the lake is controlled by China, with just about 45 km under Indian control. The LAC, running north-south, cuts the western part of the lake, aligned east-west.
Situated at an elevation of about 4,270 m, it is a nearly 135-km long, narrow lake — 6 km at its widest point — and shaped liked a boomerang
The lake’s water, while crystal clear, is brackish, making it undrinkable. The lake freezes during the winter, allowing some vehicular movement on it as well.

Gogra Post

Hot Springs is just north of the Chang Chenmo river and Gogra Post is east of the point where the river takes a hairpin bend coming southeast from Galwan Valley and turning southwest.
The area is north of the Karakoram Range of mountains, which lies north of the Pangong Tso Lake, and south east of Galwan Valley.
The area lies close to Kongka Pass, one of the main passes, which, according to China marks the boundary between India and China.
Hot Springs and Gogra Post are close to the boundary between two of the most historically disturbed provinces (Xinjiang and Tibet) of China.

6. DGP Appointment

Context: Lawyer Manohar Lal Sharma has moved the Supreme Court seeking contempt action against the Prime Minister, the Union Home Minister and the Ministry of Home Affairs for the appointment of Rakesh Asthana as Delhi Police Commissioner.

Concept:

It had directed the State governments to send to the Union Public Service Commission the names of the probables three months before the incumbent Director General of Police were to retire.
The Supreme Court, in March 2019, had further clarified that only officers with a minimum residual tenure of six months should be considered for DGP postings.

DGP Appointment

Earlier In July 2018, the Supreme Court had refrained State governments from appointing DGPs without first consulting the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
The State governments concerned have to send UPSC the names of the probables three months before the incumbent DGPs are to retire.
The UPSC will prepare a panel of three officers fit to be DGP and send it back.
The UPSC shall, as far as practicable, choose the people within the zone of consideration who have got a clear two years of service and must give due weightage to merit and seniority.
The State, in turn, shall “immediately” appoint one of the persons shortlisted by the UPSC.
On the practice of States appointing “Acting DGPs”, the court rejected the idea of acting or temporary DGPs, i.e. States shall appoint a person as permanent DGP.
The court also ruled that any rule or state law on the subject of appointment of police officers will be kept in suspension. However, the States, which have made laws on police appointments, can move to court seeking modifications of its order.

Contempt of Courts

According to the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, contempt of court can either be civil contempt or criminal contempt.
Civil contempt means wilful disobedience of any judgment, decree, direction, order, writ or other process of a court, or wilful breach of an undertaking given to a court.
Criminal contempt, on the other hand, is attracted by the publication (whether by words, spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representations, or otherwise) of any matter or the doing of any other act whatsoever which:

scandalises or tends to scandalise, or lowers or tends to lower the authority of, any court; or
Prejudices, or interferes or tends to interfere with, the due course of any judicial proceeding; or
Interferes or tends to interfere with, or obstructs or tends to obstruct, the administration of justice in any other manner.

In 2006, the government brought in an amendment, which now provides “truth” as defence provided it is bona fide and in public interest.
A-G’s consent to initiate contempt of court proceedings: In the case of a criminal contempt the court may take action on its own motion or on a motion made by (a) the Advocate-General, or (b) any other person, with the consent in writing of the Attorney-General of India.

7. National Commission for Women

Subject: National Organisation

Context : In pursuance of Section 3 of the National Commission for Women Act, 1990 (20 of 1990),Central Government hereby nominates Smt. Rekha Sharma, as Chairperson of the National Commission for Women, for another term of three years, or till the age of 65 years or until further orders, whichever is the earliest

Concept:

It was set up as a statutory body in January 1992 under the National Commission for Women Act, 1990.
Its mission is to strive towards enabling women to achieve equality and equal participation in all spheres of life by securing her due rights and entitlements through suitable policy formulation, legislative measures, etc.
Its functions are to:
Review the constitutional and legal safeguards for women.
Recommend remedial legislative measures.
Facilitate redressal of grievances.
Advise the Government on all policy matters affecting women.

Composition:

Chairperson: The central government should nominate the chairperson.
Five members: The five members are also to be nominated by the central government from amongst the person of ability, integrity, and standing. They should possess experience in various fields like law or legislation, trade unionism, management of industry potential of women, women’s voluntary organization, education, administration, economic development, and social good-being.
Member Secretary: The Central Government also nominates member secretary. He/ she should be either an expert in the field of management, an organization, or an officer who is a member.

8. Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)

Subject: Economy

Context: As widely expected, the RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) maintained status quo on the policy repo rate with economic recovery still nascent and even as it assessed that the recent inflation pressures are transitory.

Concept

The MPC is a statutory and institutionalized framework under the RBI Act, 1934, for maintaining price stability, while keeping in mind the objective of growth.
The MPC determines the policy interest rate (repo rate) required to achieve the inflation target (4%).
The Governor of RBI is ex-officio Chairman of the MPC.
The Monetary Policy Report is published by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of RBI.

Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is a committee of the RBI, which is entrusted with the task of fixing the benchmark policy interest rate (repo rate)to contain inflation within the specified target level.
The RBI Act, 1934 was amended by Finance Act (India), 2016to constitute MPC to bring more transparency and accountability in fixing India’s Monetary Policy.
The policy is published after every meeting with each member explaining his opinions.
The committee is answerable to the Government of India if the inflation exceeds the range prescribed for three consecutive months.
Suggestions for setting up a Monetary policy committee is not new and goes back to 2002 when YV Reddy committee proposed to establish an MPC, then Tarapore committee in 2006, Percy Ministry committee in 2007, Raghuram Rajan committee in 2009 and then Urjit Patel Committee in 2013.

Composition and Working

The committee comprises six members – three officials of the RBI and three external members nominated by the Government of India.
The meetings of the Monetary Policy Committee are held at least 4 times a year and it publishes its decisions after each such meeting.
The Governor of RBI is the chairperson ex officio of the committee.
Decisions are taken by a majority with the Governor having the casting vote in case of a tie.
They need to observe a “silent period” seven days before and after the rate decision for “utmost confidentiality”.

Instruments of monetary policy are of two types:

Quantitative Instruments: General or indirect (Cash Reserve Ratio, Statutory Liquidity Ratio, Open Market Operations, Bank Rate, Repo Rate, Reverse Repo Rate, Marginal standing facility and Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF))
Qualitative Instruments: Selective or direct (change in the margin money, direct action, moral suasion)

Monetary Policy decisions and projection

The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee raised the inflation target for fiscal 2001-22 but maintained the growth forecast at 9.5 per cent
The RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) maintained status quo on the policy repo rate with economic recovery still nascent and even as it assessed that the recent inflation pressures are transitory
The repo rate despite the retail inflation projection for FY22 being upped to 5.7 per cent from 5.1 per cent. The revised projection is only 30 basis points below the RBI’s upper tolerance level of 6 per cent.
Elevated inflation level and delayed recovery in the economy would have prompted the panel to keep rates steady. Interest rates in the banking system are expected to remain stable in the next couple of months.
The RBI panel has hiked the inflation target for fiscal 2021-22 to 5.7 per cent from 5.1 per cent projected earlier. Although the target is below the RBI’s upper band of inflation target of six per cent, input prices are rising across manufacturing and services sectors and weak demand and efforts towards cost cutting are tempering the pass-through to output prices

Reasons for increase in retail inflation cited by RBI

The combination of elevated prices of industrial raw materials, high pump prices of petrol and diesel with their second-round effects, and logistics costs continue to impinge adversely on cost conditions for manufacturing and services, although weak demand conditions are tempering the pass-through to output prices and core inflation.

Link between Growth, Inflation and Interest rates:

In a fast-growing economy, in comes go up quickly and more and more people have the money to buy the existing bunch of goods.
As more and more money chases the existing set of goods, prices of such goods rise. In other words, inflation (which is nothing but the rate of increase in prices) increases.
To contain inflation, a country’s central bank typically increases the interest rates in the economy. By doing so, it incentivises people to spend less and save more because saving becomes more profitable as interest rates go up.
However, when growth contracts, people’s incomes hit. As a result, less and less money is chasing the same quantity of goods. This results in either the inflation rate decelerating or it actually contracts (also called deflation).
In such situations, a central bank decreases interest rates so as to incentivise pending and by that route boost economic activity in the economy.
In the current Monetary Policy, RBI has not raised the interest rates even when retail inflation is high because RBI is facing an odd situation at present: GDP is contracting even as inflation is rising.
This is happening because the pandemic has reduced demand, on the one hand, and disrupted supply on the other. As a result falling growth and rising inflation are happening at the same time.

9. Government Securities Acquisition Programme (G-SAP)

Subject: Economy

Context: The RBI also proposes to conduct two more auctions of Rs 25,000 crore each on August 12 and August 26, 2021 under G-SAP 2.0. (the government securities acquisition programme )

Context:

Under G-SAP, the RBI will purchase government securities worth Rs 1 lakh crore in the first quarter of FY22.
It is a structured purchase program which will definitely calm investors’ nerves and help market participants to bid better in scheduled auctions and reduce volatility in bond prices.

Significance of G-SAP

The G-SAP aims to provide more comfort to the bond market in the backdrop of the government’s elevated borrowing for this year, which the RBI has to ensure goes through without causing disruption.
It will provide certainty to the bond market participants with regard to RBI’s commitment of support to the bond market in FY22.
The market participants have always wanted to know the RBI’s Open Market Operations (OMO) purchase calendar, and the RBI has now provided that to the market through G-SAP.
It will help reduce the spread between the repo rate and the 10-year government bond yield which will help to reduce the aggregate cost of borrowing for the Centre and states in FY22.

10. Factors to boost exports

Subject: Economy

Context: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today listed four factors to boost exports and urged all stakeholders to identify new products and destinations.

The factors include increasing manufacturing manifold, removing logistical problems, coordination between exporters and government, and finding more global markets for Indian products
At present our exports are about 20 per cent of GDP.
The PM addressed all Indian missions and export promotion councils on the target of achieving $400- billion exports in 2021-22.
A big part of India’s exports comprised items from just a handful of sectors such as petroleum products, gems & jewellery, engineering goods and pharmaceuticals and half the country’s exports were shipped to just four destinations

Suggestions to boost exports

With mining, coal, defence and railways opening up, our exporters are getting more scope for growth and there is a need for drawing futuristic strategies for the new areas
To mark 75 years of Independence, identify 75 new items that could be exported from India to their country of operation.
Indian diaspora in different countries to get involved in the promotion drive and help boost exports of specific items from their States of origin.
State governments, too, could select five-ten top priority goods and send them to at least 75 countries, he added.