Daily Prelims Notes 24 August 2021

August 24, 2021
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Daily Prelims Notes

24 August 2021

Table Of Contents

1. Competition Commission Of India

Subject – Governance

Context – CCI fines Maruti Suzuki ₹200 crore

Concept –

Competition Commission of India is a statutory body responsible for enforcing the objectives of the Competition Act, 2002.
CCI was established by the Central Government with effect from 14^th October 2003, but it became fully functional on 20^th May, 2009.
Composition – A Chairperson and 6 Members appointed by the Central Government.
Formation of CCI:
- The CCI was established under the provisions of the Competition act 2002:
- The Competition Act, 2007, was enacted after amending Competition Act, 2002, that led to the establishment of the CCI and the Competition Appellate Tribunal.
- The government replaced the Competition Appellate Tribunal (COMPAT) with the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) in 2017.
Function of CCI – To eliminate practices having adverse effects on competition, promote and sustain competition, protect the interests of consumers and ensure freedom of trade in the markets of India.

2. Sree Narayana Guru

Subject – History

Context – Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday said the powerful current of humanism that animated the teachings of 19th century social reformer Sree Narayana Guru is a panacea for the world riven by communal and racial conflicts.

Concept –

Narayana Guru (1856 – 1928) was a social reformer. He has been credited with transforming the social fabric of kerala and changing the beliefs of keralites in ways unimaginable at that point in time.
His family belonged to the Ezhava caste and was considered ‘avarna’ according to the social mores of the time.
From an early age, he was drawn towards asceticism. He lived as a hermit in a forest for eight years.
He learned Vedas, Upanishads, literature, logical rhetoric of Sanskrit, Hatha Yoga and other philosophies.
He gave the famous slogan “One Caste, One Religion, One God for All” (Oru Jathi, Oru Matham, Oru Daivam, Manushyanu).
In 1888, he built a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva at Aruvippuram which was against the caste-based restrictions of the time.
In one temple he consecrated at Kalavancode, he kept mirrors instead of idols. This symbolised his message that the divine was within each individual.
Narayana Guru organized an All-Region Conference in 1923 at Alwaye Advaita Ashram, which was reported to be the first such event in India. This was an effort to counter the religious conversions Ezhava community was susceptible to.
Sree Narayana Guru became one of the greatest proponents and re-evaluators of Advaita Vedanta, the principle of non-duality put forward by Adi Shankara.
He wrote various books in different languages. Few of them are: Advaitha Deepika, Asrama, Thevarappathinkangal, etc.
Contribution to National Movement:
- A remarkable social reformer, he was in the forefront of the movement for universal temple entry and against the societal ills like the social discrimination of untouchables.
- Narayana Gurudev provided the impetus for Vaikom agitation which was aimed at temple entry in Travancore for the lower castes. It drew nationwide attention and appreciation from Mahatma Gandhi.
Sree Narayana Gurudev’s Adyaropa darsanam (Darsanamala) explains the creation of the universe.
Daivadasakam and Atmopadesa satakam are a few examples of how the mystic reflections and insights closely resemble recent advances in physics.

3. e-Emergency X-Misc

Subject – IR

Context – A more open, liberalised visa policy, and more swift processing of the newly launched special “eEmergency XMisc” visas would reassure both Afghans and the international community that India’s exit from Afghanistan is not permanent, and it will retain its traditional and historic interests in the country and its people, despite adverse events there.

Concept –

The Indian government has introduced a special category of electronic visa — the ‘e-Emergency X-Misc Visa’ — to facilitate and fast-track urgent applications for entry to India.
The new visa provision has been introduced especially for Afghans as the situation worsens in the war-torn nation taken over by the Taliban.
Then e-Emergency X-Misc Visa is granted to foreigners who are not covered in the available categories of visa but need to visit India urgently due to a family emergency.
Such a single-entry visa is issued by Indian Missions/Posts for an appropriate period of time.
According to the older document, Afghans were not covered under the category and had to physically present themselves at the Embassy to get the visa. However, given the current situation in Kabul, which has forced to shut down the embassy as well, all Afghans have been permitted to open e-visa with no religion-based priority.
The facility is available to all Afghans irrespective of their religion.
The (initial) validity of this visa would be six months.

4. National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)

Subject – Governance

Concept –

The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), formerly National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), had its origin as the Central Malaria Bureau, established at Kasauli (Himachal Pradesh) in 1909.
NICD was transformed into the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) with a larger mandate of controlling emerging and re-emerging diseases in 2009.
It functions as the nodal agency in the country for disease surveillance facilitating prevention and control of communicable diseases.
It is also a national level institute for training specialized manpower for public health, laboratory sciences and entomological services and is involved in various applied research activities.
The Institute is under administrative control of the Director General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The Institute has its headquarters in Delhi.

5. Ujjwala Scheme

Subject – Government Schemes

Context – In India, many women in poor households who use firewood or dung cakes for cooking spend long hours collecting firewood and making dung cakes. This is drudgery.

Concept –

Prime Minister launched the second phase of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) or Ujjwala 2.0 Scheme.
PMUY-I – Launched in May 2016 to provide LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) connections to poor households.
PMUY-II:
- It is aimed to provide maximum benefit to the migrants who live in other states and find it difficult to submit address proof.
- Now they will only have to give “Self Declaration” to avail the benefit.
The scheme provides a financial support of Rs 1600 for each LPG connection to the BPL households.
Along with a deposit-free LPG connection, Ujjwala 2.0 will provide the first refill and a hotplate free of cost to the beneficiaries.
Under Ujjwala 2.0, an additional 10 million LPG connections will be provided to the beneficiaries.
Government has also fixed a target of providing piped gas to 21 lakh homes in 50 districts.
Nodal Ministry – Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG).

6. Bhima Koregaon

Subject – History

Context – The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the Bhima Koregaon violence case of 2018, has submitted draft charges before the NIA court against 15 accused and six absconding accused.

Concept –

A battle was fought in Bhima Koregaon between the Peshwa forces and the British on 1^st January, 1818.
The British army, which comprised mainly of Dalit soldiers, fought the upper caste-dominated Peshwa army.
The British troops defeated the Peshwa army.
Peshwa Bajirao II had insulted the Mahar community and terminated them from the service of his army.
This caused them to side with the English against the Peshwa’s numerically superior army.
The defeat of Peshwa army was considered to be a victory against caste-based discrimination and oppression.
It was one of the last battles of the Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817-18), which ended the Peshwa domination.
Babasaheb Ambedkar’svisit to the site on 1^st January, 1927, revitalised the memory of the battle for the Dalit community, making it a rallying point and an assertion of pride.
The Victory Pillar Memorial – It was erected by the British in Perne village in the district for the soldiers killed in the Koregaon Bhima battle. It has attained legendary stature in Dalit history.

7. Corbett Tiger Reserve

Subject – Environment

Context – The Delhi High Court on Monday asked the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to consider as representation a petition to stop the alleged illegal construction of bridges and walls within tiger breeding habitat of the Corbett Tiger Reserve.

Concept –

Jim Corbett National Park is the oldest national park in India and was established in 1936 as Hailey National Park to protect the endangered Bengal tiger.
It is located in Nainital district and Pauri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand and was named after hunter and naturalist Jim Corbett.
The Park was the first to come under the Project Tiger initiative.
The Park encompasses the Patli Dun valley formed by the Ramganga river.
Ramganga, Sonanadi, Mandal, Palain and Kosi are the major rivers flowing through the Corbett National Park.
The national park is a protected area covered by the World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature under their Terai Arc Landscape Program.

National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA)

National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) is a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
It was established in 2005following the recommendations of the Tiger Task Force.
It was constituted under enabling provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, as amended in 2006, for strengthening tiger conservation, as per powers and functions assigned to it.

8. Natural Gas

Subject – Environment

Context – Vedanta makes gas discovery in Gujarat.

Concept –

Natural gas is a naturally occurring hydrocarbon gas mixture consisting of methane and commonly including varying amounts of other higher alkanes, and sometimes a small percentage of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide, or helium.
It is formed when layers of decomposing plant and animal matter are exposed to intense heat and pressure under the surface of the Earth over millions of years.
The energy that the plants originally obtained from the sun is stored in the form of chemical bonds in the gas.
Natural gas is a fossil fuel.
Natural gas is a non-renewable hydrocarbon used as a source of energy for heating, cooking, and electricity generation. It is also used as a fuel for vehicles and as a chemical feedstock in the manufacture of plastics and other commercially important organic chemicals.
It is found in the same geological structure where petroleum is found.
Sometimes, the pressure of natural gas forces oils up to the surface. Such natural gas is known as associated gas or wet gas.
Some reservoirs contain gas and no oil. This gas is termed non-associated gas or dry gas.
Often natural gases contain substantial quantities of hydrogen sulfide or other organic sulfur compounds. In this case, the gas is known as “sour gas.”
Coalbed methane is called ‘sweet gas’ because of its lack of hydrogen sulfide.
On the market, natural gas is usually bought and sold not by volume but by calorific value.
Natural gas is odorless and colorless. The slightly sour smell that we associate with the gas coming from a stovetop is due to an odorization process (for safety and leak detection) which adds mercaptan compounds to the end-use gas.

9. Urban Co-operative Banks

Subject – Economy

Context – A Reserve Bank appointed committee has suggested a four-tier structure for the urban cooperative banks (UCBs).

Concept –

Co-operative Banks, which are distinct from commercial banks, were born out of the concept of co-operative credit societies where members from a community group together to extend loans to each other, at favourable terms.
Co-operative Banks are broadly classified into Urban and Rural co-operative banks based on their region of operation.
Like other banks, the cooperative banks are founded by collecting funds through shares, accept deposits and grant loans.
The history of Indian cooperative banking started with the passing of Cooperative Societies Act in 1904.
A Co-operative bank is a financial entity which belongs to its members, who are at the same time the owners and the customers of their bank.
Co-operative banks in India are registered under the States Cooperative Societies Act.
The Co-operative banks are also regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and governed by the
- Banking Regulations Act 1949
- Banking Laws (Co-operative Societies) Act, 1955.
Democratic Member Control – democratically elect a board of directors. Members usually have equal voting rights, according to the cooperative principle of “one person, one vote”.
Urban Co-operative Banks (aka Primary Cooperative Banks) are regulated and supervised by State Registrars of Co-operative Societies (RCS) in case of single-State co-operative banks and Central Registrar of Co-operative Societies (CRCS) in case of multi-State co-operative banks and by the RBI.
The banking related functions such as issue of license to start new banks/branches, matters relating to interest rates, loan policies, investments and prudential exposure norms are regulated and supervised by the Reserve Bank under the provisions of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.
- Reserve Bank of India is both the controlling and inspecting authority for the Primary Cooperative Banks.
NABARD provides refinance support and takes care of inspection of StCBs and DCCBs.

Difference between UCBs and Commercial Banks

Regulation: Unlike commercial banks, UCBs are only partly regulated by the RBI. Their banking operations are regulated by the RBI, which lays down their capital adequacy, risk control and lending norms. However, their management and resolution in the case of distress is regulated by the Registrar of Co-operative Societies either under the State or Central government.
Borrower can be a Shareholder: In general for a commercial bank, there is a clear distinction between its shareholders and its borrowers whereas in a UCB, borrowers can even double up as shareholders.

All-inclusive directions (AID)

The committee, headed by NS Vishwanathan, a former Deputy Governor of the RBI, emphasised that all-inclusive directions (AID) should be treated on a par with moratorium under Section 45 of the Banking Regulation Act.
If AID is imposed, a bank should not continue thereunder beyond the time permitted to keep a bank under moratorium — three months extendable by a maximum of another three months.
Some UCBs (about 50 UCBs) have been under AID for many years.

A Stage III UCB is one where its capital to risk-weighted assets ratio/ CRAR is less than 4.5 per cent and/or net non-performing assets/NNPAs is greater than 12 per cent.

10. Potash

Subject – Agriculture

Context – EID Parry (India) Ltd., one of the largest sugar manufacturers in the South, has undertaken a pilot study to establish the extraction of potash from ash produced in distilleries.

Concept –

Potash includes various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water-soluble form.
The name derives from pot ash, which refers to plant ashes or wood ash soaked in water in a pot, which was the primary means of manufacturing the product before the Industrial Era.
Potash is produced worldwide in amounts exceeding 90 million tonnes (40 million tonnes K₂O equivalent) per year, mostly for use in fertilizer.
Potassium was first derived in 1807 by electrolysis of caustic potash (potassium hydroxide).
Most of the world’s potash comes from Canada, with the largest deposits located in Saskatchewan and New Brunswick. Four countries (Canada, Belarus, Russia and China) accounted for 80% of the world’s potash production in 2019.
Today, potash comes from either underground or solution mining.
In India, few deposits of potash mineral are reported from Sidhi district of Madhya Pradesh, Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh, Kaimur district of Bihar and Sawai Madhopur and Karauli districts of Rajasthan.
- It is in the form of Glauconitic(a potassium bearing green mica) sandstone.
Potassium is an important element of the human diet as it is essential for growth and the maintenance of tissues, muscles and organs, as well as the electrical activity of the heart.

11. Hallmark Unique Identification

Subject – Economy

Context – Gold jewellers across major cities participated in a nationwide strike against the mandatory hallmarking, Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID), effective June 16.

Concept –

HUID is a unique code that will be given to every piece of jewellery at the time of hallmarking.
It will be helpful in identifying the jeweller or the Assaying and Hallmarking Centres (AHCs) which had hallmarked the jewellery.
It will be a six-digit alphanumeric code, with which every piece of jewellery will be tagged.
At the hallmarking centre, the jewellery is stamped with the unique number manually.

For more information on hallmarking, please refer to Hallmarking.

12. The Major Port Authorities Act 2020

Subject – Infrastructure

Context – Second wave slows down finalisation of rules of new Act.

Concept –

The Bill seeks to provide for regulation, operation and planning of major ports in India and provide greater autonomy to these ports. It seeks to replace the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963.

Key features of the Bill include:

Application: The Bill will apply to the major ports of Chennai, Cochin, Jawaharlal Nehru Port, Kandla, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Mangalore, Mormugao, Paradip, V.O. Chidambaranar, and Vishakhapatnam.
Major Port Authorities Board: Under the 1963 Act, all major ports are managed by the respective Board of Port Trusts that have members appointed by the central government. The Bill provides for the creation of a Board of Major Port Authority for each major port. These Boards will replace the existing Port Trusts.
Composition of Board: The Board will comprise of a Chairperson and a deputy Chairperson, both of whom will be appointed by the central government on the recommendation of a selection committee. Further, it will include one member each from (i) the respective state governments, (ii) the Railways Ministry, (iii) the Defence Ministry, and (iv) the Customs Department. The Board will also include two to four independent members, and two members representing the interests of the employees of the Major Port Authority.
Powers of the Board: The Bill allows the Board to use its property, assets and funds as deemed fit for the development of the major port. The Board can also make rules on: (i) declaring availability of port assets for port related activities and services, (ii) developing infrastructure facilities such as setting up new ports, jetties, and (iii) providing exemption or remission from payment of any charges on any goods or vessels.
Fixing of rates: Currently, the Tariff Authority for Major Ports, established under the 1963 Act, fixes the scale of rates for assets and services available at ports. Under the Bill, the Board or committees appointed by the Board will determine these rates. They may determine rates for: (i) services that will be performed at ports, (ii) the access to and usage of the port assets, and (iii) different classes of goods and vessels, among others. Such fixing of rates will not be with retrospective effect and must be consistent with the provisions of the Competition Act, 2002, or any other laws in force, subject to certain conditions.
Financial powers of the Board: Under the 1963 Act, the Board has to seek prior sanction of the central government to raise any loan. Under the Bill, to meet its capital and working expenditure requirements, the Board may raise loans from any: (i) scheduled bank or financial institution within India, or (ii) any financial institution outside India that is compliant with all the laws. However, for loans above 50% of its capital reserves, the Board will require prior sanction of the central government.
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Bill provides that the Board may use its funds for providing social benefits. This includes development of infrastructure in areas such as education, health, housing, and skill development. These benefits could be provided for the Board’s employees, customers, business partners, local communities, environment and the society at large.
Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects: The Bill defines PPP projects as projects taken up through a concession contract by the Board. For such projects, the Board may fix the tariff for the initial bidding purposes. The appointed concessionaire will be free to fix the actual tariffs based on market conditions, and other conditions as may be notified. The revenue share in such projects will be on the basis of the specific concession agreement.
Adjudicatory Board: The Bill provides for the constitution of an Adjudicatory Board by the central government. This Board will replace the existing Tariff Authority for Major Ports constituted under the 1963 Act. It will consist of a Presiding Officer and two members, as appointed by the central government. Functions of the Adjudicatory Board will include: (i) certain functions being carried out by the Tariff Authority for Major Ports, (ii) adjudicating on disputes or claims related to rights and obligations of major ports and PPP concessionaires, and (iii) reviewing stressed PPP projects.
Penalties: Under the 1963 Act, there are various penalties for contravening provisions of the Act. For example, (i) the penalty for setting up any structures on the harbours without permission may extend up to Rs 10,000, and (ii) the penalty for evading rates may extend up to 10 times the rates. Under the Bill, any person contravening any provision of the Bill or any rules or regulations will be punished with a fine of up to one lakh rupees.

13. Cabinet Minister Arrest Procedure in India

Subject – Polity

Context – Three FIRs have been registered against Union Minister and Rajya Sabha member Narayan Rane, and the Maharashtra Police has sent a team to arrest him.

Concept –

If Parliament is not in session, a cabinet minister can be arrested by a law enforcement agency in case of a criminal case registered against him.
As per Section 22 A of the Rules of Procedures and Conduct of Business of the Rajya Sabha, the Police, Judge or Magistrate would, however, have to intimate the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha about the reason for the arrest, the place of detention or imprisonment in an appropriate form.
The Chairman is expected to inform the Council if it is sitting about the arrest. If the council is not sitting, he/she is expected to publish it in the bulletin for the information of the members.

Privileges of the Rajya Sabha members vis-a-vis arrests

As per the main privileges of Parliament, in civil cases, they have freedom from arrest during the continuance of the House and 40 days before its commencement and 40 days after its conclusion, as per section 135 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

The privilege of freedom from arrest does not extend to criminal offences or cases of detention under preventive detention.

Can a person be arrested from the precincts of the House?

No arrest, whether of a member or of a stranger, can be made within the precincts of the House without the prior permission of the Chairman/Speaker and that too in accordance with the procedure laid down by the Home Ministry in this regard.

Similarly no legal process, civil or criminal, can be served within the precincts of the House without obtaining the prior permission of the Chairman/Speaker whether the House is in Session or not.

14. Delhi’s New Smog Tower

Subject – Environment

Context – Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal inaugurated on Monday the country’s first ‘smog tower’, an experimental set up worth Rs 20 crore to purify air in a 1-km radius around the structure.

Concept –

The structure is 24 m high, about as much as an 8-storey building — an 18-metre concrete tower, topped by a 6-metre-high canopy. At its base are 40 fans, 10 on each side.
Each fan can discharge 25 cubic metres per second of air, adding up to 1,000 cubic metres per second for the tower as a whole. Inside the tower in two layers are 5,000 filters. The filters and fans have been imported from the United States.

Smog tower: How it works

The tower uses a ‘downdraft air cleaning system’ developed by the University of Minnesota, said Anwar Ali Khan, senior environmental engineer, Delhi Pollution Control Committee, who was in charge of the project.
IIT-Bombay has collaborated with the American university to replicate the technology, which has been implemented by the commercial arm of Tata Projects Limited.
Polluted air is sucked in at a height of 24 m, and filtered air is released at the bottom of the tower, at a height of about 10 m from the ground. When the fans at the bottom of the tower operate, the negative pressure created sucks in air from the top. The ‘macro’ layer in the filter traps particles of 10 microns and larger, while the ‘micro’ layer filters smaller particles of around 0.3 microns.
The downdraft method is different from the system used in China, where a 60-metre smog tower in Xian city uses an ‘updraft’ system — air is sucked in from near the ground, and is propelled upwards by heating and convection. Filtered air is released at the top of the tower.

Supreme Court order

In 2019, the Supreme Court directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the Delhi government to come up with a plan to install smog towers to combat air pollution.

No evidence so far

This is the first experiment with a large-scale outdoor air-purification system in India. Small smog towers have been raised in Netherlands and South Korea; larger ones have been set up in China.

Experts said there isn’t enough evidence that smog towers work.

15. Delta variant of Covid-19

Subject – Science and Tech

Context – Delta variant spreads more rapidly than other Covid-19 strains

Concept –

Key mutations reduce effectiveness of vaccines, and high infectiousness during the pre-symptomatic phase in patients are among the main reasons fuelling the rapid spread.
Delta variant (B.1.617.2) is at least 40 per cent more transmissible than the Alpha variant first identified in the UK in late 2020.
Delta variant is more transmissible than the viruses that cause MERS, SARS, Ebola, the common cold, the seasonal flu and smallpox, and it is at least as contagious as chickenpox.
Recent research suggests that a key amino acid mutation may be behind the ferocious infectivity of the Delta variant.
The change is called P681R and transforms a proline residue into an arginine, according to a report on the study published in Nature journal. The change occurs in the spike protein’s furin cleavage site.

16. Delimitation

Subject – Polity

Context – The Election Commission’s (EC) former legal eagle, SK Mendiratta, has red-flagged the Union government’s order setting up a Delimitation Commission for Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Assam and Nagaland, calling it “unconstitutional” and “illegal”.

Concept –

Delimitation is the act of redrawing boundaries of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats to represent changes in population.
In this process, the number of seats allocated to a state may also change.
The objective is to provide equal representation for equal population segments, and a fair division of geographical areas, so that no political party has an advantage.
The Delimitation Commission’s orders cannot be questioned before any court.
Delimitation is done on the basis of the preceding Census.
The first such exercise in 1950-51 was carried out by the President, with the help of the Election Commission.
Following the Delimitation Commission Act in 1952, all such exercises have been conducted by Delimitation Commissions — set up in 1952, 1963, 1973 and 2002.
There was no delimitation after the 1981 and 1991 Censuses. This was a fallout of the provision that the ratio between the number of Lok Sabha seats in a state and the population of the state is, as far as practicable, the same for all states. Although unintended, this meant that states that took little interest in population control could end up with more seats in Parliament, while the southern states that promoted family planning could end up with fewer seats. Amid these concerns, the Constitution was amended in 1976 to suspend delimitation until 2001.
Another amendment extended the freeze on the number of seats until 2026, by when the country was projected to achieve a uniform population growth rate. So, the last delimitation exercise between July 2002 and March 31, 2008, based on the 2001 Census, only readjusted boundaries of existing Lok Sabha and Assembly seats and reworked the number of reserved seats.

Northeast’s concerns

In the last delimitation exercise, completed in 2008, Arunachal, Manipur, Assam, Nagaland were kept out due to apprehensions over use of the 2001 Census.

Will delimitation change the number of seats in these states?

Not in the four Northeast states. There is a freeze until 2026 on the number of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in any state. Delimitation will only redraw the boundaries of seats in each state, and can rework the number of reserved seats for SCs and STs.

However, because of exceptional past circumstances, Jammu & Kashmir’s Assembly seats will now increase from 107 to 114, which is expected to increase Jammu region’s representation.

Election Commission and Delimitation Commission

EC and Delimitation Commission are two distinct entities. The former is a permanent Constitutional authority, and the latter gets disbanded after the delimitation exercise is complete.

17. Greece and Turkey

Subject – Mapping

Context – Fearing a repeat of the 2015 refugee crisis, Greece has completed building a 40-km long wall and installed a hi-tech surveillance system on its border with Turkey to avoid the influx of Afghan migrants following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

Concept –

18. South-west Monsoons

Subject – Geography

Context – Private weather forecaster Skymet Weather Services Private Limited has downgraded its forecast for the South-West Monsoon this year.

Concept –

The climate of India is described as the ‘monsoon’ In Asia, this type of climate is found mainly in the south and the southeast.
Out of a total of 4 seasonal divisions of India, monsoon occupies 2 divisions, namely:
- The southwest monsoon season– Rainfall received from the southwest monsoons is seasonal in character, which occurs between June and September.
- The retreating monsoon season– The months of October and November are known for retreating monsoons.
Factors Influencing South-West Monsoon Formation:
- The differential heating and cooling of land and water creates a low pressure on the landmass of India while the seas around experience comparatively high pressure.
- The shift of the position of Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)in summer, over the Ganga plain (this is the equatorial trough normally positioned about 5°N of the equator. It is also known as the monsoon-trough during the monsoon season).
- The presence of the high-pressure area, east of Madagascar, approximately at 20°S over the Indian Ocean. The intensity and position of this high-pressure area affect the Indian Monsoon.
- The Tibetan plateau gets intensely heated during summer, which results in strong vertical air currents and the formation of low pressure over the plateau at about 9 km above sea level.
- The movement of the westerly jet stream to the north of the Himalayas and the presence of the tropical easterly jet stream over the Indian peninsula during summer.
- Tropical Easterly Jet(African Easterly Jet).
- El Nino/Southern Oscillation (SO):Normally when the tropical eastern south Pacific Ocean experiences high pressure, the tropical eastern Indian Ocean experiences low pressure. But in certain years, there is a reversal in the pressure conditions and the eastern Pacific has lower pressure in comparison to the eastern Indian Ocean. This periodic change in pressure conditions is known as the SO.

19. Non-Tariff Barriers

Subject – Economy

Context – Piyush Goyal asks industry to flag non-tariff barriers in exports

Concept –

Non-tariff barriers are the government policies other than tariffs that tend to distort trade.
Non-tariff barriers can be of two types, one that has direct influence on the price of the goods being imported and the other that influences or controls the quantity of the goods being imported.
Nontariff barriers include quotas, embargoes, sanctions, levies and other restrictions.