Daily Practice Sheet 15 January 2021
Daily Practice Sheet 15 January 2021
By
Santosh Sir
All 6 Prelims qualified
4 CSE Mains qualified
If I can do it, you can too
Daily Prelims Topic
- No anti-dumping duty on carbon black
- Competition commission of India
- USTAAD scheme
- Indian Council of cultural relations
- Pig painting may be world’s oldest cave art: archaeologists
- Clinical Trial Liability Insurance
- Entomophagy
- Bird flu and Bird migratory pattern
- Article 33
Daily Mapping
- Yamuna and its tributaries
- Lipulekh
Daily Facts
Automotive sector
Wholesale passenger vehicles sales in the country declined by 6.2% (a 10-year low) to over 2.62 lakh units in January 2020, as rising cost of vehicle ownership and slower GDP growth continued to put pressure on consumer demand, industry body SIAM said on Monday.
Digital Payment gap
Only 32% of Indian homes pay digitally, though 68% have smartphones. (National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and thinktank People Research on India’s Consumer Economy & Citizen Environment (Price))
Daily Mains Mantra
NEWSPAPER
GS 1: Geography
1. What are the factors responsible for extreme air pollution in Delhi compared to other metro cities? What have been government’s response to address it? [Reference: Indian Express]
GS 3: Economy
Approach:
Startup is a venture in early stages of its development, it is founded by two to three entrepreneur who focus on capitalising a market demand by developing a viable product or service
Startup scenario
- India has the 3rd largest startup ecosystem in the world
- Significantly, the number of women entrepreneurs stood at 14%, up from 10% and 11% in the previous two years.
- Startups in the country have been able to create an estimated 40,000 new jobs over the year, taking the total jobs in the start-up ecosystem to 1.6-1.7 lakh.
- It is expected growth of a consistent annual growth of 12-15%
- India has about 50,000 startups in India in 2018
- India has about 50,000 start-ups in India in 2018; around 8,900–9,300 of these are technology led start-ups 1,300 new tech start-ups were born in 2019 alone implying there are 2-3 tech start-ups born every day, as per government figures.
Challenges
- Building and Scaling an Indian Startup
- many Indian founders have a technical background and lack business knowledge.
- Hiring Qualified Employee startups see a gap between the knowledge taught to students in colleges and the knowledge needed for the jobs Indian startups are yet to attract international talent.
- Bureaucracy and visa requirements make it difficult to hire employees from outside India
- Good and Services Tax (GST), still lack of clarity on how it works and which items are applicable as tax base or not Financial resources
- Availability of finance is critical for the startups and is always a problem to get sufficient amount Revenue generation
- Several startups fail due to poor revenue generation as the business grows. As the operations increase, expenses grow with reduced revenues forcing startups to concentrate on the funding aspect.
- Supporting infrastructure There are a number of support mechanisms that play a significant role in the lifecycle of startups which include incubators, science and technology parks, business development centers etc.
- Regulations Starting a business requires a number of permissions from government agencies. Although there is a perceptible change, it is still a challenge to register a company.
- Regulations pertaining to labor laws, intellectual property rights, dispute resolution etc. are rigorous in India.
- Lack of a good branding strategy, Absence of an effective branding strategy is another issue that prevents startups from flourishing at a faster pace
Government steps
- Start-Up India
This initiative provides three-year tax and compliance breaks intended for cutting government regulations and red tapism. Startup India Action Plan of 2016 thus proposed the CGSS to fuel entrepreneurship by making credit accessible to innovators and encourage banks and other lending institutions to provide them with venture debt
- Mudra Yojna
Through this scheme, startups get loans from the banks to set up, grow and stabilize their businesses.
- SETU (Self-Employment and Talent Utilization) Fund
Government has allotted Rs 1,000 Cr in order to create opportunities for self-employment and new jobs mainly in technology-driven domains.
- E-Biz Portal
Government launched e-biz portal that integrates 14 regulatory permissions and licenses at one source to enable faster clearances and improve the ease of doing business in
India.
Conclusion
The startup arena has lot of challenges ranging from finance to human resources and from launch to sustaining the growth with tenacity. Being a country with large population, the plethora of opportunities available are many for startups offering products and services
2. What do you understand by inverted duty structure? Discuss its impact on domestic industry. [Reference: Economic Times, Business Line]
3. What is Hybrid Annuity model (HAM)? Why developers prefer HAM over Engineering, Procurement and Build, Operate and Transfer model. How the recent changes in HAM model will further boost infrastructure sector. [Reference: Financial Express]
GS3: Security
1. Social media is a double-edged sword. In context of role of social media as medium to promote violence in USA discuss issues with the misuse of social media and what should be framework to regulate it. [Reference: Indian Express, Financial Express]
2. Climate change is the biggest national security for countries of the word. Elaborate the security threats die to climate change and what has been world’s response so far? Are these steps enough? [Reference: Bloomberg]
Approach:
Here focus in first part has to correlate climate change with national security in India and all over the world. Second part should mention few of the world response so far. Lastly examine these steps with focus on how it is currently below the expected level.
Introduction:
Climate change has emerged as the long-term security challenge to the world. It is threatening resources, food security and even leading to conflicts due to scarcity of resources as a result of it.
Body:
Security threat due to climate change:
- Immense strain that responding to climatological events puts on the country’s resources
- Military has responded vigorously, domestically and internationally, to forest fires, hurricanes, typhoons, flooding and the civil unrest that often follows such crises
- Increase in severity of humanitarian disasters to the impact of global warming.
- Climate-induced threat leading to resource scarcity resulting in conflict. Ex- water shortage causing agrarian economies falter in drought and higher temperatures and fighting breaks out. The wars in Syria and Mali are examples of conflicts in which soaring heat and water shortages are contributing factors
- Possibility of great-power competition in the Arctic.
- Rising sea levels, which threaten crucial ports in the U.S. and overseas.
Mention World’s steps so far to fight Climate change
- Kyoto protocol
- UNFCC
- Paris climate deal
- REDD+
Mention other significant initiatives
Examine if these initiatives are sufficient:
Though, world through UNFCC commitments and innovations like carbon credit has started off well. It is also evident in focus on renewable energies (Ex- International Solar Alliance) etc. However, concerns are huge and challenging:
- In 2020, G20 countries have committed over $230 billion in fossil fuel industry to revive the economy, compared to $150 billion in clean energy
- Despite a 7% decline in CO2 emissions due to the economic slowdown in 2020, the current policies of the countries have put the planet on a 3.2°C temperature increase trajectory.
- The ‘Emission Gap Report 2020’, recently released by the UN Environment Programme, finds that the G20 nations, who account for 80% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, are collectively not on track to meet their modest Paris Agreement commitments
- IPCC report said even Paris climatic commitment may not be sufficient to contain temperature rise within 1.5 degree Celsius.
- Major state like USA withdrawal from Paris deal.
- Lack of national policies around the world to protect environment. Ex- Brazil forest fir and Brazil’s response.
Conclusion:
Climate change is not just an environmental problem now. It has become the biggest security threat. Thus, there is need for collaborative efforts from top to bottom levels. Involving local communities with funding and technologies from rich economies with promotion of sustainable development should be the approach.
GS 3: Science
(A new genome sequencing laboratory inaugurated at IGI airport New Delhi)
Daily Ethics:
1. What do you understand by dilemma? [Reference: The Hindu]