Daily Prelims Notes 24 February 2021
- February 24, 2021
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN
Daily Prelims Notes
24 February 2021
By
Santosh Sir
All 6 Prelims qualified
4 CSE Mains qualified
If I can do it, you can too
Table Of Contents
- Western disturbance
- Shergarh
- PM SVANIDHI scheme (Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor’s AtmanirbharNidhi)
- Right to fair and speedy trial
- National Digital Health Mission (NDHM)
- Jezero crater
- CPEC
- Intensified Mission Indradhanush 3.0
- Kuznets curve hypothesis
- Indian Bank Association (IBA)
- Human rights (HRs) and generation of HRs
- International Mother Language day/UNESCO
- Growth Potential of Indian economy
Subject: Geography
Context: Delhi saw fewer Western Disturbance event this year and this has led to February temperature 7 degree above normal.
Concept:
- Towards the end of February, temperature usually starts rising, however, this is dependent on the number of Western Disturbances. There was 1 Western disturbance around February 5 this year and none after that.
- A Western Disturbance is a weather pattern associated with sudden winter rain and snow in northwest India, which plays an important role in bringing down the temperatures.
About Western disturbance
- It is an extra-tropical storm (low pressure winds embedded in western winds (westerlies) that flow from west to the east) which originates in the Mediterranean region
- Why name Western disturbance (WD): The disturbance travels from the “western” to the eastern direction. Disturbance means an area of “disturbed” or reduced air pressure. Equilibrium exists in nature due to which the air in a region tries to normalize its pressure.
- WD is associated with the rainfall, snowfall and fog in northern India.
- After travelling over Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan to northern India it comes with the cloud along with rain and snow. The moisture which WDs carry with them comes from the Mediterranean Sea and/or from the Atlantic Ocean.
- In India, WD eventually come up against the Himalayas and get blocked, as a consequence, the moisture gets trapped and precipitation is shared in the form of snow and rain over Northwest India and sometimes, other parts of North India
- Once it is more intense in the Indian Region, they can extend even upto 15 degree north, resulting into rainfall upto north Maharashtra, Gujarat and the entire Madhya Pradesh
- The WD is the cause of the most winter and pre-monsoon season rainfall across North-West India, moderate to heavy rain in low lying areas and heavy snow to mountainous areas of the Indian subcontinent.
- It has significance in in agriculture particularly for rabi crops including wheat.
- Extra-Tropical Cyclones are also called as winter storms and blizzards.
Subject: Art and culture
Context: Close to nine years after the 16th century Sher Shah Gate in Central Delhi was partially damaged in heavy rains, the restoration work on the monument is still not complete and delayed due to Covid protocols as per ASI.
Concept:
- Sher shah gate is located on Mathura Road opposite PuranaQila and collapsed in 2012.
- The gate served as the southern entrance to Shergarh, a city built by Sher Shah Suri of the Sur dynasty during his reign as emperor of North India from 1540 to 1545.
- Shergarh was built when Sher Shah took control of the Mughal Empire after defeating emperor Humayun in 1540.
- The northern gate of Shergarh is at Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg and is known as the Khooni Darwaza
3. PM SVANIDHI scheme (Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor’s AtmanirbharNidhi)
Subject: Welfare schemes
Context: Focus on the schemes come as the Centre has alerted banks about slowdown in loans to the street vendors.
Concept:
- It is a special micro-credit facility scheme for providing affordable loan to street vendors.
- The scheme is aimed at daily wage workers (mostly migrant workers) to resume their livelihoods that have been adversely affected due to COVID-19 lockdown.
- Under the scheme, each of these streets’ vendors will be given collateral free loan of Rs 10,000, which they can return as monthly installments within a year.
- Those who repay their loans on time will get 7 percent annual interest as subsidy which will be transferred in their bank accounts. There is no provision for penalty.
- The street vendors belonging to the surrounding peri-urban or rural areas are being included as beneficiaries under the urban livelihoods programme for the first time.
- According to the ministry data there are around 42.7 lakh street vendors in country (except West Bengal), out of which 37 lakh application was received under the scheme and 20 lakh applications have been sanctioned.
- The lending institutions under the Scheme include Scheduled Commercial Banks, Regional Rural Banks, Small Finance Banks, Cooperative Banks, NBFCs, Micro Finance institutions and Self-Help Group banks.
4. Right to fair and speedy trial
Subject: Polity
Context: Areeb Majeed was granted bail by the Bombay High Court six years after his arrest on charges of travelling to Iraq and Syria to join ISIS.
Concept:
- The court held that the right to fair and speedy trial was recognised under Article 21 (right to life) of the Constitution and same applied to the petitioner as there is no likelihood of trial completing in a reasonable time.
- The HC said in the context of more than 6 years of incarnation already having been served the case involved right to liberty. Thus the golden mean has to be achieved between the rights of the individual and those of the society at large
- As a part of justice delivery, right to fair and speedy trial envisages justice system which is more efficient and trustworthy.
- It is also belief in the principle of “Justice delayed is the justice denied”.
- HussainaraKhatoon v. State of Bihar case: It is basis of speedy trial in India and held that under trial prisoners have been in jail for duration longer than prescribed, if convicted, their detention in jail is totally unjustified and in violation to fundamental rights under article 21.
- In the case Katar Singh v. State of Punjab it was declared that right to speedy trial is an essential part of fundamental right to life and liberty.
5. National Digital Health Mission (NDHM)
Subject: Welfare schemes
Context: While talking in a webinar on India’s strategy to address health gap the PM talked of NDHM and also called for private sector role in it.
Concept:
- The PM also mentioned 4-pronged strategy on which govt is working for the health sector.
- Prevention of illness and promotion of wellness
- To provide cheap and effective treatment to the poorest of the poor
- The third is to increase the quality and quality of health infrastructure and health care professionals
- To work on mission mode to overcome obstacle. Ex- the Mission Indradhanush
About NDHM
- It is a holistic, voluntary healthcare programme which will integrate doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, insurance companies and make a digital health infrastructure. It will have four key features: four key features — health ID, personal health records, Digi Doctor and health facility registry.
- It will be implemented by the National Health Authority (NHA) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
- The platform will be available in the form of an app and website.
- Health ID will be given to every Indian which will contain details of every test, every disease, the doctors visited, the medicines taken and the diagnosis. It is significant for useful as it is portable and easily accessible even if the patient shifts to new place and visits a new doctor.
- Health Id will be created details with the help of Aadhar and mobile number and generate unique ID for each individual.
- At a later stage telemedicine, ePharmacy will be brought under it.
Subject: Science and Technology
Context: Perseverance landed on depression on Mars called Jezero crater recently.
Concept:
- Scientists believe the area was once flooded with water and was home to an ancient river delta.
- Conceivably, microbial life could have lived in Jezero during one or more of wet times there. If so, signs of their remains might be found in lakebed or shoreline sediments.
- It is 28 miles (45 kilometers) wide, and is located on the western edge of a flat plain called IsidisPlanitia, which lies just north of the Martian equator.
- It is oldest terrain to be explored on Mars.
Subject: International agreements
Context: Pakistan says it seeks to strengthen trade ties with the Sri Lanka through CPEC.
Concept:
- The CPEC is part of China’s larger regional transnational ‘One Belt One Road’ (OBOR) initiative, whose two arms are the land-based New Silk Road and the 21st century Maritime Silk Road, using which Beijing aims to create a Silk Road Economic Belt sprawled over a large patch of Asia and eastern Europe, and crisscrossed by a web of transport, energy supply and telecommunications lines.
- The agreement between two countries for connectivity projects amounted to around investments of 46 Billion dollar.
- It consists of clutch of major infrastructure works currently under way in Pakistan, intended to link Kashgar in China’s Xinjiang province to Gwadar deep sea port close to Pakistan’s border with Iran.
- It aims to transform Pakistan’s economy—by modernizing its road, rail, air, and energy transportation systems—and to give China a shorter and faster land route to avoid its Malacca dilemma and reach out to Central Asia and Europe through land route.
India’s concern with CPEC:
- Its principal objection was that CPEC passed through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
- It violates India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
- Strategic advantage to China by giving a foothold to China in Western Indian Ocean.
- Part of the strategy of China of encircling India through “String of Pearls”.
- Kashmir dilemma: The route of CPEC passes through POK and makes China an indirect stakeholder in Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan.
8. Intensified Mission Indradhanush 3.0
Subject: Welfare schemes
Context: The states and UT rolled out Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 3.0 scheme to cover children and pregnant women who missed routine immunisation during the COVID-19 pandemic
Concept:
- On the first day 29,000 children and 5,000 pregnant women were covered as per health ministry in the first phase rolled out on 22nd
About IMI 3.0
- To reach those children and pregnant women who have been missed out or been left out of the Routine ImmunisationProgramme.
- It is to accelerate the full immunisation of children and pregnant women through a mission mode intervention.
- It will have two phases of 15 days each.
- It will be conducted on priority in 250 preidentified districts/urban areas across 29 States/UTs (the districts have been classified to reflect 313 low risk, 152 medium risk and 250 high risk districts).
- Beneficiary from migration areas and remote areas are primary target as they mostly missed vaccination.
- COVID-appropriate behaviour (CAB) during immunisation activities (social distancing, mask and other safety protocols like staggered approach of conducting sessions) has been made part of strategy.
Subject: Economy/Environment
Context: The scientists at IIT Madras has come to conclusion that in developing countries the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis does not hold good.
Concept:
About Kuznet Curve hypothesis
- It was given by Nobel laureate Simon Kuznets.
- As a country grows rich, the economic equality suffers initially, but over time, the economic inequality declines.
Environment Kuznet Curve hypothesis:
- The Kuznet curve extension to the environmental impacts of growth and rise and subsequent decline in pollution levels has been said to face similar pattern. According to the hypothesis the growth is actually a cure for environmental problems, rather than being a cause of it
Implications of the Environmental Kuznets Curve
- When an economy is primarily pre-industrial and agrarian, the environment is usually clean and untouched by pollutants from industrial economic activities.
- As the economy shifts towards development and industrialization, the environment is at a higher risk of being harmed by pollution and depletion of natural resources.
- The curve then returns to a cleaner environment when economic growth continues, and people choose to spend their incomes on improving the environment by cleaning water and improving air quality
Observations of scientists
- The scientists calculated environment efficiency in terms of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide emissions (the more of these emissions meant less environment efficiency and corelated with the GDP per capita in 15 developing countries including India between 1992 and 2011.
- It found that the environmental efficiency in terms of CO2 per capita exhibits an “inverted N-shaped” (not inverted U) relationship with economic growth, an insignificant impact of growth on efficiency is observed in case of SO2 i.e., to an extent it is a remedy for environmental degradation in terms of CO2 emission, it is not a remedy for SO2 emission.
- It suggests local-level policies like proper planning for urbanization, among others, to control the emission of local pollutants.
10. Indian Bank Association (IBA)
Subject: Economy
Context: As a preparation to asses capital required for formation of “Bad Bank” the IBA has asked the lenders to give details of stressed accounts over Rs 500 crore (fund and non-fund based as also debt investment).
Concept:
- The IBA is working with the Department of Financial Services and a few lenders to set up the ‘Bad Bank’.
- Fraud accounts, those in sight of resolution under the IBC and those under liquidation, accounts of financial service providers (such as NBFCs, mutual funds and broking firms), and quasi equity/equity and unsecured exposures have been excluded from the reporting format.
About proposed Bad Bank
- “Bad Banks” as proposed is ‘Asset Reconstruction Company (ARC)/Asset Management Company (AMC)’ structure, to clean up lenders’ books.
- It will be an integrated platform (Bad Bank) for all high-value non-performing assets (NPAs) will facilitate debt aggregation and help faster resolution
About IBA
- It is a representative body of management of banking in India operating in India or an association of Indian banks and financial institutions based in Mumbai.
- It was formed in 1946 for development, coordination and strengthening of Indian banking, and assist the member banks in various ways including implementation of new systems and adoption of standards among the members
- Public Sector Banks, Private Sector Banks, Foreign Banks having offices in India, Co-operative Banks, Regional Rural Banks and All India Financial Institution are its member.
- IBA currently represents 237 banking companies operating in India.
11. Human rights (HRs) and generation of HRs:
Subject: Polity
Context: Recently human rights has been in focus with questions being raised about India’s protection of HRs particularly w.r.t cases registered against the environmental activists like Disha Ravi for role if farmers protest amplification and network internationally.
Concept:
About Human rights
Human Rights are those rights which every human being enjoys on the basis of equality irrespective of caste, race, religion, place of birth, sex or any other economic and social status. The idea of human dignity and equality is embedded in vision of HRs.
These Human rights are guaranteed under the constitution of India in the form of Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles of State Policy and International Instruments such as UDHR, ICCPR, ICESCR, UNCRPD etc.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights laid down the terms for the post-war world, it enshrined the rights and the freedoms of all people, living everywhere.
Characteristic of HRs:
- Inalienable
- Indivisible, interdependent and interrelated
- Universal
Three generation of Human Rights:
The division of human rights into three generations was introduced in 1979 by Czech jurist Karel Vasak.
- First generation: It dealt with the civil-political rights like liberty and participation in political life. By nature, they are individualistic and negative (limitation on the state). These have been legitimated and given status in international law by Articles 3 to 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
- Second Generation: These deal with the socio-economic rights that guarantee equal conditions and treatment. They are not rights directly possessed by individuals but constitute positive duties upon the government to respect and fulfill them. Major acknowledgement of these rights came post second world war and is found in Articles 22 to 27 of the UDHR and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.
- Third generation: Collective-developmental rights or solidarity rights of peoples and groups held against their respective states aligns with the final tenet of “fraternity”. broad class of rights that have gained acknowledgment in international agreements and treaties but are more contested than earlier two. They can be found in documents like 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, and the 1994 Draft Declaration of Indigenous Peoples’ Rights.
12. International Mother Language day/UNESCO
Subject: International organisations and events
Context: The UNESCO observes 21 February as the International Mother Language Day.
Concept:
- According to the latest UNESCO Atlas of World’s language in Danger, around 197 of indigenous languages of India was either vulnerable, endangered or extinct as of 2017.
About UNESCO
- It is a specialised agency of the UN seeking to build peace through international cooperation in Education, the Sciences and Culture.
- Its HQ is in PAris with more than 50 offices around the world.
- It has 193 Members and 11 Associate Members and is governed by the General Conference and the Executive Board.
- The Israel, Liechtenstein, United States are three UN states which are not member of the UNESCO currently (Cook Islands, Niue, and Palestine are UNESCO member but not that of UN).
Some of the initiatives of UNESCO
- World Heritage Convention and List
- Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme
- International Geoscience and Global GeoparksProgramme (IGGP) – harnesses the intellectual capacity of a worldwide network of geoscientists to lay the foundation for our planet’s future, focusing on responsible resource extraction, natural hazard resilience and preparedness, and adaptability in the era of a changing climate
- International Hydrological Programme (IHP) – only intergovernmental programme of the United Nations system devoted to water research and management, and related education and capacity development
- UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger – To raise awareness about language endangerment and the need to safeguard the world’s linguistic diversity among policy-makers, speaker communities and the general public, and to be a tool to monitor the status of endangered languages and the trends in linguistic diversity at the global level.
13. Growth Potential of Indian economy
Subject: Economy
Context: Already slowing down Indian economy face Covid-19 induced slowdown and after opening up there has been talk of raising fiscal deficit and debt levels to propel growth which though goes against FRBM norms, is considered essential for growth potential of economy.
Concept:
Growth potential of an economy is determined interaction of complex set of factors, political setting and even external environment. However, core aspects of it are interaction of land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship in various settings, which are largely economic factors:
- Capital formation: High capital is a determinant of high growth. It leads to increased productivity in economy and necessitated upgradation of skills for its utilization. Ex- Japan during its high growth phase of 1913 to 1939 saw investment rate between 16 to 20%.
- Capital-output ratio: It is the units of capital required to produce one unit of output. It reflects the productivity of the economy.
- Savings and investment: Savings in an economy which are productively invested is another important factor.
- Occupational structure: Optimum distribution of occupation or labour across sectors like primary, secondary and tertiary sector determines level of growth in an economy. Ex- Transfer of Indian labour from Primary sector to manufacturing and services has also been an enabling factor for growth.
- Technological progress: It is one of the biggest enablers and one which has been shaping the direction of growth since industrial revolution. Ex- If initial Industrial revolution led to mass-scale production, then Industrial Revolution 3.0 and 4.0 is powering growth through digital technology through disruptions.
Other factors are: Competitive markets; Stable prices; Free trade; Flexible capital markets; Avoiding high marginal tax rates; Securing property rights and land acquisition; Political stability