Daily Prelims Notes 25 November 2021
- November 25, 2021
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN
Daily Prelims Notes
25 November 2021
Table Of Contents
- Trilateral Exercise ‘Dosti’
- The icons Madhya Pradesh is honouring
- INS Vela
- Cryptocurrencies Regulation in Different Countries
- Related Party Transaction (RPT)
- United Nations Commission on International Trade Law(UNCITRAL)
- Monetary Policy Stances
- White Dwarf
- NFHS 5
1. Trilateral Exercise ‘Dosti’
Subject – Defence and Security
Context – The 15th edition of the biennial trilateral coast guard exercise ‘Dosti’ involving India, the Maldives and Sri Lanka is underway in the Maldives.
Concept –
- The 15th edition of the biennial trilateral coast guard exercise ‘Dosti’ involving India, the Maldives and Sri Lanka is underway in the Maldives.
- 2021 marks 30 years since these exercises were first launched
2. The icons Madhya Pradesh is honouring
Subject – History
Context – From renaming two railway stations and a university after tribal icons, to setting up memorials and museums highlighting the participation of tribal leaders in freedom struggle, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Madhya Pradesh is leaving no stone unturned to woo the 1.53 crore tribal population of the state.
Concept –
- Madhya Pradesh has the largest tribal population of the country, with 46 recognised scheduled tribes, of which three are Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) spread across the 52 districts in the state.
- The Bhil community comprises nearly 40 per cent of the total tribal population followed by the Gond tribe that constitute another 34 per cent.
Shankar Shah and Raghunath Shah
- Shankar Shah (70), son of Sumer Shah, was the last ruler of Garha Kingdom under Gond rule.
- Maharaja Shankar Shah Maravi was the king of Garha Kingdom, which was situated in the Indian region of Gondwana.
- He led an uprising against the British colonial occupiers of India, and was put to death along with his son.
- His son’s name was KunwarRaghunath Shah.
- King Shankar Shah and his son Raghunath Shah, both were good poets so they used their poetry to trigger a rebellion against the British in the state.
Tantya Bhil
- He was a dacoit (bandit) active in India between 1878 and 1889.
- He is described very negatively as a criminal in period British accounts, but is recognized by Indians as a heroic figure. Accounts of both eras have described him as an Indian “Robin Hood”.
- He was known as Indian Robinhood as he used to loot British government treasuries and distribute the wealth among the poor and needy.
- Tantia was a member of the Bhil tribe, of the indigenous Adivasi community.
- He worked to realise Bhils’ dream of a socialist society and was fired with the passion to free India from the clutches of the British.
BhimaNayak
- BhimaNayak or BheemaNayak (death 29 December 1876) was an Indian revolutionary.
- He fought against the British in the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
- When Bhima was convicted by the British government, he was kept in Port Blair and Nicobar.
- He was also known as Nimad’s Robin Hood.
- A government scheme, “Shaheed BhimaNayakPariyojna” in Madhya Pradesh is named after him.
Raja Hirde Shah
- Raja Hridey Shah Lodhi ruled the northern region of the present-day Narsinghpur and played a crucial role during the revolt against the Britishers in 1842.
Raja Sangram Shah
- Sangram Shah was a king of the Garha Kingdom of Gondwana, in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India.
- Sangram Shah, who belonged to the Gond Dynasty in central India, was the 48th ruler of the dynasty, and during his reign he had conquered 52 forts to strengthen his kingdom.
- The Chouragarh Fort in Narsinghpur was built in his honour for conquering 52 forts.
- His eldest son Dalpat Shah was married to Rani Durgavati who is said to have died while fighting the Mughals.
- Sangram Shah was a great patron of art. He wrote Rasratnamala and also had a vast knowledge of Sanskrit.
Subject – Defence and Security
Context – Vela, the fourth submarine of P75 of the Indian Navy, was Thursday commissioned by Navy.
Concept –
What is Project 75?
- Conceptualised for the acquisition for 25 submarines at the time of the IK Gujral government, P 75 evolved into a 30-year plan for building submarines.
- In 2005, India and France signed a $ 3.75 billion contract for building six Scorpene class submarines.
- The executing company on the Indian side is Mazgaon Docks Ltd, and on the French side, it is DCNS, which is now called Naval Group.
- The project has been dogged by delays and questions over the reluctance of the French government to act on the commitment for “transfer of technology” that was an integral part of the contract.
- As a result, the first of the six subs, INS Kalvari, was commissioned five years behind schedule, in 2017.
What has been the progress so far?
- After Kalvari, two more submarines under the contract, INS Khanderi and INS Karanj, were commissioned.
- Vela is the fourth, and sea trials are ongoing for Vagir, while the sixth, Vagsheer, is under construction.
- Vela is named after a decommissioned submarine Vela, which served the Navy from 1973 to 2010. The earlier Vela belonged to Foxtrot class submarine of Soviet origin.
4. Cryptocurrencies Regulation in Different Countries
Subject – Science and Tech
Context – The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021, is listed for introduction in Parliament’s Winter Session
Concept –
- The stance of countries and regulators has ranged from a total ban on these financial assets, to allowing them to operate with some regulations, to the other extreme of allowing virtual currency trading in the absence of any guidelines.
Country | Status |
CANADA | Treats cryptocurrency like a commodity for purposes of the country’s Income Tax Act. |
ISRAEL | Defines cryptocurrency as an asset and demands 25% on capital gains. |
GERMANY | Qualify virtual currencies as “units of account” and therefore, “financial instruments”. |
UNITED KINGDOM | Does not consider crypto assets to be currency or money. |
US | Federal government does not recognise cryptocurrencies as legal tender. |
THAILAND | Digital asset businesses are required to apply for a licence, monitor for unfair trading practices. |
EL SALVADOR | Approved bitcoin as legal tender. |
CHINA | Total clamp down on both cryptocurrencies and service providers. |
5. Related Party Transaction (RPT)
Subject – Economy
Context – Asian Paints’ promoters must resign from board: In govern
Concept –
- RPT means transaction between:
- Listed entity and a related party of the listed entity;
- Listed entity and a related party of the subsidiary of the listed entity;
- Subsidiary of the listed entity and a related party of the listed entity;
- Subsidiary of the listed entity and a related party of the subsidiary of the listed entity;
- Related Party Transactions (RPT) are just that — transactions that a company does with parties related to it. An RPT is an arrangement between two entities which share a pre-existing business relationship.
- The Companies Act, 2013has not prohibited RPTs as a whole but instead lays down safety measures that need to be followed while dealing with RPTs.
6. United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)
Subject – IR
Context – Govt plans to enact cross-border insolvency framework in Winter Session. The new framework is likely to be largely patterned on the UNCITRAL model law on cross-border insolvency.
Concept –
- It is a subsidiary body of the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) responsible for helping to facilitate international trade and investment.
- It is the core legal body of the United Nations system in the field of international trade law.
- UNCITRAL carries out its work at annual sessions held alternately in New York City and Vienna, where it is headquartered.
- Established by the UNGA in 1966.
- The Tribunal constituted in accordance with the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules 1976 is seated at the Hague, Netherlands, and proceedings are administered by the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
- Since its inception, India is only one of eight countries that has been a member of UNCITRAL.
- The UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency (1997) (MLCBI) is designed to assist States in developing a modern, harmonized and fair insolvency framework to more effectively address instances of cross-border proceedings concerning debtors experiencing severe financial distress or insolvency.
- It provides legal framework to deal with cross-border insolvency issues while ensuring the least intrusion into the country’s domestic insolvency law.
Subject – Economy
Context – ‘RBI must aid growth by staying accommodative’
Concept –
- The process of drafting, announcing & Implementing the plan of actions taken by the Central Bank of a Country (In India, Reserve Bank) that controls the quantity of money in an Economy.
- Monetary Policy Committee of the Reserve Bank of India meets every two months to take key decisions on the Monetary Policy of the Country.
- Monetary Policy Stances are namely Dovish, Hawkish, and Accommodative & Neutral.
Monetary Policy Stance | Meaning |
Hawkish Monetary Policy Stance
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Dovish Monetary Policy Stance |
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Accommodative Monetary Policy Stance
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Neutral Monetary Policy Stance
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Subject – Science and Tech
Context – White dwarf with fastest spin: one rotation every 25 seconds
Concept –
- A white dwarf is a star that has burnt up all of its fuel and shed its outer layers, now undergoing a process of shrinking and cooling over millions of years.
- Such stars have very high density.
- A typical white dwarf is half the size of our Sun and has a surface gravity 1,00,000 times that of Earth.
- Stars like our sun fuse hydrogen in their cores into helium through nuclear fusion reactions.
- Fusion in a star’s core produces heat and outward pressure (they bloat up as enormous red giants), but this pressure is kept in balance by the inward push of gravity generated by a star’s mass.
- When the hydrogen, used as fuel, vanishes and fusion slows, gravity causes the star to collapse in on itself into white dwarfs.
- A white dwarf star that completes a full rotation once every 25 seconds is the fastest spinning confirmed white dwarf, according to a team of astronomers.
LAMOST J024048.51+195226.9 — or J0240+1952
- This particular star, named LAMOST J024048.51+195226.9 — or J0240+1952 —is the size of the Earth but is thought to be at least 200,000 times more massive.
- It is part of a binary star system; its immense gravity is pulling material from its larger companion star in the form of plasma.
Subject – Governance
Context – More hospital births, but limited gains in childhood nutrition: NFHS
Concept –
- The NFHS provides estimates on key indicators related to population, family planning, child and maternal health, nutrition, adult health, and domestic violence, among others.
Key Findings
Population
- Use of family planning methods increased; most states reduce their fertility rate, below the target of 2.1
- Sex ratio at birth has declined in a few states – Sex ratio at birth for children born in the last five years is below 950 for seven (of the 17) states.
Health and Nutrition
- Institutional births have increased -In 7 states, more than 90% of the births in the last five years were institutional births.
- Out of pocket expenditure on deliveries increased in some states
- Infant Mortality Rate has declined across states; however, malnourishment among children is increasing.
- Stunting or chronic malnutrition (i.e., low height with respect to age) has increased in 11 of the 17 states.
- Proportion of severely wasted children has increased in 13 of the 17 states.
- Wasting or acute malnutrition refers to low weight with respect to height.
- Children who are stunted or wasted are more vulnerable to diseases and illness.
- Obesity is rising for both men and women across all states.
Access to infrastructure
- Access to electricity, improved source of drinking water and sanitation facility has increased.
- More women using mobile phones across all states; however, many of them do not have access to internet.
- More women using bank accounts; ownership of house/ land amongst women declines in several states.
Gender related indicators
- Use of hygienic methods of protection during menstrual period has increased across states.
- Gender based violence still remains high, has increased in some states.
About National Family Health Survey (NFHS)
- The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) is a large-scale, multi-round survey conducted in a representative sample of households throughout India.
- The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), Government of India, designated the International Institute for Population Sciences(IIPS) Mumbai, as the nodal agency, responsible for providing coordination and technical guidance for the survey.
- IIPS collaborated with a number of Field Organizations (FO) for survey implementation.
- Each FO was responsible for conducting survey activities in one or more states covered by the NFHS.
- Technical assistance for the NFHS was provided mainly by ICF (USA) and other organizations on specific issues.
- The funding for different rounds of NFHS has been provided by USAID, DFID, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF, UNFPA, and MOHFW, GOI.