Daily Prelims Notes 31 August 2020

  • August 31, 2020
  • Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
  • Category: DPN
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Table Of Contents

  1. Tax Buoyancy
  2. Endangered species
  3. Sessions of Parliament
  4. Ease of doing business
  5. Article 341 and 342
  6. Reinfection
  7. Onam

1. Tax Buoyancy

Subject: Economy

Context:

Even as the government is battling much-reduced tax buoyancy and a yawning revenue deficit, finance minister kept alive industry’s hopes for further tax cuts.

Concept:

  • Tax buoyancy explains this relationship between the changes in government’s tax revenue growth and the changes in GDP.
  • It refers to the responsiveness of tax revenue growth to changes in GDP.
  • When a tax is buoyant, its revenue increases without increasing the tax rate.
  • A similar looking concept is tax elasticity. It refers to changes in tax revenue in response to changes in tax rate

2. Endangered species

Subject: Environment

Context:

Four persons, including two from Pune, were arrested for allegedly trying to sell a pangolin in Satara district

Concept:

  • Pangolin, also known as scaly anteater, is an insectivorous mammal that has hard scales of keratin on its body.
  • Two of the eight subspecies of the animal are found in India.
  • The animal has been given a protected status, as per the Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act in the country.
  • Indian Pangolin is widely distributed in India, except the arid region, high Himalayas and the North-East. The species is also found in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
  • Chinese Pangolin is found in the Himalayan foothills in Eastern Nepal, Bhutan, Northern India, North-East Bangladesh and through Southern China.
  • IUCN Red List 1) Indian Pangolin: Endangered 2) Chinese Pangolin: Critically Endangered

3. Sessions of Parliament

Subject: Polity

Context:

Monsoon session of Parliament from September 14 to October 1, will see many firsts including staggered seating, different shifts for both the houses, no breaks during the session and social distancing.

Concept:

The president from time to time summons each House of Parliament to meet. But, the maximum gap between two sessions of Parliament cannot be more than six months. In other words, the Parliament should meet at least twice a year. There are usually three sessions in a year, viz,

  1. the Budget Session (February to May);
  2. the Monsoon Session (July to September); and
  3. the Winter Session (November to December).

Article 85

  • The President shall form time to time summon each House of Parliament to meet at such time and place as he thinks fit, but six months shall not intervene between its last sitting in one session and the date appointed for its first sitting in the next session
  • The President may from time to time
    • prorogue the Houses or either House;
    • dissolve the House of the People

4. Ease of doing business

Subject: Economy

Context:

World Bank halted its annual publication, ‘Doing Business’ report, as it detected irregularities of data for a few countries

Concept:

  • The World Bank’s Doing Business study ranks 190 countries on the freedom they provide to conduct business by measuring aspects of business regulation that affect small domestic firms located in their largest business cities
  • The rankings are determined by sorting the aggregate scores on 10 topics, each consisting of several indicators, giving equal weight to each topic.
    • Starting a Business,
    • Dealing with Construction permits,
    • Electricity availability,
    • Property registration,
    • Credit availability,
    • Protecting minority Investors,
    • Paying Taxes,
    • Trading across borders,
    • Contracts enforcement, and
    • Resolving Insolvency.
  • India climbed 14 notches in the World Bank’s ease of doing business rankings for 2020 to a record 63rd position and figured among the world’s top 10 ‘most improved’ countries for the third consecutive time on the back of faster bankruptcy resolution and issuance of construction permits.

5. Article 341 and 342

Subject: Polity

Context:

The Supreme Court has given cogent reasons for a reconsideration of the verdict given by a five-judge Bench in 2004 that State legislatures have no power to create sub-classifications among the list of Scheduled Castes notified by the President

Concept:

  • The Bench has disagreed with the formulation in V. Chinnaiah vs. State of Andhra Pradesh (2004)that classifying Scheduled Castes into groups amounts to ‘tinkering’ with the Presidential list.
  • Articles 341 and 342, empower the President of India to draw up a list of schedule castes and tribes.
  • If such a notification is related to a state, then also President will notify the same. However, it can be done after consultation with the governor of the state
  • Any inclusion or exclusion from the presidential notification of any caste, race, or tribe can be done by Parliament by Law.
  • If any question arises whether or not particular tribe is a tribe within the meaning of this article one has to look at the public notification issued by the president.

6. Reinfection

Subject: Science and tech

Context:

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the United States acknowledge that there had been instances in which people had tested positive again after having recovered from the disease once.

Concept:

  • It could be because of what it described as “persistent viral shedding”.
  • Recovered patients can have low levels of virus for up to three months after the infection, and though it is no longer enough to make the person sick or transmit the disease to others, it can get detected in diagnostic tests.
  • These first cases of reinfection show that the immunity developed after contracting the disease once may not be long-lasting, and the virus could continue to circulate in the populations even after levels of community-wide immunity, either through natural infection or by vaccination, are reached.
  • It has also triggered concerns about the effectiveness of vaccines being developed for the infection.

7. Onam

Subject: Arts and culture

Context:

An animated video depicting Maveli’s visit to Kerala during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the importance of wearing a mask, is being widely shared on social media

Concept:

  • It is a harvest festival celebrated in Kerala irrespective of religion
  • According to legends, the festival is celebrated to commemorate King Mahabali, whose spirit is said to visit Kerala at the time of Onam
  • Onam celebrations include Vallam Kali (boat races), Pulikali (tiger dances), Pookkalam (flower Rangoli), Onathappan (worship), Onam Kali, Tug of War, ThumbiThullal (women’s dance), Kummattikali (mask dance), Onathallu (martial arts), Onavillu (music), Kazhchakkula (plantain offerings), Onapottan (costumes), Atthachamayam (folk songs and dance), and other celebrations
Prelims Notes