Daily Prelims Notes 9 March 2021

March 9, 2021
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN

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Daily Prelims Notes

9 March 2021

By

Santosh Sir

All 6 Prelims qualified

4 CSE Mains qualified

If I can do it, you can too

Table Of Contents

1. PERMANENT COURT OF ARBITRATION

Subject: International Organisations

Context: Courts in five countries, including the U.S. and the U.K., have given recognition to an arbitration award that asked India to return $1.4 billion to Cairn Energy plc.

The company had moved courts in nine countries to enforce the December 21 award from a three-member tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Netherlands.

Concept :

Permanent Court of Arbitration

Established in: 1899.
HQ: Hague, Netherlands.
It is an intergovernmental organization dedicated to serve the international community in the field of dispute resolution and to facilitate arbitration and other forms of dispute resolution between States.
The PCA has a three-part organizational structure consisting of:
Administrative Council- to oversee its policies and budgets,
Members of the Court- a panel of independent potential arbitrators, and
International Bureau- its Secretariat, headed by the Secretary-General.
It has Financial Assistance Fund which aims at helping developing countries meet part of the costs involved in international arbitration or other means of dispute settlement offered by the PCA.

2. INDRA SHAWNEY CASE

Subject: Polity

Context: The Supreme Court on Monday decided to examine whether its nearly three-decade-old judgment which fixed reservation for the marginalised and the poor in government jobs and educational institutions at 50% needs a relook.

Concept:

Maratha Quota Law

A five-judge Bench, led by Justice Ashok Bhushan, set up to hear the challenge to the Maratha quota law, decided not to confine the question of reservation spilling over the 50% limit to just Maharashtra.
The Bench expanded the ambit of the case by making other States party and inviting them to make their stand clear on the question of whether reservation should continue to remain within the 50% boundary or not.

Indira Sawhney Case

In the famous Mandal case (Indra Sawhney Case, 1992), the scope and extent of Article 16(4), which provides for reservation of jobs in favour of backward classes, has been examined thoroughly by the Supreme Court.
Though the Court has rejected the additional reservation of 10% for poorer sections of higher castes, it upheld the constitutional validity of a 27% reservation for the OBCs with certain conditions.
The advanced sections among the OBCs (the creamy layer) should be excluded from the list of beneficiaries of reservation.
No reservation in promotions; reservation should be confined to initial appointments only. Any existing reservation in promotions can continue for five years only (i.e., upto 1997).
The total reserved quota should not exceed 50% except in some extraordinary situations. This rule should be applied every year.
The ‘carry forward rule’ in case of unfilled (backlog) vacancies is valid. But it should not violate the 50% rule.
However, over the years, several States, such as Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, have crossed the Rubicon and passed laws which allow reservation shooting over 60%.

3. PROJECT 75I

Subject: Defence

Context: Multi-billion deals for 30 armed drones from the U.S. and six advanced submarines under Project-75I are likely to be taken by the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) in April for approval, a government official said.

Concept:

Project 75I-Class Submarine

The Project 75I-class submarine is follow-on of the Project 75 Kalvari-class submarines for the Indian Navy.
Under this project, the Indian Navy intends to acquire six diesel-electric submarines, which will also feature advanced Air-independent propulsion (AIP) systems to enable them to stay submerged for longer duration and substantially increase their operational range.
In October 2014, the project got clearance from Defence Acquisition Council.
All six submarines are expected to be constructed in Indian shipyards.

Design

The Project 75I-class submarines will have a vertical launch system (VLS) to enable them to carry multiple Brahmos supersonic cruise missiles, making the submarines fully capable of anti-surface and anti-ship warfare missions.

4. ELECTORAL BONDS

Subject: Governance

Concept:

Electoral Bond is a financial instrument for making donations to political parties.
The bonds are issued in multiples of Rs. 1,000, Rs. 10,000, Rs. 1 lakh, Rs. 10 lakh and Rs. 1 crore without any maximum limit.
State Bank of India is authorised to issue and encash these bonds, which are valid for fifteen days from the date of issuance.
These bonds are redeemable in the designated account of a registered political party.
The bonds are available for purchase by any person (who is a citizen of India or incorporated or established in India) for a period of ten days each in the months of January, April, July and October as may be specified by the Central Government.
A person being an individual can buy bonds, either singly or jointly with other individuals.
Donor’s name is not mentioned on the bond.

5. SHYAMA PRASAD MUKHERJEE

Subject: History

Context: In a recent election rally in Muchipara, West Bengal, BJP leader spoke about the contributions of the party’s founding father, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.

Concept:

He was born on July 6, 1901. He was the independent India’s first Minister of Industry and Supply and founder of Bharatiya Jana Sangh.
Shyama Prasad Mukherjee was born in a Bengali family on 6th July 1901. His father Ashutosh Mukherjee was a judge of the Calcutta High Court.
He started his initial education in Bhawanipur’sMitra Institution in 1906. He passed his matriculation exam and was admitted to Presidency College.
He stood seventeenth in the Inter-Arts Examination in 1916 and graduated in English, securing the first position in first class in 1921.
At the age of 33, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee became the youngest vice-chancellor of Calcutta University in 1934.
During Mukherjee’s term as Vice-Chancellor, Rabindranath Tagore delivered the university convocation address in Bengali for the first time, and the Indian vernacular was introduced as a subject for the highest examination.
Mukherjee demanded the partition of Bengal in 1946 to prevent the inclusion of its Hindu-majority areas in a Muslim-dominated East Pakistan. A meeting held by the Mahasabha on April 15, 1947, in Tarakeswar, authorised him to take steps for ensuring partition of Bengal.
In May 1947, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee wrote a letter to Lord Mountbatten telling him that Bengal must be partitioned even if India was not.
He also opposed a failed bid for a united but independent Bengal made in 1947 by Sarat Bose, the brother of Subhas Chandra Bose, and Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, a Bengali Muslim politician.
After he left the Indian National Congress due to difference of opinion with the then-Prime Minister Dr Jawaharlal Nehru on Jammu and Kashmir issues, he co- founded Janata Party in the year 1977-1979, which later on became the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Shyama Prasad Mukherjee died after 40 days of being arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir State police for entering the state without permit. He passed away in jail under mysterious circumstances.

6. CANNABIS or HEMP CULTIVATION

Subject: Current Events

Context: In a significant announcement in his annual budget speech last week, Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur announced that the state government is coming up with a policy to allow controlled cultivation of hemp or cannabis in the state.

Concept:

Marijuana (or hemp), part of the cannabis super-family, is illegal for commercial cultivation though it grows as weed in several parts of the country. Uttarakhand, Jammu and — recently Uttar Pradesh — have allowed restricted cultivation of the plant for medical research.
The Marijuana has two components CBD (cannabidiol) and THC (tetrahydrocannabinol ).
CBD does not cause intoxication or euphoria and has been successfully proven to provide relief to chronic pain without causing psychoactive side effects.
It is THC which is the primary psychoactive components of Marijuana.

Isn’t cannabis cultivation illegal in India?

In 1985, India banned the cultivation of cannabis plant under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. But this Act allows state governments to allow controlled and regulated cultivation of hemp for obtaining its fibre and seed for industrial or horticultural purposes.
In 2018, Uttarakhand became the first state in the country to do so, allowing the cultivation of only those strains of cannabis plant which have a low concentration of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) — the primary psychoactive constituent of cannabis that produces a high sensation.
Uttar Pradesh followed a similar policy, while Madhya Pradesh and Manipur are reportedly considering it as well.

1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotics Drugs

The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 is an international treaty to prohibit production and supply of specific (nominally narcotic) drugs and of drugs with similar effects except under licence for specific purposes, such as medical treatment and research.
The Single Convention refers to drug addiction as “a serious evil for the individual [that] is fraught with social and economic danger to mankind”.

7. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

Subject: Current Events

Concept:

The concept of International Women’s Day emerged in the early 1900s at a time of great unrest and debates among women against oppression and inequality.
In 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights. The next year, the Socialist Party of America observed the first National Woman’s Day across the United States on February 28, 1909.
Women continued to celebrate it on the last Sunday of February until 1913.
Simultaneously, in 1910, the second International Conference of Working Women was held in Denmark’s Copenhagen, where Clara Zetkin, who led the Women’s Office for the Social Democratic Party in Germany tabled the idea of an International Women’s Day.
She proposed that every year, every country should celebrate on the same day to press for their demands.
On March 9, 1911, International Women’s Day was honoured for the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland.
More than one million women and men attended the rallies campaigning for women’s rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office and end discrimination.
Meanwhile in Russia, on the eve of World War I, women observed their first International Women’s Day on February 23, the last Sunday in February, with a strike for “bread and peace” to protest the death of over two million Russian soldiers.
In the United Nations, it was celebrated for the first time in 1975, and in December 1977, the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace.
In 1996, the UN announced their first annual theme — “Celebrating the Past, Planning for the Future”, followed by “Women at the Peace table” in 1997. In 1998 “Women and Human Rights”, in 1999 “World Free of Violence Against Women”, each year had a new theme.

8. THUNDERSTORMS

Subject: Geography

Context: The Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai, has said that rainfall occurred at isolated places over Kerala and Mahe during the 24 hours ending on Monday morning.

Outlook for Monday had hinted at the possibility of thunderstorms with lightning at isolated places over Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Concept:

Thunderstorms and tornadoes are severe local storms. They are of short duration, occurring over a small area but are violent.
Thunderstorm is a storm with thunder and lightning and typically also heavy rain or hail.
Thunderstorms mostly occur on ground where the temperature is high. Thunderstorms are less frequent on water bodies due to low temperature.
Worldwide, there are an estimated 16 million thunderstorms each year, and at any given moment, there are roughly 2,000 thunderstorms in progress.

Motion of a thunderstorm

Path of a thunderstorm is erratic. Motion is primarily due to interactions of its updrafts and downdrafts.
The speed of isolated storms is typically about 20 km (12 miles) per hour, but some storms move much faster.
In extreme circumstances, a supercell storm may move 65 to 80 km (about 40 to 50 miles) per hour.

Downbursts

Downdrafts are referred to as macrobursts or microbursts.
Macroburst is more than 4 km in diameter and can produce winds as high as 60 metres per second, or 215 km per hour.
A microburst is smaller in dimension but produces winds as high as 75 metres per second, or 270 km per hour
They are seriously hazardous to aircrafts, especially during takeoffs and landings.

9. DANDI MARCH

Subject: History

Context: The aim of the first meeting was to apprise members of the Government’s roadmap to kick off the celebrations from Sabarmati on March 12, 75 weeks before India turns 75 on August 15, 2022.

The date also marks the 91st anniversary of the Dandi March, with the inaugural event extending to April 5, which denotes the culmination of the civil disobedience campaign led by Mahatma Gandhi in 1930.

Concept:

Salt Satyagraha

On March 12, 1930, Gandhiji set out from Sabarmati with 78 followers on a 241-mile march to the coastal town of Dandi on the Arabian Sea. There, Gandhi and his supporters were to defy British policy by making salt from seawater.
At Dandi, thousands more followed his lead, and in the coastal cities of Bombay and Karachi, Indian nationalists led crowds of citizens in making salt.
Civil disobedience broke out all across India, soon involving millions of Indians, and British authorities arrested more than 60,000 people. Gandhiji himself was arrested on May 5, but the satyagraha continued without him.
On May 21, the poet Sarojini Naidu led 2,500 marchers on the Dharasana Salt Works, some 150 miles north of Bombay. The incident, recorded by American journalist Webb Miller, prompted an international outcry against British policy in India.
In January 1931, Gandhiji was released from prison. He later met with Lord Irwin, the viceroy of India, and agreed to call off the satyagraha in exchange for an equal negotiating role at a London conference on India’s future.
In August 1931, Gandhiji traveled to the conference as the sole representative of the nationalist Indian National Congress. The meeting was a disappointment, but British leaders had acknowledged him as a force they could not suppress or ignore.