Sahitya Akademi is going to organise an all-India poetry festival on October 2, 2021.

• Poetry Festival will be organised at Jain College auditorium to mark Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav and Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti.
• Event will also feature a Sahitya Akademi book exhibition.

Sahitya Akademi

It is National Academy of Letters in India. This organisation is dedicated towards promotion of literature in different languages. It was founded on March 12, 1954. Its headquarter is located in Rabindra Bhavan, Mandi House in Delhi. The organisation held national & regional workshops & seminars and provides research & travel grants to the authors. It also publishes books & journals as well as the Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature.

• National Mission on Cultural Mapping was launched in 2017; IGNCA given project now.Having made little progress since its launch in 2017, the National Mission on Cultural Mapping has now been handed over to the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), which is gearing up for a trial run in 75 villages in October, according to officials.The Culture Ministry had approved the mission in 2017 with a ?469 crore budget from 2017-2018 to 2019-2020, according to the administrative approval for the project. However, officials said the project had been slow to take off.
• In response to a question in the Lok Sabha on July 19, Culture Minister G. Kishan Reddy said the Ministry was working on the cultural mapping mission to build a comprehensive database of artists, art forms and other resources from organisations under the Ministry.“So far 14.53 lakhs artists/artisans have been registered on NMCM portal through secondary sources State/UT-wise. However, no direct benefits or assistance has been extended through this Mission to the registered artists/institution,” the Minister’s written reply read.
• IGNCA Member Secretary Sachidanand Joshi told on Thursday that the cultural mapping project had recently been handed over to the IGNCA. He said the work of creating a database for folk arts and mapping of heritage of villages would be carried out over five years.Teams of volunteers from the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sanghathan, the National Service Scheme and students of sociology and social work would be deputed to visit villages and collect data on the art forms and heritage of the areas, he said.
• “We will be starting the trial run in 75 villages next month. We are selecting one village in each State and UT as well as villages that have been a part of our freedom movement as we are celebrating 75 years of Independence,” he said.While the entire project would take five years and a budget of ?89 crore had been approved for it, the IGNCA would aim to complete mapping in 5,000 villages by the end of financial year 2021-2022, Mr. Joshi said.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought back 157 artefacts and antiquities, which were handed over to India by the US during his visit.The Indian government has thanked the New York District Attorney office for its “excellent support” in returning over 150 antiquities to the country and appreciated its role to enhance the Indo-US people-to-people links and cultural understanding through restitution of the precious artefacts.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought back 157 artefacts and antiquities, which were handed over to India by the US during his visit, with both Modi and President Joe Biden expressing commitment to strengthening efforts to combat theft, illicit trade and trafficking of cultural objects.
• While nearly half of the artefacts (71) are cultural, the other half consists of figurines related to Hinduism (60), Buddhism (16) and Jainism (9), an official statement said on Saturday.The list of 157 artefacts includes a diverse set of items ranging from the one-and-a-half metre bas relief panel of Revanta in sandstone of the 10th CE to the 8.5 cm tall, exquisite bronze Nataraja from the 12th CE. 

• Naidu urged CSIR to turn futuristic and and focus on agriculture research. He also listed climate change, pollution, epidemic and pandemic outbreaks among the growing challenges that the scientific community will have to focus on.City-based astrophysicist Kanak Saha was among the 11 recipients of the 2021 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (SSB) prize, given by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) on Sunday.
• Every year, CSIR presents this award to scientists below 45 years of age for their contributions in biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, medicine, engineering and earth, atmosphere, ocean and planetary sciences. The award comprises a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh.
• The 2021 SSB winner list did not feature any woman scientist.
• Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu presided over the CSIR’s 80th foundation day celebrations in New Delhi on Sunday. Naidu urged CSIR to turn futuristic and and focus on agriculture research. He also listed climate change, pollution, epidemic and pandemic outbreaks among the growing challenges that the scientific community will have to focus on.
• Saha currently works at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) in Pune and leads studies on galaxies, their formation and evolution. Specialising in ultraviolet astronomy, he is the principal investigator in the AstroSat UV Deep Field (AUDF) project. AstroSat, launched by ISRO in 2015, was India’s maiden space-based observatory that continues to be operational.
• Anish Ghosh, a member of the Indian Academy of Sciences and recipient of the award under mathematics, works on lie groups and number theory. He is presently a faculty at the School of Mathematics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. Another award winner in the same category is Saket Saurabh from the Indian Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai. His work focuses on algorithmic game theory and exact exponential algorithms, among others.
• The awardee from the engineering sciences category is Debdeep Mukhopadhyay, a faculty at IIT-Kharagpur. He works on developing next generation hardware technology with emphasis on cryptography, information security and cyber physical systems security.
• The awardees of biological sciences are Amit Singh from Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, and Arun Kumar Shukla of IIT-Kanpur. Singh’s lab works on infectious diseases with focus on HIV and tuberculosis. Shukla’s research involves the use of protein biochemistry, receptor pharmacology and structural biology to understand select non-canonical G-Protein Coupled Receptor.
• Working at the Coal Chemistry division of CSIR-North East Institute of Science and Technology, Jorhat, Binoy Kumar Saikia has bagged the award under the earth, atmosphere, ocean and planetary sciences category. His areas of research cover aerosol chemistry and low-grade coal beneficiation, among others.
• For medicine, the winners are Jeemon Panniyammakal from Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences, Thiruvananthapuram and Rohit Srivastava of IIT-Bombay. Srivastava works on photothermal therapy for breast cancer and in developing nano-engineered sensors whereas Panniyammakal is a professor in chronic disease epidemiology.
• T Govindaraju and Kanishka Biswas representing Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Research, Bengaluru, were selected for the prizes in chemistry. Govindaraju specialises in chemical biology of functional and disease amyloids whereas Biswas works on solid state chemistry and topological insulators.

Right Livelihood Award 2021 was conferred to Delhi-based environmental organisation “Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE)”. This award is also known as “Sweden’s alternative Nobel Prize”.

Highlights

• LIFE has received the award for its “grassroots approach to empower vulnerable communities in protecting their livelihoods and claiming their right for a clean environment.”
• Other awardees include:

1. Cameroonian women rights activist Marthe Wandou,
2. Environmental activist from Russia, Vladimir Slivyak and
3. Indigenous rights defender from Canada, Freda Huson.

About Right Livelihood Award

Right Livelihood Award was established by Ole von Uexkull who happens to be the executive director of Right Livelihood. The award honours and supports people in solving global problems. It comprises of a cash prize of 1 million Swedish crowns and a long-term support that highlights and expands Laureates’ work.

How Awardees are shortlisted?

Awardees are shortlisted by the jury of Stockholm-based Right Livelihood.

• The 2021 Right Livelihood Laureates are leaders in advancing the rights of women and girls, environmental protection and reclaiming Indigenous rights through mobilising communities and empowering grassroots initiatives.An Indian organisation is among four activists and groups which are awarded this year’s Right Livelihood Award, known as the ‘Alternative Nobel’, on Wednesday for empowering communities in areas ranging from child protection to environmental defence.
• The Swedish Right Livelihood Foundation, which awards the prize, said that “in the face of the worsening climate crisis, powerful governmental and corporate interests, and even a terrorist threat, the 2021 Laureates prove that solidarity is key to a better future for all.”            
• The 2021 Right Livelihood Laureates are leaders in advancing the rights of women and girls, environmental protection and reclaiming Indigenous rights through mobilising communities and empowering grassroots initiatives.“Hailing from Cameroon, Russia, Canada and India, this year’s change-makers show that lasting change is built on communities banding together,” it said.
• Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE), an organisation working to protect the environment in India through the creative use of law and legal processes, was among the winners.LIFE works with communities through a grassroots approach. It assists and empowers often vulnerable populations to stand up against powerful interests and have a voice in the decision-making process, while also strengthening institutions and reforming laws.
• Noticing a lack of judicial access on environmental issues, LIFE was founded by lawyers Ritwick Dutta and Rahul Choudhary in 2005.Today, the organisation’s attorneys are among India’s leading public interest lawyers. 
• “The award will help us increase the impact of our work, empowering more people to protect nature and livelihoods,” Dutta, co-founder of LIFE, said.
• The other winners are Freda Huson, a Canadian indigenous rights campaigner, Marthe Wandou, a Cameroonian woman fighting sexual violence against girls, and Vladimir Slivyak, a Russian environmental campaigner. 
• Created in 1980, the annual Right Livelihood Award honours efforts that the prize founder, Swedish-German philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull, felt were being ignored by the Nobel prizes.
• The winners will each receive prize money of 1 million kronor (USD 115, 520) and will be honoured during a virtual award ceremony on December 1.
• The foundation said that a record number of 206 nominees from 89 countries were considered in 2021.

• The Mumbai-based Pratham Education Foundation's (PEF) CEO Dr Rukmini Banerji and Stanford University's Prof Eric A.Hanushek have been awarded the '2021 Yidan Prize for Education Research', carrying an award of $3.90 million, or  almost Rs 28 crore, for each laureate, making it the world's highest education accolade.
•  Rukmini Banerji, chief executive officer of India’s Pratham Education Foundation, has been awarded 2021 Yidan Prize for Education Development, a top global recognition in the field of education for her work in improving learning outcome in schools.
• Besides Banerji, Eric Hanushek, a professor at Stanford University, has been conferred with the 2021 Yidan Prize for Education Research.
• Koichiro Matsuura, chairman of the Hong Kong-based Yidan Prize Judging Committee and former director-general of Unesco, said, "[Every year] year we champion individuals or teams who bring game-changing ideas into education research and education development. They’re shaping a brighter future by transforming how we teach and learn."
• “Both [Eric and Rukmini] are tackling a crucial piece of the education puzzle: improving quality of education and outcomes for learners. Eric’s research has shown that above all it is the quality of education that underpins the economic health of their nations. Rukmini has led unprecedented work in understanding why some children aren’t leaving school with essential reading and writing skills," the Yidan prize committee said in its official website.
• Founded in 2016 by Charles Chen Yidan, Yidan Prize has a mission to create a better world through education. Yidan Prize consists of two awards: Yidan Prize for Education Research and Yidan Prize for Education Development. Yidan Prize Laureate receives a gold medal and a total sum of HK$30 million ($3.9 million) including a cash prize of HK$15 million ($1.9 million) and a project fund of HK$15 million.
• "Banerji" is awarded the 2021 Yidan Prize for Education Development for her work in improving learning outcomes. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) assessment approach, pioneered by Dr Banerji and her team in India, revealed literacy and numeracy gaps among children who had already spent several years at school. To close these gaps, her team’s ‘Teaching at the Right Level’ (TaRL) programme works with schools and local communities to provide basic reading and arithmetic skills, ensuring no children are left behind. This systematic, replicable model reaches millions of children annually across the country and is spreading around the globe," the Yidan foundation said.

• The Chandigarh Literary Society (CLS) awarded the winners of its short story and poetry writing competitions for the year 2020 and 2021 at its annual function held at the UT Guest House here recently.The Society had not awarded the winners of last year competitions due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, the awardees of poetry and short story writing competitions for both years were honoured on Saturday. 
• CLS Chairperson Dr Sumita Misra congratulated the award winners and gave away the prizes. In the English category, the winners of short story writing competition for 2021 included Shubhangi Singh, Suneet Madan, Yogita, Anjali Singh, Dipintika Kumar. The winners of the Hindi short story writing competition were Vinita Shukla and Ajay Singh Rana. 
• Navpreet Kaur won the special jury mention for Punjabi. In the poetry writing competition for 2021 in Hindi, Jivan Mantra, Archana R. Singh and Jayaram Prajapati won the first, second and third prizes, respectively. 
• In the Punjabi category, Sunita Uppal, Nirmal Rana and Parneet Kaur won the first, second and third prizes, respectively. In the Urdu category, Azim Khan was first and Rozy Parveen won the second prize. In the English categories, Moinik Dutta and Alka Kansra shared the first prize; the second prize winners were Anuradha Sethi and Vatika Parmar, while the third position was shared by Vandna Vibhu Bhatnagar and Atti Verma. In the 2020 poetry competition, winners included Kanchan Advaita (1st), Arun Betaab (2nd), Ranjivan Singh and Shashi Kumar (3rd), while Abha Sharma, Parminder Singh Ratika Rana and Neena Singh received special mentions. 
• In the 2020 short story writing competition in the English category, winners included Sonia Shauhan (1st)  Deviyani Singh (2nd), Gargi Raj (3rd), Yogita Khandge (4th) and Terveen Gill (5th). Asmita Dey and Garima Syal won consolation prizes. In the Hindi category, Dr. Aditya Rattan won the 1st prize and Susmita Solanki 2nd. In the children’s category, winners included Avika Bhatia (ist), Saanvi Surjewala (2nd), and Shrishaya Gangopadhyay (3rd).
• Those who presented included jury members Col D.S. Cheema, Prof Neelkamal Puri and Surbhi Sarna. Vivek Atray, Charanjit Singh, Madhav Kaushik,  Hardeep Chandpuri, Manmohan Singh Kohli, V.K. Kapoor, Nisha Luthra among others attended the function.

National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRD&PR), Hyderabad under the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) presented “Hunarbaaz Awards” to 75 diyangjan candidates.

Highlights

• Awards were presented to candidates from 15 states as a part of Azaadi ka Amrit Mahotsav on September 25, 2021.
• September 25 also marked the occasion of Antyodaya Diwas which is observed on birth anniversary of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya.
• Virtual award ceremony was organised by NIRDPR with MoRD, in collaboration with the State Rural Livelihood Missions (SRLMs) and Rural Self-employment Training Institutes.
• CEOs of SRLMs and Directors of RSETIs presented the awards at respective states to the specially-abled achievers.

DDU-GKY and RSETI ka Hunarbaaz Awards

These awards have been instituted by the NIRD&PR, Hyderabad. These awards are presented to the candidates who were trained under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) and Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETI) schemes and got placed & worked in the organizations for more than one year.

Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu presented the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) innovation on September 26, 2021.

Key Facts

• Awards were presented to two Class 10 students from Udupi district in a virtual ceremony.
• Those students are Anusha and Rakshitha Naik from Charamakki Narayana Shetty Memorial Government High School in Ardi Village.
• They received the award for their project named “Gas Saving Kit”.
• Award was sponsored by the Union Ministry of Science and Technology, that will reach to students in a week, via post.
• It comprises of a cash prize of Rs 20,000.

Background

• 0f all, 14 schools have been awarded from across the country.
• Out of 14 schools, Charamakki Narayana Shetty Memorial Government High School is the only government school to get this award.

India and United States (US) held their Industrial Security Agreement (ISA) summit between September 27 to October 01, 2021 at New Delhi.

Key facts

• The summit was organised in order to develop a protocol to exchange classified information between the defence industries of both the countries.
• It was led by “Designated Security Authorities (DSAs)” viz., Anurag Bajpai from Indian side and David Paul Bagnati from US sides.
• It was held to create a roadmap to implement the ISA.
• DSAs also visited the Indian defence industry in preparation for the creation of roadmap.
• During the summit, they agreed to establish the Indo-US Industrial Security Joint Working Group.

Joint Working Group

The joint working group will meet periodically to align the policies and procedures that will allow the defence industries in collaborating on cutting edge defence technologies.

Industrial Security Agreement (ISA)

ISA is the part of India-U.S. General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA). It was signed at the second 2+2 dialogue in Washington in December 2019. 

8th Edition of the “India Sri Lanka bilateral joint Exercise” called Mitra Shakti will be conducted from October 4 to October 15, 2021 at Combat Training School, Ampara in Sri Lanka.

Key Points

• In the joint exercise, all arms contingent of 120 personnel from the Indian Army will participate along with the battalion of the Sri Lankan Army.
• This exercise will be conducted with the aim of promoting close relations between Armies of India and Sri Lanka.
• It also seeks to enhance inter-operability and share best practices to counter insurgency and terrorism operations.
• It will involve tactical level operations at the sub unit level.
• Operations will be held in international Counter Insurgency and Counter Terrorism environment.
• The exercise will act as the catalyst to bring synergy and cooperation at grass root level between the Indian army and Sri Lankan Army.

• His predecessor, Air Chief Marshal R K S Bhadauria, retired on Thursday,
• Protection of India’s sovereignty and integrity is to be ensured at any cost, Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari said after taking over as the chief of Indian Air Force (IAF) at the Air Headquarters in Delhi on Thursday. He called upon Defence Minister Rajnath Singh soon after taking charge.
• His predecessor, Air Chief Marshal R K S Bhadauria, retired on Thursday,
• Before becoming the Vice Chief of the Air Force in July, Chaudhari was commanding the “Sword Arm” of the IAF, as the Western Air Command is called, since it is responsible for parts of the border with Pakistan on the west and China in the north.An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari was commissioned in December 1982 in the fighter stream and has flown over 3,800 hours on multiple fighter and trainer aircraft.
• The Air Force said in a statement that he has “tenanted many significant command and staff appointments”, including the command of a MiG-29 Squadron, two Air Force Stations and Western Air Command.He has also held important positions such as the Deputy Chief of Air Staff, Senior Air Staff Officer at HQ Eastern Air Command and Assistant Chief of Air Staff Operations (Air Defence).He was a “pioneer member of the Suryakiran Aerobatic Display Team”, the statement said.
• The Air Chief has been awarded the Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM), Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM), Vayu Sena Medal (VM).

• For Tata Group, Air India adds a third airline brand to its stable, considering the conglomerate already holds a majority interest in AirAsia India and Vistara, a joint venture with Singapore Airlines Ltd.Tata Sons is set to take over ailing Air India again, more than half a century after the country’s biggest conglomerate ceded control to the state, ending the government’s hold over an airline that for decades defined the lofty ambitions of a newly independent nation.
• A panel of ministers accepted a proposal from bureaucrats, who recommended the conglomerate’s bid ahead of an offer from entrepreneur Ajay Singh, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified as the decision isn’t yet public. An official announcement is expected in coming days, two of the people said.A civil aviation ministry spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A finance ministry spokesperson couldn’t immediately be reached. A representative for Tata Sons declined to comment.
• The proposed handover is a key victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has embarked on a bold privatization plan to plug a widening budget deficit. It also puts an end to a decades-long struggle to offload the money-losing flag carrier. Multiple governments have tried to sell the airline — which began life as Tata Airlines in 1932 — but those attempts were either met with political opposition or a lack of interest from potential buyers.
• For Tata Sons, the holding company for the salt-to-software empire and owner of British luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover, the recommendation means it’s coming back to an asset it started almost 90 years Established by legendary industrialist and philanthropist J.R.D. Tata, who was India’s first licensed pilot, the airline originally flew mail in the 1930s between Karachi in then-undivided, British-ruled India and Bombay, now known as Mumbai.
• Once it turned commercial and went public in the 1940s, Air India quickly became popular with those who could afford to take to the skies. Its advertisements featured Bollywood actresses and passengers were treated to champagne and porcelain ashtrays designed by surrealist painter Salvador Dali.
• However, with the advent of private carriers in the 1990s, and then a rush of low-cost, no-frills airlines in the mid-2000s, Air India lost its edge in both domestic and international markets. The carrier, known for its Maharaja mascot, suddenly wasn’t the only option for flying overseas and its reputation for impeccable service and hospitality began to ebb.
• Gulf carriers, including Emirates Airline and Etihad Airways PJSC, also began to offer seamless, and cheaper, connections to Europe and the U.S. via their hubs in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, hurting Air India even further.
• After Air India merged with state-owned domestic operator Indian Airlines Ltd. in 2007, losses started to mount and by 2013, the country’s then-Civil Aviation Minister said privatization was key to its survival. In 2017, the government approved that route and a committee was set up to start the process.This most-recent sale attempt hasn’t been easy either. IndiGo, the only airline to have publicly shown interest in buying parts of the carrier, dropped out of the reckoning in 2018, saying it didn’t have the wherewithal to acquire Air India in its entirety and make it profitable.
• Ultimately that time around there were no bidders and the government had to sweeten the deal by allowing suitors to decide how much of the carrier’s debt they wanted to take on. Even so, politicians belonging to Modi’s own party and unions have resisted the plan.

Defence Ministry has issued an order to dissolve the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) in effect from October 1, 2021.

Highlights

• After October 1, its assets, employees and management will be transferred to seven newly constituted Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs).
• This order will abolish OFB, an establishment which was accepted by the British in 1775.

Background

Union Cabinet had approved a long pending reform plan of corporatizing the OFB on June 16. OFB has 41 factories and it was corporatized into seven fully government-owned corporate entities on the lines of DPSUs. Accordingly, the management, control, operations & maintenance of all the 41 production units and identified non-production units will be transferred to seven government companies from October. Those seven companies are: Munitions India Limited, Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Limited, Armored Vehicles Nigam Limited, Yantra India Limited, India Optel Limited, Troop Comforts Limited and Gliders India Limited.

Would it lead to unemployment?

• As per government’s order, over 70,000 employees of OFB (Group A, B and C) belonging to the production units and identified non-production units will be transferred to new DPSUs on terms of foreign service. They would be transferred without any deputation allowance in the initial phase, for a period of two years.
• New DPSUs are required to frame rules and regulations related to service conditions of absorbed employees.
• A committee will be constituted to guide new DPSUs with respect to the absorption package.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has tested a new version of Akash Missile called ‘Akash Prime’ on September 27, 2021.

Highlights

• It was launched from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) of Chandipur, Odisha,
• Missile intercepted and destroyed an unmanned aerial target mimicking an enemy aircraft during its maiden flight test after improvements.
• Akash Prime missile has been equipped with an indigenous active RF (radio frequency) seeker for improving its accuracy.
• Other improvements have also been made in order to bring in more reliable performance under low temperature environments at higher altitudes.
• For the flight test, modified ground system of the existing Akash weapon was used.
• Range stations of the ITR comprises of Radars, EOTS (Electro Optical Tracking System) and Telemetry stations. It helped in monitoring the missile trajectory and flight parameters.

99^th Military Engineering Services Raising Day was observed on September 26, 2021.

Highlights

On this occasion Lt Gen Harpal Singh Engineer-in-Chief, urged all the Military Engineer Services personnel to continue dedicating themselves to the Military Engineering Services.

About Military Engineer Services (MES)

MES is a premier construction agency and an important pillar of Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army. It provides rear line engineering support to the Armed Forces and other associated organisations of the Ministry of Defence (MoD). MES is the largest construction and maintenance agencies in India having an annual workload of about Rs 30000 crore.

Function of MES

MES carries out multifarious construction activities like residential and office buildings, roads, hospitals, runways and marine structures across India it is also involved in construction of conventional buildings, sophisticated & complex laboratories, workshops, factories, hangars, dockyards, ammunition storage facilities, jetties or wharves and other complex or special structures.

99^th Military Engineering Services Raising Day was observed on September 26, 2021.

• Ranks 3 and 21 went to sisters Ankita and Vaishali.The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Friday announced the results of the Civil Services Examination 2020, in which 761 candidates were recommended for appointment to various services.
• Shubham Kumar, a B. Tech (Civil Engineering) graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay, topped the list. He qualified with Anthropology as his optional subject, a UPSC press release said. Mr. Kumar was followed by Jagriti Awasthi in the second place. Ms. Awasthi, who had Sociology as her optional subject, was a graduate of B.Tech (Electrical Engineering) from MANIT, Bhopal, it said. Ms. Awasthi, who is from Bhopal, quit her job and took a year to study for the exam, her brother said.
• Mr. Kumar, who is from Bihar, told The Hindu that this was his third attempt. Having secured rank 298 in 2018, he was undergoing training as an Indian Defence Accounts Service officer in Pune while preparing for the exam and remaining confident was one of the keys, he said.
• Rank three, Ankita Jain from Delhi, was undergoing training as an Indian Audit and Accounts Service officer after having being selected in 2018 when she was preparing for the 2020 examination. She said she managed to focus on her studies while balancing training and despite contracting COVID-19 a month before the Mains exam. Her sister, Vaishali Jain, also cleared the exam, securing rank 21, said Ms. Ankita Jain.
• Thirteen men and 12 women comprised the top 25, the UPSC said. Out of the 761 candidates selected, 545 are men and 216 women. The top 25 candidates have a range of educational qualifications in Engineering, the Humanities, Commerce and Medicine from some of the top institutions in the country. The selected candidates include 25 persons with benchmark disability.

According to US Fish and Wildlife Services, the American bumblebee population has decreased by 89% in past 20 years, and it could be declared as “endangered species”.

Key Facts

• US Fish & Wildlife Services will conduct a one-year review, after which the species would become protected under “Endangered Species Act (ESA)”.
• The ESA act provides a legal framework to safeguard endangered species from extinction.

Background

This announcement was made in the backdrop of a petition of August 2021 that was filed in support of listing made by “Center for Biological Diversity (CBD)” and Albany Law School student group named as “Bombus Pollinator Association of Law Students”.

CBD take on American Bumblebee

As per CBD, the American bumblebee has completely vanished across eight states namely Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, Idaho, Vermont, North Dakota, Wyoming and Oregon in the North America. Its population has also declined by 99% in New York. In other 19 states in Southeast & Midwest, its population has declined by 50%.

Why its population has declined?

According to CBD, population of American bumblebee has decline due to habitat destruction, climate change, exposure to disease & pesticides, loss of genetic diversity along with competition with the non-native bees.

About American Bumblebee

This species is scientifically called as Bombus pensylvanicus. It is a threatened species of bumblebee and is a native to North America. It is also found in eastern Canada, eastern United States, and Mexico. The species live and nest in open farmland & fields. It feeds on food plants like favouring sunflowers & clovers.

New species of blind freshwater eel has been by four scientists from the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI).

Highlights

• Eel species was discovered from a well in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
• As per scientists, eel is a blind freshwater hypogean.
• This is the first such discovered species from Maharashtra and Northern western Ghats.

About Blind Eel

• Species has been named as ‘Rakthamichtys mumba’ to pay tribute to the city it was found in.
• Newly discovered freshwater bright-pink coloured species is completely blind and a subterranean freshwater fish.
• The blind eel has a genetic distance of 21.6 – 22.8% as compared to other known species of Rakthamicthys genus.
• This is the 5th species from Rakthamicthys genus to have originated from India.

How this species was discovered?

The species was discovered by four scientists namely, Anil Mohapatra, Tejas Thackeray, Praveenraj Jayasimhan and Annam Pavan Kumar. This discovery is the most remarkable one till date.

• Swachh Bharat-AMRUT have brought transformative changes in the lives of people in the last 7yrs. The aim is to make India garbage-free & water secure.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0 (SBM-U) today. He will also launch the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation 2.0 (AMRUT). The programme is scheduled for 11 am. The motives behind SBM-U 2.0 and AMRUT 2.0 Missions are to make all cities of India 'garbage free' and 'water secure'.
• These Missions effectively address the challenges of rapid urbanization in India. Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and Ministers of Urban Development of States and Union Territories will be present during the occasion. Swachh Bharat and AMRUT Mission have brought transformative changes in the lives of people in the last six to seven years.
• Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0
• The Swachh Bharat Mission aims to make all Indian urban cities 'garbage free'.Under the Swachh Bharat Mission, urban areas of 35 States and Union Territories have become open defecation-free.
• More than 73 lakh toilets have been built across the country which has improved health and sanitation.The pace of construction of toilets will be further accelerated through Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0. Aspirational toilets will be built in high footfall areas under the Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 programme.Under the scheme, 97% of homes now have door-to-door waste collection facilities. 
• AMRUT 2.0 - Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation 2.0
• This ensured water security by adding one crore 10 lakh water tap connections and 85 lakh sewer connections in the last six years.
• The Mission aims to provide 100% coverage of water supply to all households in around 4,700 urban local bodies.
• AMRUT 2.0 mission will prove to be a major step towards making cities self-reliant and ensuring water security.
• Under this mission, a drinking water survey will be conducted to provide better water services to the people.
• The AMRUT 2.0 Mission will benefit more than 10.5 crore people in urban areas of the country. 
• The Mission will adopt the principles of circular economy and promote conservation and rejuvenation of surface and groundwater bodies.
• It will promote data-led governance in water management and Technology Sub-Mission to leverage the latest global technologies and skills.
• 'Pey Jal Survekshan' will be conducted to promote progressive competition among cities. The outlay of AMRUT 2.0 is around Rs 2.87 lakh crore.

• On September 30, 2021, Digi Saksham Programme was launched by the Union Labour and Employment Minister Bhupender Yadav.

ABOUT

• This digital skills programme was launched with the objective of enhance the employability of youth by improving their digital skills which has become an essential thing in increasingly technology driven era.Digi Saksham is a joint initiative of Microsoft India and Ministry of Labour and Employment.It is an extension of the government’s ongoing programmes of supporting youth from rural & semi-urban areas.Programme will be implemented in the field by “Aga Khan Rural Support Programme India (AKRSP-I)”.

Training to youth

• Under the DigiSaksham initiative, free of cost training will be provided to more than 3 lakh youth, in digital skills including basic skills & advance computing, in the first year. This training programme can be accessed through the National Career Service (NCS) Portal. The initiative gives priority to the job-seekers from semi urban areas who belongs to disadvantaged communities as well as who have lost their jobs amidst ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Types of Training

• Digi Saksham initiative comprises of three types of training viz,Digital Skills self-paced learning VILT mode training (virtual instructor led) andILT mode training (instructor led)- ILT training is in person training and would be conducted for SCs & STs in India, at the Model Career Centres (MCCs) and National Career Service Centres (NCSC).

In what areas training would be provided?

• Under the initiative, training would be provided in areas such as Java Script, Data Visualisation, Power Bi, Advance Excel, HTML, software development fundamentals, programming languages, introduction to coding etc.

According to the “Assessment report of District Hospitals” by NITI Aayog, a district hospital in India has 24 beds per 1 lakh population, on an average.

Key Findings

• NITI Aayog’s study called “Best Practices in the Performance of District Hospitals” was released on September 30, 2021.
• This report was prepared, after assessing 707 hospitals across 36 states and Union Territories in 2018-19.
• As per study, Bihar is having the lowest average of number of six beds per 1 lakh population.
• Puducherry is having the highest number of 222 beds per one lakh population.
• District hospitals in India is having a range of 1 to 408 beds per 1 lakh population.
• In 217 district hospitals, there have at least 22 beds for every 1 lakh population.
• In 15 states and UTs, the average number of beds in a district hospital was lower than what recommended by the IPHS 2012 guidelines. These states include- Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Haryana Maharashtra, Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), under the AYUSH ministry, has developed “Bal Raksha Kit” which is an immunity boosting kit.

Key Points

• This kit was developed keeping the third wave of the coronavirus disease in mind.
• This is an immunity booting kit, to protect the children up to the age of 16 from covid-19 infection till the time a vaccine is developed for them.
• On the occasion of National Ayurveda Day on November 2, 2021. About 10,000 kits will be distributed free-of-cost.

Aim of the kit

This kit has been developed with the aim of amplifying the immunity of children in order to help them fight against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, that causes covid-19 disease.

On September 28, 2021, “Amrit Grand Challenge Programme” titled “JANCARE” was launched by Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh.

Key Facts

• This programme will identify 75 Start-Up Innovations in Telemedicine, Digital Health, Block Chain, mHealth with BIG Data, Artificial intelligence and other technologies.
• Launch of Grand Challenge coincides with the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, it has become more imperative for Young Start-ups and entrepreneurs to come out with Innovative Ideas and Solutions for healthcare challenges in India.
• Under this initiative, 75 Best Chosen Start-ups will be an asset for India to lead it in the next 25 years.

10^th Biotech Innovators Meet

10^th Biotech Innovators Meet was organised by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) in New Delhi under the theme- “Vigyan se Vikash”. While addressing the event, Dr Jitendra Singh pledged to provide full support to Start-ups from ideation to deployment stage. He directed the BIRAC to pro-actively reach out to Young Start-ups to help and support them. According to him, Young promising Innovations will get priority with respect to help, support and hand-holding than the established industrial hubs.

On September 28, 2021, Pfizer Inc. announced that the first batch of participants have been dosed with the single dose quadrivalent mRNA vaccine in a Phase 1 clinical trial.

Highlights

• Under the phase 1 trial, safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of the single dose quadrivalent mRNA vaccine will be studied against influenza in healthy adults.
• mRNA influenza vaccine program of Pfizer is the first in a planned wave of programs to leverage mRNA technology for influenza.
• Pfizer has also planned to explore mRNA in other respiratory viruses and medically appropriate vaccines combinations which could provide protection against virus.
• Company has also planned to expand the development of mRNA technology in oncology and genetic diseases.

• On September 28, 2021, Pfizer Inc. announced that the first batch of participants have been dosed with the single dose quadrivalent mRNA vaccine in a Phase 1 clinical trial. Highlights Under the phase 1 trial, safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of the single dose quadrivalent mRNA vaccine will be studied against influenza in healthy adults. mRNA . Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) announced today that the first participants have been dosed in a Phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of a single dose quadrivalent mRNA vaccine against influenza in healthy adults. Pfizer’s mRNA influenza vaccine program is the first in a planned wave of programs leveraging mRNA technology for influenza. Beyond influenza, the company plans to explore mRNA in other respiratory viruses, including medically appropriate vaccines combinations that could provide protection against more than one respiratory virus, as well as expand to develop mRNA technology in oncology, and genetic diseases.
• “Since 2018, we have been working to develop a potential mRNA influenza vaccine, driven by our deep understanding of infectious diseases and our extensive experience in researching, developing and implementing new vaccine technologies to help prevent them,” said Kathrin U. Jansen, Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Head of Vaccine Research & Development at Pfizer. “The COVID-19 pandemic allowed us to deliver on the immense scientific opportunity of mRNA. Influenza remains an area where we see a need for vaccines which could result in improved efficacy in any given season, and we believe mRNA is the ideal technology to take on this challenge to transform global health outcomes.”
• Conventional seasonal influenza vaccines are generally developed by growing the virus in chicken eggs or mammalian cells, which are inactivated and processed to be made into a vaccine. This process faces multiple challenges, including producing immunogenic antigens, keeping up with virus strain changes, and alterations in the vaccine antigens during production. With circulating influenza strains continually changing, predicting the best match for the next season’s vaccine is difficult for global health experts as those strains are chosen more than six months before the start of the influenza season that they target in the Northern Hemisphere.
• Even when the vaccine strains match circulating influenza virus strains well, current seasonal vaccines typically confer 40% to 60% protection against circulating strains, with even lower protection in years with poor matching of strains.3 Influenza causes approximately 5 million cases of severe illness and up to 650,000 deaths worldwide every year.4
• mRNA-based influenza vaccine design requires only the genetic sequence of the virus. The flexibility of mRNA technology and its rapid manufacturing could potentially allow better strain match, greater reliability of supply, and the potential opportunity to improve upon the efficacy of current flu vaccines. Furthermore, in a pandemic influenza situation, mRNA technology could allow rapid, large-scale manufacturing of effective vaccines.

Indian Council of medical research (ICMR) recently released its report titled “Clinicopathological Profile of Cancers in India: A Report of Hospital Based Cancer Registries, 2021”. The report provides data on cancer cases in India. It was prepared by ICMR- National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research, Bengaluru.

Key findings of the report

• As per report, total of 6.10 lakh cancers have been reported in India in between 2012 to 2019.
• Out of these, 52.4 percent cases were reported among males while 47.6 percent cases were reported among females.
• These cases were reported under the National Cancer Registry Programme (NCRP).
• Childhood cancers (among 0-14 years old children) amount to 7.9 per cent of all cancer cases.
• Cancers due to tobacco use amounted to 48.7 per cent of cancers among males while 16.5 per cent among females.
• Under the NCRP, 13,32,207 cancer cases were registered from 96 hospitals during 2012-19. Out of these, 6,10,084 cases were included for analysis.
• One-third of patients, diagnosed with cancers of the tongue, thyroid, larynx, corpus uteri, kidney, bladder etc, had localized disease at the time of presentation.

• Health ID for every citizen: PM Modi launches Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission Health ID for every citizen: PM Modi launches Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.It will enable access and exchange of longitudinal health records of citizens with their consent, the PMO said.The key components of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission include a health ID for every citizen that will also work as their health account, to which personal health records can be linked and viewed with the help of a mobile application, a Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR) and Healthcare Facilities Registries (HFR) that will act as a repository of all healthcare providers across both modern and traditional systems of medicine.
• This will ensure ease of doing business for doctors and hospitals and healthcare service providers.The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission Sandbox, created as a part of the mission, will act as a framework for technology and product testing that will help organisations, including private players, intending to be a part of the National Digital Health Ecosystem become a health information provider or a health information user or efficiently link with building blocks of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, the PMO said.
• This mission will create interoperability within the digital health ecosystem, similar to the role played by the Unified Payments Interface in revolutionising payments, it said.Citizens will only be a click away from accessing healthcare facilities, it added. 
• According to PMO, Mission will create a seamless online platform through the provision of a wide range of data, information and infrastructure services.

International day for Universal Access of Information is observed on September 28 every year by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Key Facts

• This day is observed because, torrential flow of information is the result of dominant paradigm considering the availability of information assign of the development. As a result, common perspective is that information is power.
• Thus, UNESCO realized the phenomenon induced by information and announced on November 17, 2015 that the International Day for Universal Access of Information will be observed on September 28.
• Various organizations and governmental bodies adhered to the declaration by UNESCO. Hence, UN General Assembly (UNGA) also decided to observe September 28 as the

Theme of the day in 2021

In the year 2021, the day was observed under the theme- “The Right to Know – Building Back Better with Access to Information.” This theme highlights the fact that need of public for accurate and reliable information has never been stronger than now, amidst struggle by countries to overcome COVID-19 pandemic rebuild communities and institutions.

Focus of the day

The International day for Universal Access of Information (IDUAI) mainly focus on making information accessible to all, in order to develop robust structure of sustainable policies in society. The day also ensures that “access to information is continuous” at times of crisis in a bid to make collectively informed decision to find solution to it.

World Maritime Day is observed on the last Thursday of September month. In the year, it will be observed on September 30, 2020.

Key Points

• World Maritime Day is observed to appreciate the importance of maritime industry and to underline the importance of maritime security, maritime safety, maritime environment, and shipping.
• This day also marks the day of adaptation of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) convention. IMO was adapted in 1958.
• World Maritime Day was first observed in 1978.

How this day is celebrated?

In India, International Maritime Day is observed by organising “awards ceremony” every year. It is organised to recognise the contribution made by members of the Indian Maritime industry in past 12 months. In the year 2021, event will centre around an international conference which was held on World Maritime Day in South Africa. During the event, industry influencers will convene to raise awareness regarding the focus issues for those in the seafaring community.

• Include green leafy vegetables, berries, fish, almonds, walnuts and beans in your diet for a healthy heart.‘Sugar is the new smoking’ and on World Heart Day, which is observed every year on September 29, doctors advocate against the use of refined sugar to keep the heart healthy as it leads to obesity, diabetes and bad cholesterol.‘Sugar is the new smoking’ and on World Heart Day, which is observed every year on September 29, doctors advocate against the use of refined sugar to keep the heart healthy as it leads to obesity, diabetes and bad cholesterol.
• “Smoking is considered bad but sugar is equally bad as it leads to hypertension, insulin resistance, obesity, heart disease and fatty liver. To keep the heart healthy, one should stay away from refined carbohydrates, bakery products and red meat. One should include more fruits and vegetables in the diet and walking for 30 to 40 minutes should also be included in daily routine,” said Dr Bishav Mohan, medical superintendent, Hero Heart DMC Hospital.
• He said excessive gymming and consuming protein shake afterwards were not proving good for health and on the other hand, yoga had given positive results.
• Dr Mohan said Indians were deficient in protein and thus, consumption of almonds, walnuts, soya bean, cottage cheese and egg which was cost effective, should be increased.
• Dr Arvind M Das, director of cardiology at Max Hospital, said a witnessed collapse should immediately trigger a resuscitation response. It involves firstly checking the pulse of the patient and calling him out to check his responsiveness. The fall could be due to low blood pressure or low sugar.

World Tourism Day is observed by the United Nations Organisations (UNO) on September 27, every year.

Theme of the day

In the year 2021, world tourism day was observed under the theme- ‘Tourism for Inclusive Growth’. This theme was designated by World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) considering the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic had a massive social and economic impact on the developed as well as the developing economies. So, the organisation believes that, tourism will help in the recovery and growth of the economies.

Significance of tourism sector

As per official website of United Nations Organisations (UNO), tourism is the most important economic sectors that employs and provide livelihood to one in every tenth person on Earth. In several countries, tourism represent more than 20 per cent of their GDP. The constant growth of the tourism sector in the last six decades reflects more progressive access towards tourism because of declining cost of transport and growth of middle classes worldwide.

• Though the revenue growth came on a lower base, the average monthly GST collections in the second quarter have improved, rising 5 per cent as against the average GST collection in the first quarter this year.Gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue collections in September (for sales in August) rose 22.5 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1,17,010 crore. Though the revenue growth came on a lower base, the average monthly GST collections in the second quarter have improved, rising 5 per cent as against the average GST collection in the first quarter this year.
• How much are the GST collections?
• Gross GST collections came in at Rs 1,17,010 crore in September, 22.5 per cent higher than Rs 95,480 crore collected in the same period last year. Out of the total Rs 1.17 lakh crore collection, CGST is Rs 20,578 crore, SGST is Ra 26,767 crore, IGST is Rs 60,911 crore (including Rs 29,555 crore collected on import of goods) and cess is Rs 8,754 crore (including Rs 623 crore collected on import of goods).
• What does it indicate?
• The GST collections have picked up pace in the second quarter indicating an improvement in economic activity. The average monthly gross GST collection for the second quarter this year has been Rs 1.15 lakh crore, which is 5 per cent higher than the average monthly collection of Rs 1.10 lakh crore in the first quarter. “This clearly indicates that the economy is recovering at a fast pace. Coupled with economic growth, anti-evasion activities, especially action against fake billers have also been contributing to the enhanced GST collections. It is expected that the positive trend in the revenues will continue and the second half of the year will post higher revenues,” the Finance Ministry said in a statement.GST revenue in September 2020 grew 4 per cent over the revenue of Rs 91,916 crore in September 2019.
• Is GST revenue growth a concern?
• Though GST revenues are picking up pace after the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, revenue buoyancy under GST is being seen as a concern, especially after the legally mandated compensation to states for revenue shortfall from the GST implementation comes to an end in June 2022.
• In a move towards structural overhaul of the GST regime after its July 2017 rollout, a “review” of the current rate slab structure of GST has been explicitly incorporated in the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the two ministerial panels formed for spelling out a blueprint for GST reforms, as per an order dated September 24. The panel’s brief incorporates an overarching mandate: an evaluation of introducing “special rates” within the tax structure, rationalisation measures that include “a merger of tax rate slabs aimed at simplifying the rate structure”, alongside a review of instances of inverted duty structure and an identification of potential sources of evasion to shore up revenues.
• The GST has five key tax slabs: zero, 5 per cent, 12 per cent, 18 per cent and 28 per cent. A compensation cess, ranging between 1 per cent to 290 per cent, is levied on demerit and luxury goods over and above the topmost rate of 28 per cent. A merger of 5 per cent and 12 per cent slabs or 12 per cent and 18 per cent slabs has been deliberated upon earlier as well but has not been taken up formally for a decision.
• The Ministry of Finance has constituted a seven-member Group of Ministers (GoM) under Karnataka’s Chief Minister Basavaraj S Bommai for “rate rationalisation” and another eight-member GoM under Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar for “GST system reforms”. The GoM on rate rationalisation has been mandated to suggest changes that may be implemented immediately and the roadmap for implementation for the changes that should be implemented in the short and medium term”. The Group will submit an interim report for such immediate measures and will have to submit its report in two months.
• Draft e-commerce rules need to be reexamined, and concerns raised must be addressed
• Rajiv Kumar, vice chairman, Niti Aayog, has cautioned that the rules “will severely harm ease of doing business and impact small businesses”. The DPIIT has flagged several anomalies. Even the Ministry of Finance has raised red flags.
• The draft e-commerce rules released by the Department of Consumer Affairs are facing a significant pushback, with sections of the government raising apprehensions over many of the proposed provisions. As reported in this paper, Rajiv Kumar, vice chairman, Niti Aayog, has cautioned Piyush Goyal, Minister of Consumer Affairs, that the rules “will severely harm ease of doing business and impact small businesses”. Separately, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has flagged several anomalies, and questioned some of the provisions. Even the Ministry of Finance has raised red flags. Reportedly, the Department of Consumer Affairs is reexamining some of the provisions of the draft e-commerce rules. That is the right approach. It must take into consideration the concerns raised by both industry and sections of the government.Take, for instance, the fallback liability clause. Under the draft rules, e-commerce players are to be held liable in case a seller on their platform “fails to deliver goods or services due to negligent conduct”. However, under the current rules, foreign direct investment is permitted only in “marketplace” models where the e-commerce platforms do not hold inventory, they merely connect buyers and sellers. So if firms have no control over the inventory on their platform, can they be held liable for the sellers? Also under the regulatory scanner are flash sales. But it is unclear how flash sales adversely affect prices, and consumer choice. Moreover, don’t even offline retailers indulge in end-of-season sales? There is also considerable lack of clarity over the rules concerning related parties. This, as Niti Aayog notes, “appears to be a case of overreach.” The rules do not just limit themselves to the welfare of the consumer. For instance, they mandate platforms to provide “fair opportunity” to domestic players. This raises a question: Shouldn’t the consumer protection rules seek to protect only the interest of consumers? As Kumar has said, “the rules go far beyond consumer protection.” They encroach upon areas that can be deemed to fall beyond the jurisdiction of the consumer affairs ministry. For instance, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has pointed out that there is an overlap between some of the proposed provisions and the Competition Act. Whose jurisdiction will be enforced ? This, as the corporate affairs ministry has pointed out, could lead to “forum shopping”, and thus “divergent rulings”.
• The absence of a similarly restrictive regulatory architecture for the traditional brick and mortar stores, and the considerable room for bureaucratic discretion, given the ambiguity in some of the provisions in the draft rules, raise apprehensions over the intent behind the draft e-commerce rules, whether concerns of consumers or other considerations dominated their framing. After all, policy should be guided by the imperative of enhancing consumer welfare, not constricting it.

Ratings agency ICRA has revised its real GDP growth forecast for India on September 27, 2021 for Financial Year 2022 (FY22). Its GDP forecast has changed from 8.5% to 9 per cent.

Highlights

• ICRA credited the upward revision in the GDP to the brightening prospects for second quarter of FY22 which is expected to benefit as a result of rapid Covid-19 vaccine administration, healthy advance estimates of kharif output as well as easing of cash management measures related to the spending of Central government.
• Forecast for the GVA growth in agriculture, forestry & fishing have been revised to 3 per cent (from 2 percent) in Q2 & Q3 of FY2022.

Impact of vaccination

According to ICRA, widening coverage of Covid-19 vaccines will boost confidence, which, in turn, will re-energise the demand for contact-intensive services. It will help in reviving the portions of economy affected most by covid-19 pandemic. As per ICRA’s estimated, nearly three-fourths of Indian adults will receive their second Covid-19 vaccine by the end of 2021.

According to Commerce Minister, Piyush Goyal, India’s foreign trade policy (FTP) will be extended for six months, till March 31, 2022.

Key Facts

• FTP was extended just before its previous extension which is ending on September 30, 2021.
• FTP for 2015-2020 highlights the basic contours for boosting exports with the aim of enhancing economic growth.

Background

Central government had extended the Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20 for one year (till March 31, 2021) on March 31, 2020. Later, it was extended till September 30, 2021.

About FTP

Under the FTP, government provides incentives for different schemes like Duty Free Import Authorisation (DFIA) and Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG). FTP (2015-20) was launched on April 1, 2015. It provides a framework of increasing exports of goods & services, generation of employment and increasing value addition in India. This policy is in line with schemes like Make in India, Skill India, Digital Indi, Start-up India as well as Ease of Doing Business initiatives. Its statement describes the market and product strategy. The policy seeks to enable India in responding to challenges of external environment and make trade a major contributor in its economic growth & development.

Features of FTP 2015-2020

• Merchandise Export from India Scheme (MEIS) and Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) were launched for increasing exports.
• Nomenclature for “Export House, Star Export House, Trading House, Premier Trading House” certificate changed to “1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Star Export House”
• Scrip of Duty credit was made freely transferable and usable for the payments of custom duty and service tax.
• Under it, Export promotion mission took on board the state governments.

• Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency of India Limited (ICRA India) has revised its real GDP growth forecast for India for Financial Year 2022 . Its GDP forecast has changed from 8.5% to 9 per cent. ICRA is Gurgaon based credit rating agency, owned by Moody’s Corporation.
• ICRA has revisied GDP to the brightening prospects for second quarter of FY22 which is expected to benefit as a result of rapid Covid-19 vaccine administration, healthy advance estimates of kharif output as well as easing of cash management measures related to the spending of Central government.
• A ramp-up in COVID-19 vaccination, healthy advance estimates of kharif (summer) crop and faster government spending were the factors which led to the revision, the agency said in a statement.
• It can be noted that after the 7.3 per cent contraction in 2020-21, there were expectations of a higher growth number in 2021-22.However, the second wave of COVID-19 infections early into the fiscal year, which spread even in the hinterland, made analysts more circumspect. The RBI expects the economy to grow at 9.5 per cent.
• The widening coverage of COVID-19 vaccines is likely to boost confidence, which will in turn re-energise demand for contact-intensive services, helping to revive the portions of the economy affected most by the pandemic, its chief economist Aditi Nayar said.
• The robust kharif harvest is likely to sustain the consumption demand from the farm sector while the expected acceleration in the central government spending after the withdrawal of the earlier cash management guidelines will recharge this key driver of aggregate demand, she added.
• ICRA Founded: 16 January 1991.
• ICRA CEO: N. Sivaraman.

India has emerged as the second biggest trading partner of Dubai, after China. India’s overall volume, in the first half of 2021, is touching 38.5 billion dirhams.

Key Points

• As per a statement of Dubai government, Dubai had a trade volume of 86.7 billion dirham with China in H1 (first half) of 2021. It is followed by India and the U.S. respectively at second and third positions.
• Trade with India has increased by 74.5% year-on-year to 67.1 billion dirhams in 2021 from 38.5 billion dirham in H1 of year 2020.
• China recorded a growth of 30.7% growth year-on-year. It is having a total trade of 66.3 billion dirhams with Dubai in H1 2021.
• In H1 2021, the US traded 32 billion dirhams with Dubai. This amount has increased by 1% year-on-year from 31.7 billion dirhams in 2020.
• Saudi Arabia was placed at fourth position with the trade value of 30.5 billion dirhams. It has increased by 26% as compared to H1 quarter of 2020.
• Saudi Arabia is followed by Switzerland with trade volume of 24.8 billion dirham.

Union Minister Piyush Goyal inaugurated India’s Pavilion at Dubai Expo 2020, on October 1, 2021.

Key Points

• At the expo, India has deployed the largest number of participants.
• It has a state-of-the-art 8,750 square metre pavilion with the message that “India is out to grab once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in order to explore solutions to challenges that hampers its growth.

Showcasing Ancient and Future India

India Pavilion at Dubai Expo has been conceived as a hi-tech structure. It is a civilisational confluence of ancient India as well as future India. It is a massive four-floor structure that has been designed to attract anyone who walks in with the popular exports in India including yoga, literature, Ayurveda, heritage, arts, cuisine and space technology. Exterior of the pavilion is real showstopper.

Theme of Pavilion

Innovative facade comprises of 600 individual kinetic blocks. Each of the facade can turn on its own axis in order to construct a picture on the basis of multiple themes. Pavilion has been installed under the overarching theme of ‘India on the move’ and ‘India the diverse’. Facade on both the sides of the pavilion comprise of face of Mahatma Gandhi while metamorphosing front will showcase “constant change” and “timeless endurance” to mark the 75-year-old journey of India.

Primary Themes of the pavilion

Zones in the pavilion are identified on the basis of 11 primary themes namely, Climate & Biodiversity; Urban & Rural Development; Space; Tolerance & Inclusivity; Knowledge & Learning; Golden Jubilee; Travel & Connectivity; Health & Wellness; Global Goals; Food Agriculture & Livelihoods and Water.

The Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal, launched “Ease of Logistic Portal” on September 27, 2021.

Key Points 

While launching the portal, the minister noted that the ‘Rules of Business’ have to be the same for all stakeholders.
Portal was launched during ‘Vanijya Saptah Samapan Samaroh’, which was organised by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO).
While addressing the event, the minister noted that government would be providing everybody an equal opportunity to their businesses, irrespective of whether they are big or small business houses or where they are from or other such differentiating factor.
Ease of Logistics portal was launched to bring in transparency.

Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO)

FIEO is the apex trade promotion organisation, set up by the Ministry of Commerce in 1965. It is responsible for representing and assisting Indian entrepreneurs and exporters across the foreign markets. FIEO is the premier body comprising of export promotion councils, export development authorities and commodity boards in India. It provides a crucial interface between international trading community of India and the central & state governments, ports, railways, financial institutions, surface transport etc in export trade facilitation.

Ease of Logistics Portal 

It is a trade facilitation portal, developed by FIEO. It was launched in order to bring exporters and logistics service providers (LSPs) on a single platform. On this portal, exporters can post details of their container requirements to the service providers directly in order to provide their best quotes.

According to Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonwal, government has aimed to increase India’s share of renewable energy to 60% in Major ports through solar and wind power.

Highlights

• Presently, renewable energy accounts for less than 10% of power demand at the ports.
• Government also targets to electrify 50% of port equipment by 2030.
• As per plan, all the ports will supply shore power to visiting ships in three-phased manner by 2030.
• Ports aim to reduce carbon emissions/ton by 30% by 2030.

Energy efficiency requirements

India will implement energy efficiency requirements of International Maritime Organization (IMO), for ships and carbon intensity requirements across all of its coastal or international vessels in order to help IMO in achieving greenhouse gas reduction targets. India is currently supplying shore power to vessels with power demand of less than 150 kW.

Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC)

Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) of India under the Paris Agreement for 2021-2030 comprises of “cutting the emissions intensity of its gross domestic product by 33%-35% by 2030”. NDC seeks to achieve 40% of cumulative power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030 by transferring technology and low-cost international finance.

E-commerce giant, Amazon India, announced the launch of “Amazon Future Engineer” on September 27, 2021 in India. Amazon Future is its global computer science education programme.

Highlights

• As per company, Amazon future programme will enable access to quality computer science education as well as career opportunities for students from underrepresented and underserved communities.
• During the first year of its launch, Amazon aims to enable and deliver learning opportunities to about 1 lakh students from 900 government and aided schools in seven states of India.

Aim of the programme

Amazon Future Engineer programme was launched with the aim of addressing the gap by bringing early exposure and access to computer science education to students by means of in-person, online and blended learning formats.

Who is collaborating with Amazon?

Amazon is working in collaboration with its global knowledge partner Code.org which is a global non-profit organization dedicated to computer science education.

Curriculum of the programme

Considering the local nuances, curriculum has been contextualized for Indian teacher and student community across government school settings. It will offer students with coding fundamentals along with the future-focused tech courses such as Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing (Voice Technology) in Indian languages and Machine Learning.

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar launched ‘Amul Honey’ on September 28, 2021. Amul Honey is a product of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.

Highlights

• This product was launched under cooperation with the ‘National Bee Board (NBB)’.
• During the event, Tomar emphasized on importance of National Beekeeping and Honey Mission in increasing the income of small farmers.
• National Beekeeping and Honey Mission is being implemented in India to double the income of farmers or beekeepers through beekeeping.
• Budgetary allocation of Rs 500 crores have been made for this mission.

Background

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had put forward his desire to bring in a “sweet revolution” in the state of Gujarat. Amul Honey was launched to fulfil this.

Honey Quality in India

In India, quality of honey is a major concern. To ensure the quality, 5 large scale Regional Honey Testing Labs and 100 Mini Honey Testing Labs are being set up across the country.

National Bee Board (NBB)

NBB was set up as a society by Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC), under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. It was set up in 2000 and was reconstituted in June 2006. It mainly works with the objective of developing beekeeping by promoting scientific beekeeping across India in order to increase the productivity of crops.

National Beekeeping & Honey Mission (NBHM)

NBHM is a central sector scheme, which was announced under the “Atma Nirbhar Bharat scheme”. This mission was launched with the aim of promoting & developing scientific beekeeping in India for achieving the goal of ‘Sweet Revolution’.

Union Minister for Commerce, Industry and Textiles Piyush Goyal announced to set up a “Weaver Services and Design Resource Center” in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh.

Key Points

• This centre will help in encouraging the attractive handicraft products of the state and provide a better platform to export these products at the international market.
• The Minister announced this while addressing at an interaction programme with handicrafts and handloom artisans.
• Programme was organized under ‘Seva & Samarpan Abhiyan’ to commemorate the golden jubilee year of statehood of Himachal Pradesh on September 27, 2021.

Weaving in Himachal Pradesh

Himachal Pradesh has the tremendous talent and potential with magical hands that weaves beautiful art products. Thus, there is a need to work proactively by State & Central Ministries in order to bring these products into the international market to get more befits. More attention should be paid on modernizing the design, packaging, quality and marketing in order to provide weavers a better price for their products at international market.

District-wise exhibitions

The union minister also suggested to organize district-wise exhibitions of products from the state in big cities, in five star hotels and people associated with the textile industry so that branding could be done for these products at national and international level. He also asked the weavers to get their trademark for which central government reduced the registration fee by 80 percent. He also urged the State Industries Department to focus on ways and means of improving the quality of wool used in manufacturing of handloom and handicraft products. According to the minister, there is a paramount need of focusing on standardized packaging.

India and Australia participated in the fourth iteration of the biennial maritime series called ‘AUSINDEX’ on September 30, 2021.

Key Facts

• This exercise will allow the Royal Australian Navy and Indian Navy in strengthening their “inter-operability” by sharing the best practices.
• It will also help in developing a ‘common understanding of procedures for maritime security operations’.
• AUSINDEX Maritime exercise are conducted in India and Australia alternatively.
• The 4^th edition is being conducted in the Northern Australia Exercise Area.
• In the fourth edition, surface units of both countries will be included.
• Units will exercise with HMAS Rankin, F-18 aircraft, Royal Australian Air Force P-8A, integral helicopters of Australian & Indian Navy and Collins Class Australian Submarine.
• This exercise is aligned to the 2020 Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between both the countries.

Najla Bouden Romdhane has become the first female prime minister of Tunisia on September 29, 2021.

Highlights

• She has been named as Prime Minister, two months after President Kais Saied assumed his charge, dismissed the former prime minister and suspended parliament.
• Romdhane was assigned to form a new government in the midst of growing domestic and international discontent regarding president’s power seizure.
• Romdhane is expected to have less direct power as compared to former prime ministers under the 2014 constitution. This is because, President Saied announced during the emergency period that the new government will be responsible to the president.

France and Greece signed a multibillion-euro defence deal on September 27, 2021, to boost the defence capabilities.

Highlights

• The defence deal includes Athens’ decision to buy three French warships under a strategy of boosting its defence capacities across the Eastern Mediterranean amid recurring tensions with Turkey.
• President of France Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced the defence and security strategic partnership at a joint news conference in Paris.
• Defence partnership between both the countries will increase and intensify cooperation among them in the defence and security sector on the basis of mutual interests.
• It will also help in protect the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity in both the states.

About the deal

• Under the defence deal, Greece will purchase three French frigates. Frigates would be built by defence contractor Naval Group in Lorient, in western
• Deal also includes an option for acquisition of a fourth frigate.

Union minister for health and family welfare, Mansukh Mandaviya, addressed the closing session of 4th Indo-US Health Dialogue on September 28, 2021. This session was hosted by India.

Highlights

• The two-day Dialogue deliberated upon several ongoing collaborations in the health sector between both the countries.
• During the dialogue, issues related to areas of concern related to strengthening of epidemiological research & surveillance, one health, vaccine development, zoonotic & vector-borne diseases, health policies and health systems etc were discussed.
• Countries signed two MoUs at the concluding session:

1. One MoU was signed between health ministry of India and Department of Health and Human Services of USA regarding cooperation in the field of health & biomedical sciences.
2. Second MoU was signed between Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases for cooperation on International Centre for Excellence in Research (ICER).

• Being global partners, India and USA need to work collaboratively in reforming the global health architecture.
• Other important areas in which both the countries can work include: management of health emergencies; mental health interventions; supporting digital health & innovation and research & production related to diagnostics, therapeutics & vaccines. In these areas, India can offer its low-cost research network as well as huge production capacities.

• Kishida, 64, won a run-off against vaccine minister Taro Kono with 257 votes to 170.Fumio Kishida, a former foreign minister, on Wednesday won the race to lead Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) party and become the next prime minister.The soft-spoken Kishida, 64, won a run-off against vaccine minister Taro Kono with 257 votes to 170.
• Here are some reactions to the news.
• JESPER KOLL, EXPERT DIRECTOR, MONEX GROUP
• "A win for the establishment. Kishida stands for stability, for not rocking the boat and most importantly, doing what elite technocrats tell him to do. Clearspeak - on economic and financial policy, Kishida will follow a path of steadfast by incremental change.With Kono, there was a chance of more radical, pro-business reform. With Kishida, it'll be predictable, consensus-driven and incremental."
• TAKESHI NIINAMI, SUNTORY HOLDINGS CEO
• "The delays of Japan's economy as a result of the coronavirus pandemic are, compared to the rest of the world, in a dangerous situation." "I would like them to thoroughly examine the measures taken so far, promptly prepare laws and reform the administrative system.""On top of this, in order to get rid of the worries of citizens, the development of a sustainable social security system is essential, administrative reforms to promote digitalisation and policy management to achieve medium-to-long term economic growth by boldly implementing investment tax cuts without incidental conditions."
• MASAAKI KANNO, CHIEF ECONOMIST, SONY FINANCIAL HOLDINGS
• "If anything, Kishida's policies will likely focus on income distribution compared to Abenomics."
• "The global economy is slowing down, in part due to coronavirus-linked supply chain disruptions in Southeast Asia, alongside power shortages in China, which are said to push down operating rates of factories. The economy is facing downward pressure due to these supply-side issues." "The good news is that the fifth wave of coronavirus infections has decreased extremely rapidly so Kishida is lucky.Even if cash handouts aren't distributed at this time, GDP is likely to grow in the fourth quarter centred on consumption due to pent-up demand."
• CHRISTIAN DE GUZMAN, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, MOODY'S INVESTORS SERVICE
• "We do not expect much of a departure from currently accommodative fiscal and monetary policies, while the Suga administration's emphases on decarbonisation and digital transformation will likely be carried over into the next government."
• "Nevertheless, the credit implications of the leadership transition will ultimately be determined by the ability of Kishida to secure a strong mandate in the forthcoming general elections, which could support difficult reforms promoting economic growth and fiscal sustainability."

4th session of the Indo-US Health Dialogue 2021 was inaugurated on September 27, 2021. This session is being hosted by India.

Key Points

• During the session, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Bharati Pravin Pawar, articulated mutual solidarity and relentless support between India and the United States (US) during Covid-19 pandemic.
• Indo-US Health dialogue is a two-day Dialogue platform that deliberate upon multiple ongoing collaborations between both the countries in the health sector.
• It will conclude on September 28.

Agenda of the session

For the 4^th session, issues that have been planned for deliberations also encompass areas of concern related to

• Strengthening of epidemiological research and surveillance,
• Vaccine development,
• One Health,
• Zoonotic and vector-borne diseases,
• Health systems and health policies.

• .

• Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar is on an official visit to Mexico from Sunday to Tuesday at the invitation of his Mexican counterpart Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón.
• This will be his first visit as External Affairs Minister to Mexico during which he will participate in the commemorative events of the 200th anniversary of the consolidation of Mexican Independence along with other world leaders.
• In addition, he will also call on Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. He will also interact with the leading CEOs and the business community in Mexico.
• Currently, Mexico is India’s second largest trade partner in Latin America and is a member of the UNSC alongside India for 2021-22.

The debt crisis at world’s most indebted property developer, China Evergrande Group, casted new light on the health of real estate market in China.

Key Points

• As per Rushi Advanced Institute of Finance, condominium prices in Shenzhen city are now 57 times greater than the average annual income and 55 times greater than the income in Beijing.
• Prices in China are much greater than the Japan’s bubble economy in 1990, when Tokyo condos were 18 times greater than the average annual income.
• Homes are beyond the reach of average households while investors fear President Xi Jinping could take measures to cool the bubble, especially in light of his “common prosperity campaign” that envisions a more equitable economy in which fruits of development are widely shared.

What are the concerns?

Such moves increase the risk of puncturing the bubble and trigger a downward spiral, making a soft-landing imperative. If this situation is mishandled; it could push the China into an economic downturn.

Red Lines in China

In 2020, People’s Bank of China had put out three “red lines” that major real estate developers needed to be careful about in terms of their financial status. Central bank sought to make it difficult for developers to increase leverage by forcing real estate companies to stay within a debt-to-asset ratio.

Government has tasked a group of ministers (GoM) headed by Chief Minister of Karnataka, Basavaraj S. Bommai to propose a rationalisation of tax rates and consider the merger of different tax slabs within two months.

Highlights

• With the move, the government seeks to set the stage for an overhaul of the multiple tax rates under the Goods and Services Tax regime.
• Presently, the GST regime has five broad tax rate slabs viz., zero, 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%.
• Apart from that, a cess is levied over and above the 28% rate on some goods and special rates are decided for items like precious stones and diamonds.

Background

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced, after a GST Council meeting on September 17, to set up two GoMs to shore up revenues. One of the panels was to look at tax rate rationalisation issues in order to correct anomalies. During the meeting, finance minister had indicated that the effective tax rate under the GST had decreased from original revenue neutral rate of 15.5% to 11.6%. The rate was decreased because of multiple rate cuts since the introduction of GST in July 2017.

Seven-member group

A seven-member group was constituted by the Finance Ministry on September 24. The group is headed by Basavaraj S. Bommai and it includes West Bengal Finance Minister of West Bengal Amit Mitra and Finance Minister of Kerala K.N. Balagopal besides the GST Council members from Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan. Group has been asked to recommend immediate changes and a roadmap for short term and medium term changes in GST rate structure.

Ministry of road transport and highways announced the detailed procedure of setting “Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facility (RVSF)” under the “vehicle scrapping policy”.

Vehicle Scrapping Policy

• Vehicle Scrapping Policy was launched in August 2021 by prime minister Narendra Modi last month.
• It was announced by Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Budget 2021.

About the rules

Motor Vehicles (Registration and Functions of Vehicle Scrapping Facility) Rules, 2021 were released on March 15, 2021 by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH). Provisions under the rules lay down the procedure of establishing Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facility (RVSF). Provisions will be applicable to all vehicles and their last registered owners, recyclers, Automotive Dismantling, Automobile collection centres and Scrapping & Recycling Facilities.

Provisions of the rules

• As per rules, RVSF will be provided connectivity and access of the VAHAN database of vehicle registration with password protected user ID.
• RVSF will be authorized to make suitable entries for scrapping the vehicle and for issuing Certificate of Deposit & Certificate of Scrapping.
• State Government or Union Territory Governments will take into account the eligibility criteria while granting authorization to any RVSF.
• Ministry will set up a “Single Clearance Portal” to register or renew the registration of such facilities. Entire process will be completed within 60 days.
• Registration of RVSF will be valid for 10 years and can be renewed for 10 more years, at a time.
• RVSFs will also get the access of National Crime Records Bureau (NCB) to check of any stolen vehicle was bought for scrapping.
• Vehicle registered in any state, can be scrapped at any of the registered facility in other states.

Home Minister Amit Shah released the training manual of Aapda Mitra Scheme on September 29, 2021, on the occasion of 17th foundation day celebrations of “National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)”.

Key Points

• While addressing the celebrations, minister noted that, India is moving towards creating a disaster management system to ensure than not a single life is lost, no matter how severe a disaster gets.
• On the occasion, he released training manual of Aapda Mitra Scheme as well as plan documents of Aapda Mitra & Common Alerting Protocol.
• Foundation Day of NDMA was celebrated under the theme- ‘Stopping Impact of Disaster Incidents in the Himalayan Region’.

Aapda Mitra Scheme

Aapda Mitra scheme will soon be launched in 350 districts of India by National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). Under this scheme, more than one lakh young volunteers from 350 districts will be trained. So far, 5500 Aapda Mitra and 5500 Aapda Sakhi have been trained, who can extend help in case of disaster or natural calamity like flood in remote places. All these volunteers would get life insurance by the government.

National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)

NDMA is an apex Body, that lay down policies for disaster management. It was established through the Disaster Management Act, which was enacted by the Government on December 25, 2005. 

On October 1, 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0 (SBM-U 2.0) along with the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation 2.0 (AMTUT 2.0). These schemes were launched at Dr. Ambedkar International Centre in New Delhi.

Key Points

• Both the schemes, SBM-U 2.0 and AMRUT 2.0, are in line with the vision of PM Narendra Modi.
• These schemes are designed to realize the aspiration of making all cities Garbage Free and Water Secure.
• Both of the missions signify a step forward to effectively address the challenges of rapidly urbanizing India.
• It will also help in achieving Sustainable Development Goals 2030 targets.

Significance of the schemes

In the past 6-7 years, Swachh Bharat as well as AMRUT Missions have brought transformative changes in the lives of people. Both the missions have improved the urban landscape in India by adopting a scientific approach.

AMRUT 2.0 mission

AMRUT 2.0 mission will help in making cities self-reliant. It will ensure water security across the cities. This mission has been launched with the aim of providing 100 percent coverage of water supply to all households in 4,700 urban local bodies. This target will be achieved by providing 2.68 crore tap connections and 100% coverage of sewerage across 500 AMRUT cities. An outlay of Rs 2.87 lakh crore has been sanctioned for this mission.

SBM-U 2.0

SBM-U 2.0 mission seeks to make all cities ‘Garbage Free’. It also seeks to ensure grey and black water management across the cities that are not covered under AMRUT. Mission will focus on source segregation of solid waste by utilizing the principles of 3Rs that is “Reduce, reuse, recycle”. An outlay of Rs 1.41 lakh crore has been sanctioned for SBM-U 2.0.

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Mansukh Mandaviya and Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Parshottam Rupala released the “National Action Plan for Dog Mediated Rabies Elimination by 2030 (NAPRE)” on the occasion of “World Rabies Day” on September 28, 2021

Key Points

• This action plan was introduced as a roadmap to eliminate rabies by 2030.
• On the occasion, ministers also launched the “Joint Inter-Ministerial Declaration Support Statement” in order to eliminate of dog-mediated rabies from India by 2030 following the approach of one health.
• Government is now focusing on taking steps for reducing health risks caused by animals, due to the rapid increase in animal-induced diseases like Covid-19.

About National Action Plan for dog Mediated Rabies Elimination (NAPRE)

The NAPRE was drafted by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in association with the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying. Its approach for elimination of rabies is based on recommendations of several international agencies WHO and the Global Alliance of Rabies Control (GARC). It was prepared on the basis of 5 major pillars- political will, intersectoral planning, sustained funding, community planning, coordination & review, and operational research.

Aim of the NAPRE

NAPRE has been launched with the aim of reducing human deaths, caused due to dog-mediated rabies, to zero by 2030. This aim will be achieved through sustained mass dog vaccination and appropriate post-exposure treatment.

Status of Rabies in India

Rabies is a vaccine-preventable viral disease. It occurs in more than 150 countries and territories. Primary source of the Rabies are Dogs. Human rabies deaths contribute up to 99% of all rabies transmissions in humans. India is endemic for rabies, accounting for 36% of total deaths across the world.

• Sanjay Bhargava, who had worked with Elon Musk as part of a team that had founded electronic payment firm, PayPal, will now head the tech billionaire entrepreneur’s Starlink satellite broadband venture in India.
• Bhargava joins SpaceX as Starlink’s country director (India), as the Musk-led US aerospace company gears up to compete with Bharti group-backed OneWeb.
• Bhargava joins SpaceX as Starlink’s country director (India), effective October 1, 2021, even as the Musk-led US aerospace company gears up to compete with Bharti group-backed OneWeb and others and launch fast satellite broadband services in India next year.
• “Super excited to join SpaceX effective Oct 1, 2021 as Starlink Country Director India…had worked with @elonmusk on the PayPal founding team,” Bhargava said in a Linkedin post on Wednesday. He further added in the post that Starlink ..and he "shared a common passion for supporting a transformed India, starting with rural India”.

• The Indian Steel Association (ISA) has announced that Alok Sahay has assumed office as its new secretary-general and executive head, taking over from Bhaskar Chatterjee. Sahay who is the former executive director of the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has experience of almost four decades in the steel industry.
• Sahay has worked closely with the steel industry and the Government as one of the core industry representatives to advocate on trade-related matters at national and international forums. His experience also includes training at British Steel and tenure as visiting fellow at Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University.
• Indian Steel Association Headquarters: New Delhi;
• Indian Steel Association Established: 2014.

• BC Patnaik has taken charge as Managing Director of Life Insurance Corporation of India. He was appointed as Managing Director by the Government of India notification dated July 5, 2021.
• Prior to taking charge as Managing Director of LIC, Patnaik was Secretary-General, Council for Insurance Ombudsmen, (CIO) Mumbai. He joined LIC of India in March 1986 as a Direct Recruit Officer.
• LIC Headquarters: Mumbai.
• LIC Founded: 1 September 1956.
• LIC Chairman: M R Kumar.

Union Minister for Panchayati Raj & Rural Development, Giriraj Singh, launched “People’s Plan Campaign 2021- Sabki Yojana Sabka Vikas” on September 30, 2021.

Highlights

• He also launched a Vibrant Gram Sabha Dashboard on the occasion.
• A booklet on People Plan Campaign-2021 was also released on order to prepare the plans for Financial Year 2022-23.
• Minister also launched the 10th issue of Gramoday Sankalp Magazine.

Need of accountable gram sabhas

According to the minister, there is an emergent need of meaningful & accountable Gram Sabhas as well as proper utilisation of funds. There is also a need of raising own source revenues by Panchayats, bridging digital divide in rural areas, use of innovation & technology, converging all the resources available under several Flagship Programmes by Panchayati Raj Institutions etc.

About People’s plan campaign

• People’s Plan Campaign 2021 will be conducted with better people’s participation.
• Under the campaign, each activity will promote a sense of camaraderie and commitment in the citizens towards a common goal of overall development of villages.
• Campaign will be undertaken on a large scale and special efforts will be made in order to ensure maximum participation of vulnerable sections of society such as SC/ST/Women.

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) approved a credit plan on September 28, 2021 for yak husbandry in Arunachal Pradesh.

Key facts

• This credit plan for yak husbandry will help herders in securing loans for strengthening their livelihoods.
• This scheme was developed by “National Research Centre on Yak (NRCY)” located at Dirang in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh.
• NRCY works under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

Significance of the scheme

The credit plan started by NABARD for yak husbandry was found to be feasible in extending advances with the held commercial banks. The credit plan by NABARD has been included in potential linked credit plans (PLCP) of Tawang, West Kameng and Shi Yomi districts of Arunachal Pradesh. This credit plan will boost the livelihood of herders in the state.

Private sector AU Small Finance Bank (SFB) signed a pact with the National Bank for Rural and Development (NABARD) on September 29, 2021 in a bid to boost ongoing rural development initiatives in the state of Rajasthan.

Highlights

• A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in the presence of NABARD Chairman and Managing Director of AU Small Finance Bank.
• MoU envisages a joint initiative to benefit farmers, Self Help Groups (SHGs), rural artisans, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), agri-entrepreneurs, and agri-start-ups in Rajasthan
• It will provide institutional credit support to ongoing development schemes in Rajasthan, which in turn will lead to further prosperity in the rural areas.
• It will also give a boost to the process of lending, especially in areas of agriculture and rural development.

AU Small Finance Bank Limited

It is an Indian scheduled commercial bank, founded in 1996 as vehicle finance company AU Financiers (India) Ltd. It was converted to a small finance bank in April 2017. The bank serves as the low- & middle-income individuals and micro & small businesses that have limited or no access of formal banking and finance channels. It offers loans, deposits and payment products & services.

National Commission for Women  (NCW) launched a nationwide training and capacity building programme for women in dairy farming.

Key Facts

• To launch the training programme, NCW is collaborating with agricultural universities in India in order to identify and train women working in the field of dairy farming and allied activities in several like value addition, quality enhancement and packaging & marketing of dairy products.
• First programme under this project was organised on ”Value Added Dairy products” at Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences in Hisar for women self-help groups. It was organised in collaboration with the Haryana State Rural Livelihood Mission.

Why this programme was launched?

This programme was launched because women in rural India are involved in every part of dairy farming but they have not attained financial independence. Thus, this project was launched with the aim of empower women and help them in achieving them financial independence.

How financial independence would be ensured?

This project seeks to help women in achieving financial independence by training them in aspects like quality enhancement of dairy products, value addition, packaging and marketing of their products and increasing the shelf life of products.

American Space Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently decided to stop sending active commands to its missions on the MARS for next few weeks till the time “Mars solar conjunction” remains in effect.

What is Solar Conjunction?

• As per NASA, during the Mars solar conjunction period, Earth and the MARS will be on opposite sides of the Sun.
• This position of both the planets will affect any communication attempt made by NASA for connecting with its Mars missions because Sun radiates hot & ionized gas from its corona.

How Solar Conjunction affects the missions on MARS?

• These gases can interfere with radio signals if the agency try to communicate with spacecraft at Mars.
• These radiations will stand in the middle of both the planets and corrupt commands. It could also result in unexpected behaviour from NASA’s deep space explorers.
• Thus, NASA has decided to stop sending signals.

American Space Agency, NASA, is set to send its first spacecraft to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids.

Key Points

• Spacecraft will be launched from “Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida” on October 16, 2021.
• This spacecraft would obtain new insights into the formation of solar system 4.5 billion years ago.
• The spacecraft has been named as Lucy. It was named after an ancient fossil which provided insights into the evolution of human species.

Objective of the mission

Mission Lucy will be launched with the objective of investigating the group of rocky bodies that are circling the Sun in two swarms- one preceding Jupiter and the other trailing behind it.

About the mission

Mission Lucy will go for a 12-year journey after receiving boosts from Earth’s gravity. 12-year journey will be completed across eight different asteroids including one in Main Belt between Mars & Jupiter and seven Trojans. Spacecraft will fly by its target objects within 400 kilometres of their surfaces. It will use onboard instruments and large antenna to investigate the geology of target objects. It will be the first solar-powered spacecraft at a distance of 400 kms. Total cost of the mission is $981 million.

What are Trojans?

Trojans are small celestial body or asteroids, sharing the orbit of larger one. They remain in a stable orbit, nearly 60° ahead or behind the main body. They can share the orbits of planets or large moons. Trojans are a type of co-orbital object. In Trojans, a star and a planet orbit around a common barycentre. Barycentre is close to the centre of the star as it is much more massive as compared to the orbiting planet. Most of the known trojans in solar system share the orbit of Jupiter. They are in a very small region of space but are physically different from one another. As of now, about 7000 trojans are known.

Indian Institute of technology, Hyderabad (IIT-H) developed a hydrogel from discarded corneas that can be used as an alternative to Corneal transplantation.

Highlights

• Research team was led by Dr Falguni Pati, an Associate Professor at Department of Bio-medical Engineering at IIT-H.
• Hydrogel was developed from discarded corneas of human and bovine sources using novel and simple method.
• The team discovered the most significant feature of this tissue-specific hydrogel in order to prevent cells from scar tissue formation.
• Tissue formation is attributed to micro-environment which cannot be offered by any synthetic or other natural material.
• Hydrogel is capable of being injected because of its two phases viz., liquid and gel on the basis of incubation temperature.
• Researchers also explored the potential of Hydrogel to serve as a material for minimally invasive treatment in order to replace complicated surgeries.

Facebook launched the largest “creator education and enablement programme” in India on September 30, 2021.

Key Points

• This programme will provide an opportunity to content creators, on its platform and Instagram, to learn, earn and grow their communities.
• While addressing the 2021 edition of ‘Creator Day India’, Instagram Head Adam Mosseri noted that India is one of the fastest growing markets for photo sharing and short video platform.
• India has become the best place for creators to grow and make a living. So, Facebook has planned to do this by developing a range of creative tools in order to democratise expression. For instance, Reels is a great example of democratised creativity. On an average, more than 6 million Reels are produced in India per day.
• Social media platform is also introducing monetisation tools in order to help creators earn through content.

Facebook Inc is set to invest $50 million to partner with organizations in order to build metaverse, which is a digital world where people can use different devices to communicate and move in a virtual environment.

Highlights

• Facebook is the world’s largest social network that has invested heavily in virtual reality and augmented reality.
• It has also invested in developing hardware like Oculus VR headsets and is working on AR glasses and wristband technologies.
• New XR Programs and Research Fund will invest the money globally in two years in order to build inclusive and empowering metaverse technologies.

What Is the Metaverse?

Metaverse is a set of virtual spaces where one can create and explore with other people who aren’t in same physical space. Using this virtual space, one would be able to hang out with friends, play, work, learn, shop and create. This space is not necessarily about spending more time online but is about making time one spends online more meaningful.

How Metaverse will work responsibly?

• To develop the Metaverse, Facebook will work with experts in government, industry and academia in order to think through issues and opportunities in the metaverse.
• Success of Metaverse depends on building robust interoperability across services, only then experiences of different companies can work together.
• Facebook will also involve human rights and civil rights communities to ensure that these technologies are built inclusive and empowering way.

Recently, an international team of researchers directly detected the dark energy with the help of advanced technologies and new experiments.

Highlights

• Dark energy is a mysterious form of energy, making up about 68% of the universe. This energy has intrigued physicists as well as astronomers for decades.
• Researchers noticed some unexpected results in an underground experiment and noted that. dark energy may be responsible for it.

The XENON1T Experiment

XENON1T experiment is the most sensitive dark matter experiment in the world. It was operated deep underground at INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Italy. Finding of the experiment suggests that experiments like XENON1T could be used to detect dark energy.

What is Dark energy?

Dark energy makes up about 68% of the universe. 27% of the universe is made up of dark matter while planets, moons & massive galaxies make up only 5% of the universe. Dark matter attracts & holds galaxies together on the other hand, dark energy repels & causes the expansion of universe.

How dark energy was detected?

While conducting the XENON1T experiment, researchers reported an unexpected signal. There was some background noise and the electrons in XENON1T move a bit on their own even with no dark matter or dark energy around due to the noise. This excess was probably caused by the dark energy.

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi has set up a ‘Centre of Excellence (CoE) on Quantum Technologies’ in a bid to conduct research activities in the related field.

Key Points

• This CoE will bring synergy and coherence in the activities that are being carried out at IIT Delhi,
• It will also support the principal investigators to pitch in for several significant projects from the DST and other agencies.

Focus areas of CoE

The centre of Excellence will focus on select thrust areas including quantum computing, quantum sensing & metrology, quantum communication and quantum materials & devices. Centre would undertake the design and development of new quantum materials. It would also undertake research activities related to the quantum processor & cryogenic controller, modelling and technology development of semiconducting qubits such as CMOS and 2D materials, quantum biophotonics, quantum sensing & metrology, development of single-photon detectors etc.

Significance of quantum physics

Quantum physics has impacted society in an unprecedented way, in some 100 years. In order to exploit the characteristics of quantum physics in light & materials, researchers invented both laser and the transistor. Inventions ranging form the basis of information technology, computers, the internet, etc has shaped the society up to a large extent. It was the first quantum revolution.

NITI Aayog released its “State Nutrition Profile” report on October 1, 2021. In the report, nineteen States and Union Territories received their nutrition profiles.

Highlights

The State Nutrition Profiles (SNPs) report comprises of a comprehensive compilation of crucial data that can positively affect policy decisions and facilitate research in that area. It analyse data on wasting (low weight-for-height), stunting, underweight, overweight and anaemia, besides diabetes and high blood pressure.

ABOUT THE REPORT

• The SNPs have been prepared by NITI Aayog in association with the UNICEF, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Indian Institute of Population Sciences (IIPS), and the Institute of Economic Growth (IEG).
• It gives comprehensive idea regarding the nutrition outcomes, immediate & underlying determinants and interventions on the basis of National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-rounds 3, 4 and 5.
• Outcomes under the report have been prepared on the basis of headcount analyses and it also uses data from the NFHS-5 (2019-20).
• Report highlights the best and worst performing districts, highest burden districts as well as top coverage districts of the country.
• It has incorporated key takeaways for children, women & men as well as identifies areas where the state can improve further.

Union Cabinet has approved the continuation of PM POSHAN scheme in Schools, which is a Centrally Sponsored National Scheme.

Key facts

• PM POSHAN scheme would run for five more years. It will run from 2021-2022 to 2025-26.
• Scheme has been approved with a financial outlay of 54,062 crore rupees from the Central Government.
• State Government and Union Territories administrations have sanctioned an outlay of 31,733 crore rupees.
• In this phase, scheme will cover around 11.80 crore children studying across 11.20 lakh schools.
• Central Government will further bear an additional cost of 45,000 crore rupees to provide food grains to these children.
• Total budget of the scheme is 1,30,795 crore rupees.

Who will be covered under the scheme?

This Centrally-Sponsored Scheme will cover all school children who are studying in Classes 1st to 8th in government schools as well in government-Aided Schools.

Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment has launched India’s First Pan-India helpline for Senior Citizens, called “Elder Line” having a Toll-Free No. 14567. This line will extend support to senior citizens in the challenges and problems they face.

Highlights

Elder Line will help senior citizens in providing free information and guidance on pension issues, legal issues, on field intervention in cases of abuse, emotional support, rescue and care for homeless senior citizens etc.

Why this helpline number was launched?

It is expected that, India will have nearly 20% elderly population accounting for more than 300 million senior citizens by 2050. It is significant because many countries have a population less 300 million. Senior citizens are a basket of wisdom and untapped resource for overall economic and social growth. But this age group faces several mental, financial, emotional, legal and physical challenges. Thus, this helpline number was launched to extend them support.

Objective of ‘Elder Line’

‘Elder Line’ was launched with the objective of providing all senior citizens, or their well-wishers, with ONE platform in India, in a bid to connect and share their concerns, get information & guidance on problems faced by them on a day-to-day basis.

Who operationalize Elder Line?

Elder Line is a culmination of the initiative of Tata Trusts in collaboration with its partner, Vijayavahini Charitable Foundation. It was launched in collaboration with the Government of Telangana in Hyderabad in 2018, to help the elderlies there. Tata Trusts continues to engage in strategic philanthropy in order to create deep, wide & irreversible impact. Currently, Tata Trusts & NSE Foundation are working as technical partners and are jointly supporting the Ministry in operationalizing Elder Line.

Which states are having Elder Line?

Elder line has been opened by 17 states for their respective geographies, as of now.

Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri launched the seventh consecutive edition of Swachh Survekhan on September 28, 2021 in New Delhi.

Key Points

• Swachh Survekshan is the largest urban cleanliness survey of the world, which is conducted by Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban.

• This programme is designed with “People First” as its driving philosophy.

• Swachh Survekshan 2022 was launched with the objective of capturing initiatives of cities for welfare and well-being of frontline sanitation workers.

• 7th edition of the survey will also give priority to the voices of senior citizens & young adults and reinforce their participation in upholding the cleanliness of urban India.

Swachh Survekshan 2022

This edition has incorporated specific indicators which drives cities to improve working conditions and livelihood opportunities for frontline workers in urban India’s sanitation journey. It will aim to capture feedback from senior citizens as the integral part of the survey, in order to keep with the theme of Azaadi@75 as well as to pay tribute to the wisdom of elderly.

About Swachh Survekshan

It is an annual survey of cleanliness, hygiene and sanitation across cities and towns in India. This survey initiative was launched under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, that aimed to make India clean and free of open defecation by October 2, 2019. First ever survey was conducted in 2016, covering 73 cities. As of 2020, this survey has covered about 4242 cities.

Who conducts the survey?

This survey is conducted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in association with the Quality Council of India (QCI) as its implementation partner.

• A large number of protests are being held on railway tracks and highways.Farmers on Monday blocked highways and other roads at many places in Punjab, where the ruling Congress said it firmly stands by the farm unions' call for Bharat Bandh against the Centre's three agri laws.In neighbouring Haryana too, there were reports of protesters blocking some highways, including in Sirsa, Fatehabad and Kurukshetra.There were also reports of farmers squatting on rail tracks at a few places in the two states.
• In Punjab, a complete shutdown was observed at several places, including Moga, where farmers blocked the Moga-Ferozepur and Moga-Ludhiana National Highways.The Bathinda-Chandigarh National Highway, too, was blocked by farmers, sources said.Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi urged the Centre to repeal the three “anti-farmer laws”.
• “#I Stand With Farmers & appeal the Union Govt. to repeal the three anti-farmer laws. Our farmers have been struggling for their rights since more than a year & it is high time that their voice is heard. I request the farmers to raise their voice in a peaceful manner (sic),” Channi tweeted.
• Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu said the PPCC firmly stands by farmer unions' for Bharat Bandh.“Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee firmly stands by Farmer Unions demand for Bharat Bandh on 27 Sept 2021. In the war of right and wrong you can not afford to be neutral !! We urge every Congress worker to fight with all their might against the three Unconstitutional Black Laws !! (sic),” Sidhu tweeted.
• In Haryana, protesting farmers blocked the national highway in Charkhi Dadri while in Kurukshetra several roads were blocked.In an advisory issued on Sunday, Haryana Police had stated that people could face traffic disruptions on various roads and highways of the state due to the bandh.
• In view of the bandh, elaborate arrangements had been put in place by the civil administration and police according to directions of the state government, a Haryana Police spokesperson said.
• Samyukta Kisan Morcha, the umbrella body of over 40 farm unions spearheading the farmers' agitation, had earlier appealed to the people to join the bandh.

Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment operationalised the “SACRED portal” on the occasion of International Day of Older Persons on October 1, 2021. Portal has been developed in order to provide a platform for senior citizens in India seeking employment opportunities.

Highlights

• This portal has been developed by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
• SACRED stands for “Senior Able Citizens for Re-Employment in Dignity.
• Portal has been developed with the aim of finding ways to ensure that Senior Citizens live a happy, healthy, dignified, empowered and self-reliant life.
• The Portal does not guarantee to provide a job or employment but will serve as an enabler for stakeholders in order to meet and decider their course of action.
• Citizens aged 60 and more can register on this portal and find jobs & work opportunities.

International Day of Older Persons

This day was observed on October 1, 2021 under the Theme- “Digital Equity for All Ages”. United Nations General Assembly has also declared 2021-2030 the “Decade of Healthy Aging”.

The Indian men’s table tennis team has won bronze medal at the Asian Table Tennis Championships on October 1, 2021.

Highlights

• Indian team won bronze after losing to South Korea by 0-3 in the semi-finals.
• Team was assured of winning a medal after beating Iran by 3-1 in the quarterfinals on September 29.
• Both the semi-finalists won a bronze medal.

Asian Table Tennis Championships

It is a biennial table tennis tournament and is regarded as continental championships by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). The tournament was organized by the Table Tennis Federation of Asia (TTFA) from 1952 to 1972. Asian Table Tennis Union (ATTU) started its own Asian Championships because of conflict between national table tennis associations in Asia.

• The southpaw, who was 80 not out overnight, maintained her composure to reach the landmark on Day Two before getting out for 127.
• Indian women’s cricket team opener Smriti Mandhana became the first Indian woman to score a century in a pink-ball Test on Friday when she played a 127-run knock against Australia in the one-off Pink Ball Test. This is also the first century by an Indian woman on Australian soil.The southpaw, who was 80 not out overnight, maintained her composure to reach the landmark on Day Two in Carrara, Queensland. She took 171 balls to cross the triple-digit mark and got out for 127 runs. India progressed to 231/3 in the second day’s opening session. At the dinner break, India were strongly placed, having started the proceedings at 132 for one.
• Mandhana made 127 off 216 balls with the help of 22 boundaries and a six at the Carrara Oval, and added an Indian record of 102 runs in Australia for the second wicket with Punam Raut (36), continuing the good work after putting on 93 with Shafali Verma on a rain-marred opening day.
• She brought her century with a short-arm pull shot off Ellysse Perry in the 52nd over. Mandhana wouldn’t have added to her overnight score of 80 in the second over of Day 2 but Perry overstepped. Replays showed that the catch too might have been debatable.
• The Maharashtra cricketer headlined the opening day with a career-best 80 not out which had elegance written all over it as the Indian women’s cricket team finished on 132 for 1.

Lewis Hamilton has become the first ever Formula-one driver who reached to his 100 wins after finishing at first in the Russian Grand Prix on September 26, 2021.

Key Points

• Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time World Champion, overtook the long-time race leader Lando Norris late on.
• Norris, was aiming for a maiden Grand Prix victory. He was leading for most of the race.
• Hamilton finished over 53 seconds ahead of the second-placed Max Verstappen. Max had started at back of the grid after Red Bull took a new engine.
• Hamilton also moved back to the top of driver’s championship standings ahead of Verstappen.
• Hamilton is already holding the record for most F1 wins.

Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton

He is a British racing driver and currently competes in Formula One for Mercedes. He has previously driven for McLaren from 2007 to 2012. Hamilton has won the joint-record seven World Drivers’ Championship titles in Formula One. He also holds the records for the most wins, podium finishes and pole positions.

• As per the action plan, the control board has identified several areas as hotspots for industrial air emissions, traffic congestion and road dust.Taking a proactive approach for abating air pollution in the city, the Gurgaon district administration has issued directions listing out several key measures to be implemented from October 1. An order issued to 41 agencies, including police, municipal corporation, Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP), department of town and country planning, and SDMs, states that nodal officers should be appointed for implementation of pollution action plan and all agencies should constitute teams for night patrolling.With winter approaching, the air quality is set to deteriorate in NCR.
• As per the action plan, the control board has identified Udyog Vihar phases 1-5, sector 18, sector 37, IMT Manesar, Behrampur, Begumpur Khatola as hotspots for industrial air emissions. For vehicular air emission and traffic congestion, Delhi-Gurgaon border, Iffco chowk, Rajeev Chowk, Sohna road, Subhash Chowk, Vatika Chowk, Hero Honda Chowk, Sohna Chowk, Kherki Daula toll plaza, Gurgaon-Faridabad toll plaza, Dwarka expressway, HUDA city centre, Hamilton court DLF phase 4, Pataudi road, Gurgaon bus stand, Rampura flyover and Bilaspur Chowk have been identified as hotspots.
• Thirteen hotspots for road dust have also been identified.“Large construction projects including highways and metro will need to provide an undertaking to state pollution control board within 15 days that they will assure adherence to prescribed norms for dust management. Solid waste dumping issues have to be addressed on priority. Mechanised sweeping machines, where available, have to be used for regular cleaning of roads in shifts (day and night) and sprinkling of water and other necessary measures have to be undertaken by all agencies concerned. Compliance of action plans on the identified pollution hotspots should be ensured,” the order read.
• It also stated that all industries will have to provide an undertaking to the state pollution board within a fortnight that they will only use authorised fuel. The order further called for an enhanced vigil at industrial stacks and garbage dumping sources and for extensive use of smog guns to control dust emission.Kuldeep Singh, regional officer of Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB), Gurgaon (North), said, “Directions have been issued to the departments and officials concerned. They have been instructed to submit an action taken report on a daily basis. Violators would be penalised. The state pollution board and administration have taken proactive measures to combat air pollution based on past experience and planned strategy.”

• Around 300 CCTV cameras installed on different junctions of the city are catching you live. A total of 2,000 cameras will go live at 287 junctions by December 31.For now, these cameras are being used for data collection on a trial basis and challaning will start only from January 2022.
• Under the project being undertaken by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), about 80 per cent of the total cameras have been installed and 300 are already live at various locations, including Tribune Chowk, Centra Mall, Faida barrier, Transport light point and Sector 20 Gurdwara light point.
• The server is at present based at BEL, Panchkula. Once the Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC), which is under construction at Sector 17, is ready, all live data will be available here.
• “The cameras will catch traffic violations, including jumping red light, overspeeding, driving without seat belt/face mask, zebra crossing parking and talking over the phone while driving,” said an official.
• MC Commissioner Anindita Mitra, said, “Our ongoing “Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav” event is also about independence from crime and traffic problems. And these cameras will help in a big way.”
• One of the camera operators shared, “These cameras will not challan vehicles like ambulances. The cameras will otherwise automatically record every traffic violation and save it in a folder. Then, the police can issue a challan. There is no need for staff to keep tracking the junctions for catching traffic violators.”
• Real-time surveillance
• The hi-tech cameras are being installed for the real-time surveillance of traffic junctions and other important buildings of the city such as waterworks, parks, government hospitals, community centres, parking locations and schools at around 287 locations.

• Elaborating on the details of palm species that have been grown in the Palmetum, Chaturvedi said around 4 species are critically endangered, 2 species are endangered, 2 species are vulnerable and 6 species are near threatened as per IUCN categorization.The Uttarakhand Forest Department on Sunday dedicated the state’s first Palmetum and the biggest one in North India, to the people in the Haldwani area of Nainital district. The Palmetum, which took over three years to develop, has over 110 species of palms.Prof Lalit Tiwari, a professor of Botany from Kumaon University dedicated the Palmetum to the people in Haldwani.
• Sanjiv Chaturvedi, chief conservator of forests (CCF) and in charge of the state forest research wing said the main aim of the establishment of Palmetum is to promote conservation, further research and to create awareness about the importance and ecological role of various palm species.“The project which has been established in an area of approximately 3 acres, was developed over the last three years under CAMPA scheme at a cost of ?16 lakh”, he said
• Elaborating on the details of palm species that have been grown in the Palmetum, Chaturvedi said around 4 species are critically endangered, 2 species are endangered, 2 species are vulnerable and 6 species are near threatened as per IUCN categorization, while one is threatened as per the Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board and one is rare as per the Indian Biodiversity Portal.
• “One palm species is endemic to Uttarakhand. It is called Trachycarpus Takil (Takil Palm) and is the only Palm that can survive sub-zero temperature and has also been declared as a threatened species by the Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board; other endangered/threatened species include Beaucarnea recurvata (Ponytail Palm), Hyophorbe lagenicaulis (Bottle Palm), Dypsis leptocheilos (Redneck palm) , Hyophorbe verschaffeltii (Spindle Palm) and so on,” he said.
• Chaturvedi said Palm species have diverse uses and play a significant role in many cultures across the world. “Apart from coconuts, many important items come from Palm species; dates, betel nuts, palm oil, acai fruit, Palm wine and so on.
• In August, the Uttarakhand Forest department had dedicated the High Altitude Herbal Garden situated at nearly 10,500 feet height and believed to be the highest herbal garden in India, to the people. The garden spread over three acres has rare Himalayan herbs including Brahma Kamal, Neel Kamal and Phen Kamal, associated with the trinity of Hindu Gods- Bhahma, Shiva and Vishnu. On September 12 this year, the Forest Department’s research wing also dedicated country’s largest open-air fernery, housing around 120 species of ferns to the public. Ferns are ancient group plants, which were once dominant plants in forests but are now outnumbered by flowering plants.

• The Odisha government on Saturday sounded a warning for the cyclonic storm Gulab, which is expected to cross the coast between its southern districts and north Andhra Pradesh at wind speeds of 75-85 kmph on Sunday evening.The associated heavy rain is likely cause landslips and floods in southern districts.
• The India Meteorological Department (IMD) informed the National Crisis Management Committee that the cyclone was likely to hit Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Vishakhapatnam districts in Andhra Pradesh, and Ganjam and Gajapati districts in Odisha. Emphasising the need for all preventive and precautionary measures to combat the natural disaster, Mr. Gauba instructed the two State governments to make efforts keep the loss of lives to near zero, and minimise damage to property and infrastructure.
• The Odisha government is also keeping a close watch on the flood situation in rivers such as Rushikulya, Vansadhara and Nagabaali flowing in the southern districts.Visakhapatnam DC A. Mallikarjuna convened an emergency meeting to take stock.

• Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Director General, NMCG, said, “Today Executive Committee of NMCG has decided upon engagement with Chacha Chaudhary character for sensitising children and youth for rejuvenation of Ganga and other rivers."THE CENTRE will use Chacha Chaudhary, the popular comic book character, for sensitising children and youths about the cleaning of Ganga and other rivers, a top official of the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) said on Friday.
• Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Director General, NMCG, said, “Today Executive Committee of NMCG has decided upon engagement with Chacha Chaudhary character for sensitising children and youth for rejuvenation of Ganga and other rivers. Let’s say ‘Ganga ki Baat, Chacha Choudhary Ke Sath’ is a public engagement activity under overall public outreach activities of Namami Gange mission.”
• Mishra said that the NMCG has undertaken various public outreach programmes like Ganga Quest and a television series– Rag Rag Mein Ganga, and the ‘Ganga ki Baat, Chacha Choudhary Ke Sath’ will be one such activity. Under this series, different comic stories will be created in which Chacha Chaudhary will talk about keeping rivers clean, he said.He said that 5-6 months ago, Diamond Toons, the publisher of the Chacha Chaudhary series, had submitted a proposal to work with the NMCG to spread awareness about the Namami Gange programme. The NMCG has also discussed the proposal with the World Bank, which is supporting the Namami Gange programme.
• Meanwhile, a statement issued by the Ministry of Jal Shakti said the Executive Committee of the NMCG has decided to declare Chacha Chaudhary as the mascot of the Namami Gange Programme.
• “At the 37th Executive Committee meeting of the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), chaired by Shri Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Director General, NMCG, Chacha Chaudhary was declared as the mascot of the Namami Gange Programme and some major projects in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were discussed and evaluated,” the statement said.
• “The NMCG has been focusing on youth as part of its outreach and public communications efforts as they are the impellers of change. As a step towards this NMCG has tied-up with Diamond Toons to develop and distribute comics, e-comics and animated videos,” it said.
• “The content will be designed with the objective of bringing about behavioral change amongst children towards Ganga and other rivers. The total estimated budget for the project is Rs 2.26 crore. Shri Ashok Kumar Singh, Executive Director (ED), Projects, presented the project details and shared that Chacha Chaudhary can be useful in ground-level activation for Ganga rejuvenation,” the statement said, adding that initially, the comics will be launched in Hindi, English and Bengali.

World Bank has approved about $150 million program to support Chennai’s Sustainable Urban Services and to turn it into a “world-class city”.

Highlights

• This programme will fulfil Tamil Nadu’s vision of making Chennai into a city which is more green, liveable, and resilient towards climate change.
• Apart from programme in Tamil Nadu, World Bank has also approved a $40 million project that will improve the quality of health services in the state Meghalaya. It will also strengthen capacity of state in handling health emergencies like COVID-19 pandemic.

Chennai City Partnership

Chennai City Partnership: Sustainable Urban Services Program is a $150 million programme that will help in strengthening institutions. It will also help in improving the financial health of service agencies and bring in significant improvements in quality of four key urban services:

• Water supply and sewerage
• Mobility
• Health, and
• Solid Waste Management.

• This will be the second cyclone after Tauktae to develop in the basin of the Arabian Sea this year. Its brewing originated from the intensification of remnants of Cyclone Gulab that had formed in Bay of Bengal.The Cyclonic Storm Shaheen moved northeast Arabian Sea and neighbourhood moved west-northwestwards with a speed of about 20 kmph during the past 6 hours. The cyclone, which comes just a week after Cyclone Gulab made landfall in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, may not hit the Indian coast.
• The weather system is likely to further intensify into a Severe Cyclonic Storm during the next 12 hours and move west-north westwards skirting Makran coast during next 36 hours. Due to this position, the cyclone may not be a direct threat to India.However, fishermen from India and neighbouring Indian Ocean countries have been warned not to venture into the sea till October 2. Those already at sea have been advised to move to safer areas.
• Under its influence, heavy falls are predicted in Gujarat, Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim till October 3. Rainfall activity is likely to increase over the south peninsular from October 1, with heavy showers predicted in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka till October 4.
• If it forms, Cyclone Shaheen will be the second, after Tauktae, to develop in the basin of the Arabian Sea this year. It originated from the intensification of remnants of Cyclone Gulab, that had formed in Bay of Bengal.

Context: The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister approved the launching of a new meal scheme – 'Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman' scheme.

• As per this, the existing Mid-Day Meal scheme, which provides hot meals to school students, will be renamed as National Scheme for PM Poshan Shakti Nirman.

About the Scheme

• The new scheme has a financial outlay of Rs 1.31 lakh crore in the next five years and the existing "Mid Day Meal scheme will be included in this scheme.
• The meal facility will be extended to government-aided schools and the pre-nursery schools will also be included in the PM-Poshan scheme for classes 1 to 8.
• The concept of 'Tithi Bhojan' will be encouraged extensively. 'Tithi Bhojan' is a community participation programme in which people provide food to children on special occasions/festivals.
• The social audit of the scheme has been made mandatory in all districts while special provision has been made for providing supplementary nutrition items to children in aspirational districts and districts with high prevalence of anaemia.
• Under the new scheme, the involvement of farmers' producer organizations (FPOs) and women self-help groups in its implementation will be encouraged. Use of locally grown traditional food items for boosting the local economic growth will be encouraged as well.

Key Benefits

• This will benefit crores of students from poor families studying in 11.2 lakh schools across the country. 
• This will improve the attendance in government schools and will also reduce the gap in education inequality in society along with nutritious food to children.

Allotment of Funds

• The national scheme for PM-POSHAN in schools for the five-year period from 2021-22 to 2025-26 is with a financial outlay of Rs 54061.73 crore from the Central government and Rs 31,733.17 crore from state governments and Union Territory administrations.
• The Union government will bear an additional cost of nearly Rs 45,000 crore on food grains amounting to a total outlay of Rs 1,30,794.90 crore. 
• According to the officials, during 2020-21, the Centre invested more than Rs 24,400 crore in the scheme, including nearly Rs 11,500 crore on foodgrains.

Context: The tiny Central American nation of El Salvador has embarked on an interesting experiment by recognizing bitcoin as legal tender. This is proving painful for many of its citizens, but it’s a useful “pilot” project for larger economies that are contemplating about this new asset class.
Background

• El Salvador has a population of 6.5 million and GDP of about $27 billion. At a nominal per capita of less than $4,200, it is not a rich country.
• In 2001, it “dollarised” meaning it replaced its currency, then the colon, with the USD.
• This month, at the urging of its President, a crypto-enthusiast, it adopted bitcoin as legal tender as well. This means it now has two parallel legal currencies, USD and bitcoin.
• Every business in El Salvador, must accept bitcoin as legal tender for goods or services, unless it is unable to provide the technology needed to process the transaction.

What has been the impact of El Salvador’s decision?

• Recent opinion polls showed a majority of El Salvador’s 6.5 million people reject the idea and will continue using the US dollar, the country’s legal currency for the last 20 years.
• The adoption has led to turmoil in the cryptocurrency market and doesn’t seem to have been well-received in El Salvador itself.
• The value of bitcoin crashed by 19% on September 7, the first day of adoption. Chivo, the govt’s wallet for Bitcoin, was overwhelmed by users trying to register.
• There have been riots and demonstrations against the new currency. Most citizens don’t want to accept the crypto in normal transactions. They are understandably doubtful of holding an asset, which often swings 10% in value on an average day and 25-30% on “swing sessions”.
• The spread on the interest El Salvador pays on its national debt over US treasury rates has widened.
• Ratings agencies downgraded El Salvador once the bitcoin plan was announced in July.

What are some issues with adopting Bitcoin?

• Bitcoin mining consumes more power than Belgium on a daily basis. So this is not environmentally friendly. That’s one of the reasons China has offered for cracking down on cryptocurrency.

Another issue is that the money supply increases at a fixed rate, and every transaction recorded on the blockchain involves a unique bitcoin. This makes it hard to carry out normal lending operations. Fractional reserve banking is difficult, except by converting every transaction to a fiat currency before lending, and converting back when servicing the loan. This means accepting massive risks on the exchange rate.

• It can take a long time for any transaction to be registered and verified on the blockchain since this must be confirmed by multiple blockchain-watchers.
• One of the barriers to adoption is lack of understanding and another is lack of technology. Also, transactions are hard without a smartphone which means a deep penetration of smartphones is needed to encourage widespread adoption.

What are some positive implications?

• The world will get a sense of how crypto works as it’s used in normal daily transactions in El Salvador. McDonald’s, local groceries, taxi services, etc., have started accepting bitcoin, and it’s estimated that around 10 per cent of daily transactions by value are now being done in bitcoin.

Context: Recently, a report named “Freedom on the Net 2021: The Global Drive to Control Big Tech" was released by the U.S.-based Freedom House.
Internet freedom

• Internet freedom is a term that includes digital rights, freedom of information, and the right to Internet access.
• Suppression of Internet freedom indicates that governments across the world are asserting their authority over technology platforms, forcing business to comply with censorship and surveillance.

Key Findings

• As per the report the Internet freedom has declined for the 11th year in a row worldwide.
• India has scored 49 points in the report. China was ranked as the worst environment for Internet freedom for the seventh year in a row.

• The greatest deteriorations were found in Myanmar, Belarus, and Uganda, where state forces cracked down amid electoral and constitutional crises.
• Authorities in at least 45 countries, including India, are suspected to have access to targeted spyware and extraction technology purchased from private companies.
• Governments in least 48 countries surveyed pursued new rules for tech companies on content, data, and competition in the past year, attempting to suppress online dissent.
• In fact, India ranks among 55 other countries that have investigated, arrested, or convicted people for their social media posts, especially on WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

Ranks of the countries

• The top 10 countries with the highest level of internet freedom: Iceland; Estonia; Canada; Costa Rica; Taiwan; Germany; France; UK; Georgia and Japan

About the report
The report has measured the level of internet freedom for 70 countries and assigns them numerical scores ranging from 100 (the freest nation) to zero (the least free).

• Countries with scores between 70 to 100 are designated as ‘Free’ on internet freedom status.
• Those with points between 40 to 69 are designated as ‘Partly-free’.
• Those scoring less than 39 are designated as ‘Not free’.

The report determines the level of internet freedom by examining three broad categories: obstacles to access; limits on content; and violations of user rights.

• The countries are categories based on nine key Internet controls to document how governments censor and control the digital space.
• The controls include blocking of social media, deliberate disruption of communication network, manipulation of online discussions by pro-government commentators, and introduction of a new law increasing surveillance and restricting anonymity.

Context: Last week, Competition Commission of India slapped a penalty of Rs 873 crore on the companies as well as the All-India Brewers Association and 11 individuals for cartelization in the sale and supply of beer in 10 states and Union Territories.

• United Breweries Ltd (UBL), Carlsberg India Pvt Ltd (CIPL) and Anheuser Busch InBev India, had colluded to fix beer prices between 2009 and 2018.

About Cartel

• A cartel is an organization created from a formal agreement between a group of producers of a good or service to regulate supply in order to regulate prices.
• It is a collection of independent businesses or countries that act together as if they were a single producer and thus can fix prices for the goods they produce and the services they render, without competition.

The three common components of a cartel are:

• an agreement;
• between competitors;
• to restrict competition.

Key Points

• Cartels are competitors in the same industry and seek to reduce that competition by controlling the price in agreement with one another.
• Strategy used by cartels include reduction of supply, price-fixing, collusive bidding, and market carving.
• In most regions, cartels are considered illegal and promoters of anti-competitive practices.
• The actions of cartels hurt consumers primarily through increased prices and lack of transparency.

How Cartel can be worse than Monopoly?

• Cartels could extract a higher social cost than even monopolies.

Monopolies are a source of social loss through productive inefficiencies. The reduced product innovation, is a greater problem with cartels than monopolies.

• Given that innovation would require the expenditure of research and development costs, such investment would not be undertaken.
• Since the monopolist, unlike the cartelist, must be concerned with other firms developing goods which may be less expensive substitutes for its goods,
• The monopolist may have greater incentive for research and development expenditure.
• Thus, the social costs of reduced product innovation may be greater with cartels.
• Cartels neither have any incentive to invest in research aimed at improving their product nor do they see any reason why they should boost investments towards making the methods of production more efficient.

How to stop the spread of cartelisation?

• Cartels are not easy to detect and identify.
• As such, experts often suggest providing a strong deterrence to those cartels that are found guilty of being one.
• Typically this takes the form of a monetary penalty that exceeds the gains amassed by the cartel.
• However, it must also be pointed out that it is not always easy to ascertain the exact gains from cartelisation.
• In fact, the threat of stringent penalties can be used in conjunction with providing leniency — as was done in the beer case.

Context: Recently, the Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers filed a public interest litigation in the Supreme Court demanding that the Union government provide assistance to workers affected by the pandemic.
Issue

• The petition has asked for ‘gig workers’ and ‘platform workers’ to be declared as ‘unorganised workers’ so they come under the purview of the Unorganised Workers Social Security Act, 2008.

Why this demand from gig workers?

• Global practice: Owing to public pressure, two of its food delivery platforms in China committed to end the practice of forcing workers to register as ‘independent businesses’, which has long helped these platforms evade responsibilities as employers.

Invisible to frontline: pandemic has helped change the erstwhile ‘invisibility’ of delivery workers. Through 2020, a trend that spanned China, India, the U.S. and Europe saw ‘invisible workers’ being propelled to ‘frontline workers’.

• In China, there was a clear transition of social discourse in favour of delivery workers. People’s Daily responded to public sentiment by ranking delivery work among the top 10 occupations.

Role of media in this transformation: a monthly Chinese magazine took an exhaustive look at the plight of delivery workers across the two food delivery platforms and the article was shared over 200 million times on the Chinese internet.

• Similarly, in 2015, a TED-style talk on China’s pollution crisis got 100 million views across major video streaming sites within 48 hours of its release, resulting in policy change.

Pushback begun long before COVID-19: strikes in different parts of China have reflected this growing backlash. As food delivery platforms expanded through the pandemic period, growing massively in revenue and scale, strikes increased in numerous Chinese cities and have continued despite various barriers to collective action.

• In early 2021, in successive strikes spanning over two months, delivery workers protested against poor working conditions.

What steps has China taken?

• State control: The state is asserting “increased control” over major tech companies for allegedly abusing its dominant market position, via the new anti-monopolistic guidelines. In July, seven government agencies jointly passed guidelines directing online food delivery platforms that they should not set evaluation criteria based on optimisation algorithms.
• Focus on common prosperity: the government now seeks to narrow a widening wealth gap that threatens the country’s economic rise. The government’s scrutiny over food delivery platforms has increased. The authoritarian context, a weak civil society and the absence of independent labour unions leaves gig workers in China with very little option but to go on strike or protest, despite the risks, to affect change.
• Rights of workers: These platforms must respect the rights of delivery workers and ensure that they earn at least a minimum wage with social insurance. Many of these government initiatives have been public-driven.

What is the scenario in Indian?

• Worker led movement: Any reform in this sector is led wholly by delivery workers, not the public. For 27 days in 2020, close to 3,000 delivery workers from Swiggy went on strike in Hyderabad to protest the slash in remuneration from Rs 35 to Rs 15 per order.
• Role of Social media: This year, in the lead up to Zomato’s July IPO, several anonymous Twitter accounts set up by delivery workers called customers’ attention to what they deem as “exploitative practices” employed by platforms. The PIL in the Supreme Court is another major step in this regard.

Road Ahead

• First, Indians could make an effort to be better informed about the way platforms work by seeking out delivery workers and asking about their work conditions and the pressures they face.
• Second, need to learn lesson from China that the swell of public opinion has led to government regulation and change in company policy. Similarly, India also needs collective action.

Context: Geographical Indications tag is an opportunity for India to redefine the future of work using automation, technology and artificial intelligence while simultaneously enhancing and adorning the country’s talented local work force.
Introduction

• India’s global brand recall and attributes of multi-cultural ethos, authenticity, and ethnic diversity are reason for increasing the country’s potential. One channel through which these attributes are brought out are Geographical Indications or GI tags.

Why GI tag is significant?

• Revenue generators: With the emphasis on climate change and sustainability, GI products can be ready revenue generators. The patents and copyright protection of products under GIs result in higher economic gains, fostering quality production and better distribution of profits.
• Global reach: Amazon’s local to global programme has taken Indian producers and their products such as Delta Leather Corporation’s leather and SVA Organics’s organic products to 18 global markets in over 200 countries.
• In the two years ending March 2021, Amazon exported such Made in India goods worth $2 billion.

How Geographical Indications can benefit India?
Passion economy and entrepreneurship: It will convert talent into entrepreneurship with gig workers, and create a “passion” economy. 

• It is a new way for individuals to monetise their skills and scale their businesses exponentially. 
• It removes the hurdles associated with freelance work to earn a regular income from a source other than an employer. 
• It encompasses the concept of trusteeship, as advocated by Mahatma Gandhi and more recently, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the UN. It is truly Made in India.

Employment creation: the labour-intensive nature of GI offers the best solution to boosting the employment-to-population ratio in India.

• Women empowerment: Monetising artisanal work done at home will increase India’s low female labour force participation rate, which at 21 per cent in 2019 was half the 47 per cent global average.
• Reverse urban migration: it will conserve India’s ancient crafts, culture and food. A rejuvenation of MSMEs, which account for 31 per cent of India’s GDP and 45 per cent of exports, will follow.
• Positive benefits for local communities: it encourages the preservation of biodiversity, local know-how and natural resources.
• Soft power: A strong GI ecosystem can be a wellspring of economic and soft power. It will automatically resolve the three fraught India issues of poor pay for talent, low female participation in the labour force, and urban migration.

What are some existing challenges?

• GI businesses are micro: It is necessary to address the challenges of capacity-building, formal or easy access to credit, forming marketing linkages, research and development, product innovation and competitiveness in both domestic and international markets.
• Issue of middlemen: With the shift to digital platforms, the distribution margins of middlemen will be competitive. Hence, government need to ensure that they do not act as countervailing agents by getting into similar businesses or product lines which will erode GI producer incomes.

Road Ahead

• First, a required skill for GI producers is digital literacy. This should be a priority agenda item for NGOs and stakeholders like the DPIIT.
• The groundwork for MSME access to formal credit has already been done with the new Account Aggregator data-sharing framework.
• Second, the Indian GI economy can be a platform for India to showcase to the world a model for ethical capitalism, social entrepreneurship, de-urbanisation, and bringing women to the workforce, on the back of a robust digital system.
• Third, Guardrails like regular audits and consultations with the GI producers must be mandated.

Context: Recently, Union Ministry of Labour and Employment has joined hands with Microsoft India to launch the DigiSaksham scheme to "empower job seekers in an increasingly tech-driven economy".
About the Scheme

• This joint initiative is an extension of the ongoing programs to support the youth from rural and semi-urban areas.
• The Centre has collaborated with Microsoft India to launch the DigiSaksham initiative. 
• Under the scheme, the government plans to train 3,00,000 job seekers. 
• The scheme will give prioritise job seekers from semi-urban and disadvantaged communities.
• Under this, youth will be provided with three types of training — Digital Skills (self-paced learning), VILT mode training (Virtual Instructor-led), and ILT mode training (Instructor-led).
• It will be implemented on the ground by Aga Khan Rural Support Programme-India (AKRSP-I) and its knowledge partner TMI e2E Academy.
• Training would be conducted at the Model Career Centres (MCCs) and National Career Service Centres (NCSC) for Scheduled Castes (SCs)/Scheduled Tribes (STs) across the country.
• The scheme will prioritise job seekers from semi-urban and disadvantaged communities.

Benefit

• Providing equal opportunity and access to digital skills for all will be the key to long-term economic and social value creation for India.
• To bridge the gap of India’s digital divide, placing the country on the path to inclusive economic recovery and preparing India’s talent to thrive in a digital future catering not only to the needs of the domestic economy but also to tap the overseas employment opportunities.

Context: Recently, the Supreme Court (SC) lamented the rampant violation of its ban on use of toxic ingredients in the firecracker industry.
Issue

• The Supreme Court highlighted the findings of preliminary enquiry by the CBI into the firecracker industry, including in Tamil Nadu.
• A chemical analysis of the samples of finished and semi-finished firecrackers and raw materials taken from the manufacturers showed Barium content.
• The court stated that loose quantities of Barium were purchased from the market. 
• Firecracker covers did not show the manufacture or expiry dates.

Issues with Barium

• Barium nitrate, which emits green flames when a cracker is lit, is a metal oxide that increases both air and noise pollution.
• There is is no clarity on whether barium nitrate can actually be used or not.

Alternatives: Green Crackers

• The new CSIR-NEERI formulation for green crackers has NO barium nitrate — one of the key ingredients of traditional firecrackers.
• These crackers have been named “safe water releaser (SWAS)”, “safe minimal aluminium (SAFAL)” and “safe thermite cracker (STAR)”.
• The three crackers release water vapour or air as a dust suppressant and diluent for gaseous emissions.
• These products can only be manufactured by those who have signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with CSIR-NEERI.
• The green crackers are sold with a unique logo on the box, and will also have a QR code with production and emission details.

Explosive fireworks depend on four primary ingredients — 

• oxidiser, 
• fuel, 
• colouring agents & 
• Binder.

The Supreme Court told the firecracker manufacturers that the right to life of innocent citizens was more precious than the right to employment of workers.

• The oxidisers in fireworks are chemicals that release oxygen to allow the explosion to take place. Ex: Nitrates, chlorates.
• The fuel for burning is usually charcoal.
• Colouring agents impart desired colours like aluminium compounds for brilliant whites, barium nitrate for greens.
• Binders are used to hold the mixture of the firework together in a paste while burning.
• Also, other metals like titanium & strontium are added to regulate the speed of the burning reaction.

Harmful elements used

• Copper: Irritates the respiratory tract.
• Cadmium: Leads to anemia by reducing the capacity of blood to carry oxygen.
• Zinc: Can cause metal fume fever and induces vomiting.
• Lead: Harms the nervous system.
• Magnesium: Metal fume fever is caused by Magnesium fumes.
• Sodium: It is a highly reactive element and caused burns when it is combined with moisture.

Context: The findings of the study published in the journal 'Science' said that Children born today are likely to face seven times more extreme weather events than their grandparents.
Background

• The analysis is the first of its kind to assess age-dependent extreme event exposure, the researchers took a collection of multi-model climate impact projections from the ISIMIP project building on the work of dozens of research groups worldwide.
• The researchers combined this with country-scale life-expectancy data, population data and temperature trajectories from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Key Findings

• The researchers found based on data from the Inter-sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP).
• A new study showed that today's young generation will be much severely affected by climate extremes like wildfires, droughts, floods etc than today's adults.
• Those born in 1960, for example, will experience four heat waves in their lifetime; those born in 2020 will experience 30 on current trends, 22 under 2°C warming, and 18 if warming is limited to 1.5°C. 
• In a 3°C world, a six-year-old in 2020 will experience twice as many wildfires and tropical cyclones, three times more river floods, four times more crop failures, five times more droughts, and 36 times more heat waves than someone born in 1960.

Solution to this ongoing Challenge

• Under a scenario of current “insufficient” climate policies, dangerous extreme heatwave events, which affect about 15% of the global land area today, could treble to 46% by the end of this century.

However,

• Countries are able to follow through with their climate policies as decided under the Paris Climate Agreement, this effect could be limited to 22%, which is just seven percentage points more than the global land area that is affected today.
• If we increase climate protection from current emission reduction pledges and get in line with a 1.5-degree target, we will reduce young people’s potential exposure to extreme events on average by 24% globally.

• According to India Meteorological Department informed that the cyclone was likely to hit Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts of Andhra Pradesh, and Ganjam and Gajapati districts of Odisha.
• The deep depression over northwest and adjoining westcentral Bay of Bengal moved nearly westwards with a speed of seven kmph in last 6 hours, intensified into Cyclonic Storm ‘Gulab’ (pronounced as Gul-Aab) and lay centered over northwest and adjoining westcentral Bay of Bengal.

It comes under the category of the cyclonic storm according to IMD.

• Being a monsoon system, it naturally holds excess moisture compared to storms of pre-monsoon and post-monsoon periods. 
• A couple of unique meteorological factors are also helping the system intensify and retain moisture.
• Because of weak to moderate negative Indian Ocean Dipole (-IOD), the equatorial Rossby waves (natural planetary waves) could have transferred a substantial amount of energy (moisture) to this system.

• It is a tropical cyclone.
• Pakistan proposed the name Gulab which means Rose.
• Region affected: North Andhra Pradesh and adjoining Odisha coasts
• Location: Bay of Bengal

• The air circulates inward in an anticlockwise direction in the Northern hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern hemisphere.Cyclones are classified as: (i) extra tropical cyclones (also called temperate cyclones); and (ii) tropical cyclones.
• Cyclones that develop in the regions between the Tropic of Capricorn and Tropic of Cancerare called tropical cyclones. Tropical cyclones are intense circular storms that originate over warm tropical oceans.

Context: The rising concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) will impact all of the 17 United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to a report released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

• In its report named Climate Indicators and Sustainable Development: Demonstrating the Interconnections.

Key findings of the report

• WMO studied seven climate indicators — carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration, temperature, ocean acidification and heat, sea ice extent, glacier melt and sea-level rise.
• Its release coincides with the United Nations General Assembly annual session and the opening in September 2021 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Action Zone, which is dedicated to accelerating action on the SDGs.
• If rising carbon dioxide levels are not controlled, the global goal to end hunger and achieve food security will be severely affected.

Aim: To contribute to the sustainable development agenda and to inspire leaders to take bolder climate action.
Importance

• In the face of ongoing climate change, poverty, inequality and environmental degradation, understanding the connections between climate and international development is a matter of urgency.
• Increasing temperatures will result in global and regional changes, leading to shifts in rainfall patterns and agricultural seasons. The intensification of El Niño events is also generating more droughts and floods.

Rising CO2 Concentration

• The rising concentration of CO2 will impact all of the 17 United Nations-mandated SDGs.
• Rising CO2 concentration due to human activities is a key driver of global climate change.

Impact on SDGs

• Rising CO2 concentration and increasing global temperatures, if left unchecked, would negatively impact efforts to combat climate change under the SDG 13.
• This, in turn, would pose a significant threat to the achievement of the 16 SDGs other than SDG 13, by 2030.
• This would happen because uncontrolled rising CO2 emissions would be indirectly responsible for risks related to the remaining six climate indicators, namely temperature, ocean acidification and heat, sea ice extent, glacier melt and sea-level rise.
• For instance, rising concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere will lead to reductions in nutrient content, affecting food security or the SDG indicator 2.1.2.

This would affect the global goal on tackling poverty, SDG 1, as well.

• Rising CO2 in water would cause ocean acidification, directly affecting SDG indicator 14.3.1 which addresses marine acidity.
• Both food insecurity and loss of livelihood may drive conflicts related to resource management, thus threatening regional peace and stability (SDG 16.1).
• Extreme events attributed to rising temperature affect rainfall patterns and groundwater availability, which leads to a higher risk of water scarcity, directly affecting SDG 6 on access to water and specially the targets.

Suggestions
To mitigate climate risks, the WMO recommended to work on:

• Improved education (SDG 4)
• Global partnerships (SDG 17)
• Sustainable consumption (SDG 12)

Context: Recently, a report by the Tamil Nadu government pointed out that Chennai needs an integrated flood management system with proper facilities to drain excess rainwater and desilt channels to prevent flood.
As per Report
Causes for flooding

• Encroachments, faulty drainage systems and tampering of natural course of water had made the megapolis prone to flooding every year.
• Rapid urbanisation of Greater Chennai and its peri-urban areas had led to massive changes in land use patterns, as residential areas had sprung up in farmlands.
• The changes in land use patterns were done without making the required changes for a proper drainage system to manage the flow of surplus water from traditional tanks as well as flood waters from catchment areas.
• Irrigation tanks were choked with waste, slush and debris, obstructing the flow of flood water. This also reduced the water-absorbing and groundwater recharging capacity of the marsh.

Measures suggested

• Chennai needs an integrated flood management system with proper facilities to drain excess rainwater and desilt channels to prevent floods.
• The report recommended an integrated road and street side storm water drainage network, straight cut diversion channels, macro storm water drains, check dams, barrages and anicuts as part of such a system.

Urban floods in India- an overview

• Urban flooding is the inundation of land or property in a built environment, particularly in more densely populated areas, caused by rainfall overwhelming the capacity of drainage systems, such as storm sewers.
• In many Indian cities, urban floods have become a frequent phenomenon in recent years.

Unscientific urbanization leading to Urban floods
Urban flooding is different from rural flooding, both in respect to magnitude and size of the population affected: this is because-

• Urbanization increases flood risk by up to 3 times, increased peak flow result in flooding very quickly.
• It affects a large number of people due to the high population density in urban areas.

Natural factors causing Urban flooding

• Meteorological Factors: Heavy rainfall, cyclonic storms, and thunderstorms cause water to flow quickly through paved urban areas and impound in low-lying areas.
• Hydrological Factors: Overbank flow channel networks, the occurrence of high tides impeding the drainage in coastal cities are major hydrological factors responsible for urban flooding.
• Changes in the rainfall pattern driven by Climate Change: The rainfall intensity, duration, and frequency are going to increase in the future, suggests the International Panel for Climate Change.
• Flash floods: often caused by the incidence of cyclonic circulations and cloud bursts are increasing due to climate change. The recent flash flood in Germany is a case in point.

Anthropogenic factors responsible for Urban Flooding

• Unplanned urbanization: it results in excessive and unplanned use of available resources, leading to overstressed city infrastructure, including drainage systems, reduced seepage, and encroachment by builders and contractors.

Poor waste management system: Domestic, commercial, and industrial waste and dumping of construction debris into the drains without proper collection and treatment, contribute significantly to reducing capacities of the drainage system.

• Improper waste management system, clogging of storm-water drains because of silting, accumulation of non-biodegradable wastes, and construction debris are major concerns.

Indiscriminate encroachment of waterways and wetlands: Growing habitations into towns and cities alongside rivers and watercourses, led to their encroachment, causing urban flooding during high rainfall scenarios.

• Unauthorized colonies and excess construction: result in reduced infiltration and decreased ground absorption and increases the speed and amount of surface flow, causing urban floods.

Issues with city drainage infrastructure: there is an issue with the city drainage system at both capacity and management levels. There is a lack of adequate drainage infrastructure in the cities, leading to urban flooding during high-intensity rainfall.

• Lack of maintenance of existing drainage infrastructure: for example, de-clogging the storm-water drains before monsoon season results in the malfunctioning of the drainage system, leading to urban flooding.

Neglect of pre-disaster planning: in India, the focus is mainly on post-disaster relief efforts rather than pre-planning to counter urban floods.

• Lack of community participation: Indian cities lack participation from people, right from planning to implantation stages. This is mainly due to apathy on the part of government officials, members of municipal bodies, and a lack of awareness among the people of the city.
• Reducing Seepage: Indian cities are becoming increasingly impervious to water, not just because of increasing built-up but also because of the nature of materials used.

Suggestive measure: mitigation of urban floods

• Better forecasting of rainfall: by the concerned organization. This must be followed by real-time dissemination of flood warnings to concerned authorities and people in general.

Effective pre-disaster planning: for each city on a local level by involving all the stakeholders, including inhabitants of the city.

• Concerned authorities should highlight flooding-prone areas in the cities and avoid building any emergency infrastructure in that area. People in that locality should also be informed and trained to effectively deal with such situations.
• Each city should have its Flood mitigation plans strongly embedded within the master plan of the city.

Drainage infrastructure: adequate drainage infrastructure must be created and existing ones should be well-maintained.

• The role of local bodies in this respect becomes very important.
• Develop ‘sponge’ cities in line with cities in China: it envisages replacing concrete pavements with porous pavements to insure better infiltration of surface water. It further aims to restore wetlands, develop rain gardens and rooftop gardens for better absorption of rainwater.
• Effective implementation of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Guidelines on Urban Flood Management.
• Better waste management system: by ensuring adequate collection and treatment infrastructure in each city. This will solve the issue of clogging the drainage system.

Context: Recently, farmers from Madhya Pradesh threatened to take IMD to court for the inaccurate monsoon forecast this year. A question was also raised in Parliament about whether the Arctic warming had led to an erratic monsoon this year.

• Monsoon predictions are a monumental challenge, especially when it comes to the spatial distribution and the northward migration of the monsoon trough. In this article we discuss "Atlantic Niño’s role in India’s erratic monsoon".

Issue

• Rainfall deficit: The onset of monsoon 2021 began on June 3, almost on time but subsequently, rainfall deficit of up to 30 per cent were seen in Kerala, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, the Northeast and Odisha. The rest of the country is barely normal with deficit being less than 20 per cent.
• El Niño in the Pacific: Instead, a return of the La Niña is forecasted by most models for later this year. Considering that 2020 was also a la Niña year, one would expect monsoon 2021 to be above normal.

Arctic affect: The Arctic can affect late-season rainfall and September has seen slightly above normal rain across India.
About Atlantic Niño

• It is El Niño’s little cousin in the Atlantic, known as the Atlantic Niño, or the Atlantic Zonal Mode. Every few years, from June to August, there is a warming in the eastern equatorial Atlantic, which does not get as much attention as El Niño.

How Atlantic Nino was the cause for rainfall deficit in India?

• Sea surface temperature: In 2021, due to Atlantic Niño, the Sea surface temperatures in the eastern Atlantic have remained more than a degree higher than normal this summer.
• Number of low-pressure systems: Atlantic Niño’s impact on the monsoon has been known since 2014 when a study led by INCOIS showed that the number of low-pressure systems is greatly reduced by the Atlantic Niño, leading to deficit monsoons.
• This year has seen a sharply lower number of low-pressure systems, which contribute up to 60 per cent of the seasonal total rainfall over the core monsoon zone.
• The Atlantic and Indian Oceans are not directly connected in the tropics via the ocean: The Atlantic Niño affects the monsoon by producing atmospheric waves, which propagate into the Indian Ocean.
• These waves affect air temperatures over the Indian Ocean and influence the land-ocean thermal contrast as well as Low Pressure Systems (LPSs). The biggest rainfall deficits from the Atlantic Niño tend to occur over the Western Ghats and the core monsoon zone. The deficit patterns are a sign of the Atlantic Niño’s influence.

Why monsoon prediction is a challenge in India?

• Forecast models rely heavily on El Niño: But only about 50 per cent of the dry years are explained by El Niño. How can monsoons be predicted during non-El Niño years? Clearly, Atlantic Niño is a significant player in monsoon evolution and models and forecasters must pay attention to this Atlantic teleconnection.
• Low-pressure systems or LPSs originate in the northern Bay of Bengal and are three-10 times more in number during the active period of the monsoon.

Road Ahead

• First, many of the Atlantic Niños occur during non-El Niño years and this offers a window of opportunity to increase forecast skills based on the accurate prediction of the Atlantic Niño. Indian scientists from INCOIS have argued that the Atlantic Niño is in fact predictable up to three months in advance.
• Second, climate scientists are also aware of the monsoon prediction challenge and hence they should continue to try to improve monsoon forecasts.

Context: Recently, an international team of researchers has made the first direct detection of dark energy under its experiment named XENON1T.
Background

• Since the 1990s, dark energy has been the most accepted premise to account for the accelerated expansion.
• As of 2021, there are active areas of cosmology research aimed at understanding the fundamental nature of dark energy.

Key Points

• XENON1T is the world’s most sensitive dark matter experiment and was operated deep underground at the INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy.
• The finding also suggests that experiments like XENON1T, which are designed to detect dark matter, could also be used to detect dark energy.

Note: Dark energy is the mysterious form of energy that makes up about 68% of the universe, and has intrigued physicists and astronomers for decades.
Other Dark Matter and Energy Experiments

• LUX-Zeplin – a next generation dark matter experiment located at the Sanford Underground Research Facility, US.
• PandaX-xT – project at China Jinping Underground Laboratory.

Dark Matter And Dark Energy

• While dark matter attracts and holds galaxies together, dark energy repels and causes the expansion of our universe.

About Dark Energy

• The Big Bang occurred nearly 15 billion years ago and expanded. Earlier, astronomers believed that eventually the expansion of the Universe will slow down because of gravity and it will recollapse.
• However, data from the Hubble Telescope suggested that the Universe's expansion is accelerating.
• The astronomers theorize that the faster expansion rate is due to a mysterious, dark force or energy that is pulling galaxies apart.
• The term ‘dark’ is used to denote the unknown.
• The following diagram reveals changes in the rate of expansion since the universe's birth 15 billion years ago.

Dark energy Vs Dark matter

Context: An independent MLA from Gujarat has changed his political party and joined the Congress.

• The Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, the anti-defection law, specifies the circumstances under which changing of political parties invites action under the law.

Why are independents important?

• Independents give voters better opportunities to express their preferences.
• This can improve political representation, as independents are free from the dictates of a party line, and have the flexibility to represent local preferences in a way that party-affiliated candidates often do not.

About Anti Defection Law

• When a member elected on the ticket of a political party “voluntarily gives up” membership of such a party or votes in the House against the wishes of the party.
• When a legislator who has won his or her seat as an independent candidate joins a political party after the election.
• Under both Circumstances the legislator loses the seat in the legislature on changing a party.
• In case of Nominated MPs, the law gives them six months to join a political party, after being nominated.
• If they join a party after such time, they stand to lose their seat in the House.

Disqualification

• The power to decide the disqualification of an MP or MLA rests with the presiding officer of the legislature.
• The law does not specify a time frame in which such a decision has to be made.
• Speakers of legislatures have sometimes acted very quickly or have delayed the decision for years and have been accused of political bias in both situations.

Context: According to the Supreme Court, the right of an institution, whether run by a majority or minority community to get government aid is not a fundamental right.

• Both have to equally follow the rules and conditions of the aid.

Key highlights

• Article 30(2) Sates that, an institution is under the minority, whether based on religion or language, grant of aid to that educational institution cannot be discriminated against, if other educational institutions are entitled to receive aid.
• If the government made a policy call to withdraw aid, an institution cannot question the decision as a “matter of right”.
• A grant of government aid comes with accompanying conditions. An institution is free to choose to accept the grant with the conditions or go its own way.
• An institution can never be allowed to say that the grant of aid should be on its own terms.

Why institutions cannot do so?

• Government aid is a policy decision. It depends on factors including the interests of the institution and the ability of the government to understand the exercise.
• Financial constraints and deficiencies are the factors which are relevant in taking any decision.
• Right to get an aid is not a fundamental right, the challenge to a decision made in implementing it, shall only be on restricted grounds.
• When a policy decision is made to withdraw the aid, an institution cannot question it as a matter of right.

What is Article 30?

• Article 30 of the Indian Constitution states the right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions.
• It says: “All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.”
• It was adopted on December 8, 1948.

Key Features

• Article 30(1) says, all minorities whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.
• Article 30(1A) deals with the fixation of the amount for acquisition of property of any educational institution established by minority groups.
• Article 30(2) states that, the government should not discriminate against any educational institution on the ground that it is under the management of a minority, whether based on religion or language, while giving aid.

Context: Recently, the High Court of Karnataka has held that Breastfeeding is an inalienable right of a lactating mother under the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
Issue

• The single bench of Justice Krishna S Dixit made the observation when a woman Husna Banu moved the court seeking custody of her child, who was stolen from a maternity hospital in Bengaluru and sold to a childless woman Anupama Desai from the district headquarters town of Koppal.
• A child was stolen from the maternity ward by a psychiatrist and later gave it to another couple by claiming it was their child born out of surrogacy. Police arrested the psychiatrist. 
• Now the case went to the Karnataka High Court over the custody of the child by both the parents.

What is the court view?

• HC said that breastfeeding is an inalienable constitutional right of a lactating mother, and the right of the infant needs to be assimilated with the mother’s right.
• The court dismissed the plea of foster parents to remain the child with them. The court also dismissed another argument of foster parents that they do not have any children, whereas the genetic mother already has two children. So, custody should be given to them.
• The court said that children are not an item to be shared between genetic mother and stranger on the basis of numerical abundance. They are the important part of the mother’s body and soul, so (genetic) mother treats all of them equally in spite of their count.

What rights provides under the constitution?

• Motherhood is protected under the umbrella of fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

Context: A measure of the justice delivery system is the pendency of cases in courts across the country. The article talks about the need and the ways to address judicial pendency.

• The term pendency is used to refer to all cases which have not yet been disposed of, without any reference to how long the case has spent in the judicial system.

Issues

• At present, despite good intentions, the Indian judiciary is moving towards a disaster and needs immediate attention.
• More than 40% of cases are decided after three years in India, while in many other countries less than 1% of cases are decided after three years.
• If India does not act decisively and quickly, this percentage will keep increasing.
• The rich, the powerful and the wrongdoers make wrong use of the judiciary by getting their cases expedited or delayed as they wish.
• The increase in corruption and crime is a direct fallout of the sluggish justice delivery system, severely impacting the poor and marginalised. For them, the judicial process itself becomes a punishment.
• Data shows that about 70% of prisoners in India are undertrials and are mostly poor citizens.

Need for Speedy Justice

• “Justice delayed is justice denied” is a legal maxim. It means that if legal redress or equitable relief to an injured party is available, but is not forthcoming in a timely fashion, it is effectively the same as having no remedy at all.
• People with problems, like people with pains, want relief and they want it as quickly and inexpensively as possible.
• A measure of the justice delivery system is the pendency of cases in courts across the country.

Ensuring Speedy Justice
The following measures can be implemented to tackle this issue.
Filling Vacancies

• Reduce the pendency of cases by filling sanctioned judicial positions, by expediting the process of judicial appointments.
• The responsibility of ensuring near-zero vacancies should be with the Chief Justices of the High Courts and the Chief Justice of India and they should be held accountable for the same.
• Filling all vacancies may result in a requirement of about 5,000 courtrooms. A simple solution would be to run 5,000 courts in two shifts.

Use of technology

• In the backdrop of the pandemic, there is a dire need of improving working with the use of technology.
• The e-Committee of the Supreme Court has been in existence since 2005. It has made the following outstanding recommendations which are not being followed.
• Computer algorithms should decide on case listing, case allocation and adjournments with only a 5% override given to judges.
• All rational reasons and limits should be put on adjournments. Case listing should give the main weightage to ‘first in, first out’.
• Case allocation should take into account logical criteria. This would be a big step in reducing arbitrariness and the unfair advantage that the powerful enjoy.
• The courts should focus on e-filing. This should be implemented in all seriousness and would also save about three lakh trees annually.
• Virtual hearings must be considered. COVID-19 prompted the courts to adopt virtual hearings. If a hybrid virtual hearing model is not adopted, the backlog of cases could cross 5 crores in 2022. The dysfunctional justice system will be perpetually overwhelmed. All the courts in the country must switch to a hybrid virtual mode immediately and start disposing of cases.

Indianise Courts

• In the backdrop of the increasing backlog of cases in the Indian courts, the Chief Justice of India has made a plea to ‘Indianise’ courts.
• That is to make them responsive to the needs of the Indian citizens.

Conclusion

• All the recommendations are based on the Supreme Court’s various decisions and the e-Committee’s recommendations. These would require no changes in laws.
• At a conference, High Court Chief Justices and the Chief Justice of India and the government could make decisions on all of this.
• If all this is done, India’s judicial system can rank among the 10 top countries of the world. These changes would make India the preferred nation for international investments and also fulfil the fundamental right to speedy justice of citizens.

Context: Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana has backed 50% representation for women in the judiciary.
Key concerns

• The CJI said women constituted only about 30% of the subordinate judiciary.
• In High Courts, women judges constitute 11.5%, and in the Supreme Court, there are currently just four women Justices out of the sitting 33 (i.e, 12%).
• Of the 1.7 million advocates, only 15% are women.
• Only 2% of the elected representatives in the State Bar Councils are women. At present, there is no woman member in the Bar Council of India.

Road Ahead

• There is a need to increase gender diversity in legal education. Reservation of a significant percentage of seats in law schools and universities for women would be the first step.
• The inclusion of women judges and lawyers will substantially improve the quality of justice delivery.

Context: Recently, the Supreme court has introduced the “Fast and Secured Transmission of Electronic Records” (FASTER) system.
About FASTER System

• The FASTER (Fast and Secured Transmission of Electronic Records) system proposes transmission of e-authenticated copies of interim orders, stay orders, bail orders and records of proceedings to the duty-holders for compliance and due execution, through a secured electronic communication channel.

Need & Significance

• It ensures that Prisoners granted bail will no longer have to wait for the physical copy of the order to reach jails for their release. 
• This will ensure the effective implementation of Article 21 (right to life).
• It is high time to utilise information and communication technology tools for efficient transmission of court’s orders.
• Prevent unnecessary arrests and custody of people even after the court had already granted them its protection.

Challenges

• The availability of internet connection in jails across the nation as without this facility transmission of such orders to prisons will not be possible.

Context: Powered by an Atlas V 401 rocket, Landsat 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. 
Key Points

• This Joint satellite mission by USGS and NASA will inform scientific decision-making regarding climate change, wildfire management, and water usage.
• Landsat 9 replaces the 22-year-old Landsat 7 satellite. 
• Landsat images have been used to study the health of forests, coral reefs, monitor water quality and melting glaciers.
• In tandem with the currently operational Landsat 8 mission, Landsat 9 will provide major improvements to our Earth observation capabilities and will ensure the continuation of the 50-year Landsat data record of Earth observations.

Earth Observation Satellites of India
Recently, India has launched EOS-01 satellite.

• It is an earth observation satellite and is intended for applications in agriculture, forestry and disaster management support.
• Earth observation satellites are the satellites equipped with remote sensing technology. Earth observation is the gathering of information about Earth's physical, chemical and biological systems.
• Many earth observation satellites have been employed on sun-synchronous orbit.

Other earth observation satellites launched by ISRO include RESOURCESAT- 2, 2A, CARTOSAT-1, 2, 2A, 2B, RISAT-1 and 2, OCEANSAT-2, Megha-Tropiques, SARAL and SCATSAT-1, INSAT-3DR, 3D, etc.