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Tuesday, November 26, 2019

GS Paper-I Syllabus with Recommended Hindi and English Books

13:13


GS Paper-I Syllabus with Recommended Hindi and English Books 
सामान्य अध्ययन प्रश्नपत्र-1
भारतीय विरासत और संस्कृति, विश्व का इतिहास एवं भूगोल और समाज
GS-Paper 1
Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society
क्र.सं.विषयS.No.Topics
1.भारतीय संस्कृति में प्राचीन काल से आधुनिक काल तक के कला के रूप, साहित्य और वास्तुकला के मुख्य पहलू शामिल होंगे।1.Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.
2.18वीं सदी के लगभग मध्य से लेकर वर्तमान समय तक का आधुनिक भारतीय इतिहास– महत्त्वपूर्ण घटनाएँ, व्यक्तित्व, विषय।2.Modern Indian history from about the middle of the eighteenth century until the present- significant events, personalities, issues.
3.स्वतंत्रता संग्राम इसके विभिन्न चरण और देश के विभिन्न भागों से इसमें अपना योगदान देने वाले महत्त्वपूर्ण व्यक्ति/उनका योगदान।3.The Freedom Struggle – its various stages and important contributors/contributions from different parts of the country.
4.स्वतंत्रता के पश्चात् देश के अंदर एकीकरण और पुनर्गठन।4.Post-independence consolidation and reorganization within the country.
5.विश्व के इतिहास में 18वीं सदी तथा बाद की घटनाएँ यथा औद्योगिक क्रांति, विश्व युद्ध, राष्ट्रीय सीमाओं का पुनःसीमांकन, उपनिवेशवाद, उपनिवेशवाद की समाप्ति, राजनीतिक दर्शन जैसे साम्यवाद,पूंजीवाद, समाजवाद आदि शामिल होंगे, उनके रूप और समाज पर उनका प्रभाव।5.History of the world will include events from 18th century such as Industrial revolution, World wars, Redrawal of national boundaries, Colonisation, Decolonisation, Political philosophies like Communism, Capitalism, Socialism etc.- their forms and effect on the society.
6.भारतीय समाज की मुख्य विशेषताएँ, भारत की विविधता।6.Salient features of Indian Society, Diversity of India.
7.महिलाओं की भूमिका और महिला संगठन, जनसंख्या एवं संबद्ध मुद्दे, गरीबी और विकासात्मक विषय, शहरीकरण, उनकी समस्याएँ और उनके रक्षोपाय।7.Role of women and women’s organisations, Population and associated issues, Poverty and developmental issues, Urbanization, their problems and their remedies.
8.भारतीय समाज पर भूमंडलीकरण का प्रभाव।8.Effects of globalisation on Indian society.
9.सामाजिक सशक्तीकरण, संप्रदायवाद, क्षेत्रवाद और धर्मनिरपेक्षता9.Social empowerment, Communalism, Regionalism & Secularism.
10.विश्व के भौतिक भूगोल की मुख्य विशेषताएँ।10.Salient features of world’s physical geography.
11.विश्वभर के मुख्य प्राकृतिक संसाधनों का वितरण (दक्षिण एशिया और भारतीय उपमहाद्वीप को शामिल करते हुए), विश्व (भारत सहित) के विभिन्न भागों में प्राथमिक, द्वितीयक और तृतीयक क्षेत्र के उद्योगों को स्थापित करने के लिये ज़िम्मेदार कारक।11.Distribution of key natural resources across the world (including South Asia and the Indian sub-continent); factors responsible for the location of primary, secondary and tertiary sector industries in various parts of the world (including India).
12.भूकंप, सुनामी, ज्वालामुखीय हलचल, चक्रवात आदि जैसी महत्त्वपूर्ण भू-भौतिकीय घटनाएँ, भौगोलिक विशेषताएँ और उनके स्थान- अति महत्त्वपूर्ण भौगोलिक विशेषताओं (जल-स्रोत और हिमावरण सहित) और वनस्पति एवं प्राणिजगत में परिवर्तन और इस प्रकार के परिवर्तनों के प्रभाव।12.Important Geophysical phenomenasuch as Earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, Cyclone etc., geographical features and their location- changes in critical geographical features (including Water bodies and Ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.

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The HINDU Notes – 26th November 2019

13:02





📰 Sri Lanka won’t do anything that will harm India’s interests: Gotabaya Rajapaksa

Newly elected Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said ahead of his visit to New Delhi that he wanted to work very closely with both India and China

•Days ahead of his first State visit abroad, to New Delhi, Sri Lanka’s newly-elected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said his government will not do anything that would threaten India’s security.

•“We don’t want to do anything which will threaten the security of India... Our involvement with China is purely commercial,” he told the Indian website Bharat Shakti, in his first interview to foreign media since becoming President a week ago.

•President Gotabaya is scheduled to visit New Delhi on November 29, following an invitation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar was the first senior foreign official to meet the newly-elected President in Colombo, to hand over the PM’s invitation, hours after Mr. Gotabaya assumed duty.

•Reiterating his “neutral” foreign policy vision, Mr. Gotabaya said, “we don’t want to get in between the power struggles of superpowers. Further, commenting on his predecessor government’s agreement with China on the southern Hambantota Port — the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration leased it to China for 99 years — Mr. Gotabaya said: “I am not afraid to say, that was a mistake.”

Thaw in relations

•The newly-elected Sri Lankan President’s visit signals a full circle in diplomatic ties between New Delhi and the Rajapaksas in the last decade — with relations shifting from close cooperation to heightening tensions and now, to what appears a thaw. 

•Mr. Gotabaya is well-known in New Delhi’s power corridors, particularly due to his role in the “troika” — a three-member team with his brother Basil Rajapaksa and senior bureaucrat Lalith Weeratunga — that held frequent discussions with Indian counterparts during the final years of the civil war that ended in 2009. The troika engaged on behalf of then President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who has now been appointed Prime Minister of a caretaker government by his younger brother Mr. Gotabaya.

•The dynamic would change post-war. Many in South Block associate Mr. Gotabaya’s tenure as Defence Secretary under his brother’s presidency, with Sri Lanka allowing Chinese naval warships to dock in Colombo in 2014, despite India voicing serious concern. Following the strain, the Rajapaksa brothers, at different points, even accused the Indian establishment of playing a role in “regime change” in the island in 2015. 

•However, the friction seemed to reduce in the subsequent years. Mr. Modi, who visited Sri Lanka in March 2015 — months after Mr. Mahinda was defeated —and later in May 2017, and more recently this June, after the Easter terror attacks, met Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa each time. 

•The shift in relations was further evident during Mr. Mahinda’s visit to New Delhi in September 2018 when he, along with his son parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa, met Mr. Modi. Both sides put out multiple photographs and messages around the visit, that was closely watched by political analysts.

Indian projects’ fate

•Meanwhile, New Delhi’s list of pending India-assisted projects in Sri Lanka looms. It figured in different bilateral meetings over the last few years, including in the October 2018 meeting between PM Modi and then PM Wickremesinghe in New Delhi, when the former “expressed concern” over the delay in the projects. 

•India is keen on projects, including an LNG terminal in Kerawalapitiya near Colombo, a 50-100 MW solar power plant and development of an oil tank farm in the eastern district Trincomalee and the East Container Terminal at the Colombo port.

•While development and security have dominated bilateral talks over the last few years, New Delhi’s recent remarks that India “expects” Mr. Gotabaya to take post-war reconciliation forward to ensure, peace, dignity and justice for the Tamil people has sparked heightened interest in India’s foreign policy strategy with the new Rajapaksa administration.

📰 India’s enduring document of governance

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Rural Poverty in India - Studying the last 5 years

07:29
What is the issue?
  • There are discussions in the country about India’s rural poverty considering the period of last 5 years.
  • Most of these discussions fail to factor in multi-dimensional changes.
Why rural poverty in India is a subject of discussion recently?
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THE HINDU NEWSPAPER IMPORTANT ARTICLES 26.11.2019

Monday, November 25, 2019

Daily Current Affairs, 25th November 2019

23:21





1) International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women: 25 November
•The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is observed across the world on 25 November annually. The theme for this year is “Orange the World: Generation Equality Stands Against Rape”. This is a efforts to prevent and end violence against women at the global, regional and national levels show that there is widespread impunity on sexual violence and rape. The colour orange in the theme symbolizes a better future without the pervasive human rights violation that affects 1 in 3 women and girls all over the globe.

2) NCC celebrates its 71st Raising Day
•The National Cadet Corps (NCC), the world’s largest uniformed youth organization, is celebrating its 71st Raising Day on 24 November. The celebrations began, with Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar and DG NCC Lt Gen Rajeev Chopra paying homage to the martyrs, who made the supreme sacrifice in the service of the nation, at the National War Memorial in New Delhi.

•The NCC Raising Day was also celebrated all over the country with the cadets participating in marches, cultural activities and social development programs. NCC continues its relentless efforts towards moulding the youth into responsible citizens of the country.

3) Sangai Festival 2019 begins in Manipur
•Every year the State of Manipur celebrates the “Manipur Sangai Festival” from 21st to 30th November. The ‘Festival’ is named after the State animal, Sangai, the brow-antlered deer found only in Manipur. It started in the year 2010 and has grown over the years into a big platform for Manipur to showcase its rich tradition and culture to the world.

•The festival is organized by the State Tourism Department and biggest festival held annually to promote tourism. The formal inaugural function of the festival was held at Hapta Kangjeibung at Imphal. During the festival, cultural programmes, traditional games, folk dance and classical music will be performed by different communities of the State as well as from other States.

4) Amaravati included in India map as the capital of Andhra Pradesh
•The Survey of India, India’s central engineering agency in charge of mapping and surveying has released an updated map of India with Amaravati as the capital of Andhra Pradesh (AP). Amaravati had been missing from the previous map released by the Centre On November 2, 2019, which showed Hyderabad as the common capital of Telangana & Andhra Pradesh. The state of AP was bifurcated in the year 2014 and while it was initially decided that Hyderabad would serve as the common administrative capital for a period of 10 years.

5) Ocean Dance Festival 2019 starts in Cox Bazar
•The  Ocean Dance Festival 2019 kicked off in Cox Bazar of Bangladesh. Ocean Dance Festival is the largest international dance festival of Bangladesh in which more than 200 dancers, choreographers and scholars from 15 countries are participating.

•The theme of this year’s festival is ‘Bridging the distance’ or Durotter Shetubandhan. The dances performed at the event will show the idea of bridging cultural and economic distances. The festival is being organised by the Nrityajog which is the Bangladesh wing of World Dance Alliance (WDA). The festival aims to expand cultural tourism in Bangladesh. It also features seminars and discussion apart from the dance performances by the artists.

6) Microsoft rolls out the K12 Education Transformation Framework in India




•Microsoft rolled out its K12 Education Transformation Framework more widely to schools across India at the second edition of the Microsoft Education Days in Gurgaon. Microsoft Education Days 2019 brought together more than 700 school leaders, educators, students and Microsoft partners to deliberate on the future of learning.

•It featured sessions moderated by Microsoft leaders and Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Experts on using technologies like AI, Teams, Minecraft and Flipgrid to collaborate and create unique learning experiences. Teachers and students from schools across India also demonstrated the innovative ways in which they are digitally transforming education by bringing in AI, gamification, personalization and simplifying STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) learning for students.

7) India to host SCO forum of Young Scientists and Innovators 2020
•India will host the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Forum of Young Scientists and Innovators in 2020. The 5th Meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Member States Heads of Ministries and Departments of Science and Technology and Permanent Working Group on S&T Cooperation concluded in Moscow, Russia.

•Eight SCO member states’ heads of delegation signed the Protocol of the 5th Meeting of Ministries and Departments of Science and Technology at the end of the three-day meeting. The meeting agreed with India & proposal to host the SCO Forum of Young Scientists and Innovators in 2020.

8) Marathon man Kipchoge, hurdle heroine Muhammad win Athlete of the Year
•Eliud Kipchoge, the first man to run a marathon in less than two hours, and 400 metres hurdles world champion Dalilah Muhammad won the World Athlete of the Year awards.

•Kipchoge, claimed governing body World Athletics’ year-ending prize in Monaco after making history last month when he ran the marathon distance of 42.195 kilometres (26.219 miles) in 1hr 59min 40.2sec. American Muhammad won her award after a magnificent year that saw her set a world record of 52.20 seconds at the US Trials in Iowa in July breaking a record that had stood since 2003.

9) RBI Enhances Scope Of Non-Resident Rupee Accounts
•The RBI expanded the scope of Special Non-Resident Rupee Accounts (SNRR account) by permitting non-residents to open such accounts for rupee-denominated overseas borrowings, trade credit and trade invoicing for popularising cross-border transactions in the domestic currency.

•Any person resident outside India, having a business interest in India, can open a non-interest bearing Special Non-Resident Rupee Account (SNRR account) with a bank for bona fide transactions in rupees. The restriction on the tenure of SNRR account, which is currently 7 years, has also been removed. RBI has also modified norms regarding re-export of unsold rough diamonds from the special notified zone of Customs without export declaration form (EDF) formality.

10) NVIDIA announces world’s largest GPU-accelerated cloud-based supercomputer
•NVIDIA has announced a new kind of GPU-accelerated supercomputer in the cloud on Microsoft Azure. NDv2 supercomputer is designed to handle demanding AI and high-performance computing applications, using up to 800 NVIDIA V100 Tensor Core GPUs interconnected on a single. Mellanox InfiniBand backend network, making it the world’s largest GPU-accelerated cloud-based supercomputer. It enables customers to rent an AI supercomputer on-demand from their desk, and match the capabilities of large-scale on-premises supercomputers.

11) Rafael Nadal wins Davis Cup title 2019
•Rafael Nadal has clinched 6th Davis Cup title for Spain after beating Denis Shapovalov of Canada in front of a jubilant home crowd in Madrid. Nadal defeated Shapovalov 6-3, 7-6 (9-7) to clinch Spain’s 2-0 win against Canada.



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The HINDU Notes – 25th November 2019

13:46




📰 Open defecation-free India: National Statistical Office survey debunks Swachh Bharat claims

Open defecation-free India: National Statistical Office survey debunks Swachh Bharat claims
Only 71% of rural households had access to toilets at a time the Centre was claiming 95%

•The latest National Statistical Office (NSO) survey on sanitation debunked the claims of an open defecation-free or ODF India made by the Centre’s flagship Swachh Bharat scheme, although it did record great progress in toilet access and use in rural areas.

•The survey, released on Saturday, showed that about 71% of rural households had access to toilets at a time the Centre was claiming 95%. On October 2, 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that the whole country was ODF with complete access to toilets.

•The NSO survey was carried out between July and December 2018, with a reference date of October 1. Large States which had been declared ODF – that is, 100% access to toilets and 100% usage – even before the survey began included Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. Others which were declared ODF during the survey period included Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

•According to the NSO, almost 42% of rural households in Jharkhand had no access to a toilet at that time. In Tamil Nadu, the gap was 37%, followed by 34% in Rajasthan. In Gujarat, which was one of the earliest States declared ODF, back in October 2017, almost a quarter of all rural households had no toilet access, the NSO data showed. The other major States listed also had significant gaps: Karnataka (30%), MP (29%), Andhra Pradesh (22%) and Maharashtra (22%).

•In the first week of October 2018, the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Grameen) said 25 States and Union Territories had been declared ODF, while toilet access across the country touched 95%. In reality, the NSO said 28.7% of rural households had no toilet access at the time. With regard to this data, the NSO noted, “There may be respondent bias in the reporting of access to latrine as question on benefits received by the households from government schemes was asked prior to the question on access of households to latrine.”

•The 71% access to toilets was still a significant improvement over the situation during the last survey period in 2012, when only 40% of rural households had access to toilets.

•The NSO’s statistics on toilet usage are also encouraging. It said 95% of people with access to toilets in rural India used them regularly, indicating that the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’s efforts to change behaviour have borne fruit. Only 3.5% of those with toilet access in rural India said that they never used them. This was aided by the fact that water was available around the toilet in more than 95% of cases.

•NSO data indicates that the next big challenge may lie in the disposal of waste. More than 50% of rural Indian households with toilets had septic tanks, while another 21% used single pits, both of which need to be cleaned and produce faecal sludge that must be disposed of safely. Only 10% of toilets were built with the twin leach pit system pushed by the Swachh Bharat scheme, which safely composts waste on its own without any need for cleaning or disposal.

📰 Midnight coup: On Maharashtra government formation

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SSC MTS 2019 Paper-2 (Essay + Letter asked on 24.11.2019)

07:56




SSC MTS 2019 Descriptive Paper (Essay + Letter asked on 24-11-2019)
Essay Topics:
1. Air Pollution.
2. Importance of Education
3. Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan
4. Increasing Stress on Students
5. Responsibilities for Family


Letter Topics:

1. Write an application to the Principal asking extra time to pay the fees.
2. Write a letter to your friend, telling him the reasons why you are unable to attend his wedding.
3. Write a letter to Delhi Nagar Nigam regarding mosquito issues.
4. Write a letter to your Friend, about your new hostel life experience
5. Write a letter to the Librarian requesting more GK books in the library.





निबंध :
1. वायु प्रदूषण।
2. शिक्षा का महत्व
3. स्वच्छ भारत अभियान
4. छात्रों पर बढ़ता तनाव
5. परिवार के लिए जिम्मेदारियां

पत्र :
1. प्रधानाचार्य को एक आवेदन पत्र लिखकर फीस का भुगतान करने के लिए अतिरिक्त समय की मांग करें।
2. अपने दोस्त को एक पत्र लिखें, उसे कारण बताएं कि आप उसकी शादी में शामिल होने में असमर्थ क्यों हैं।
3. कॉलोनी में पनपते मच्छरों के बारे में दिल्ली नगर निगम को एक पत्र लिखें।
4. अपने नए हॉस्टल जीवन के अनुभव के बारे में, अपने मित्र को एक पत्र लिखें
5. पुस्तकालय में अधिक GK पुस्तकों का अनुरोध करने के लिए लाइब्रेरियन को एक पत्र लिखें।




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What Kind of Reforms Do the Civil Services Really Need?

07:51




Reform is long overdue in the Indian Administrative Services, but how should the government go about it? 
The civil services are a crucial pillar of the Indian state, having been responsible for administering the country before it was even independent. The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) was established in 1926, but was re-envisioned for independent India by Sardar Vallabhai Patel. It was meant to produce an elite cadre of officers who would be politically neutral. Recently, there has been talk of reforming the administrative services and especially, the process of recruitment. Aided by this reading list, we explore if the reforms suggested will be effective in improving the bureaucracy.
1) Reform versus corruption?
Earlier this year the government decided to allow the recruitment of 10 experts to the joint-secretary level from outside the services. This move has raised serious questions about the political inclinations that the appointed experts might have, and how the ruling party might use it to their benefit. Naresh Chandra Saxena, a retired public servant himself, writes that there are risks of corrupting the service with this reform, but one must hope that the process of selection is impartial. Instead, the government should ensure stable tenures so that there is incentive for officers to acquire expertise in their chosen sectors.
Many have condemned the bypassing of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) as an attempt to facilitate the backdoor entry of people committed to the present government’s ideology, or recruit employees working for those industrialists who are close to the ruling party.
2) Disproportionate representation
It is not that reform in the services is not welcome. There are several structural problems that have crept up in the administrative services, such as disproportionate representation. R K Barik’s 2004 article, studied recruitment patterns to reveal a distinct upper class, urban bias.
The trend in 1970s shows that ‘sarkari’ schools produced the majority of our civil servants. This trend has now changed which is undemocratic. Students appearing in the English medium now dominate the scene, though students can appear in all the languages recognised by the state. The students appearing in Hindi are able to compete somehow but other linguistic groups are in a disadvantaged position. Though the Indian civil service is turning into a representative organisation from caste and community point of view, at the same time it is getting confined to a small section of the society.




Another study by Syed Najiullah in 2006 found that the percentage share of Muslim officers recruited by the services did not correspond with the percentage share of Muslims with regard to the total population.
It is clear that while the Muslim population in the country is almost 12 per cent, their representation in the country's highest services was only 3.15 per cent between 1981 and 2000. Similarly, in the Indian police service, out of the total recruitment of 3,284 officers in the same period, only 120 were Muslims with a percentage of 3.65.
3) The administrative machinery has grown defunct over the years
In 2005, P S Appu, who joined the IAS in 1951 lamented the debasement of the services. Drawing from his personal experience working in the service, he argued that the bureaucratic machinery was no longer serving its purpose because of a severe lapse in discipline and ethics. He recommended that the system ought to be retained, but needed thorough reform.
After spending five years under the central government I returned to Bihar in July 1975. Bihar’s administration had declined further. As finance secretary I found that the finances of the state were in a precarious condition. Financial discipline had evaporated. Long before the advent of the wireless and the telephone, the British had included in the Treasury Code a rule (Rule 27) empowering collectors to draw money from the treasury to meet emergencies like floods, earthquakes, devastating fires, etc. To my dismay I found that collectors were freely drawing money for all manner of trivial purposes under Rule 27 of the Treasury Code. In one case a collector had drawn money under the rule to buy a staff car for the SDO of another district. All checks and balances had disappeared. There was no accountability and any one could do what he pleased.
4) Severely limited personal liberties of civil service officers
Govind Bhattacharjee has suggested that the very constitutional provision on which the civil services are based needs to be urgently reformed to make room for “a new code of ethics based on self-regulation, accountability and transparency.” Under the Central Civil Services (CCS) (Conduct) Rules, 1964, fundamental rights available to citizens of country are sometimes denied to officers serving in the cadre. For instance, Rule 9 prohibits any public servant to publish “in his own name or anonymously or pseudonymously or in the name of any other person” any “statement of fact or opinion which has the effect of an adverse criticism of any current or recent policy or action of the Central Government or a State Government.”
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