aditya
08:42
GS SCORE Prelims 2021 Test 38 With Solution PDF
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Thursday, July 01, 2021
VISION IAS Mains 2021 Test 12 With Solution PDF
aditya
08:35
VISION IAS Mains 2021 Test 12 With Solution PDF
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Vision IAS Weekly Focus India Vs Bharat: Is Rural-Urban divide a reality or a metaphor? PDF
aditya
08:28
Vision IAS Weekly Focus India Vs Bharat: Is Rural-Urban divide a reality or a metaphor? PDF
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Wednesday, June 30, 2021
Shankar IAS May 2021 Current Affairs PDF
aditya
18:53
Shankar IAS May 2021 Current Affairs PDF
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Daily Current Affairs, 30th June 2021
aditya
18:35
1) International Asteroid Day: 30 June
•International Asteroid Day is observed globally on 30th June every year. International Asteroid Day aims to raise public awareness about the asteroid impact hazard and to inform the public about the crisis communication actions to be taken at the global level in case of a credible near-Earth object threat.
2) International Day of Parliamentarism: 30 June
•International Day of Parliamentarism is observed globally on 30 June every year. The International Day of Parliamentarism is a time to review the progress that parliaments have made in achieving some key goals to be more representative and move with the times, including carrying out self-assessments, working to include more women and young MPs, and adapting to new technologies.
3) PM Modi Launches Japanese-style Zen Garden and Kaizen Academy
•Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi virtually inaugurated a Zen Garden and Kaizen Academy at Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA) premises in Ahmedabad. These two new initiatives are part of PM’s vision of creating a ‘Mini-Japan’ in Gujarat. The newly launched Zen Garden in Ahmedabad will showcase several elements of Japanese art, culture, landscape and architecture.
•The Zen garden features a statue of Lord Buddha. The garden is built in partnership with the Japan Information and Study Centre at AMA and Indo-Japan Friendship Association (IJFA), Gujarat, supported by the Hyogo International Association (HIA), Japan.
4) Centre inaugurates Asia’s longest and world’s fifth-longest High Speed Track
•Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Prakash Javadekar has inaugurated NATRAX- the High-Speed Track(HST) in Indore which is the longest such track in Asia. NATRAX, developed in an area of 1000 acres of land, is a one-stop solution for all sorts of high-speed performance tests for the widest categories of vehicles from 2 wheelers to heavy tractor-trailers. Launching the world-class 11.3 km High-Speed Track, Javadekar stated that India is destined to become a hub of automobiles, manufacturing, and spare parts.
•The NATRAX centre has multiple test capabilities like measurements of maximum speed, acceleration, constant speed fuel consumption, emission tests through real road driving simulation, high-speed handling and stability evaluation during manoeuvred such as lane change, high-speed durability testing, etc. and is a Centre of excellence for Vehicle Dynamics.
•According to the ministry, HST is used for measuring the maximum speed capability of high-end cars like BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Tesla and so forth which cannot be measured on any of the Indian test tracks. Being centrally located in Madhya Pradesh, it is accessible to most of the major OEMs. Foreign OEMs will be looking at NATRAX HST for the development of prototype cars for Indian conditions. At present, foreign OEMs go to their respective high-speed track abroad for high-speed test requirements.
5) Philippines included in FATF grey list
•Philippines has been included in the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). FATF has released its grey list of jurisdictions that will be subjected to increased monitoring. In addition to the Philippines, Haiti, Malta, and South Sudan have also been added to the grey list. Now, these jurisdictions will be required to submit progress reports to the FATF thrice a year. The Philippines was removed from the blacklist of FATF in 2005. It was previously included in FATF’s blacklist in 2000.
6) China turns on world’s 2nd-biggest hydropower dam
•The Government of China officially turned on the first two generating units of the Baihetan Dam, the world’s second-biggest hydroelectric dam, to start generating energy. The Baihetan Dam is set up on the Jinsha River, in southwestern China.
7) Shambhu Nath Srivastava appointed as the chairman of IFUNA
•Justice (Retd.) Shambhu Nath Srivastava, a former judge of Allahabad High Court and former chief Lokayukta of Chhattisgarh, has been appointed the chairman of the Indian Federation of United Nations Associations (IFUNA). Indian Federation of United Nations Associations, a non-profit organisation to promote objectives of the United Nations and its specialised agencies. IFUNA enjoys special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the UN.
8) Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad launches ‘itat e-dwar’
•Union Minister for Law & Justice, Communications and Electronics & IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad has formally launched the e-filing portal of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), ‘itat e-dwar’, in New Delhi. The newly developed e-Filing Portal would enable the parties to file their Appeals, Miscellaneous Applications, documents, paper books, etc., electronically. The portal will enable the online filing of appeals, applications and documents by various parties.
•According to Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, the launch of the e-filing portal of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), should be seen as a larger narrative of transformation the country is undergoing through the digital medium.
9) European Space Agency to hire first disabled astronaut
•The European Space Agency will hire and launch the world’s first physically disabled astronaut. It received 22000 applicants for this recruitment call. ESA is developing technologies for para-astronaut. It will give a message to the world that ‘Space is for everyone’.
•European Space Agency is facing tough competition from private players and other space agencies for launching commercial satellites. Amazon founder Bezos will become the first man to go into space on his own rocket in July 2021.
10) CJI NV Ramana release a book titled “Anomalies in Law and Justice”
•Chief Justice of India Justice NV Ramana has released former Supreme Court judge RV Raveendran’s book “Anomalies in Law and Justice”. The book is an attempt to explain to the layman that the law and the legal system is still evolving and that it requires more critical thinking to resolve issues that have persisted in the system for a long time. The book covers procedural as well as substantive law relating to civil procedure, electoral reforms and the alternate dispute resolution mechanism.
11) Shafali Verma becomes youngest Indian to make debut in all formats
•Opener Shafali Verma has become the youngest Indian cricketer to make a debut in all formats, when India took on England in the first ODI in Bristol. She took 17 years and 150 days to make her debut in all formats. She has become the fifth-youngest cricketer overall in the list of all format debuts.
•The list is topped by Afghanistan’s Mujeeb Ur Rahman at 17 years and 78 days is the youngest player to play all formats, followed by former England wicket-keeper Sarah Taylor. Australia’s Elysse Perry is third on the list, followed by Mohammad Amir.
12) ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 to be Held in UAE
•ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, originally slated to be held in India, will now be shifted to the UAE. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which holds the hosting rights of this year’s event, will inform the International Cricket Council (ICC) in this regard. The T20 World Cup was postponed last year due to the pandemic.
•The BCCI will remain the hosts of the event, which will now be held in Dubai International Stadium, the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, the Sharjah Stadium, and the Oman Cricket Academy Ground, from 17 October to 14 November 2021.
13) Indian shooter Rahi Sarnobat wins Gold at ISSF World Cup shooting
•India’s Rahi Sarnobat clinched the gold medal in the women’s 25m pistol event at the ISSF shooting World Cup. She is the first Indian to win one silver and two bronze medals in the ongoing tournament. She scored 591 out of a maximum of 600 in the qualifying stage.
•France’s Mathilde Lamolle won a silver medal in the final. Russian Vitalina Batsarashkina won the bronze medal. Indian shooter Manu Bhaker finished at 7 positions. This is the last competition before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. ISSF World Cup 2021 is being held in Osijek, Croatia.
The HINDU Notes – 30th June 2021
aditya
18:18
📰 Indians value religious freedom and tolerance but not great at integration, finds Pew survey
South India more inclusive, says Pew Center report on religious attitudes in the country.
•Most Indians, cutting across religions, feel they enjoy religious freedom, value religious tolerance, and regard respect for all religions as central to what India is as a nation. At the same time, in what might seem like a contradiction, the majority in each of the major religious groups show a marked preference for religious segregation and “want to live separately”, according to a nation-wide survey on religious attitudes, behaviours and beliefs conducted by Pew Research Center, a non-profit based in Washington DC.
•For instance, the report found that 91% of Hindus felt they have religious freedom, while 85% of them believed that respecting all religions was very important ‘to being truly Indian’. Also, for most Hindus, religious tolerance was not just a civic virtue but also a religious value, with 80% of them stating that respecting other religions was an integral aspect of ‘being Hindu’. Other religions showed similar numbers for freedom of religion and religious tolerance. While 89% of Muslims and Christians said they felt free to practice their religion, the comparative figures for Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains were 82%, 93%, and 85% respectively.
•On the question of religious tolerance, 78% of Muslims felt it was an essential aspect of being Indian, while 79% deemed it a part of their religious identity as Muslims. Other religious denominations scored similarly high on religious tolerance.
•The survey also revealed a number of shared beliefs that cut across religious barriers. For example, while 77% of Hindus said they believed in karma, an identical percentage of Muslims said so as well. Also, 32% of Christians (along with 81% of Hindus) believed in the purifying power of the Ganga, while the majority in all the major faiths said respecting elders is very important to their religion.
Index of religious segregation
•And yet, paradoxically, despite these shared values and a high regard for religious tolerance, the majority in all the faiths scored poorly on the metrics for religious segregation: composition of friends circle, views on stopping inter-religious marriage, and willingness to accept people of other religions as neighbours.
•The report, observing that “in India, a person’s religion is typically also the religion of that person’s close friends”, states that relatively few Indians (13%) had a mixed friends circle. Nearly half (47%) of Hindus said that all their close friends shared their religious identity, while 39% said most of their friends were fellow Hindus. The comparative figures for other faiths were 45% and 44% for Muslims, 22% and 56% for Christians, 25% and 56% for Sikhs, and 22% and 52% for Buddhists. In other words, people belonging to smaller religious groups were less likely than Hindus and Muslims to say that all their friends were of the same religion.
•On the question of inter-religious marriage, most Hindus (67%), Muslims (80%), Sikhs (59%), and Jains (66%) felt it was ‘very important’ to stop the women in their community from marrying outside their religion (similar rates of opposition to men marrying outside religion). But considerably fewer Christians (37%) and Buddhists (46%) felt this way.
•As for the third metric, the majorities in all the religious groups were, hypothetically, willing to accept members of other religious groups as neighbours, but a significant number had reservations. Among Hindus, most were willing to live near a member of a religious minority, such as Muslim (57%), a Christian (59%), or a Jain (59%). But altogether 36% of Hindus said they would not be willing to live near a Muslim, with 31% saying the same for Christians. Jains were even more likely to express such views, with 54% saying they would not accept a Muslim neighbour, and 47% saying the same about Christians.
•In contrast, Buddhists were most likely to voice acceptance of other religious groups as neighbours, with roughly 80% of them wiling to accept a Muslim, Christian, Sikh or Jain as a neighbour, and even more (89%) ready to accept a Hindu neighbour. About 78% of Muslims said they would be willing to have a Hindu as a neighbour.
•Interestingly, the survey found that Hindus who voted for the BJP in the 2019 elections tended to be less accepting of religious minorities in their neighbourhood. Only about half of the Hindus who voted for the BJP said they would accept a Muslim (51%) or a Christian (53%) as neighbours, compared with higher shares of those who voted for other parties (64% and 67% respectively).
•Geography was a key factor in determining attitudes, with people in the south of India more religiously integrated and less opposed to inter-religious marriages. People in the South “are less likely than those in other regions to say all their close friends share their religion (29%),” noted the report. Among Hindus in the South, 31% said that all their close friends were Hindu, compared to 47% of Hindus nationally. An even lower number of Muslims in the South (19%) said that all their friends were Muslim, while 45% of Muslims across the country said all their close friends were fellow Muslims.
Religious identity and nationalism
•The survey also found that Hindus tend to see their religious identity and Indian national identity as closely intertwined, with 64% saying that it was ‘very important’ to be Hindu to be “truly” Indian. Most Hindus (59%) also linked Indian identity with being able to speak Hindi. And among Hindus who believed it was very important to be Hindu in order to be truly Indian, a full 80% also believed it was very important to speak Hindi to be truly Indian. About 60% of Hindu voters who linked Indian identity to being Hindu and speaking in Hindi voted for the BJP, compared with only a third among Hindu voters for whom these aspects did not matter for national identity.
Southern deviation
•The survey found that nationally, three-in-ten Hindus took both these positions: linking being Hindu and speaking Hindi to being Indian, and voting for BJP. But again, there was a clear geographical skew in their distribution: while roughly half of the Hindu voters in northern and central India fell into this category, only 5% of Hindu voters in the South did so.
•Also, Hindu nationalist sentiments were less prevalent in the South. Among Hindus, those in the South (42%) were far less likely than those in Central states (83%) or the North (69%) to say that being Hindu was very important to being truly Indian. Also, people in the South were somewhat less religious than those in other regions: 69% said religion was very important to their lives, while 92% in Central India held the same view. Only 37% of Indians in the South said they prayed every day, compared to more than half of the Indians surveyed in the other regions.
•The Pew Center’s survey of religion across India is based on nearly 30,000 face-to-face interviews of adults conducted in 17 languages from November 17, 2019 to March 23, 2020. The largest such survey in India till date, it covers the experiences and attitudes of Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Sikhs and Jains.
•The themes covered by the survey include religious identity, beliefs and practices, views on Indian national identity, caste, experiences with discrimination, religious conversion, and the connection between economic development and religious observance.
📰 Ensure that no migrant worker goes hungry, Supreme Court instructs government
Re-energising India’s Africa Policy
aditya
08:07
What is the issue?
- India-Africa trade and engagement is on a decline due to various factors.
- Policy implementation in this regard needs a critical review as Africa is considered a foreign policy priority by India.
How significant is Africa to India?
- India’s top five markets today in Africa are South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya and Togo.
- The countries from which India imports the most are South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Angola and Guinea.
- India’s top three exports to Africa are:
- mineral fuels and oils (processed petroleum products)
- pharmaceutical products
- vehicles
- Mineral fuels and oils (essentially crude oil) and pearls, precious or semi-precious stones are the top two imports.
- The composition of the India-Africa trade has not changed much over the last two decades.
What is the current trade scenario?
- In 2020-21, India’s exports to Africa saw a reduction of 4.4% over the previous year.
- And imports saw a reduction of 25%.
- Thus, bilateral trade valued at $55.9 billion in 2020-21, fell by $10.8 billion compared to 2019-20.
- India’s investments in Africa too saw a decrease from $3.2 billion in 2019-20 to $2.9 billion in 2020-21.
- Total investments over 25 years, from April 1996 to March 2021, are now just $70.7 billion.
- This is about one-third of China’s investments in Africa.
What are the key reasons for the decline?
U.S.'s decision to block Iran-linked websites
aditya
08:06
Why in news?
The US government has blocked dozens of US website domains connected to Iran.
What is the rationale?
- The move is linked to what the US says are disinformation efforts.
- It has accused the sites, including Iran’s state-owned Press TV, of spreading disinformation.
- In the past, the U.S. had cracked down on Chinese and Iranian media over similar allegations.
- The move comes days after Iran elected Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline cleric, as President.
- Mr. Raisi has been sanctioned by the U.S. for his alleged role in the execution of political prisoners and other rights violations.
- His election as the President has already escalated tensions between the two countries.
- The U.S. wants Iran to return to the terms of the original Iran-U.S. nuclear deal.
- It also wants to discuss Iran’s ballistic missile programme and its regional activities.
- Mr. Raisi, known for his hardline domestic and foreign policy views, has rejected such demands outright.
Is the US move justified?
Protection of Intellectual Property Online - DMCA Notice
aditya
08:01
Why in news?
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was locked out of his Twitter account for an hour, allegedly over a notice received for violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
What is the DMCA?
- The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA, is a 1998 law passed in the US.
- It is among the world’s first laws recognising intellectual property on the internet.
- It was signed into law by the then US President Bill Clinton.
- It oversees the implementation of the two treaties signed and agreed upon by member nations of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in 1996.
- These are the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty.
Why did the treaties come into place?
