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SOCIOLOGY OPTIONAL SINDHURI CLASS NOTES PDF

📰 UIDAI seeks indemnity from Data Bill

UPSC CSE Mains Topic Wise Previous Year Questions GS Paper-3 (2013-2020) PDF 

UPSC CSE Mains Topic Wise Previous Year Questions GS Paper-2 (2013-2020) PDF

 UPSC CSE Mains Topic Wise Previous Year Questions GS Paper-1 (2013-2020) PDF

UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Exam 2021 Results Declared

1)  World Psoriasis Day is observed on 29 October

•World Psoriasis Day is observed every year on 29 October by the International Federation of Psoriasis Associations (IFPA) to promote awareness, empowerment, and action for improving the quality of life for people with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. The theme for 2021 World Psoriasis Day is “Uniting for action”.

2)  International Internet Day is celebrates on 29 October

•International Internet Day is celebrated on October 29 every year across the world to celebrate the usage of the internet for the first time. The day marks the sending of the first electronic message which was transferred from one computer to another in 1969. At that time the Internet was known as ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network).

3)  PM Modi participates 18th ASEAN-India summit virtually

•Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi has attended the 18th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-India Summit virtually. This was the 9th ASEAN-India Summit attended by PM Modi. The Summit was held under the chairmanship of the Sultan of Brunei.

•The Heads of State/Government of the ASEAN Countries participated in the Summit to review the status of the ASEAN-India Strategic Partnership and progress made in key areas of Covid-19 & Health, Trade & Commerce, Connectivity, and Education & Culture. The year 2022 will mark 30 years of ASEAN-India relations partnership, and will be celebrated as ‘ASEAN-India Friendship Year’.

4)  Mansukh Mandaviya addresses CII Asia Health 2021 Summit

•The Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya participated in the CII Asia Health 2021 summit on October 28, 2021, through video-conferencing. The theme of the two-day summit is ‘Transforming Healthcare for a better tomorrow. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has organised the summit to provide a centralised forum to deliberate on the most critical challenges that India and the world face in delivering healthcare, with a focus on the digital transformations that result in improved patient outcomes and experience.

•The Union Health Minister highlighted the successful initiatives taken by the Hon’ble Prime Minister during the COVID-19 pandemic to increase public awareness. He mentioned how campaigns like ‘Dawai Bhi Kadai Bhi’ and ‘Do Gaj ki Doori, Mask hai Zaruri’ reached out to the masses and helped curb the COVID-19 infection in the country.

5)  GoI reconstitutes seven-member Economic Advisory Council-PM

•The Central Government of India has reconstituted the seven-member Economic Advisory Council to the PM (EAC-PM). Bibek Debroy continues to be the Chairman of the Council. EAC-PM has been reconstituted for a period of 2 years. EAC-PM was set up in September 2017 with a term of two years and it replaced the erstwhile Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (PMEAC).

6)  Maharashtra became 1st state to pass its own Wildlife Action Plan 2021-30

•During the 17th meeting of the State Board for Wildlife (SBWL), the government of Maharashtra approved its own Wildlife Action Plan (2021-2030), which will be implemented over the next 10 years. Maharashtra became India’s first state to pass its own Wildlife Action Plan. The board has also approved the extension of the boundary of Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, in the Chandrapur district of the Vidarbha region, by around 79 sq km.

•The plan has suggested integrating climate change adaption in wildlife conservation. “To develop a Climate Action Plan for the Coastal Region of the state in sync with the ‘State Climate Change Action Plan’ with special emphasis on ‘Climate Change Adaptation’ (CCA) and ‘Disaster Risk Reduction (DDR)’,” the plan states.

7)  “Global Climate Tech Investment trend” report: India ranked 9th

•In accordance with the report ‘Five years on: Global climate tech investment trends since the Paris Agreement’ by London & Partners, and Co, India ranked 9th in the list of top 10 countries for climate technology investment from 2016 to 2021. Indian climate tech firms received USD 1 billion in venture capital (VC) funding in this period.

8)  Ramesh Pokhriyal gifted his book ‘AIIMS Mein Ek Jang Ladte Hue’ to PM Modi

•The former Union Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ has gifted a copy of his book titled ‘AIIMS Mein Ek Jang Ladte Hue’ to Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi in Delhi. The book was written by Pokhriyal while he was battling COVID-19 at AIIMS in Delhi. The book was published by Prabhat Prakashan Pvt. Ltd.

9)  Mark Zuckerberg changes Facebook’s name to Meta

•Facebook is now called Meta, in a rebrand that focuses on building the “metaverse,” a shared virtual environment that it bets will be the successor to the mobile internet. The name change, the plan for which was first reported by the Verge, is a significant rebrand for Facebook, but not it’s first. In 2019 it launched a new logo to create a distinction between the company and its social app.

10)  K V Kamath named as chairperson of NaBFID

•The government of India has appointed K V Kamath as chairperson of the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID). He is a well-known banker in India and is the first head of the New Development Bank (NDB). NaBFID is a newly set up development financial institution (DFIs) in India. It has been set up for infrastructure financing as per the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID) Act 2021. The authorized share capital of the NaBFID is Rs one lakh crore. The initial paid-up capital of NaBFID is Rs 20,000 crore.

📰 A climate dividend: On India, net zero and energy transition

 Why in news?

Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik has alleged that Sameer Wankhede, Mumbai Zonal Director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), benefitted from the reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs) despite being ineligible for it.

What is Sameer Wankhede accused of?

• Dnyandev Kachru Wankhede, father of Sameer Wankhede, belonged to the Scheduled Castes (SCs).
• He converted to Islam before marrying Sameer’s mother, Zaheeda Begum.
• Sameer’s (born in 1979) birth certificate carries his father’s name as Dawood K Wankhede and his name as Sameer Dawood Wankhede.
• Sameer was raised as a Muslim, but was selected in the 2007 Civil Services Examination (CSE) under the SC quota.
• Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik accuses that Sameer was not entitled to this reservation.

What are the rules of religion in eligibility for the SC quota?

DoPT

• No person who professes a religion different from Hinduism or Sikhism shall be deemed to be a member of the Scheduled Castes.
• There is a 15% quota for SCs in government jobs.
• But Hindu SCs who convert to Islam lose their SC status, and are no longer eligible for the quota.
• A person belonging to an SC or ST will continue to be deemed as such irrespective of his/her marriage to a non-SC/ST.
• A convert or re-convert to Hinduism and Sikhism shall be accepted as a member of SC.
• The rights of a person belonging to a Scheduled Tribe are independent of his/her religious faith.

Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order

• Under the original Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, only Hindus were classified as SCs.
• The Order was amended to include Sikhs in 1956 and Buddhists in 1990.
• It now lays down that no person professing a religion different from Hinduism or Sikhism or Buddhism can be deemed to be a member of an SC.
• However, no such religion-based bar operates for STs and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

Is the exclusion of Muslims and Christians discriminatory?

• Petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court seeking the inclusion of Muslims and Christians in the SC category.
• In 2004, the Centre for Public Interest Litigation challenged the legality of the exclusion.
• In 2008, the National Commission on Minorities concluded that there was a case for inclusion of Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims in the SC category.
• In 2020, the SC agreed to examine a plea by the National Council of Dalit Christians to make reservations religion-neutral. The plea is pending before the court.

How does caste operate in inter-caste marriages?