aditya
11:31
NCERT Polity MCQs For UPSC Prelims Exams PDF
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Tuesday, May 10, 2022
New NCERT History Updated 2020-21 Complete PDF
aditya
11:29
New NCERT History Updated 2020-21 Complete PDF
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Monday, May 09, 2022
Daily Current Affairs, 09th May 2022
aditya
17:47
1) World Thalassemia Day 2022 celebrates on 08th May
•World Thalassemia Day is celebrated on May 8 every year to commemorate Thalassemia victims and to encourage those who struggle to live with the disease. Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder that doesn’t let the body to create enough haemoglobin. The disease weakens and destroys the blood cells. There are two types of thalassemia, alpha and beta, along with Thalassemia minor, intermedia and major as its subcategories.
The theme of World Thalassemia Day
•The theme for this year’s World Thalassemia day is ‘Be Aware.Share.Care: Working with the global community as one to improve thalassemia knowledge.’
2) Indian Navy’s P-8i Fleet host to Boeing and Air Works collaboration
•Air Works, an Indian maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) company, is partnering with the Boeing Company to conduct heavy maintenance checks on three Indian Navy P-8I long-range maritime patrol aircraft at Air Works, Hosur, demonstrating the success of the government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) campaign.
3) Exide and Leclanché’s joint venture Nexcharge begins production in Gujarat
•At its facilities in Prantij, Gujarat, Nexcharge, a joint venture between India’s Exide Industries Limited and Switzerland’s Leclanché SA, has started mass production of lithium-ion battery packs. The plant, which covers six lakh square feet and has a 1.5 GWh installed capacity, comprises six totally automated assembly lines and testing facilities.
4) Supreme Court gets 2 new judges to regain full strength of 34
•The Union government of India has notified the appointment of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, the chief justice of Gauhati High Court, and Justice Jamshed Burjor Pardiwala, a judge of the Gujarat High Court, as judges of the Supreme Court. The Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana had recommended their names for appointment on May 5. The other members of the Collegium are Justices UU Lalit, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao.
•At present, the Supreme Court has a strength of 32 judges as against a sanctioned strength of 34 judges. The fresh appointments will help regain the 34-judge strength, but two other vacancies will arise soon with Justice Vineet Saran set to retire on May 10 and Justice Nageswara Rao on June 7.
5) Nepal’s Kami Rita Sherpa climbs Mount Everest for 26th time
•Nepal’s legendary climber Kami Rita Sherpa has climbed Mt Everest, the tallest peak in the world for the 26th time to set a new world record. Leading an 11-member rope fixing team, Kami Rita & his team reached the summit, breaking his own previous world record. The climbing route used by Kami Rita was pioneered by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Nepal’s sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953 and remains the most popular.
•Everest has been climbed 10,657 times since it was first scaled in 1953 from Nepali and Tibetan sides – many have climbed multiple times, and 311 people have died so far, according to the Himalayan Database. The 52-year-old followed in his father’s footsteps and became a mountain guide, first summiting the peak in 1994. He has climbed Everest almost every year since.
6) Manipur’s Poumai Naga Areas declared ‘drug Free Zone’
•In Manipur, the Poumai tribe has declared that Poumai inhabited areas will be a Drug-Free Zone supporting the State government’s War on Drug campaign. A huge delegation of the Poumai tribe by MLA and leaders of the students union and civil organization met Chief Minister N. Biren Singh today at Imphal and conveyed the resolution of the Drug-Free Zone in Poumai inhabited areas of the State. They also informed the Chief Minister that the poppy plantation will not be allowed in the Poumai areas.
•The Chief Minister welcomed the resolution of the Poumai Naga tribe and affirmed that the State government will not tolerate deforestation and poppy plantation in hill districts in Manipur. The leaders of the Paumai tribe also conveyed that the community will join the fight against the drug menace in the State.
7) Priyanka Mohite becomes first Indian woman to climb five peaks above 8,000 metres
•Priyanka Mohite from Maharashtra’s Satara district has become the first Indian woman to climb five peaks above 8000 metres. Priyanka achieved the milestone after climbing Mount Kanchenjunga. The 30-year-old climbed the third highest peak on Earth on May 5 at around 4:42 pm. Priyanka works for a pharmaceutical research company in Bengaluru.
•In 2020, she also won the prestigious Tenzing Norgay Adventure Award. The 30-year-old climbed Mount Everest in 2013, Mount Lhotse in 2018, Mount Makalu in 2019 and Annapurna 1 in 2021. Notably, she is also the first Indian woman to climb Annapurna 1 and Makalu.
8) Utkarsh Mahotsav organized by Central Sanskrit University begins
•A three-day Utkarsh Mahotsav is being organized by Central Sanskrit University in New Delhi. The objective behind organising the Utkarsh Mahotsav is to promote the Sanskrit language across the country and beyond. They will leave no stone unturned to promote the Sanskrit language across the country and abroad.
•The Centralisation of three Sanskrit Universities reflects PM Modi’s strong commitment to preserving and promoting the Sanskrit language across the nation. The event is being jointly organised by the Central Sanskrit University, New Delhi, Shri Lal Bahadur National Sanskrit University, New Delhi and National Sanskrit University, Tirupati.
9) A book ‘INDO-PAK WAR 1971- Reminiscences of Air Warriors’ released by Rajnath Singh
•Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has released a book titled ‘INDO-PAK WAR 1971- Reminiscences of Air Warriors’ at the 37th Air Chief Marshal PC Lal Memorial Lecture organised by the Air Force Association in New Delhi, Delhi. The book was edited by Air Marshal Jagjeet Singh and Group Captain Shailendra Mohan. The book features 50 Swarnim articles written by veterans narrating their experiences in detail.
•Defence Minister also paid tribute to Air Chief Marshal Pratap Chandra Lal (PC Lal). Air Chief Marshal Pratap Chandra Lal (PC Lal), served as the Vice Chief of the Air Staff during the 1965 war and had served as the 7th Chief of the Air Staff during the 1971 war.
10) Indian Bank Launched Digital Broking Solution ‘E-Broking’
•Indian Bank, a public sector bank, has introduced its digital broking solution – ‘E- Broking’, as a strategic move toward comprehensive digitalisation of its customer products. E-Broking, an instant and paperless demat & trading account opening service, is now available through the bank’s mobile banking app, IndOASIS. The product was introduced in collaboration with Fisdom, the bank’s financial technology partner.
The HINDU Notes – 09th May 2022
aditya
13:50
📰 India’s judiciary and the slackening cog of trust
Departures from substantive and procedural justice need deep scrutiny as the fallout could severely imperil governance
•Centrality of justice in human lives is summed up in a few words by the Greek philosopher, Aristotle: “It is in justice that the ordering of society is centred.” Yet, a vast majority of countries have highly corrupt judiciaries.
•Judicial corruption takes two forms: political interference in the judicial process by the legislative or executive branch, and bribery. Despite accumulation of evidence on corrupt practices, the pressure to rule in favour of political interests remains intense. And for judges who refuse to comply, political retaliation can be swift and harsh. Bribery can occur throughout the chain of the judicial process: judges may accept bribes to delay or accelerate verdicts, accept or deny appeals, or simply to decide a case in a certain way. Court officials coax bribes for free services; and lawyers charge additional “fees” to expedite or delay cases.
A distinction
•Our focus here is on the functioning of and erosion of trust in the lower judiciary comprising high courts, and district and sessions courts. A distinction between substantive and procedural justice is helpful. Substantive justice is associated with whether the statutes, case law and unwritten legal principles are morally justified (e.g., freedom to pursue any religion), while procedural justice is associated with fair and impartial decision procedures. Many outdated/dysfunctional laws or statutes have not been repealed because of the tardiness of legal reform both at the Union and State government levels. Worse, there have been blatant violations of constitutional provisions. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act (December 2019) provides citizenship to — except Muslims — Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis and Christians who came to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on or before December 31, 2014. But this flies in the face of secularism and is thus a violation of substantive justice. A striking example of tortuous delay in the delivery of justice is the case of Lal Bihari. He was officially declared dead in 1975, struggled to prove that he was alive (though deceased in the records) and was finally declared alive in 1994 (Debroy, 2021). Thus, both departures from substantive and procedural justice need deep scrutiny. Alongside procedural delays, endemic corruption and mounting shares of under-trial inmates with durations of three to five years point to stark failures of procedural justice and to some extent of substantive justice.
Under the different regimes
•All was not well with the lower judiciary under the United Progressive Alliance regime. According to Transparency International (TI 2011), 45% of people who had come in contact with the judiciary between July 2009 and July 2010 had paid a bribe to the judiciary. The most common reason for paying the bribes was to “speed things up”. There were “fixed” rates for a quick divorce, bail, and other procedures (Banerjee, 2012). The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) (April 2013) estimates that for every ₹2 in official court fees, at least ₹ 1,000 is spent in bribes in bringing a petition to the court.
•There is a scarcity of evidence on bribes and malfeasance under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). A few broad-brush treatments are, however, worrying. Freedom House’s ‘Freedom in the World 2016 report for India’ states that “the lower levels of the judiciary in particular have been rife with corruption” (Freedom House 2016). The GAN Business Anti-Corruption Portal reports that, “[t]here is a high risk of corruption when dealing with India’s judiciary, especially at the lower court levels. Bribes and irregular payments are often exchanged in return for favourable court decisions” (GAN Integrity 2017).
•Allegations of corruption against High Court judges abound. For example, Tis [Tiz] Hazari District Court Senior Civil Judge, Rachna Tiwari Lakhanpal, was arrested in September 2016 for allegedly accepting a bribe to rule in favour of a complainant in a case. Such examples are indicative of the widespread malaise of corruption in the lower judiciary. Worse, there are glaring examples of anti-Muslim bias, often followed by extra-judicial killings by the police. Anti-Muslim bias alone may not result in erosion of trust but if combined with unprovoked and brutal violence against them (e.g., lynching of innocent cattle traders) is bound to.
Case pendency
•According to the National Judicial Data Grid, as of April 12, 2017, there are 24,186,566 pending cases in India’s district courts, of which 2,317,448 (9.58%) have been pending for over 10 years, and 3,975,717 (16.44%) have been pending for between five and 10 years. As of December 31, 2015, there were 4,432 vacancies in the posts of [subordinate court] judicial officers, representing about 22% of the sanctioned strength. In the case of the High Courts, 458 of the 1,079 posts, representing 42% of the sanctioned strength, were vacant as of June 2016. Thus, severe backlogging and understaffing persisted, as also archaic and complex procedures of delivery of justice.
•Extreme centralisation of power in the Centre and a blatant violation of democratic values under the NDA have had disastrous consequences in terms of violent clashes, loss of lives, religious discord, assaults on academic freedom, and suppression and manipulation of mass media. Exercise of extra-constitutional authority by the central and State governments, weakening of accountability mechanisms, widespread corruption in the lower judiciary and the police, with likely collusion between them, the perverted beliefs of the latter towards Muslims, other minorities and lower caste Hindus, a proclivity to deliver instant justice, extra-judicial killings, filing first information reports against innocent victims of mob lynching — specifically, Muslim cattle traders while the perpetrators of violence are allowed to get away — have left deep scars on the national psyche. It may seem far- fetched but it is not, as these are unmistakable signs of abject failure of governance.
•Our analysis reinforces this concern. While trust in the judiciary is positively and significantly related to the share of undertrials for three to five years under total prisoners, it is negatively and significantly related to the square of share of under-trials. However, the negative effect nearly offsets the positive effect. So, while trust in the judiciary marginally rises with the proportion of undertrials until the threshold (0.267) is reached, it decreases beyond that point as the proportion of under-trial inmates rises.
•In sum, erosion of trust in the judiciary could severely imperil governance.
📰 The multiple crises in Indian universities
PM Awas Yojana 2022 List: Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana
aditya
07:32
The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) is a government of India initiative, which aims at providing affordable housing to the urban poor by the year 2022. The scheme was first launched on 1 June 2015. The interest rate for the PMAY scheme starts at 6.50% p.a. and can be availed for a tenure of up to 20 years. The last date for availing the PMAY Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS) for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and Low Income Group (LIG) categories has been extended to 31 March 2022.
Saturday, May 07, 2022
Vision IAS Weekly Focus Agriculture Inputs Part-1 PDF
aditya
16:16
Vision IAS Weekly Focus Agriculture Inputs Part-1 PDF
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List of Important Battles and wars in Indian History
aditya
16:12
List of Important Battles and wars in India
In the history of India, there are several notable battles, starting from ancient times to modern times. These battles and wars have influenced India and led to many changes throughout these years. Here is a list of some important battles and wars in India.
Daily Current Affairs, 07th May 2022
aditya
15:59
1) World Athletics Day 2022 Celebrates on 7th May
•World Athletics Day is celebrated every year globally on the 7th of May to raise awareness about the importance of fitness and encourage them to play sports, especially athletics. The basic objective of World Athletics Day is to boost the participation of youths in athletics. The World Athletics Day gave a chance to schools, colleges and various other institutions to promote their children’s interests in various other sports from running to shot put and various other sports which require stamina.
2) Haryana launched ‘Vehicle Movement Tracking System’ mobile app
•Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has launched a Vehicle Movement Tracking System (VMTS) mobile app to track the vehicles carrying sand and other mining material. The app will be used at different checkpoints in all the districts of Haryana. All vehicle details including vehicle type, vehicle number, moving from, moving to, and driver details will be stored in it. The non-registered individual will not be permitted to enter the zone of sand mining. This App has been designed and developed in-house by National Informatics Centre, Haryana.
3) SC appointed panel for the recovery of money from NSEL defaulters
•The Supreme Court of India formed a high-level committee, headed by retired Bombay High Court Judge Pradeep Nandrajog, for recovery of money from the defaulters against whom the National Spot Exchange (NSEL) has secured money decrees. NSEL has already secured decrees and arbitration awards of Rs 3,534 crores against the defaulters. Further, defaulters’ liabilities of Rs 760 crores have already been crystallised by the committee appointed by the Bombay High Court.
•Proceedings for a decree against NK Protein worth Rs 964 crores is pending before the Bombay High Court. In 2013, investors and traders in NSEL lost about Rs 5,600 crores after the exchange shut trading abruptly leading to a series of defaults. Two of the defaulters have already paid their liabilities worth Rs 196 crores. The claims will be verified by the Supreme Court-appointed committee. The Supreme Court-appointed committee will oversee the sale of assets, attached by the Maharashtra government under the MPID Act and Enforcement Directorate across India.
4) Ministry of Skill Development signs MoU with ISRO to begin its Training Program
•The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) signs an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Indian Space Research Organisation with the goal of upskilling the technical workforce at the Department of Space of ISRO. Shri Rajesh Aggarwal, Secretary MSDE, and Shri S. Somanath, Secretary Department of Space/ Chairman ISRO, signed the MoU.
5) Air Marshal Sanjeev Kapoor Takes Charge as DG (Inspection and Safety)
•Air Marshal Sanjeev Kapoor has assumed the appointment of Director General (Inspection and Safety) of Indian Air Force at Air HQ New Delhi. The Air Marshal is a graduate of the National Defence Academy and was commissioned in the Flying branch of IAF in December 1985 as a Transport Pilot.
•Sanjeev Kapoor is an alumnus of Defence Services Staff College (DSSC) Wellington, College of Defence Management and National Defence College. The Air Officer is a Qualified Flying Instructor with more than 7700 hours of flying experience on various aircraft in the inventory of IAF. The Air Officer is a recipient of Vayu Sena Medal and Ati Vishist Seva Medal. In a service career spanning over 36 years, the Air Marshal has tenanted important command and staff appointments.
6) India embarks on the ‘World’s Largest’ Film Restoration Project
•Information and Broadcasting Minister, Anurag Thakur said that an amount of Rs 363 crore has been allotted for the world’s largest film restoration project under the National Film Heritage Mission. The mission was launched in 2016 with an outlay of 597 crore rupees. It aims at preserving, restoring and digitizing the cinematic heritage.
•The Minister informed that the process of restoring over 5900 short films, documentaries and features is underway. He said this exercise carried out by the National Film Archive of India proves to be one of the world’s biggest restoration, conservation, preservation and digitization process undertaken. The Minister also held a meeting to review the functioning of the Film and Television Institute of India, FTII and deliberated on the vision of taking FTII to international standards of excellence. Mr Thakur said FTII should nurture entrepreneurial skills and equip students to launch startups in film and television productions.
7) Asian Games 2022 in China postponed to 2023
•The Asian Games 2022, due to be held in Hangzhou, China in September, has been postponed to 2023 due to rising COVID-19 cases in the country, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) announced. The Olympic Council of Asia, the governing body for the Asian Games, said it will announce the new dates for the 19th edition of the Games. The Asian Games 2022 were originally scheduled from September 10 to 25.
•The host city of Hangzhou is less than 200km away from Shanghai, which is currently fighting another major COVID-19 outbreak and has strict restrictions in place, including a weeks-long lockdown. The OCA also announced that the third edition of the Asian Youth Games, scheduled to be held in Shantou in December, have been cancelled. The World University Games 2021, to be held from June 26 to July 27 in Chengdu this year, have also been pushed to 2023.
