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Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Which is the best weekly/monthly magazine for IAS preparations?

18:28
Recommended
Yojana



Unarguably the best magazine for Civil Service preparation. Its articles are written by eminent scholars and bureaucrats and are extremely useful for mains and interview.
Some of the issues viz. Good Governance (Feb 2013), Inclusive Governance (Aug 2013), Public Administration Reforms (March 2014) etc are brilliant. One must have a look at last 2 years Yojana.
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Vision IAS Mains 2020[English] Test 09 with Solution PDF

18:10

Vision IAS Mains 2020[English] Test 09 with Solution PDF






                   Vision IAS Prelims 2020 Test

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Daily Current Affairs, 27th May 2020

18:03





1) Nitin Gadkari inaugurates tunnel under Chardham Pariyojana in Chamba
•Union Minister for Road Transport, Nitin Gadkari has inaugurated the 440 metre-long tunnel as part of the Chardham Connectivity Project in Chamba. The tunnel will significantly reduce the time taken by travellers on the Rishikesh-Dharasu and Gangotri stretch of the Chardham Highway (NH 94).

 •Under the Chardham Project costing around 12 thousand crore rupees approximately 889 Kilometres of Highway Construction is to be done. BRO has been entrusted for construction of 250 Kilometre-stretch leading to holy shrine Gangotri and Badrinath. The tunnel has been developed by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO). 

2) ‘Hunar Haat’ will restart with the theme “Local to Global” from Sept 2020
•Ministry of Minority Affairs flagship programme ‘Hunar Haat’ will restart from September 2020 with the theme of “Local to Global”. This Platform is for artisans and craftsmen from various parts of the country to showcase their art and craft. This platform has provided employment and employment opportunities to more than five lakh Indian artisans, craftsmen, culinary experts and other people associated with them in the last five years.

 •Hunar Haat provides market and opportunity to master artisans and craftsmen from remote areas of the country, has become a credible brand of rare exquisite indigenous handmade products. There will be a special “Jaan Bhi, Jahaan Bhi” pavilion to create health awareness among the people with the theme of “Say no to panic, yes to precautions”.

3) Webinar on “Van Dhan Scheme: Learnings for post COVID-19”
•The Department of Science and Technology, Government of Rajasthan has organized a webinar on “Van Dhan Scheme: Learnings for post COVID-19” in assciation with TRIFED, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India. The webinar was organised under the Know Your Scheme-Lecture Series. The webinar was addressed by Pravir Krishna, Managing Director of TRIFED, Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

 •TRIFED has partnered with UNICEF to initiate “Van Dhan Samajik Doori Jagrookta Abhiyaan“. Under this initiative tribals will be provided with relevant information regarding COVID-19 along with several guidelines, nationwide and state-specific webinars and instructions on safety measures to be followed. The Minimum Support Prices of Non Timber Forest Produce (NTFP) items has also been revised by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to provide much needed relief to forest gatherers in these trying times.

4) PK Nair becomes new Indian Ambassador to Niger
•The government of India has announced the appointment of Prem K Nair as Indian Ambassador to the Republic of Niger. He is currently posted as Consul General of India to Hambantota. He is expected to take up the assignment shortly. He will replace Rajesh Agarwal.

 5) NASA renamed its telescope after ‘Mother of Hubble’ Nancy Grace Roman
•NASA has renamed its next-generation space telescope “Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST)”, which is set to launch in 2025, in honour of Nancy Grace Roman. Nancy Grace Roman is the US space agency’s first chief astronomer, who paved the way for space telescopes focused on the broader universe. She left behind a tremendous legacy in the scientific community when she died in 2018.

 •Roman came to NASA in 1959, just six months after the agency had been established. At that point, she served because the chief of astronomy and relativity within the Office of Space Science, managing astronomy-related programmes and grants. The newly named Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope help to research long-standing astronomical mysteries, like the force behind the universe’s expansion and look for distant planets beyond our system.




6) Major Suman Gawani to be honoured with UN Military Gender Advocate Award
•Indian Army officer Major Suman Gawani is going to be awarded the UN Military Gender Advocate of the Year 2019. This will be the first time that an Indian Peace Guard will be awarded this award. Major Suman was stationed in South Sudan under the United Nations Mission. Recently she has completed her mission. Gawani joined the Indian Army in 2011 where she graduated from the Officers Training Academy, then joined the Army Signal Corps. She hails from Pokhar village in Tehri Garwhal, Uttarakhand.

 •The award is going to be presented to Major Suman Gawani and Brazilian military officer Commander Carla Monteiro de Castro Araujo during a web ceremony chaired by UN Secretary-General Guterres on May 29, the International Day of the United Nations Peacekeepers. These two women peacekeepers were described as “powerful role models” by the UN Chief Antonio Guterres.

 •Major Suman Gawani is that the first Indian peacekeeper to win the award. She is a Military Observer, formerly deployed to the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). Military Supervisor Suman Gawani has recently completed a mission in South Sudan in addition to his tenure with UNMISS.

7) IBM scientist Rajiv Joshi wins NYIPLA Inventor of the year Award 2020
•Indian-American IBM scientist, Rajiv Joshi has bagged the prestigious NYIPLA “Inventor of the Year award” for the year 2020. This award is given for his contribution to advancing the electronic industry and improving artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.

 •Dr Joshi works at the IBM Thomson Watson Research Center in New York. This award is presented by the New York Intellectual Property Law Association (NYIPLA). The inventor of the year is awarded every year to honour the contribution of an inventor towards society and the winner will be awarded $5,000.

8) LIC launches “PM Vaya Vandana Yojana” for senior citizens
•Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has announced the launch of the Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana, which is a social security scheme for senior citizens. This plan starts from May 26 for three financial years up to March 31, 2023. LIC is solely authorised to work this scheme, which works as a Non-Linked, Non-Participating, Pension Scheme subsidised by the Centre.

 •The policy term is of 10 years and for policies sold during the first financial year up to March 31, 2021, the scheme will provide an assured rate of return of 7.40 per cent once a year payable monthly (which is like 7.66 per cent per annum) for the whole duration of 10 years.

9) Army Commanders’ Conference begins in New Delhi
•The Army Commanders’ Conference has commenced in New Delhi. This is the first phase of the conference which has been scheduled from 27 to 29 May 2020. The Army Commanders’ Conference is an apex level biannual event that was earlier scheduled to be held in April 2020, but was postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic. It was then planned to be conducted in two phases. The second phase of the conference will held in the last week of June 2020.

 •In the first phase of Army Commanders’ Conference, the apex level leadership of Indian Army will deliberate on various aspects pertaining to operational and administrative issues including studies pertaining to logistics and human resources. During the conference they will also brainstorm on current emerging security as well as administrative challenges, and will also find out the future course for Indian Army.

10) PFC signs MoU with NBPCL to fund various projects in Madhya Pradesh
•Power Finance Corporation (PFC), the central PSU under Ministry of Power has signed an MoU with Narmada Basin Projects Company Ltd. (NBPCL), a wholly-owned company of Govt. of Madhya Pradesh, to fund various power projects to be executed in the State of Madhya Pradesh. The funds of worth Rs 22,000 crore will be deployed by NBPCL for setting up hydroelectric projects of 225 MW along with power components of 12 other major multipurpose projects to be executed in Madhya Pradesh.

 •Some of the major multipurpose projects for which PFC has signed MoU with NBPCL includes Chinki Boras Multipurpose Project Narsinghpur Raisen Hoshangabad, Dudhi Project Chhindwara Hoshangabad, Basaniya Multipurpose Project Dindori, Sakkar Pench Link Narsinghpur Chhindwara etc.
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The HINDU Notes – 27th May 2020

12:03




📰 Continue India’s tryst with Nehruvian ideology

It remains essential even today to fight against the dark forces of communalism and to kindle the light of harmony

•Fifty-six years after Jawaharlal Nehru left the world stage — his anniversary is today, May 27 — demagogic attempts are still being made to dub Nehruvian ideology as myopic. In the discussion on the dilution of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution in both Houses of Parliament, Nehru was not only criticised by the ruling party, but even lampooned.

•The debate began with the opinion that Nehru had mishandled the Kashmir issue, and that had it been entrusted to Sardar Patel, as in the case of the other princely States, the end result would have been impeccable. Pertinently, one needs to understand the historical context and the point in time of Kashmir’s integration with India.

A dedication to integration

•Mehr Chand Mahajan who served as the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947-48, and later as Chief Justice of India, has recorded in his autobiography the entente between Nehru and Patel in the matter of Kashmir’s integration with India. On October 24, 1947, Mahajan received a late-night call from Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Patel asking him to come over to Delhi from Amritsar, in the same plane in which Lady Mountbatten was to go to Srinagar to meet the recently-freed Sheikh Abdullah with a message from Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. It is also important to note that Nehru was in the U.S. at this time and Patel was at the helm in India. Yet, the correspondence between Nehru and Patel during this period clearly captures a sense of camaraderie and sincere dedication to the goal of Kashmir’s integration with India. Even the letter drafted by Nehru addressed to Sheikh Abdullah was sent to Patel for his perusal through N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar. This then led to the initiation of administrative proceedings in the Constitutional Assembly. Even minor changes in the draft Article 370 were being apprised (with relevant clarifications) to Nehru by Patel, as seen in his letter dated November 3, 1949.

•Article 370 was deemed temporary by both Nehru and Patel, but given Kashmir’s geography and its implications for India’s national security, that Constitutional provision was an urgent necessity. In its absence, Kashmir would have virtually atrophied.

Approaches of Nehru, Patel

•Nehru’s sincere commitment to secularism, evinced in his espousal of the principles of religious equality, is being criticised either as “pseudo-secularism” that is biased in favour of the minorities or as an impractical exercise in futility given how the majority’s religion is compared to the minorities. The criticism is touted as if Patel and Nehru had divergent opinions on the meaning of secularism even though there is no such evidence. Granville Austin’s observation is relevant here: “Nehru and Patel were the focus of power in the Constituent Assembly, when they were divided on an issue, as in the case of property clause, factions could line up behind them and the debate would be lengthy. But when they settled their differences, the factions among the rank and file would do little else but shake hands and make the decision unanimous.” Patel’s view on secularism is moderate and as chairman of the advisory committee on fundamental rights, he had to review the report of the sub-committee on minorities in the Constituent Assembly. His tenor there was very much that India should follow the principle of secularism.

•Nevertheless, Patel is often identified as a Hindu traditionalist. It is a historical fact that Hindu traditionalist leaders like Madan Mohan Malviya and Lala Lajpat Rai favoured the idea of an Indian nation built around the majority (Hindu) community to which Nehru was strongly opposed. When K.M. Munshi (then a Union Minister) tabled in Parliament the matter of reconstruction of Gujarat’s Somnath Temple which had been damaged by the army of Mahmud of Ghazni in the 11th century, Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Patel announced in November 1947, that the government would provide funds for rebuilding the temple. However, at the insistence of Nehru, Gandhiji suggested that the project should be financed by public subscription. Nehru was strongly committed to keeping the government distanced from religion — an attitude that defined the character of new-born India.

•Nehru used every available opportunity to not only propound the benefits of a ‘socialistic democracy’ as opposed to the ‘Hindu Nation’ prescribed by the Hindu Mahasabha, but also to reassure India’s Muslim minority of their future in India. On the other hand, on June 6, 1948, Sardar Patel urged the Hindu Mahasabha to amalgamate with the Congress. He made similar pleas to the RSS.

•In Sankar’s Sardar Patel: Select Correspondence (1945-50), we find that in May 1948, after Gandhi’s assassination, Nehru was anxious about the ‘recrudescence of the RSS’. Consequently, the RSS was banned. Golwalkar pleaded first with Nehru and then with Sardar Patel to lift the ban on RSS. At which point, Patel demanded that Golwalkar should put together a written constitution for the RSS. In the end of January 1949, the RSS’s official constitution came into being. However, Sardar Patel’s expectations were not met in this constitution and it became an exercise in futility. Golwalkar intended to launch an agitation from his place of detention. Finally, in June 1949, Patel agreed to accept an amended constitution and the ban on the RSS was lifted on July 11. Patel’s favourable inclination towards the RSS reached its peak when a resolution was passed in the Congress Working Committee (CWC) on October 10, 1949, authorising Swayamsevaks to become members of the party — all during the absence of Nehru who was then travelling abroad.

•The internal democracy within the Congress was also put to the test in 1950, when Purushottam Das Tandon was elected as party president by defeating Kripalani, with the support of Patel in recognition of his Hindu nationalist loyalties. Tandon emphasised two points at the Nashik Congress session: one was Hindu nationalism and the other was adoption of Hindi as an official language. Nehru as Prime Minister threw his weight against this emergent tense and prickly situation. He said, “… If you want me as Prime Minister, you have to follow my lead unequivocally. If you don’t want to me to remain, you tell me so and I shall go. I will not hesitate. I will go out and fight independently for the ideas of the Congress as I have done all these years.”

Need for science and logic

•The approaches of Nehru and Patel in dealing with Hindu nationalist ideology may be divergent but they are clearly two sides of the same coin — that coin being secularism. History recounts that Patel’s approach was based on his faith and trust, not on logical inferences. Nehru felt that India needed to favour science and logic instead of orthodox religiosity. He believed that ‘education is meant to free the shackles of the human mind and not to imprison it in pre-set ideas and beliefs’. His motto, namely cultivating scientific temper and nurturing the spirit of tolerance are the foundations of his concept of secularism.

•Consider Nehru’s commitment to the adoption of the Hindu Code Bill introduced by the then Law Minister B.R. Ambedkar. According to Ambedkar, “The Hindu Code Bill was the greatest social reform measure ever undertaken by the legislature in the country.....” The Bill was vehemently resisted by every Hindu nationalist in the Congress. President Rajendra Prasad even expressed apprehension that it may cause disruption in every Hindu family. Nehru’s inability to pass the Bill initially, forced Ambedkar to resign from the cabinet. However, Nehru’s continuous struggle to get the Bill passed (even if with some amendments) is credible testimony to his commitment to uphold secularism.

•Nehru had dreamt for a modern India to have an exalted position on the world stage, rising above sectarian politics and divisive forces. In January 1948 he said, “As far as India is concerned, I can speak with some certainty. We shall proceed on secular lines... in keeping with the powerful trends towards internationalism.”

•An effective democracy and the nurturing of unity and solidarity are the need of the day for our nation. Nehruvian ideology continues to remain essential even today to fight against the dark forces of communalism and to kindle the light of social harmony.

📰 A time for reform in courts
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THE HINDU NEWSPAPER IMPORTANT ARTICLES 27.05.2020

07:45
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COVID 19 Lockdown : Health Scenario in India

06:56
COVID 19 Lockdown : Health Scenario in India


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La Excellence Ready Reckoner Modern Indian History PDF

06:41




La Excellence Ready Reckoner Modern Indian History PDF





Modern Indian History ready Reckoner
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How do I avoid negative marking in the UPSC prelims?

06:24
Attempting the UPSC prelims is a different ball game from tackling the main exam. In the prelim there is negative marking, and the question paper is a booklet consisting of many pages. There are 100 questions in Paper I and 80 in Paper II, with four choices under each question. The time allotted is two hours for each of the papers. One may have to read 20 – 25 pages of the question booklet, and to mark the correct answer, one has to read the question and the four choices. Thus, it is not possible to read all the questions and the answers more than once, and also one has to attempt all the questions.



Therefore, you have to begin attempting the questions right from the start. As soon as you read the first question and are sure about the correct answer, attempt it immediately by blackening the correct circle in the answer sheet. Go on attempting all the questions to which you know the answers for sure. It is only when you are not sure about the one correct answer that you should leave that question to be re-read and re-thought later on. If you feel that there could be two possible correct answers among the four given choices, you should put a small mark with pencil in the two circles corresponding to these in the answer sheet.
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