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Dec 13, 2021
DELIMITATION IN JAMMU AND KASHMIR
Delimitation commission for J&K is meeting for redrawing the boundaries of Jammu and Kashmir.
Delimitation Commission for J&K
Nudation
Prime Minister of India inaugurated the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor connecting the ancient Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi to the ghats of the Ganga.
Aim:
Voters in the South Pacific archipelago of New Caledonia decide whether to break away from France, a referendum that is important for French geopolitical ambitions and is being closely watched amid growing Chinese influence in the region
A Tripartite National Dialogue on Global Call to Action for a human-centered recovery from COVID-19 crisis was organized by International Labour Organization (ILO) in collaboration with Ministry of Labour& Employment recently.
Aim: To foster convergence and tripartite action contributing to the implementation of the ILO Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work and Sustainable Development Goals in India.
Major areas of the Global Call to Action:
RBI MANDATES ‘LEGAL ENTITY IDENTIFIER’ FOR RS. 50 CRORE PLUS CROSS-BORDER DEALS
Reserve Bank of India made the Legal Entity Identifier mandatory for cross-border transactions for capital or current account transactions recently.
The LEI Code is mandatory on transactions of worth Rs 50 crore and above.
Legal Entity Identifier:
- In March 2020, six months after the reorganization of Jammu and Kashmir, the Delimitation Commission was constituted.
- The commission has five MPs from Jammu and Kashmir as associate members.
- Their recommendations are, however, not binding on the commission.
- Delimitation means the act or process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country or a province having a legislative body.
- This exercise is carried out by a Delimitation Commission, whose orders have the force of law and cannot be questioned before any court.
- Article 82: This provides the Parliament with the authority to enact a Delimitation Act after every Census.
- Article 170: This provides for the States to get divided into territorial constituencies as per the Delimitation Act after every Census.
- The Union government sets up a Delimitation Commission once the Act is in force.
- To ensure uniformity
- between the different states,
- between the different constituencies in the same state.
- The Delimitation commission or Boundary commission of India is a commission established by the Government of India under the provisions of the Delimitation Commission Act.
- The main task of the commission is redrawing the boundaries of the various assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies based on a recent census.
- The representation from each State is not changed during this exercise.
- However, the number of SC and ST seats in a state are changed in accordance with the census.
- Delimitation commissions have been set up four times in the past— 1952, 1962, 1972 and 2002 — under Delimitation Commission Acts of 1952, 1962, 1972 and 2002.
- Following the 84th amendment to the Constitution, in 2002, Delimitation is to be done in 2026 if not postponed.
- The base year will be 2021 population. However, the population control policy will be kept in center of this.
- Chairperson: A serving or retired judge of the Supreme Court
- Chief Election Commissioner or the Election Commissioner nominated by the CEC
- State Election Commissioner as ex-officio members
- As per constitution, the ratio between the number of Lok Sabha seats in a state and the population of the state is, as far as practicable, the same for all states.
- Although unintended, this meant that states that took little interest in population control could end up with more seats in Parliament, while the southern states that promoted family planning could end up with fewer seats.
- Amid these concerns, the Constitution was amended in 1976 to suspend delimitation until 2001.
- 84th Amendment to the Constitution extended the freeze on the number of seats until 2026, by when the country was projected to achieve a uniform population growth rate.
- The productivity of both the Houses came down in the first two weeks of winter session, when compared to the recent previous sessions of Parliament.
- The Monsoon Session was the third least productive Lok Sabha session of the last two decades, with a productivity of just 21 per cent.
- Rajya Sabha had a productivity of 28 per cent.
- It worked 6 percent more during second week of Winter Session.
- For Lok Sabha, the Winter Sessions of 2013 and 2016 were the second worst-hit in terms of productivity.
- The Budget Session of 2018witnessed a productivity of 21 per cent in Lok Sabha.
- For Rajya Sabha, the Budget Session of 2019 was the second worst in terms of productivity: 7 per cent.
- Seven MPs were suspended from Lok Sabha for the Budget Session in 2020.
- There should be a nodal standing committee on economy with specific subject-oriented study groups concerned with economic policy formulation and implementation.
- It would help to evolve better means of monitoring performance in implementing policies and prescribing correctives to ensure the best use of available resources.
- Quality of Members is the most important variable in the working of any Parliament.
- It is the primary duty of every member to maintain and project a good image of Parliament by his conduct both inside and outside the Houses of Parliament.
- Financial cost of parliamentary democracy has been skyrocketing.
- During the last five decades they have gone up by over 100 times.
- A strict limit needs to be placed on the number of Ministers and equivalent posts both at the Union level and in the States.
- The legislation has been criticized for hasty drafting and for being rushed through Parliament in an ad hoc and haphazard manner.
- There is a need for a dynamic approach to legislative engineering and systematic programming of laws.
- This can be done by:
- Streamlining the functions of the Parliamentary and Legal Affairs Committee of the Cabinet.
- Making greater use of the Law Commission.
- Setting up a new Legislation Committee of Parliament to oversee and coordinate legislative planning.
- Currently, parliamentary privileges are not codified and thus have MPs have gained an undefined power as there is no expressed provision to state the limitations on their powers.
- Thus, there is need of the codification of parliamentary privileges to prevent the potential misuse.
- There is no provision for a parliamentary scrutiny or control of public borrowing.
- In India, the Constitution and the laws place no limits on the borrowing powers of the Executive.
- Beyond certain limits, the proposals for the borrowing should be subjected to scrutiny by the proposed parliamentary committee on National Economy or the Standing Committee for the Ministry of Finance.
- The Chakmas and Hajongs were originally residents of the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
- They were displaced by the construction of the Kaptai Dam in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh in 1957.
- They faced religious persecution in East Pakistan.
- The groups entered India through the Lushai Hills district of Assam (today’s Mizoram).
- The Indian government moved a majority of the refugees to present-day Arunachal Pradesh.
- In the 1960s, the Indian Government settled them legally in Arunachal Pradesh.
- However, it is claimed that members of the Chakma and Hajong communities were illegal migrants and not tribals. Thus, there is demand that they needed to be shifted out of the state.
- The chakams are the major tribe of Tripura.
- They are
- They fled from Chittagong Hill Tract (Bangladesh) to Northwestern India in 1960s.
- Anokia
- Tandugia
- Mangla
- Location- India, Myanmar, Bangladesh
- Language- a mixture of broken Bengali and Assamese language.
- Attire-
- Women-
- Phinon- It is an ankle length cloth around the waist, colourfully handwoven with various designs.
- Haadi- It is wrapped above the waist as well as silver ornaments.
- Food- Rice, millet, corn (maize), vegetables, and mustard.
- Occupation- Farmers
- Festival-Buddh Purnima, Bijhu.
- Women-
- They are the fourth largest tribe in Meghalaya.
- Location- They are found in the Garo and Khasi Hills of Meghalaya and Bangladesh.
- They belong to the Kachari group of tribes.
- They have the status of a Scheduled Tribe in India (Assam and Meghalaya).
- Occupation- rice farmers
- Religion- The Hajongs are Hindus and observe Hindu rites and customs.
- Language- Tibeto-Burman language.
- Festival- Durga Puja and Kamakhya Puja, Biswa.
- Biswa- It is a pre-monsoon harvest festival.
- Traditional attire-
- Women-
- Pathim- Its horizontally striped, colorful, rectangular piece of cloth wrapped around skirt.
- Men-
- Nighli- It’s a hand woven piece of cloth.
- Gamsa- It covers the lower part of the bodies.
- The Hajongs have five different clans.
- Korebari
- Doskina
- Su-Sungya
- Barohazari
- Mesparya
- Marriage within the same clan is prohibited.
- To assess the prevailing status of emergency and trauma care at government and private hospital settings of India.
- To bring out the existing gaps and provide a framework for further improvement and the needed policy directions.
- 100 tertiary and secondary level hospitals in 29 States and 2 Union Territories from 5 regions of India was conducted.
- Even though 91% of hospitals had in-house ambulances, trained paramedics needed to assist ambulance services were present only in 34%.
- The number of beds available at Emergency Departments accounted for only 3-5% of total hospital beds.
- Most of the hospitals lacked presence of general doctors, specialists and nursing staff dedicated for Emergency Departments.
- Only 9% of all hospitals, fulfilled the criteria to have the complete list of all recommended emergency medicines 24*7 in the emergency departments.
- The patient disposition time for the sickest group (Red zone) was high at Government Medical Colleges (90 Minutes) vis-à-vis Private Hospital (15 minutes).
- The reasons for this delay amongst others were due to:
- High patient load
- Lack of in-house specialists in the emergency department.
- Need for multiple cross referrals, with an overarching lack of a dedicated department for emergency services.
- There was lack facilities such as presence of Police/ private security guards, to mitigate violence episodes between relatives of the care-seekers and health care providers.
- The reasons for this delay amongst others were due to:
- None of the Hospitals had funds dedicated for emergency care services.
- Develop a robust integrated emergency care service system which can comprehensively address all medical and surgical emergencies inclusive of trauma-related care.
- Develop standardize protocols and SOPs for emergency care to have a common optimal nation-wide policy.
- Strengthen the prevailing pre-hospital services such that a world-class ambulance services are made available 24*7.
- Create adequate space for emergency care systems at the prevailing health facilities.
- Systems to ensure efficient handling of medical care during disasters need to be ensured at all hospitals.
- Upgrade all the prevailing emergency care services to meet the standardized norms, with efforts made to accredit all the existing emergency departments.
- Create standalone Central/ State level efficient funding mechanisms to ensure continuous upgradation of emergency related issues at all hospitals.
- Develop mechanisms to ensure free treatment for emergency care services for all citizens covering the minimal required period for early stabilization.
- To educate parents and teachers to take necessary action.
- To ensure effective use of measures in overcoming all online gaming downsides with the associated mental and physical stress to children.
- Adopting OTP based payment methods as per RBI's guidelines.
- Installing internet gateway at home with features like monitoring, logging and controlling the types of content that the children can access.
- Help the child to protect their privacy online.
- Allowing in-game purchases without parental consent.
- Credit or debit cards registration on apps for subscriptions.
- Addiction to video games may cause issues such as:
- Depression
- Low-self-esteem
- High stress levels
- Shyness / social anxiety.
- Inability to control the addiction can cause feelings of shame, guilt, or a sense of powerlessness.
- Playing online games with no restriction and self-limits leads many players to become addicted and are eventually diagnosed with gaming disorder.
- Addiction to video games may lead to:
- No physical activities or exercise.
- Poor sleeping habits depending on gaming schedules.
- Choice of unhealthy foods that simply are convenient to eat while gaming.
- Parents may face daily arguments from children about time limits on games and the neglect of other responsibilities.
- Video games can be a very expensive form of entertainment that includes:
- Computer upgrades
- New gaming consoles
- Subscriptions to online services, newly released games, and the latest expansion packs.
- The gaming companies also emotionally compel the child to buy more levels and almost force in-app purchases.
- One-to-one in person contact with others is minimized and online / virtual contact is increased.
- It may cause social isolation and disconnection from the world around.
- The 151 trains represent only around 5 per cent of total trains run in India.
- Each cluster has an indicative project cost and average train distance of 900-1052km.
- The contract period of 35 years is based on the fact that trains and engines are usually in service for around three decades.
- The first set of 12 trains is estimated to roll out by 2022-23.
- Low Revenue: Due to cross subsidization revenue has not be generated at the optimum level.
- Cross subsidization- money earned through freight traffic is diverted to meet the shortfall in passenger traffic revenue.
- Quality of service: The quality of service in Indian Railways is sometimes questionable. The catering and punctuality are not the strongest pursuits of our railways.
- Accidents: Due to low-quality maintenance, the number of accidents increases during the rainy season. Slipping from rails, broken rails all become common during harsh seasons.
- Improved infrastructure: Privatization will improve the infrastructure of the railway stations. It will also enhance the services for the travelers provided by the station such as hygiene in the washroom, availability of clean and drinking water all the time, etc.
- Better technology: increased competition will incentivise private players to innovate new things which will result in better convenience and better performance of Indian Railways.
- Low fare: The government increases the prices to counter the enormous losses of Indian Railways if the private sector is involved in the competition will keep the costs low and will make up for the losses of government.
- Better security: Private participation will ensure high security and better monitoring of the stations. Also, rail management will be better.
- Political interference: The government may be reluctant to get rid of the workers because of the negative publicity involved in job losses.
- Monopoly: It is very costly to maintain the railways, so very few private players will be able to bid for maintaining the IR. It may lead to the monopoly in the system, which will affect the services, fare and other facilities.
- Increased fare: Private players do business only to gain profit, which will result in increased fare prices of transportation through railways. It will defeat the very purpose of operating railways to provide social service at affordable price to Indian residents.
- Complexity: Indian rail network is 4th largest in the world which is very difficult to operate and manage, which is one of the reasons why government is not able to maintain a vast network of railways efficiently.
- Constitutional obligations: Providing cheap and affordable travel is the Constitutional responsibility of the government. It will violate article 19 which provides for the movement in any area of the country, increased fare prices will affect this fundamental right.
- Trade unions: They have suggested the government not to privatise Indian railways as it will affect the livelihood of many people. Privatization will lead to informalisation of jobs which will increase vulnerability of workers in the railways.
- Scientists discovered that tropical forests have the potential to regrow almost fully if left untouched by humans for about 20 years.
- The regrow can be achieved by the natural process of secondary succession.
- The study was conducted using a technique called chrono sequence on 12 specific criteria such as soil, plant function, ecosystem structure, and biodiversity.
- A chrono sequence describes a set of ecological sites that share similar attributes but represent different ages.
- It is the process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over time.
- Types of Succession:
- It is the series of community changes that occur in an entirely new habitat that has never been colonized before.
- For example, a newly quarried rock face or dunes.
- It is the series of community changes that take place in a previously colonized, but disturbed or damaged habitat.
- For example, after felling trees in a woodland, land clearance or a fire.
Nudation
- The process of succession begins with the formation of a bare area or nudation.
- The reasons involve, such as oleanic eruption, landslide, flooding, erosion, deposition, fire, disease, or other catastrophic agency.
- New lifeless bare areas are also created by man, for example, walls, stone quarrying, burning, digging, flooding large land areas under reservoirs, etc.
- The invasion is the arrival of the reproductive bodies or propagules of various organisms and their settlement in the new or bare area.
- Hants are the first invaders (pioneers) in any area because the animals depend on them for food.
- Numbers of individuals of a species increase due to multiplication and all aggregate at the limited place, the competition for space and nutrition is started among them.
- Individuals of a species also compete with individuals of other species that may enter the area.
- Stabilization is the stage when the final terminal community becomes more or less stabilized for a longer period and it can maintain itself in the equilibrium or steady-state with the climate of that area.
- This last serai stage is mature, self-maintaining, self-reproducing through development stages, and relatively permanent.
- The vegetation is tolerant of the environmental conditions it imposed upon itself.
- It is the European Union's Earth observation programme.
- Managed by the European Commission in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA), the EU Member States and EU agencies.
- Aim: To achieve a global, continuous, autonomous, high quality, wide range Earth observation capacity.
- Wildfires around the world emitted 1.76 billion tonnes of carbon in 2021.
- This is the equivalent of 6.45 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide.
- It was 148 $ more than the total fossil fuel emissions of the European Union.
- The wildfires mostly occurred in Siberia, North America, North Africa and the Mediterranean.
- It is an unplanned, unwanted, uncontrolled fire in an area of combustible vegetation starting in rural areas and urban areas.
- Human Causes
- Burning Debris
- Unattended Campfires
- Cigarettes
- Natural causes
- Lightning
- Volcanic Eruption
- Loss of valuable timber resources
- Forest fires cause indispensable loss to timber and deteriorate its quality.
- Valuable timber species like teak, sal, chir, deodar, sheesam, rosewood etc. are adversely affected by fire.
- Impact of forest fire on eco system
- The most damaging impact of forest fire on ecosystem is very evident in the Himalayas.
- The hills existing between the heights of 1000 to 1800 meters are dominated by pine forests and seem to be more fire prone.
- Degradation of water catchments areas resulting into loss of water
- After forest fire, soil moisture is decreased and litter decomposition becomes almost negligible, which creates a possibility of forest fire in future.
- Loss of wildlife habitat and depletion of wildlife
- The forest fires in Sankhuwasabha and Ilam in Nepal claimed red pandas, leopards as well as monkeys, deer, bear and other species.
- Deteriorating Biological Environment
- The burning of vegetation gives off not only carbon dioxide but also many other noxious gases.
- Such as carbon monoxide, methane hydrocarbons, nitric oxide and nitrous oxide that lead to global warming and ozone layer depletion.
- Adverse impact on Health system
- The forest fires in 1995 and 1999 in Himalayan states gutted the mountains with the smoke, resulting into loss of visibility to about 200 meters.
- Threat to Life and Property
- The forest fire directly causes loss of life as observed in Gwar village of Rudraprayag district in the year 2001, when four ladies were killed while harvesting grass near forest area.
- National plan for forest fire management
- Aim: To prepare a strong data base on forest fires and evolve an appropriate strategy to deal the forest fire situation in more effective manner.
- Forest Fire Monitoring
- FSI (Forest survey of India) has been monitoring forest fires across the country using inputs received from MODIS satellite system,
- MODIS satellite system is a joint collaboration of NASA and University of Maryland.
- Aim of MODIS: To improve understanding of global dynamics and processes occurring on the land, in the oceans, and in the lower atmosphere.
- Incident Command System
- The Government of India in 2003 adopted the Incident Command System (ICS)in the country as practiced in USA to address the critical gaps in disaster response mechanism of the country.
- The result and outcome of forest fire management projects in different countries must be published and made available for experience sharing and lesson learning.
- Holistic approach for forest fire management, including fire protection, planning, prevention, suppression and rehabilitation should be adopted.
- All fire management activities should be safe, cost effective and support sound natural resources management.
- Trained, well equipped, assessed and accredited personnel must be appointed.
- Fire management activities should be based upon good scientific studies and follow sound management principles.
- The data was made available on the basis of cases registered by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and State Forest and Police Authorities.
- Illegal wildlife trade is one of the largest forms of transnational organized crime.
- It is the illegal practice of exchanging animals and plants for personal gain.
- Lack of adequate legislation to prohibit illegal trading
- The fines range from ten thousand rupees to twenty-five thousand rupees, with seven to ten years of imprisonment.
- Due to inadequate prosecution, the majority of the poachers are acquitted.
- The conviction of a poacher for three years was seen as a rare sentence in India.
- Harvesting:
- It is the practice of eliminating a species that has become overpopulated to restore ecological equilibrium.
- The majority of animals are wind up on the black market.
- Transferring of Illegal trade items into legal markets:
- The majority of illegally trafficked wildlife is marketed in legal markets.
- It leads to an increase in demand resulting in more poaching.
- Huge money on offer:
- Illegally sold goods command a high price on European marketplaces
- Vicious loop of greed has been a constant fuel for the poaching industry.
- Undocumented species:
- Thousands of undocumented species are sold legally on the international market.
- The diverse demand and usage
- It is used in medicines and to make a carpet and rug.
- Majority of illegally obtained parts are meant for the international market and has no direct demand in India.
- 2054 cases were registered and 3,836 accused were arrested for killing or illegal trafficking of wild animals between 2018 and 2020.
- 601 cases were registered and 1231 arrests in 2020.
- Save Kurma
- Aim- to focus on the poaching, transportation and illegal trade of live turtles and tortoises.
- Operation Turtshield
- Aim- to tackle the illegal trade of live turtles.
- Operation Soft gold
- Aim- to tackle illegal trade in Shahtoosh shawls (made from Chiru wool).
- Operation Lesknow
- Aim- to gain attention towards the illegal wildlife trade.
- Operation Clean Art
- Aim- to drag attention towards illegal wildlife trade in Mongoose hair brushes.
- Operation Birbil
- Aim- to curb illegal trade in wild cat and wild bird species
- Operation Wildnet
- Aim- to focus on increasing illegal wildlife trade over internet using social media platforms.
- Operation Freefly
- Aim- To focus on illegal trade of live birds.
- Operation Wetmark
- Aim- to ensure prohibition of sale of meat of wild animals in wet markets across the country.
- The COVID crisis has led to significant economic losses by amplifying unemployment, poverty, gender disparity and migration risks.
- There is convincing evidence of a recovery of the BRICS from the deep, pandemic-induced contraction.
- The recovery shows significant divergence amongst the BRICS members.
- The pace of economic growth is gradually picking up in India and Brazil, Russia and South Africa are yet to return to their pre-pandemic levels of economic activity.
- It is the acronym coined to associate five major emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
- The term "BRIC" is believed to be coined in 2001 by then chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Jim O'Neill, in his publication Building Better Global Economic BRICs.
- Aim: To create an enabling support system especially for the MSME segment of businesses, young entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs, and Start-Ups from across all geographies.
- It represent 41% of the global population, 24% of the global GDP and 16% of the global trade.
- To enhance market access opportunities and facilitate market interlinkages.
- To promote mutual trade and create a business-friendly environment for investors and entrepreneurs in all BRICS countries.
- To enhance trade and investment cooperation that support value addition among the BRICS countries.
- To strengthen macroeconomic policy coordination and build resilience to external economic shocks.
- To strive for inclusive economic growth, in order to eradicate poverty, address unemployment and promote social inclusion.
- To promote information exchange through BRICS Virtual Secretariat and BRICS Economic Exchange Platform, as well as other agreed platforms.
- It is a multilateral development bank operated by BRICS states.
- It is also referred to as the BRICS Development Bank.
- The bank's primary focus of lending is infrastructure projects.
- It is a framework for providing protection against global liquidity pressures.
- This includes currency issues where members' national currencies are being adversely affected by global financial pressures.
- It is consultations for a payment system that would be an alternative to the SWIFT system.
- Pinaka is a multiple rocket launcher produced in India.
- Designed By: Armament Research and Development Establishment, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the Indian Army.
- The system has a maximum range of 40 km for Mark-I and 60 km for the Mark-I enhanced version.
- Pinaka saw service during the Kargil War, where it was successful in neutralizing enemy positions on the mountain tops.
- Modes of operation: The launcher can operate in 4 modes: Autonomous mode, Stand-alone mode, Remote mode and Manual mode
- Variants:
- Mk-I: the range is 37.5 km
- Mk-I Enhanced: the range is 45 km
- Mk-II: the range is 60 km
- Guided Pinaka: the range is 75 km
- Mk-II ER: the range is 90 km
- Mk-III: the range is 120 km
- Type: Anti-tank guided missile
- Designed by: Defence Research and Development Organisation
- Manufacturer: Bharat Dynamics Limited
- It is also known as "Prospina" for the land-attack version.
- It is an Indian third-generation, all-weather, fire-and-forget, lock-on after launch, anti-tank guided missile (ATGM).
- NAG is having an Operational range: 500 m to 20 km.
- Development of the Nag is part of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program.
- Variants:
- Land version:
- It is for a mast-mounted system.
- Helicopter-launched Nag:
- It is fired from helicopters and is known as Dhruvastra.
- Man-portable version:
- It is an air-launched version that will replace the current imaging infra-red(IIR) to millimetric-wave (mmW) active radar homing seeker.
- Nag Missile Carrier (NAMICA)
- The Nag Missile system fired from NAMICA can take out targets at ranges of 4 to 7 kilometres.
- Balochistan is an arid desert and mountainous geographic region in South and Western Asia.
- The region is administratively divided among three countries, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. It comprises of:
- Pakistani province of Balochistan
- Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan
- Southern areas of Afghanistan, including Nimruz, Helmand and Kandahar provinces.
- It is the largest of the four provinces of Pakistan.
- Most of the inhabitants are Baloch and the other communities include Pashtuns and Brahuis.
- History of insurgency in Balochistan can be traced to the issue of Kashmir, and is active since 1948.
- The British offered the Kingdom of Balochistan, either to join India, join Pakistan or remain independent.
- The king of Balochistan chose to remain independent until the Pakistan government took control of the region in 1948.
- Pakistani government generate tons of revenue from the region in the form of taxes.
- But Balochistan remains as economically backward province in Pakistan in spite of being resource-rich region.
- Gross human rights violation has been inflicted on the people of Balochistan.
- The human rights violations in the region done by the Pakistan military and terror groups.
- Shias in the region have been facing discrimination from the Sunnis of Pakistan.
- Hindus and the other minority group are also facing discrimination by Pakistan.
- Balochistan is among the least developed even though the most resource-rich of Pakistan’s four provinces.
- The mega development plans endanger the present livelihood of the people living in the region.
- The protest, led by a Jamat-e-Islami (JI), a traditional ally of Pakistan’s military establishment has made 19 demands.
- Some of their demands were clean drinking water, uninterrupted access to the sea for fishing, and a ban on deep-sea trawling.
- Other most important demand was that more people from Gwadar should be employed by the Chinese company developing the port.
- Gwadar, a small port town on the coastline of the Arabian Sea in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province.
- Gwadar is just 400 km from the Hormuz Strait, through which 40 per cent of Chinese imported oil flows.
- The port development at Gwadar is the single most strategically important project of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
- It would provide the Chinese an alternative to the sea route for its oil imports from the middle east.
- It allows Chinese trade to bypass the Malacca straits chokepoint, reducing the shipping costs and number of transits.
- It improves connectivity to the restive Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, thereby increasing the region's potential to attract public and private investment.
- It establishes direct transport links to the Indian Ocean via the CPEC.
- It helps stabilise western China, a region where Beijing feels vulnerable to Islamic agitation.
- It would diversify political risk of access, in case another host country limited Chinese activity.
- It could be utilized for Joint exercises in the future.
- The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a collection of infrastructure projects meant to deepen economic ties between China and Pakistan.
- It is intended to rapidly upgrade Pakistan's required infrastructure and strengthen its economy by the construction of modern transportation networks, numerous energy projects, and special economic zones.
- The project is a part of Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Maritime Silk Road projects.
- It seeks to deepen Mainland China's economic cooperation with a number of Asian and European countries.
- It will connect China's largest province Xinjiang with Pakistan's Gwadar port in Balochistan.
- It was launched in 2015 and passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Balochistan.
- The Gwadar port’s proximity to India raises suspicions that the investment is intended to serve military objectives.
- Gwadar could support the logistics base in Djibouti (Chinese military base).
- Empty warehouses in the adjacent free zone could also be converted to military use.
- Gwadar which gives China strategic access to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean, has dual purposes:
- The port can be used by PLAN (the Chinese Navy).
- It is intended to expand Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean Region.
- Pakistan being a close military ally of China is of great concern for India.
- India has trust issues with both the countries.
Prime Minister of India inaugurated the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor connecting the ancient Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi to the ghats of the Ganga.
Aim:
- To decongest and also transform the temple complex.
- To boost tourism in the region, including the Buddhist pilgrimage site of Sarnath.
- Chaperones are proteins that assist in the folding of newly synthesized polypeptide chains.
- It also aids in the precise 3D shape forming of complex proteins to become functional entities.
- Polypeptides help make up proteins by bonding numerous amino acids together.
- Chaperones are needed under physiological conditions too, for normal cellular function.
- Major chaperones in humans include
- HSP70 is a Heat Shock Protein.
- HSP70 is induced by heat.
- HSP70 is a Heat Shock Protein.
- The beginning of protein synthesis is carried out by ribosomes that synthesize a linear chain of amino acids called a polypeptide chain. The mRNA specifies the sequence of the amino acids.
- Each amino acid within this polypeptide chain has a different property. For example, glycine is highly hydrophobic, whilst arginine is very hydrophilic. These properties dictate the three-dimensional structure of the protein. The hydrophobic amino acids need to be kept within the interior of the protein whilst the hydrophilic amino acids need to be on the exterior of the protein.
- Hydrogen bonds bind to the polypeptide chains to form secondary structure of proteins that is the alpha helices and beta sheets. The stacking of these helices and sheets forms the tertiary structure.
- Protein folding must be maintained in their three-dimensional shape and should not aggregate or degrade. Unfolded or misfolded proteins give way to a host of diseases.
- Chaperones are a group of proteins that have functional similarity and assist in protein folding. They are proteins that have the ability to prevent non-specific aggregation by binding to non-native proteins.
- There are several families of chaperones and each possesses different functions. Example of chaperon proteins are the “heat shock proteins” (Hsps).
- The name Hsp was given after these proteins were discovered in bacterium. These bacteria produced more of these proteins in stressful conditions, such as higher temperatures, pH variation and hypoxic conditions. Two examples of Hsps are Hsp70 and Hsp60.
- The Hsp70 chaperone proteins are folding catalysts that assist in many kinds of folding processes such as refolding or misfolding of aggregated proteins, and folding and assembling of new proteins. These proteins are monomeric and contain two different domains called the N and C terminals. The N terminal contains ATPase whilst the C terminal binds to the substrate. ATP hydrolysis within the N terminal allows the C terminal to open and bind to the substrate.
- Hsp70 recognizes a region of the unfolded polypeptide chain termed the “extended region”. This extended region contains many hydrophobic residues. Binding of Hsp70 prevents the aggregation of these proteins.
- Like Hsp70, Hsp60 chaperone proteins also have the ability to bind to exposed hydrophobic residues to form aggregates that are stable but inactive. These proteins are not involved in preventing aggregation, but instead function to quarantine and isolate unfolded proteins. The isolation also prevents the polypeptide chain from aggregating into clumps with other chains within the cytoplasm.
- Hsp 60 contains 14 different proteins components. These proteins form two rings, each made of 7 proteins, which are placed on top of each other. Unfolded proteins within these rings are then able to fold without aggregating with other unfolded proteins and without interference from Hsp70.
- As seen in Hsp70, Hsp60 also has two different forms. The first state is the binding form, in which ATP is bound and the unfolded proteins can enter the hole between the two rings. Hydrolysis of ATP then initiates the formation of an enclosed state, called the folding-active state. This conformational change prevents the protein from leaving and encourages folding of the proteins. This enclosed state last for around 15 seconds before the conformation changes back and the properly folded protein is released into the cytoplasm.
- Chaperones play a very important role within the cytoplasm preventing aggregation and promoting various important functions such as translocation, degradation, and suitable protein folding.
- Loss or mutations of these chaperones give rise to several diseases. An example of a group of genetic diseases associated with mutated chaperones are multisystem protein opathies (MSP) that affect a wide range of bodily functions involving the muscle, bone and nervous system.
Voters in the South Pacific archipelago of New Caledonia decide whether to break away from France, a referendum that is important for French geopolitical ambitions and is being closely watched amid growing Chinese influence in the region
- Location: Pacific Ocean between Australia and Fiji.
- It is an overseas collectivity of France.
- It is one of the northernmost parts of an almost entirely submerged continent called Zealandia.
- It located in the subregion of Melanesia, making the continental island group unique in the southwest Pacific
- Unnati is an e-learning platform which provides training, counselling and placement to trainees.
- It was launched under Delhi Police’s flagship scheme ‘YUVA’.
- Aim: Serving to the youth (specifically from weaker sections of the society) and college dropouts get a training and purchase abilities to understand their desires of a safe future.
A Tripartite National Dialogue on Global Call to Action for a human-centered recovery from COVID-19 crisis was organized by International Labour Organization (ILO) in collaboration with Ministry of Labour& Employment recently.
Aim: To foster convergence and tripartite action contributing to the implementation of the ILO Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work and Sustainable Development Goals in India.
Major areas of the Global Call to Action:
RBI MANDATES ‘LEGAL ENTITY IDENTIFIER’ FOR RS. 50 CRORE PLUS CROSS-BORDER DEALS
Reserve Bank of India made the Legal Entity Identifier mandatory for cross-border transactions for capital or current account transactions recently.
The LEI Code is mandatory on transactions of worth Rs 50 crore and above.
Legal Entity Identifier:
- The LEI is a 20-digit number used to uniquely identify parties participating in financial transactions.
- It is based on the ISO 17442 standard developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
- Established by the Financial Stability Board in June 2014, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) is tasked to support the implementation and use of LEI.
- Banks will have to obtain the LEI number from the resident entities undertaking any capital or current account transactions.
- LEI code will verify that a company is legally registered and it is an active company.
- It will provide all the details of a company such as who owns whom, and who is who.
- For LEI holders, it would be mandatory to furnish the number in all transactions irrespective of the transaction size.
- Once an entity has obtained an LEI number, it must be reported in all transactions of that entity, irrespective of transaction size.
- It is practical, cost-effective, and reliable at the time of trading with offshore companies.
- It enhances credibility both globally and locally.
- The Indian Judicial collegium system, which appoints judges to the nation's constitutional courts.
- It has its genesis in three of its own judgments which are collectively known as the Three Judges Cases.
- A collegium consists of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and 4 other senior most SC judges.
- The Collegium of judges is the Supreme Court’s invention and is not mentioned in the Constitution.
- The constitution says judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts are appointed by the President and speaks of a process of consultation.
- Names recommended for appointment by a High Court collegium reaches the government only after approval by the CJI and the Supreme Court collegium.
- The Court held that consultation does not mean concurrence and it only implies exchange of views.
- The Court reversed its earlier ruling and changed the meaning of the word consultation to concurrence.
- It ruled that the advice tendered by the Chief Justice of India is binding on the President in the matters of appointment of the judges of the SC.
- The Court opined that the consultation process to be adopted by the Chief justice of India requires ‘consultation of plurality judges’.
- The sole opinion of the chief justice of India does not constitute the consultation process.
- He should consult a collegium of four senior most judges of the SC.
- The court held that the recommendation made by the chief justice of India are not binding on the government.
POSTED ON 13-12-2021 BY ADMIN
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General Studies
Political Science and International Relations
Some Reference Essays
List of previous year essay topics (1997-2019)
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