Syllabus: General Studies Paper 1

Kozhikamuthi, a Malasar tribal settlement in the core area of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu, is known for the occupation — capturing, taming and handling wild elephants for the Forest Department.

• This is the second elephant camp of the Tamil Nadu Forest Department, after the one at Theppakkadu in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve.

Anamalai Tiger Reserve

• It is one of the four Tiger Reserves in Tamil Nadu. It forms part of the Southern Western Ghats.
• It forms part of the Anamalai Parambikulam Elephant Reserve declared in 2003.
• It is surrounded by Parambikulam Tiger Reserve on the East, Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary and Eravikulam National Park on the South Western side (all belong to Kerala).
• The reserve is also surrounded by Nenmara, Vazhachal, Malayattur and Marayur reserved forests of Kerala.
• The ranges found in this reserve include Amaravathi, Udumalpet, Pollachi, Ulandy, Valparai and Manamboli.

Anthropological Diversity:

• The area has significant anthropological diversity with more than 4600 Adivasi people from six tribes of indigenous people living in 34 settlements.
• The tribes are the Kadars, Malasars, Malaimalasar, Pulaiyars, Muduvars and the Eravallan (Eravalar).

Flora:

• It includes wet evergreen forest and semi-evergreen forest, montane shola-grassland, moist deciduous, dry deciduous, thorn forests and marshes.

Fauna:

• The important mammals include: Asiatic elephant, Sambar, Spotted deer, Barking deer, Mouse deer, Gaur, Nilgiri tahr, Tiger, etc.

Mudumalai Tiger Reserve

• Mudumalai Tiger Reserve is located in the Nilgiris District of Tamil Nadu state at the tri-junction of three states, viz, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
• It is a part of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve along with Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (Kerala) in the West, Bandipur National Park (Karnataka) in the North, Mukurthi National Park and Silent Valley in the South.
• The name Mudumalai means the ancient hill range.

Flora:

• The Reserve has tall grasses, commonly referred to as ‘Elephant Grass’.
• Bamboo of the giant variety, valuable timber species like Teak, Rosewood, etc.
• There are several species of endemic flora.

Fauna:

• Flagship Species: Tiger and Asian Elephant.
• Other species: Indian Gaur, Spotted Deer, Common Langur, Malabar Giant Squirrel, Wild Dog, Jungle Cat among others.

Birds:

• Reserve has got a wide variety of more than 260 species of birds.
• 8% of bird species found in India are recorded in Mudumalai.
• This includes rare birds like Malabar grey hornbill, Malabar pied hornbill, Malabar laughing thrush among others.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Both the ruling party and opposition party have selected their Vice Presidential election candidate.

• The election is scheduled for August 6, 2022.

Vice President

• The Vice President is the second highest constitutional office in India.
• The Vice President is the ex-officio Chairperson of the Council of States/Rajya Sabha.

Electoral College:

• As per Article 66 of the Constitution of India, the Vice-President is elected by the members of the Electoral College.
• He is elected in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote and the voting at such election shall be by secret ballot

Electoral College consists of:

• Elected and nominated members from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha only

Qualification for The Election Of The Vice-president

• He should be a citizen of India.
• He should be minimum 35 years of age.
• He should have qualified for the election as a member of the Rajya Sabha.
• He should not hold any office of profit under the Union government or any state government or any local authority or any other public authority.
• For the nomination for election to the office of Vice-President, a candidate must be subscribed by at least 20 electors from Members of Parliament as proposers and 20 electors as seconders.

Conditions of Office

• He should not be a member of either House of Parliament or a House of the state legislature.
• In the event that any such individual is chosen Vice-President, he is considered to have emptied his seat in that House on the date on which he enters upon his office as Vice-President.
• He shouldn’t hold any other office of profit.

Terms of Office

• The Vice President holds office for five years from the date of his inauguration.
• The Vice President can resign at any time by sending a letter of resignation to the President.
• He can hold office beyond his terms of five years until his successor takes office.
• He also has the right to be re-elected to this position for any number of terms.

Vacancy

A vacancy in the Vice-President’s office can occur in any of the following ways:

• When he completed the tenure of five years.
• When he resigned.
• When he was removed by parliament resolution.
• When he died while serving the office.
• When his election is declared void and become disqualified to hold office.

Power And Functions

• The vice-President acts as the ex-officio chairman of the Rajya Sabha and his powers and functions are similar to those of the speaker of the Lok Sabha.
• In the event of the president’s inability to work due to any reason or a vacancy in the office of the president due to any reason, he can act as the president. The office was created to maintain continuity in the Indian state; however, this is only for 6 months till the next president is elected.
• The Vice President while discharging duty as President should not preside over Rajya Sabha.

Removal of Vice-president

• A formal impeachment like in the case of the President of India is not required for the removal of Vice-President
• VP can be removed from his office by a resolution raised only in Rajya sabha, passed by effective majority & agreed upon by simple majority in Lok sabha.
• Prior to passing the resolution in Rajya sabha, a 14 days notice should be served to the Vice-President.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Iran and Belarus are likely to be the two newest additions to the China and Russia-backed Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) grouping.

• The current SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming, a Chinese diplomat, told the grouping hopes for an in-person summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
• Expanding the group is among the issues that leaders of the grouping are likely to discuss at the SCO summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, in September.

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

• The SCO is a permanent intergovernmental international organization.
• It’s a Eurasian political, economic and military organization aiming to maintain peace, security and stability in the region.
• It was created in 2001.
• The SCO Charter was signed in 2002, and entered into force in 2003.
• The SCO’s official languages are Russian and Chinese.
• Prior to the creation of SCO in 2001, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan were members of the Shanghai Five.
• Shanghai Five (1996) emerged from a series of border demarcation and demilitarization talks which the four former Soviet republics held with China to ensure stability along the borders.
• Following the accession of Uzbekistan to the organization in 2001, the Shanghai Five was renamed the SCO.
• India and Pakistan became members in 2017.
• On 17th September, 2021, it was announced that Iran would become a full member of the SCO.

Objectives:

• Strengthening mutual trust and neighborliness among the member states
• Promoting effective cooperation in -politics, trade & economy, research & technology and culture.
• Enhancing ties in education, energy, transport, tourism, environmental protection, etc.
• Maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region.
• Establishment of a democratic, fair and rational new international political & economic order

Structure:

• Heads of State Council – The supreme SCO body which decides its internal functioning and its interaction with other States & international organisations, and considers international issues.
• Heads of Government Council – Approves the budget, considers and decides upon issues related to economic spheres of interaction within SCO.
• Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs – Considers issues related to day-to-day activities.
• Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) – Established to combat terrorism, separatism and extremism.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 4

The US House of Representatives has passed by voice vote a legislative amendment that approves waiver to India against the punitive CAATSA sanctions for its purchase of the S-400 missile defence system from Russia.

• Authored and introduced by Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna, the amendment urges the Biden administration to use its authority to provide India with a Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) waiver to help deter aggressors like China.
• CAATSA is a tough US law that authorises the US administration to impose sanctions on countries that purchase major defence hardware from Russia in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential elections.
• In October 2018, India signed a USD 5 billion deal with Russia to buy five units of the S-400 air defence missile systems.
• The US has already imposed sanctions on Turkey under the CAATSA for the purchase of a batch of S-400 missile defence systems from Russia.

S-400 system

• It is an upgraded version of the S-300 surface-to-air missile system.
• The S-400 is known as Russia’s most advanced long-range surface-to-air missile defence system.
• Capable of handling multiple objects: It is capable of simultaneously tracking numerous incoming objects including aircraft, missiles and UAVs in a radius of a few hundred kilometres and launching appropriate missiles to neutralise them.
• It is capable of protecting its air defence bubble against rockets, missiles, cruise missiles and even aircraft.
• Radars: It has radars that can pick up an incoming object up to a distance of 1,000 kilometres, track several dozen incoming objects simultaneously, distribute the targets to missile systems and ensure a high success rate.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Indian rupee recorded a historic low of 79.72 against the US dollar and it has declined nearly 6 per cent since January this year.

• Foreign exchange reserves fell by $8.06 billion to $580.02 billion during the week ended July 8 in the wake of the appreciation of the dollar and capital outflows from India, triggered by the rise in inflation and rate hikes by the US.

Why rupee is falling?

Demand and supply:

• If a country imports more than it exports, then the demand for the dollar will be higher than the supply and due to this, domestic currency will depreciate against the dollar.

Russia-Ukraine war:

• Global disruptions caused by the Russia-Ukraine war is making our imports costly, thus widening the current account deficit.

Rising inflation:

• Rising inflation depreciates domestic currency since inflation can be equated with a decrease in money’s buying power.
• As a result, countries experiencing high inflation tend to also see their currencies weaken relative to other currencies.

High crude oil prices:

• Increasing crude oil prices are further widening our trade deficit thus leading to decrease in the value of rupee.

Capital outflows from India:

• The US Federal Reserve recently increased the interest rates, and the return on dollar assets increased compared with those of emerging markets such as India.
• It has led to outflow of dollars from India to the US.

Impact

Increase cost of raw materials and imports

• Since, India imports many raw materials, the price of finished goods could go up thus impacting the consumers.
• India’s high import dependence for fuel means oil price trajectories affect most macro parameters, including inflation, growth, current account balances, fiscal management and the rupee.
• This leads to widening of the current account deficit (CAD).

Boosts exports:

• In an ideal scenario, devalued rupee could have led to increase in exports.
• However, in the current scenario of weak global demand and persistent volatility, exporters are not supportive of the currency fall.

Inflation:

• The falling rupee’s biggest impact is on inflation, given India imports over 80 per cent of its crude oil, which is the country’s biggest import.
• Travellers and students studying abroad will have to shell out more rupees to buy dollars from banks.

Stock Market:

• Rupee depreciation may see foreign investors pulling out of Indian markets, resulting in a decline in stocks and equity mutual fund investments.

Floating exchange rate system

• Under the floating exchange rate regime, the market forces determine the value of domestic currency on the basis of the forces of demand and supply of the domestic currency.

Appreciation Vs Depreciation

Appreciation

• Currency Appreciation: It is an increase in the value of one currency in relation to another currency.
• Currencies appreciate against each other for a variety of reasons, including government policy, interest rates, trade balances and business cycles.
• Currency appreciation discourages a country’s export activity as its products and services become costlier to buy.

Depreciation Vs Devaluation:

• Currency depreciation is a fall in the value of a currency in a floating exchange rate system.
• Currency depreciation can occur due to factors such as economic fundamentals, interest rate differentials, political instability or risk aversion among investors.
• If the value of the Indian Rupee is weakened through administrative action, it is devaluation.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Ministry of Education released National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2022.

About National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF)

• The NIRF was launched by the Ministry of Education in 2015.
• It is the first-ever effort by the government to rank Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the country.

Assessment on Five Parameters:

• Teaching, Learning and Resources (TLR)
• Research and Professional Practice (RP)
• Graduation Outcomes (GO)
• Outreach and Inclusivity (OI)
• Perception
• A total of 4,786 institutions were evaluated on five parameters.
• While participation in the NIRF was voluntary in the initial years, it was made compulsory for all government-run educational institutions in 2018.

Key Highlights

• Indian Institute of Technology Madras retains its 1st position in Overall Category for fourth consecutive year and in Engineering for seventh consecutive year.
• IIT Madras is followed by Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, and IIT Bombay.
• Among Indian universities, IISc, Jawahar Lal Nehru University, Jamia Milia Islamia, Jadavpur University and Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham were among the top five.
• And among the top five colleges in the country are Miranda House, Hindu College, Presidency College, Loyola College and Lady Shri Ram College for Women.
• The top five medical institutes are All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, Christian Medical College, Vellore, National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences, Bangalore and Banaras Hindu University.
• The top five management institutes are Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmadabad, IIM Bengaluru, IIM Kolkata, IIT Delhi and IIM Kozhikode.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Assam, Arunachal CMs sign pact to resolve border dispute

• The two states signed an agreement (Namsai Declaration) to end border issues between the two states and decided to “restrict” the number of disputed villages to 86 instead of 123.
• Chief Ministers of the two North-eastern neighbours met at Namsai in Arunachal Pradesh and signed the agreement.

Background

• The two states share an 804.1 km-long border.
• The grievance of Arunachal Pradesh which was made a union territory in 1972 is that several forested tracts in the plains that had traditionally belonged to hill tribal chiefs and communities were unilaterally transferred to Assam.
• After Arunachal Pradesh achieved statehood in 1987, a tripartite committee was appointed which recommended that certain territories be transferred from Assam to Arunachal.
• Assam contested this and the matter is in the Supreme Court.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 4

Defence Minister launched Y- 3023 Dunagiri, Project 17A frigate built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders Limited (GRSE) in Kolkata

• Christened after a mountain range in the state of Uttarakhand, ‘Dunagiri’ is the fourth ship of P17A Frigates.
• These are follow-on of the P17 Frigates (Shivalik Class) with improved stealth features, advanced weapons and sensors and platform management systems.
• The first two ships of P17A Project, were launched in 2019 and 2020 at MDL and GRSE respectively.
• The third ship (Udaygiri) was launched at MDL on 17 May 2022 earlier this year.
• Seven P17A Frigates are under various stages of construction at Mazagaon Dock Limited (MDL) and GRSE.

P17A Frigates

• The Nilgiri-class frigate or Project 17A is follow-on of the Project 17 Shivalik-class frigate for the Indian Navy.
• The frigates are built with extensive use of low-observability technologies, including new radar-absorbing coatings, composite materials and “faceted” shape superstructures.
• P17A ships have been designed in-house by Indian Navy’s Directorate of Naval Design (DND), which has successfully spear-headed design of numerous class of indigenous warships in the past.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Andhra Pradesh has decided to rejoin the crop insurance scheme Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) from the ongoing kharif season

• Andhra Pradesh was one of six states that have stopped implementation of the scheme over the last four years.
• The other five, which remain out, are Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Telangana.

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY):

• PMFBY insures farmers against all non-preventable natural risks from pre-sowing to post-harvest.

Coverage:

• The Scheme covers all Food & Oilseeds crops and Annual Commercial/Horticultural Crops for which past yield data is available and for which requisite number of Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs) are being conducted under General Crop Estimation Survey (GCES).

Objectives:

• To provide insurance coverage and financial support to the farmers in the event of failure of any of the notified crops as a result of natural calamities, pests & diseases
• To stabilise the income of farmers to ensure their continuance in farming
• To encourage farmers to adopt innovative and modern agricultural practices
• To ensure flow of credit to the agriculture sector

Revamped PMFBY

• Completely Voluntary: It has been decided to make enrolment 100% voluntary for all farmers from 2020 Kharif.
• Limit to Central Subsidy: The government has capped the Centre’s premium subsidy under these schemes for premium rates up to 30% for unirrigated areas/crops and 25% for irrigated areas/crops.
• More Flexibility to States: The government has given the flexibility to states/UTs to implement PMFBY and given them the option to select any number of additional risk covers/features like prevented sowing, localised calamity, mid-season adversity, and post-harvest losses.
• Penalising the Pendency: A provision has been incorporated wherein if states don’t release their share before March 31 for the Kharif season and September 30 for rabi, they would not be allowed to participate in the scheme in subsequent seasons.
• Investing in ICE Activities: Insurance companies have to now spend 0.5% of the total premium collected on information, education and communication (IEC) activities.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

The Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare launched the Platform of Platforms (POP) under the National Agriculture Market (e-NAM).

• e-NAM integrates the platform of Service Providers as “Platform of Platforms” which includes Composite Service Providers, Logistics Service Provider, Quality Assurance Service Provider, Cleaning, Grading, Sorting & Packaging Service Provider etc
• The inclusion of various service providers not only adds to the value of the e-NAM platform, but also gives the users of the platform options to avail services from different service providers.
• It enables farmers, FPOs, traders and other stakeholders to access a wide variety of goods and services across the agricultural value chain through a single window, thereby giving more options to the stakeholders.
• With the introduction of POP, farmers will be facilitated to sell the produce outside their state borders.
• This will increase farmers’ digital access to multiple markets, buyers and service providers and bring transparency in business transactions with the aim of improving price search mechanism and quality commensurate price realisation.
• The PoP will create a digital ecosystem, which will benefit from the expertise of different platforms in different segments of the agricultural value chain.