Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Recently Union Health Ministry released a draft of a proposed The Drugs, Medical Devices and Cosmetics Bill, 2022.

• The Bill replaces the existing The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and several sets of Rules by which the industry is currently run.
• The draft focuses on regulating medical devices as a separate entity, makes provision for fines and imprisonment for injury and death related to clinical trials or investigations, and seeks to regulate e-pharmacies.

Major provisions of the Bill

Regulation:

• It seeks to regulate e-pharmacies and medical devices and provides for penalties including imprisonment for failing to pay compensation for injury or death during clinical trials for both drugs and medical devices.

Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940:

• For the first time, regulations for conduct of clinical trials for new drugs and medical devices have been brought under the draft New Drugs, Medical Devices and Cosmetics Bill, 2022 which seeks to replace the existing Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940.

AYUSH drugs:

• The draft bill has a separate chapter for AYUSH drugs which proposes to regulate Sowa Rigpa and Homoeopathy for the first time.
• The existing act regulates Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha drugs and cosmetics.

New definitions:

• The draft bill introduces various new definitions or provisions like bioequivalence study, bioavailability study, clinical trial, clinical investigation, controlling authority, manufacturer, medical device, new drugs, over the-counter (OTC) drugs, adulterated cosmetics, etc. for more clarity and smooth functioning and implementation.

Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) and Medical Devices Technical Advisory Board (MDTAB):

• It proposes the constitution of a separate Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) and Medical Devices Technical Advisory Board (MDTAB), comprising experts from various associations to advise the central government in technical matters.

Penalties:

• The penalties for offences related to import of drugs and cosmetics have been enhanced appropriately.
• It mentions where any person permitted under sub-section (1) of section 72 fails to provide the required medical management or compensation under section 73, shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to one year or with fine which shall not be less than twice the amount of compensation.

Central Licensing Authority:

• In the interest of public health or extreme urgency of drugs, the central government is empowered to make provisions for Central Licensing Authority to waive the requirement of conducting clinical trials for manufacture or import of new drugs or investigational new drugs in the country.

Compensation:

• Where a participant during a clinical trial suffers injury or death on account of his participation in such investigation, provision has been made to provide compensation and medical management to such participants.

E-pharmacy:

• Permission has to be taken to operate an e-pharmacy.
• No person shall himself or by any other person on his behalf sell, or stock or exhibit or offer for sale, or distribute, any drug by online mode (e-pharmacy) except under and in accordance with a licence or permission issued in such manner as may be prescribed.

Medical device testing centres:

• Provisions have been incorporated to designate or establish medical device testing centres by the central government for testing and evaluation of medical devices for regulators and industry.

About Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940

• The Act regulates the import, manufacture, and distribution of drugs in India.
• The primary objective of the act is to ensure that the drugs and cosmetics sold in India are safe, effective and conform to state quality standards.

Section 3 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940:

• The Central Government, after consultation with the Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB), specifies the devices intended for use in human beings or animals as drugs.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Europe is battling intense wildfires with countries like Spain, Greece and France struggling to stamp out fires and contain the damage.

Why are wildfires worsening?

• Wildfires require right climatic conditions, burnable fuel and a spark.
• Rising temperatures suck moisture out of plants, creating an abundance of dry fuel.
• Drought and high heat can kill plants and dry out dead grass, and other material on the forest floor that fuel the fire once it starts sweeping through a patch.
• While dry vegetation is the burnable fuel that serves as kindling for fires, the spark is sometimes caused by lightning, at other times by accident or recklessness of the local population.

Forest fires in India

Forest Fires

• Also called bush or vegetation fire or wildfire, it can be described as any uncontrolled and non-prescribed combustion or burning of plants in a natural setting such as a forest, grassland, brush land or tundra, which consumes the natural fuels and spreads based on environmental conditions.
• There are three conditions that need to be present in order for a wildfire to burn: fuel, oxygen, and a heat source.

Recent Data on forest Fires

• A total of 381 forest fires have been reported in India by 30th March, 2022, according to the Forest Survey of India. Madhya Pradesh has recorded the highest number of fires at 133.
• In March 2022, significant forest fires were reported in states such as Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
• The recent fire at Rajasthan’s Sariska Tiger Reserve was also considered to have been unseasonal, with high temperatures exacerbating the spread of the fire.
• January 2021 saw prolonged fires in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh (Kullu Valley) and Nagaland-Manipur border (Dzukou Valley)
• Recent fires also include those in Bandhavgarh Forest Reserve in Madhya Pradesh.

Impact of Forest Fire:

• Loss of Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Forest fires destroy the habitats and the intricate relationships of diverse flora and fauna leading to loss of ecosystems and biodiversity.

Forest Degradation:

• Almost every year, forest fires are witnessed across different forest regions which persistently reduce the quality of certain forest features like soil fertility, biodiversity, and ecosystems.

Air Pollution:

• The huge clouds of smoke instigated by wildfires lead to massive air pollution.
• Wildfire smoke, and particularly the concentration of PM 2.5, or particles smaller than 2.5 microns, can also affect the respiratory and cardiovascular systems

Global Warming:

• When plant life is exterminated by fires greenhouse gasses increase in the atmosphere leading to climate change and global warming
• Trees and vegetation when are burned, it means more greenhouse gases increases in the atmosphere, resulting in global warming

Soil Degradation:

• Forest fires kill beneficial soil microorganisms that are responsible for breaking down the soil and promoting soil microbial activities.
• The burning of trees and vegetation cover also leaves the soil bare making it readily vulnerable to soil erosion.

Measures to be taken

• Recognise as a Disaster:
• The forest fires should be treated as “natural disasters” and be brought under the National Disaster Management Authority.
• Moreover, by designating forest fires as natural disasters, there will also be a financial allotment made to manage them.

Develop Alert system:

• A forest fire alert system needs to be developed that can provide real time impact-based alerts.

Enhance Adaptive Capacity:

• Capacity-building initiatives targeted at district administrations and forest-dependent communities can avert the extent of loss and damage due to forest fires.

Provide Clean Air Shelters:

• The state government/ state forest departments (SFDs) should repurpose public buildings like government schools and community halls by fitting them with clean air solutions – like air filters – to create clean air shelters for communities worst impacted by fires and smoke from forest fires.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

The presence of a vigilant Opposition is necessary not just for a vibrant democracy but for its very survival

Parliamentary Democracy

• The Indian Constitution adopted the parliamentary system
• The rationale quoted by R. Ambedkar for this is – A democratic executive must satisfy two conditions –
• It must be a stable executive and
• It must be a responsible executive.
• Unfortunately it has not been possible so far to devise a system which can ensure both in equal degree.

Role of Opposition

• Parliamentary democracy does not envisage a condition where a one party-government becomes permanent.
• The presence of a vigilant Opposition is necessary not just for a vibrant democracy but for its very survival.
• When the Opposition criticises the government or carries on an agitation to arouse public opinion against a party’s misdeeds, it is performing a duty that is assigned by the Constitution.
• Without an effective Opposition, democracy will become dull and legislature will become submissive.
• The public will then think that the legislature is a sham and is unable to perform its functions and will lose interest in the functioning of Parliament.

Failed Anti-defection law

• Encouraging defections from the parties in power in States will sound the death knell for democracy.
• The whip system is part of the established machinery of political organisation in the House and does not infringe on a member’s rights or privilege in any way.
• That is why some political thinkers have recognised as an additional device the ‘theory of recall,’ so that a member whose personal behaviour falls below standards expected of his constituents goes back and seek their approval.
• This power is particularly apt when a member shows disloyalty to his party but declines to resign from his seat and to fight an immediate by-election. The anti-defection law was supposed to be the justification underlying the power of recall And the law failed.

Reasons

• The law does not provide a time-frame within which the presiding officer has to decide a defection case.
• There have been many instances where a Speaker has misused this in not determining the case of a defecting MLA until the end of the legislature term.
• Parties often sequester MLAs in resorts to prevent them from changing their allegiance or getting poached by a rival party.
• Recent examples are Maharashtra (2019) & (2022), Karnataka (2019 and 2018), and Tamil Nadu (2017).

Misuse of Powers

• Recent trend of the use of draconian powers, especially the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, Investing agencies against Opposition members

Way Forward

• Political parties, the judiciary and civil society must take steps to ensure that democracy does not fail.
• The Opposition must be tolerated because if it is left for the party in power to decide what is healthy and unhealthy criticism, then every criticism of the latter will be treated as unhealthy.
• At the same time, while the Opposition must be credible and strong, it is for the Opposition to make itself credible and strong.

Learn from best practices

• In England, where the parliamentary system prevails, the assessment of responsibility of the executive is both daily and periodic.
• The daily assessment is done by members of Parliament, through questions, resolutions, no-confidence motions, adjournment motions and debates on addresses.
• Periodic assessment is done by the electorate at the time of the election.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Since the onset of the pandemic and over the past few months, after the Ukraine-Russia war, commodity prices, especially that of energy, have surged worldwide.

• With inflation at unprecedented levels in many countries, concerns over energy security have gained centre stage.

Coal Crisis

• For the last six months, national coal index (NCI) has jumped from about 165 to about 238 reflecting the sharp increase in international coal prices.
• This development shows the importance of increasing domestic coal production to reduce the exposure of the domestic economy to the price volatility of international markets.
• A big effort toward permitting commercial mining has been made to get the private sector to produce more coal, but that’s not sufficient.

What’s need to be done?

• First, the financial community has to be sensitised to the need of increasing domestic coal production to meet the growing energy demand.
• The Ministry of Power recognised the need to increase coal-based generation in the country in its draft National Electricity Policy
• This policy has not yet been finalised. It should clearly articulate the importance of domestic coal-based generation.
• Second, is the need for a regulator to address the issues arising from a greater role of the private sector
• There are several issues where new private commercial miners would need help.
• A single point of contact for the industry in the form of a dedicated regulator would give great comfort to private players and would help to overcome problems that could arise in due course.
• Third, increasing domestic production of coal and diversifying the production base are both needed.
• This must be complemented with efforts to improve the quality of the coal produced.
• Fourth, the undue financial burden on the coal sector due to various cross subsidies needs attention. The regime needs to be reformed.
• And Fifth the path to achieving 500 GW of renewables needs to be gradual, ensuring an orderly transition as coal is unavoidable in the near future

The changes in the coal industry in the last few years are in the right direction. These were long overdue. Action on the issues discussed above will only help to deepen and strengthen these reforms which are needed to overcome the challenges that have resurfaced in recent world order.

National Coal Index (NCI)

• NCI was rolled out in June 2020.
• It is a price index which reflects the change of price level of coal in a particular month relative to the fixed base year.
• The base year for the NCI is Financial Year 2017-18.

Compilation:

• Prices of coal from all the sales channels of coal, including import, as existing today are taken into account for compiling the NCI.
• The amount of revenue share per tonne of coal produced from auctioned blocks would be arrived at using the NCI by means of defined formula.

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.