Syllabus: general studies paper 3 (economy)

Context:

The second wave of the covid-19 pandemic could be slowly receding with a decline in the official estimates of daily infections and deaths.

The economy is also very gradually getting back to normal, with many states beginning to ease some of the restrictions imposed in their lockdowns.

However, the challenge of an economic recovery is far more serious than the health pandemic despite official claims of there being an economic recovery.

Decline in gdp during pandemic:

Last month, the national statistical office (nso) released the estimates of the indian gross domestic product (gdp) growth for the fiscal year 2020-21.

The decline in gdp, at 7.3%, was slightly better than expectation, even though this is a gross underestimate of the reality given the methodological issue of underestimation of the economic distress in the unorganised sector.

Syllabus: General Studies paper 1 (Geography)

Context:

Canada broke a national heat record on june 27, when the temperature in a small town in british columbia reached almost 116 degrees fahrenheit. At least 134 people have died suddenly in canada.

• A historic heat wave is prevailing in the pacific northwest.
• Heat waves are generally the result of trapped air.

Cause behind heat wave:

The heat wave was caused by what meteorologists described as a dome of high pressure over the northwest and worsened by human-caused climate change

• Heat domes:heat domes or sprawling ridges of high pressure are a staple of summer. They bring copious sunshine and sinking air that heats up as it is compressed.
  • As the ground warms, it loses moisture, which makes it easier to heat even more.
  • And in the drought-ridden west, there is plenty of heat for the high-pressure system to trap

Syllabus- General Studies 3 (economy)

Context

Union Minister for Food Processing Industries virtually inaugurated the capacity building component of the Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro food processing Enterprises scheme (PM-FME Scheme) and launched the GIS One District One Product (ODOP) digital map of India.

• To make India self-reliant. The way forward is in local – local manufacturing, local market, and local supply chain.
• Under the PM-FME scheme, capacity building is an important component.
• The scheme envisages imparting training to food processing entrepreneurs, various groups, viz., SHGs / FPOs / Co-operatives, workers, and other stakeholders associated with the implementation of the scheme.

PM-FME Scheme

• Launched under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, the Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro food processing Enterprises (PM-FME) Scheme is a centrally sponsored scheme aims to enhance the competitiveness of existing individual micro-enterprises in the unorganized segment of the food processing industry and promote formalization of the sector and provide support to
  • Farmer Producer Organizations,
  • Self Help Groups, and

Syllabus- General Studies 1 (Geography)

Introduction to Disasters: Concepts, definitions, disaster classifications including natural

and man-made disasters.

Context

Parts of North America, both in Canada and united states of America, are registering high temperatures across various regions

• In Portland city in Oregon, US, temperatures as high as 46 degree Celsius were recently registered.
• In Salem, barely 72 km away from Portland, the temperatures were highest at about 47 degree Celsius on June 28.
• Canada too saw its highest temperature ever recorded in the country’s west. In Lytton in British Columbia, temperatures soared to over 46 degree Celsius last week.

These temperatures being reported from the Pacific northwest and some parts of Canada are part of a “historic” heat wave that lasted over a week, a result of a phenomenon referred to as a “heat dome”.

What is a Heat Dome?

• According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of US department of commerce, a heat dome occurs when the atmosphere traps hot ocean(pacific ocean) air like a lid or cap.
• The phenomenon begins when there is a strong change (or gradient) in ocean temperatures.
• In the process known as convection, the gradient causes more warm air, heated by the ocean surface, to rise over the ocean surface, according to NOAA.
• As prevailing winds move the hot air east, the northern shifts of the jet stream trap the air and move it toward land, where it sinks, resulting in heat waves.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3 (Economics)

Context:

Thirty years ago, the liberalization regime launched in 1991 completed its 30 years in 2021.

• A severe balance of payments problem triggered an acute economic crisis that year.
• Three decades later, the pandemic-induced lockdown brought the wheels of economic activity to a grinding halt, triggering a sharp economic contraction in the first half of the fiscal year.

Background:

Lpg reforms: india’s new economic policy was announced on july 24, 1991 known as the lpg or liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation model.

• Liberalization-it refers to the process of making policies less constraining of economic activity and also reduction of tariff or removal of non-tariff barriers.
• Except for 18 controlled industries, licenses were abolished across the board.
• Industrialists were free to enter any sectorand expand capacities without govt.’s approvals.
• Foreign ownership,hitherto restricted to 40%, was taken above the critical threshold of 51%.
• The monopolies law was abolished.
• The state was allowed to sell public sector.

Significance of reforms in 1991:

India’s post-1990 economic strategy entailed three important breaks with the past.

• One was to dismantle the vast network of controls and permitsthat dominated the economic system.

• The second was toredefine the role of the state as a facilitator of economic transactions and as a neutral regulator rather than the primary provider of goods and services.
• The third was to move away from a regime of import substitutionand to integrate fully with the global trading system.
• Liberalization was adopted as the guiding principle of governanceand all governments since 1991, including the current one, have broadly stuck to that path.

Key outcomes:

• The gdp growth averaged 7% in the 25 years from 1992 to 2017, compared with an average of 5% in the preceding ten years and 4% in the preceding 20!
• And as growth accelerated, poverty declined. Between 2004-05 and 2011-12, the last year for which official data on poverty are available, about 140 million people were pulled above the poverty line.
• Increase in employment:there was a fall in employment in agriculture, which is a desirable structural shift of labour out of agriculture.
  • But it was accompanied by sufficient growth in total employment in non-agriculture sectors, so that the labour displaced from agriculture was absorbed in non-agriculture.

Criticism:

• India is still at the lower end of the middle-income group of countries and many more reforms are needed to get to the top of the group.
• The 1991 reforms package faced heavy criticism as being dictated by the international monetary fund (imf) and world bank.
• Some of the reforms were criticized as a sell out to capitalists.
• Employment in manufacturing did not increase: this was because we were not able to replicate the east asian experience of rapid growth in the export of labour-intensive manufactures.

Syllabus– General Studies 2 (Governance)

Issues relating to quality of life: livelihood, poverty, hunger, disease and social inclusiveness.

Context

• Recently PM Modi in an address to the UN High-Level Dialogue on Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought, reiterated that India was on track to achieve land degradation neutrality by 2030.
• He cited the example of the Banni grassland in Gujarat where the region’s highly degraded lands were being restored and the livelihoods of pastoralists supported using what he termed a “novel approach.”

About Banni grassland:

• One of Asia’s largest tropical grasslands, Banni is home to great biological diversity and is the lifeline of its pastoralist communities.
• However, climate change and the invasion by Prosopis juliflora (a species that covers nearly 54 per cent of the grassland) have severely impacted its unique ecology.
• A study conducted earlier this year recognises that unless action is taken, Banni grassland is headed for severe fodder scarcity.
• This is precisely what the Banni’s pastoralist communities (Maldharis) have been doing for the past few years.
• They uproot Prosopis in the pre-monsoon period and when it rains, the native grass species’ regenerate from their rootstock.
• The Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, Adivasis and other traditional forest-dwelling communities, including pastoralists, are legally empowered to decide on the management and restoration of their community forest resources (CFR) and stop any activity that adversely impacts biodiversity or the local ecology.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2 (International Relations)

Context:

• The lessons india needs to learn from china’s nationalism and internationalism

Background:

• India had much in common with china when they set out to re-engage the world a hundred years ago.
• The two societies faced different sets of internal and external circumstances that had a great impact on their evolution.
• The fact is that the indian national congress, founded in 1885, is older than the chinese communist party (ccp) by a clear 36 years and the chinese nationalist party, guomindang, by two decades.
  • The communist party of india was formed in 1920, around the same time as the ccp.
• As the 20th century dawned, both china and india were gripped by powerful ideas of nationalism and internationalism in the period between the two world wars.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3 ( Science and technology)

Context:

• The need for an anti-drone system shielding critical installations in the country came under sharp focus after a drone attack on an iaf base in jammu recently.

Background:

• Recently unmanned aerial vehicles are suspected to have dropped and detonated two explosive devices at the jammu air force station.
• An fir under sections 16, 18, 23 of the unlawful activities (prevention) act, section 3 of explosive substance act and sections 307, 120-b of the ipc has been lodged into the incident.
• Earlier, many incidents have been reported of drones from pakistan dropping munitions, rifles and other essentials to support terror activities.
• After the drone attack on saudi aramco oil facilities in eastern saudi arabia in september 2019, the armed forces held deliberations on the issue and put in place plans to procure counter-drone capabilities.

Syllabus: General Studies paper 1 (Education)

Context:

India’s school education landscape was facing an acute learning crisis, even before the covid-19 pandemic.

• One in two children lack basic reading proficiency at the age of 10.
• The pandemic threatens to exacerbate this crisis, especially because of the physical closure of 15.5 lakh schools that has affected more than 248 million students for over a year

Technology and educations:

• Growth potential: the indian ed-tech ecosystem has a lot of potential for innovation. With over 4,500 start-ups and a current valuation of around $700 million, the market is geared for exponential growth. Estimates project an astounding market size of $30 billion in the next 10 years.