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UPSC Key- June 7, 2023: Know about Insurgency in Northeast India, Cyclone Biporjoy, Shangri-La Dialogue and Global Stocktake

Exclusive for Subscribers from Monday to Friday: The Indian Express UPSC Key June 7, 2023, will help you prepare for the Civil Services and other competitive examinations with cues on how to read and understand content from the most authoritative news source in India.

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UPSC Key- June 7, 2023: Know about Insurgency in Northeast India, Cyclone Biporjoy, Shangri-La Dialogue and Global Stocktake
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Important topics and their relevance in UPSC CSE exam for June 7, 2023. If you missed the June 6, 2023 UPSC key from the Indian Express, read it here

Attention Please:

Dear Readers,
Preparation for the UPSC Examination requires studying multiple newspaper articles on a single topic, while at the same time we experience a paucity of time. Covering all the articles on our own is quite tedious. Thus, we are coming up with a new initiative called the Indian Express 360° UPSC Debate.
The 360° UPSC Debate: Should Artificial Intelligence Be Regulated? covers all the dimension after sifting through multiple articles. This initiative and the topics covered will immensely help students in enhancing their in-depth knowledge as well as their answer writing for the upcoming civil service main examination.

FRONT PAGE

BSF constable killed, 2 Assam Rifles personnel injured in Manipur firing

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: 

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• General Studies III: Linkages between development and spread of extremism and Role of external state and non-state actors in creating challenges to internal security

• General Studies III: Role of external state and non-state actors in creating challenges to internal security.

Key Points to Ponder:

Festive offer

• What’s the ongoing story- A Border Security Force (BSF) jawan was killed and two Assam Rifles personnel sustained bullet injuries during a gunfight with militants in Manipur’s Kakching district on Tuesday morning.

• Who are the Kuki National Army (KNA)?

• What are the roots of the Kuki insurgency?

• Manipur has been in the cross-currents of India’s oldest insurgent movements-why?

• History of conflict in Manipur-Know in detail

• What do you understand by ‘Insurgency’?

• Why is it called ‘Insurgency’?

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• What is the difference between militant and insurgent? How militancy is different from insurgency?

• Know these terms-Terrorism, Insurgency, Belligerency and Civil war

• The Kuki-Zomi insurgent groups-Know in detail

• “The insurgent groups are intricately woven into the daily life in Manipur”-Comment

• For some time now, two parallel and provocative narratives in the portrayal of Manipur history were being pushed from certain quarters-What are those two parallel and provocative narratives?

• The Insurgency in Northeast India-Know in detail

• What are the causes of the insurgency in North-East India?

• What steps has the Government of India taken?

• Assam Rifles (AR)-Know in detail

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Explained: How big is insurgency threat in Manipur?

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CBI starts train probe, inspects station panel room, speaks to staff

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Disaster and disaster management.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-As part of its probe into the Odisha train accident, the Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday visited the Bahanaga railway station, its panel room, record room and relay room, and spoke to staff present there. The June 2 incident involving two passenger trains and a goods train claimed 288 lives. The CBI has started its investigation based on an initial FIR registered by the Government Railway Police (GRP) at Balasore police station.

• What is said in the initial FIR filed by the Government Railway Police (GRP) at the Balasore police station?

• Why is the CBI looking into the matter?

• What the probe report says?

• What Railway officials are saying?

• Safety in Railways-what are the safety measures given?

• For Your Information-It has been filed against unknown persons under IPC sections 304 A (death by negligence), 337 (negligent and rash act endangering human life), 338 (causing grievous hurt) and 34 (act with common intention). Sections of the Railway Act 1989 have also been invoked, including 153 (wilful neglect endangering safety of persons travelling in railways), 154 (endangering safety of persons travelling in railway by rash negligent act or omission) and 175 (any railway servant on duty endangering the safety of any person).

• Where and when did the accident happen?

• How are the tracks laid out at Bahanaga Bazar?

• What went wrong here?

• But how could that happen?

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• Could the driver have done something to prevent the crash?

• Where does the third train come into the picture?

• The electric “point machine” is a vital device for railway signalling for quick operation and “locking” of point switches. It plays the key role in the safe running of trains. how this system works?

• What is meant by ‘interlocking’ in railways?

• Who operates and monitors the interlocking signalling system?

• Are interlocking signalling systems used worldwide?

• Can this system be tampered with?

• How will responsibility be fixed, will this tragedy prompt structural changes, if needed, and, most significantly, what will be the learnings from this?

• What is location box in Indian Railways?

• For Your Information-A ‘location box’, typically placed along tracks, holds a junction of connections to the point motor (the movable piece of rail that physically guides a train to its designated track when there are two divergent tracks), the signalling lights, the track-occupancy detectors, and virtually every critical piece that makes the ‘interlocking’ work seamlessly. Interlocking is a crucial safety mechanism and ensures trains move without any conflict with each other, preventing accidents.

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• “The need of the hour is a massive infrastructure upgrade of the Indian Railways, encompassing trains, tracks and stations”-Elaborate

• “Over the years, the Indian Railways has seen a dramatic increase in its capital outlays but it is not the financial but the capacity and human resource constraints that policymakers need to be mindful”-Comment

• Do You Know-On various metrics, the performance of Railways, including its record on safety, has seen an improvement. For instance, the number of consequential train accidents has declined from 74 in 2017-18 to 20 in 2020-21. On other criteria, however, there is scope for improvement. As per a CAG report, between 2018-19 and 2019-20, the funds allocated for track renewal works were not fully utilised out of 1,127 derailments during 2017-21, 289 were linked to track renewal.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍GET BACK ON TRACK

IOC edges out pvt refiners in Russian oil buys in May, Moscow share at high

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

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Mains Examination: General Studies II: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story– Public sector refining giant Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) overtook private sector major Reliance Industries (RIL) as the biggest Indian buyer of Russian crude oil in May, the first such instance since the imposition of the West’s $60-per-barrel price cap on seaborne Russian oil six months ago, as per an analysis of data shared by commodity market analytics and intelligence firm Kpler. In fact, IOC’s Russian oil imports in May dwarfed the cumulative imports of private sector refiners RIL and Nayara Energy (NEL), a first in as many as 10 months.

• What percentage of India’s oil import is imported from Russia?

• How much trade does India have with Russia?

• Why is India importing more oil from Russia?

• Do You Know-IOC is the country’s largest refiner with a consolidated capacity of 80.55 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), which includes the refining capacity of its arm Chennai Petroleum Corporation. RIL is India’s second-largest refiner with a crude processing capacity of 68.2 mtpa. NEL operates a 20-mtpa refinery.

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• Russia plays a very important role in logistical as well as technological support when it comes to defence forces-Know India and Russia Military trade

• India’s bilateral trade with Russia has soared to an all-time high in just five months (April-August) of this financial year (2022-23)-Know the reasons

• The majority of countries have imposed sanctions on Russia or countries that buy Russian oil. How will this news influence Russia’s oil sanctions?

• Why Josep Borrell who is European Union’s foreign and security policy chief said the EU should crack down on India reselling Russian oil as refined fuels, including diesel, to Europe?

• What is India’s response to that?

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• For Your Information-Indian refiners exported an average of around 284,000 barrels per day (bpd) of refined petroleum products to Europe in the December-April period, up from about 170,000 bpd in the year-ago period, shows data from Vortexa. From being a marginal supplier of crude oil to India before the war in Ukraine, Russia dethroned heavyweights like Iraq and Saudi Arabia to emerge as Delhi’s biggest source of crude.

• What is EU Council Regulation 833/2014?

• How can India reduce its dependency on oil imports?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍India’s reliance on crude oil imports rises to 87% in Apr-Jan

EXPRESS NETWORK

Kerala monsoon set to be delayed further, cyclone to develop today: IMD

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian and World Geography-Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World.

Mains Examination: General Studies I: Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc., geographical features and their location-changes in critical geographical features and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Adding to the existing delay in the monsoon onset over Kerala, a cyclone is all set to form in the Arabian Sea on Wednesday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said. Its intensity, location of formation in the Arabian Sea and subsequent movement are likely to affect the onset of the southwest monsoon over Kerala. The prevailing system rapidly intensified from a cyclonic circulation to a low pressure by Monday evening. By Tuesday morning, it further strengthened into a depression and lay over the southeast Arabian Sea. It is currently located 920 km west-southwest of Goa, 1,120 km south-southwest of Mumbai, 1,160 km south of Porbandar and 1,520 km south of Karachi, Pakistan. As per the cyclone track forecast, it is headed northwards to Pakistan and will not affect India’s west coast.

• Monsoon mechanism in India-Know in detail

• How Arabian Sea branch and Bay of Bengal branch are associated with Indian monsoon?

• What is difference between Arabian Sea branch and Bay of Bengal branch?

• A cyclone is all set to form in the Arabian Sea, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said. What cyclone is IMD warning about?

• What is name of upcoming cyclone?

• Cyclone ‘Biporjoy’-Know in detail

• The cyclone ‘Biporjoy’, which is highly likely to develop into a low-pressure area, once again has scientists worried about the onset of the monsoon-why?

• What is the difference between Arabian Sea cyclone and Bay of Bengal cyclone?

• How Cyclone ‘Biporjoy’ will affect Monsoon?

• Why Bay of Bengal Receives more Cyclone than Arabian Sea?

• What is Cyclone?

• What do you understand by the term “depression,” mostly used in Cyclone?

• For Your Information-A “Cyclonic Storm’ or a “Cyclone” is an intense vortex or a whirl in the atmosphere with very strong winds circulating around it in anti-clockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere and in clockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere. Tropical cyclones are also referred to as ‘Hurricanes’ over Atlantic Ocean, ‘Typhoons’ over Pacific Ocean, ‘Willy-Willies’ over Australian Seas and simply as ‘Cyclones’ over north Indian Ocean (NIO).

• Classification of cyclonic disturbances-how they are classified?

• Cyclone and Super Cyclone-Compare and Contrast

• Cyclone and Anti-Cyclone-Compare and Contrast

• Types of Cyclones or Classification of Cyclones-Know in detail

• What are the Stages of Formation of Cyclones?

• Structure of Tropical Cyclone-Know in detail

• What are Air Masses and Fronts? How they associated with the formation of Cyclones?

• What is eye of the Cyclone?

• What is the average lifespan of a cyclonic storm?

• Storm Intensity, Expected Damage and Suggested Actions-Know in detail

• Deep Depression (DD), Cyclonic Storm (CS), Severe Cyclonic Storm (SCS), Very Severe Cyclonic Storm (VSCS), Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm (ESCS) and Super Cyclone (SuCS)-how they are different?

• India’s Vulnerability to Cyclones-Know in Detail

• The IMD issues warnings in four stages for the Indian coast-What are they?

• World Meteorological Organisation (WMO)-About, Role, Vision and Mission

• India Meteorological Department (IMD)-About, Role, Vision and Mission

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Development of cyclone ‘Biporjoy’ over Arabian Sea may delay monsoon outset in Kerala

📍Cyclone Mocha building over Bay of Bengal, says IMD: How are cyclones formed and named?

Previous Year Prelims Questions Covering the same theme:

📍Consider the following statements: (For Complete Question, Refer GS1 question Paper 2020)
1. Jet streams occur in the Northern Hemisphere only.
2. Only some cyclones develop an eye.
3. The temperature inside the eye of a cyclone is nearly 10°C lesser than that of the surroundings.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
📍In the South Atlantic and South-Eastern Pacific regions in tropical latitudes, cyclones do not originate. What is the reason? (UPSC Prelims GS1, 2015)
(a) Sea surface temperatures are low
(b) Inter-tropical Convergence Zone seldom occurs
(c) Coriolis force is too weak
(d) Absence of land in those regions
Previous Year Mains Questions Covering the same theme:
📍Tropical cyclones are largely confined to South China Sea, Bay of Bengal and Gulf of Mexico. Why? (GS-1, 2014)
📍The recent cyclone on the east coast of India was called “Phailin”. How are the tropical cyclones named across the world? (GS-1, 2013)

Hero of many a rescue, Odisha’s disaster force comes to fore again

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Disaster and disaster management.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story– The Odisha government’s years of investment in capacity building and procuring state-of-the art equipment to handle disasters paid off in the rescue operation following the three-way disaster in Balasore district.

• Odisha’s disaster force-Know in detail

• What led to the formation of Odisha’s disaster force?

• For Your Information- It was after the super cyclone in 1999 that claimed over 10,000 lives that the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD government decided to constitute a professionally trained group equipped with emergency equipment. Thus was born the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF), the first of its kind agency in the country, predating the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) that was set up in 2006. The ODRAF is now the frontline responder in any disaster in Odisha, which has its fair share of them, as well as outside the state. The ODRAF-led teams were credited for ensuring that human casualties were kept to the minimum during extremely severe cyclones in recent years in Odisha, including Phailin in 2013, Titli in 2018 and Fani in 2019, with millions evacuated from seaside areas.

• Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF)-Know in detail

• What is ODRAF in disaster management?

• ‘The ODRAF and Odisha Fire Service are now also receiving training to change from a post-disaster response force to a pre-disaster preparedness agency’-Highlight importance of pre-disaster preparedness

• What is Disaster?

• What is Disaster Management?

• What are the pre-disaster measures?

• What are the post-disaster management?

• What is the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction?

• Sendai Framework and Hyogo framework-compare

• What is priority of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction?

• What are the main targets of Sendai Framework?

• What are the types of hazard as per Sendai Framework?

• What are the steps taken by India for disaster management?

• What is the story behind the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)?

• For Your Information- International debate and discussion on disaster response and preparedness peaked in the middle of the 1990s and continued for the next ten years. The UN’s adoption of the Yokohama Strategy Plan (1994) and the Hyogo Framework for Action (2005) were two of the more noteworthy and significant ones. India saw some of its worst natural disasters during that time, including the Indian Ocean Tsunami, the Gujarat Earthquake, and the Orissa Super Cyclone (1999). (2004). The need for an extensive disaster management plan was highlighted by this series of events and the global context. This resulted in the Disaster Management Act being passed on December 26th, 2005. To establish the policies, plans, and procedures for disaster management, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was established.

• What is the role and mandate of NDRF?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force

THE EDITORIAL PAGE

An arena called Asia

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-C Raja Mohan writes: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to Washington for a state visit in two weeks, the unfolding geopolitical churn in Asia triggered by China’s rise will form a critical background to his talks with US President Joe Biden. In two and a half years, Biden has made significant strategic gains and reversed the dominant perception that China’s domination of Asia is inevitable and America’s retreat is irreversible.

• What is Shangri-La Dialogue?

• What is discussed at Shangri-La Dialogue?

• India and the Shangri-La Dialogue-Connect the dots

• “Since it was first convened in 2002, the SLD has become the premium forum where defence ministers of Asia gather to publicly articulate their positions on regional security as well as conduct bilateral and minilateral defence diplomacy behind closed doors”-Elaborate

• 20th edition of Shangri-La Dialogue-know the key takeaways

• This year’s Shangri-La Dialogue highlighted the deepening tensions between the US and China-Know in detail

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍The geopolitics of Indo-Pacific: How India and others interpret the term

THE IDEAS PAGE

On sedition, a betrayal

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story– The 22nd Law Commission’s recommendations to make the sedition law even more stringent have several dimensions, which need to be addressed. First, in retrospect, it is clear that the government’s position when it informed the Supreme Court (SC) of its decision to re-examine section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was a betrayal. The impression given then was that the government was thinking of moderating the rigours of the law, though it did not say so in specific terms. The Court, while awaiting the government’s response, on May 11, 2022 (S.G. Vombatkere v Union of India), stayed further registration of FIRs under section 124A of the IPC. It also kept in abeyance all pending trials, appeals and proceedings concerning charges framed under the sedition law.

• What exactly has the Commission said?

• What is the sedition law?

• What has the Law Commission recommended now on the sedition law?

• What are the reasons given to retain the law?

• For Your Information-The Commission recommended three changes to the law on sedition. The first is to include the ratio of the Kedar Nath ruling into the provision by adding the words “with a tendency to incite violence or cause public disorder.” The report also defines tendency to incite violence as a “mere inclination to incite violence or cause public disorder rather than proof of actual violence or imminent threat to violence.” Second, the report suggests enhancing the imprisonment for sedition to “remove an oddity.” One of the criticisms against the provision is that it leaves judges with wide discretion on sentencing. Section 124A has a jail term of up to three years or life imprisonment. The 42nd Law Commission report, in 1971, had noted this to be very “odd” since it would mean either imprisonment for life or imprisonment up to three years only, but nothing in between, with the minimum punishment being only fine. The Law Commission has now proposed enhancing the jail term up to seven years or life imprisonment. Third, to prevent misuse of the law, the report suggested including a procedural safeguard that no FIR shall be registered for sedition “unless a police officer, not below the rank of Inspector, conducts a preliminary inquiry and on the basis of the report made by the said police officer the Central Government or the State
Government, as the case may be, grants permission for registering a First Information Report”.

• What are the reasons given to retain the law?

• What is Law Commission of India?

• Sedition laws in India-Know about them

• Historical Background of Sedition Law-Who drafted it?

• When was sedition law used against Mahatma Gandhi and BG Tilak?

• What is Section 124A of Indian Penal Code?

• Punishment for the Offence of Sedition in India-Know in detail

• What is the fresh challenge to sedition law?

• Sedition laws in other countries-Compare and Contrast

• What is the Supreme Court’s stand on it?

• Supreme Court Decisions and Discussions on Sedition Law?

• Supreme Court’s Landmark decision in Kedar Nath Singh v. State of Bihar (1962) case and the Balwant Singh vs State of Punjab (1995) case-know in detail

• What are the Kedar Nath Singh guidelines?

• What does the Law Commission of India say on sedition?

• National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) statistics on the Sedition Law-Know the facts and figures given by NCRB

• Problems with the sedition laws-Brainstorm

• Has the Law of Sedition Been Misused?

• Legal flaws and spurious interpretation of Sedition Law?

• Mahatma Gandhi on Section 124A as the “prince among the political sections of the Indian Penal Code designed to suppress the liberty of the citizen”-Decode the Quote

• How Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) contradicts Article 14 and Article 21 of the Indian Constitution?

• The Law of Sedition Should Be Repealed Now? Critically Analyse

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍The reasons Law Commission gave while recommending a stronger sedition law

EXPLAINED

What is the CRS, the Railway safety body under aviation ministry

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story– Investigation into the recent tragic train accident in Odisha, the deadliest train crash in India in over two decades, is being conducted by the Commissioner of Railway Safety for the south-eastern circle. Rail safety commissioners are part of the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS), a government body that acts as the railway safety authority in the country.

• What is Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) in railway?

• What is the role of CRS in railway?

• For Your Information-As the name suggests, CRS deals with matters related to safety of rail travel and operations, among some other statutory functions – inspectorial, investigatory, and advisory – as laid down in the Railways Act, 1989. Investigating serious train accidents is one of the key responsibilities of the CRS, which is headquartered in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.

• Who is the reporting authority of the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS)?

• Why Commission of Railway Safety report to the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA)?

• Do You Know-It is, however, worth noting that the CRS does not report to the Ministry of Railways of the Railway Board. It is, in fact, under the administrative control of the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA). The reason or principle behind this, put simply, is to keep the CRS insulated from the influence of the country’s railway establishment and prevent conflicts of interest. One needs to go back in time to understand the evolution of the CRS and its unique relationship with MoCA.

• Separation of safety supervision function and Railway Board-How it started?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Root cause of Odisha train accident, people responsible identified: Rail Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

Taking stock of climate action

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change – that do not require subject specialization.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story– In different ways, countries have been taking measures to respond to climate change since at least the mid-1990s, though it is only in the last decade or so that these actions have become significant enough for any meaningful impact. But the global response has never kept pace with the worsening of the climate crisis, whose seriousness has increased rapidly in the last few years.

• Amidst almost daily reminders of this worsening crisis, negotiators from around the world are currently meeting in the German city of Bonn-Why?

• One of the most important tasks to be accomplished at this year’s Bonn meeting is what is known as Global Stocktake, or GST-What is Global Stocktake?

• Global Stocktake came under which climate agreement?

• What Is the Purpose of the Global Stocktake?

• For Your Information-Established under Article 14 of the Paris Agreement, the Global Stocktake is designed “to assess the collective progress towards achieving the purpose of the Paris Agreement and its long-term goals.” Those goals include: cutting greenhouse gas emissions to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees C and ideally 1.5 degrees C building resilience to climate impacts and aligning financial support with the scale and scope needed to tackle the climate crisis.

• What is the difference between Paris and Kyoto agreement?

• Why developing countries, mainly China and India, have been reminding the developed countries of their unfulfilled commitments, and continued underperformance?

• The United States said bridging the gap was not the sole responsibility of the developed countries, and it would not accept any attempt to include such suggestions in the GST decisions, either explicitly or through references to phrases such as “closing of pre-2020 gaps”-Comment

• Why India reacted strongly to the US suggestion on and said it would not accept any “prescriptive messages” from GST?

• Map Work-Bonn

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍What is Global Stocktake?

DAM BREACH IN UKRAINE’S WAR ZONE: WHAT’S HAPPENING, WHAT’S AT STAKE

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-A huge Soviet-era dam on the Dnipro River that separates Russian and Ukrainian forces in southern Ukraine was breached on Tuesday, unleashing floodwaters across the war zone. Ukraine said Russia had destroyed it, while Russian officials gave conflicting accounts, some saying it was destroyed by Ukrainian shelling and others saying it collapsed due to earlier damage.

• Map Work-Dnipro River

• The kakhovka dam-Know what happened to the dam?

• Do You Know- The kakhovka dam, 30 metres (98 feet) tall and 3.2 km (2 miles) long, was built in 1956 on the Dnipro river as part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant. The reservoir also supplies water to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia claims to have annexed in 2014, and to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which is also under Russian control. It holds an 18 km3 reservoir – a volume about equal to the Great Salt Lake in the U.S. state of Utah.

• Who controls the Nova Kakhovka dam?

• What are the latest developments?

• What is the significance of the dam?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍River dam between Ukraine and Russia breached, swathes of war zone flooded

THE WORLD

Tehran claims creating its first hypersonic ballistic missile

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination:  

• General Studies II: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests

• General Studies III: Science and Technology

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Iran claimed Tuesday that it had created a hypersonic missile capable of travelling at 15 times the speed of sound. The announcement comes as tensions remain high with the United States over Tehran’s nuclear program. Iran’s state television reported that the missile — called Fattah, or “Conqueror” in Farsi — had a range of up to 1,400 kilometers. The report also claimed the missile could pass through any regional missile defense system, though it offered no evidence to support the claim.

• What is the difference between a missile and a ballistic missile?

• Hypersonic Missiles-what are they?

• What is the history of missile technology in Iran?

• What kind of missiles does Iran have?

• Which of Iran’s missile systems are most important?

• What about hypersonic technology?

• Do You Know-Hypersonic weapons, which fly at speeds in excess of Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, could pose crucial challenges to missile defense systems because of their speed and manoeuvrability.

• What do you understand by Stealth technology?

• What speed is a Mach?

• What is Ramjet?

• What is the difference between a ramjet and scramjet?

• Missile Technology Control Regime -Know in detail

• What was the 2015 Iran nuclear deal?

• What is the purpose of the joint comprehensive plan of action?

• What were the terms and conditions agreed by Iran under Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action?

• Former USA President Donald Trump abandoned the JCPOA-Why?

• Revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Under Biden Administration-Why?

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ECONOMY

Deposit insurance cover for PPIs: How will users benefit?

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story– Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) holders may soon get protection for their money against any fraud or unauthorised payment transactions. A committee set up to review the Customer Service Standards in RBI Regulated Entities has recommended that the central bank should examine the extension of Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) cover to PPIs, which, at present, is available only to bank deposits. If the committee’s recommendation is accepted, it will come as a big relief for PPI holders.

• What are Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPIs)?

• Who can issue PPI instruments?

• What has the RBI committee recommended?

• What is Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC)?

• For Your Information-DICGC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the RBI and provides deposit insurance. The deposit insurance system plays an important role in maintaining the stability of the financial system, particularly by assuring the small depositors of the protection of their deposits in the event of a bank failure. The deposit insurance extended by DICGC covers all commercial banks including local area banks (LABs), payments banks (PBs), small finance banks (SFBs), regional rural banks (RRBs) and co-operative banks, that are licensed by the RBI.

• What does the DICGC insure?

• What is the total number of PPIs in the system?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Explained: Bank deposit insurance programme and norms to access funds

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First uploaded on: 07-06-2023 at 18:07 IST
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