IAS Current Affairs

About National War Memorial Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently inaugurated the country’s National War Memorial (NWM) adjoining the iconic India Gate complex in the heart of the capital, nearly 60 years after it was mooted to honour the fallen soldiers after Independence. Spread over an area of approximately 40 acres, the memorial comprises four concentric circles, namely- the ‘Amar Chakra, the Veerta Chakra, the ‘Tyag Chakra’ and the ‘Rakshak Chakra’ with names of 25,942 soldiers inscribed in golden letters on granite tablets. It also includes a central obelisk, an eternal flame and six bronze murals depicting famous battles fought by the Indian Army, Air Force and Navy in a covered gallery (Veerta Chakra). Read more best ias coaching in kerala ias academy in trivandrum civil service academy trivandrum ias coaching in trivandrum civil service coaching centres in trivandrum kerala civil service academy academy of civil services ias academy in trivandrum ...

About the Scheme The Operation Digital Board (ODB) aims at converting a classroom into a digital classroom and in addition to availability of e-resources at any time and at any place to students. “Operation Digital Board is a revolutionary step which will make the learning as well as the teaching process interactive and popularise flipped learning as a pedagogical approach,” Javadekar told reporters here. The digital board will be introduced all over the country in government and government aided schools from class 9 onwards as well as in higher education institutions. The process will begin from the coming session of 2019 itself Around 1.5 lakh secondary or senior secondary schools will be covered under the scheme. Additionally, the operation digital board (ODB) will also be implemented in higher education institutes. The UGC in its Commission meeting held on January 29, 2019, had passed a resolution for extending digital education to every classroom in the country by 202...

GS 2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources, issues relating to poverty and hunger.  What is the issue? Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Ram Vilas Paswan lays down the future roadmap for Food Corporation of India (FCI). B He stated that primacy will be given to ensuring that the functioning of FCI is streamlined and fast paced as per recommendations of the Shanta Kumar Committee.   BACKGROUND:  The government, in 2014, had constituted a high level committee chaired by Shanta Kumar, who had given several recommendations as how to make the entire food grain management system more efficient. The committee suggested the reorienting of the role of FCI in MSP operations, procurement, storage and distribution of grains under Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS). The HLC had wide consultations with various stakeholders in its several mee...

About the index Global Energy Transition Index 2019 released by WEF for shaping the future energy with sustainable use along with environment protection. It is System Initiative on Shaping the Future of Energy. The index benchmarks 115 countries on the current level of their energy system performance and the readiness of their macro environment for transition to a secure, sustainable, affordable and inclusive future energy system. It measures how well they are able to balance energy security and access with environmental sustainability and affordability. The report says in order to achieve a stable, sustainable and affordable global energy system will require a collaborative and systematic approach to solving problems and exploiting opportunities such as new technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Report details – World performance Sweden remains on the top on the list and is followed by Switzerland and Norway in the top three. Among major economics, the UK...

Vision To develop India as a Software Product Nation and a global leader in conception, design, development and production of intellectual capital driven Software Products, thus, accelerating growth of entire spectrum of IT Industry of the country. Missions – The FIVE Missions are: To promote the creation of a sustainable Indian software product industry, driven by intellectual property (IP), leading to a ten-fold increase in share of the Global Software product market by 2025. To nurture 10,000 technology startups in software product industry, including 1000 such technology startups in Tier-II and Tier-III towns & cities and generating direct and in-direct employment for 3.5 million people by 2025. To create a talent pool for software product industry through up-skilling of 1,000,000 IT professionals, motivating 100,000 school and college students and specialise 10,000 professionals that can provide leadership. To build a cluster-based innovation driven ecosy...

West Nile virus (WNV) is a single-stranded RNA virus that causes West Nile fever. It is a member of the family Flaviviridae, specifically from the genus Flavivirus, which also contains the Zika virus, dengue virus, and yellow fever virus. West Nile Virus (WNV) can cause neurological disease and death in people. WNV is commonly found in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, North America and West Asia. Spread of the disease: West Nile virus is primarily transmitted by mosquitoes, mostly species of the genus Culex. Mosquitoes become infected when they feed on infected birds, which circulate the virus in their blood. The virus eventually gets into the mosquito’s salivary glands. During later blood meals (when mosquitoes bite), the virus may be injected into humans and animals, where it can multiply and possibly cause illness. The primary hosts of WNV are birds, so that the virus remains within a “bird–mosquito...

The MCC is a set of guidelines issued by the Election Commission to regulate political parties and candidates prior to elections, to ensure free and fair elections which is in keeping with Article 324 of the Constitution, which gives the Election Commission the power to supervise elections to the Parliament and state legislatures. The MCC is operational from the date that the election schedule is announced till the date that results are announced. Thus, for the general elections this year, the MCC came into force on March 10, 2019, when the election schedule was announced, and operated till May 23, 2019, when the final results will be announced. Need of MCC: To maintain equality between ruling party and not in power party by providing them equality in election period. To maintain the sanctity of the election process and stop misuse of money power, muscle power and media power. Act as moral force to stop all wrong doing in the electoral process. Key provisions of th...

Recently, US President Donald Trump has ended India’s preferential trade treatment under generalized system of preferences (GSP) that allows $5.6 billion worth of Indian exports to enter the United States duty free. According to the United States Trade Representative, India’s termination from the GSP programme follows “its failure to provide the United States with assurances that it will provide equitable and reasonable access to its markets in numerous sectors”. What is GSP? Generalized System of Preferences is a preferential tariff system extended by developed countries to developing countries (preference receiving countries or beneficiary countries). It is a preferential arrangement in the sense that it allows concessional low or zero tariff imports from developing countries. GSP involves reduced or zero tariffs of eligible products exported by beneficiary countries to the markets of GSP providing countries. According to the Office of the United States Trade Represen...

GS1:   Important Geophysical phenomena and changes in critical geographical features What is the issue? Apparently, about 40% of the country is facing an acute paucity of pre-monsoon rain, causing severe water distress in scorching heat. BACKGROUND Rain fed agriculture contributes to 60 per cent of the value of agriculture GDP of India. About 61 per cent of India’s farmers rely on rain-fed agriculture and 55 per cent of the gross cropped area is under rain-fed farming. Rainfed crops account for 48 percent area under food crops and 68 percent under non-food crops. India ranks first among the rainfed agricultural countries of the world in terms of both extent and value of produce. Due to population pressure on agricultural lands, the poverty is concentrated in rainfed regions. Despite all these, rain-fed areas contributed significantly to the country’s food production. They account for 89 per cent of millets production, 88 per cent of pulses, 73 per cent of cot...

Pradhan Mantri  Jaiv Indhan- Vatavaran Anukool fasal awashesh Nivaran  (JI-VAN) Yojana’ has been approved for providing financial support to the Integrated Bioethanol Projects. The scheme aims to incentivise the Second Generation (2G) Ethanol sector and support the industry by creating a suitable ecosystem for setting up commercial projects and increasing R&D in this area. The PM JI-VAN Yojana will be supported with the total financial outlay of Rs 1969.50 crore for the period 2018-19 to 2023-24. Oil marketing companies (OMCs) will be essentially supplied to the ethanol produced by the beneficiaries to increase the composite percentage under the EBP program. The Center for High Technology (CHT), a technical institution under the auspices of MoP & NG, will be the implementing agency of the scheme. Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has set a target of adding 10% ethanol blending to the petrol by 2022. Central Gover...

GS2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources. What is the issue? Subsequent to the submission of the draft National Education Policy 2019, there were protests against the three language formula. The controversial provision was thus revised by Dr. Kasturirangan-led committee that submitted it. BACKGROUND Education plays a pivotal role in the social life of Indian society since its inception. In ancient India, religion played a vital role in spreading and deciding education in the society. Modern education in India was introduced by British in 18 th  Macaulay minutes and Wood’s Despatch gave further impetus to the modern education in India. After independence, Radhakrishnan commission, in 1948 appointed to study about the University education. The D.S. Kothari Education Commission was appointed to deal with all aspects and sectors of education and to advise Government on the evoluti...

GS3:   Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, And Railways etc. What is the issue? India has made an ambitious target for its National solar mission and co-authored to start the International Solar alliance. Despite making significant progress in solar power generation, India still relies on China for equipment. In this context, here is an overview of India’s solar manufacturing potentials and shortfalls. BACKGROUND The Prime Minister’s emphasis since 2014 has given a new fillip to solar power installation in India. India has made significant progress in creating capacity for solar energy generation in the last few years. The unit costs of solar power have fallen, and solar energy has become increasingly competitive with alternative sources of energy. India expanded its solar generation capacity 8 times from 2,650 MW in May, 2014 to over 20 GW in January, 2018, and 28.18 GW in March, 2019. The government had an initial target of 20 GW of solar capac...