POLITY AND GOVERNANCE                                                        

1. How the Preamble was adopted                                                        

2. Need a different approach to address child malnutrition                      

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS                                                   

1. Why Russia Avangard missile will have US worried                            

2. What is The Impossible Row, in which 6 men crossed the Drake Passage                                                                                          

ECONOMY                                                                                           

1. India may surpass Germany to become the fourth-largest economy in 2026:Report                                                                                    

2. eBkray: FM launches e-platform for sale of assets attached by PSU banks                                                                                             

3. Renewable Energy Certificates Sales Down 10% in December           

4. No extra charge on payments via RuPay, UPI from January 1          

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

How the Preamble was adopted

GS PAPER - 02 POLITY - Indian Constitution- historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure.

Context :

• The Constitution particularly its Preamble, has frequently been at the centre of the ongoing debate over the Citizenship Amendment Act.

Preamble:

• The term ‘preamble’ refers to the introduction or preface to the Constitution.It contains the summary or essence of the Constitution.

• It serves two purposes namely

  • indicates the source from which the Constitution derives its authority and

  • It also states the objects which the Constitution seeks to establish and promote.

Source of Preamble:

• The Preamble is based on the Objective Resolution moved by Jawaharlal Nehru in the Constituent Assembly on December 13,1946.The Resolution was adopted on January 22, 1947.

• On October 17, 1949,the Constituent Assembly presided by Rajendra Prasad took up the Preamble for discussion.

• It was adopted on 26 November 1949 by the Constituent Assembly and came into effect on 26 January 1950, celebrated as the Republic Day in India.          

Supreme Court cases related to Preamble:

Berubari Union case,1960:

• The Supreme Court said that the Preamble shows the general purposes behind the several provisions in the Constitution.

• However,it held that the Preamble is not a part of the Constitution.It is also not the source to prohibit the power which is given explicitly in the Constitution.Further,the Preamble is also not enforceable in a Court of Law.

Kesavananda Bharaticase,1973:

• The Supreme Court rejected the earlier opinion (in the Berubari Case) and held that the Preamble is a part of the Constitution.

• It has observed that Preamble is subject to the amending power of the Parliament as are any other provisions of the Constitution,provided the basic structure of the Constitution is not destroyed.

                                                                                                                     Source :- Indian Express

Need a different approach to address child malnutrition

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Context :

• A study on child malnutrition in India by a team of researchers from Cambridge and Harvard University.

More in the news :

• The research team from Harvard and Cambridge University has assessed district-level trends in the prevalence of malnutrition and how wealth disparity plays a role in five important malnutrition indicators such as stunting, underweight, wasting, low birth weight, and anaemia.

• The researchers have used the NFHS-4 data of 2015-16.

Key Findings :

• Wealth disparities in underweight children were seen across all districts with Gujarat, Jharkhand and Bihar having the worst disparities and Mizoram, Nagaland and Manipur having the least. This observation is important since it brings out the fact that even within well-performing districts, there can be gross non-egalitarian malnutrition outcomes.

• Being underweight is highly correlated with child morbidity and is reflective of the current environmental and nutritional status of the child. Hence, ‘underweight’ is arguably a more relevant and straightforward indicator to monitor progress in child malnutrition.

• Another major finding of the study is the fact that though the Government of India’s new initiative National Nutrition Mission (NNM) has led to a progressive decline in child malnutrition, the decline has been slow and the improvements have not been equally distributed across the population.

Way Forward :

• There is the need for differentiated strategies to address the problem of child malnutrition in India. Districts where the prevalence of malnutrition is uniformly high likely require a different intervention strategy compared with districts where prevalence is high but disproportionately shouldered amongst poorer households within the district.

• It is important to make sure progress on child nutrition is made both effectively and equitably.

                                                                                                                                                          Source :- The Hindu

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Why Russia Avangard missile will have US worried

GS PAPER - 02 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India's interests

Context :

• Russia’s military has deployed a new intercontinental weapon called the Avangard hypersonic missile system.

Avangard Hypersonic missile system:

• The Avangard hypersonic missile system is a reentry body carried atop an existing ballistic missile which has the capability to manoeuvre.

• It’s manoeuvring capability makes it difficult to predict its trajectory and gives it the ability to protect itself from the air and ballistic missile defences by delivering nuclear warheads to targets.

• The missiles have a range of over 6,000 km, weigh approximately 2,000 kg and can withstand temperatures of over 2000 degree celsius.

• The missiles can travel more than 20 times the speed of sound and put Russia ahead of other nations.

Hypersonic missile system:

• Hypersonic is generally defined as a speed of Mach 5 which means at least five times the speed of sound.

• Hypersonic Cruise Missiles (HCM):It is a typical cruise missile which is all the way powered to achieve hypersonic speeds of Mach 5 or higher.

• Hypersonic Glide Vehicles(HGV):The missiles have a boost-glide systems.They are launched like a traditional ballistic missile.But instead of following an arc high above the atmosphere,the re-entry vehicle is put on a trajectory that allows it to enter Earth’s atmosphere quite quickly before gliding un-powered for hundreds or thousands of kilometres.

Significance :

• Hypersonic weapons strikes at a tremendous speed and prohibits the defender to get his defences to react to such a threat in time.

• They can fly lower than the traditional ballistic missiles,thus they tend to avoid radar detection.Hence,they are difficult to be detected by the US missile defense satellites and radars.

• The payloads gliding at speeds in excess of Mach 5 and more are so manoeuvrable due to their non-ballistic trajectories that they can change their targets at any point.

                                                                                                                                                Source :- Indian Express

What is The Impossible Row, in which 6 men crossed the Drake Passage

GS PAPER - 02 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India's interests

Context :

• Recently,six rowers from four countries had crossed the Drake Passage, in just under two weeks after pushing off from the southern tip of South America. The project was dubbed  as the Impossible Row.

Impossible Row Project:

• The six men rowed for 12 days,1 hour and 45 minutes making it the first completely human-powered crossing of the passage which was confirmed by the Guinness World Records (GWR).

• As per the GWR,the row represents among the first row on the Southern Ocean,the first row across the Drake Passage and the first row to the Antarctic continent.

Drake Passage:

• The Drake Passage is located between Cape Horn at the tip of South America and the Antarctic Peninsula.

• The passage is named after Sir Francis Drake, who was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe.

• It is also the narrowest stretch in the Southern Ocean and spans approximately 800 km between the southern tip of South America and the northern tip of the West Antarctic Peninsula.

• It is considered one of the roughest waterways in the world because here, layers of cold seawater from the south and warm seawater from the north collide to form powerful eddies.

                                                                                                                   Source :- Indian Express

ECONOMY

India may surpass Germany to become the fourth-largest economy in 2026:Report

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - growth, development and employment. Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.

Context :

• The UK-based Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) has released a report titled ‘World Economic League Table 2020’.

More about the Report :

• The World Economic League Table is an annual calculation by Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) jointly published by CEBR and Global Construction Perspectives.

• The base data for 2019 is taken from the IMF World Economic Outlook.

Key Highlights :

• India is expected to overtake Germany to become the fourth-largest economy in 2026 and Japan to become the third largest in 2034.

• India is also set to reach a gross domestic product (GDP) of USD 5 trillion by 2026.This is 2 years later than the Indian government’s target of 2024.

• India has decisively overtaken both France and the UK to become the world’s fifth-largest economy in 2019.

• However,the report has also said that the US and China will continue to play a dominant role in the global economy despite the rapid growth of countries like India and Indonesia.

                                                                                                                  Source :- Economic Times

eBkray: FM launches e-platform for sale of assets attached by PSU banks

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context :

• The Union Finance Minister has launched an eBkray or eBkray which is a common e-auction platform.

eBkray platform:

• The eBkray platform enables the online auction of the attached assets transparently and cleanly for the improved realization of value by the Public Sector banks(PSBs).

• The platform is equipped with property search features and navigational links to all PSB e-auction sites.

• It also provides single-window access to information on properties up for e-auction as well as facility for comparison of similar properties.

• It enhances user experience through seamless access to information by search based on the type and location of property put up for e-auction by banks in India.

• The e-auction platform has also now been linked to the Indian Banks Auctions Mortgaged Properties Information(IBAPI) portal and guidelines have been made available.

                                                                                                                           Source :- Livemint

Renewable Energy Certificates Sales Down 10% in December

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Context :

• The sales of Renewable Energy Certificates(REC) fell around 10% to 5.04 lakh units in December as compared to 5.59 lakh in the same month a year ago.

Background :

• The Electricity Act, 2003 and the National Action Plan on Climate Change(NAPCC) provide for a roadmap for increasing the share of renewable in the country.

• Central Electricity Regulatory Commission(CERC) had notified the Regulation on Renewable Energy Certificate(REC) in 2010.

Renewable Energy Certificates(REC):

• Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) mechanism is a market based instrument to promote renewable energy and facilitate compliance of renewable purchase obligations(RPO).

• It is aimed at addressing the mismatch between availability of RE resources in state and the requirement of the obligated entities to meet the renewable purchase obligation(RPO).

Working of REC:

• REC are also known as green energy certificates or tradable renewable certificates.They are proof that energy has been generated from renewable sources such as solar or wind power.

• Each REC represents the environmental benefits of 1MWh of renewable energy generation.When you purchase RECs,renewable energy is generated on your behalf.

• Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) and Power Exchange of India (PXIL) are the two power bourses in the country, which are engaged in trading of RECs and electricity.

• The mechanism helps states meet their regulatory requirements by overcoming the geographical constraints on the existing renewable potential in different states.

                                                                                                                      Source :- Economic Times

No extra charge on payments via RuPay, UPI from January 1

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context :

• Finance Minister’s announcement on waiver of Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on digital payments.

Background :

• Finance Minister in 2019 budget speech was that low-cost digital modes of payment like the BHIM UPI, UPI-QR Code, Aadhaar Pay, certain Debit cards, NEFT, RTGS, could be offered without the imposition of MDR in order to promote a “less-cash” economy.

• The Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) is the percentage of the digital transaction that a merchant pays to banks for providing the services of digital payment. This cost is often passed on to the customer which was only increasing the cost of digital transactions and was acting as a possible deterrent for digital transactions.           

Waiver of MDR :

• The Finance Minister has announced that the digital transactions made using RuPay credit cards or UPI QR codes will not attract additional charges for merchants or customers from January 1st 2020.

• The government has already amended two laws — the Income Tax Act and the Payments and Settlement Systems Act — in order to implement the budget announcement.

• All shops, business establishments and companies with an annual turnover of ₹50 crores or more have been mandated to offer these modes of payment to customers.

• The Department of Revenue will soon notify RuPay and UPI as the prescribed mode of payment for digital transactions without any Merchant Discount Rate (MDR).

• RBI and banks will absorb these costs from the savings that will accrue to them on account of handling less cash as people move to these digital modes of payment.

Concern :

• The Payments Council of India has always stated that an MDR waiver would hurt companies in the payments system. It argues that the cost should be borne by the government instead of banks, which would have no incentive to promote digital payments without MDR revenues.

Significance :

• The decision to choose RuPay and UPI as the platforms which will not attract this levy may promote these home-grown digital payment pathways over those promoted by foreign companies, including VISA and MasterCard.

• This move which will reduce the transaction costs of digital payment would provide a boost to the digital payments system in India and bring in the subsequent advantages of a digital economy to India.

                                                                                                                           Source :- The Hindu

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