Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE
Topics Covered
- Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana
- 3rd Round of Serological Survey
- Bargi
- Sub-Categorisation of OBCs
- Accomodative Policy Stance
- Registered Unrecognised Parties
- Square Kilometer Array
- Facts for Prelims
1 . Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana
Context : The government’s maternity benefit scheme, or Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, has crossed 1.75 crore eligible women till financial year 2020.
About Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana
- Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) is a Maternity Benefit Programme that is implemented in all the districts of the country in accordance with the provision of the National Food Security Act, 2013.
Objectives
- Providing partial compensation for the wage loss in terms of cash incentive s so that the woman can take adequate rest before and after delivery of the first living child.
- The cash incentive provided would lead to improved health seeking behaviour amongst the Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers (PW& LM).
Benefits under PMMVY
- Cash incentive of Rs 5000 in three instalments i.e. first instalment of Rs 1000/ – on early registration of pregnancy at the Anganwadi Centre (AWC) / approved Health facility as may be identified by the respective administering State / UT, second instalment of Rs 2000/ – after six months of pregnancy on receiving at least one ante-natal check-up (ANC) and third instalment of Rs 2000/ – after child birth is registered and the child has received the first cycle of BCG, OPV, DPT and Hepatitis – B, or its equivalent/ substitute.
- The eligible beneficiaries would receive the incentive given under the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) for Institutional delivery and the incentive received under JSY would be accounted towards maternity benefits so that on an average a woman gets Rs 6000 / – .
Target beneficiaries
- All Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers, excluding PW&LM who are in regular employment with the Central Government or the State Governments or PSUs or those who are in receipt of similar benefits under any law for the time being in force.
- All eligible Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers who have their pregnancy on or after 01.01.2017 for first child in family.
- The date and stage of pregnancy for a beneficiary would be counted with respect to her LMP date as mentioned in the MCP card.
- Case of Miscarriage/Still Birth :
- A beneficiary is eligible to receive benefits under the scheme only once.
- In case of miscarriage/still birth, the beneficiary would be eligible to claim the remaining instalment(s) in event of any future pregnancy.
- Thus, after receiving the 1st instalment, if the beneficiary has a miscarriage, she would only be eligible for receiving 2nd and 3rd instalment in event of future pregnancy subject to fulfilment of eligibility criterion and conditionalities of the scheme. Similarly, if the beneficiary has a miscarriage or still birth after receiving 1 st and 2nd instalments, she would only be eligible for receiving 3rd instalment in event of future pregnancy subject to fulfilment of eligibility criterion and conditionalities of the scheme.
- Case of Infant Mortality: A beneficiary is eligible to receive benefits under the scheme only once. That is, in case of infant mortality, she will not be eligible for claiming benefits under the scheme, if she has already received all the instalments of the maternity benefit under PMMVY earlier.
- Pregnant and Lactating AWWs/ AWHs/ ASHA may also avail the benefits under the PMMVY subject to fulfilment of scheme conditionalities.
2 . 3rd Round of Serological Survey
Context : The third round of the serological survey result was released by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
Details of the Report
- According to the 3rd round of sero survey nearly one in five Indians had been infected by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus until December 2020
- This is roughly a three-fold increase since August and a 30-fold increase since May, when previous rounds of the survey were conducted.
- The survey sampled people from 70 districts across 21 States.
- The overall prevalence in the population was 21.5%, which averaged over India’s population indicated that about 270 million may have been exposed to the virus.
- India has so far confirmed a little over 10 million infections — or 27 cases to each confirmed case of infection. In the previous survey, there were 26 to 31 undetected cases for every confirmed case.
About Sero Survey
- A sero-survey involves the drawing of blood from a representative sample of people to look for specific blood components, in this case the immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody developed by an individual against SARS CoV-2. Anyone who has been infected by Covid-19 will have the antibody.
- The surveillance will be conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research and the National Centre for Disease Cont
- The facility-oriented surveillance is an expansion of the testing of flu and serious respiratory cases in hospitals being carried out by the government.
Why sero-testing?
- A more focused population-based sero-survey of high and low-risk groups in select districts will be in addition to routine testing.
- The move will not only help the government and its agencies monitor Covid19 trends but also check for community transmission in any part of the country.
3 . Bargis
Who were the bargis?
- The word bargi referred to cavalrymen in Maratha and Mughal armies.
- The word comes from the Persian “bargir”, literally meaning “burden taker”.
- In the two imperial armies, the term signified “a soldier who rode a horse furnished by his employer
- In the Maratha cavalry, any able-bodied person could enlist as a bargir, unless he had the means to buy a horse and military outfit– in which case he could join as a silhedar, who had “much better prospects of advancement”.
- Both the bargirs and silhedars were under the overall control of the Sarnobat (Persian for “Sar-i-Naubat”, or Commander in Chief).
Why did the Marathas raid Bengal?
- Maratha incursions into the Mughal province of Bengal (which included the regions of Bihar, Bengal and Orissa) between 1741 and 1751 came at a time of intense political uncertainty in both the Maratha and the Mughal courts.
- At the Maratha capital in Satara, Chhatrapati Shahu was trying in vain to resolve the differences between his two top power centres– the Peshwa dynasty of Pune and Raghoji I Bhonsale of Nagpur. As the Mughal Empire was crumbling by the 18th century, the two Maratha chieftains were scrambling to secure taxation rights in its far-flung regions, and violently disagreed over their spheres of influence.
- In Bengal, Nawab Subahdar Sarfaraz Khan had been overthrown by his deputy Alivardi Khan. After Khan’s inauguration, the provincial governor of Orissa, Zafar Khan Rustam Jung, more commonly known as Murshid Quli II, rebelled against the usurper. The revolt failed, and Jung enlisted Raghoji’s help to oust Khan.
- Raghoji was also motivated by internal politics within the Maratha camp, fearful as he was of Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao, also known as Nana Saheb, trying to establish his claim over Bengal first at this time of political disturbance in the province.
4 . Sub-categorisation of OBCs
Context : On January 21, the Centre has extended the tenure of The Commission to Examine Sub-categorisation of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) headed by Justice G Rohini, former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court. The commission now has until July 31 to submit its report.
What is sub-categorisation of OBCs?
- OBCs are granted 27% reservation in jobs and education under the central government. In September last year, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court reopened the legal debate on sub-categorisation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for reservations.
- The debate arises out of the perception that only a few affluent communities among the over 2,600 included in the Central List of OBCs have secured a major part of this 27% reservation.
- The argument for sub-categorisation — or creating categories within OBCs for reservation — is that it would ensure “equitable distribution” of representation among all OBC communities.
Rohini Commission
- To examine sub categorization Rohini Commission was constituted on October 2, 2017.
- At that time, it was given 12 weeks to submit its report, but has been given several extensions since, the latest one being the 10th.
- The other member in the Commission is former journalist Jitendra Bajaj, director of the Centre for Policy Studies.
- Before the Rohini Commission was set up, the Centre had granted constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC).
What are the Commission’s terms of reference?
It was originally set up with three terms of reference:
- To examine the extent of inequitable distribution of benefits of reservation among the castes or communities included in the broad category of OBCs with reference to such classes included in the Central List;
- To work out the mechanism, criteria, norms and parameters in a scientific approach for sub-categorisation within such OBCs;
- To take up the exercise of identifying the respective castes or communities or sub-castes or synonyms in the Central List of OBCs and classifying them into their respective sub-categories.
A fourth term of reference was added on January 22, 2020, when the Cabinet granted it an extension:
- To study the various entries in the Central List of OBCs and recommend correction of any repetitions, ambiguities, inconsistencies and errors of spelling or transcription.
What progress has it made so far?
- In its letter to the government on July 30, 2019, the Commission wrote that it is ready with the draft report (on sub-categorisation). It is widely understood that the report could have huge political consequences and face a judicial review.
- Following the latest term of reference given (on January 22, 2020) to the Commission, it is studying the list of communities in the central list. In an RTI response to The Indian Express, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment said on Wednesday that the Rohini Commission on September 29, 2020 asked for copies of advisories from NCBC regarding some OBC communities in the central list from Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Daman and Diu, and the Ministry forwarded this request to the NCBC in October.
How smooth has its work been?
- A hurdle for the Commission has been the absence of data for the population of various communities to compare with their representation in jobs and admissions.
- On August 31, 2018, then Home Minister Rajnath Singh had announced that in Census 2021, data of OBCs will also be collected, but since then the government has been silent on this, whereas groups of OBCs have been demanding enumeration of OBCs in the Census.
What have its findings been so far?
- In 2018, the Commission analysed the data of 1.3 lakh central jobs given under OBC quota over the preceding five years and OBC admissions to central higher education institutions, including universities, IITs, NITs, IIMs and AIIMS, over the preceding three years.
- The findings were: 97% of all jobs and educational seats have gone to just 25% of all sub-castes classified as OBCs; 24.95% of these jobs and seats have gone to just 10 OBC communities; 983 OBC communities — 37% of the total — have zero representation in jobs and educational institutions; 994 OBC sub-castes have a total representation of only 2.68% in recruitment and admissions.
5 . Accommodative Stance
Context : The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said it would retain an accommodative policy stance into the next financial year to help revive growth on a durable basis even as it held interest rates and vowed to ensure inflation remains within target.
Details of the Monetary Policy stance
- The RBI lowered its projection for retail inflation for the current quarter and announced that it would gradually restore the Cash Reserve Ratio — which had been cut to address the pandemic’s fallout — to 4% in two phases by May 22 as part of a ‘normalisation process’.
- Inflation – After breaching the RBI’s upper tolerance threshold of 6% for six consecutive months through November, CPI inflation had eased to 4.6% in December. Core inflation, excluding food and fuel, however, remained elevated at 5.5% in December with only a marginal moderation from a month earlier.
- Taking into consideration various factors including risks from increases in industrial raw material prices, the MPC revised its projections for CPI inflation: for the ongoing fourth-quarter to 5.2% (from 5.8% projected in December), that for the first half of 2021-22 to 5.2% to 5.0 % (from 5.2% to 4.6%) and estimated it to ease to an average 4.3% in the third quarter, with risks broadly balanced.
- The MPC also estimated real GDP growth at 10.5% in 2021-22, slightly lower than the 11% projected in the Economic Survey and the Internation Monetary Fund’s forecast of 11.5%.
Policy Stances of RBI
Accommodative Stance
- Accommodative stance means the central bank is telling the market to expect a rate cut anytime
- Usually, this policy is adopted when there is slowdown in the economy.
Neutral stance
- Neutral stance doesn’t have any particular meaning. This means anything can happen anytime means the RBI would have the flexibility to either increase or decrease the policy rates
Tight and Calibrated Tightening stance
- Tight – It indicates an impending rate hike
- Calibrated Tightening – RBI would either keep the rates constant or increase the rates.
6 . Registered Unrecognised Parties
Context : The contribution reports of only 78 (3.39%) of the total 2,301 registered unrecognised political parties are available in the public domain for 2018-19, while the reports of only 82 such parties (3.56%) for 2017-18 are uploaded on the respective State Chief Electoral Officers’ websites, according to the Association For Democratic Reforms (ADR).
About Unrecognised Political Parties
- “Either newly registered parties or those which have not secured enough percentage of votes in Assembly or General Elections to become a State party or those which have never contested in elections since being registered are considered unrecognised parties. Such parties don’t enjoy all the benefits extended to the recognised parties.
Key observation of the report on unrecognised Political Parties
- There are 2,360 political parties registered with the Election Commission of India and 2,301 or 97.50% of them are unrecognised.
- According to ADR the number of these parties increased two-fold in the last 10 years, from 1,112 in 2010 to 2,301 in 2019. The figure spiked disproportionately during the year of parliamentary election. “Between 2018 and 2019, it increased by over 9.8%, while between 2013 and 2014, it increased by 18%”.
- In 2017-18, only 39 registered such parties had submitted contribution reports before the due date and in 2018-19, only 38 did so.
- “The contribution reports of none of the registered unrecognised political parties of 25 States/UTs including Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh etc. are available on the respective State CEO websites for 2018-19… for 2017-18, contribution reports of parties of 21 states/UTs are not available,” said the ADR, terming it a violation of the ECI guidelines.
Registration of Political Parties
- Registration of Political parties is governed by the provisions of Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
- A party seeking registration under the said Section with the Commission has to submit an application to the Commission within a period of 30 days following the date of its formation as per guidelines prescribed by the Election Commission of India in exercise of the powers conferred by Article 324 of the Commission of India and Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
- As per existing guidelines, the applicant association is inter-alia asked to publish proposed Name of the party in two national daily news papers and two local daily newspapers, on two days in same news papers, for inviting objections, if any, with regard to the proposed registration of the party before the Commission within a 30 days from such publication.
Advantages of Registration
- RPA allows political parties to accept contributions voluntarily offered to it by any person or company other than a government company.
- Apart from this, candidates of registered parties get preference in allotment of election symbols. Other Candidates are identified as independents and do not get preference in symbol allocation.
- Registered political parties, in course of time, can get recognition as `State Party’ or National Party’ subject to the fulfillment of the conditions prescribed by the Commission in the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, as amended from time to time.
- If a party is recognised as a State Party’, it is entitled for exclusive allotment of its reserved symbol to the candidates set up by it in the State in which it is so recognised, and if a party is recognised as a `National Party’ it is entitled for exclusive allotment of its reserved symbol to the candidates set up by it throughout India.
- Recognised `State’ and `National’ parties need only one proposer for filing the nomination and are also entitled for two sets of electoral rolls free of cost at the time of revision of rolls and their candidates get one copy of electoral roll free of cost during General Elections.
- They get broadcast/telecast facilities over Akashvani/Doordarshan during general elections. Political parties are entitled to nominate “Star Campaigners” during General Elections. A recognized National or State party can have a maximum of 40 “Star campaigners” and a registered un-recognised party can nominate a maximum of 20 ‘Star Campaigners”. The travel expenses of star campaigners are not to be accounted for in the election expense accounts of candidates of their party.
National & State Party
A political party shall be treated as a recognised political party in a State, if and only if the political party fulfills any of the following conditions:
- At General Elections or Legislative Assembly elections, the party has won 3% of seats in the legislative assembly of the State ( subject to a minimum of 3 seats).
- At a Lok Sabha General Elections, the party has won 1 Lok sabha seat for every 25 Lok Sabha seat allotted for the State.
- At a General Election to Lok Sabha or Legislative Assembly , the party has polled minimum of 6% of votes in a State and in addition it has won 1 Lok Sabha or 2 Legislative Assembly seats.
- At a General Election to Lok Sabha or Legislative Assembly, the party has polled 8% of votes in a State.
For National Status:
- The party wins 2% of seats in the Lok Sabha (11 seats) from at least 3 different States.
- At a General Election to Lok Sabha or Legislative Assembly, the party polls 6% of votes in four States and in addition it wins 4 Lok Sabha seats.
- A party gets recognition as State Party in four or more States.
7 . Square Kilometer Array
Context : A global collaboration for the world’s largest radio telescope took formal shape with the constitution of an Intergovernmental Council. The Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) project, spanning two continents and involving the participation of 20 countries, is expected to be ready for carrying out observations towards the end of this decade.
What will SKAO do?
- Headquartered and controlled from the UK, the SKA is not a single telescope but will be an array of antennas strategically designed and set up in South Africa and Australia.
- It is proposed to be built in two phases, with an estimated 1.8 billion euros required for phase-I, planned over the next ten years.
- SKA will allow astronomers to look deeper into the universe and unravel secrets about its evolution. Among its goals are: studying the universe and its evolution, the origin and evolution of cosmic magnetism, and dark energy and evolution of galaxies. Scientists are also optimistic that the SKA will be able to detect very weak extra-terrestrial signals and search for molecules that support life.
How is it designed ?
- The telescope in South Africa will have 197 dishes, each 15 metres in diameter, and will be located in the Karoo region. Of these, 64 dishes are on site and are at present operated by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory.
- The telescope in Australia will have 1,31,072 antennas, each measuring 2 m high. They will be installed on the campus of the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory operated by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.
- Started in 2014, the design and engineering took six years to complete, with science and policy proposals coming from over 1,000 scientists, and more than 500 engineers representing 20-plus countries who deliberated over three decades.
Is India among these countries?
- India is participating in SKAO. through the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST). Pune-based TIFR-National Centre for Radio Astrophysics leads a team of researchers including from Raman Research Institute, Indian Institute of Science, Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, IITs of Kanpur, Kharagpur and Indore, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Presidency College and IISER-Mohali.
- The Indian team was among the first to submit and get the design approval of a highly sophisticated Telescope Manager (TM), nicknamed “nervous system”, of the SKA observatory.
- The Indian team has now been chosen to lead the construction of the TM system, which will be responsible for end-to-end operations of SKAO.
- India will also contribute towards building digital hardware for the SKA low-frequency receiver systems, some parts of the receiver for the SKA mid-frequency telescopes along with parts of the data processing units.
Which are the SKAO member countries ?
- The three hosting nations are South Africa, Australia and the UK — headquarters in which will remotely monitor the telescope operations located in Australia and South Africa.
- Member nations include Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
- In addition, eight African countries are taking part in coordinated actions to support the expansion of the project on the continent.
- Although there are 16 member nations, not all of them have officially attained membership as yet. India’s SKA membership, for example, is currently under review with the DAE and DST, and is expected to be completed sometime this year.
What has happened now, and why is it significant?
- It is necessary that five countries ratify the SKAO treaty Convention, which effectively means that they approve their participation and commit financial support towards construction and operations in coming years.
- By December 2020, six countries had completed the ratification process — South Africa, Australia and UK, besides Portugal, the Netherlands and Italy. With the ratification of the UK, the last of the host countries, the SKAO Council came into existence “in principle”.
- Recently Intergovernmental Treaty Organisation came into being and the SKAO Council hosted its maiden meet virtually.
- Prof Philip Diamond of the University of Manchester has been appointed the first Director-General of SKAO and French-born Dr Catherine Cesarsky will be the first Chair of the SKAO Counci
8 . Facts for Prelims
Toolkit
- A toolkit is essentially a set of adaptable guidelines or suggestions to get something done. The contents differ depending on what the aim of the toolkit is. For example, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Government of India, has a toolkit for the implementation of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). This includes basics such as the guidelines to follow when investigating IPR violations, applicable laws, and definitions of terms such as counterfeit and piracy.
- In the context of protests, a toolkit usually includes reading material on the context of the protest, news article links and methods of protest (including on social media).
National Council for Transgender Persons
- National Council for Transgender Persons – a platform for the representatives of the community — to act as an apex body to address the community’s concerns. The Council is headed by the Minister of Social justice and Empowerment and draws participation from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Home Affairs, Housing and Urban Affairs, Education, Rural Development, Labour and Employment, Legal Affairs, Niti Aayog, etc.