Daily Current Affairs : 7th, 8th and 9th IAS SQUAD

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) 1996
Second Judges Case
Reverse Osmosis
Financial Stability Development Council
India Justice Report
Brus
Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act
Why govt is encouraging ethanol production
Moody’s Rating
Overseas Citizen of India
Facts for Prelims : Thiruvalluvar, Wular Lake, EAT Lancet commission diet, Dhrupad

1 . Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) 1996

Context : Following the recent empowerment of tribal areas through implementation of the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) 1996, tribals in three districts of Adilabad, Mancherial and Kumaram Bheem Asifabad in Telangana have enforced prohibition in their villages.

Background

The Constitution (Seventy-Third Amendment) Act, 1992, which came into force w.e.f. 24^th April, 1993, inserted Part IX in the Constitution of India and accorded Panchayats a Constitutional status as institutions of local self-governance for rural India.
Article 243M (1) of the Constitution exempts Scheduled Areas and tribal areas referred to in Clause (1) and (2) of article 244 from application of the provisions of Part IX of the Constitution.
However, article 243M (4) (b) empowers the Parliament to legislate and extend the provisions of Part IX to Scheduled Areas and tribal areas referred to in clause (1), subject to such exceptions and modifications as may be specified in such law and no such law shall be deemed to be an amendment of the Constitution for the purpose of article 368.

Fifth Schedule Areas

The Fifth Schedule of the Constitution deals with the administration and control of Scheduled Areas as well as of Scheduled Tribes residing in any State other than the States of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.
“The Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996” (PESA), extends Part IX of the Constitution with certain modifications and exceptions, to the Fifth Schedule Areas notified under article 244(1) of the Constitution.
At present, Fifth Schedule Areas exist in 10 States viz. Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana.

About PESA

PESA is a legislation which extends the provisions of Panchayats to the Fifth Schedule Areas.
These areas have preponderance of tribal population. This Act is called “The Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996”. In short form this is popular as”‘PESA”.
All posts of Chairpersons of PRIs in the areas covered under PESA are reserved for tribal community and only persons belonging to tribal community can contest for these posts.

Definition of Village and Gram Sabha

Under the PESA Act, {section 4 (b)}, a village shall ordinarily consist of a habitation or a group of habitations or a hamlet or a group of hamlets comprising a community and managing its affairs in accordance with traditions and customs.
Under the PESA Act, {section 4 (c)}, every village shall have a Gram Sabha consisting of persons whose names are included in the electoral rolls for the Panchayat at the village level.

How many States with Fifth Schedule Areas are covered under PESA?

Total ten States are covered under PESA.
These States are: Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana.

Important powers provided to Gram Sabha under PESA?

Following three types of powers have been given to a Gram Sabha under PESA:

Developmental: consultation before land acquisition, prevent land alienation, power to enforce prohibition, prior approval of all developmental projects and control over tribal sub-plan, power to issue utilization certificate for developmental expenditure, selection of beneficiaries of poverty alleviation and other schemes of individual benefits, control over institutions and functionaries of social sectors.
Dispute resolution as per traditional laws and customs: collective resolution of disputes on the basis of customs, traditional laws and religious beliefs of tribal areas.
Ownership and management of natural resources: maintaining ownership of local tribal community over water resources, common lands, minor forest produce, minor minerals, etc. as well as effective implementation and monitoring of related laws.

What are the powers given to Gram Sabha/ PRIs under PESA Act?

Following legal powers have been given to Gram Sabha/PRIs under PESA Act:

Safeguard and preserve the traditions and customs of the people, their cultural identity, community resources and the customary mode of dispute resolution.
Approve plans, programmes and projects for social and economic development before such plans, programmes and projects are taken up for implementation by the Panchayat at the village level.
Identification or selection of persons as beneficiaries under the poverty alleviation and other programmes.
Certification of utilisation of funds by the Panchayat for the plans, programmes and projects for identification or selection of persons as beneficiaries under the poverty alleviation and other programmes.
Right to be consulted before making acquisition of land in the Scheduled Areas for development projects and before re-settling or rehabilitating persons affected by such projects in the Scheduled Areas.
Right to plan and manage minor water bodies in the Scheduled Areas.
Recommendations prior to grant of prospecting licence or mining lease for minor minerals and for grant of concession for the exploitation of minor minerals by auction in the Scheduled Areas.
Power to enforce prohibition or to regulate or restrict the sale and consumption of any intoxicant.
Ownership of minor forest produce.
Power to prevent alienation of land in the Scheduled Areas and to restore any unlawfully alienated land of a Scheduled Tribe.
Power to manage village markets.
Power to exercise control over money lending to the Scheduled Tribes.
Power to exercise control over institutions and functionaries in all social sectors.
Power to control over local plans and resources for such plans including tribal subplans.

Importance & Benefits of PESA

Effective implementation of PESA will not only bring development but will also deepen democracy in Fifth Schedule Areas.
It will enhance people’s participation in decision making.
PESA will reduce alienation in tribal areas as they will have better control over the utilisation of public resources.
PESA will reduce poverty and out-migration among tribal population as they will have control and management of natural resources will improve their livelihoods and incomes.
PESA will minimise exploitation of tribal population as they will be able to control and manage money lending, consumption and sale of liquor and also village markets.
Effective implementation of PESA will check illegal land alienation and also restore unlawfully alienated tribal land.
PESA will promote cultural heritage through preservation of traditions, customs and cultural identity of tribal population.

2 . Second Judges Case

Context : A nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, has dismissed a bunch of petitions seeking a review of the court’s judgment in the Second Judges Case in 1993, which led to the collegium system of appointment of judges.

About Second Judges Case

In The Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association Vs Union of India, 1993, a nine-judge Constitution Bench overruled the decision in S P Gupta and devised a specific procedure called ‘Collegium System’ for the appointment and transfer of judges in the higher judiciary.
The majority verdict accorded primacy to the CJI in matters of appointment and transfers while also ruling that the the term “consultation” would not diminish the primary role of the CJI in judicial appointments.
Ushering in the collegium system, the court said that the recommendation should be made by the CJI in consultation with his two seniormost colleagues, and that such recommendation should normally be given effect to by the executive.
It added that although it was open to the executive to ask the collegium to reconsider the matter if it had an objection to the name recommended, if, on reconsideration, the collegium reiterated the recommendation, the executive was bound to make the appointment.
The 1993 judgment was the basis on which a five-judge Constitution Bench declared the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act (NJAC) and the Constitutional (Ninety-Nine Amendment) Act, 2014 unconstitutional in October 2015.

3 . Reverse Osmosis

Context : The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has given a “last opportunity” to the Union Environment Ministry to issue notifications pertaining to prohibition on the use of RO (reverse osmosis) systems, which result in wastage of almost 80% of water.

Background of the case

In May this year where it had directed that wherever RO is to be permitted, condition of recovery of water to the extent of more than 60% is required

Issue with Reverse Osmosis

Reverse Osmosis is used to separate out solid constituents and other dissolved particulates by forcing water under pressure through a micro-sieve. By using this technology, even brackish water can be made drinkable.
For every litre of potable water produced, the RO purifier dumps 3-4 litres of waste water.
If you pass 4 litres of water through an RO purifier, it would produce only 1 litre of potable water.
Now, this wastage is admissible if one is trying to convert brackish water into drinking water.
But the water that is supplied through borewells or tankers or cans is not brackish. They are largely usable, with minimal filtration and UV.
Since the RO purifiers are designed for treating even brackish water, they perform poorly in the normal household conditions. For every one litre of water produced, the remaining 3 litres go waste when they could have actually been used for non-drinking applications.

Osmosis

Osmosis is a naturally occurring phenomenon. It is a process where a weaker saline solution will tend to migrate to a strong saline solution.
Examples of osmosis are when plant roots absorb water from the soil and our kidneys absorb water from our blood.
A solution that is less concentrated will have a natural tendency to migrate to a solution with a higher concentration.
For example, if you had a container full of water with a low salt concentration and another container full of water with a high salt concentration and they were separated by a semi-permeable membrane, then the water with the lower salt concentration would begin to migrate towards the water container with the higher salt concentration.

A semi-permeable membrane is a membrane that will allow some atoms or molecules to pass but not others. A simple example is a screen door. It allows air molecules to pass through but not pests or anything larger than the holes in the screen door. Another example is Gore-tex clothing fabric that contains an extremely thin plastic film into which billions of small pores have been cut. The pores are big enough to let water vapor through, but small enough to prevent liquid water from passing.

Reverse Osmosis

Reverse Osmosis is the process of Osmosis in reverse. Whereas Osmosis occurs naturally without energy required, to reverse the process of osmosis you need to apply energy to the more saline solution.
A reverse osmosis membrane is a semi-permeable membrane that allows the passage of water molecules but not the majority of dissolved salts, organics, bacteria and pyrogens.
However, you need to ‘push’ the water through the reverse osmosis membrane by applying pressure that is greater than the naturally occurring osmotic pressure in order to desalinate (demineralize or deionize) water in the process, allowing pure water through while holding back a majority of contaminants.
When pressure is applied to the concentrated solution, the water molecules are forced through the semi-permeable membrane and the contaminants are not allowed through.

Working of Reverse Osmosis

Reverse Osmosis works by using a high pressure pump to increase the pressure on the salt side of the RO and force the water across the semi-permeable RO membrane, leaving almost all (around 95% to 99%) of dissolved salts behind in the reject stream.
The amount of pressure required depends on the salt concentration of the feed water. The more concentrated the feed water, the more pressure is required to overcome the osmotic pressure.
The desalinated water that is demineralized or deionized, is called permeate (or product) water. The water stream that carries the concentrated contaminants that did not pass through the RO membrane is called the reject (or concentrate) stream.
As the feed water enters the RO membrane under pressure (enough pressure to overcome osmotic pressure) the water molecules pass through the semi-permeable membrane and the salts and other contaminants are not allowed to pass and are discharged through the reject stream (also known as the concentrate or brine stream), which goes to drain or can be fed back into the feed water supply in some circumstances to be recycled through the RO system to save water.
The water that makes it through the RO membrane is called permeate or product water and usually has around 95% to 99% of the dissolved salts removed from it.

4 . Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC)

Context : Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held a review meeting on Thursday with the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) during which she discussed the state of the economy in detail.

About Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC)

Indian Government has setup an apex-level Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) to strengthen and institutionalize the mechanism for maintaining financial stability and enhancing inter-regulatory coordination
FSDC has replaced the High Level Coordination Committee on Financial Markets (HLCCFM), which was facilitating regulatory coordination, though informally, prior to the setting up of FSDC.

Composition

The Council is chaired by the Union Finance Minister and its members are Governor, Reserve Bank of India; Finance Secretary and/or Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs; Secretary, Department of Financial Services; Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance; Chairman, Securities and Exchange Board of India; Chairman, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority and Chairman, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority.

Mandate

The Council deals, inter-alia, with issues relating to financial stability, financial sector development, inter–regulatory coordination, financial literacy, financial inclusion and macro prudential supervision of the economy including the functioning of large financial conglomerates. No funds are separately allocated to the Council for undertaking its activities.

5 . India Justice Report.

Context : Maharashtra has topped the list of states in delivering justice to people followed by Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Haryana, according to a report by Tata Trusts.

About the Report

The ranking is an initiative of Tata Trusts in collaboration with Centre for Social Justice, Common Cause, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, DAKSH, TISS- Prayas and Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.
The India Justice Report 2019 is based on publicly available data of different government entities on the four pillars of justice delivery — police, judiciary, prisons and legal aid.
Maharashtra has topped the list of states in delivering justice to people followed by Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Haryana
Among the small states (where population is less than one crore each), Goa has topped the list followed by Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh

Details of the Report

As per the findings, the country, as a whole, has about 18,200 judges with about 23% sanctioned posts vacant.
“Women are also poorly represented in these pillars, constituting just seven per cent of the police.
Prisons are over-occupied at 114%, where 68% are under trials awaiting investigation, inquiry or trial. Regarding budgets, most states are not able to fully utilise the funds given to them by the Centre, while the increase in spending on the police, prisons and judiciary does not keep pace with overall increase in state expenditure
“Some pillars also remain affected by low budgets. India’s per capita spend on free legal aid-which 80% of the population is eligible for — for instance is 75 paise per annum,” it said.
The indicators, across the pillars, covered the themes like infrastructure, human resources, diversity (gender, SC/ST/OBC), budgets, workload and trends over the last five years.

6 . Bru Community

Context : Since October 1, six members of the Reang or Bru community have reportedly died in relief camps in Tripura, after the Centre decided to stop food supplies and cash dole. They were among 32,000 Brus living in these camps since 1997, when they fled their homes in Mizoram.

About Brus

Bru or Reang is a community indigenous to Northeast India, living mostly in Tripura, Mizoram and Assam.
In Tripura, they are recognised as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group. In Mizoram, they have been targeted by groups that do not consider them indigenous to the state.
In 1997, following ethic clashes, nearly 37,000 Brus fled Mamit, Kolasib and Lunglei districts of Mizoram and were accommodated in relief camps in Tripura.
Since then, 5,000 have returned to Mizoram in eight phases of repatriation, while 32,000 still live in six relief camps in North Tripura.

Conflict, displacement

In 1995, following a clash between Mizos and Brus, the Young Mizo Association and Mizo Students’ Association demanded that Brus be removed from the state’s electoral rolls, contending that the tribe was not indigenous to Mizoram.
This led to an armed movement led by the militant outfit Bru National Liberation Front (BNLF), and a political one by the Bru National Union (BNU).
On October 21, 1997, BNLF militants killed a forest official in Mizoram, leading to retaliatory ethnic violence. The BNU, which was demanding an autonomous tribal district, claimed that 1,391 Bru houses in 41 villages were burnt down and several people were raped and killed. Mizoram police put the number of homes torched at 325 in 16 villages, and did not confirm rape or murder.
A large number of Bru families fled to North Tripura. Thousands of families, with some 30,000 members, were given shelter in six relief camps in Kanchanpur and Panisagar subdivisions.

Financial Package

A financial package of Rs 435 crore was agreed on. It covers 5,407 Bru families (32,876 members). Each family will be given a one-time assistance of Rs 4 lakh — to be kept in fixed deposit within one month of repatriation — and cash assistance of Rs 5,000 per month through direct benefits transfer, as well as free rations for two years. Rs 1.5 lakh will be provided as house building assistance, in three instalments.
For security, the Centre has asked the Mizoram government to create police posts and border outposts. The Home Ministry will sanction funds for setting up the checkposts.
The Tripura government will ensure that Aadhaar cards are issued, bank accounts opened and ration cards updated for each Bru migrant before September 30, 2018.
The package includes a special development project, Eklavya residential schools, access to jhum cultivation land, permanent residential certificates and ST certificates, and free transportation from Tripura to Mizoram.
The displaced families had demanded land at one location, which Mizoram rejected. An agreement was reached that they will be relocated to the villages from where they had been displaced.

Current Situation of Resettlement

In June 2018, community leaders from the Bru camps signed an agreement in Delhi with the Centre and the two state governments, providing for repatriation in Mizoram. But most camp residents rejected the terms of the agreement and “insufficient”.
Only 5,000 have gone back and the ongoing ninth phase has succeeded in sending back only about 700 of the remaining 32,000.
The camp residents say the package doe not guarantee their safety in Mizoram. They have demanded resettlement in cluster villages, among other things.
After a series of meetings over repatriation failed to make headway, the government suspended food supplies.
It offered a final package, which expires on November 30: Rs 25,000 for each family which accepts the package and gets ready to be repatriated within two days. This did not find any takers either.

7 . Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act

Context : A 10-year-old Punjab law is being blamed for contributing to the air pollution over Delhi and surrounding areas.

Background

The law led to the sowing and transplantation of the summer paddy crop to be delayed by about a fortnight, and moved the harvesting season to end-October and early November — a time when the moist air and largely inactive wind systems cause particulate matter and gases from burning paddy stubble to hang in the atmosphere.

About the Law

Law is aimed at conserving groundwater by mandatorily delaying the transplanting of paddy to beyond June 10, when the most severe phase of evapotranspiration (transfer of water from land to the atmosphere through evaporation from the soil and plant transpiration) is over.
Farmers were forbidden from sowing paddy before May 10, and transplanting it before June 10. Haryana has a similar law.

Need of the Law

There has been serious concern over the drastic fall in the water table in Punjab.
Paddy is procured by the government at minimum support price (MSP), and leads to over-exploitation of underground aquifers, as a very large number of tubewells (more than 14 lakh in 2015-16) running on free power pump out virtually endless amounts of water.
The Punjab State Farmers Commission (PSFC), led by the late Dr G S Kalkat, pushed for the law —he was able to convince the government that early transplanting of rice (before mid-June) resulted in unsustainable withdrawals of groundwater with the monsoon still far, temperatures very high, and the evapotranspiration rate (ETR) at its peak.

Link with Air Pollution

Farmers’ organisations say late sowing and transplanting delays the harvesting as well (it is end-October by the time operations end), and they are left with a very small window to prepare their fields for the next (wheat) crop.
In this situation, setting the stubble ablaze is a quick-fix solution. By this time, temperatures have started to fall, and a combination of atmospheric and meteorological conditions ensure that the smoke cannot disperse easily.
A part of the smoke from the farm fires is carried by westerly winds towards the NCR and further down the Indo-Gangetic plain.

8 . Why govt is encouraging ethanol production

Context : Ministry of Environment and Forests announced that mills would not require separate environmental clearance to produce additional ethanol from B-heavy molasses.

What are ethanol and molasses

Ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, is a liquid that has several uses. At 95% purity, it is called rectified spirit and is used as the intoxicating ingredient in alcoholic beverages. At 99%-plus purity, ethanol is used for blending with petrol.
Both products are made from molasses, a byproduct of sugar manufacturing. For making sugar, mills crush sugarcane which typically has a total fermentable sugars (TFS) content of 14%. The TFS component consists of sucrose along with the reducing sugars glucose and fructose. Most of this TFS component gets crystallised into sugar, and the remaining part is called molasses.

Molasses stages

The molasses go through three stages — A, B, and C, the last one being where the molasses are most un-crystallised and non-recoverable.
The ‘C’ molasses roughly constitute 4.5% of the cane, and have a remaining TFS of 40%. After C-molasses are sent to the distillery, ethanol is extracted from them. Every 100 kg of TFS yields 60 litres of ethanol.
Thus, from one tonne of cane, mills can produce 115 kg of sugar (at 11.5% recovery) and 45 kg of molasses (18 kg TFS) that gives 10.8 litres of ethanol.

How more ethanol can be produced

Mills can also produce only ethanol from sugarcane, without producing sugar at all. In this case, the entire 14% TFS in the cane is fermented. Here, a mill can make 84 litres of ethanol and zero kg of sugar.
In between the two extreme cases, there are intermediate options as well, where the cane juice does not have to be crystallised right till the final ‘C’ molasses stage. The molasses can, instead, be diverted after the earlier ‘A’ and ‘B’ stages of sugar crystal formation. Mills, then, would produce some sugar, as opposed to fermenting the whole sugarcane juice into ethanol.
If ethanol is manufactured using ‘B’ heavy molasses (7.25% of cane and with TFS of 50%), around 21.75 litres will get produced along with 95 kg of sugar from every 1 tonne of cane. The latest move by the government is to waive the environmental clearance required to produce ethanol at this stage. In the press release, it has been explained that this was done since this process does not contribute to the pollution load.

Why focus on more ethanol

Mills currently have all-time-high stocks of sugar, and they have been at loggerheads with farmers over non-payment of dues. Mill owners insist that the reason behind their woes is excess production of sugar and fall in its price.
Under the circumstances, ethanol is the only real saviour — both for mills and cane growers.
In September this year, the government approved an increase in the price of ethanol to be procured by public sector oil marketing companies from sugar mills for blending with petrol for the 2019-20 supply year from December 1.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs also allowed conversion of old sugar into ethanol, which again is expected to help mills deal with the current overproduction in the sweetener and make timely payments to farmers for the cane delivered by them.
Ethanol production has been additionally facilitated with the government mandating 10% blending of petrol with ethanol.

9 . Moody’s Rating

Context : Global ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service Friday cut its outlook on the Government of India’s ratings to negative from stable, but affirmed the Baa2 foreign-currency and local-currency long-term issuer ratings.

What is Rating

Credit ratings agencies rate on a scale the financials and business models of companies, as well as economic management by sovereign governments, after analysing official and other data and interacting with government officials, business leaders, and economists.
These agencies then rate instruments such as bonds, debentures, commercial papers, deposits, and other debt offerings of companies or governments to help investors make informed decisions.
From a company’s or a government’s perspective, a better rating helps raise funds at a cheaper rate. The agencies do this on a continuous basis, either upgrading or downgrading the instrument based on performance, prospects, or events likely to have an impact on the balance sheet of a company or on the fiscal position of a government or a sub-sovereign entity.

What is the impact of cut in outlook on the Government of India’s ratings to negative

Reduction in outlook is the first step towards an investment downgrade, as India is now just a notch above the investment grade country rating. An actual downgrade in country ratings can lead to massive foreign fund outflows.
However, if the government is able to address fiscal deficit concerns through higher fund raising from stake sales, the rating agencies tend to revise up their outlook.

Why has Moody’s cut rating?

While government measures to support the economy should help to reduce the depth and duration of India’s growth slowdown, prolonged financial stress among rural households, weak job creation, and, more recently, a credit crunch among non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs), have increased the probability of a more entrenched slowdown
Moody’s said the prospects of further reforms that would support business investment and growth at high levels, and significantly broaden the narrow tax base, have diminished.
If nominal GDP growth does not return to high rates, Moody’s expects that the government will face very significant constraints in narrowing the general government budget deficit and preventing a rise in the debt burden.

What does the government say?

Finance Ministry said that India continues to be among the fastest growing major economies in the world, and India’s relative standing remains unaffected.
The Government said it has undertaken series of financial sector and other reforms to strengthen the economy as a whole. It has also proactively taken policy decisions in response to the global slowdown.
These measures would lead to a positive outlook on India and would attract capital flows and stimulate investments, the Government said. The fundamentals of the economy remain quite robust with inflation under check and bond yields low. India continues to offer strong prospects of growth in near and medium term, it said.

Global Long-Term Rating Scale :

Moody’s long-term National Scale Ratings (NSRs) are opinions of the relative creditworthiness of issuers and financial obligations within a particular country. NSRs are not designed to be compared among countries; rather, they address relative credit risk within a given country.

Aaa Obligations rated Aaa are judged to be of the highest quality, subject to the lowest level of credit risk.
Aa Obligations rated Aa are judged to be of high quality and are subject to very low credit risk.
A Obligations rated A are judged to be upper-medium grade and are subject to low credit risk.
Baa Obligations rated Baa are judged to be medium-grade and subject to moderate credit risk and as such may possess certain speculative characteristics.
Ba Obligations rated Ba are judged to be speculative and are subject to substantial credit risk.
B Obligations rated B are considered speculative and are subject to high credit risk.
Caa Obligations rated Caa are judged to be speculative of poor standing and are subject to very high credit risk.
Ca Obligations rated Ca are highly speculative and are likely in, or very near, default, with some prospect of recovery of principal and interest.
C Obligations rated C are the lowest rated and are typically in default, with little prospect for recovery of principal or interest.

Global Short-Term Rating Scale

Moody’s short-term NSRs are opinions of the ability of issuers in a given country, relative to other domestic issuers, to repay debt obligations that have an original maturity not exceeding thirteen months. Short-term NSRs in one country should not be compared with short-term NSRs in another country, or with Moody’s global ratings.

P-1 Issuers (or supporting institutions) rated Prime-1 have a superior ability to repay short-term debt obligations.
P-2 Issuers (or supporting institutions) rated Prime-2 have a strong ability to repay short-term debt obligations.
P-3 Issuers (or supporting institutions) rated Prime-3 have an acceptable ability to repay short-term obligations. NP Issuers (or supporting institutions) rated Not Prime do not fall within any of the Prime rating categories.

10 . Overseas Citizen of India

Context : The Indian government has revoked author Aatish Taseer’s Overseas Citizen of India card

About OCI

An Overseas Citizen of India, or OCI, is a category introduced by the government in 2005. Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) of certain categories as specified in the Citizenship Act, 1955 are eligible for being OCI cardholders.
The Ministry of Home Affairs defines an OCI as a person who was a citizen of India on or after January 26, 1950; or was eligible to become a citizen of India on that date; or who is a child or grandchild of such a person, among other eligibility criteria.
According to Section 7A of the OCI card rules, an applicant is not eligible for the OCI card if he, his parents or grandparents have ever been a citizen of Pakistan or Bangladesh.

Benefits

OCI cardholders can enter India multiple times, get a multipurpose lifelong visa to visit India, and are exempt from registering with Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) no matter how long their stay.
If an individual is registered as an OCI for a period of five years, he/she are eligible to apply for Indian citizenship.
At all Indian international airports, OCI cardholders are provided with special immigration counters.
OCI cardholders can open special bank accounts in India, they can buy non-farm property and exercise ownership rights and can also apply for a driver’s license and PAN card.

Limitations

OCI cardholders do not get voting rights, cannot hold a government job and purchase agricultural or farm land.
They cannot run for public office either, nor can they travel to restricted areas without government permission.

11 . Facts for Prelims

Thiruvalluvar

Thiruvalluvar is regarded as a cultural and moral icon for Tamils across caste and religious lines. The period when he lived is debated, as is his religious identity.
Some place him in the third or fourth century; others put him in the eighth or ninth. Some call him a Hindu; some trace his past to Jainism; Dravidian groups count him as a saint with no religious identifiers except his Dravidian roots.
Thiruvalluar authored Thirukural considered one of the great works on ethics and morality
In his 1873 book Tamil Wisdom; Traditions Concerning Hindu Sages and Selections from their Writings, British scholar Edward Jewitt Robinson wrote about the saint, including the suggestion that “Valluvan, or priest of the Pariah tribe, found the deserted child [in a grove in Chennai], and reared him as his own.” The book quotes several testimonies on Valluvar (Thiruvalluvar), including: “Of the six sects, one will condemn the system of the other but none of them will condemn the system propounded by Valluvar in his Cural: It has the merit of harmonising the opinions of them all, so that each sect would admit it to be its own.” Another testimony says, “It is difficult to say whether the Sanskrit or the Tamil is the best: They are perhaps on a par, since the Sanskrit possesses the Veda, and the Tamil the Cural, composed by the divine Valluvar.”

EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health

EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health published recommendations for a universal diet that addresses both human and planetary health. The Commission suggested that adherence to this diet could ensure that our future food systems can sustainably and nutritiously feed the estimated population of 10 billion people in 2050.
The EAT-Lancet Commission diet consists of a large amount of vegetables, fruits, whole grain, legumes, nuts and unsaturated oils, some seafood and poultry. It has little to no red meat, processed meat, added sugar, refined grains and starchy vegetables.

Wular Lake

It is one of the largest fresh water lakes in Asia.
It is sited in Bandipora district in Jammu and Kashmir
The lake basin was formed as a result of tectonic activity and is fed by the Jhelum River.

Dhrupad

Dhrupad is the most ancient style of Hindustani classical music that has survived until today in its original form. The Dhrupad tradition is a major tradition of Indian culture.
The nature of Dhrupad music is spiritual. Seeking not to entertain, but to induce feelings of peace and contemplation in the listener.
The word Dhrupad is derived from DHRUVA the steadfast evening star that moves through our galaxy and PADA meaning poetry. It is a form of devotional music that traces its origin to the ancient text of Sam Veda.
The SAM VEDA was chanted with the help of melody and rhythm called Samgana. Gradually this developed into other vocal style called ‘Chhanda’ and ‘Prabandha’ with introduction of verse and meter.
The fusion of these two elements led to the emergence of Dhrupad.

Economic Slowdown and Carbon Emission

Carbon dioxide emissions are poised to grow at their slowest — a 2% rise from last year — since 2001, according to an analysis published in Carbon Brief,
The rise in C02 emissions from India sees wild swings — from 7.7% in 2014 to 3.5% the next year and then back to 7.8% in 2018. This is the first time that emissions are expected to grow below 3% from the previous year.

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