Polity and Governance (GS-II)

Bima Vahak

IRDAI’s has issued draft guidelines for Bima Vahak, a dedicated distribution channel to reach out to every Gram Panchayat.

About:

• Objective: The plan is to improve insurance awareness and penetration in the hinterlands and rural areas.
• With an aim of ‘Insurance for all by 2047’, Bima Vahak will be the crucial last-mile connect for insurers in the form of a field force comprising corporate as well individual Bima Vahaks with a focus on on-boarding women who can gain the trust of locals for the distribution and servicing of insurance products.
• The scope of activities of Bima Vahak will be wide and aimed at improving accessibility and availability of insurance in every nook and corner of the country.
• The Bima Vahak scheme will be closely aligned with the Lead Insurers that IRDAI had mooted in every State and Union Territory.
• Such Lead Insurers will coordinate deployment of resources to ensure maximum coverage of Gram Panchayats.

Polity and Governance (GS-II)

Commission of Railway Safety (CRS)

Investigation into the recent tragic train accident in Odisha is going to be conducted by the Commissioner of Railway Safety for the south-eastern circle.

About:

• CRS deals with matters related to safety of rail travel and operations, among some other statutory functions – inspectorial, investigatory, and advisory.
• It is a statutory body laid down in the Railways Act, 1989. 
• Investigating serious train accidents is one of the key responsibilities of the CRS.
• It is headquartered in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
• The CRS does not report to the Ministry of Railways of the Railway Board

It comes under the administrative control of the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA).

Polity and Governance (GS-II)

Global Slavery Index

Recently, the Global Slavery Index 2023 has been released.

About:

• Prepared by: The United Nations (UN) International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Australia-based human rights organization Walk Free.
• 6 out of every thousand people in Turkey were defined as “modern slaves” in 2021. 

Polity and Governance

Land records to be available in 22 languages

Citizens will soon be able to access land records maintained in local languages by state governments in 22 languages.

About the Plan:

• The Ministry of Rural Development is preparing for a pan-India rollout of the project this year.
• This pilot project was launched last year in seven states — Maharashtra, Bihar, Puducherry, Gujarat, Tripura, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh — and the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
• The Record of Rights (RoR) — which has details such as name, size of the plot and location of a land holding in any part of the country — is maintained by state governments in their local language.

Economy (GS-III)

Electronics Repair Services Outsourcing (ERSO) initiative

Recently, the Union Ministry of Electronics & IT launched the ‘ERSO Pilot initiative’ to validate certain transformational policy and process changes to make India the Repair Capital of the World.

About:

• In a significant move towards establishing India as a global electronics powerhouse, the Indian government has initiated a pilot project called Electronics Repair Services Outsourcing (ERSO).
• The concerted effort seeks to make India the most appealing destination for outsourcing repair services for ICT products on a global scale.
• After consultations with the repair industry, MeitY and other departments have introduced necessary policy and process changes, which are currently being validated through a limited pilot phase.
• The ERSO project has garnered support from various government departments.
• Bengaluru has been chosen as the pilot location, where the project will run for duration of three months, starting from Wednesday.
• Five prominent companies, namely Flex, Lenovo, CTDI, R-Logic, and Aforeserve, have voluntarily come forward to participate in the pilot and contribute their expertise.

Economy (GS-III)

India’s manufacturing PMI hits highest level

The S&P Global India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) surged to a 31-month high of 58.7 in May, with factory orders rising at the fastest clip since January 2021.

About:

• A reading of 50 on the index, which stood at 2 in April, indicates no change in activity levels.

Sector-wise performance:

• Overall business confidence levels about growth prospects continued to improve after hitting an eight-month low in March.
• Health: Overall improvement in the health of the sector was the strongest since October 2020.
• Demand-driven inflation is positive thus create challenges for the economy and open the door for more interest rate hikes.

Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI):

• It is a survey-based measure that asks the respondents about changes in their perception about key business variables as compared with the previous month.
• The purpose of the PMI is to provide information about current and future business conditions to company decision makers, analysts, and investors.
• It is calculated separately for the manufacturing and services sectors and then a composite index is also constructed.
• The PMI is a number from 0 to 100.
• A print above 50 means expansion, while a score below that denotes contraction.

Economy (GS-III)

Services PMI 2023 released

India’s services sector output grew at the second fastest pace in 13 years this May, as per the S&P Global India Services PMI Business Activity Index.

Highlights of the Index:

• The index eased slightly from 62 in April to 61.2, triggering a slight uptick in new jobs that was still the highest so far in 2023.
• Positive demand trends also persisted from overseas markets, with export orders rising for the fourth successive month and at the highest pace in 2023.
• Favourable demand conditions, new client wins and positive market dynamics supported output.

Economy

‘Antardrishti’

RBI launched a financial inclusion dashboard named 'Antardrishti'.

About:

• The dashboard would, as its name suggests, provide the necessary knowledge to evaluate and track the development of financial inclusion by recording relevant data.
• This tool will also make it possible to assess the degree of financial exclusion at a local level across the nation so that such places may be addressed.

Environment (GS-III)

Najafgarh Lake

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) issued an order directing both Haryana and Delhi to implement their respective Environment Management Plans (EMPs) for the Najafgarh jheel (lake) until a comprehensive integrated EMP was prepared by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).

About the site:

• The Najafgarh jheel is a transboundary water body straddling Delhi and Gurugram, which once spanned 220 sq km.
• In response to the report submitted by the committee (set up by the Haryana government) on the Submergence Area of Najafgarh jheel, and the subsequent discussions held during the meeting between the Government of Haryana and the Union environment minister, an Inter-Ministerial Expert Group was also formed to address the challenges related to the lake.
• Najafgarh Lake, Najafgarh Marsh or Najafgarh Jheel, fed by Sahibi River, used to be a vast lake in the south west of Delhi in India, near the town of Najafgarh from which it takes its name.
• It was connected to the river Yamuna by a natural shallow nullah or drain called the Najafgarh nullah.

Environment (GS-III)

Himalayan brown bear (Ursus arctos isabellinus

Threatened by habitat destruction due to various anthropogenic pressures such as habitat encroachment, tourism, and grazing pressure, the Himalayan brown bear population has been steadily declining in the past century with only an estimated 500-750 bears left in India.

About the species:

• The bears are found in Nepal, Tibet, west China, north India, north Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, entire Kyrgyzstan and south-east Kazakhstan.
• They are already speculated to have become extinct in Bhutan.
• Himalayan brown bears are omnivores and will eat grasses, roots and other plants as well as insects and small mammals; they also like fruits and berries.
• They will also prey on large mammals, including sheep and goats.
• Himalayan brown bears exhibit sexual dimorphism.

Environment (GS-III)

Carbon dioxide levels recorded 50% higher than pre-industrial times

As per a new update from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the United States, the Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have recorded a new high, with the monthly average in May touching 424 parts per million.

About:

• Carbon dioxide is the most common among greenhouse gases responsible for causing global warming that is leading to climate change.
• Other major greenhouse gases are methane, nitrous oxide, a set of fluorinated gases like HFCs and HCFCs, and ozone.
• Carbon dioxide, generated during the process of burning fossil fuels, accounts for over 70 per cent of all human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.
• Scientists have been able to estimate carbon dioxide concentration levels till about 400,000 years in the past, mainly through the study of polar ice cores that have remained unchanged for millions of years.
• In this period, CO2 concentrations have remained around 200 ppm during the ice ages, and about 280 ppm during the warmer inter-glacial periods.

Science and Technology (GS-III)

Indigenous heavy weight torpedo tested successfully

Indigenously designed and developed heavy weight torpedo (HWT) ‘Varunastra’ was successfully test-fired with a live warhead against an undersea target, by the Indian Navy on June 6, 2023.

About:

• Varunastra is a ship-launched anti-submarine torpedo having low drift navigational systems, acoustic homing, advanced acoustic counter measure features, autonomous guidance algorithms, insensitive munitions warhead and a GPS-based recovery aid for practice torpedo.
• Varunastra was designed and developed by Vizag-based Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL) under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO.
• It is manufactured by Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL).

Features:

• The torpedo, with a maximum speed of 40 knots and a maximum operating depth of 600 m.
• It has a long range with multi-manoeuvering capabilities and is capable of acoustic homing with a wide look angle capable of tracking silent targets.
• It features autonomous advanced guidance algorithms and has drift navigational systems over long endurance.

Science and Technology (GS-III)

Desiccation-tolerant vascular (DT) plants

A recent study by scientists from Agharkar Research Institute (ARI) Pune, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), has identified 62 DT species in the Western Ghats, many more than the earlier known nine species.

About:

• Desiccation-tolerant vascular (DT) plants are able to withstand extreme dehydration, losing up to 95% of their water content, and they revive themselves once water is available again.
• As per the recent study, in addition to rock outcrops, tree trunks in the partially shaded forests were also found to be crucial habitats for DT species.
• This unique ability allows them to survive in harsh, arid environments that would be uninhabitable for most other plants.
• In the inventory of 62 species, 16 are Indian endemic, and 12 are exclusive to the Western Ghats outcrops, highlighting WG’s importance as a global DT hotspot.

Science and Technology (GS-III)

Planet TOI 4603b

An international team of scientists led by Professor Abhijit Chakraborty of the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad has discovered the densest alien planet, which is 13 times bigger than Jupiter.

About the discovery:

• The team, including scientists from India, Germany, Switzerland, and the USA.
• They used the indigenous PRL Advanced Radial-velocity Abu-sky Search spectrograph (PARAS) at the Gurushikhar Observatory in Mt. Abu to measure the mass of the planet precisely.

The new Planet TOI 4603b:

• The exoplanet has a mass of 14 g/cm3.
• The newly discovered planet orbits a star called TOI4603 or HD 245134, and NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) had initially declared the star as a possible candidate to host a secondary body of unknown nature.
• Location: The planet is located 731 light years away from Earth and orbits its star every 7.24 days.
• Temperature: The planet is raging hot with a temperature of 1396 degrees Celsius.