Context: The Global Migration Report 2020 was recently released by the UN-affiliated International Organization for Migration (IOM).

• Of the 272 international migrants worldwide (3.5% of the global population), India accounts for the highest share with 17.5 million Indians living outside the country. India is followed by Mexico (11.8 million) and China (10.7 million).


• Roughly two-thirds of international migrants are labour migrants.


• India is the leading recipient of remittances. International remittances in 2018 (2020 report) reached $689 billion, out of which India received $78.6 million from the 17.5 million living abroad. India is currently followed by China ($67.4 billion) and Mexico ($35.7 billion).


• The top destinations for international migrants is the USA followed by Germany, Saudi Arabia, Russian Federation and the UK.


• The top migration corridors for Indians are the United Arab Emirates, the US and Saudi Arabia.


• The highest number of migrants entering India come from Bangladesh.


• Oceania is the region with the highest proportion of international migrants and the UAE is the country with the highest proportion of international migrants. More than half of all international migrants (141 million) live in Europe and North America.

Context: Union Minister of Agriculture informed Rajya Sabha about the various initiatives for promotion of technology in agriculture sector.

• The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has established a network of 715 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) in the country mandated with Technology Assessment and Demonstration for its Application and Capacity Development (TADA–CD).


• Agro-advisories are given to the farmers through mKisan portal. mKisan portal is a platform which provides web-based mobile advisory to farmers with the technological backstopping from Research Institutes and Agricultural Universities supporting farmers.


• Further, Sub Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) provides a suitable platform for converging all activities for inclusive growth of agricultural mechanization by providing a ‘single window’ approach for implementation with a special focus on small & marginal farmers.


• Government is also implementing National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) scheme for transparent price discovery for remunerative prices for the farmers for their produce through competitive online bidding system.


• Under Marketing Research & Information Network (MRIN) Scheme, support is provided to the States towards setting up and maintaining connectivity with Agmarknet portal for collection and dissemination of market information on arrivals and prices of agri-commodities.

Context: Election commission of India (ECI) organized Orientation Programme for Civil Society Organizations on Electoral Literacy Clubs (ELCs).

• ECI, under its flagship programme ‘Systematic Voters’ Education & Electoral Participation’ (SVEEP), has introduced the project for Mainstreaming of Electoral Literacy through Educational Institutions/ Organizations.


• This project envisages setting up of Electoral Literacy Club in every educational institution and Chunav Pathshala at every booth to cover those outside the formal education system.


• Launched on 8th National Voters’ Day on 25th January, 2018, ELCs shall serve as a vibrant hub of Electoral Literacy for developing and strengthening the culture of electoral participation through hands on experience. Till now 5,80,620 ELCs have been established across the country.

Context: Indian Railways has started Procurement of Power in Punjab for Northern Railway as Deemed Licensee under Open Access to reduce the cost of operations under “Mission 41K”.

• “Mission 41K” document was unveiled by Ministry of Railways in 2017. It targets for saving of Rs. 41,000 Crore through integrated Rail Energy Management System by 2025.
  
• Railway Energy Management Company Limited (REMCL), a JV of Ministry of Railways and RITES Ltd., has been endeavoring to achieve this target by gradual migration from Consumer to Deemed Licensee.


• Deemed Licensee status enables Indian Railways to buy electricity directly from any generating company by paying wheeling charges to Central and State transmission system under open access as per The Electricity Act,2003.


• These efforts have resulted in keeping electricity price at most economical rate on sustainable basis since 2015 on Indian Railways.

Context: From December 1, lanes on national highway toll plazas across India will accept toll only through FASTag — fitted in a vehicle that pays toll automatically when the vehicle crosses the boom barrier of the toll plaza.

• Under a new “One Nation One FASTag” scheme, the NHAI is trying to get states on board so that one tag can be used seamlessly across highways, irrespective of whether it is the state or the Centre that owns/manages it.


• Recently as part of a pilot, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Haryana signed MoUs with the Centre to accept FASTags in state highways also.

• FASTag is a radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology sticker that can be installed on the windshield of any vehicle. By this, toll payments can be made directly from the pre-paid account linked to it, thus avoiding the need of vehicles to stop at toll plazas for payment of fees.


• Indian Highways Management Company Ltd. (IHMCL), a company promoted by NHAI, is implementing the National Electronic Toll Collection Program (NETC) in the country under the brand name “FASTag” which was launched in April 2016.


• A FASTag is valid for five years, and can be recharged as and when required.


• E-commerce portals like Amazon and PayTM sell these tags issued by various banks. They are available at 27,000 points of sale set up by 22 banks and the NHAI.

Context: In the latest QS World University Rankings for Asia 2020, 96 Indian institutions rank among 550 for the continent.

• The QS Rankings use a methodology based on 11 metrics.


• The National University of Singapore is ranked Asia’s best for the second consecutive year. It is followed by Nanyang Technological University, which has risen from 3rd to 2nd; and the University of Hong Kong.


• 96 Indian institutions rank among 550 for the continent. The 96 Indian universities featured in the rankings include eight among the top 100 and 31 among the top 250. Of these 96 Indian universities ranked, 20 are brand-new entries.


• The best performing institution from India is IIT Bombay, which drops one place to 34th position. It is followed by IIT Delhi at 43rd place and IIT Madras at 50th.


• Only Mainland China is more represented than India, with 118 featured universities. While Mainland China has four in the top 10 this year, India does not yet have a university among the top 30.

Context: Lokpal Chairman Justice (retired) Pinaki Chandra Ghose launched the new logo for the apex anticorruption ombudsman. A new motto was also adopted.

• The Lokpal became functional after the appointment of its Chairman and members in March 2019.

• The new motto of Lokpal is ‘Ma Gridhah Kasyasvidhanam’ which in English means “Do not be greedy for anyone’s wealth.”


• It has been taken from a sloka of ‘Ishabasoupanishad’.


• The logo symbolizes how Lokpal protects and cares for the people of India by establishing justice as per law.


• The logo symbolizes various essence of LOKPAL figuratively in shapes such as: ombudsman (judges bench), people (three human figures), vigilance (Ashok chakra forming eye–pupil), law (shape of book in orange) and judicial (the tricolor two hands are placed below forming a unique balance). The logo is in tricolor representing the national essence of LOKPAL.

Context: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has approved the proposal to extend the period of retention of government accommodation by Battle Casualties from all the three Services.

• Families of Armed Forces personnel killed in action against enemy forces will now be able to retain government accommodation for one year. Earlier, this period was three months.


• The provision will also be available for those martyred in enemy air attacks.


• The government’s decision will not just boost the morale of the troops and their families but also came as a relief as shifting homes after losing a breadwinner can be extremely difficult.

Context: India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its forty-ninth flight (PSLV-C47), successfully launched Cartosat-3 and 13 commercial nanosatellites from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. This is the 21st flight of PSLV in the 'XL' configuration (with 6 solid strap-on motors).

• 13 Commercial Nanosatellites from USA were successfully injected into designated orbit.


• These satellites were launched under commercial arrangement with New Space India Limited (NSIL), the commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

• Cartosat-3 satellite is a third-generation agile advanced satellite having high-resolution imaging capability. The mission life of the Cartosat-3 is 5 years.


• This is the 9th satellite of Cartosat series developed by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).


• One of Cartosat-3’s cameras offers a ground resolution of 25 cm. Currently, WorldView-3, a satellite owned by U.S. company Maxar, has the best ground resolution of 31 cm. The existing policy allows only government and government authorized agencies to access ISRO's high-resolution imageries below a resolution of 1 m.


• At 1,625 kg, Cartosat-3 is unusually heavy and more than double the mass of the previous eight in its class.


• Cartosat-3 will address the increased user’s demands for large scale urban planning, rural resource and infrastructure development, coastal land use, and land cover, etc.

Context: The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has released data for 2018-19 on the enforcement of norms. This was the first year the data had been compiled for unsafe, substandard and labeling defects separately.

• About 3.7% of the samples collected and analysed were found unsafe, 15.8% sub-standard and 9% samples had labelling defects.


• There has been a 7% increase in the number of samples analyzed during 2018- 19 compared to 2017-18. Compared to the previous year, 25% more samples were found non-conforming. This shows that there has been better targeting of enforcement efforts by States/UTs.


• There has been a 36% increase in civil cases launched and a 86% increase in criminal cases


• Ten States/UTs that have performed well include Uttarakhand, Goa, Bihar, Sikkim, Gujarat and Telangana.


• Ten States that have performed poorly include Nagaland, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Rajasthan, and Punjab. Many of the poorly performing States have not been able to put in place full-time officers and do not have proper testing laboratories.

Context: Parliament has passed the National Institute of Design (Amendment) Bill, 2019, with the Lok Sabha approving it. The Rajya Sabha has already passed the bill.

• The Bill seeks to amend the National Institute of Design Act, 2014, which declares the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad as an institution of national importance.


• The bill seeks to declare four National Institutes of Design in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, and Haryana as institutions of national importance.


• Currently, these institutes are registered as Societies under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 and do not have the power to grant degrees or diplomas.


• On being declared institutions of national importance, the four institutes will be granted the power to grant degrees and diplomas.

Context: The suspension of two Congress members by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla after unruly scenes in the House has brought back focus on the conduct of MPs, and related issues.

• Rule 378 of the Rules for the Conduct of Business states that the Speaker shall preserve order and shall have all powers necessary for the purpose of enforcing own decisions.


• Rule 373 defines that the Speaker if is of the opinion that the conduct of any member is grossly disorderly, may direct such member to withdraw immediately from the House during the remainder of the day’s sitting.


• According to Rule 374A the event of a member coming into the well of the House or abusing the Rules of the House persistently and wilfully, such member shall, on being named by the Speaker, stand automatically suspended from the service of the House for five consecutive sittings or the remainder of the session, whichever is less.

Context: The Home Ministry provided the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) Data on the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in the Rajya Sabha.

• As per information received from the NCRB, 1,128,999 and 1,554 persons were arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA) during 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively. The NCRB is yet to publish the crime report for 2018.


• More than 35% of the cases registered under the stringent UAPA in 2017 were recorded in Manipur. The State registered 330 cases in 2017 in which 352 persons were arrested.


• Though U.P. has recorded only 12% of the cases, it topped the States in the number of arrests made.

• Under the UAPA, the investigating agency can file a charge sheet in maximum 180 days after the arrests and the duration can be extended further after


• intimating the court. The anti-terror Act has the death penalty and life imprisonment as maximum punishment.


• According to rules, the competent authority in the Home Ministry or the State government has to give sanction to file a charge sheet in seven days after being approached by the investigating agency.

Context: Manipur Chief Minister, N. Biren Singh inaugurated the Manipur Sangai Festival 2019.

• Every year the State of Manipur celebrates the “Manipur Sangai Festival” from 21st to 30th November.


• The ‘Festival’ is named after the State animal, Sangai, the brow-antlered deer found only in Manipur.


• It started in the year 2010.


• Every edition of the festival showcases the tourism potential of the state in the field of Arts & Culture, Handloom, Handicrafts, Indigenous Sports, Cuisine and Music of the state etc.

Context: The central government extended the ban on the Assam-based insurgent group National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 by five more years for its involvement in violent activities and for joining hands with anti-India forces.

• Bodos are the single largest tribal community in Assam, making up over 5-6 percent of the state’s population. They have controlled large parts of Assam in the past.


• The Bodo Accord was signed in 2003 which resulted in the establishment of a Bodoland Territorial Council under Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India.


• The four districts in Assam — Kokrajhar, Baksa, Udalguri, and Chirang — that constitute the Bodo Territorial Area District (BTAD), are home to several ethnic groups.


• The Bodos have had a long history of separatist demands, marked by armed struggle. In December 2014, separatists killed more than 30 people in Kokrajhar and Sonitpur. In the 2012 Bodo-Muslim riots, hundreds were killed and almost 5 lakh were displaced.

Context: To revoke President’s Rule in Maharashtra, the Government has used a special Section in the Union government’s Transaction of Business Rules, which allows for revocation of President’s Rule without Cabinet approval if the Prime Minister “deems it necessary”.

• Rule 12 of the Government of India (Transaction of Business) Rules, 1961, allows the Prime Minister to depart from laid down norms at his discretion.


• Titled “Departure from Rules”, Rule 12 says, “The Prime Minister may, in case or classes of cases permit or condone a departure from these rules, to the extent he deems necessary.”


• The Cabinet can subsequently give post-facto approval for any decision taken under Rule 12.


• Rule 12 is usually not used to arrive at major decisions by the government. However, it has been used in matters such as withdrawal of an office memorandum or signing of MoUs in the past.

Context: During the Winter Session of Parliament, the Ministry of Power released data on India’s per capita consumption of electricity.

• India’s per capita consumption of electricity is 1,181 kWh as of 2018-19.


• The highest per capita consumption in 2018-19 is in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, at 15,179 kWh. The Union Territory is followed by the states of Gujarat (2,378), Goa (2,274), Haryana (2,082) and Punjab (2,046).


• The state with the lowest per capita consumption of electricity in Bihar, at 311 kWh, followed by the North-eastern states of Assam (341), Nagaland (356), Manipur (371) and Tripura (514).


• The 5,251 previously un-electrified households in villages were electrified between 2017-18 and 2028-19 under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana scheme. Arunachal Pradesh accounts for the highest number of such households at 1,134, followed by Odisha (925), Jharkhand (729), Bihar (596) and Assam (572).


• As of April 28, 2018, all inhabited Census villages stand electrified, with the exception of seven states where over 19 lakh households were unwilling to be electrified earlier. These households are now willing to get electricity connections.

Context: The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, in association with the North Eastern States is organising the 8th “International Tourism Mart” (ITM) at Imphal, Manipur from 23 November to 25 November 2019.

• This is the 8th International Tourism Mart (ITM) and an annual event organised in the North-Eastern region with the objective of highlighting the tourism potential of the region in the domestic and international markets.


• It brings together the tourism business fraternity and entrepreneurs from the 8 North Eastern States. The event has been planned to facilitate interaction between buyers, sellers, media, Government agencies and other stakeholders.


• The ITMs are organised in the North Eastern States on rotation basis. Manipur is hosting this mart for the second time. The earlier editions of this mart have been held in Guwahati, Tawang, Shillong, Gangtok, Agartala.

Context: In a major policy reversal, South Korea has decided to continue a 2016 military intelligence-sharing agreement with Japan that it previously said it would terminate amid ongoing tensions over wartime history and trade.

• Previously, South Korea had decided to discontinue the intelligence pact called the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) by November 22, unless Japan decided to review its export control measures.


• The idea to exchange intelligence between Japan and South Korea under GSOMIA was felt amidst a growing threat from North Korea, especially when it started conducting nuclear tests and developing ballistic missiles. The agreement was eventually signed in November 2016.


• In recent years, the relationship between South Korea and Japan has deteriorated, given the territorial dispute over the Dokdo islands — known as Takeshima in Japan. While South Korea controls them, the islands are claimed by Japan.

Context: India’s first largest biotechnology conference - the Global Bio-India (GBI) Summit, 2019 concluded in New Delhi.

• Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) is a not-forprofit Section 8, Schedule B, Public Sector Enterprise, set up by Department of Biotechnology (DBT).


• It has been set up as an Interface Agency to empower the emerging Biotech enterprise to undertake strategic research and innovation.

• The three-day event was organized by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India along with Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC).


• The Department plans to turn the GBI into an annual event with support from all stakeholders.


• The Summit provided an opportunity to showcase the potential of India’s biotech sector to the international community, identify, create opportunities and deliberate on the key challenges in the areas of Bio-pharma, Bio-Agri, Bio-Industrial, Bio-Energy, and Bio-Services, and allied sectors.

Context: The Home Minister Amit Shah’s announcement in the Rajya Sabha that a National Register of Citizens (NRC) will be implemented across India, and repeated again in Assam, has ignited interest in the existing legal framework in India for illegal migrants.

• The first enactment made for dealing with foreigners was the Foreigners Act, 1864, which provided for the expulsion of foreigners and their arrest, detention pending removal, and for a ban on their entry into India after removal.


• The Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920, empowered the government to make rules requiring persons entering India to be in possession of passports. This rule also granted the government the power to remove from India any person who entered without a passport.


• The Foreigners Act, 1946 empowers the government to make provisions for regulating the entry of foreigners into India. Its most important provision is that the ‘burden of proof’ lies with the person, and not with the authorities. This has been upheld by a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court.


• The Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964 empowers district magistrates in all States and Union Territories to set up tribunals to decide whether a person staying illegally in India is a foreigner or not.


• The Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983 was introduced for the detection and deportation of illegal migrants who had entered India on or after March 25, 1971.


• One factor for its failure was that it did not contain any provision on the ‘burden of proof’ similar to the Foreigners Act, 1946.


• In 2005, the Supreme Court not only quashed the IMDT Act but also closed all tribunals in Assam functioning under the Act. It, then, transferred all pending cases at the IMDT tribunals to the Foreigners Tribunals constituted under the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964.

Context: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) constituted a three-member panel to advise the Administrator of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL) ahead of formally moving for resolution of the troubled mortgage lender under the insolvency law.

• Rajiv Lall, Non-Executive Chairman, IDFC First Bank Ltd


• N S Kannan, Managing Director and CEO, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd


• NS Venkatesh, Chief Executive, Association of Mutual Funds in India

• Recently, RBI superseded DHFL's board and placed the company under an administrator in the wake of governance issues and severe liquidity crisis which had led to a string of defaults.


• Now, RBI, in the exercise of powers conferred under section 45 IE 5(a) of the RBI Act 1934, constituted a three-member Advisory Committee to assist the Administrator of DHFL in discharge of his duties.


• The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Rules, 2019 have a provision for the financial sector regulator concerned to appoint a committee to advise the administrator in the operations of the financial service provider during the corporate insolvency resolution process.

Context: According to a new report by Nomura Global Market Research, India is ranked 44 out of 110 countries in Nomura's Food Vulnerability Index (NFVI).

• Nomura is an Asia-headquartered financial services group with an integrated global network spanning over 30 countries.

• Nomura’s Food Vulnerability Index (NFVI) ranks countries on the basis of their exposure to large swings in food prices.


• The 50 countries most vulnerable to food price surges in the coming months largely belong to the Emerging Market group. The top 50 together account for almost 60 percent of the global population.


• India has been ranked 44 out of 110 countries; a higher rank is worse.


• At 4.6%, India’s retail inflation for October touched a 16-month high because of the jump in food prices. Food inflation grew by almost 8% – almost double the rate of overall retail inflation. Key items that contributed to this rise were pulses (inflation rate 12%) and vegetables (inflation rate 26%) and fish and meat (inflation rate 10%).


• Nomura is an Asia-headquartered financial services group with an integrated global network spanning over 30 countries.


• NFVI has three components:

1. country’s GDP per person.
2. the share of food in household consumption.
3. the net food imports.


• Typically, lower per capita GDP, higher share of food in household consumption and high net food imports would make a country more vulnerable to spikes in food prices.

Context: In Madhya Pradesh, the four-day Aalmi Tablighi Ijtima, the world's biggest Islamic Congregation began in Bhopal. More than one million people from 54 countries are expected to attend the congregation which will continue till 25th November.

• Alami Tablighi Ijtima is a forum for delivering some important religious-spiritual messages to Muslims around the world. Scholars speak on a variety of subjects including the Islamic way of life and the Six Principles.


• One of the most prominent features of Alami Tablighi Ijtima is that it has no political affiliation.


• Ijtima started in the era of Nawabs in Bhopal. The first Alami Tablighi Ijtima took place in Bhopal in 1944 and only 14 people attended it then. Now the number has increased to millions.


• Thousands of people from various countries across the world including Russia, France, Indonesia, Malaysia, Iraq and Saudi Arabia have reached Bhopal to participate in this event.

Context: Ministry of Tourism provided data on Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in India in 2018 to Parliament.

• Bangladesh, the United States, and the United Kingdom were the top three countries from where foreign tourists arrived in India in 2018


• Among individual states, Tamil Nadu saw the most visits by foreign tourists in 2018 — over 60 lakh in that year. Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh followed, with over 50 lakh and 37 lakh visits respectively.


• There is a consistent increase in overall foreign tourist arrivals as well as foreign exchange earnings over the years 2016, 2017, and 2018.

Context: The Union Cabinet has approved the proposal for adoption of Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) program by the Indian Patent Office (IPO) under the Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks, India (CGPDTM) with patent offices of various other interest countries or regions.

• Reduction in time to dispose patent applications.


• Reduction in pendency of patent applications.


• Improvement in quality of search and examination of patent applications.


• The ambit of the program may be extended in the future, as decided by the Commerce & Industry Minister. The patent offices will frame their own guidelines for implementation of the program.

• The Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) is a set of initiatives for providing accelerated patent prosecution procedures by sharing information between some patent offices.


• The said program will initially commence between Japan Patent Office (JPO) and Indian Patent Office on a pilot basis for a period of three years only.


• Under this Pilot program, Indian Patent Office may receive patent applications in certain specified technical fields only, namely, Electrical, Electronics, Computer Science, Textiles, Automobiles and Metallurgy while JPO may receive applications in all fields of technology.

Context: The Union Cabinet has approved the extension/renewal of Pharmaceuticals Purchase Policy (PPP) with the same terms and conditions while adding one additional product namely, Alcoholic Hand Disinfectant (AHD) to the existing list of 103 medicines till the final closure/strategic disinvestment of the pharmaceutical PSUs.

• Pharmaceuticals Purchase Policy (PPP) was approved by the Cabinet in 2013 for a period of five years in respect of 103 medicines manufactured by pharma CPSUs and their subsidiaries.


• The policy is applicable to purchases by Central/ State Government departments and their Public Sector Undertakings etc.


• The pricing of the products is done by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA).


• The procuring entity can purchase from Pharma CPSUs and their subsidiaries subject to their meeting Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) norms as per Schedule ‘M’ of the Drugs & Cosmetic Rules.

Context: Union Finance Minister informed Lok Sabha that the transfer of surplus reserves from the RBI to the government in the future would depend on net income and other financial parameters of the RBI besides the recommendations of the expert committee on excess capital.

• The surplus distribution policy of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is determined in accordance with Section 47 of the RBI Act, 1934.
  
• Section 47 says that “after making provision for bad and doubtful debts, depreciation in assets, contributions to staff and superannuation funds and for all other matters for which provision is to be made by or under this Act or which are usually provided for by bankers, the balance of the profits shall be paid to the central government".


• The quantum of surplus transfer to the government in the coming years would depend on RBI’s net income, ‘required realised equity’ as a % of RBI’s balance sheet and ‘available realised equity’ as a % of RBI’s balance sheet in the coming years, and shall be governed by the legal provisions of the RBI Act, 1934 read with the recommendations of the committee as accepted by RBI.

Context: The Supreme Court said the armed forces should consider granting permanent commission to women officers who joined forces under the Short Service Commission (SSC) before March 2019.

• All branches in the Indian Air Force, including fighter pilots, are already opened for women officers.


• In the Navy, SSC has been applicable in all non-sea going branches. In the Naval Armament branch, women officers under SSC is eligible for a grant of permanent commission.

• The Army had notified permanent commission to women officers, who join the forces under SSC, after March 2019.


• The Supreme Court has now asked the Centre to grant permanent commission to women officers with retrospective effect, i.e. to those serving under SSC before March 2019.


• In the absence of implementation of policy in the retrospective effect, women officers working for several years in the armed forces are unlikely to reap the benefits.


• The government had already rolled out a policy in February 2019 granting permanent commission in ten branches of Army - Judge Advocate General, Army Education Corps, Signals, Engineers, Army Aviation, Army Air Defence, Electronics and Mechanical Engineers, Army Service Corps, Army Ordnance Corps, and Intelligence.

Context: The Union Cabinet approved the establishment of the National Institute for Sowa-Rigpa in Leh, Union Territory of Ladakh.

• Sowa-Rigpa is a Traditional Medical system of the Himalayan belt in India. It has been popularly practiced in Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Darjeeling (West Bengal), Himachal Pradesh and Union Territory of Ladakh.

• The setting up of the National Institute of Sowa-Rigpa would provide an impetus for the revival of Sowa-Rigpa in the Indian Sub-continent. The Institute will also provide opportunities for students of Sowa-Rigpa not only in India but also from other countries.


• The Institute will be an autonomous National Institute under the Ministry of AYUSH with the mandate to undertake interdisciplinary education and research programs in Sowa-Rigpa in collaboration with premier national and international Institutes.


• After setting up of NISR, the synergy among the existing Sowa Rigpa Institutions – Central University of Tibetan Studies at Sarnath, Varanasi and Central Institute of Buddhist Studies, Leh, Union Territory of Ladakh – which are under the administrative control of Ministry of Culture and NISR will be established

Context: According to the latest edition of IMD World Talent Ranking, India has slipped 6 places to 59 rank on the global annual list of 63 countries.

• International Institute for Management Development (IMD) is a business education school located in Lausanne, Switzerland.


• The ranking is based on the performance in three main categories -- investment and development, appeal and readiness.

• The list was topped by Switzerland. Denmark was placed second and Sweden was in third place.


• India has slipped 6 places to 59 ranks on the global annual list of 63 countries. India is also lagging behind fellow BRICs countries - China ranked 42nd on the list, Russia (47th) and South Africa (50th).


• India also witnessed one of the sharpest declines among Asian economies owing to a low quality of life, the negative impact of brain drain, and the low priority of its economy on attracting and retaining talents.


• In Asia, Singapore rose from 13th to 10th position compared to last year, Hong Kong SAR from 18th to 15th, and Taiwan from 27th to 20th.

Context: Union Minister for Health Dr. Harsh Vardhan inaugurated the ‘2019 World Conference on Access to Medical Products: Achieving the SDGs 2030.’

• The World Health Assembly recently adopted resolution WHA 72.8 ‘Improving the transparency of markets for medicines, vaccines, and other health products’.

• The 2019 World Conference on Access to Medical Products- Achieving the SDGs 2030 will be convened from 19-21 November 2019 in New Delhi.


• It is being jointly organized by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) and the World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR); Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC); and Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI).


• The Conference is a follow on from the “2017 and 2018 World Conference on Access to Medical Products” organized in November 2017 and October 2018 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.


• Objectives of the conference are to explore new approaches in the innovation landscape in medical products for achieving Universal Health Coverage and the SDG 2030 goals and Discuss the role of intellectual property to promote access to medical products.

Context: Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial (Amendment) Bill, 2019 has been passed by the Parliament after it was passed in Rajya Sabha. The Bill was earlier passed in Lok Sabha in August 2019.

• It seeks to make apolitical the trust that runs Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial by removing the clause pertaining to the President of Congress Party as a permanent member of the trust.


• The Bill also amends to include the Leader of Opposition recognized as such in the House of the People (Lok Sabha) or where there is no such Leader of Opposition, then the Leader of the single largest Opposition Party in that House as a member of the trust.


• The Bill also amends that a nominated trustee may be terminated before the expiry of the period of five years by the Central Government, without assigning any reason.

• The Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Act, 1951 was enacted to provide for the erection and management of a National Memorial to perpetuate the memory of those killed or wounded on the 13th day of April 1919, in Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar.


• The Act provides for a Trust for the erection and management of the Memorial and also provided for composition of the Trust with certain Trustees for life

Context: The Landmark 250th session of Rajya Sabha began. On this occasion, Chairman Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu released a publication, titled “Rajya Sabha: The Journey since 1952” providing glimpses of various aspects of the functioning of the House.

• First sitting of the House was held on 13.5.1952


• First Bill passed: The Indian Tariff (Second Amendment) Bill, 1952


• First Bill concerning social change: The Special Marriages Bill, 1952


• First Constitution Amendment Bill passed by Rajya Sabha: The Constitution (Second Amendment) Bill, 1953 for readjustment of representation in Lok Sabha by increasing the size of population per constituency.


• First on the reorganization of States: The Andhra State Bill, 1953

• Members: Mahendra Prasad is serving the highest number of 7th term followed by Dr.Manmohan Singh serving the 6th term.


• The representation of women in Rajya Sabha increased from 15 (6.94%) in 1952 increased to 31(12.76%) in 2014 and is now 26(10.83%) in 2019.


• The first and the only time when a Presiding Officer of Rajya Sabha cast his vote was in 1991 when the Panel Chairman Shri M.A.Baby did so when the voting was tied on the Statutory Resolution moved by the opposition seeking disapproval of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Ordinance resulting in the victory of the opposition in the House.


• President Rule approved only by Rajya Sabha: It happened only twice in respect of extension of President Rule in Tamil Nadu and Nagaland in 1977 and in the case of Haryana in 1991 when Lok Sabha was dissolved.


• Bill passed by Rajya Sabha but negative by Lok Sabha: The Constitution (Sixty-fourth Amendment) Bill, 1990 seeking to amend Article 356 relating to the extension of President’s Rule in Punjab.

Context: The report of the Company Law Committee-2019 was presented to the Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs by Injeti Srinivas, Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, who chaired the Committee.

• The Committee was constituted by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in September 2019 to further decriminalize the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 based on their gravity and to take other concomitant measures to provide further Ease of Living for corporates in the country.


• The Committee has proposed amendments in 46 penal provisions, so as to either remove criminality, or to restrict the punishment to only fine, or to allow rectification of defaults through alternative methods, which would lead to de-clogging of the criminal justice system.

• Re-categorising 23 offenses out of the 66 remaining compoundable offenses under the Act, to be dealt with in the in-house adjudication framework wherein these defaults would be subject to a penalty levied by an adjudicating officer.


• In addition, the quantum of penalties recommended is lower than the quantum of fines presently provided in the Act.


• Retention of status-quo in case of the non-compoundable offenses.


• Proposing benches of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal.


• Extending applicability of Section 446B (lower penalties for small companies and one-person companies) to all provisions which attract monetary penalties and extending the benefit to producer companies and start-ups also.


• Providing power to enhance the thresholds which trigger the applicability of Corporate Social Responsibility provisions.


• Providing for an appeal against the orders of the Regional Directors before the NCLT after due examination.


• Exempting certain private placement requirements for Qualified Institutional Placements (QIPs) after due consultation with SEBI.

Context: According to data obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, PMMVY scheme benefitted just 31% eligible mothers.

• The PMMVY is targeted only at women delivering their first child. A cash amount of ₹6,000 is transferred to the bank account of the beneficiary in three instalments upon meeting certain conditions including early registration of pregnancy, having at least one ante-natal check-up and registration of child birth.

• Almost 61% of beneficiaries registered under the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) between April 2018 and July 2019 (38.3 lakh out of the total 62.8 lakh enrolled) received the full amount of ₹6,000 promised under the scheme.


• However, the researchers assert that since the scheme failed to reach at least 49% of all mothers who would have delivered their first child (an estimated total of 123 lakh for 2017 according to the researchers), the scheme was able to benefit only 31% of its intended beneficiaries.

Context: The World Health Organization (WHO) launched the first-ever insulin prequalification program to expand access to life-saving treatment for diabetes.

• The WHO Prequalification of Medicines Programme contributes to increasing access to critical medical products in low- and middle-income countries.


• The program does this by evaluating medical products developed by manufacturers to ensure their quality, in turn expanding the pool of available quality medicines.


• Evaluating and prequalifying health products then guides international procurement agencies, such as the Global Fund, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and UNICEF, and increasingly countries to make bulk purchases of medicines vaccines at lower prices.

• The decision is part of a series of steps WHO will take to address the growing diabetes burden in all regions. WHO prequalification of insulin is expected to boost access by increasing the flow of quality-assured products on the international market.


• About 65 million people with type 2 diabetes need insulin, but only half of them are able to access it, largely due to high prices. All people with type 1 diabetes need insulin to survive.


• Insulin was discovered as a treatment for diabetes almost 100 years ago and has been on WHO’s List of Essential Medicines since it was published in 1977.

Context: According to some scientists, the universe contains not just black holes but many exotic objects, such as gravastars and boson stars which are black hole mimickers.

• A gravastar is an object hypothesized in astrophysics as an alternative to the black hole theory by Pawel O. Mazur and Emil Mottola. There is no observational evidence for their existence to date.


• The term "gravastar" is a portmanteau of the words "gravitational vacuum star".


• A gravastar is a hypothetical star-ish astronomical body that’s basically composed of a ball of exotic matter, thought to be much like dark energy, with a shell of normal star matter surrounding it on all sides.


• The exotic core in this hybrid body would prevent the collapse of the normal matter into a traditional black hole, essentially keeping the whole thing inflated.


• From the outside, it would look quite similar to a black hole, but gravastars do not have an event horizon, so photons can technically get stuck in a near-infinite orbit around the outside called a “light ring.”

Context: Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah launched the first Winter-Grade Diesel outlet for the Ladakh region, which will help to address the problem faced by people due to loss of fluidity in Diesel fuel during extreme winter conditions.

• The winter grade diesel is produced by Panipat Refinery of State-run Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC)


• It has a pour point of – 33 degrees Celsius. It does not lose its fluidity function even in the extreme winter weather of the region unlike the normal grade of Diesel which becomes exceedingly difficult to utilize.


• This Winter-Grade Diesel will not only smoothen the travel and transportation during the peak tourist season in extreme cold but will also help in giving a boost to the tourism and supply needs of the people of the region and helping in the overall economic development.

Context: Bengaluru’s Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath (CKP) recently released the book, Splendours of Ganjifa Art, containing 12 chapters by well-known Ganjifa artists, scholars and historians to document the fading form. This book is considered the first comprehensive and detailed documentation of the art form with contributions from practicing artists and art scholars.

• Ganjifa, an ancient card game, is believed to have been brought to India during the Mughal period.


• The Persian word, Ganjifeh, means playing cards.


• These cards, mainly circular (there were some square decks too), were used by kings and noblemen across the country.


• Typically Ganjifa cards have colored backgrounds traditionally hand-painted by artisans, with each suite having a different color.


• The colors and iconography differed across regions. Some of the variants are Moghul Ganjifa (Odisha), Dashavatara Ganjifa (Sawantwadi in Maharashtra), Mysore Chad Ganjifa, Ramayan Ganjifa, Akbar's Ganjifa, etc.

Context: Union Minister of Consumer Affairs released the Water Quality Report for State Capitals & Delhi as analyzed by the Bureau of India Standards (BIS).

• A vast majority of the samples have failed to comply with the requirements of IS 10500:2012 in one or more parameters.


• In Delhi, all the 11 samples drawn from various places did not comply with the requirements of the Indian Standard & failed on several parameters.


• All the 10 samples drawn from Mumbai were found to comply with the requirements.


• In the cities of Hyderabad, Bhubaneshwar, Ranchi, Raipur, Amravati and Shimla, one or more samples did not comply with the requirements of the Standard.


• None of the samples drawn from 13 of the State Capitals i.e. Chandigarh, Thiruvananthapuram, Patna, Bhopal, Guwahati, Bengaluru, Gandhinagar, Lucknow, Jammu, Jaipur, Dehradun, Chennai, Kolkata complied with the requirements of the Indian Standard.

• The study was conducted as per directions of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs to check the quality of piped drinking water being supplied in the country in keeping with the objectives of the Jal Jeevan Mission.


• The Jal Jeevan Mission announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi aims to provide tap water to all households by 2024.


• The Union Government wants to make BIS Standards mandatory for Tap Water so as to ensure quality drinking water for all households.


• The samples of drinking water were tested as per Indian Standard 10500:2012 (Specification for Drinking Water) as set by the Bureau of India Standards (BIS).


• Tests were conducted on various parameters such as Organoleptic and Physical Tests, Chemical test, Toxic substances and Bacteriological tests.

Context: The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has notified the Insolvency and Bankruptcy (Insolvency and Liquidation Proceedings of Financial Service Providers and Application to Adjudicating Authority) Rules, 2019 (Rules).

• The rules have been notified to provide a generic framework for insolvency and liquidation proceedings of systemically important Financial Service Providers (FSPs) other than banks.


• The rules were issued under Section 227 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, which allows the Central government to notify FSPs or categories of FSPs for the purpose of insolvency and liquidation proceedings.


• The Rules provide that the provisions of the Code relating to the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP), Liquidation Process and Voluntary Liquidation Process for a corporate debtor shall, mutatis mutandis, apply to a process for an FSP, subject to modifications.


• The move to include FSPs comes against the backdrop of the crisis confronting the non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) sector.

Context: Union Environment Ministry said that Roadside air purifiers (WAYU) have failed to address air pollution at traffic intersections and dense traffic zones in Delhi.

• Along with WAYU, former Environment Minister Dr. Vardhan had, last December, also launched Pariyayantra in Delhi. These were a fleet of 30 buses with air filter units mounted on the roof.


• As the vehicle moves, air passes through the holes in front of the device. The filters inside the unit trap the pollutants. What comes out is clean air.

• The National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), a Nagpur-based laboratory of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), had developed WAYU to address air pollution at traffic intersections and dense traffic zones.


• Prototypes of the device had been installed at the ITO Junction and Mukarba Chowk in north Delhi. Minister for Science and Technology Dr. Harsh Vardhan unveiled the prototypes in September 2018.


• It comprises a fan that sucks in air and sieves out dust and particulate matter using three filters of varying sizes. The air then moves into another chamber where carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons are oxidised into the less harmful carbon dioxide using activated carbon coated with titanium dioxide. The purified air is then released back into the atmosphere.


• Developers of WAYU claimed that the devices could reduce PM10 values from 600 micrograms per cubic metre (ug/m3) to 100 ug/m3; and PM2.5 values from 300 ug/m3 to 60 ug/m3 in 30 minutes.

Context: RBI released guidelines on the criteria for registering institutions ‘on tap’ for grant of financial assistance from the Depositor Education and Awareness Fund.

• Section 26A in the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 empowers the RBI to establish Depositor Education and Awareness Fund (DEA Fund).


• Accordingly, a Scheme was formulated and notified in the Official Gazette In 2014. The Scheme envisages registration of institutions and grant of financial assistance to them for promotion of depositors’ awareness.


• With a view to widening and deepening depositor awareness efforts, it has now been decided to invite applications ‘on tap’ for registration of eligible entities.

Context: In a fitting tribute to the farthest flyby ever conducted by spacecraft, the Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69 has been officially named Arrokoth, a Native American term meaning “sky” in the Powhatan/Algonquian language.

• NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft – launched in January 2006 – sped past the object in January this year. It is the most primitive and distant object to have been encountered by a spacecraft.

• About 6.6 billion km from Earth in the Kuiper Belt beyond the orbit of Neptune, a rock moves in slow orbit around the Sun, once every 297 years. Its odd shape consists of two lobes, respectively measuring 21 km and 15 km across, which create an appearance of a doughnut.


• Provisionally named 2014 MU69 based on the year of its discovery, it was given the nickname ‘Ultima Thule’ last year following public suggestions made to NASA.


• Now, it has got an official name — Arrokoth. Arrokoth is the term for “sky” in the Native American languages Powhatan and Algonquian.


• NASA proposed the name to the International Astronomical Union and Minor Planets Centre, the authority responsible for naming objects that lie in the Kuiper Belt. The Belt consists of a mass of icy objects that include Pluto, the dwarf planet.

Context: Tobacco Board of India has been awarded the Golden Leaf Award in the Most Impressive Public Service Initiative category for the year 2019, for its efforts to initiate various sustainability (green) initiatives in FlueCured Virginia (FCV) tobacco cultivation in India.

• The Golden Leaf Awards were created to recognize professional excellence and dedication in the tobacco industry by Tobacco Reporter, an international magazine in the year 2006.


• Awards are granted on an annual basis to companies that have achieved outstanding performance in five categories - most impressive public service initiative, most promising new product introduction, most exciting newcomer to the industry, most outstanding service to the industry and the BMJ most committed to quality award.

• Tobacco Board is a statutory body established under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.


• It is headquartered in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh.


• The main functions of the Board include regulating the production and curing of Virginia tobacco in India, improving the yields and quality of tobacco, facilitating the sale of tobacco through e-auctions, undertaking various grower welfare measures and export promotion of tobacco.

Context: The ninth edition of the International Diabetes Foundation (IDF) Diabetes Atlas was released on the occasion of International Diabetes Day.

• India continues to be home to the second-largest number of adults with diabetes worldwide, with 77 million adults with diabetes in the 20-79 years age group. This follows China, which has 116 million adults with diabetes in the same age profile.


• The worldwide prevalence of diabetes was estimated at 463 million in this age group, or in other words, one in 11 adults.


• India was the largest contributor to diabetes mortality with more than 1 million estimated deaths attributable to diabetes and related complications, in the larger South East Asian region.


• The number of people with diabetes is predicted to rise to 578 million by 2030 and to 700 million by 2045.


• 374 million adults have impaired glucose tolerance, placing them at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes.


• Diabetes was responsible for an estimated $760 billion in health expenditure in 2019.


• Diabetes is among the top 10 causes of death, with people under the age of 60 accounting for almost half the deaths.


• One in six live births is affected by hyperglycemia in pregnancy.

• World diabetes day celebrated on November 14. It is because the day marks the birth anniversary of scientists and Nobel laureate Frederick Banting who discovered insulin (in 1922).


• The objective is to create awareness about the effects of diabetes globally.


• It was started in 1991 by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). The day became an official United Nations Day in 2006.

Context: Supreme Court (SC), in a 3:2 ruling has deferred its decision on review of 2018 Sabarimala verdict until a larger Bench examines broader issues such as essentiality of religious practices and constitutional morality.

• Supreme Court said that restrictions on women in religious places was not limited to Sabarimala alone and was prevalent in other religions as well.


• Supreme Court, by a majority of 3:2, has referred the review petitions to a larger seven judge bench. The Apex Court said, the larger bench will decide all such religious issues relating to Sabarimala, entry of women in mosques and practice of female genital mutilation in the Dawoodi Bohra community.

• The Sabarimala temple is a temple complex located at Sabarimala inside the Periyar Tiger Reserve in Pathanamthitta district, Kerala


• The temple is dedicated to the Hindu celibate deity Ayyappan also known as Dharma Sastha, who according to belief is the son of Shiva and Mohini, the feminine incarnation of Vishnu.


• The apex court, by a majority verdict of 4:1, in September 2018, had lifted the ban that prevented women and girls between the age of 10 and 50 from entering the famous Ayyappa shrine in Kerala. It had also held that this centuries-old Hindu religious practice was illegal and unconstitutional.

Context: The Supreme Court held that office of Chief Justice of India is a public authority under Right to Information (RTI) Act.

• A five-judge Constitution Bench pronounced its verdict after listening to a petition filed against a 2010 Judgement of the Delhi High Court. The High Court in its order had declared the CJI's office a public authority and said that it should come under the RTI Act.


• The bench also said that only the names of judges recommended by the Collegium for the appointment can be disclosed, not the reasons.


• It said that the Right to Privacy is an important aspect and it has to be balanced with transparency while deciding to give out information from the office of the Chief Justice.


• The outcome is that the office of the CJI will now entertain RTI applications.


• While the office of the CJI is now under the RTI’s ambit, the CBI is exempt.

Context: A report released by Lokniti-CSDS and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung has looked at women and political participation from multiple perspectives.

• Socio-economic class also determines women’s participation in electoral activities. Women belonging to the upper social (castes) and upper economic classes were found to be more active in electoral politics as compared to women placed at the bottom of the social and economic hierarchy.


• Women’s participation as voters has seen a sharp increase over the years.


• Although the number of women candidates has increased, there still exists a wide gap. Only a little over one-fourth of the women respondents were keen to make a career in politics if given an opportunity.


• Half of the women respondents agreed that parties always prefer a male candidate while giving tickets. Only one-seventh of respondents disagreed and one in 10 had no opinion.


• Patriarchal norms/structure of the society were the biggest obstacles that prevented women from taking part in politics.

Context: The 6th World Congress on Rural and Agricultural Finance was recently held in New Delhi.

• The 6th World Congress is being jointly hosted by Asia-Pacific Rural and Agricultural Credit Association (APRACA), National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India.


• This 6th version of the congress was attended by 300 delegates across the globe who engaged in interactive discussions to unleash the potential role of rural and agricultural finance.

• APRACA, representing 81-member institutions from 21 countries, is a regional association that promotes cooperation and facilitates mutual exchange of information and expertise in the field of rural finance.


• Secretariat in Bangkok, Thailand.


• APRACA is one of the three regional agricultural credit associations, along with NENARACA (Near East – North Africa Agricultural Credit Association) and AFRACA (African Rural and Agricultural Credit Association) that were established, with the help of FAO, following the 1975 World Conference on Agricultural Credit.

Context: The 10th Pneumonia and Diarrhoea Progress Report was released by the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

• Additional reports from organizations like Save the Children and UNICEF have noted that, in 2017, the highest risk factors for child pneumonia death in India were: 53% caused by child wasting, 27% by outdoor air pollution, and 22% caused by indoor air pollution from solid fuels.

• This report analyses how effectively countries are delivering 10 key interventions, including breastfeeding, vaccination, access to care, use of antibiotics, ORS, and zinc supplementation.


• Globally, pneumonia and diarrhea led to nearly one of every four deaths in children under five years of age in 2017.


• Health systems are falling short of ensuring the world’s most vulnerable children access to prevention and treatment services in the 23 countries that together account for 75% of global pneumonia and diarrhoea deaths in children under five.


• India accounts for a major portion of these deaths. Only half of the Indian children with diarrhoea receive ORS (oral rehydration solution) and 20% receive zinc supplementation — to help protect against, prevent and treat pneumonia and diarrhea.

Context: The Department-related Standing Committee on Science headed by Jairam Ramesh has expressed serious concern over the rising number of cancer patients in the country. The report was presented to Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu.

• It suggested setting up of a High-Level Steering Committee to work out modalities for rolling out of a Hub and Spoke Model in a time-bound manner. This approach — already in practice in Punjab — has a network of centers, or hubs, capable of treating complex forms of cancer.


• It urged the government to expand and upgrade cancer treatment infrastructure for affordable and quality care by enlarging the network of the Mumbai-based Tata Memorial Centre (TMC).

• The incidence, or the number of newly diagnosed cases of cancer annually, is about 16 lakh. The disease kills 8 lakh people annually. Among these are 140,000 fresh cases of breast cancer, 100,000 cervical cancer cases, and 45,000 cases of oral cancer among women.


• Among men, the top three cancers with the highest incidence are those in the oral cavity (1,38,000 cases), cancer of the pharynx (90,000) and those of the gastrointestinal tract (2,00,000).


• Mortality to incidence ratio of 0.68 in India is higher than that in very high human development index (HDI) countries (0.38) and high HDI countries (0.57).


• The “systematic failure” to address the needs of patients contributes to a 20% higher mortality among Indian cancer patients than in countries with a “high” Human Development Index.


• The incidence of cancer is very high in all North Eastern States, as it is higher than the national average for several types of cancer.

Context: The Union Water Resources Ministry has finalized a committee to draft a new National Water Policy (NWP).

• The committee has 10 principal members. It will be chaired by Mihir Shah, who is a former Planning Commission member and a water expert.


• The committee is expected to produce a report within six months.


• The National Water Policy (NWP) currently in force was drafted in 2012.


• It introduced the concept of an Integrated Water Resources Management approach that took the “river basin/ sub-basin” as a unit for planning, development and management of water resources.


• It also proposed that a portion of river flows ought to be kept aside to meet ecological needs.


• That policy also stressed for a minimum quantity of potable water for essential health and hygiene to all its citizens to be made available within easy reach of households.

Context: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has condoled the demise of T N Seshan.

• Tirunellai Narayana Iyer Seshan (1932 – 2019) was an Indian civil servant who served with the Indian Administrative Service.


• He served as the 18th Cabinet Secretary of India in 1989 and later served as a member of the Planning Commission.


• He was appointed the 10th Chief Election Commissioner of India (1990–96) and became known for election reforms. Some of the reforms he implemented include enforcement of election code of conduct, Voter IDs for all eligible voters, a limit on election candidates' expenditure, appointing election officials from states other than the one facing polls.


• He won the Ramon Magsaysay Award for government service in 1996.

Context: Gujarat Government has given its nod to the world’s first CNG port terminal at Bhavnagar.

• The proposed CNG port terminal will have an annual capacity of 6 million metric tone, which will increase the total handling capacity of the port to 9 million metric tones.


• The new facility will be developed on the Northern side of present port, under which RoRo terminal, liquid terminal and container terminal will be developed in the future.


• The U.K. based Foresight group and Mumbai based Padmanabh Mafatlal group joint venture will invest Rs.1900 crore to set up a CNG port terminal at Bhavnagar port.


• MoU for this project between the Gujarat government arm Gujarat Maritime Board and London based Foresight Group was signed during the 2019 Vibrant Gujarat summit.

Context: A United States court ruled that a group of American-born tech workers has faced heightened job competitionfrom work authorizations given to the spouses of H-1B visa holders.

• H-1B visa:


• The lottery-based H-1B visas allow US companies to employ foreign workers temporarily in specialized occupations for three years, extendable to six years.


• The issuances are capped at 85,000 a year, but some employers such as universities and research nonprofits are exempt.


• The H-1B visa has long served as a common passage for Indians into the US. Out of the 4,19,637 H-1B applications in 2018, 74% came from India. Most beneficiaries are aged 25-34 and are in fields involving computers.


• H-4 visa:


• Spouses of H-1B workers are granted an H-4 visa, through which some have been allowed to apply to work in the US since a Barack Obama-era 2015 law.


• Since the law was instituted, a total of 1,20,514 H-4 visas have been granted, of which 1,10,649 have come from India.

Context: The new political map of India, recently released by the government to account for the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir, has triggered fresh protests over an old issue in Nepal.

• Nepal’s western boundary with India was marked out in the Treaty of Sugauli between the East India Company and Nepal in 1816. Nepali authorities claim that people living in the low-density area were included in the Census of Nepal until 58 years ago.


• Nepal claims that the late King Mahendra had “handed over the territory to India” in the wake of India-China War of 1962.


• The Prime Ministers of the two countries discussed the issue in 2000, with Atal Bihari Vajpayee assuring Nepal that India would not occupy even an inch of Nepal. Five years ago, the matter was referred to a new mechanism comprising foreign secretaries of both sides.


• Apart from Kalapani, another unresolved issue involves a vast area along the Nepal-Uttar Pradesh border. During his visit to Nepal in 2014, Prime Minister Modi had said that the Susta and Kalapani issues would be sorted out.

• The new political map of India shows Kalapani as part of India.


• Kalapani is a 372-sq km area mapped within Uttarakhand, bordering far-west Nepal and Tibet.


• While the Nepal government and political parties have protested, India has said the new map does not revise the existing boundary with Nepal and accurately depicts the sovereign territory of India.

Context: Interest in pliosaurs has been revived with the recent discovery of their bones in a cornfield in the Polish village of Krzyzanowice. Remains of pliosaurs are rare in Europe.

• Pliosaur were a group of large carnivorous marine reptiles characterized by massive heads, short necks, and streamlined tear-shaped bodies.


• Pliosaurs have been found as fossils from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods (about 200 million to 65.5 million years ago).


• They are classified in the order Plesiosauria, along with their long-necked relatives, the plesiosaurs.


• They were the largest aquatic carnivorous reptiles that have ever lived and are often dubbed “sea monsters”. They measured over 10 metres in length and could weigh up to several dozen tons. They had powerful, large skulls and massive jaws with large, sharp teeth.


• Their limbs were in the form of fins. They used four large fins to swim through Mesozoic seas.

Context: The Ministry of Environment has given Environment Clearance to Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) to set up new 2G Ethanol plant at Panipat.

• IOCL had earlier submitted a proposal seeking Environmental Clearance for its proposed 100 KLPD Ligno-Cellulosic 2G Ethanol Plant in Baholi, Panipat district of Haryana.


• Central Government has identified production and use of ethanol as one the thrust area to reduce import dependency and increase farmers’ income. The Ethanol produced will be used for blending in transportation fuel.


• Recently the Central Government had declared that no separate environmental clearance is required to produce additional ethanol from B-heavy molasses as it does not contribute to the pollution load, giving further benefits to farmers and the sugar industry.

Context: Cyclone Bulbul has intensified into a severe cyclonic storm causing heavy rain in the coastal districts of Odisha and West Bengal.

• Cyclonic Storm Bulbul is an active tropical cyclone which struck the Indian state of West Bengal at Category 2 hurricane-equivalent intensity and is currently a flood and storm surge threat to Bangladesh.


• Originating from the remnants of Severe Tropical Storm Matmo over the southern Bay of Bengal in early November, Bulbul slowly intensified into a Very Severe Cyclonic Storm.


• It is only the fourth tropical cyclone ever recorded to regenerate over the Andaman Sea, having crossed Southeast Asia overland. In addition, it is only the second to make it to hurricane strength, the last being in 1960.

Context: Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship conferred the fourth edition of the National Entrepreneurship Awards 2019 to Enterprises and Ecosystem builders.

• The awards aim to recognize and honor the outstanding young First- Generation Entrepreneurs, and Ecosystem builders for their outstanding contribution in entrepreneurship development and providing support to the entrepreneurs.


• There were three categories of competition for entrepreneurs- A1 category for initial investments up to Rs 1 lakh, A2 category for initial investments between Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 Lakh, and A3 category for initial investment between Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore.


• Various sectors were selected for the awards, and there were 4 special categories including Women Entrepreneur, Entrepreneur from SC/ST Category, Entrepreneur from People with Disability category, Entrepreneur from difficult areas.


• Award Winners received a Trophy, Certificate and a Cash Prize of ₹5 lakh (enterprises/ individuals) and ₹10 lakh (organizations/ institutes).

Context: The Mid Planning Conference (MPC) for MILAN exercise concluded at HQENC Visakhapatnam. The three-day conference was attended by 29 delegates from 17 friendly Foreign Navies.

• MILAN is a series of biennial multilateral naval exercise which commenced in 1995. it is aimed to enhance professional interaction between friendly foreign navies and learn from each other’s strengths and best practices in the maritime domain.


• MILAN 2020 is scheduled to be conducted at Visakhapatnam in March 2020.


• It was conducted at Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC) until last year and is being conducted for the first time on the mainland at Eastern Naval Command (ENC).

Context: The Documentation Identification Number (DIN) system of Central Board of Indirect Taxes (CBIC) will come into existence from 8th November 2019.

• Any communication from GST or Custom or Central Excise department without a computer-generated DIN, would be treated as invalid. No communication would be issued by CBIC without DIN except only if it is in the specified exceptional circumstances.


• To begin with, the DIN would be used for search authorization, summons, arrest memo, inspection notices and letters issued in the course of any inquiry. The DIN system would be extended to other communications by the end of next month.


• The step is to further the Government’s objectives of bringing transparency and accountability in the indirect tax administration also through the widespread use of information technology. It will provide the taxpayer with a digital facility to verify any communications.


• The Government has already executed the DIN system in the direct tax administration.

Context: Two new studies underline that astronomers are still looking for an accurate assessment of the length of a day on Venus and Saturn.

• Obscured by clouds, it does not present a readily visible surface feature, such as a crater, which could have been a reference point for measuring its rotation period.


• In 1963, when radar observations broke through the cloud cover, Venus revealed that it rotates in a direction opposite to that for most planets.


• Studies based on the Magellan spacecraft’s observations concluded that the correct rotation period is 243.0185 days, with an uncertainty of about 9 seconds. Subsequent measurements have, however, given inconsistent values.

• A gas giant, by definition, it has no solid surface features for scientists to track.


• For Jupiter, scientists figured out the rotation period by observing patterns in


• radio signals from there. Saturn has defied such attempts. It emits only low- frequency radio patterns that are blocked by Earth’s atmosphere.


• A new study led by Duane Pontius of Birmingham-Southern College, US, looked at Jupiter. A key difference is that unlike Jupiter, Saturn has a tilted axis and, therefore, seasons like Earth. Thus, the rotation period cannot be determined from the radio signals.

Context: Government e-Marketplace (GeM) signed MoU with the Central Bank of India for Payment Related Services.

• GeM is an online market place that was launched in 2016.


• To ensure that public procurement of goods and services in India (done by government bodies) worth more than Rs. 5 lakh crore annually is carried out through the online platform.


• It has been developed by the Directorate General of Supplies and Disposal (DGS&D) with technical support of the National E-Governance Division (NEGD), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

• GeM eliminates human interface in vendor registration, order placement, and payment processing, to a great extent.


• Direct purchase on GeM can be done in a matter of minutes.


• GeM is a completely secure platform and all the documents on GeM are e- Signed at various stages by the buyers and sellers.


• The transparency, efficiency, and ease of use of the GeM portal has resulted in a substantial reduction in prices on GeM.

• It is an organization under the Ministry of Commerce & Industry. It was established in 1951.


• It is the nodal organization for hosting Government e-Market (GeM).

Context: The Internet And Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) recently released a report, titled ‘India Internet 2019.’

• Kerala’s Internet penetration rate is the second-highest in the country (54%), next only to Delhi NCR with 69% penetration.


• The Internet penetration rate (defined as the number of individuals aged above 12 per 100 population who accessed the Internet in the last month; survey period January-March 2019) was the lowest in Odisha (25), Jharkhand (26) and Bihar (28).


• Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Delhi have the highest proportion of female Internet users.

• Kerala government recently announced that that the Kerala Fibre Optic Network project, pegged at ₹1,548 crore, would provide Internet to every household in the State. For 20 lakh BPL households it will be free. The project is slated for completion by December 2020.

Context: The India Justice Report 2019 was released by the Tata Trusts in collaboration with Centre for Social Justice, Common Cause, and Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, among others.

• Maharashtra has topped the list of 18 large-medium States in the overall justice delivery, followed by Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, and Haryana. In this category, Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are at the bottom. Among seven smaller States, Goa leads the group.


• Even the best performing States scored less than 60% in their performance on capacity across the police, judiciary, prisons, and legal aid.


• The country has about 18,200 judges with about 23% sanctioned posts vacant. Women are poorly represented in these pillars, constituting just 7% of the police.


• Prisons are over-occupied at 114%, where 68% are undertrials awaiting investigation, inquiry or trial.


• Most States are not able to fully utilize the budgets allocated to them by the Centre, while the increase in spending on the police, prisons, and judiciary does not keep pace with the overall increase in State expenditure.


• Some pillars also remain affected by low budgets. For instance, India’s per capita expenditure on free legal aid is 75 paise per annum.

• This is the first-ever ranking of Indian States on justice delivery.


• The report is based on publicly available data from different government entities on the four pillars of justice delivery — police, judiciary, prisons, and legal aid.

Context: The Reserve Bank of India has issued compensation guidelines for whole-time directors and chief executives of foreign, private, small finance, payments banks, and local area banks. The new guidelines will be applicable from the next financial year for pay cycles starting from April 1, 2020.

• A minimum of 50 percent of the salary of a chief executive officer (CEO) must be variable pay that is linked to performance.


• If the variable pay exceeds 200 percent, then 67 percent of the compensation will have to be in the form of non-cash instruments. If the figure is up to 200 percent, then the requirement is 50 percent.


• The total variable pay for bank chiefs is now capped at 300 percent of the fixed salary.


• In case of “subdued or negative financial performance of the bank”, deferred compensation must be subject to malus/clawback arrangements


• The clawback clause will also apply if the provision for non-performing assets or divergence in bad loan classification exceeds the stipulated threshold


• For senior executives including WTDs, at least 60 percent of the total variable pay must be under deferral arrangements.


• Guaranteed bonus should not be a part of the compensation plan and shouldonly be given in the context of joining/sign-on bonus.

Context: The Union Cabinet has given ex-post facto approval for the MoU between India and Bangladesh on withdrawal of 1.82 cusecs of water from Feni River by India for drinking water supply scheme for Sabroom town Tripura, India.

• Feni River is a trans-boundary river that originates in Tripura and flows through Sabroom town and then enters Bangladesh. Muhuri River, also called Little Feni, from Noakhali District, joins it near its mouth.


• As on date, there is no water-sharing agreement on the Feni river between India and Bangladesh. The present supply of drinking water to Sabroom town is inadequate. The groundwater in this region has high iron content.


• Implementation of this scheme would benefit over 7000 population of Sabroom town.

Context: Minister for Human Resource Development (HRD) launched the Shaala Darpan portal for Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti.

• Shaala Darpan is an end to end E-Governance school automation and management system for Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS).


• This single integrated platform has been developed for information sharing and knowledge dissemination for the 22000 employees and over 2 lakh students across schools and offices of Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti. It will bring transparency in Navodaya Vidyalayas.


• The system has several pluggable components that can interact with each other. These are:


• School Information and Management System for complete school automation


• Bilingual Content Management Portal for information dissemination


• Employee ERP to manage the day to day activities of all employees


• Budget & Finance management system


• Inventory & Store management system


• Library management system

• The Navodaya Vidyalayas are co-educational residential schools established by the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti which is an autonomous organization under MHRD to provide quality modern education.

Context: The Union Cabinet approved the establishment of a 'Special Window' fund to provide priority debt financing for the completion of stalled housing projects that are in the Affordable and Middle-Income Housing sector.

• For the purposes of the fund, the government shall act as the Sponsor and the total commitment to be infused by the Government would be up to INR 10,000 crore.


• The fund will be set up as a Category-11 AIF (Alternate Investment Fund) debt fund registered with SEBI and would be professionally run.


• For the first AIF under the Special Window, it is proposed that SBICAP Ventures Limited shall be engaged to be the Investment Manager.


• This fund would, in turn, would provide relief to developers that require funding to complete a set of unfinished projects and consequently ensure delivery of homes to the home-buyers.

Context: As per the National Health Profile-2019 released by the Union Health Ministry, Acute respiratory infections (ARI) accounted for 69.47% of morbidity in 2018.

• According to World Health Organisation, Acute respiratory infections (ARI) is a serious ailment that prevents normal breathing function and kills an estimated 2.6 million children annually every year worldwide.

• Acute respiratory infections (ARI) accounted for 69.47% of morbidity in 2018 which was the highest in the communicable disease category, leading to 27.21% mortality.


• Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal reported a large number of patients and fatalities due to ARI.

Context: Research firm Gartner has predicted that by 2024, the World Health Organisation (WHO) will identify online shopping as an addictive disorder, as millions abuse digital commerce and encounter financial stress.

• Consumer spending via digital commerce platforms will continue to grow over 10 percent year over year through 2022.


• The ease of online shopping will cause financial stress for millions of people, as online retailers increasingly use artificial intelligence (AI) and personalisation to effectively target consumers and prompt them to spend discretionary income that they do not have.


• The resulting debt and personal bankruptcies will cause depression and other health concerns caused by stress, which is capturing the attention of the WHO.


• By 2024, AI identification of emotions will influence more than half of the online advertisements you see. Artificial emotional intelligence (AEI) is the next frontier for AI development, especially for companies hoping to detect emotions in order to influence buying decisions.

Context: Union Minister of Jal Shakti would inaugurate Sustainable Water Management Conference on 6th November 2019 at Pune. The event is likely to be attended by more than 500 International and National delegates.

• To achieve sustainable development and management of water resources, Ministry of Jal Shakti (MOJS) is implementing National Hydrology Project (NHP) with the active participation of the states.


• This Central Sector Scheme is being implemented by Department of Water Resources, River Development, and Ganga Rejuvenation with support from World Bank.


• The project has coverage on Pan India basis and intends to set up of a system for timely and reliable water resources data acquisition, storage, collation, management, and dissemination.


• In this regard, a series of annual Conferences with the theme Sustainable Water Management is being organised under NHP. First such conference was hosted in December 2018 by BBMB at Chandigarh.


• The second conference is being hosted during November 6-8, 2019 by Water Resources Department, Government of Maharashtra at Pune with the active support from National Project Monitoring Unit, NHP.

Context: Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India was dropping out of the RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership), citing its negative effects on “farmers, MSMEs, and the dairy sector”.

• The present form of the RCEP agreement does not address satisfactorily India’s outstanding issues and concerns. Indian farmers, traders, professionals, and industrialists have protested against the government’s decision to go ahead with the negotiations.


• Because Indian products face high non-tariff barriers (NTBs) like food-related and other standards, as well as technical barriers in Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, exports are difficult.


• At the same time, NTBs are lower in India. When tariffs are reduced, Australia, New Zealand, and ASEAN countries will be the major beneficiaries.

• The RCEP is a proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between sixteen countries namely 10 countries of ASEAN (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) and their six FTA partners (also known as AFP’s or ASEAN FTA Partners) namely Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea and New Zealand.


• RCEP negotiations were formally launched in 2012 at the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia.


• The 16-member RCEP bloc aims to cover among the issues related to goods, services, investments, economic and technical cooperation, competition and intellectual property rights.

Context: Directorate General of Training (DGT), under the aegis of the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE), announced the launch of the Skills Build a platform in collaboration with IBM.

• IBM joined hands with the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) in early 2018 to launch a first-of-its-kind ‘New Collar’ Curriculum. Post the successful completion of the course, in September 2019, 19 students were offered a five-month paid internship at IBM.

• As part of the program, a two-year advanced diploma in IT, networking and cloud computing, co-created and designed by IBM, will be offered at the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) & National Skill Training Institutes (NSTIs).


• This initiative is part of IBM’s global commitment to create a job-ready workforce and to build the next generation of skills needed for new collar careers.


• The platform is deployed with the support of leading NGOs like the Unnati and Edunet Foundation. IBM Volunteers along with the NGOs will offer students personalised coaching and experiential learning opportunities.

Context: Observations of a jellyfish galaxy, JW100, by Astrosat using its Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) have thrown up interesting puzzles. These puzzles involve star formation in hostile environments containing X-ray- emitting hot plasma. JW100 has located far away in the galaxy cluster Abell 2626.

• A jellyfish galaxy is a type of galaxy found in galaxy clusters.


• Jellyfish galaxies are called so because they are shaped like discs that have many tentacle-like arms streaming away from the disc.


• They are formed when a disc-shaped galaxy rams into a galaxy cluster, which is a dense region containing many hundreds or thousands of galaxies packed into a small region. This can happen when the galaxy is attracted by the gravitational attraction of the cluster.


• The European Southern Observatory has an international program to observe 100 such gas-stripping jellyfish candidates using the MUSE Integral Field Spectrograph Chile. This program is called GASP (Gas Stripping Phenomena in galaxies with MUSE).

Context: An analysis done by India Ratings and Research of Annual Survey of Industries data on India’s labour productivity growth in the organized manufacturing sector shows a disappointing trend.

• Between 2004 and 2008, India’s labor productivity grew by over 14 % every year. But between financial years of 2011 and 2015, this rate fell to just half of that (7.4 %) and continued its deceleration to just 3.7 % between financial years of 2016 and 2018.


• Between financial years 2001 and 2018, the capital intensity — that is, fixed capital used per worker — in India’s organized manufacturing has been rising. But the output intensity — that is, the value of output per fixed capital — has actually declined over the same period.


• In other words, while more and more capital is being used per unit of labor, it is not yielding a commensurate level of output growth.

• Productivity is a measure of the efficiency with which resources, both human and material, are converted into goods and services. Besides land and capital, labor productivity plays a crucial role in deciding the rate of economic growth.


• Labour productivity is crucially dependent on businesses investing in knowledge and innovation even as the governments bring about structural reforms that enable such investments to bear fruit.

Context: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Uzbekistan counterpart presided over the Curtain Raiser of the first-ever India-Uzbekistan Joint Exercise - Dustlik-2019.

• The joint military exercise focused on counter-terrorism starts on November 4 and will continue till November 13, at Chirchiq Training Area near Tashkent.


• The exercise will enable the sharing of best practices and experiences between the Armed Forces of the two countries and would lead to greater operational effectiveness.


• Defence Minister is in Uzbekistan on a three-day visit since Saturday. This is the first visit by an Indian Defence Minister to Uzbekistan in about 15 years.


• During the meeting, India and Uzbekistan concluded an MoU on cooperation in the field of Military Medicine between the Armed Forces of the two countries.

Context: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and its older commercial arm Antrix Corporation Ltd. are poised to commercialise India’s regional navigation satellite system, NavIC.

• Antrix Corporation Ltd. recently floated two separate tenders to identify industries that can develop dedicated NavIC-based hardware and systems.


• Besides the Antrix tenders, two other recent developments have paved the way for taking NavIC closer to end-users.


• In mid-October, ISRO announced that Qualcomm Technologies Inc., a


• leading producer of semiconductor chips had developed and tested NavIC- friendly chipsets across its user bases and that it would add NavIC to them.


• NavIC was also certified by the 3GPP (The 3rd Generation Partnership Project), a global body for coordinating mobile telephony standards. The specifications will be available in March 2020 and would be adopted as a national standard.

• NavIC (Navigation in Indian Constellation) is the Indian system of eight satellites that is aimed at telling the business and individual users where they are, or how their products and services are moving.


• The indigenous positioning or location-based service (LBS) works just like the established and popular U.S. Global Positioning System or GPS but within a 1,500-km radius over the sub-continent.

Context: Astronomers using ESO’s SPHERE instrument at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) have revealed that the asteroid Hygiea could be classified as a dwarf planet.

• As of today, there are officially five dwarf planets in our Solar System. The most famous is Pluto, downgraded from the status of a planet in 2006. The other four, in order of size, are Eris, Makemake, Haumea and Ceres.


• Now, there is a claimant for a sixth dwarf planet. Called Hygiea, it has so far been taken to be an asteroid. It lies in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.


• Using observations made through the European Space Organisation’s SPHERE instrument at the Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have now found Hygiea may possibly be a dwarf planet. If it qualifies, Hygiea will be the smallest dwarf planet in the Solar System.


• The International Astronomical Union sets four criteria for a dwarf planet, and Hygiea already satisfies three — it orbits around the Sun, it is not a moon, and it has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.


• The fourth requirement is that it has enough mass that its own gravity pulls it into a roughly spherical shape.


• According to the new study, VLT observations now show Hygiea satisfied that condition, too. This is the first time astronomers have observed Hygiea in high resolution to study its surface and determine its shape and size.

Context: A High-Level Advisory Group on Trade Policy (HLAG) in its recent report has suggested that the Centre could bring up to $500 billion of black money if it issues elephant bonds. This money then could be used towards funding various infrastructure projects in the country.

• Elephant bond is an avenue for people to bring their money stashed offshore without fear of being prosecuted. Under the proposed mechanism, those disclosing their black money will receive immunity from all laws including under foreign exchange, black money and taxation laws.


• Once they declare their offshore money, they will be asked to invest 40 % of that amount in these elephant bonds. Fixed coupon security will be issued. While 45 % of the wealth brought in by subscribing to these elephant bonds will be credited with the depositor, the remaining 15 % will be collected as tax deducted at source by the government.


• Of the amount invested in the bonds, the HLAG has recommended that 75 % of the interests earned be collected as tax.


• The HLAG estimates that the creation of elephant bonds could help fund (approximately) $500 billion worth of infrastructure projects.

• The HLAG was set up under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry last year and chaired by Surjit S Bhalla, an economist and former member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister.


• India has recently received the first tranche of Swiss bank account details of its nationals under a new automatic information exchange pact. Since many countries are now cooperating with each other in exchanging information in this regard, elephant bonds stand a chance to work out.

Context: The Robotic Surgery Facility in the Safdarjung Hospital (SJH) New Delhi was dedicated to the nation by the Union Minister of Health Harsh Vardhan. it is the first Central Government hospital to start this facility for poor patients for free.

• Safdarjang Hospital is one of the biggest tertiary care referral center of India, under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare catering to all poor patients of euro-oncological cancers like prostate, kidney, bladder cancers and kidney failures, from different parts of the country.


• It is also the first Central Government hospital in India to start this latest Robot Surgery facility for all poor patients for free.

• Robotic surgery has the advantage of providing minimally invasive surgery, reducing significantly the morbidity & mortality of critically ill, cancer and kidney failure patients.


• The Robotic system provides 7 degrees of freedom, 3-D vision, 10 times magnification and better dissection with more precision. The operating time also decreases resulting in an improvement in turnover of patients and a decrease in a waiting list of patients for surgery significantly.

Context: In a public notice last week, the Bar Council of Delhi said errant lawyers contravening Bar Council rules would be prosecuted under the provisions of The Advocates Act, 1961.

• Last week, the Bar Council of Delhi in a public notice said that it had issued notices of misconduct to lawyers found publishing advertisements on social media, including on Facebook and WhatsApp.


• The notice also said that errant lawyers contravening Bar Council rules would be prosecuted under the provisions of The Advocates Act, 1961.


• Rules in India do not allow advocates to publicise their services.


• Subsection 1(c) of Section 49 of The Advocates Act, 1961 (‘General power of the Bar Council of India to make rules’) empowers the Bar Council of India to make Rules on ‘the standard of professional conduct and etiquette to be observed by advocates’.


• An advocate who contravenes these Rules can be prosecuted under Section 35 of The Advocates Act, 1961. Under it, a state Bar Council can dismiss the


• the complaint, reprimand the advocate, suspend the advocate from practice for a limited period, remove the advocate’s name from the state roll of advocates.

Context: UNESCO has designated Mumbai as a member of UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) in the field of FILM and Hyderabad in the field of GASTRONOMY. UCCN now counts a total of 246 cities.

• UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN), created in 2004, is a network of cities that are thriving, active centers of cultural activities in their respective countries.


• The member cities that form part of the Network come from all continents and regions with different income levels and populations.


• They work together towards a common mission: placing creativity and the creative economy at the core of their urban development plans to make cities safe, resilient, inclusive and sustainable, in line with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.


• The 7 categories for recognition under UCCN are as follows-


• Crafts and Folk Arts


• Design


• Film


• Gastronomy


• Music


• Media Arts


• Literature


• Previously, 3 Indian cities were recognized as members of UCCN, namely


• Jaipur-Crafts and Folk Arts(2015)


• Varanasi-Creative city of Music (2015)


• Chennai-Creative city of Music(2017)

Context: On the 45th Coal India Foundation Day, Minister of Coal & Mines announced that Coal India will produce one billion tonne of coal by 2024.

• The Coal India Limited (CIL) will produce 750 million tonnes of coal by the Financial Year 2020-21 and would further produce one billion tonnes of coal in the financial year 2023-24.


• The CIL is currently given the target of producing 660 million tonnes of coal amounting to 82% of the country’s coal output.


• Central government has recently decided 100% FDI under automatic route in the coal sector. However, FDI in the coal sector does not stand for FDI in Coal India.

• CIL is a state-owned coal mining company which contributes to over 80% of the coal production in India.


• Government of India owns CIL and controls the operations of CIL through the Ministry of Coal.


• Status: In 2011, CIL was conferred the Maharatna status by the Union Government of India.


• HQ in Kolkata.


• Established in 1975.

Context: Argentina's Rafael Grossi has been appointed as the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) following the death of his predecessor, Yukiya Amano of Japan, in July. He is the first Latin American to hold this position.

• It is widely known as the world’s “Atoms for Peace and Development” organization within the United Nations family.


• It is the world's central intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical co-operation in the nuclear field. It works for the safe, secure and peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology.


• Though established as an autonomous organization, independently of the United Nations through its own international treaty, the IAEA Statute, the IAEA reports to both the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council.


• Headquarters: Vienna, Austria.


• The IAEA has 171 member states. Most UN members and the Holy See are Member States of the IAEA.


• The IAEA and its former Director-General, Mohamed ElBaradei, were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.

Context: President Ram Nath Kovind has launched the endowment fund of IIT Delhi.

• President Ram Nath Kovind launched the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi global alumni endowment fund that will have an initial commitment of


• more than ₹250 crores, nearly half of which will come from Flipkart co-founders.


• For the fund with an initial seed capital of ₹255 crores, IIT Delhi has set an aggressive target of raising ₹1,000 crores by 2020 and ₹7,000 crores by 2025, according to IIT officials.


• The initial endowment amount and commitments have been collected from around two dozen alumni, who are committing between ₹5 crores and ₹25 crores each, except Flipkart co-founders Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal who have contributed ₹125 crores.


• Endowments globally have become an integral part of the financial health of educational institutions and through this alumni are playing a critical role in supporting and nurturing future generations of learners.


• In the latest QS World University ranking 2020, IIT Delhi was ranked at 182.

Context: The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) hosted the second Assembly of International Solar Alliance (ISA) on 30 and 31 October 2019 in New Delhi.

• The Assembly is the supreme decision-making body of the ISA and gives directions on various administrative, financial and program related issues.


• Shri R.K. Singh, Minister for New and Renewable Energy and Power is President of the ISA Assembly and Ms. Brune Poirson, Minister of State for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition Govt. of France, is the Co-President of the Assembly.


• Delegations from 78 countries participated in this Assembly. Two countries – Eritrea and St. Kitts and Nevis, signed the framework agreement of ISA today. With this 83 countries have signed the ISA framework agreement.


• The first Assembly of the ISA was held in October 2018.

• The ISA is an Indian initiative that was launched by the Prime Minister of India and the President of France in 2015 at Paris, France on the side-lines of the COP-21, with 121 solar resource-rich countries lying fully or partially between the tropic of Cancer and tropic of Capricorn as prospective members.


• The overarching objective of the ISA is to collectively address key common challenges to the scaling up of solar energy in ISA member countries.


• The Government of India has allotted 5 acres of land to the ISA in the National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE) campus, Gurugram.

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