InstaLinks help you think beyond the issue but relevant to the issue from UPSC prelims and Mains exam point of view. These linkages provided in this ‘hint’ format help you frame possible questions in your mind that might arise(or an examiner might imagine) from each current event. InstaLinks also connect every issue to their static or theoretical background. This helps you study a topic holistically and add new dimensions to every current event to help you think analytically.
Table of Contents:
GS Paper 2:
1. Chandler Good Government Index (CGGI).
2. Project Ladakh Ignited Minds.
GS Paper 3:
Facts for Prelims:
1. RBI caps age at 70 for bank MD, CEO, director positions.
2. India Joins League of Nations That Can Manufacture Single Crystal Components for Helicopters.
3. Places in News- Sahel.
4. KOWLOON PENINSULA.
GS Paper : 2
Topics Covered: Role of civil services in a democracy.
Chandler Good Government Index (CGGI):
About the Index:
The Chandler Good Government Index is an annual Index, built by government practitioners, for government practitioners, measuring the capabilities and effectiveness of 104 governments around the world.
- The Chandler Institute of Governance (CIG) is an international non-profit organisation, headquartered in Singapore.
The index focuses on seven pillars:
- leadership and foresight; robust laws and policies; strong institutions; financial stewardship; attractive marketplace; global influence and reputation; and helping people rise.
Significance of the index:
Good government is a deciding factor in whether nations succeed. The Chandler Good Government Index (CGGI) shows why investing in strong government capabilities is vital to securing positive outcomes for citizens and businesses.
Highlights of the 2021 index:
- Seven of the top ten countries are in Europe, but there are four continents represented in the top ten, with Singapore first in Asia, New Zealand leading Oceania, and Canada foremost in the Americas.
- All of the top ten countries are high-income, as defined by the World Bank.
India’s performance:
India has been ranked 49th.
InstaLinks:
Prelims Link:
- About the index.
- Released by?
- Parameters used for ranking.
- Performance of countries.
Mains Link:
Write a note on the Chandler Good Government Index.
Sources: the Hindu.
Topics: Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes.
Project Ladakh Ignited Minds:
Context:
To provide better educational opportunities for Ladakhi students, the Indian Army has initiated the project Ladakh Ignited Minds: A Centre of Excellence and Wellness.
About the Project:
The project is aimed at providing better training facilities to disadvantaged Ladakhi students to give them opportunity to study in niche educational institutes.
Implementation:
- Fire and Fury Corps of Indian Army with the support of HPCL and execution agency NIEDO will provide a holistic training for Ladakhi youth.
- In the first batch, comprising 20 girls, 45 students from Leh and Kargil districts, would get training for JEE and NEET entrance examinations.
InstaLinks:
Prelims Link and Mains Link:
About the Project and its significance.
Sources: PIB.
Topics Covered: India and its neighbourhood- relations.
Project Dantak:
Context:
Project DANTAK completes 60 years in Bhutan.
About the project:
- Project DANTAK was established on April 24, 1961.
- DANTAK was tasked to construct the pioneering motorable roads in the Kingdom.
Notable projects executed by the project include:
The construction of Paro Airport, Yonphula Airfield, Thimphu – Trashigang Highway, Telecommunication & Hydro Power Infrastructure, Sherubtse College, Kanglung and India House Estate.
Significance:
- Over the years, DANTAK has met the myriad infrastructure requirements in Bhutan in accordance with the vision of Their Majesties and the aspirations of the people in a symbiotic manner.
- The medical and education facilities established by DANTAK in far flung areas were often the first in those locations.
- The food outlets along the road introduced the Bhutanese to Indian delicacies and developed a sweet tooth in them.
Sources: PIB.
GS Paper : 1
Topics Covered: Awareness in space.
Zhurong:
Context:
China’s first Mars rover will be named Zhurong after a traditional fire god.
- The rover is aboard the Tianwen-1 probe that arrived in Mars orbit on February 24 and is due to land in May to look for evidence of life.
Significance of the mission:
China in 2019 became the first country to land a space probe on the little-explored far side of the moon and in December returned lunar rocks to Earth for the first time since the 1970s.
China would become the third country after the former Soviet Union and the United States to put a robot rover on Mars.
About Tianwen-1:
- China’s first Mars probe is called Tianwen-1 (formerly Huoxing 1).
- The spacecraft consists of an orbiter, a lander and a rover.
- Launched in 2020 on a Long March 5 rocket from Xichang, China.
- Landing site: Somewhere in Utopia Planitia, a vast plain in Mars’ northern latitudes and the same place NASA’s Viking 2 mission landed in the 1970s.
There are five core science objectives:
- Create a geological map of Mars.
- Explore the characteristics of the Martian soil and potentially locate water-ice deposits.
- Analyze the surface material composition.
- Investigate the Martian atmosphere and climate at the surface.
- Understand the electromagnetic and gravitational fields of the planet.
InstaLinks:
Prelims Link:
- Objectives of the mission.
- Others Mars missions.
- India’s Mars mission.
Mains Link:
Discuss the significance of the mission.
Sources: the Hindu.
Topics Covered: Disaster and disaster management.
Disaster Management Act:
Context:
Invoking the Disaster Management Act, the Centre has ordered States that all liquid oxygen, including the existing stock with private plants, should be made available to the government and will be used for medical purposes only.
The order was issued by the Union Home Secretary, who is the Chairman of the National Executive Committee under the DM Act, 2005.
Implications:
- Supply of oxygen will now be prohibited for industrial purposes, except for nine industries that include the pharmaceutical, petroleum, nuclear energy and steel sectors.
About Liquid oxygen:
- It is the liquid form of molecular oxygen.
- Liquid oxygen has a pale blue color and is strongly paramagnetic: it can be suspended between the poles of a powerful horseshoe magnet.
- Because of its cryogenic nature, liquid oxygen can cause the materials it touches to become extremely brittle.
- Liquid oxygen is also a very powerful oxidizing agent: organic materials will burn rapidly and energetically in liquid oxygen.
Uses:
- In commerce, liquid oxygen is classified as an industrial gas and is widely used for industrial and medical purposes.
- Liquid oxygen is the most common cryogenic liquid oxidizer propellant for spacecraft rocket applications, usually in combination with liquid hydrogen, kerosene or methane.
Previous orders:
On April 22, the Centre issued an order under the DM Act making the district magistrates and senior superintendents of police personally liable to allow unhindered inter-State movement of vehicles carrying medical oxygen and to ensure that the supply is not restricted to a particular State where the oxygen plant is located.
About the Disaster Management Act, 2005:
- The stated object and purpose of the DM Act is to manage disasters, including preparation of mitigation strategies, capacity-building and more.
- It came into force in India in January 2006.
- The Act provides for “the effective management of disasters and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.”
- The Act calls for the establishment of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), with the Prime Minister of India as chairperson.
- The Act enjoins the Central Government to Constitute a National Executive Committee (NEC) to assist the National Authority.
- All State Governments are mandated to establish a State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA).
Powers given to the Centre:
Power bestowed by DM Act on Central Government and NDMA are extensive.
- The Central Government, irrespective of any law in force (including over-riding powers) can issue any directions to any authority anywhere in India to facilitate or assist in the disaster management.
- Importantly, any such directions issued by Central Government and NDMA must necessarily be followed the Union Ministries, State Governments and State Disaster Management Authorities.
- In order to achieve all these, the prime minister can exercise all powers of NDMA (S 6(3)). This ensures that there is adequate political and constitutional heft behind the decisions made.
InstaLinks:
Prelims Link:
- What is DM Act?
- Bodies established under this act.
- Composition of NDMA.
- Powers of states and centre under DM act.
- What is a notified disaster?
- Functions of NDRF.
- About Liquid oxygen and its uses.
Mains Link:
Is the Disaster Management Act, 2005, ill-suited to be the main economic law of the country? Analyse the need for a pandemic law in the current situation facing the world.
Sources: the Hindu.
Facts for Prelims:
RBI caps age at 70 for bank MD, CEO, director positions:
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has fixed the tenure of MD, CEO and whole-time director (WTD) in a private sector bank at 15 years and prescribed the maximum age of 70 years for such functionaries.
- The maximum age limit for chairman and non-executive directors has been fixed at 75 years.
India Joins League of Nations That Can Manufacture Single Crystal Components for Helicopters:
- The DRDO has developed the single crystal blades technology and supplied 60 of these blades to HAL as part of its indigenous helicopter development programme.
- With this, India has joined the league of nations, including USA, UK, France and Russia, that have the capability to manufacture single crystal (SX) components which are used for helicopter engines.
A single-crystal, or monocrystalline, solid is a material in which the crystal lattice of the entire sample is continuous and unbroken to the edges of the sample, with no grain boundaries.
Places in News- Sahel:
- Chad, the former French colony is now prime outpost of the West in fighting Islmamist militants across the Sahel. France still has a strong military presence in the sahel region.
- The Sahel is the ecoclimatic and biogeographic realm of transition in Africa between the Sahara to the north and the Sudanian savanna to the south.
- Having a semi-arid climate, it stretches across the south-central latitudes of Northern Africa between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea.
- The Sahel part of Africa includes northern Senegal, southern Mauritania, central Mali, northern Burkina Faso, the extreme south of Algeria, Niger, the extreme north of Nigeria, the extreme north of Cameroon and Central African Republic, central Chad, central and southern Sudan, the extreme north of South Sudan, Eritrea, and the extreme north of Ethiopia.
KOWLOON PENINSULA:
- Hong Kong is set to grant a site on the western Kowloon peninsula, to China’s national security office for its permanent base in the city.
- The Kowloon Peninsula is a peninsula that forms the southern part of the main landmass in the territory of Hong Kong, alongside Victoria Harbour and facing toward Hong Kong island.
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