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 1:
1. Maharashtra’s two-child norm for govt employees.
GS Paper 2:
1. Article 217 of the Constitution of India.
2. Leaders call for House panels’ meet.
GS Paper 3:
1. Agriculture Infrastructure Fund.
Facts for Prelims:
1. CoWIN.
2. Exercise Varuna 2021.
3. Python-5.
GS Paper : 1
Topics Covered: Women related issues.
Maharashtra’s two-child norm for govt employees:
Context:
A woman officer from the Maharashtra Prison Department was dismissed from service after an inquiry revealed that she violated the Maharashtra Civil Services (Declaration of Small Family) rules because she suppressed the information from the authorities that she has three children.
What is the ‘two children’ service rule for Maharashtra government employees?
The Maharashtra Civil Services (Declaration of Small Family) Rule of 2005 defines a small family as wife, husband and two children.
- It stipulates that a person is not eligible for a job with Maharashtra Government if he or she has more than two children after 2005.
- The definition of child under these rules does not include adopted children.
Background:
Maharashtra is one of the few states in the country that have a ‘two children’ policy for appointment in government jobs or even for the elections of some local government bodies. Other states such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Gujarat, Odisha, Uttarakhand and Assam being the latest addition to the list in 2019.
InstaLinks:
Prelims Link:
- Maharashtra’s two child policy.
- Applicability.
- Exemptions.
- Reasonable restrictions.
- States with similar laws.
Mains Link:
Discuss the issues associated with the Maharashtra Civil Services (Declaration of Small Family) rules.
Sources: Indian Express.
GS Paper : 2
Topics Covered: Indian Constitution- historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure.
Article 217 of the Constitution of India:
Context:
In exercise of the power conferred by clause (1) of Article 217 of the Constitution of India, the President has appointed Smt. Justice Vimla S. Kapoor, Additional Judge of the Chhattisgarh High Court, to be Judge of the Chhattisgarh High Court with effect from the date she assumes charge of her office.
Overview of Article 217 (1):
Appointment and conditions of the office of a Judge of a High Court:
(1) Every Judge of a High Court shall be appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal after consultation with the Chief Justice of India, the Governor of the State, and, in the case of appointment of a Judge other than the chief Justice, the chief Justice of the High court, and shall hold office, in the case of an additional or acting Judge, as provided in Article 224, and in any other case, until he attains the age of sixty two years Provided that:
(a) a Judge may, by writing under his hand addressed to the President, resign his office.
(b) a Judge may be removed from his office by the President in the manner provided in clause ( 4 ) of Article 124 for the removal of a Judge of the Supreme Court.
(c) the office of a Judge shall be vacated by his being appointed by the President to be a Judge of the Supreme Court or by his being transferred by the President to any other High Court within the territory of India.
InstaLinks:
Prelims Link:
- About Article 217 and sub clauses.
- Transfer of High Court judges.
- Appointment and removal.
- Acting Judges- appointment, roles and responsibilities.
Sources: PIB.
Topics Covered: Parliament and State Legislatures – structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these.
Leaders call for House panels’ meet:
Context:
MPs have appealed to Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla asking them to allow virtual meetings of the parliamentary panels.
Background:
With the country in midst of a virulent second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, there has been no meeting of the standing committees for more than a month now.
What are Parliamentary Committees?
A parliamentary committee is a “committee which is appointed or elected by the House or nominated by the Speaker and which works under the direction of the Speaker and presents its report to the House or to the Speaker and the Secretariat”.
- Parliamentary Committees are of two kinds – Standing Committees and ad hoc Committees. The former are elected or appointed every year or periodically and their work goes on, more or less, on a continuous basis. The latter are appointed on an ad hoc basis as need arises and they cease to exist as soon as they complete the task assigned to them.
Constitutional Provisions:
Parliamentary committees draw their authority from Article 105 (on privileges of Parliament members) and Article 118 (on Parliament’s authority to make rules for regulating its procedure and conduct of business).
Composition of Departmentally-related standing committees (DRSCs):
- Until the 13th Lok Sabha, each DRSC comprised 45 members — 30 nominated from Lok Sabha and 15 from the Rajya Sabha.
- However, with their restructuring in July 2004, each DRSC now has 31 members — 21 from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha, to be nominated by Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha chairman, respectively.
- They are appointed for a maximum period of one year and the committees are reconstituted every year cutting across party lines.
Composition of Financial Committees:
The estimates committee has 30 members, all from the Lok Sabha.
Both the public accounts committee and the committee on public undertakings have 22 members each — 15 elected from the Lok Sabha and seven from the Rajya Sabha.
InstaLinks:
Prelims Link:
- Difference between Parliamentary vs Cabinet committees.
- Standing vs select vs finance committees.
- Who appoints chairperson and members of these committees?
- Committees exclusive to only Lok Sabha.
- Committees where Speaker is the chairperson.
Mains Link:
What are Parliamentary Standing committees? Why are they necessary? Discuss their roles and functions to bring out their significance.
Sources: the Hindu.
Topics Covered: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
Vehicle Scrappage Policy:
Context:
A Crisil Research analysis shows that the Centre’s scrappage policy is unlikely to have freight transporters queuing up to replace old vehicles with new ones. The scrappage volume of buses, passenger vehicles (PVs) and two-wheelers will be limited as well.
Issues with the new policy:
- Limited incentive and poor cost economics for trucks.
- Lack of addressable volumes for other segments.
- The potential benefit from scrapping a 15-year-old, entry-level small car will be ₹70,000, whereas its resale value is around ₹95,000. That makes scrapping unattractive.
Need of the hour:
With this background, for the scrappage policy to be seamlessly implemented, we should have a comprehensive plan in terms of removing ELV (End of life vehicles) from the road. Freight transporters need stronger financial support. However, that said, it is important to note that unless old fleet vehicles are off the road, the benefits of implementation of BSVI vehicles will not be fully leveraged.
About the Vehicle Scrappage Policy:
- Old vehicles will have to pass a fitness test before re-registration and as per the policy government commercial vehicles more than 15 years old and private vehicles which are over 20 years old will be scrapped.
- As a disincentive, increased re-registration fees would be applicable for vehicles 15 years or older from the initial date registration.
- The state governments may be advised to offer a road-tax rebate of up to 25% for personal vehicles and up to 15% for commercial vehicles to provide incentive to owners of old vehicles to scrap old and unfit vehicles.
InstaLinks:
Prelims Link:
- Key features of the policy.
- Applicability.
- Incentives.
Mains Link:
Discuss the issues associated with the policy.
Sources: the Hindu.
GS Paper : 3
Topics Covered: Issues related to direct and indirect farm subsidies and minimum support prices; Public Distribution System objectives, functioning, limitations, revamping; issues of buffer stocks and food security; Technology missions; economics of animal-rearing.
Agriculture Infrastructure Fund:
Context:
Agriculture Infrastructure Fund has crossed the Rs. 8000 crore mark after receiving 8,665 applications worth Rs. 8,216 crores.
- The largest share of the pie is contributed by Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) (58%), agri-entrepreneurs (24%) and individual farmers (13%).
About the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund:
- It is a medium – long term debt financing facility for investment in viable projects for post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets through interest subvention and credit guarantee.
- The duration of the scheme is from FY2020 to FY2029 (10 years).
- Under the scheme, Rs. 1 Lakh Crore will be provided by banks and financial institutions as loans with interest subvention of 3% per annum and credit guarantee coverage under CGTMSE for loans up to Rs. 2 Crores.
Eligible beneficiaries include:
Farmers, FPOs, PACS, Marketing Cooperative Societies, SHGs, Joint Liability Groups (JLG), Multipurpose Cooperative Societies, Agri-entrepreneurs, Start-ups, and Central/State agency or Local Body sponsored Public-Private Partnership Projects.
Interest subvention:
All loans under this financing facility will have interest subvention of 3% per annum up to a limit of Rs. 2 crore. This subvention will be available for a maximum period of seven years.
Credit guarantee:
- Credit guarantee coverage will be available for eligible borrowers from this financing facility under Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) scheme for a loan up to Rs. 2 crore.
- The fee for this coverage will be paid by the Government.
- In case of FPOs the credit guarantee may be availed from the facility created under FPO promotion scheme of Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare (DACFW).
Management of the fund:
- It will be managed and monitored through an online Management Information System (MIS) platform.
- The National, State and District level Monitoring Committees will be set up to ensure real-time monitoring and effective feed-back.
InstaLinks:
Prelims Link:
- About the Fund.
- What are FPOs?
- What are Cooperatives? Constitutional provisions.
- About CGTMSE.
- Central sector vs Centrally sponsored schemes.
- Core vs core of core schemes.
Sources: PIB.
Topics Covered: Awareness in space.
Aditya-L1 Support Cell:
Context:
Aditya-L1 Support Cell is a community service centre that has been set up to bring all data on board India’s first dedicated solar space mission to a single web-based interface.
- It is a joint effort of Indian Space Research Organisation and Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences.
- It will allow every interested individual to perform scientific analysis of the data.
About Aditya- L1 mission:
- It is India’s first solar mission. It will be launched using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in XL
- It will have seven payloads (instruments) on board.
- It seeks to study the Sun’s corona, solar emissions, solar winds and flares, and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), and will carry out round-the-clock imaging of the Sun.
Significance of the mission:
The data from Aditya mission will be immensely helpful in discriminating between different models for the origin of solar storms and also for constraining how the storms evolve and what path they take through the interplanetary space from the Sun to the Earth.
Position of the satellite:
In order to get the best science from the sun, continuous viewing of the sun is preferred without any occultation/ eclipses and hence, Aditya- L1 satellite will be placed in the halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) of the sun-earth system.
Why do we study the sun and the solar wind?
- The sun is the only star we can study up close. By studying this star we live with, we learn more about stars throughout the universe.
- The sun is a source of light and heat for life on Earth. The more we know about it, the more we can understand how life on Earth developed.
- It is the source of the solar wind; a flow of ionized gases from the sun that streams past Earth at speeds of more than 500 km per second (a million miles per hour).
- Disturbances in the solar wind shake Earth’s magnetic field and pump energy into the radiation belts, part of a set of changes in near-Earth space known as space weather.
- Effects On satellites: Space weather can change the orbits of satellites, shorten their lifetimes, or interfere with onboard electronics. The more we learn about what causes space weather – and how to predict it – the more we can protect the satellites we depend on.
- Safety and preparedness: The solar wind dominates the space environment. As we send spacecraft and astronauts further and further from home, we must understand this space environment just as early seafarers needed to understand the ocean.
InstaLinks:
Prelims Link:
- About the Mission.
- Objectives.
- What are Langrangian Points?
- What are solar winds?
Mains Link:
Discuss the significance of the mission.
Sources: PIB.
Topics Covered: Disaster management.
Assam earthquake:
Context:
An earthquake of magnitude 6.4 on the Richter scale hit Assam recently.
Epicentre:
- The preliminary analysis shows that the events are located near to Kopili Fault closer to Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT).
- The area is seismically very active falling in the highest Seismic Hazard zone V associated with collisional tectonics where Indian plate sub-ducts beneath the Eurasian Plate.
What is Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT)?
HFT, also known as the Main Frontal Thrust (MFT), is a geological fault along the boundary of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.
What is a fault?
A fault as “a fracture along which the blocks of crust on either side have moved relative to one another parallel to the fracture”.
Need of the hour:
The Northeast is located in the highest seismological zone, so we must have constant earthquake preparedness at all levels. Continuous tectonic stress keeps building up particularly along the faultlines.
Background:
Historical and instrumentally recorded earthquake data show the region has seen several “moderate to large earthquakes”. The worst of these was the great Assam-Tibet Earthquake that occurred on Independence Day in 1950.
Sources: Indian Express.
Facts for Prelims:
CoWIN:
- It is a cloud-based IT solution for planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of Covid-19 vaccination in India.
- The Co-WIN platform is owned by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Exercise Varuna 2021:
- Exercise Varuna is an Indo-French naval exercise that is held annually since.
- 2021 was the 19th edition of the exercise and it was held in the Arabian Sea.
Python-5:
- DRDO conducts maiden trial of Python-5 Air to Air Missile.
- Python is a family of air-to-air missiles (AAMs) built by the Israeli weapons manufacturer Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.
- Python 5 can engage enemy aircraft from very short ranges and near beyond visual range.
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