1. Economy
  2. Polity
  3. IR/Defense
  4. Environment
  5. Science-Tech
  6. Ethics
  7. Columns
  8. PIN-GK
  9. Junk

Economy

  • NOTIMP- RBI asks Paytm Payments Services to reapply to work as Payment aggregator licence
  • economy terms in news: open offer- when a shareholder with minimum 25% shareholding gives offer to other shareholders to sell their shareholdings so that he can gain majority shareholding take over the company example Adani doing in NDTV.
  • GOVERNMENT (Department of Economic Affairs) has paid SBI Rs 9.53 crore of taxpayers’ money towards commission and printing costs and GST on printing cost of the Electoral Bonds (EBs) issued to fund political parties.
  • The Ministry of Railways’‘Modified Economic Internal Rate of Return’ model. Before: Railways will approve a project if only minimum 12% profit was involved. After: Railway to approve project even if 2 to 3% profit is there but it is required for connecting remote area backward area reducing air pollution traffic congestion et cetera. NITI Aayog opinion sought if it is a project worth 500 crore or more
  • 5G airwave infra: What is DoT’s plan for safe flight- 1) low strength walla signal usr karo 2) upgrade aeroplane’s altimeter.
  • GOVERNMENT’S pre-matric scholarship to students- before: given from class1–10. Now only 9–10. Rationale: right to education act already provides free education to all up to class 8 so no need for scholarship.
  • Dharavi slum spread over 2.8 sq km, is home to an informal leather and pottery industry, which employs over a lakh people. Adani given Rs.20kcr contract for slum rehab. 300 sq.ft high-rise apartments. If person lived in slum between 2000–2011 he’ll have to pay money to get pukka-house. If person lived in Dharavi-slum before 2000, then he’ll get for free.
  • BIHAR State Government scheme: Har Ghar Gangajal project, to provide Ganga water on tap from Hathidah near Mokama and supply it to about 7.5 lakh homes in the state’s main tourism destinations of Rajgir, Bodhgaya, and Gaya.
  • RBI to begin first phase of retail e-rupee pilot from Thursday in 4 cities. We’ll still not waste time in ball by ball commentary. Scroll up to see infopgrahic.
  • Wet leasing means renting the plane along with operating crew and engineers, while dry leasing refers to taking only the aircraft on rent. Before: wet leasing allowed only for 6 month. After: govt allowed for upto 1 yr.
  • Vistara to merge with Air India; SIA to get 25.1% stake in new entity

Polity

  • Separation of powers: SC alleges govt, sitting on files and not clearing the judges appointment. Law Minister Rijiju had said, “Never say that the government is sitting on the files, then don’t send the files to the government, you appoint yourself, you run the show…Collegium system as “alien” to the Constitution. You tell me under which provision the Collegium system has been prescribed.”
  • SC notice to Centre on plea to recognise same-sex marriage
  • Violence during protests against Adani Vizhinjam port in Kerala. 3000 people booked, and Will recover Rs 85L losses from protesters, Kerala govt tells HC
  • Article 213 (2) (a) of the Constitution states that an ordinance “shall cease to operate at the expiration of six weeks from the reassembly of the Legislature”. Tamil Nadu legislative assembly passed the act to ban online gaming but it did not receive timely approval from the governor and the previous ordinance also lapsed so controversy.
  • CrPC Section 327: in camera proceedings can be held to protect the rights/privacy/safety of victim. Rape accused Journalist Tarun Tejpal requests in-camera proceeding for his rape case to defend his reputation, if WhatsApp screenshots get leaked. CJI says, bhai you don’t have this right, because you are not a victim, you’re an accused person!
  • demonetisation PIL: Govt’s stand- court should refrain from exercising judicial review of the executive decision. if the relevance of scrutiny disappears, the court will not render opinion on questions of academic value. The court will not grant a declaration when no tangible relief can be granted by way of putting the clock back, which is unscrambling a scrambled egg.
  • RPA: PIL seeking cancellation of political parties having religious symbols and names. But EC says “there is no express provision which bars associations with religious connotations to register as political parties under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act-1951”.
  • RPA: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said “Prime Minister and Home minister have left all work in Delhi —which is his main job—and is here in Gujarat for election campaigning. What is the need for them to make repeated trips. Point to reflect: need for one nation, one election so as to ensure that Prime Minister does not sidelined in his main job.
  • SINGAPORE Govt repeals gay sex ban while indonesia criminalises sex outside marriage. point to reflect: disproportional amount of legislative time is being spent on regulating the sexual lives of citizens.

IR/Defense

  • CHINA to donate 10.6 million litres of diesel to Sri Lankan farmers and fishermen.
  • Riots/Protests in China towards widening Covid-19 lockdowns across
  • China Indian Ocean meet: Maldives and Australia deny their participation
  • globalisation and migration: UK-Census: Christians minority in England. 2011: 59%. 2021: 46%

Environment

  • VOLCANO ERUPTS IN US Hawaii’s Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano,
  • Nainital’s Sukhatal Lake: Uttarakhand High Court high court orders halting of construction activities for preservation of environment.

Science-Tech

  • ISRO’s PSLV-C54 rocket success- fully placed the Earth Observation Satellite (Oceansat) and eight other customer satellites into sun-synchronous orbits
  • ON NOVEMBER 28, Red Planet Day is marked, to commemorate 1964, the United States launched the space probe Mariner 4 on a course towards Mars. This was the first time that a spacecraft undertook a flyby of the red planet.
  • Shenzhou-15 : China’s manned mission to its space station.
  • MATERNAL MORTALITY Ratio (MMR): Number of deaths of mothers per one lakh live births. 2014: 130. 2018–20: 97. SDG Target-2030: 70. Data was released by office of the Registrar General of India under Home ministry.
  • Monkeypox- viral disease. WORLD Health Organisation (WHO) announced it would start using the term “mpox” for monkeypox. monkeypox was first discovered in captive monkeys in 1958. WHO best practices, “new disease names should be given with the aim to minimize unnecessary negative impact of names on trade, travel, tourism or animal welfare, and avoid causing offence to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups”.

Ethics

  • ethics: CBI directives while investigating the LokPal complaints: 1) PROTECTING THE identity of the complainant 2) avoiding direct contact with complainant during preliminary enquiry 3) not considering requests for withdrawal of the complainant; 4) focusing on the allegations rather than peripheral. The Lokpal is an independent statutory body established under Section Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 and it has been functioning since 2019.
  • Ethics: President Droupadi Murmu asked “I hear these days that we will have to make new prisons because prisons are over- crowded. If we are moving to- wards progress as a society, why do we need new jails? We should be closing down existing ones.” Reasoning: 1) undertrials not getting bail / verdict on time 2) increased consumerism materialistic ambitions greed rat-race 3) decreased attention by parents teachers and increase the influence of negative /violent values from web series and internet 4) increased legal awareness among victims- resulting into greater number of arrests for domestic violence, rape et cetera than in 60s-70s era.
  • Ethics: Excellence- a true artist will produce multiple number of master arts. he will not have just a “lightning-in-a-bottle moment” e.g. South Korean popstar Psy known for ‘Gangnam Style’ – but later on failed to make any famous song in the last ten years.
  • Ethics: UK Monkeypox to be called mpox to end stigma / racism.
  • corporate ethics: Global publishing house Simon and Schuster has released an apology to customers of its $600-a-piece limited-edition signed copies of Since Bob Dylan’s book “The Philosophy of Modern Song”. Publisher had promised that if you pay $600, you will get signed copy by Bob Dylan but the book does not contain his real signature but, a signature made using machines.
  • Ethics: leader needs to live a simple and frugal life. Outrage after UK government spent 1.3 million pounds of taxpayer’s money to acquire a A bronze sculpture for prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s garden.
  • Sports Ethics: ‘Crusades’ refer to military campaigns waged by European Christian powers between 1095 and 1291 AD, on the call on Pope Urban II, to check the spread of Islam and ultimately, conquer Jerusalem and the Holy Land from the Muslims. Presently FIFA Qatar 2022 World Cup some of the European fans are wearing such costume but then FIFA has outlawed it.
  • ethics attitude towards women: National Health Services (NHS) in the UK that menopausal women on their staff will be able to work out of home should their symptoms require it
  • ethics attitude towards women: Japanese universities are holding beauty pageant contest where women are objectified and cast into typical gender roles. Later on they find jobs as news anchor TV anchor et cetera.
  • RUSSIA WILL soon adopt a law barring foreigners from using Russian surrogate mothers. Paid surrogacy is legal in Russia, but the practice has been criticised by religious groups as commercialising birth of children.
  • Social Media: UK’s new Online Safety Bill to ban 1) “deepfakes” without consent 2) “downblousing” – where photos are taken down a woman’s top without consent.
  • Quote: WORDLY WISE It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. — NELSON MANDELA
  • NIA suggest to home Ministry To break nexus of gangster operating from jail, we need to shift gangsters from North Indian jails to jails in south india.
  • AN ALGERIAN court sentenced 49 people to death on for the brutal mob killing of a painter who had been suspected of starting devastating wildfires -but had actually come to help fight them. Point to reflect: when will mob lynchers In India get strict punishment?
  • Quote: ‘the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’” American civil rights activist Dr Martin Luther King Junior
  • Sports Ethics: 49 % of cricketers ready to reject National Team contracts to play for IPL, which gives them more money. Says report of Federation of International Cricketers’ Association survey.

Columns

  • INTERVIEW-candidates from Gujarat preparing for UPSC interview: Read IndianExpress Explained series on Political economy of Gujarat
  • INTERVIEW-if Football hobby: what is The stoppage time?
  • Columns- not much 1) Beijing’s extended Covid lockdown triggers street protests 2) crude price 3) Hindu Muslim 4) Surjit S Bhalla vs Jean Dreze that India’s poverty number are fake 5) GM Mustard Crop.
  • CEC Appointment reforms – read vocabulary to improve the articulations skill: https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/sy-quraishi-how-to-cement-the-election-commission-credibility-8289963/

PIN-GK

  • PT Usha is set to become the first woman president of Indian Olympic Association (IOA)
  • Sangeet Natak Akademi Award(Akademi Puraskar)forthe years 2019,2020 and 2021 for music, dance, theatre, traditional/folk/tribal music/dance/theatre, puppetry and contribution/scholarship in the performing arts. Total 128 winners so too big to memorise.
  • Death: actor VIKRAM GOKHALE: 1945–2022 he was famous for films such as Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro‘; Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’

Junk

  • NOT IMP: SEBI norms for PE investment, solvency norms,insider trading rules etc.
  • Govt may allow NPR updating via birth, death database. I am not being self PhD let Indian express come with her explained series.
  • NOTIMP / ball by ball commentary: IDBI to continue as ‘Indian private sector bank’ post strategic sale.
  • ⚾️📻⚾️🎙✋ Most electoral bonds sold in Mumbai; Delhi comes top in encashing: RTI