
GS2: Polity
- Explained: From baby walker to capsicum, how EC decides on party symbols (IE) As per the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) (Amendment) Order, 2017, party symbols are either “reserved” or “free”. While eight national parties and 64 state parties across the country have “reserved” symbols, the Election Commission also has a pool of nearly 200 “free” symbols that are allotted to the thousands of unrecognised regional parties that pop up before elections.
GS2: Governance
- A concerted attack on RTI(TH) This year marks 15 years of the enactment of the Right to Information (RTI) law, which has empowered millions to assert their citizenship
GS2: International Relations
- The Arab World and the elusive two state solution(TH) The Arab World in a geopolitical sense no longer exists; the PLO leadership may have to think of a one-state solution.
- Quadrilateral home truths(TH) The Quad would do well to heed four lessons drawn from Asia’s history and geopolitics
GS3: "Economy: Agriculture
- Aquaponics and related alternative farming techniques to help the farmer in increasing their productivity & income: Shri Sanjay Dhotre (PIB) The state-of-the-art facility, that is the first of its kind in region, is equipped with advanced sensors for monitoring and automated controls. It has been developed with the funding support from Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Govt. of India. Speaking on the occasion, Dr. PK Khosla Executive director, C-DAC, Mohali informed the facility is nearly 100% organic, need much less land for a give yield of crop, consumes 90% less water, the fish and plants so grown are more nutritious.
GS3: Science & Technology
- eVIN network to handle COVID19 vaccine supply(TH) The eVIN network, which can track the latest vaccine stock position; temperature at storage facility; geo-tag health centres; and maintain facility-level dashboard, is being repurposed for the delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine, said the Union Health Ministry in a release issued on Tuesday.
- Explained: Why Mars is the brightest this month (IE) Opposition is the event when the sun, Earth and an outer planet (Mars in this case) are lined up, with the Earth in the middle. The time of opposition is the point when the outer planet is typically also at its closest distance to the Earth for a given year, and because it is close, the planet appears brighter in the sky.