
GS2: Land reforms in India
- Larger and better(IE) Rural debt waivers, farmers’ agitations, farmers’ suicides, migration and reverse migration in the wake of COVID-19 are some of its manifestations. At the root of these lies the issues of fragmented and uneven distribution of landholdings
GS2: Social issues
- Digital divide shadows post pandemic education(TH) Evidence of significant disparity in access to online schooling during COVID-19
GS2: International Relations
- What is in a NAM and India’s alignment(TH) In the wake of the current stand-off with China, there have been calls for India’s foreign policy to shed its inhibitions and make a decisive shift towards the United States, as the only viable option to counter China.
- Jaishankar meets Iran counterpart,discusses Chabahar,Afghanistan(IE) Jaishankar will be attending the meeting of Council of Foreign Ministers of Shanghai Cooperation Organization to be held in Moscow on September 9-10. Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi will also attend the meeting, being hosted by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
GS2: Governance
- 40% children not fully vaccinated: NSO report(TH) Across the country, only 59.2% of children under five years are fully immunised, according to the NSO report. This contradicts the Centre’s Health Management Information System portal data, which claimed that full immunisation coverage for 2017-18 stood at 86.7%.
GS3: Economy
- NBFC fundraising is up 15 times in four months(IE) Short-term yields have dropped significantly, making it very attractive for NBFCs to raise funds. Also, there is huge liquidity in the system currently.
- REORGANISING DEBT(IE) The expert committee appointed by the central bank to formalise the framework for restructuring these loans has now provided the finer details of dealing with stressed loans across 26 sectors.
- Overall FDI rises 10% in FY20,but money coming in from CaymanIslands jumps305%.(IE) Foreign direct investment into India rose 10 per cent to $42.69 billion in the year ended March 31, 2020 from $38.74 billion in the previous year despite the global slowdown, with the Cayman Islands showing the biggest jump in bringing cash in to India.
GS3: Cybersecurity
- In a nation wide investigation, RPF disrupts the operation of illegal software called “Real Mango” used for cornering confirmed Railway reservation Operation of an illegal software called “Rare Mango” (later changed its name to “Real Mango”) was revealed on 09.08.2020 during action against touts by the field units of RPF. RPF units of North Central Railway (NCR), Eastern Railway (ER) and Western Railway (WR) apprehended some suspects and initiated the process of understanding and unravelling the operation of RareMango/Real Mango Software.
GS3: Science and Technology
- How steroids act in Covid cases(IE) Corticosteroids are low-cost anti-inflammatory drugs that closely mimic cortisol, the hormone naturally produced by the adrenal glands in humans.
PIB Corner
- Payment structure simplified under the Atm-Nirbhar Bharat scheme In HAM projects, NHAI provides 40 per cent of the Bid Project Cost as Construction Support based on achievement of Milestone. Whenever the milestones are achieved, payments are made quickly
Cabinet approves asset monetization of subsidiaries of Power Grid Corporation of India limited through infrastructure investment trust Asset recycling is a key strategy of the Government of India to release the capital invested in operational assets and the proposed InvIT of POWERGRID would attract both domestic as well as global investors including Sovereign Wealth Funds. Sale of assets to InvITs is a way of accessing long term, relatively cheap finance required to fund infrastructure projects in Transmission Sector.