UPSC Key-September 6, 2022: Why you should read ‘Urban Flooding’ or ‘PM-SHRI’ or ‘Dark Sky Reserve’ for UPSC CSE

FRONT PAGE

SC: Can you take right to practise religion to school with uniform?

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance

Mains Examination:

• General Studies I: Social empowerment, communalism, regionalism & secularism.

• General Studies II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Hearing petitions challenging the Karnataka High Court’s decision to uphold the restriction on wearing hijab in educational institutions, the Supreme Court on Monday said: “You may have a religious right to practise whatever you want. But can you take that right to a school which has a uniform?”

• Karnataka’s hijab controversy-How it started?

• Karnataka’s hijab controversy- Educational Institutions rights to set rules on uniform vs the right to wear the hijab in classrooms as part of the freedom of religion and freedom of expression

• What is the Karnataka Government’s stand on Hijab Controversy?

• What was Karnataka High Court’s ruling in this entire issue?

• What is the “Doctrine of Essential Practices”?

• What is the Essential Practice Test?

• How diverse country like India should distinguish between matters of religion and matters other than religion?

• Supreme Court of India on definition of religion with respect to the constitution-Know in detail

• How judiciary has drawn a distinction between the sacred and the secular?

• Indian model of secularism and French model of Secularism-Compare and Contrast

• What Does the Indian Constitution Say on Freedom of Religion?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍The problem with the Karnataka HC’s hijab ruling

📍Explained: Freedom of religion and attire

📍What the hijab ban is really about

Rajpath all set to be renamed Kartavya Path

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: History of India and Indian National Movement.

Mains Examination: General Studies I: Modern Indian history from about the middle of the eighteenth century until the present significant events, personalities, issues.

Key Points to Ponder:

What’s the ongoing story– The iconic Rajpath from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate is all set to be renamed as Kartavya Path (Path of Duty) with the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) scheduled to meet on Wednesday to discuss the proposed change.

• Know the brief history of the Rajpath, and the changes it has undergone over 100 years of existence.

• Why Rajpath was called as Kingsway during British rule?

Do You Know-Rajpath which was called as Kingsway during British rule, was built by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker, the architects of New Delhi, in around 1920. Lutyens had conceptualised a modern imperial city centred around a “ceremonial axis”, which they named Kingsway. The name was similar to Kingsway in London, also an arterial road built in 1905 named to honour George V’s father, Edward VII. The road was named Kingsway in honour of the Emperor of India George V, who had visited Delhi during the Durbar of 1911.

• Why Rajpath and not Kingsway?

• Why Kartavya Path?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍From Kingsway to Rajpath to Kartavya Path of Central Vista: a short history of Delhi’s century-old stretch

GOVT & POLITICS

Hasina to meet PM today: Trade, connectivity, defence on agenda

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: India and its neighbourhood- relations.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Within hours of arriving in New Delhi on Monday, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and discussed issues of bilateral interest and importance, sources said.

• For both Delhi and Dhaka, the reinvention of the bilateral relationship has been one of the most significant successes of their recent foreign policies-Know bilateral relationship between India and Bangladesh

• Know bone of contention between India and Bangladesh

• Why did the National Register of Citizens in Assam and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act nationally have provoked concern in Dhaka?

• India’s take on long-standing territorial dispute with Bangladesh-Know the background

• Why engagement with Bangladesh is of the immense benefits of deeper economic for the India’s north-eastern states?

• Know in detail about India’s Water Disputes or rather India’s water issues with Bangladesh

• Where is Kushiyara River?

Map Work-Kushiyara River (Mark both source and mouth)

• What was the Ganga water treaty between India and Bangladesh?

• According to many experts, the Teesta river remained the most contentious issue between two India and Bangladesh-
Can you elaborate further on this?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍FRIEND IN DEED

📍River Sutra

📍Farraka Barrage: The tale of two countries and one river

📍Time To Look At Teesta

EXPRESS NETWORK

Internal audit points to big gaps in MP’s ICDS ration supply

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-An internal audit report by Madhya Pradesh government has pointed to large-scale irregularities from fictitious beneficiaries to non-existent supply trucks in the implementation of the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), the Centre’s flagship nutrition programme that focuses on children under six, nursing mothers and adolescent girls through distribution of take-home ration (THR) and cooked meals.

• What is Integrated Child Development Scheme?

• What are the main objectives of Integrated Child Development Scheme?

• For whom Integrated Child Development Scheme is for?

• What all Services provided under ICDS?

• Integrated Child Development Scheme is Central Sector Scheme or Centrally Sponsored Scheme?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Integrated Child Development scheme

📍POSHAN Abhiyaan – PM’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment

📍Mid Day Meal Rules : Notification

Bengaluru drowns after rain, again

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change

Mains Examination: General Studies I: Urbanisation, their problems and their remedies.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Life was hit in Bengaluru on Monday as heavy overnight rainfall threw traffic out of gear and flooded homes in many areas, officials said, the second such flooding in the city in the last seven days. The flooding came just days after several parts of the city, sometimes referred to as India’s ‘IT capital’, were marooned after rainfall on August 30, with businesses pegging their losses at hundreds of crores of rupees.

• How much rain has Bengaluru received in August this year?

Map Work-Bengaluru

Map Work– Which cities or place of interest lies on a Latitudes and longitude closest to that of Bengaluru?

• Why some of the localities in Bengaluru got flooded?

• What does water-logging mean?

• There are different types of water logging that happen due to different conditions in an area-What are they?

• What are the causes of urban water-logging?

• Water-logging is a prelude to urban flooding-Do you agree with this?

• Issues related to urban stormwater management

• What do you understand by “Concretisation”?

• ‘Concretisation’ a by-product of urbanisation which has almost engulfed major cities in India-know it’s impact?

• ‘Concretisation’ and water logging-Connect the dots

• ‘Concretisation’ is turning the city into an urban heat island with threats of water logging and urban floods in metro cities”-how far you agree with this statement?

• What is ‘Sponge city technology’?

• Several cities in India have attempted to address issues regarding water logging-Know in detail

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Why Bengaluru was flooded: Encroachment on drains and a vigorous monsoon

Modi: 14, 500 schools to be upgraded as PM SHRI

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- On the occasion of teachers’ day Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that 14,500 schools across the country will be upgraded under a new centrally sponsored scheme PM-SHRI (PM Schools for Rising India) to showcase all components of the National Education Policy-2020.

• What is the PM-SHRI scheme?

• What are the key features of NEP in school education?

• What is a centrally sponsored scheme?

• How will PM SHRI schools be different from Kendriya Vidyalayas or Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas?

• Where will the PM SHRI schools come up?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍PM Modi says 14,500 schools will be upgraded under new central scheme PM SHRI; what will change? 

SC issues notice to EC, Govt on parties using religious names, symbols

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Salient features of the Representation of People’s Act.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- The Supreme Court Monday issued notice on a plea seeking cancellation of registration of political parties that use religious symbols or names of religions in their nomenclature.

• What is the significance of symbols in elections?

• How many types of symbols are there?

• How Election Commission decides on party symbols?

• How symbols are allotted to political parties?

• What is the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968?

• How the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 empowers the Election Commission to recognise political parties and allot symbols?

• What was Supreme Court’s verdict in its January 2017 judgment, Abhiram Singh vs C D Commachen?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Explained: Baby walker to capsicum, how EC decides on party symbols

 EXPLAINED

The evolution of the seat belt, and why it is literally a matter of life and death

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story--Seat belts have gradually made their way into our daily lives and have rightfully become our first line of defence while on the move on roads across the world.

• How Seat belts came into existence?

For Your Information-Invented by George Cayley, an English aviation innovator, the original purpose behind their creation was to ensure that pilots were kept inside their gliders. It was not until February 10, 1885 that the first patented seat belt came into existence. Created by Edward J Claghorn, it was meant to keep tourists safe in New York City taxis. Ever since, seat belts have gradually made their way into our daily lives and have rightfully become our first line of defence while on the move on roads across the world.

• How seat belts protect

• What Rule 138(3) of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 and Section 194B(1) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (as amended by the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019 says about seat belt?

• What does the law mandate about seat belts?

• What is the reason for the poor road safety record in India?

• Why Road Safety is must in India?

• What position does India have in terms of Road safety?

• What are the Initiatives Related to Road Safety?

• What actions are being taken by the Supreme Court of India in the matter of Road Safety?

Do You Know– Deaths by accidents on roads increased by almost 17 per cent in 2021 compared to 2020, indicating an increase in the rate of deaths per 1,000 vehicles in India, according to the latest NCRB report. In 2021, 1.55 lakh people died in accidents on Indian roads, up from 1.33 lakh in 2020, when much of the year saw a nationwide lockdown. Total road accidents reported was 4.03 lakh in 2021, up from 3.54 lakh the year before.

• What are the Initiatives Related to Road Safety at national as well at international level?

• Know in detail about Motor Vehicles Amendment Act, 2019

• What is the Significance of Road Safety in India?

• How can India improve road safety?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍In Mistry crash tragedy, a reminder of high numbers of road deaths in the country

📍What global trends in road safety show, and why some Indians won’t buckle up

Coming up in Ladakh, India’s first dark sky reserve

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- By the end of 2022, India will establish the country’s first Dark Sky Reserve in the cold desert regions of Ladakh, Dr Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (Independent charge) for Science and Technology, announced Saturday. This facility will also promote astronomy-tourism, he said.

• What is night sky astronomy tourism?

• What is a Dark Sky Reserve?

• How does a site become a ‘Dark Sky Reserve’?

• Who is developing India’s first Dark Sky Reserve?

• Why was Ladakh chosen for the project?

• Will this help boost tourism in Ladakh?

Map Work– Ladakh

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Explained: Is growing space tourism posing a risk to the climate?

THE EDITORIAL PAGE

Rethinking defence

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- C. Raja Mohan writes: There is deep political resistance and bureaucratic inertia against any effort to recast defence policies in both capitals. There is much that Delhi and Tokyo could do together in meeting their common security challenges.

• India-Japan Bilateral Relations-Know the Background and what is the Present Status?

• India & Japan-Areas of Cooperation

• Japan and India Vision 2025 Special Strategic and Global Partnership

• India & Japan-Areas of Concerns

• According to C. Raja Mohan, China’s growing military capabilities and assertiveness on territorial disputes are at the heart of the deteriorating environment of India and Japan-Elaborate further

• What do you understand by ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’?

• Japan’s new strategy to cope with Chinese power involves three broad elements-What are they?

• What is “realism diplomacy”?

• Why “realism diplomacy” is needed in Japan-China bilateral relations?

• Why China has accused Japan of “abandoning” its traditional pacifist path?

• India and Japan, both believed China’s modest nuclear arsenal does not pose an existential challenge to either of them. But there are certain factors compel them to rethink this complacent calculus-What are they?

• “China’s tactics of salami slicing and coercive diplomacy have come into sharp view in the East China Sea that Beijing shares with Japan and the vast Himalayan frontier with India”-Analyse this statement

• India is a nuclear weapon power and Japan is not. But that only presents a partial picture. While Japan does not have nuclear weapons, it relies on the US nuclear umbrella for its security-Compare India and Japan Nuclear power status

• The “INFRUS” agreement and the “AUKUS” agreement-Compare and Contrast

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍India and Japan: A special partnership

📍Explained: Where India, Japan ties stand now and what is planned for the future

 

 

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The UPSC KEY 
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