Q. Why is this in news? A . The government has withdrawn the Personal Data Protection Bill from Parliament after several amendments were proposed by the Joint-Parliamentary Committee. Q. What is the Definition of data? A. Data is a collection of discrete values that convey information, describing quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted. Q. What is Data Protection? A. Data prot... Read More...
Q. Why is this in News?A. Recently, Russia suspended United Stated of America’s on-site inspections under New START Treaty with Washington due to Western sanctions and coronavirus infections.What is New START Treaty?New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) was the last remaining arms reduction pact between the former Cold War rivals and caps to 1,550 the number of nuclear warheads that can be deployed by Russia and United States of America.It entered into force on 5th February, 2011.It continues the bipartisan proce... Read More...
Q. Why is this in News?A. Recently, Government has modified the earlier scheme of ‘Special Central Assistance to Tribal Sub-Scheme (SCA to TSS)’ with nomenclature ‘Pradhan Mantri Adi Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAAGY)’ for implementation during 2021-22 to 2025-26.Q. What is Pradhan Mantri Adi Adarsh Gram Yojana?A. About:It supplements the efforts of State Governments for development and welfare of tribal people by extending Special Central Assistance as... Read More...
Q. Why is this in News? A. Electoral Parties are trying to woo tribals in Gujarat by making promises to strictly implement the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act, 1996. Gujarat notified the State PESA Rules in January 2017 and made them applicable in 4,503 gram sabhas under 2,584 village panchayats in 50 tribal talukas in eight districts of the state. However, the Act has not been enforced in letter and spirit. Six states (Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra) have formed the PESA laws, and Chhattisgarh ... Read More...
Q. Why is this in news?A. Finnish researchers have found that the Arctic is heating four times faster than the rest of the planet.Q. Why is Arctic warming faster?A. The warming is concentrated in the Eurasian part of the Arctic, where the Barents Sea north of Russia and Norway is warming at an alarming rate — seven times faster than the global average.Other studies indicate that the Arctic amplification is four times the global rate.Q. What is Arctic Amplification?A . Global warming has hastened due to anth... Read More...
Q. Why is this in News?A. Scotland has become the first nation in the world to legally protect the right to access free period products and have made period products free for all by passing the Period Products Act.Period poverty is when those on low incomes can't afford, or access, suitable period products.Q. What do we know about the Development in Scotland?A.About:Under the Period Products Act, schools, colleges and universities as well as... Read More...
Q. Why is this in news?A. A Chinese booster rocket made an uncontrolled return to earth, leading to US furore against Beijing for not sharing information about the potentially hazardous object’s descent.Yet another Chinese irresponsibilityEnding over a week of global anxiety and alarm, the debris from a large Chinese rocket – the Long March 5B — crashed to earth over the Pacific and the Indian oceans.It felt into the Sulu Sea near Malaysia.The 22-tonne core stage of the rocket hurtled uncontrollably back to earth. There were fears that it might hit a populated ar... Read More...
Q. Why is this in news? A. Recently, the website of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has been ranked first under Central Ministries Portal, and the Digital Police portal ranked second in a National E-Governance service delivery assessment (NeSDA) of websites of central government ministries. Q. What is National E-Governance Service Delivery Assessment? A. About: It is a periodic assessment intended to improve the effectiveness of S... Read More...
Q. Why is this in News?A. National Intellectual Property Awareness Mission (NIPAM), launched in 2021, has achieved the target of imparting Intellectual Property (IP) awareness and basic training to 1 million students.The target has been achieved ahead of the deadline which was 15 August 2022.Q. What is the National Intellectual Property Awareness Mission (NIPAM)?A.About:The pan-India mission aims to provide awareness on intellectual property and its rights to 1 million students. Read More...
Q. Why in News?A. Recently, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has invoked the Essential Commodities Act of 1955 to curb tur dal prices surging.States and Union Territories are asked to direct 'stockholder entities to upload the data of stocks held by them' on an online monitoring portal of the Department of Consumer Affairs, on a weekly basis.Q. Why Invoking the Act?A.Tur prices have risen since mid-July 2022 amid slow progress in Kharif sow... Read More...
Q. Why is this in News?A. In July 2022, Gold Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) witnessed a net outflow of Rs 457 crore as investors parked their money in other asset classes as part of their portfolio rebalancing strategy.This was in comparison to a net inflow of Rs 135 crore in June 2022.Q. What are Gold Exchange Traded Funds?A.About:Gold ETF, which aims to track the domestic physical gold price, are passive investm... Read More...
Q Why is this in News? A. On World Biofuel Day 2022, the government of India announced a 2nd generation (2G) ethanol plant to be set up at the Indian Oil Corporation’s refinery in Haryana. This ethanol plant will help reduce air pollution from the Delhi and the NCR region along with generating additional income and green fuel. Q. What is World Biofuel Day? A. About: It is celebr... Read More...
Q. Why is this in News?A. On Independence Day, ATAG, an indigenously developed howitzer, became part of a 21-gun salute at the Red Fort.Q. What do we Know about the ATAGS?A.About:The ATAGS is an indigenous 155 mm x 52 calibre howitzer gun.Howitzers is an umbrella term for a category of long-range artillery guns.It is developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) with its Pune-based facility Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE) ... Read More...
Q. Why is this in News?A. A petition has been filed in the Delhi High Court to stop a person, who has been suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome since 2014, from travelling to Europe to undergo a physician-assisted euthanasia.Q. What is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?A.About:It is a serious and debilitating disease that affects the nervous system, the immune system and the body’s production of energy... Read More...
Q. Why is this in news?A. Google Street View is launched in ten cities of India under the Guidelines of the National Geospatial Policy (NGP), 2021.NGP 2021 lets Indian companies collect map data and license it to others.Q. What is Google Street View?A. About:Google Street View is an immersive 360-degree view of a location captured using special cameras mounted on vehicles or on backpacks by data collectors moving around the city streets.The images are then patched together... Read More...
Q. Why is this in news? A. As per the recent analysis done by Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), Ground water levels in some parts of the Country are declining. The data collected by CGWB during November 2021 when compared with the decadal mean of November 2011 to Nov 2020 indicates that about 70% wells have registered rise in water level whereas, about 30% of the wells monitored have registered decline in ground water level mostly in the range of 0–2 m. Q.What is the Present Status of Groundwater Depletion in India? A. Read More...
Q. Why is this in News?A. Recently, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India tabled a report in Parliament on whether steps taken by the Union Environment Ministry to conserve India’s coastal ecosystems have been successful.This latest report contains the observations from an audit of Conservation of Coastal Ecosystems from 2015-20.Q. Why did the CAG conduct this Audit?AThe CAG has a constitutional mandate to investigate and report on publicly funded programmes. Read More...
Q. Why is this in News? A. Recently, Chief Justice of India said Fundamental Duties in the Constitution are not merely to serve a "pedantic or technical" purpose, but they were incorporated as the key to social transformation. Q. How were the Fundamental Duties Incorporated? A. The idea of Fundamental Duties is inspired from the Constitution of Russia (erstwhile Soviet Union). These were incorporated in Part IV-A of the Constitution b... Read More...
Q. Why is this in news?A.The government is planning a new car assessment programme (NCAP) in India, to be called the Bharat NCAP or BNCAP. Q. What is Bharat NCAP?A.Bharat NCAP is a new car safety assessment programme which proposes a mechanism of awarding ‘Star Ratings’ to automobiles based upon their performance in crash tests.BNCAP standard is aligned with global benchmarks and it is beyond minimum regulatory requirements.The proposed Bharat NCAP assessment will allocate Star Ratings from 1 to 5 stars.The testing of vehicles for this prog... Read More...
Q. Why is this in news?A. The issue of holding simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections had been referred to the Law Commission for a practicable road map and a framework can be worked out, the Union Law Minister informed the Lok Sabha. Q. What are simultaneous polls?A.Currently, elections to the state assemblies and the Lok Sabha are held separately — that is whenever the incumbent government’s five-year term ends or whenever it is dissolved due to various reasons.This applies to both the state legislatures and the Lok Sabha. The terms of Legislat... Read More...