Q Why is it in News ?A A standing committee of Parliament, tabled last week, has criticised the functioning of the development programme for de-notified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes.Q Who are de-notified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes?A These are communities who are the most vulnerable and deprived.Denotified tribes (DNTs) are communities that were ‘notified’ as being ‘born criminal’ during the British regime under a series of laws starting with the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871.They mostly belong to the medieval period Banjaras.Nomadic and semi-... Read More...
Q What is the context ?A The ongoing tensions between Russia and Ukraine have led to the prices of crude oil shooting to $130/barrel. Green hydrogen is an emerging option that will help reduce India’s vulnerability to such price shocks.Q What are the deficiencies in Renewable Energy Technologies ?A Intermittent nature of Renewable Energy: Renewable Energy can only be generated intermittently.Battery technology cannot store electricity at a grid scale.Financial viability: There are question marks on the financial viability of green power.... Read More...
Q Why is it in News ?A President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s declared a state of Emergency in Sri Lanka.Q What is Background of Sri Lankan Crisis ?A Sri Lanka’s economic crisis can be traced to two key developments— the Easter Sunday bombings of 2019 that deterred tourists, and the pandemic since early 2020.These events stalled recovery and further drained the economy.As it grappled with an unprecedented challenge, the Rajapaksa regime made policy choices that are now proving to be costly.It cut the government’s tax revenue substantially and rushed into an ... Read More...
Q What is the context ?A The Lok Sabha recently passed a bill to amend a constitutional order to include Darlong, a tribal clan in Tripura which was among the generic Halam community till now, in the list of Scheduled Tribes (ST).Q Who are Darlongs?A Darlong is a tribal community of 11,000 people.Despite its small population, the community has a high prevalence of education, cultural activities and members of the community are serving in different high positions in the local administration.Darlongs, despite being Scheduled Tribes, were never given ST certificat... Read More...
Main Examination PatternInstructionsAnswer all TEN of the following questions.Time : 90 MinutesThe number of marks carried by each question and world limits are indicated at the end of the question.Please email your answer sheet on sriramsiasteam@gmail.com. Please mention your name, batch and Test Paper name in Subject line. Q1. India is an “indestructible union of destructible states”. In this context, explain the Parliament's power to reorganise the states under Articl... Read More...
Q Why is it in News ?A Sri Lanka’s economic crisis is aggravating rapidly, putting citizens through enormous hardship.Q What are the reasons for the Crisis ?A The first wave of the pandemic in 2020 offered early and sure signs of distress.In-migration: Thousands of Sri Lankan labourers in West Asian countries were left stranded and returned jobless.Shut-down: Garment factories and tea estates could not function, as infections raged in clusters. Tourism sector to saw a big dip.Domestic job losses: Thousand... Read More...
Q What is the context ?A South Asia became a major player in the global textiles and clothing market with the onset of the third wave of global production.Q What is status of textile industry in Bangladesh ?A Bangladesh overtook India in exports in the past decade as Indian labour costs resulted in products becoming 20% more expensive.Bangladesh joined the league in the 1980s, owing to the outbreak of the civil war in Sri Lanka.Lower production costs and free trade agreements with western buyers are what favour Bangladesh, which falls third in th... Read More...
Q Why is it in News ?A Google Pay has recently launched a new feature in India, ‘Tap to pay for UPI’, in collaboration with Pine Labs. The feature makes use of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.The functionality will allow users with NFC-enabled Android smartphones and UPI (Unified Payments Interface) accounts linked to Google Pay to carry out transactions just by tapping their phones on any Pine Labs Android point-of-sale (POS) terminal across the country.The process is much faster compared to scanning a QR code or entering the UPI-linked mobile number which has been the conventional way ti... Read More...
Q What is the context ?A The Union government has extended the scheme to provide Rs.40 crore grants-in-aid to the Dalai Lama’s Central Tibetan Relief Committee (CTRC) for another five years, up to fiscal year 2025-26.The scheme provides for an annual grant of Rs.8 crore to CTRC to meet the administrative expenses of Settlement Offices and social welfare expenses for Tibetan refugees staying in Tibetan settlements spread across 12 States/UTs in the country.Q What is the Central Tibetan Relief Committee?A It was launched in 2015. The ma... Read More...
Q Why is it in News ?A Recently, the government has kept interest rates unchanged on Small savings Schemes, including NSC (National Savings Certificate) and PPF (Public Provident Fund) for the first quarter of 2022-23 (April-June) due to an elevated level of inflation.Q What are the Small Saving Schemes/Instruments?A They are the major source of household savings in India and comprise 12 instruments.The depositors get an assured interest on their money.Collections from all small savings instruments are credited to the Nati... Read More...
Q What is the context ?A Recently, the Union Cabinet approved the “Raising and Accelerating MSME Performance” (RAMP) scheme which would commence in FY 2022-23.It is in line with the recommendations made by U K Sinha Committee, KV Kamath Committee and Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (PMEAC).The Reserve Bank of India had constituted an ‘Expert Committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises’ under the Chairmanship of Shri U K Sinha in 2019 to suggest long-term measures for the economic and financial sustainability of the MSME sector. Read More...
Q. Why is this in news?A. A decorated Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer and UPSC CSE topper from 2010, who resigned from the service in protest against the “unabated” killings in Kashmir in 2019, has been reinstated.Q. What rules apply when an IAS officer chooses to resign?A.A resignation is a formal intimation in writing by an officer of his/her intention or a proposal to leave the IAS, either immediately or at a specified date in the future.Guidelines of the Department of Personnel, the cadre controlling department for the IAS, say that a resignation has to be clea... Read More...
Q. Why is this in news?A. In order to familiarize women with the latest techniques in agriculture and allied sectors, trainings are being imparted to women farmers under schemes of Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare and Ministry of Rural Development.The guidelines of the various beneficiary-oriented schemes of the Department of Agriculture & Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW), provide that States and other Implementing Agencies to incur atleast 30% expenditure on women farmers.Q. What are some of the schemes having s... Read More...
Q. Why is this in news?A. West Bengal is experiencing a crisis that has led to the closure of several Jute Mills.Q. What is the Issue?A.High Rate of Procurement by Mills:Mills are procuring raw jute at prices higher than what they are selling them at after processing.Mills do not acquire their raw material directly from the farmers because:Farmers are far-off from the mills locations:Mills would have to go to multiple farmers to acquire the requisite quantity as no single farmer produces enough to... Read More...
Q. Why is this in news?A. NASA’s first crewed landing of the Artemis program on the moon is expected to take place in 2026. Meanwhile, NASA will launch Artemis 1 in May 2022.Reasons for the delay: NASA said it needed time to develop and test the human landing system and NASA’s next generation spacesuits. Q. What is Artemis?A. Artemis stands for Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of Moon’s Interaction with the Sun.It is NASA’s next mission to t... Read More...
Q. Why is this in news?A. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has asked all departments of the Central Government to collect the data on inadequacy of representation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes before implementing the policy of reservation in promotion in government offices. Q. What are the Specified conditions?A. The DoPT order has also specified conditions (Based on the Supreme Court verdict) to be met while implementing the policy of reservation in promotions.The conditions include:Collectio... Read More...
Q. Why is this in news ?A. On April 22, a Bench of the Supreme Court of India, led by Justice U.U. Lalit, decided to critically examine the routine and abrupt way in which trial judges often impose the death penalty on convicts.Q. What is Individualistic approach?A. The challenge before the Court in the instant case of Irfan vs State of Madhya Pradesh was to identify the mitigating circumstances and to ensure a convict-centric approach so that the imposition of capital punishment becomes rarer, fairer, and principled.According to the Court, “a ‘one size fit for all’... Read More...
Q. Why is this in news?A. In a move to make legal aid more accessible for women, the National Commission for Women (NCW) in collaboration with Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA) has launched a legal aid clinic which will act as a single-window facility for resolving grievances of women by offering them free legal assistance.NCW is also planning to set up similar legal services clinics in other State Commissions for Women.Q. What is legal aid clinic?A. Under the new legal aid clinic, counselling... Read More...
Q. Why is this in news?A. A plea has been moved in the Supreme Court by two Kashmir residents challenging the Centre’s decision to constitute the delimitation commission for redrawing the assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Q. What’s the issue?A. The plea sought declaration that the increase of number of seats from 107 to 114 (including 24 seats in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) in Jammu & Kashmir is Ultra vires the Constitutional Provisions such as Articles 14, 81, 82, 170, 330 and 332 and Statutory Provisions... Read More...
Q. Why is this in news?A. Recently a survey pointed that, the ‘Mission Antyodaya’ project bears great promise to eradicate poverty in its multiple dimensions among rural households.Q. What is Mission Antyodaya?A. The ‘Mission Antyodaya’ project was launched by the Government of India in 2017-18.The Ministry of Panchayati Raj and the Ministry of Rural Development act as the nodal agents to take the mission forward.Key goals: The main objective of ‘Mission Antyodaya’ is to ensure optimum use of reso... Read More...