Q Why is it in News ? A This year, the onset of southwest monsoon over Kerala is likely to be earlier than the normal date of onset. The monsoon onset over Kerala is likely to be on May 27 with a model error of four days," India Meteorological Department (IMD) stated last week. Indian monsoon, the most prominent of the world’s monsoon systems, which primarily affects India and its surrounding water bodies. It blows from the northeast during cooler months and reverses direction to blow from the southwest during the warmest months of the year. Q What is Onset of Monsoon ? Read More...
Q Why is it in News ? A India is likely to miss its 2022 target of installing 100 gigawatts (GW) of solar power capacity a/c to a report. This is because of rooftop solar lagging behind, the authors say. Q What is India’s Solar Policy ? A Since 2011, India’s solar sector has grown at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 59% from 0.5GW in 2011 to 55GW in 2021. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), also known as the National Solar Mission (NSM), was commenced in January 2010. It marked the first time the govern... Read More...
Q Why is it in News ? A The introduction of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) can be seen as a step in the direction of aligning India with international standards. Q What is CUET ? A The UGC’s rationale for introducing the test is to address the disparity in the allocation of marks by different examination boards, and provide a “level playing field” to students from different sections of society and diverse regions. The CUET has been envisaged as a corrective. Of the 48 central universities, 45 seem to have t... 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 l... 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... 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 ai... Read More...
Q What is the context ? A Recently, the Centre announced to stop the purchase of excess parboiled rice after which Telangana Chief Minister and members of his Cabinet staged a dharna demanding a uniform paddy procurement policy. Q What is Parboiled Rice? A The dictionary meaning of ‘parboil’ is ‘partly cooked by boiling’. Thus, the expression parboiled rice refers to rice that has been partially boiled at the paddy stage, before milling. Parboiling of rice is not... Read More...
Q What is the context ? A Parliament’s Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj has asked the government to roll back the system of caste-based wages, under which NREGS workers are paid based on whether they belong to a Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, or Others. Q What is the caste-based payment system? A Last year, the Rural Development Ministry sent an advisory to states asking them to take necessary action for payment of wages to NREGS workers according to their categories — SC, ST, and Others. Under the new system, i... Read More...
Q Why is it in News ? A Last week, the Assam government informed the Assembly that nearly 1.44 lakh illegal foreigners had been identified in the state this year based on the 1985 Assam Accord, and around 30,000 of them had been deported to their country of origin. Q Who is a foreigner under the Assam Accord? A The Assam Accord was signed in 1985 by the Centre and the Assam government with the All Assam Student Union (AASU) and the All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad. This movement had spearheaded the 1979-85 Assam Movement against migration from Bangladesh. Read More...
Q Why is it in News ? A The global supply of semiconductors is now being threatened once again by the Ukraine crisis on account of supply of two key raw materials — neon and palladium — that are at a risk of being constrained. Q What are Semiconductors? A A semiconductor sits between a conductor and an insulator and is commonly used in the development of electronic chips, computing components, and devices. It’s generally created using silicon, germanium, and other pure elements. Semicon... Read More...
Q What is the context ? A Many Indian gaming companies have expressed their interest in introducing elements of Blockchain technology into their games in the near future. Q What is Blockchain? A Blockchain is a decentralised database that stores information. It relies on technology that allows for the storage of identical copies of this information on multiple computers in a network. Q What are blockchain games? A To revisit our definition of blockchain games: t... Read More...
Q Why is it in News ? A The National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) has now deployed “PARAM Ganga”, a supercomputer at IIT Roorkee, with a supercomputing capacity of 1.66 Petaflops. Q What is a Supercomputer? A A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instructions per second (MIPS). Since 2017, there are supercomputers which can perform over a hundred quad... Read More...
Q What is the context ? A Reports suggest that crude oil prices soared and touched almost $140 per barrel mark amid Russian invasion of Ukraine. This has posed a risk of causing Stagflation in India. Q What is Stagflation? A Stagflation is a stagnant growth and persistently high inflation. It, thus, describes a rather rare and curious condition of an economy. Iain Macleod, a Conservative Party MP in the United Kingdom, is known to have coined the phrase during his speech on the UK economy in November 1965. Typically, rising inflation happens... Read More...
Q Why is it in News ? A Amid Russia’s war on Ukraine, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) has been rapidly deploying troops to member countries but has clarified that it has no plans of sending them to Ukraine. Q What is NATO? A NATO is a military alliance established by the North Atlantic Treaty (also called the Washington Treaty) of April 4, 1949. It sought to create a counterweight to Soviet armies stationed in Central and Eastern Europe after World War II. Its original members were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Ita... Read More...
Q Why is it in News ? A The Union government has filed a draft document with the stock market regulator for selling 5% of its shares in the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India. Q What are details of the IPO ? A The IPO is a 100% OFS [offer for sale] by the Government of India and entails no fresh issue of shares by LIC. 6 Crore shares are on offer representing 5% of the government’s equity in the firm. As much as 10% of the offer could be reserved for LIC policyholders, as per the regulatory filing, and another 5% of the shares may be ... Read More...
Q What is the context ? A Finance Secretary has accused rating agencies of “double standards” when assessing emerging markets and developing economies. Fitch, a rating agency, has termed India as the most indebted emerging market. It claimed that the latest budget did not provide clarity on fiscal consolidation plans. Q What is a Rating Agency? A Rating agencies assess the creditworthiness or potential of an equity, debt or country. Their reports are read by investors to make an informed decision o... Read More...
Q Why is it in News ? A Scientists in the United Kingdom have achieved a new milestone in producing nuclear fusion energy or imitating the way energy is produced in the Sun. The record and scientific data from these crucial experiments are a major boost for ITER. Q What is ITER Project ? A ITER is international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject, which will be the world’s largest magnetic confinement plasma physics experiment. The goal of ITER is to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy for peaceful ... Read More...
Q Why is it in News ? A India runs the risk of being excluded from a proposal it co-authored at the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations, in 2020, to “temporarily waive” intellectual property rights (IPR) held, by primarily Western countries, on vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics for COVID-19. Q What is the case? A India and China are two major global suppliers of medicine. A small group of WTO members was discussing suggestions to exclude drug manufacturers in India and China from prospective waivers to IPR obligations. IP... Read More...
Q Why is it in News ? A Recently, the Union Cabinet set in motion the process to build a Secretariat that will look after the affairs of organising the G20 summit in 2023. India will steer the international body as its President from 1st December 2022 to 30th November 2023, which will lead to the G20 summit to be hosted here. The Secretariat will be functional till February 2024. It will also enable long term capacity building, including knowledge and expertise, for India’s leadership on global issues in multilateral fora. Indonesia assumed the Presidency of G20&nbs... Read More...
Q What is the context ? A Recently, the six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept key policy rates Repo rate, Reverse repo rate and the Bank rate unchanged and retained the accommodative policy stance. This is the tenth consecutive time that the repo rate has remained unchanged. The central bank had last revised the policy rate on 22nd May 2020. Global central banks, including the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank (ECB) have turned hawks and are also expected to hike rate... Read More...