Friday, 17th June 2022

Table of contents

1   News Snapshot

●  

Concerns Related to the Agnipath Scheme

●  

World Competitiveness Index 2022

●  

Digital News Report 2022 - Edukemy Current Affairs

2   This Day in History

●  

Hindu Succession Act 1956 - Edukemy Current Affairs

3   Terms & Concepts

●  

Biomass co-firing - Edukemy Current Affairs

●  

Great Indian Hornbill - Edukemy Current Affairs

●  

Northern Ireland Protocol - Edukemy Current Affairs

●  

FATF Grey list - Edukemy Current Affairs

4   Editorial of the day

●  

Our employment data should be interpreted cautiously: LiveMint

●  

Efforts to Fill Death Penalty Procedural Gaps

5   Case Study of the Day

●  

Krishi Network - Edukemy Current Affairs

.... Show less Show more
Keywords: Agnipath, Armed force, recruitment, Agniveers, Defence, GS Paper 2
News Snapshot

World Competitiveness Index 2022


In News

The World Competitiveness Index compiled by the Institute for Management Development has been released recently.

About the Index

  • The World Competitiveness Index, is a comprehensive annual report that ranks 63 economies based on how they manage their competencies to achieve long-term value creation.

  • It assesses the extent to which a country promotes the prosperity of its people by measuring economic well-being via hard data and survey responses from executives.
  • It provides benchmarking, trends, statistics and survey data based on extensive research.
  • It analyzes and ranks countries according to how they manage their competencies to achieve long-term value creation.

Key Rankings of the World Competitiveness Index 2022

  • Denmark tops the list from the third position last year, while Switzerland slipped from the top ranking to the second position and Singapore regained the third spot from fifth.
  • Others in the top 10 include Sweden at the 4th position, followed by Hong Kong SAR (5th), the Netherlands (6th), Taiwan (7th), Finland (8th), Norway (9th), and the USA (10th).
  • Meanwhile, the top-performing Asian economies are Singapore (3rd), Hong Kong (5th), Taiwan (7th), China (17th), and Australia (19th).

India’s Ranking

  • India has witnessed the sharpest rise among the Asian economies, with a six-position jump from 43rd to 37th rank in the index.
  • After a stable but stagnant five years, 2022 witnessed significant improvement in the competitiveness of the Indian economy, largely due to gains in economic performance (from 37th to 28th).
  • The domestic economy has experienced a stratospheric rise from 30th to 9th position in a year.
  • The labour market, a key sub-factor in the business efficiency parameter, moved up from 15th to 6th, while management practices and business attitudes and values also made major leaps.
  • Major improvements in the context of retrospective taxes in 2021, India appears to have restored the trust of the business community.
    • Its re-regulation of several sectors, including drones, space, and geo-spatial mapping, have also likely played a role in performance.
  • India is also a driving force in the global movement to fight climate change and its pledge of net-zero by 2070 at the COP26.
  • The challenges that India has to face include:
    • managing trade disruptions and energy security
    • maintaining high GDP growth post the pandemic
    • skill development, and employment generation
    • asset monetization and resource mobilization for infrastructure development.
  • The top five attractive factors of India’s economy for business include:
    • a skilled workforce
    • cost competitiveness
    • dynamism of the economy
    • high educational level and
    • open and positive attitudes

Global level Challenges

  • Inflationary pressure is affecting most economies along with COVID and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
  • The three most important trends found to be impacting businesses in 2022 are inflationary pressures (50 percent), geopolitical conflicts (49%), and supply chain bottlenecks (48%) with COVID being the fourth (43%).

Source:

Image source:

Keywords: GS Paper 3- Economy- World Competitiveness Index 2022, Institute for Management Development, COP 26, Russia invasion of Ukraine.
News Snapshot

Digital News Report 2022 - Edukemy Current Affairs


In News

The Digital News Report 2022 has been recently released by Reuters Institute.

About the Report

  • The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism tracks how news is consumed in different countries. 
  • It is dedicated to exploring the future of journalismworldwide through debate, engagement, and research.
  • This year’s report, the eleventh overall, is based on a survey conducted through online questionnaires covering 46 markets in six continents.

Highlights of the Report

  • The report broadly documents the ways in which “the connection between journalism and much of the public may be fraying”.
  • It flags six major trends which could have wider socio-political implications.
    • People are trusting news content less.
    • Consumption of traditional news media declined in nearly all the countries surveyed.

    • The proportion of news consumers who say that they “avoid news” has risen sharply across countries- described as “selective avoidance”.
    • Despite small increases in the proportion of people willing to pay for online news (mostly in richer countries), the growth in digital subscriptions for news content seems to be levelling off.
    • The smartphone has become the dominant way in which most people first access news in the morning.
    • While Facebook remained the most-used social network for news, it is TikTok that has become the fastest-growing network. TikTok, however, is currently banned in India.
  • Preferred Modes of News Consumption: Across markets and age groups, text is still kingwhen it comes to news consumption. However, younger audiences were more likely to say they watch the news.
  • Main Gateway to News: Smartphonebeing the preferred mode of access, direct access to apps and websites were becoming less important over time, giving ground to social media, which is becoming more important as a gateway to news due to its ubiquity and convenience.
    • At an aggregate level, the social media preference is (28%) surging ahead of direct access (23%).

Trends in India

  • India is a strongly mobile-focused market.
  • 72%of the survey respondents accessed news through smartphones and 35% did so via computers.
  • 84% of the Indianrespondents sourced news online, 63% from social   media, 59% from television, and 49% from print.
  • YouTube (53%) and WhatsApp (51%)were the top social media platforms for sourcing news.
  • India has registered asmall increase in the level of trust, with 41% trusting news overall.
  • A minority of respondents - 36% and 35% - felt that legacy print brands and public broadcasters lacked undue political influence and business influence, respectively.

Source:

Image source:

Keywords: Digital News Report 2022, News, media, Social Media, economy, GS Paper 3, Society and Social Issues, GS Paper 2, GS Paper 3
This Day in History

Hindu Succession Act 1956 - Edukemy Current Affairs


On June 17, 1956 the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 obtained the President's assent and was signed into law. The Hindu Succession Act, 1956 is an Act relating to the succession and inheritance of property. This Act lays down a comprehensive and uniform system which incorporates both succession and inheritance. This Act also deals with intestate or unwilled (testamentary) succession. Therefore, this Act combines all the aspects of Hindu succession and brings them into its ambit.

This article shall further explore the applicability, and the basic terms and definitions and the rules for succession in the case of males and females. This act gives a broad view of who can be given the property and the rights available for both males and females while acquiring a property. This law is applicable to anyone who is a Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Sikh by religion. Any person who is not a Muslim, Christian, Parsi or Jew by religion unless otherwise proven by law that this particular person does not come under the ambit of this law.  This section is not applicable to the Schedule tribes covered under the meaning of section 366(25).

Sources:

Keywords: The Hindu Succession Act, History, Law, GS Paper 2, GS Paper 1
Terms & Concepts

Biomass co-firing - Edukemy Current Affairs


  • Context: Unavailability of Biomass Pellets of agricultural residues has been slowing down the implementation of the Power Ministry’s direction to Co-Fire biomass with coalin thermal power plants.

  • Biomass co-firing is the practice of substituting a part of the fuel with biomassat coal thermal plants which is adding biomass as a partial substitute fuel in high efficiency coal boilers.
  • Co-firing isan option to convert biomass to electricity, in an efficient, cost-effective and clean way, and to reduce GHG emissions of the power plant.
  • It curbs emissions from open burning of crop residue (stubble burning) and also decarbonises the process of electricity generation using coal (substituting 5-7 % of coal with biomass in coal-based power plants can save 38 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions).
  • However in India, the existing infrastructure is not robust enoughto turn this into reality.
  • India’s pellet manufacturing capacity is 7,000 tonnes per day at presentagainst the requirement of 95,000-96,000 tonnes of biomass pellets for per day for co-firing.
  • Storing these pellets for long durations is also a problem as they absorb moisture from air quickly, rendering them useless for co-firing.

Source:

Image source:

Keywords: GS Paper 3: Environment and Ecology- Biomass co-firing, GHG emissions, Stubble burning, Power Ministry, Renewable Energy, Air pollution.
Terms & Concepts

Great Indian Hornbill - Edukemy Current Affairs


  • Context: The Nagaland Police have recently arrested three people under the Wildlife and Arms Act for torturing and killing the Great Indian Hornbill.
  • The Great Indian Hornbill, a member of the hornbill family, is found in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.

  • Due to its declining numbers and fragmented distribution, the species was listed as ‘Vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List in 2018.
    • The vulnerable (VU) category lists those species which possess a very high risk of global extinction. 
  • They are the cultural symbols of ethnic communities in the northeast, especially theNyishi of Arunachal Pradesh.
  • The Hornbill festival celebrated in Nagalandis named after the bird- the most admired bird for the Nagas.
  • They are referred to as ‘forest engineers’ or ‘farmers of forest’ for playing a key role in dispersing seeds of tropical treesand indicate the prosperity and balance of the forest they build nests in.
  • Forest loss and hunting pose substantial threat to the species.
  • It is mainly hunted for food as well as for its casque and tail feathers, which are used as adornments by local communities.
  • Its fat is used for medical treatments, gun polishing etc.

Source:

Image source:

Keywords: GS Paper 3- Environment and Ecology- Great Indian Hornbill, Nagaland, IUCN Red List, vulnerable, Nyishi, Arunachal Pradesh, Wildlife and Arms Act.
Terms & Concepts

Northern Ireland Protocol - Edukemy Current Affairs


  • Context: The United Kingdom (UK) has recently highlighted the need to renegotiate the Northern Ireland Protocol in the backdrop of its potential to create problems.
  • Northern Ireland Protocol deals with the border issue between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
  • Northern Ireland is part of the UK and the Republic of Ireland remains part of the European Union (EU).

  • Need for the Protocol:
    • During Brexit negotiations, all the parties had agreed on protecting the 1998 Northern Ireland peace deal.
    • This protocol means that, keeping the land border open and avoiding setting up new infrastructure like cameras and border posts.
    • This was easy to do when Ireland and Northern Ireland were part of the EU as both the parties automatically shared the same EU rules on trade and no checks were required on goods travelling between them.
    • However, in the backdrop of Brexit, new arrangement was required because EU requires goods like milk and eggs to be checked when they arrive from non-EU countries, while products like chilled meat is not allowed to enter EU at all.
  • Under the Northern Ireland Protocol it was agreed that Northern Ireland will continue to follow EU rules on product standards in order to prevent checks across the border.
  • Goods entering Northern Ireland from Scotland, England or Wales would be inspected.

Source:

Image source:

Keywords: GS Paper 2: International Relations: UK, Northern Ireland Protocol, Brexit, Democratic governance issues, Trade and services in UK, Good Friday Agreement.
Terms & Concepts

FATF Grey list - Edukemy Current Affairs


  • Context: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), is expected to decide whether to take Pakistan off the ‘grey’ list at the end of its ongoing plenary session in Berlin.
  • As of March 2022, there are 23 countries on the FATF’s increased monitoring list — officially referred to as “jurisdictions with strategic deficiencies”.

 

    • It includes Pakistan, Syria, Turkey, Myanmar, Philippines, South Sudan, Uganda, and Yemen.
  • FATF was established in July 1989 by a G-7 Summit in Paris, initially to examine and develop measures to combat money laundering.
    • After 9/11 attack, its mandate was expanded to include terror financing, and other threats to global financial networks.
  • The FATF currently comprises 37 member jurisdictions and also two regional organizations - European Commission and Gulf Cooperation Council. India has been a member of the FATF since 2010.
  • Lists under FATF:
    • Grey List (Warning): Countries that are considered safe haven for supporting terror funding and money laundering are put in the FATF grey list.
    • Black List (support terror funding and money laundering activities): Countries known as Non-Cooperative Countries or Territories (NCCTs) are put in the blacklist. Presently only Iran and North Korea is under this list.

Sources:

Image Source:

Keywords: GS Paper 3- Security, FATF, Grey List, Black List, 9/11 attack, terror financing, G-7 Summit, Money Laundering
Editorial of the day

Our employment data should be interpreted cautiously: LiveMint


Essence: Ministry of statistics and programme implementation released the 4th annual report of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) for the reference period July 2020 to June 2021.

Author urges policy makers and readers to interpret findings of PLFS cautiously and critically. A causal interpretation of the findings of the report may lead to conclusion that labor force participation is increasing and unemployment rate is on decline, suggesting economic recovery.

However, a deeper study would reveal increasing informalization and quality of job, distressed families forced to send more people to the workforce and increase in employment in agriculture. Employment scenario in India yet to show unmistakable signs of recovery.

Why should you read this article?

  • To critically understand employment scenarios in India in the light of recently published PLFS data.

Source:

Keywords: PLFS 4, PLFS 2020-21, Employment, UPSC, GS Paper 3
Editorial of the day

Efforts to Fill Death Penalty Procedural Gaps


Essence: The Supreme Court's endeavour to improve the death penalty's administration is crucial. It will be difficult, however, to get significant compliance at all levels of the judiciary. Due to unprincipled sentencing, arbitrariness, and subjectivity, there has long been a judicial crisis in death sentence sentencing. Crime-related factors, such as the nature of the crime and its violence, are frequently prominent concerns. There hasn't been much discussion about using the socioeconomic status of death row inmates as a mitigating factor.

The manner in which death sentence sentencing is carried out at various levels of the judiciary is unsustainable from a constitutional standpoint. Attempts to bring procedural coherence and integrity to the fore will be difficult. The way judges handle sentencing information is a Pandora's box that will surely open.

Why should you read this article?

  • To comprehend the procedural flaws in capital punishment sentencing.
  • To understand the manner in which death sentence is carried out at various levels of the judiciary is unsustainable from a constitutional standpoint.

Source:

Keywords: Death Penalty, Death Sentence, judiciary, GS Paper 2
Case Study of the Day

Krishi Network - Edukemy Current Affairs


Background

  • Correct information at critical phases of farming can help extensively from pest control to high yield.
  • A platform Krishi Network is working in this regard focussing on the development of farmers.

About the Platform

  • Founded by IIT-Kharagpur alumni Ashish Mishra and Siddhant Bhomia, this platform aims to make essential information more accessible to farmers, allowing them to generate larger income.
  • Providing a mix of online and offline support, the platform has also on-boarded agri-brands, agri-input merchants, and other stakeholders in the agricultural supply chain.
  • Facilitating all this work online is the Krishi Network app, currently available in Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, and English.
  • Currently, the platform is linked to 30 lakh farmers. It gives professional advice for making crucial farm decisions through experienced and trusted farmers in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra.
  • Unlike other firms that sell inputs, sell outputs, or provide finance, it provides immediate and correct answers to all types of agri-related technical inquiries a farmer may have.
  • The Krishi Network mobile application information has helped reduce crop loss by controlling pests.

Quote: The key lies in empowering the millions of smallholder producers and landless workers who form the backbone of rural economy in most developing countries to row their incomes and improve their livelihoods by raising agricultural productivity and engaging in markets.- James Dargie

Source:

Keywords: UPSC, GS Paper 2, GS Paper 3, agriculture, Krishi Network, Development, farmers, Case study
Rating 0.0
Please rate the article below, your opinion matter to us
A notification message..

Share the article

Subscribe now

Get Latest Updates on Offers, Event dates, and free Mentorship sessions.

*you’ll be agreeing to our Terms & Conditions
Get in touch with our Expert Academic Counsellors

Get in touch with our Expert Academic Counsellors 👋

Preferred time to call

FAQs

UPSC Daily Current Affairs focuses on learning current events on a daily basis. An aspirant needs to study regular and updated information about current events, news, and relevant topics that are important for UPSC aspirants. It covers national and international affairs, government policies, socio-economic issues, science and technology advancements, and more.

UPSC Daily Current Affairs provides aspirants with a concise and comprehensive overview of the latest happenings and developments across various fields. It helps aspirants stay updated with current affairs and provides them with valuable insights and analysis, which are essential for answering questions in the UPSC examinations. It enhances their knowledge, analytical skills, and ability to connect current affairs with the UPSC syllabus.

UPSC Daily Current Affairs covers a wide range of topics, including politics, economics, science and technology, environment, social issues, governance, international relations, and more. It offers news summaries, in-depth analyses, editorials, opinion pieces, and relevant study materials. It also provides practice questions and quizzes to help aspirants test their understanding of current affairs.

Edukemy's UPSC Daily Current Affairs can be accessed through:

  • UPSC Daily Current Affairs can be accessed through Current Affairs tab at the top of the Main Page of Edukemy. 
  • Edukemy Mobile app: The Daily Current Affairs can also be access through Edukemy Mobile App. 
  • Social media: Follow Edukemy’s official social media accounts or pages that provide UPSC Daily Current Affairs updates, including Facebook, Twitter, or Telegram channels.
Ask an Expert

Enquiry

Help us make sure you are you through an OTP:

Please enter correct Name

Please authenticate via OTP

Resend OTP
Please enter correct mobile number
Please enter OTP

Please enter correct Name
Resend OTP
Please enter correct mobile number

OTP has been sent.

Please enter OTP