Important topics and their relevance in UPSC CSE exam for October, 26, 2023. If you missed the October, 25, 2023 UPSC CSE exam key from the Indian Express, read it here THE WORLD Hezbollah leader holds talks with Hamas and Islamic Jihad top brass Syllabus: Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance. Mains Examination: General Studies II: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests Key Points to Ponder: • What’s the ongoing story- The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group held talks on Wednesday in Beirut with senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad figures in a key meeting of three top anti-Israel militant groups amid the war raging in Gaza. In neighboring Syria, meanwhile, state media said an Israeli airstrike hit the international airport in the northern city of Aleppo on Wednesday, damaging its runway and putting it out of service. • What Is Hezbollah? • How is it organized? • What role has it played in Lebanese politics? • For Your Information-According to cfr website, Hezbollah is led by Hassan Nasrallah, who took over as secretary-general in 1992 after Israel assassinated the group’s cofounder and previous leader, Abbas Al-Musawi. Nasrallah oversees the seven-member Shura Council and its five subcouncils: the political assembly, the jihad assembly, the parliamentary assembly, the executive assembly, and the judicial assembly. The U.S. State Department estimates that Hezbollah has tens of thousands of members and other supporters worldwide. Hezbollah controls much of Lebanon’s Shiite-majority areas, including parts of Beirut, southern Lebanon, and the eastern Bekaa Valley region. Although Hezbollah is based in Lebanon, its manifesto clarifies that its operations, especially those targeting the United States, are not confined by domestic borders: “The American threat is not local or restricted to a particular region, and as such, confrontation of such a threat must be international as well.” The group has been accused of planning and perpetrating acts of terrorism against Israeli and Jewish targets abroad, and there is evidence of Hezbollah operations in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. • Iran and Hezbollah-Connect the dots • Map Work-Lebanon • The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Hezbollah-Connect the dots • Where does it stand on Israel? • What role has Hezbollah played in the recent Hamas escalated attack on Israel? • How have the United States and other countries treated the group? • How does India see the Hezbollah group? Other Important Articles Covering the same topic: 📍Israel-Hamas conflict: Who are Hezbollah, and why has their presence raised concerns of escalation? Russia passes law to withdraw from ratification of nuclear test ban treaty Syllabus: Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance. Mains Examination: General Studies II: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Key Points to Ponder: • What’s the ongoing story- Russia's parliament completed the passage of a law on Wednesday withdrawing ratification of the global treaty banning nuclear weapons tests, evidence of the deep chill in relations with the United States as Moscow pursues its war in Ukraine. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Russia was not prepared to resume discussing nuclear issues with the U.S. unless Washington dropped its "hostile" policy. • Why Is Russia withdrawing from it? • But why this move by Russia now? • What exactly Russia said regarding the CTBT? • For Your Information-The bill to de-ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) was approved by 156 votes to zero in the upper house after the lower house also passed it unanimously. It now goes to President Vladimir Putin for signing. Putin had requested the change to "mirror" the position of the United States, which signed the CTBT in 1996 but never ratified it. Though it has never formally come into force, the CTBT has made nuclear testing a taboo - no country except North Korea has conducted a test involving a nuclear explosion this century. • What is Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty? • What is the purpose of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty? • How did CTBT come into being? • For Your Information-The United States conducted the world’s first successful nuclear weapons test in July 1945. Four years later, the Soviet Union tested their first nuclear weapon. These tests triggered a decades-long arms race between the two superpowers. Between 1945 and 1996, more than 2,000 nuclear tests were carried out — 1,032 of them by the United States and 715 of them by the Soviet Union, according to the UN. Britain carried out 45 tests, France 210 and China 45. “The radioactive fallout from those tests drew criticism from around the globe. The international community’s concern about the effects on health and the environment continued to grow,” the US Department of State’s article, ‘History of CTBT’, said. As a result, several attempts to curb the explosive tests were made. The 1963 Limited Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (LTBT) was one of the first such attempts. It prohibited nuclear testing in the atmosphere, outer space, and underwater, but underground tests were still permitted. To tackle the limitations of LTBT, a comprehensive test ban was discussed during the negotiation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 1968. However, no agreement was reached on the issue. Six years later, the US and Soviet Union agreed to sign the Threshold Test Ban Treaty (TTBT), which established a nuclear “threshold” by banning the two countries from conducting tests that would produce a yield exceeding 150 kilotons (equivalent to 150,000 tons of TNT). “The mutual restraint imposed by the Treaty reduced the explosive force of new nuclear warheads and bombs, which could otherwise be tested for weapons systems. The TTBT was not intended as a substitute for a comprehensive test ban,” the article added. A major breakthrough only came after the Cold War ended around 1990 and the disintegration of the Soviet Union. As the geopolitical tensions simmered down, the UN took advantage of the situation and adopted the CTBT, which put a blanket ban on the explosive testing of nuclear weapons, on September 10, 1996, and it opened for signature on September 24, 1996. • Which key countries haven’t ratified CTBT? • Did US ratify CTBT? • India, USA, NPT and CTBT-Issues and India’s Apprehension • Did the CTBT stop nuclear testing? Other Important Articles Covering the same topic: 📍Russia may pull out of CTBT: How the treaty tried — and failed — to stop nuclear testing EXPLAINED Mahua case: process, precedent Syllabus: Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc. Main Examination: General Studies II: Parliament and State legislatures—structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these. Key Points to Ponder: • What’s the ongoing story-BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai will appear before the Ethics Committee of Lok Sabha at noon on Thursday in connection with Dubey’s accusation, made in a letter to Speaker Om Birla earlier this month, that Trinamool Congress member Mahua Moitra accepted “bribes” to ask questions in Parliament targeting the Adani Group. The allegations by Dubey, which he has since taken to Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and the Lokpal, are based on information provided by Dehadrai, which were confirmed by real estate developer Darshan Hiranandani subsequently. Hiranandani, a resident of Dubai, has issued a “sworn affidavit” saying Moitra gave him her Parliament login and password so he could post questions on her behalf. • How serious is Nishikant Dubey’s accusation? • For Your Information-Essentially, the question is whether an MP is asking a question in return for some consideration, and whether there is illegal gratification involved. If this is established, then it is a serious issue. If an MP has asked questions and has done other parliamentary work on behalf of somebody who has paid a consideration, then it should actually come to the Privileges Committee because it is a serious breach of privilege and contempt of the House. This is true for all countries that have a parliamentary system. In such a situation, Parliament can exercise its right to expel the member from the House. • What is exactly cash for query case? • Has there been an allegation earlier about an MP handing over access to the Parliament website to someone else? • Is there a rule that specifically bars Members from giving their Parliament login and password to a third person? • So is the Ethics Committee the right forum for a matter such as this? • What will happen once the Committee starts its proceedings on October 26? • What exactly is the Parliamentary Ethics Committee? • What is the primary role of the Ethics Committee? • For Your Information-The members of the Ethics Committee are appointed by the Speaker for a period of one year. The Committee is currently headed by the BJP’s Kaushambi MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar, and includes Vishnu Datt Sharma, Sumedhanand Saraswati, Aparajita Sarangi, Dr Rajdeep Roy, Sunita Duggal, and Dr Subhash Bhamre of the BJP; Ve Vaithilingam, N Uttam Kumar Reddy, and Preneet Kaur (Congress); Balashowry Vallabbhaneni (YSR Congress); Hemant Godse (Shiv Sena); Giridhari Yadav (JD-U); P R Natarajan (CPI-M); and Kunwar Danish Ali (BSP). A Presiding Officers’ Conference held in Delhi in 1996 first mooted the idea of ethics panels for the two Houses. Then Vice President (and Rajya Sabha Chairman) K R Narayanan constituted the Ethics Committee of the Upper House on March 4, 1997, and it was inaugurated that May to oversee the moral and ethical conduct of members and examine cases of misconduct referred to it. The Rules applicable to the Committee of Privileges also apply to the ethics panel. In the case of Lok Sabha, a study group of the House Committee of Privileges, after visiting Australia, the UK, and the US in 1997 to look into practices pertaining to the conduct and ethics of legislators, recommended the constitution of an Ethics Committee, but it could not be taken up by Lok Sabha. The Committee of Privileges finally recommended the constitution of an Ethics Committee during the 13th Lok Sabha. The late Speaker, G M C Balayogi, constituted an ad hoc Ethics Committee in 2000, which became a permanent part of the House only in 2015. In 2005, the two Houses adopted motions to expel 10 Lok Sabha MPs and one Rajya Sabha MP who were accused of agreeing to ask questions in Parliament for money. The motion in Lok Sabha was based on the report of a special committee set up by the Speaker under Chandigarh MP P K Bansal to examine the issue. In Rajya Sabha, the complaint was examined by the House Ethics Committee. The BJP, which lost six MPs, demanded that the Bansal Committee’s report be sent to the Privileges Committee, so that the parliamentarians could defend themselves. Former Lok Sabha Secretary General P D T Achary said there was “a lot of evidence” in the 2005 case — it was based on a sting operation — the challenge in the Mahua Moitra case will be to link the questions asked by the TMC MP to a money trail. Any person can complain against a Member through another Lok Sabha MP, along with evidence of the alleged misconduct, and an affidavit stating that the complaint is not “false, frivolous, or vexatious”. If the Member himself complains, the affidavit is not needed. The Speaker can refer to the Committee any complaint against an MP. The Committee does not entertain complaints based only on media reports or on matters that are sub judice. The Committee makes a prima facie inquiry before deciding to examine a complaint. It makes its recommendations after evaluating the complaint. The Committee presents its report to the Speaker, who asks the House if the report should be taken up for consideration. There is also a provision for a half-hour discussion on the report. • How long could the Committee take to reach a decision and, should they find merit in the complaint, what is the maximum punishment it could recommend? • Could the Committee refer the matter to an investigative agency like the CBI or police? • Mahua Moitra has pointed out that the Ethics Committee has an “absolute majority of BJP members”-Comment • Can the MP appeal a potentially adverse decision in a court of law? Other Important Articles Covering the same topic: 📍Cash for query: Echoes from 18 years ago when 11 MPs were expelled 📍Mahua Moitra and ‘cash for query’ row: How MPs ask questions in Lok Sabha CUBISM Syllabus: Preliminary Examination: History of India and Indian National Movement Mains Examination: General Studies I: History of the world will include events from 18th century such as industrial revolution, world wars, redrawal of national boundaries, colonization, decolonization, political philosophies like communism, capitalism, socialism etc.— their forms and effect on the society. Key Points to Ponder: • What’s the ongoing story-October 25 marks the 142nd birth anniversary of the renowned Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). His work consists of thousands of paintings, drawings, engravings, sculptures, and ceramics. In partnership with French painter George Braque (1882-1963), Picasso pioneered Cubism — a revolutionary visual art movement that began in 1907 and lasted till 1914. Although short-lived, Cubism was one of the most influential approaches to making art in the early 20th Century. It paved the way for the emergence of non-representational art movements, like Surrealism, and inspired artists like Marcel Duchamp, who pioneered conceptual art. • What is Cubism? • What inspired Cubism? • How did Cubism evolve? • What is Pablo Picasso's famous for? • Was Pablo Picasso a Renaissance artist? • What was the impact of Picasso's art? • Picasso had a significant influence on early Indian modernists who visited Europe in the 1950s, including F. N. Souza, Tyeb Mehta, and M. F. Husain, dubbed "India's barefoot Picasso." Can you elaborate impact of Picasso work on Indian artist? Other Important Articles Covering the same topic: 📍Pablo Picasso’s changing oeuvre and how he was once accused of stealing Mona Lisa FRONT PAGE Mumbai civic body bans garbage burning in the open, sends notices to 6,000 construction sites Syllabus: Preliminary Examination: General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change – that do not require subject specialization. Mains Examination: General Studies III: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment. Key Points to Ponder: • What’s the ongoing story-On the day The Indian Express published a report on how Mumbai’s civic body took its eyes off the garbage dumping and its burning, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation ordered a complete ban on burning of garbage in the open. Earlier, the city’s Guardian Minister Deepak Kesarkar said the BMC had sent notices to 6,000 construction sites to install fogging machines and sprinklers. At a press conference Wednesday, Kesarkar also said the BMC is putting in place a process to soon start segregation of waste — extraction of pollutants from the garbage — at its two landfills in Deonar and Kanjurmarg. The new set of guidelines to mitigate air pollution announced by the BMC said, “There shall be a complete ban on open burning anywhere in the geographical area under BMC, especially garbage dumping grounds and possible sites of trash burning.” • The new set of guidelines to mitigate air pollution announced by the BMC-What are those? • Withdrawal of the southwest monsoon in Mumbai and a spike in the pollution burden on the city’s residents-Connect the dots • Why has the air quality been bad in Mumbai of late? • “Mumbai’s overall Air Quality Index touched 191, way worse than Delhi’s 84”-how this happened? • What are the reasons given by experts for the worsening AQI in Mumbai? • “Meteorological conditions play a role in pollution. But it should be clear that the weather or climate cannot generate air pollution. Air quality deteriorates mainly due to anthropogenic sources of emissions, whether local or distant. Meteorological conditions only help to manoeuvre the pollutants in the air”-Discuss • “Mumbai’s geography gives it a distinct advantage”-How? • “The “usual” is becoming “unusual” and getting triggered by additional anthropogenic factors”-Cite the reasons for Mumbai pollution • Do You Know-Last winter, the city experienced record-breaking particulate pollution, which was largely related to the unusual triple dip La Nina conditions — understood as linked to climate change. An abnormal drop in surface temperature in the Pacific Ocean had a telling effect on coastal wind speeds around Mumbai. There was scarcely any wind reversal from across the Arabian Sea, which would otherwise occur every two to three days and disperse pollutants in the air. In other words, the emission from various anthropogenic sources was not cleaned up and the city experienced its worst air of the decade. La Nina has gone this year. However, the withdrawal of the monsoon was delayed till October. The withdrawal time of monsoon always plays a critical role in Mumbai’s air quality. The withdrawal is always followed by an anticyclonic circulation that was right above Mumbai and the surrounding regions during the initial days of October. This led to weak ventilation in the city. At the same time, the transport level winds, much above the surface in the atmosphere, were moderately fast and were blowing towards Mumbai from Lonavala and Khandala in the Sahyadri ranges, around 2,040 ft above sea level. These chilly moderate winds are capable of transporting pollutants towards Mumbai. When these winds started losing energy, they descended near Navi Mumbai and the surrounding coastal region. There they encountered warmer winds which were laden with local dust. When this dust-filled cloud pushed towards Mumbai, it was arrested because of the calm winds, deteriorating the city’s air quality. The fact that PM10 continues to be the major pollutant in the city and the visibility of Mumbai’s residents has been impacted suggests that the major blame for the current worsening of air quality should be ascribed to coarser particles, largely a result of dust emissions. Many development and construction activities are being undertaken across the city — these include the coastal corridor, work on the Metro and other digging activities. Unfavourable weather conditions exploit the emissions from such sources to create pollution. Under normal conditions, windblown dust contributes 26 per cent of PM10 and 19 per cent in PM2.5. However, the spike in pollution indicates that PM10 levels have gone up significantly. Under normal conditions, the transport sector contributes to 14 per cent of PM10 and 31 per cent of PM2.5. However, the stagnating conditions are likely to have caused a change in this mix. • What is the AQI and how does it calculate pollution? • What is PM 2.5 (particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometres) and PM 10 (particulate matter with a diameter of 10 micrometers)? Other Important Articles Covering the same topic: 📍Burning trash, choking air: How Mumbai civic agencies took their eyes off waste mountain 📍Behind Mumbai’s poor air 📍MUMBAI ALARM BELLS Contours of joint theatre commands ready, await Govt nod before tweaks Syllabus: Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance Mains Examination: General Studies III: Various Security forces and agencies and their mandate. Key Points to Ponder: • What’s the ongoing story-The Armed Forces have narrowed down the final contours of the integrated theatre commands with a proposal for theatre commanders under a national defence committee likely to be headed by the Defence Minister, top officials have told The Indian Express. • What are integrated theatre commands? • For Your Information-In the simplest words, it is a unified command under which all the resources of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force are pooled, depending on the threat perception. The commands could be geographical — like looking at a border with a particular country — or thematic, like a command for all maritime threats. Several nations in the world have theatre commands, including the United States and China. The idea of creating an integrated tri-Services command in India is not new — it had been recommended at various levels after the Kargil conflict. When Gen Rawat was appointed Chief of Defence Staff in January 2020 with a mandate to raise such commands within his three-year tenure, the idea was finally brought to the design table. After his appointment, Gen Rawat had commissioned studies within each of the armed forces to come up with ideas of what these commands could look like. These were headed by the Vice Chiefs of the forces. Last year, Gen Rawat had suggested that the first of these commands, the Air Defence Command, could come up by the end of 2020. However, the process has been delayed due to multiple factors, including the Covid-19 pandemic. Officials are now suggesting that some of the new commands could be rolled out by the end of this year. A model with four to five integrated tri-Services theatre commands is under discussion, with each command headed by a three-star officer. This officer, the theatre commander, will report to the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC), which, as the name suggests, includes the three Service chiefs, and is headed by the CDS as its permanent chairman. This brings in a major change — the Service chiefs currently have all the operational control over their forces; operational powers will now move to the COSC. Each of these commands will have the needed assets from all the three forces. Operational control over all of those assets, regardless of the force, will lie with the commander of that theatre. • Is theatre commands a new idea? • What is theaterisation of Armed Forces? • Integrated Theatre Commands of the Indian Armed Forces-Know in detail • Kargil Review Committee’s on theaterisation of Armed Forces -What was there in the report? • What are Theatre Commands? • What work has been done on Theatre commands? • Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC)-Role and Importance • Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) and Chief of Defence Staff-Compare and Contrast Other Important Articles Covering the same topic: 📍The inter-services organisation bill and how it paves the way for establishment of theatre commands THE EDITORIAL PAGE Balance of green power Syllabus: Preliminary Examination: General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change – that do not require subject specialization. Mains Examination: General Studies III: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment. Key Points to Ponder: • What’s the ongoing story- Rohit Chandra Writes: Green industrial policy should not be the exclusive privilege of historically well-endowed states. Otherwise, the energy transition will simply be yet another drain of resources from India’s least developed to its most developed regions. • India’s global commitments and actions toward decarbonisation-What you know so far? • How many coal power plants are in India? • “The creation of the NTPC and Coal India in the mid-1970s was a central solution to a regional problem”-How? • The first wave and second wave of power plant construction in India-Know in detail • “The next wave of power plant construction in India is likely the mass construction of renewable energy assets over the next few decades”-Discuss • India’s massive Renewable Energy build-out so far has largely benefited western and southern states-Comment • India’s energy transition and challenges associated with that-Analyse • Do You Know-The Central Electricity Authority’s report on Optimal Generation Capacity Mix for 2029-2030 establishes a clear expectation of sustained RE growth. According to this report, by 2030, solar and wind will make up almost 51 per cent of total generation capacity (up from less than 20 per cent in 2019) and almost 31 per cent of all generated power (up from 8.3 per cent in 2019). If these projections materialise, they are likely to have major fiscal consequences for states. Research by Sanjay Mitra and me zoom into the regional consequences of this RE build-out, and the accompanying expectation of greater RE procurement by state discoms. India’s massive RE build-out so far has largely benefited western and southern states. In August 2023, 92.5 per cent of all grid-connected RE generation came from eight states. This is largely driven by higher insolation and wind density but also bolstered by favourable state finances and investment environments. Assuming such patterns persist, RE-poor, coal-rich states are likely to face a double hit to state revenues: Coal royalties as a proportion of overall state revenue will decline as coal growth starts slowing later this decade, and the cost of power procurement will increase as new RE contracts are layered on top of existing commitments for firm power. Grid-scale energy storage technologies are still expensive and experimental, and are unlikely to be adopted at a large scale by the end of the decade. Since most coal-rich states have limited grid-scale RE-deployment, they will have to import more power from other states. This means that the quantum of inter-state financial transfers for power procurement will shoot up over the next decade. We find that the combined revenue impact of declining coal royalties and increasing electricity imports could worsen budget deficits of RE-poor power-importing states by almost 8.66 per cent on average, taking them well beyond the norms established by the Fiscal Responsibility and Budgetary Management Act, 2003. • “The energy transition is no doubt complex”-why? • What is ‘Transition to clean energy’? • What is India’s energy transition plan? • What is India’s New Renewables Energy Target? Other Important Articles Covering the same topic: 📍Transition without playbook EXPRESS NETWORK NCF sub-group suggestion to change ‘India’ to ‘Bharat’ not there in final document Syllabus: Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc. Mains Examination: General Studies II: Indian Constitution—historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure. Key Points to Ponder: • What’s the ongoing story- One of the 25 focus groups set up by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) two years ago to provide inputs that would then feed into the new National Curriculum Framework (NCF) has suggested that ‘India’ should be renamed as ‘Bharat’ in social science textbooks. • What is the national curriculum framework? • Why ‘India’ should be renamed as ‘Bharat’ in social science textbooks? • What is “India, that is, Bharat, shall be a Union of States”? • What are the various arguments on ‘Bharat’ or ‘India’? • For Your Information-The first debate on Article 1 was to begin on November 17, 1948. However, on the suggestion of Govind Ballabh Pant, the discussion on the name was postponed to a later date. On September 17, 1949 Dr B R Ambedkar presented to the House the final version of the provision, which included both ‘Bharat’ and ‘India’. Several members expressed themselves against the use of ‘India’, which they saw as a reminder of the colonial past. Seth Govind Das from Jabalpur preferred to place Bharat over India. A popular demand by several members was also to underline that India was a substitute for Bharat in “English language”. “India, that is, Bharat” are not beautiful words for, the name of a country. We should have put the words “Bharat known as India also in foreign countries,” he said. Hari Vishnu Kamath used the example of the Irish Constitution to argue that the word ‘India’ was only a translation of Bharat. “If honourable colleagues in the House would take the trouble of referring to the Irish Constitution passed in 1937, they will see that the Irish Free State was one of the few countries in the modern world which changed its name on achieving freedom; and the fourth article of its Constitution refers to the change in the name of the land,” he said. “The Constitution of the Irish Free State reads: “The name of the State is Eire, or, in the English language, Ireland,” Kamath said. Hargovind Pant, who represented the hill districts of the United Provinces, made it clear that the people of Northern India “wanted Bharatvarsha and nothing else”. Pant argued: “So far as the word ‘India’ is concerned, the Members seem to have, and really I fail to understand why, some attachment for it. “We must know that this name was given to our country by foreigners who, having heard of the riches of this land, were tempted towards it and had robbed us of our freedom in order to acquire the wealth of our country. If we, even then, cling to the word ‘India’, it would only show that we are not ashamed of having this insulting word which has been imposed on us by alien rulers.” • Where does the name ‘Bharat’ come from? • What about ‘India’ and ‘Hindustan’? • How did ‘Bharat’ and ‘India’ come into the Constitution? Other Important Articles Covering the same topic: 📍India, that is Bharat: A short history of the nation’s names, from the Rig Veda to the Constitution of India ECONOMY New made-in-India charging standards: How this could push EV adoption Syllabus: Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development Mains Examination: General Studies III: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc. Key Points to Ponder: • What’s the ongoing story- The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has approved an indigenously developed AC and DC combined charging connector standard for light electric vehicles (LEVs) such as scooters, bikes, and rickshaws. Electric vehicle (EV) charging connector standards are conceptually similar to charging connector standards for mobile phones, such as the USB Type-C charger or Apple’s lightning charger. The new standard, ISI7017 (Part 2 / Sec 7): 2023, cleared by BIS last week, has been developed through collaboration among NITI Aayog, the Department of Science and Technology, electric two-wheeler maker Ather Energy, and various other government and industry stakeholders. • What is special about the new EV charging standard for scooters and bikes? • But why is a national standard needed for India? • What is the situation in other countries around the world? • What do you understand by ‘Electric Vehicle’? How it is different? • What are the types of electric vehicles? • What are the issues in BEV push? • Know these terms-Battery Electric Vehicle, Hybrid Vehicle, Plug-In Hybrid Vehicle and Fuel Cell Vehicle • Electric Vehicles Scope in India-Know in detail • Electric Vehicles in daily use-will be successful in Long run? • Why Government of India is Pushing for adaptation of Electric Vehicles? • Electric Vehicles-What are the issues and Challenges especially in India’s Scenario? • India’s Commitment to reduce Carbon Emission like recent advocacy of five elements for climate change- “Panchamrit” at the COP26 in Glasgow • Transition to electric mobility- pros and cons • Various Government measures such as remodelled Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME II) scheme for the consumer side to production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) Other Important Articles Covering the same topic: 📍India’s electric vehicle push will lead to brighter, greener future For any queries and feedback, contact priya.shukla@indianexpress.com The Indian Express UPSC Hub is now on Telegram. 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