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Important topics and their relevance in UPSC CSE exam for August 22, 2022. If you missed the August 19, 2022 UPSC key from the Indian Express, read it here
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19 states cross pre-Covid GSDP levels in FY22; Kerala, UP lag
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.
Mains Examination: General Studies III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilisation, of resources, growth, development and employment.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story– Emerging from the shock of the Covid-19 pandemic, economies of 19 states and Union Territories exceeded their pre-Covid levels, with seven recording double-digit growth rates during 2021-22, shows an analysis of official data for 21 states and UTs. The growth rates of 11 states including Gujarat and Maharashtra were not available for 2021-22.
• For Your Information-Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) or State Income is the most important indicator for measuring the economic growth of a State. Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) is a measure in monetary terms, the sum total volume of all finished goods and services produced during a given period of time, usually a year, within the geographical boundaries of the State, accounted without duplication.
• Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) at Constant Prices-Know about this in brief
• Know Top five and Bottom five States GSDP at Constant Prices 2011-12
• Do you Know-The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation compiles the GSDP figures as reported by the Directorate of Economics & Statistics of respective state governments.
• How COVID-19 Impacted Indian economy-Know the Multi-sectoral Impact
• What is Barbell Strategy, Safety Nets & Agile Response?
• How ‘Barbell Strategy, Safety Nets & Agile Response’ helped the Government of India to deal with extreme uncertainty imposed by Pandemic?
• Know the Key Safety Net Measures by the GOI to Prevent Distress during COVID-19
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍State of the Economy-Union Budget
Car explosion kills daughter of Russian known as ‘Putin’s brain’
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 daughter of an influential Russian political theorist often referred to as “Putin’s brain” was killed in a car bombing on the outskirts of Moscow, authorities said Sunday.
• Why Alexander Dugin is referred as “Putin’s Brain”?
• So, what is Russia’s current political ideology?
• What is a semi-presidential system or dual executive system?
• How the distribution of power between the president and the prime minister varies in semi-presidential system?
• How does the structure of the present Russian government differed significantly from that of the former Soviet republic?
• Just for the sake of Knowledge-What is India’s political ideology? How India and Russia Differs in their Political Ideology?
• Russia And India-Know the Bilateral ties between both the Nations
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Who is Alexander Dugin, the prominent Putin backer whose daughter was killed in a blast?
📍Government and society
📍At heart of Russian imperialism, its geographical handicap and Eurasian ambitions
📍Russia vs the West: A clash of civilisations
A mystery ‘dwarfing’ disease hits paddy crop in Punjab and Haryana
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.
Mains Examination: General Studies III: Major crops-cropping patterns in various parts of the country, – different types of irrigation and irrigation systems storage, transport and marketing of agricultural produce and issues and related constraints; e-technology in the aid of farmers.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story-There is a fresh source of worry in the state of Punjab, Haryana, and the neighbouring high-yielding Terai plains of Uttarakhand and western UP that is, these states have reported a mystery “dwarfing” disease of paddy that agricultural scientists are still to identify.
• What is “dwarfing” disease of paddy?
• What does zinc do in plants?
• What Scientists have said for this disease in Plants?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Explained: Is there a crisis in rice?
Number of women scientists goes up; CSIR head says aiming at further push
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.
Mains Examination: General Studies I: Role of women and women’s organization and Social empowerment
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story- The appointment earlier this month of Dr N Kalaiselvi as the first woman director general of India’s largest research and development organisation, the 80-year-old Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), underlined a significant trend — official data show the participation of women in science research has been generally increasing over the past two decades in the country.
• Representation of Women in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)-Know the data (International and India Level)
• For Your Information-More than a quarter, 28% of participants in extramural R&D projects in 2018-19 were women, up from 13% in 2000-01 due to various initiatives taken by successive governments, data compiled by the Department of Science and Technology show. The number of women principal investigators in R&D had risen more than four times from 232 in 2000-01 to 941 in 2016-17.
• Do You Know-The percentage of women among researchers went from 13.9% in 2015 to 18.7% in 2018, the data show. There were fewer women researchers in engineering and technology (14.5%) compared with the natural sciences and agriculture (22.5% each), and health sciences (24.5%). The percentage of women researchers in the social sciences and humanities is, however, much higher at 36.4%.
• The overall data show an upward trend, but still women researchers in engineering and technology are fewer than in natural sciences, health and agriculture. Know the reasons why?
• According to Dr Kalaiselvi, “The increase in women’s participation, especially in research, is due to a combination of government programmes and natural progression”-What Initiatives or Government Programmes taken by GOI to Promote Women in Science?
• What are the Causes for Under-representation of Women in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍UPSC Essentials: Case study of the week– The ‘gender-STEM’
📍Fixing the under-representation of women in the sciences
EXPRESS NETWORK
In Nandurbar, teachers step back as students help each other catch up
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance
Mains Examination: General Studies IV: Public/Civil service values and Ethics in Public administration and Case Studies
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story– As part of a pilot project, the Ashramshalas, residential schools covered under the Tribal Development Project Office, in Nandurbar taluka in Maharashtra, have been experimenting with a unique way to learn.
• Map Work-Nandurbar
• The pilot Project, called ‘Vedh Project’, is based on the novel concept of heutagogy, a student-centred instructional strategy-What exactly this project is for?
• What is the concept of ‘heutagogy’?
• Case Study– Suppose you are posted as a development officer in a tribal belt, and you come to know that students there did not know how to solve division sums, or read full sentences, which is part of the learning outcome expected of students belonging to the 5th standard. What course of action do you take?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
EXPLAINED
What are cloudburst incidents and are they rising across India?
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Indian and World Geography-Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World.
Mains Examination: General Studies I: Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc., geographical features and their location-changes in critical geographical features (including water-bodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story– Over 20 people have been killed in destruction caused by cloudbursts and flash floods in different parts of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand over the last three days. Isolated areas in these two states have reported heavy rainfall during this time, triggering landslides and flash floods that have disrupted rail and road traffic, and resulted in house and wall collapses.
• What is a cloudburst?
• How common are cloudbursts?
• Why do cloudbursts occur in hilly areas?
• Can we predict cloudbursts?
• What is a ‘Highly local cloud’?
• What is the reason of cloudburst?
• What is flash flooding?
• What is the reason for flash floods?
• Are cloudburst incidents increasing?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Cloudbursts & heavy localised rainfall — why hills are at risk
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development
Mains Examination: General Studies III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilisation, of resources, growth, development and employment
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story-The US GDP fell 1.6% on an annualised basis in the first quarter of 2022 (calendar year), followed by a 0.9% fall in the second quarter. Two consecutive quarters of economic contraction or declining real GDP — that’s the general rule to identify a recession.
• What is the Federal Funds Rate (FFR)?
• Why is the Fed tightening money supply?
• ‘Tapering’- what does it mean?
• US Fed Taper-Meaning
• US Federal Reserve Policies and its Impact on India
• What is a recession?
• So, is the US in recession?
• Why are some people contesting that the US might be in recession?
• How does NBER define recession?
• Why doesn’t the NBER accept the two quarters definition?
• How did GDP and GDI differ in the recessions of 2001 and 2007-09?
• What is the outlook for the US economy?
• What is the main reason behind the high inflation in USA?
• How is inflation measured in USA?
• Inflation measured in USA and inflation measured in India-Compare and Contrast
• Inflation in USA vs Inflation in India-Compare and Contrast
• What goods or services are driving the increase in prices in USA and also in India?
• Why is USA’s inflation a matter of concern for India?
• How inflation in USA will impact India’s Import and Export?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Explained: US inflation and its impact on India
📍Explained: Federal Reserve signals, and Indian markets
📍Everyday Economics: What is the Fed, and what role does it play in the US economy?
‘Forever chemicals’, the risk they pose and a new way to destroy them
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change
Mains Examination: General Studies III: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story- A recent study published in Environment Science and Technology has found that rainwater from many places across the globe is contaminated with “per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances,” (PFAs), which are called “forever chemicals” because of their tendency to stick around in the atmosphere, rainwater and soil for long periods of time.
• What are PFAs?
• What harm do PFAs cause?
• Do we need to be worried about PFAs in the rainwater in India
• How can these chemicals be removed from rainwater?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Outside the Safe Operating Space of a New Planetary Boundary for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS)
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