UPSC Key- February 6, 2023: Know and Understand Guaranteed Pension Scheme, Green Climate Fund, Spy balloon and many more

Andhra’s Guaranteed Pension Scheme model catches the attention of Centre

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.

Main Examination: General Studies II: Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story– WITH at least four Opposition-ruled states reverting to the Old Pension Scheme which offers defined benefits, and the BJP-Sena (Shinde) coalition in Maharashtra not averse it, senior officials in the Union government are seeing merit in the demands of employees who joined service post January 2004, and are part of the New Pension System where their contributions are defined, but benefits depend on the market.

• What is the Andhra Pradesh government’s Guaranteed Pension Scheme?

• For Your Information- In the ‘Guaranteed Pension Scheme’ or the GPS, employees can get a guaranteed pension of 33 per cent of their last drawn salary if they contribute 10 per cent of their basic salary every month which is matched by a 10 per cent contribution by the state government. They can get a guaranteed pension of 40 per cent of their last drawn salary, if they are willing to contribute a higher 14 per cent of their salary every month, which will be matched by 14 per cent government contribution.

• Why this model resonates?

• What is the Old Pension Scheme (OPS)?

• Why the old pension scheme was discontinued?

• What is the New Pension Scheme (NPS)?

• What is the difference between the old and new pension schemes?

• Why have some employees criticised the New Pension Scheme?

• What is the argument over the financial burden of OPS?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Why the Old Pension Scheme is both bad economics and bad politics

Musharraf, former Pak dictator and architect of Kargil war, dies at 79

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Main Examination: General Studies II: India and its neighborhood- relations.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story– General Pervez Musharraf, the military dictator of Pakistan who wrested control of the country in a coup in 1999, died on Sunday (February 5) following a prolonged illness, reported the Pakistani channel Geo News. Musharraf, who was in the UAE in recent years, was the President until 2008. The Delhi-born leader was charged with high treason and sentenced to death in Pakistan after Nawaz Sharif, who Musharraf earlier ousted in a coup, came to power. Here’s a brief look at his life and rule.

• Personality in News– General Pervez Musharraf

• In the context of India General Pervez Musharraf might be best remembered for what?

• General Pervez Musharraf’s role in the Kargil War of 1999-Know in detail

• What was the Kargil War about?

• Do You Know- In the context of India, he might be best remembered for his role in the Kargil War of 1999. As the chief of the Pakistan Army, Musharraf planned and executed the attack by sending Pakistani intruders into India. However, it turned out to be a catastrophic military failure for him as India pushed back the Pakistanis and defeated them after the three-month-long war.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍HARES AND HOUNDS

📍Musharraf’s troubling legacy

📍Musharraf: Pak’s 1st dictator to be sentenced to death

EXPRESS NETWORK

SEWA to join fight to tackle heat challenges: Hillary

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.

Main Examination: 

• General Studies I: General Studies I: Role of women and women’s organization

• General Studies III: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story– Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton Sunday announced that a global Climate Resilience Fund, in partnership with Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), will work to tackle challenges faced due to rising temperatures due to climate change. Clinton, who is on a two-day visit to Gujarat, visited SEWA, founded by late Elaben Bhatt who died at 89 in November 2022, that works in 18 states with a membership of 25 lakh women workers in the informal sector, on its completion of 50 years as a trade union.

• Know more about Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA)

• What is the aim of self-employed women’s Association?

• How Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA)

• What challenges Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) had?

• Why Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) is one of the most successful trade union?

• What is the meaning of climate finance?

• What is the financial mechanism? What are the other funds?

• Green finance and climate finance-Compare

• What is the Green Climate Fund?

• Why Green Climate Fund is important?

• How does the Green Climate funding work?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Hillary Clinton to unveil 50-year memorial of SEWA

Low spending, fewer new contracts: Why defence upgrade funds got modest hike of 6.5%

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story– Low spending of capital allocations by the Armed Forces and fewer new defence contracts are among the factors which contributed to the modest hike of 6.5 per cent in the defence modernisation funds for 2023-24, officials familiar with the matter said. Data accessed by The Indian Express shows the Army has spent 72 per cent of its capital budgetary allocations, the highest among the three service, followed by the Navy that has spent 58 per cent and the Air Force which has spent only 56 per cent of their budgetary allocations till February 1. This means the Army has spent around Rs 23,000 crore, while the Navy and the IAF have spent Rs 27,500 crore and Rs 30,000 crore, respectively, of their capital allocations earmarked for 2022-23.

• Why inadequate spending?

• The expenditure on defence constitutes what percentage of the central government’s budget?

• The expenditure on defence is what percentage of India’s estimated GDP for previous years?

• Do You Know- The overall defence budget earmarked for 2023-24 is Rs 5.94 lakh crore, including pensions of Rs 1.38 lakh crore, up by 12.9 per cent from Rs 5.25 lakh crore allocated in the previous (2022-23) fiscal. This is 13.18 per cent of the total budget outlay of Rs 45,03,097 crore. The Indian military got a 44 per cent hike in the Indian military’s sustenance budget that will be utilised towards stocking up on fuel, ammunition and maintenance of assets, through procurement of critical spares and other capabilities.

• How much India spends in defence as compared to other sectors?

• For Your Information-The Indian Air Force got the highest capital budgetary allocation among the three services at Rs 57,000 crore, which was a mere 3.6 per cent hike from the previous fiscal. The Army was allocated Rs 37,000 crore, a hike of 15.6 per cent from last financial year’s budgetary allocations, the Navy was allocated a capital budget of Rs 52,000 crore, up by 10.6 per cent from 2022-23.

• What Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) says about India’s defence and defence expenditure?

• When it comes to defence exports then why exports of defence products from India are limited to few countries like Vietnam?

• India can recalibrate not reduce the defence expenditure-do you agree?

• What are the other major reforms with respect to defence forces in India?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:  

📍Defense Acquisition Procedure

THE EDITORIAL PAGE

Dole to development

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.

Main Examination: General Studies III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story– Ashok Gulati and Ritika Juneja write: The FM has announced an Agri-Focused Accelerator Fund. She also talked of creating digital public infrastructure for agriculture as an open-source, open-standard and interoperable public good.

• The Finance Minister in the union budget has proposed a drastic cut in food and fertiliser subsidies, and also reduced the expenditure on MGNREGA in 2023-24 compared to the revised estimates (RE) of 2022-23. Together, these cuts amount to roughly Rs 1.7 lakh crore-But does this mean that the FM has wielded an axe on agriculture and rural spending?

• “The drastic cut in food and fertiliser subsidies have been redirected towards more productive expenditures on railways, roads, rural housing and Jal Shakti — this will help rural India through its multiplier effects”-Elaborate

• “Another critical asset creating expenditure is on the PM Awas Yojana (Gramin)”- How PM Awas Yojana (Gramin) is asset creating expenditure?

• For Your Information-The overall outlay for PM Awas Yojana has increased to Rs 54,487 crore, up from Rs 20,000 crore that was budgeted in the 2022-23 budget — a net increase of 172.4 per cent. However, if one compares the 2023-24 PMAY-G outlay to the RE of 2022-23 (Rs 48,422 crore), which was already way above the BE of 2022-23 (Rs 20,000 crore), the hike in 2023-24 seems to be only 12.5 per cent. The scheme was launched in 2016 to provide housing to all but it also ensures permanent asset creation for rural households and provides dignity of life while creating more jobs in rural India. This marks a big step forward in reorienting subsidies towards rural infrastructure development.

• “To promote innovations and technologies in the agriculture sector, the FM has announced an Agri-Focused Accelerator Fund”- What is Agri-Focused Accelerator Fund?

 Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Ashok Gulati writes | Budget 2023: FM Sitharaman does well to hold back on revdis – but there is little for farmers to celebrate

EXPLAINED

Cutting of the NREGA budget

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development

Main Examination: General Studies II: Important aspects of Governance and Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-The Narendra Modi government has slashed the budget for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme to Rs 60,000 crore in 2023-24. This, after record outlays during 2020-21 to 2022-23, which also saw a significant step-up in employment under the scheme that guarantees a minimum 100 days of unskilled manual wage work in a financial year (April-March) to every rural household on demand.

• Why has the MGNREGA budget been reduced so sharply, to a six-year-low?

• How realistic is that assessment?

• What is the MGNREGS allocation in the Budget 2022-23?

• For Your Information-Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has allocated Rs 60,000 crore for the scheme, lower than the budgetary estimate of Rs 73,000 crore for 2022-23. The reduction is sharper when compared with the revised estimate of Rs 89,400 crore for the current financial year. In 2021-22, an actual expenditure of Rs 98,468 crore was incurred on the MGNREGS. While presenting the budget, Sitharaman mentioned the MGNREGS only once, in the context of work for mangrove conservation.

• What is the debate on MGNREGS?

• What did the Economic Survey say about MGNREGS?

• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)-Mandate, Goals

• What are the core objectives of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS)?

• When was Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act passed by the Indian Parliament?

• In what way paradigm shift has taken place with the implementation of MGNREGA?

• Who are the key stakeholders of MGNREGS?

• Issues with MGNREGA?

• COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on MGNREGA?

• After a dip in demand for work under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MG-NREGS) the demand for work has again seen a rise-Know the reasons

• How schemes such as MGNREGA helped alleviate distress migration?

• MGNREGA and food subsidy aside, have budgets been cut — or hiked — for other flagship rural schemes?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Outlay on subsidies, MGNREGA lower as pandemic disruptions cease

THE WORLD

China threatens to hit back after US shoots down balloon

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Main 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 United States has accused China of flying a “spy balloon” in its airspace. Beijing has responded, calling the object “a civilian airship used for meteorological research”. The incident has caught public imagination and set off a political row in Washington after it was seen floating over sensitive areas of Montana in the US. Officials claim the white balloon is the size of three buses and is carrying a “large” payload.

• What’s a surveillance balloon or ‘Spy balloon’?

• What is the use of ‘Spy balloon’?

• What do we know about the balloon floating over the US?

• Is the balloon a security threat?

• Why has China sent the balloon up now?

• Why hasn’t the Pentagon shot the balloon down?

• How has the US responded?

• Why was the F-22 used to shoot down a spy balloon?

• What are the capabilities of the F-22 Raptor?

• How expensive is the F-22 Raptor?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Downing of Chinese spy balloon ends chapter in a diplomatic crisis

📍What you need to know about the Chinese spy balloon floating over the US

📍Why the US used an F-22 aircraft to shoot down the alleged spy balloon from China

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