UPSC Key-October 31, 2022: Why you should read ‘Rumour and Stampede’ or ‘Theaterisation’ or ‘RBI and Monetary Policy Committee’ for UPSC CSE

Bolt from blue sky: As Seoul mourns, focus on how festivity turned deadly

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Disaster and disaster management.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- A mass of mostly young people celebrating Halloween festivities in Seoul became trapped and crushed as the crowd surged into a narrow alley, killing at least 151 people and injuring 82 others in South Korea’s worst disaster in years.

• What led to the death of so many people during the Halloween event in Seoul?

• What is a stampede?

• The tragic Halloween event in Seoul is a crowd mismanagement-Do you agree?

• What was the reasons given by the authorities?

• How do people die at these events?

• What triggers such events?

• ‘These kind of events exposes lax safety rules and regulatory failures’-Discuss

• Stampedes in India-know in detail

• What triggers stampede?

• What role did the ‘rumour’ play in these events?

• “A rumour can kill thousands than a bullet can”-Decode the quote with respect to stampede and rumour

• How Indian Authorities manages crowd?

• Is there any National Guide on Crowd Management in India?

• How Crowd Becomes Mob?

• What is difference between crowd and mob?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:   

📍HOW, WHY DO CROWD SURGES TURN DEADLY?

Imran after flak: Want Pak Army to be strongest

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

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

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan set out on a “long march” from Lahore to Islamabad on Friday (October 28). He is expecting to gather tens of thousands of supporters along the way to lay siege to Islamabad. If the march is allowed to be completed, Imran expects to reach the Pakistani capital on November 4 — that is, in a week’s time.

• What led to this flashpoint?

• What does Imran Khan want?

• What position has the Pak army taken?

• Where is Pakistan headed next?

• How and why did Imran fall out with the Army?

• It did not work out, and Imran has now employed Plan B: the “Kakar Formula”?

• What should be the India’s Stand in this entire issue?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:   

📍Why Imran is march

FRONT PAGE

130 killed as bridge collapses in Gujarat, days after reopening

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Disaster and disaster management.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-The death toll in Morbi suspension bridge collapse in Gujarat rose to 130 on Monday with rescue personnel recovering more bodies from the Machchhu river, a police official said. The century-old suspension bridge on the Machchhu river in Morbi town of Gujarat, about 240 km from Gandhinagar, collapsed on Sunday evening, officials said. The bridge had re-opened just four days ago, after being closed for about seven months for repair work.

• Map Work-Morbi and Machchhu River

• Know more about Machchhu River

• For Your Information-Machchhu is a small river that rises in the Madla Hills and flows 130 km into the Rann of Kutch. In 1979, a major tragedy occurred after a dam on the river failed, inundating Morbi town and killing a large number of people — some estimates put the number of dead at 25,000. A Gujarati film called Machchhu was made on the failure of the dam.

• Do You Know-The suspension bridge, “Jhulto Pul”, was a pedestrian suspension bridge that was inaugurated in 1879, during the reign of Sir Waghji Ravaji, the Thakur Sahib of Morbi (1858-1922) Sir Waghji is credit with planning and building the entire city of Morbi, which included India’s first art deco palace, and a European-style central square known as Green Chowk.

• Who is accountable for this tragedy-the agency responsible for maintaining the bridge” or the “management agency” or the local government or the State government?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:   

📍Gujarat bridge collapse: Morbi police lodge FIR, cite ‘gross negligence, mismanagement’

THE EDITORIAL PAGE

Forging a theatre

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-– Arun Prakash Writes: Contrary to popular impression, the appointment of a CDS did not call for the immediate creation of theatre commands

• Chief of Defence Staff is a three Star Officer or Four-Star Officer?

• Need for Chief of Defence Staff (CDS)- Kargil Review Committee (KRC) 1999, Naresh Chandra Task Force on National Security 2011

• Chief of Defence Staff-About, Role and Significance

• Appointment of Chief of Defence Staff-Who Appoints?

• Why Chief of Defence Staff is a ‘dual-hatted role’?

• 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

• “India’s newly anointed Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), even as he tackles thorny issues related to the management of two live borders, force-modernisation, competing budgetary claims and new personnel policies, will be under pressure to expedite the creation of new joint command structures”-What are the Issues and Challenges for the Chief of Defence Staff?

• What author is trying to convey in the given statement-The December 24, 2019 PIB note announcing Cabinet approval for creation of the post of CDS drew a clear line between achieving “integration” and the “creation of theatre commands”

• Possibly due to a misinterpretation of the Cabinet’s intent, the process of reform got off to a false start in 2020 with the coining of a new term “theaterisation” which became its driver- What do you understand by ‘theaterisation’?

• “Finally, for those on Raisina Hill, there is much to be learnt from study of the thorny path of the US National Security Act of 1947, pushed through by President Truman in the face of bitter opposition from the US Navy”-Discuss

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:   

📍The challenge for the new Chief of Defence Staff

THE IDEAS PAGE

Getting Nutrition Wrong

Syllabus:

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

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Issues relating to poverty and hunger.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Ashok Gulati writes: Using the FAO’s food balance sheets could enable the GHI to iron out some deficiencies and make it more representative for India.

• “Every October, the Global Hunger Index (GHI) is released. It generally creates an uproar, and with good reason. But this time it has gone overboard”-Why this time it has gone overboard?

• ‘India’s rank of 107 among 121 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI, 2022), released earlier this month by the aid agencies Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe (CWW), has caused some anguish within the Government of India’-Why?

• What are the indicators used in calculation of GHI?

• “Three of the four indicators used for calculation of the index are related to the health of children and cannot be representative of the entire population”-What are those three indicators

• According to the author, What is the first problem with the GHI?

• Why many experts are vouching for FAO’s food balance sheets for the calculation of Hunger Index? What makes FAO’s data and Statistics unique?

• ‘GHI sees hunger as a food production challenge when, according to the FAO, India is the world’s largest producer and consumer of grain and the largest producer of milk’-Can you differentiate between the two international organisation’s definition and assessment of hunger?

• “It must be noted that stunting and wasting is not just because of lack of food (hunger), It is a multi-dimensional problem”-Decode

• “The upshot of all this is that we need a much more comprehensive index, like the Multi-dimensional Poverty (MPI) index of the UNDP, than the GHI to capture the status of the entire population”-Why author thinks that Multi-dimensional Poverty (MPI) index is more reliable?

• What National Family Health Survey (NFHS) says about Hunger in India?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:   

📍What is the Global Hunger Index and why is India trailing?

📍How not to measure hunger

EXPLAINED

How RBI fell behind the curve on containing inflation

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 Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will convene to formulate its response to the Government of India about the high rate of inflation in the country. The RBI is by law responsible for maintaining price stability. Under the “inflation-targeting” regime that began in 2016, the central bank is required to target an inflation rate of 4 per cent, with a leeway of 2 percentage points on either side.

• What has triggered this meeting?

• How does the MPC target inflation?

• How did RBI fail to check inflation?

• By the way, What is Monetary Policy Framework?

• Why RBI is failing to meet the inflation target recently?

• What are the steps taken by RBI to control inflation?

• What is Monetary policy?

• What is the primary objective of the monetary policy?

• The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is a Statutory Body-True or False?

• Under Section 45ZB of the amended (in 2016) RBI Act, 1934, the central government is empowered to constitute a six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)- What is the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)?

• What is the composition of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)?

• The amended RBI Act, 1934 provides for the inflation target be set by the Government of India, in consultation with the Reserve Bank, once in every five years-What is inflation target?

• What are the various Instruments of Monetary Policy to control Inflation?

• Know these Terms-Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR), Open Market Operations (OMOs), Market Stabilisation Scheme (MSS), Repo Rate, Reverse Repo Rate, Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF), Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) Bank Rate

• For Your Information-The Union government, in consultation with the RBI, fixes the inflation target for the central bank every five years. It had fixed it at 4 percent plus/ minus 2 percent (upper limit 6 per cent, lower limit 2 per cent) for the period August 5, 2016 to March 31, 2021, and retained it for the next five years ending March 31, 2026. The framework agreement requires the RBI to submit a report to the Union government if it is in breach of the inflation targets for three consecutive quarters.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:   

📍ExplainSpeaking: What RBI’s surveys tell about India’s economy

C295 tactical transport aircraft, to be built by Tata-Airbus in India

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Prime Minister Narendra Modi today (October 30) laid the foundation stone of a C295 aircraft manufacturing plant in Vadodara, Gujarat, of the Tata-Airbus consortium that will manufacture the transport aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF).

• What makes this project first of its kind?

• Where is the C295 produced and by whom?

• What are the technical specifications of the C295 aircraft?

• In which terrains have the C295 operated across the world?

• What are the roles that the C295 can perform?

• Quick Recall-In September 2021, after the Cabinet Committee on Security approved the procurement of 56 C-295MW transport aircraft from Airbus Defence and Space SA, the Ministry of Defence signed a contract for acquisition of the aircraft with associated equipment.

• What is Make in-India Programme?

• How C-295MW give fillip to Make in-India Programme?

• How C-295MW transport aircraft will be a boon for the Indian Air Force?

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

• What is budget for defence imports?

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

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

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:   

📍Transport Aircraft for Indian Air Force to be made in India by Airbus Defence & TATA consortium

📍Cabinet approves procurement of 56 C-295MW transport aircraft for Indian Air Force

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