- Indian Heritage
- Culture
- Modern Indian history
- The Freedom Struggle
- Post-independence
- Indian Society
A. population and associated issues
B. poverty and developmental issues
C.urbanization
7. Geographical features
8.Indian Constitution
9. Polity
Questionable conduct
The conduct of the Tamil Nadu Governor, R.N. Ravi, has been constitutionally questionable for quite some time now. In the latest instance, his refusal to allow the reinduction of K. Ponmudy into the Tamil Nadu Cabinet has been exposed as unwarranted. Following some strident criticism from the Supreme Court, Mr. Ravi administered the oath of office and secrecy to Mr. Ponmudy, whose conviction in a corruption case was recently stayed by the Court, resulting in his eligibility to be a Member of the Legislative Assembly being restored. Mr. Ravi had taken the legally untenable stand that it would be against “constitutional morality” to reinduct Mr. Ponmudy based on the stay of conviction. In the Governor’s interpretation, the order of the twojudge Bench, staying the conviction recorded by the Madras High Court, was only by way of interim relief, and that it meant that the conviction was “existent, but made nonoperative” and did not amount to its being set aside. The interpretation was quite questionable, as the legal consequences that flow from a criminal conviction in a corruption case — loss of eligibility for being a legislator and, therefore, for being a Minister — stand suspended as soon as the conviction is stayed. Parliament and the State legislatures restore the membership of those convicted as soon as the conviction is stayed, even if their seats had been declared vacant. The Governor’s confusion of “morality” and principles of good governance with legality seemed deliberate.
As Mr. Ravi’s propensity to find new ways to get under the skin of the DMK regime becomes more apparent, two things stand out: his reluctance to accept the limitations of his office and the Union government’s failure to act on the increasing instances of its Governors being pulled up by the Court. On an earlier occasion, the Court had noted that he had disposed of Bills pending with him only after his prolonged inaction was questioned by the Court.
10. Governance
A. institutions
B. regulatory
C. Government policies
D. role of NGOs
E. measures
11. Social Justice
A. Welfare schemes
B Health
C. Education
D. Human Resources
E. poverty and hunger
12. International relations
A. India and its neighbourhood
B. groupings and agreements
C.Indian diaspora
13. Economic Development
A. Government Budgeting
B. industrial
Government has directed NCCF and NAFED to initiate procurement of 5 lakh tonnes of onion for the buffer requirement directly from the farmers
In the current year, the Government has directed NCCF and NAFED to initiate procurement of 5 lakh tonnes of onion for the buffer requirement directly from the farmers as Rabi-2024 harvest started arriving in the market. For the procurement, NAFED and NCCF are to pre-register the onion farmers to ensure that payments to the farmers are transferred to their bank accounts through Direct Benefit Transfer.
Rabi onion is critical for country’s onion availability as it contributes 72 -75% of annual production in the country. The Rabi onion is also crucial for ensuring year-round availability of onion as it has better shelf life compared to Kharif onion and can be stored for supplies till November- December.
It may be recalled that the Department of Consumer Affairs had, through NAFED and NCCF, purchased about 6.4 LMT of Onion during 2023-24 for the buffer stocking as well as intervention by way of simultaneous procurement and disposal. The continuous procurements by the NAFED and NCCF have guaranteed remunerative prices for onion farmers all through the year in 2023. Subsequently, the Department of Consumer Affairs adopted retail sale intervention for disposal of onion through retail outlets and mobile vans operated by NCCF, NAFED, Kendriya Bhandar and other State controlled cooperatives at subsidized price of Rs.25 per kg during last year. The timely intervention and calibrated release ensured stabilization of retail prices effectively without impacting farmer realization.
Global supply scenario and dry spell induced by El Niño had necessitated the Government to take up policy measures to regulate onion exports during FY 2023-24. These measures included 40% duty on onion exports imposed on 19th August 2023, imposition of Minimum Export Price (MEP) of USD 800 per MT with effect from 29th October, 2023 and export prohibition w.e.f. 8th December, 2023 to ensure availability of onion to the domestic consumers at affordable prices.
E.issues
14. Technology
Statio Shiv Shakti’ approved as name of Chandrayaan3 landing site
he International Astronomical Union (IAU) working group for Planetary System Nomenclature has approved the name “Statio Shiv Shakti” for the landing site of Chandrayaan3’s Vikram lander. The approval was given on March 19.
Planetary nomenclature, like terrestrial nomenclature, is used to uniquely identify a feature on the surface of a planet or satellite so that it can be easily located, described, and discussed.
The Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature “contains detailed information about all names of topographic and albedo features on planets and satellites [and some planetary ring and ringgap systems] that the IAU has named and approved from its founding in 1919 through the present time”.
The IAU is the internationally recognised authority for assigning names to planetary surface features. It follows some rules and conventions to do so.
The IAU’s Rule 9 states: “No names having political, military or religious significance may be used, except for names of political figures prior to the 19th century.” The citation in the gazetteer for the name of the landing site of the Vikram lander reads: “Compound word from Indian mythology that depicts the masculine [“Shiva”] and feminine [“Shakti”] duality of nature.”
On August 26, 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the point where the moon lander of Chandrayaan3 touched down would be called “Shiv Shakti”.
TRAI releases recommendations on ‘Usage of Embedded SIM for Machine-to-Machine Communications’
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has today released recommendations on ‘Usage of Embedded SIM for Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Communications’.
Department of Telecommunications (DoT), through its letter dated 09.11.2021, sought TRAI’s recommendations under the TRAI Act, 1997 on the usage of embedded SIM for M2M communications. In this regard, TRAI issued a Consultation Paper on ‘Embedded SIM for M2M Communications’ on 25.07.2022 for soliciting comments/counter comments from stakeholders. In response, 15 stakeholders submitted their comments. An open house discussion on the consultation paper was held on 14.12.2022 through virtual mode. Based on the comments/inputs received from stakeholders, extensive deliberations on the subject and on its own analysis, the TRAI has finalized its recommendations.
With the rolling out of 5G services in the country, the opportunities for M2M ecosystem have expanded greatly, offering increased scope for applications in various sectors of the economy such as agriculture, transportation, healthcare and industrial automation. These recommendations are aimed at streamlining the regulatory landscape of M2M embedded SIM (eSIM) in India. Through these recommendations, the Authority has laid emphasis on ensuring security by way of proper Know Your Customer (KYC), which is essential for ensuring network security, mitigating fraud risks and enhancing the overall integrity of the M2M eSIM ecosystem. The Authority has also recommended a framework for profile switching of eSIMs and swapping of SM-SR. This will provide significant flexibility to the M2M eSIM users and will promote healthy competition in the sector.
Implementation of these Recommendations by the Government will promote orderly growth in the M2M eSIM segment of the telecom sector in India and will stimulate the development of a homegrown M2M eSIM ecosystem in the country, thus enabling the growth of modern M2M communication.
15. Environment
16. Security
Digital financial frauds in India: a call for improved investigation strategies
ybercrime poses a burgeoning threat in India, impacting millions of individuals and organisations. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), cybercrimes in India in 2023 resulted in a staggering loss of ₹66.66 crore, with 4,850 reported cases. A recent report by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) revealed that digital financial frauds accounted for a staggering ₹1.25 lakh crore over the last three years. According to the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP), in 2023, at least ₹10,319 crore was reported to be lost by victims of digital financial fraud. The Parliamentary standing committee on Finance in its report on “cyber security and rising incidents of cyber/white collar crimes” mentioned that the domestic fraud as reported by the SE (Supervising Entities) in FY’23 was ₹2537.35 crore. According to the report, the number of complaints received in 2023 alone was 6.94 lakh.
Some of the problems faced during investigations are highlighted here with solutions for both prevention and detection of online financial frauds.
CHow digital frauds work
While various names have been given to diverse types of frauds, the general modus operandi of a fraudster is any one of the following: (a) convincing the victim to send money, either by impersonation (fake WhatsApp/FB/Insta, social media profiles) or by giving them a false promise of greater return (investment, crypto, held up custom package etc.)
(b) by taking credentials such as
Unified Payments Interface ID (UPI), Personal Identification Number (PIN), OneTime Password (OTP) or Internet banking ID/password from the victim and then using the same on other apps/websites and transferring money without the knowledge of the victim. For this the customer will either be given a fake link which looks exactly like a UPI app screen/banking website or the victim will be conned into installing a screen sharing app. The scammers can also convince the victims over phone to give out those details. When these details are used on official banking apps this gives the fraudsters access to even the Fixed Deposits/Recurring Deposits which are also siphoned out in most cases.
(c) by taking card details and convincing the victim to share OTP.
After the scam
After a fraudster empties a victim’s bank account, the money undergoes a series of circulations in broadly three stages. The first stage is a temporary account into which the fraudsters transfer victims’ money. This account will be used to receive money from various other victims as well. From here, the money is then transferred into a second stage account. The second category of accounts are a group of accounts among which money is circulated. There are a lot of middlemen who are money circulators. Their task is only to receive money from first level bank accounts for a nominal cut. The victim’s money is then split into small parts and then circulated within these accounts, by a person who is sitting in a different corner of the country. After sufficient churning, the money is then transferred into a third stage account which is a sink account. This can be a bank account, an ewallet etc. Here, the total defrauded amount from a group of victims is recollected. The money is then withdrawn in a large chunk through conventional methods of either ATMs/cheques or ewallet cash outlets such as an ewallet payments bank.
How can frauds be prevented
BRO connects strategic Nimmu-Padam-Darcha road in Ladakh
Border Roads Organisation (BRO) connected the strategic Nimmu-Padam-Darcha road in Ladakh on March 25, 2024. This 298-km road will connect Manali to Leh through Darcha and Nimmu on Kargil – Leh Highway. The road is now the third axis apart from Manali-Leh and Srinagar-Leh which connects Ladakh to the hinterland.
The Nimmu-Padam-Darcha road derives its strategic importance from the fact that it is not only shorter vis-a-vis the other two axes, but crosses only one pass; Shinkun La (16,558 feet) on which tunnel work is about to commence by the BRO. This will result in the road having all weather connectivity to the Ladakh region. The connectivity will strengthen the defence preparedness and provide a boost to the economic development in the Zanskar valley.
17. Disaster Management