Table of Contents:
A. GS1 Related:
B. GS2 Related:
1. India, Rwanda sign aviation, visa deals
2. Jaishankar begins China visit
3. India, Japan ink pact on rail safety
C. GS3 Related:
1. More radars to beef up coastal surveillance
2. Withdrawal of funds from EPF to get easier
D. GS4 Related:
E. Important Editorials : A Quick Glance
1. With the launch of bharat QR codes, the Government should also pay attention to cyber security
1. Making Digital Payments a Mass Movement in India
2. Health Secretary launches ‘SAATHIYA’ Resource Kit and ‘SAATHIYA SALAH’ Mobile App for Adolescents
F. Concepts-in-News: Related Concepts to Revise/Learn
G. BILLS/ACTS/SCHEMES/ORGS IN NEWS
H. Fun with Practice Questions 🙂
I. Archives
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Useful News Articles for UPSC Current Affairs
A. GS1 Related
Nothing here for today!!!
B. GS2 Related
Category: International Relations
Topic: Bilateral Relations
Key Points:
- India and Rwanda have recently concluded a bilateral air services agreement enabling direct flights between the two countries.
- Rwandan Prime Minister Anastase Murekezi and Mr. Ansari witnessed the signing of the MoU by Mr. Sinha and Alexis Nzahabwanimana, Rwandan Minister of State for Transport.
- Rwandan Airways will begin direct flights between Kigali and Mumbai in April.
- The other two MoUs pertained to the setting up of an entrepreneurial development centre in Rwanda and exemption of visa for entry of diplomatic and official passports.
Category: International Relations
Topic: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests
Key Points:
- Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar began a high profile visit to China with talks with State Councillor Yang Jiechi.
- Mr. Yang, a former foreign minister enjoys top diplomatic status in the Chinese official hierarchy.
- He is also China’s Special Representative for the boundary talks which are headed from the Indian side by the National Security Adviser, Ajit Doval.
- Mr. Jaishankar will begin a new round of the strategic dialogue with China’s Executive vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui on 22nd February, 2017.
Concluding Remarks
- India has concerns regarding market access to China to reduce the balance of payments gap between the two countries.
- China’s investments for the development of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which will pass through Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) is another area that is holding up full development of ties.
Category: International Relations
Topic: Bilateral Relations
Key Points:
- India signed an agreement with Japan last week on enhancing railway safety in the Indian Railways with focus on railway track and rolling stock safety, a press statement said on 21st February, 2017.
- The areas of cooperation include rail inspection, rail wielding and providing automatic railway track safety inspection, maintenance of rolling stock and “any other relevant railway safety matters jointly determined by both sides” with the aim to prevent major rail accidents.
Background
- The agreement with Japan comes at a time when the train derailments are on the rise.
- In 2016-17, the number of consequential train accidents remained the same level as last year at 95 while derailments rose from 56 to 74. Unmanned level crossing accidents fell.
C. GS3 Related
Category: Internal Security
Topic: Coastal Security
Key Points:
- In an effort to strengthen surveillance of over 7,500-km coastline of the country, the Defence Ministry on 21st February, 2017 gave the go-ahead to expand the coastal radar surveillance network.
- The decision was taken by the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), chaired by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.
- Under Phase I, a chain of 46 coastal surveillance radar and electro-optic sensors were set up, including 36 in the mainland, six in the Lakshadweep islands and four in the Andaman & Nicobar islands.
- India is also setting up similar radar stations in friendly Indian Ocean littoral nations, which are integrated into India’s own radar network.
- The information received from the various stations and sensors is collated at the Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) located outside the national capital and manned by the Navy for real-time maritime domain awareness.
Background:
- In the aftermath of the 2008 Mumbai attacks in which terrorists used a fishing boat to enter the city, the government decided to set up a chain of static sensors to fill gaps in coastal surveillance and keep track of boats entering Indian territorial waters.
Category: Indian Economy
Topic: Government Policy
Key Points:
- Provident fund savings for critical contingencies will now become far simpler with the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) introducing a single page composite form for such withdrawals before retirement age.
- Till now, employees were required to fill and submit three different forms to EPFO for withdrawing provident fund for various purposes.
- The EPFO has introduced forms in two categories – one, for those whose Aadhaar number is seeded with Universal Account Number (UAN) – a common number for all PF accounts, and the other for those without an Aadhaar number.
- Employees whose Aadhaar number is seeded will not be required to get employer’s attestation for withdrawing PF but employees without the seeded Aadhaar number will need the employer’s approval on their forms before submitting it to the EPFO.
- Further, a single form signed by the employee will be treated as ‘self-certification’ instead of the present requirement of submitting various documents.
- However, in case PF is being withdrawn for medical purposes, a doctor’s certificate will still be required.
D. GS4 Related
Nothing here for today!!!
E. Important Editorials: A Quick Glance
Hindu
- Medical stents are used to treat coronary artery disease
- Recently, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has decided to cap the prices of medical stents.
- This is seen as an extreme regulatory measure necessitated by the market failure that afflicts the overall delivery of health care in India.
Causes
- Rising costs have led to impoverishment of families and litigation demanding regulation.
- Given the overall dominance of private, commercial, for-profit health institutions, and the asymmetry confronting citizens, correctives to bring about a balance are inevitable.
Important Statistics: Need for cost regulation
- According to The Lancet, nearly two-thirds of the high out-of-pocket expenditure on health incurred by Indians went towards drugs.
- It has been suggested that regulated prices can be expected to make stents more accessible to patients who really need them, helping them avoid using up the weak insurance cover available, while also reducing the incentive for unethical hospitals to use them needlessly.
- It is worth recalling that there are over 60 million diagnosed diabetics in the country, and the average age at which the first heart attack strikes Indians is 50, a decade earlier than people in developed nations.
Issues to consider
- Health-care providers often demand market-determined pricing of medical technologies on the ground that newer ones will not be available under a regulated regime.
- It is important to note that in the case of cardiac stents, this argument does not hold firm ground since stakeholder consultations held by the NPPA in January revealed that there are ‘huge unethical markups’ in the supply chain.
Ideas Mooted
- It would serve the cause of medical innovation if costing is transparent, and a system of risk pooling is introduced to help patients get expensive treatment without high out-of-pocket spending.
- In fact, it was estimated five years ago by the Planning Commission’s expert group on universal health coverage that raising spending on public procurement of medicines to 0.5% of GDP (from 0.1%) would provide all essential medicines to everyone.
- It is suggested that the Centre should monitor expenditures jointly in partnership with the community, use regulation where needed, and raise public spending on health.
- Several developing countries have moved ahead on this path. Well-considered price control is a positive step, but more needs to be done.
Economic Times
Category: Internal Security
Topic: : Cyber Security
Key Points:
- It is suggested that the launch of Bharat Quick Response (QR) code to enable people to pay for things they buy without swiping plastic cards is welcome.
- It makes digital payments seamless, convenient for customers, and helps the government’s push towards moving to a less-cash economy.
- Merchants will be able to generate their own code that will be interoperable with banks, doing away with swipe card terminals.
How will this help?
- This will lead to some cost savings, and merchants will also receive money instantaneously.
- The QR code is innovative and conceptually simple: a customer only needs a smartphone and an internet connection to use the code.
Challenges
- It makes the payment system dependent on technology more than ever before, raising the pressure on cybersecurity.
- For example, if somebody wants to sabotage the economy, all that he needs to do is to mess up the data on assets held in bank accounts.
- The dangers of a connected world became evident in India, for example, after last year’s malware attack via a card-reading and money-dispensing and point-of-sale equipment that compromised over three million debit cards of at least five banks.
PIB
Category: Indian Economy
Topic: : Government Policy
Key Points:
- It has been 58 days since the launch of NITI Aayog’s two incentive schemes – Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana to promote digital payments and the public response has been quite encouraging.
- The initiative to make Digital Payments a mass movement in India through the two schemes has made headway across the country with more and more people adopting digital transactions.
- According to the latest figures released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which has been executing the schemes, nearly 10 lakh consumers and merchants have been disbursed over Rs.153.5 crore as reward money till 20thFebruary, 2017.
F. Concepts-in-News: Related Concepts to Revise/Learn
- Lucky Grahak Yojana
- Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana
- Universal Account Number (UAN)
G. BILLS/ACTS/SCHEMES/ORGS IN NEWS
| BILLS/ACTS/SCHEMES/ORGANISATIONS IN NEWS | Links to Refer |
| Lucky Grahak Yojana | http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=155418 |
| Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana | http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=155801 |
H. Fun with Practice Questions 🙂
Question 1: Which of the following best describes the ‘Phillips curve’?
a) It is a curve that shows the inverse relationship between the level of unemployment and the rate of inflation
b) It is used in economics and ecology to describe inequality in wealth or size.
c) It is a curve that graphs the hypothesis that as an economy develops, market forces first increase and then decrease economic inequality.
d) None of the above
Question 2: Consider the following statements:
1] The Ten Degree Channel is a channel that separates the Little Andaman and Car Nicobar in the Bay of Bengal.
2] Lakshadweep island group is separated from Maldives by the Eight Degree Channel.
a) 1 Only
b) 2 Only
c) Both 1 and 2
d) Neither 1 nor 2
Question 3: Consider the following statements:
1] Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu are the four main islands of Japan.
2] Mt. Fuji in Japan is a dormant volcano.
a) 1 Only
b) 2 Only
c) Both 1 and 2
d) Neither 1 nor 2
Question 4: Consider the following statements:
1] Bharat QR code the world’s first inter-operable payment acceptance solution.
2] Payment networks such as MasterCard and Visa have joined hands with National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) to launch Bharat QR.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
a) 1 Only
b) 2 Only
c) Both 1 and 2
d) Neither 1 nor 2
Question 5: Which of the following organizations bring out the report
known as ‘Global Competitiveness Report (GCR)’?
a) UN-Habitat
b) The United Nations Development Programme
c) The World Economic Forum
d) The World Bank
Check Your Answers
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