23 Dec 2023: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

23 December 2023 CNA
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

A. GS 1 Related
B. GS 2 Related
C. GS 3 Related
D. GS 4 Related
E. Editorials
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. Israel is fighting in the dark in Gaza
ART & CULTURE
1. Awards for words
F. Prelims Facts
1. Government aims to set up 17,000 creches across India
2. China bans export of rare earth technologies
3. Centre exploring one-stop health sector regulator
4. UN approves watered-down resolution on aid to Gaza
G. Tidbits
H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions
FIP Magazine


Category: ART & CULTURE

1. Awards for words

Syllabus: GS-1, Art Forms, Literature and Architecture awards

Mains: Sahitya Akademi

Context:​ The Sahitya Akademi, established in 1954, plays a crucial role in recognizing and honouring literary works in 24 Indian languages. 

Issues

  • Limited Recognition: Sahitya Akademi awards lack the global recognition enjoyed by prizes like the Booker Prize or the Pulitzer, affecting the institution’s visibility and prestige.
  • Promotional Deficiency: Despite its diverse activities, including lectures, readings, and workshops, the Sahitya Akademi struggles with inadequate promotion. The website is outdated, and its social media presence is insufficient, hindering the dissemination of its literary initiatives.
  • Accessibility of Publications: Although the Sahitya Akademi has published numerous books, their accessibility remains a challenge. Affordable publications are not widely available, limiting the dissemination of Indian literature.

Significance

  • Linguistic Diversity: The awards celebrate India’s rich linguistic tapestry, acknowledging the country’s many languages and cultures.
  • Encouragement for Writers: Sahitya Akademi awards serve as encouragement for writers, providing recognition that can boost sales, lead to inclusion in educational curricula, and facilitate translations into other languages.
  • Cultural Preservation: In a nation with diverse dialects and marginalized languages, the Akademi contributes to the preservation of cultural heritage by recognizing literary works in various languages.

Way Forward

  • Enhanced Promotion: The Sahitya Akademi should invest in a robust promotional strategy, updating its website, improving its social media presence, and engaging with a wider audience to increase awareness of its programs and initiatives.
  • Accessible Publications: Efforts should be made to improve the availability of Sahitya Akademi publications. This could involve partnerships with bookstores, online platforms, and educational institutions to ensure wider dissemination.
  • Educational Outreach: Collaborations with schools and universities can be strengthened to incorporate Sahitya Akademi’s award-winning works into curricula, promoting a reading culture among students.

Nut Graf: While the Sahitya Akademi awards play a vital role in recognizing literary excellence in diverse languages, there is a need for strategic measures to enhance their visibility and impact.

F. Prelims Facts

1. Government aims to set up 17,000 creches across India

Context: The Women and Child Development Ministry has unveiled plans to establish 17,000 creches in anganwadis across India under the ‘Palna’ scheme. 

  • This initiative aims to enhance daycare facilities for children of working women, facilitating women’s participation in the workforce while ensuring the holistic development of their children.
  1. The ‘Palna’ Scheme
  • Objective: Address the need for quality daycare facilities for children of working women.
  • Approach: Establishing safe and secure creches in anganwadis for nutritional, health, and cognitive development.
  • Enabling Employment: Empowering women across socio-economic groups to engage in gainful employment in both organized and unorganized sectors.
  1. Current Status and Approvals
  • 5,222 creches approved so far.
  • Plans to deploy two additional creche workers in each anganwadi.
  • Consideration for the existing 13.87 lakh anganwadi and mini-anganwadi centres.
  1. Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)
  • Release of a new SOP for anganwadi-cum-creche centers under the ‘Palna’ scheme.
  • Comprehensive framework covering administrative hierarchy, worker roles, responsibilities, and monitoring checklist.
  1. Impact on Women Workforce Participation
  • Increase in women’s workforce participation to 37% in 2022.
  • The Palna scheme aims to support women working in various sectors such as agriculture and construction.
  1. Minister’s Vision
  • Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani emphasizes the priority of reaching out to women in diverse occupations, providing economic opportunities while ensuring a safe environment for their children.

Significance

  • Empowering Working Women: The initiative addresses the dual challenge of providing childcare support and empowering women to participate in the workforce.
  • Holistic Development: The focus on nutritional, health, and cognitive aspects ensures the overall well-being of children in the creches.
  • Increased Workforce Participation: The Palna scheme aligns with the goal of increasing women’s workforce participation, contributing to economic growth.

2. China bans export of rare earth technologies

Context: China, the world’s top processor of rare earths, banned the export of technology to extract and separate the strategic metals, as it overhauled a list of technologies deemed key to national security.

Details: 

  • In December 2022, it planned to add the technology to its “Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited and Restricted from Export”. 
  • It also banned the export of production technology for rare earth metals and alloy materials as well as technology to prepare some rare earth magnets. 
  • The move comes as Europe and the U.S. scramble to wean themselves off rare earths from China, which accounts for 90% of global refined output.
  • Rare earths are a group of 17 metals used to make magnets for use in EVs and other electronics.

3. Centre exploring one-stop health sector regulator

Context: The Central government is exploring setting up a health sector regulator that will bring private and government health insurance schemes under its purview to facilitate affordable insurance coverage for all.

Details:

  • The Ministries of Finance (MoF) and Health are in “initial discussions” over the need for a sector watchdog.
  • The Association of Healthcare Providers India (AHPI), in a letter to the MoF, welcomed this saying “Making healthcare available, accessible, and affordable has been resolved by the present government. Penetration of private insurance is increasing at a fast rate and along with government-run insurance, India should soon be covering 70% of the population”.
  • Doctors’ bodies have urged that private and government insurance be brought under a single regulator. Meaning, regulating government schemes like Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, the Central Government Health Scheme, Employees’ State Insurance Corporation, etc.

4. UN approves watered-down resolution on aid to Gaza

Context: The United Nations Security Council approved a modified resolution aimed at expediting aid deliveries to civilians in Gaza. Notably, the resolution omitted the original provision calling for an “urgent suspension of hostilities” between Israel and Hamas, resulting in a revised text.

  1. Voting and Abstentions
  • The resolution passed with a 13-0 vote, with the United States and Russia abstaining.
  • Earlier, a U.S. veto blocked a Russian amendment seeking to reinstate the call for a suspension of hostilities.
  1. Diplomatic Negotiations
  • A week and a half of diplomatic efforts involving the United States, the United Arab Emirates, and others led to the revised text.
  • The negotiation process involved addressing concerns and finding common ground among council members.
  1. Stripped Provision
  • The key provision calling for the “urgent suspension of hostilities” was removed from the resolution.
  • The revised text focuses on “urgent steps” for humanitarian access and creating conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.
  1. Legal Implications
  • Security Council resolutions are legally binding, but compliance varies among parties.
  • The absence of certain provisions may impact the resolution’s effectiveness in influencing actions on the ground.
  1. Shift in Language
  • The resolution marks a shift by being the council’s first reference to stopping fighting, albeit with less assertive language.

G. Tidbits

Nothing here for today!!!

H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions

Q1. Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), recently in the news, is a law 
passed by which of the following?
  1. India
  2. USA
  3. European Union
  4. ASEAN
CHECK ANSWERS:-

Answer: c

Explanation: The European Union (EU) has announced that its Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will be introduced in its transitional phase from October 2023, which will levy a carbon tax on imports of products made from processes which are not environmentally sustainable or which are non-green.

Q2. Consider the following statements with regard to Rare Earth metals:
  1. They are a set of seventeen metallic elements.
  2. India has 16% of the world’s rare earth reserves.
  3. They are called ‘rare earth’ because they are very rarely found on the Earth.

How many of these statements is/are correct?

  1. Any one
  2. Any two
  3. All three
  4. None of the above
CHECK ANSWERS:-

Answer: a

Explanation: Rare Earth Metals are a set of seventeen metallic elements. The 17 Rare Earths are cerium (Ce), dysprosium (Dy), erbium (Er), europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), holmium (Ho), lanthanum (La), lutetium (Lu), neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), promethium (Pm), samarium (Sm), scandium (Sc), terbium (Tb), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb), and yttrium (Y).

  • India has only 6% of the world’s rare earth reserves.
  • They are called ‘rare earth’ not because they are very rarely found on the Earth. Because of their geochemical properties, rare earth elements are typically dispersed. This means they are not often found in concentrated enough clusters to make them viable to mine. It was the scarcity of these minerals that led to them being called rare earths.
Q3. Consider the following statements:
  1. At the 45th World Heritage Committee meeting, Santiniketan and Hoysala temples (Sacred Ensembles of Hoysalas) from India were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
  2. In 2023, Gwalior and Kozhikode were included in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network as creative cities of Music and Literature respectively.
  3. ‘Garba of Gujarat’ has been inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
  4. Gita Press, Gorakhpur was chosen as the recipient of the Gandhi Peace Prize for the year 2021, in recognition of its outstanding contribution towards social, economic and political transformation through non-violent and other Gandhian methods.

How many of these statements is/are correct?

  1. Any 1
  2. Any 2
  3. Any 3
  4. All 4
CHECK ANSWERS:-

Answer: d

Explanation: At the 45th World Heritage Committee meeting, Santiniketan and Hoysala temples (Sacred Ensembles of Hoysalas) from India were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. 

In 2023, Gwalior and Kozhikode were included in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network as creative cities of Music and Literature respectively.

‘Garba of Gujarat’ has been inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Gita Press, Gorakhpur was chosen as the recipient of the Gandhi Peace Prize for the year 2021, in recognition of its outstanding contribution towards social, economic and political transformation through non-violent and other Gandhian methods.

Q4. Which of the following nations were a part of the "Fragile Five" in 2013 - 
the economies overly reliant on foreign investment to finance current 
account deficits?
  1. Turkey
  2. South Africa
  3. Indonesia
  4. India
  5. Brazil

Choose the correct code:

  1. 1, 3 & 4 only
  2. 2, 4 & 5 only
  3. 1, 2 & 3 only
  4. All of the above
CHECK ANSWERS:-

Answer: d

Explanation: In August 2013, a financial analyst at Morgan Stanley coined the term “Fragile Five” to represent emerging market economies that have become too dependent on unreliable foreign investment to finance their growth ambitions. The five members of the Fragile Five include Turkey, Brazil, India, South Africa and Indonesia.

Q5. With reference to ancient South India, Korkai, Poompuhar and Muchiri 
were well-known as
  1. Capital cities
  2. Ports
  3. Centres of iron-and-steel-making
  4. Shrines of Jain Tirthankaras
CHECK ANSWERS:-

Answer: b

Explanation: Korkai, Poompuhar, and Muchiri (Muziris) were all well-known ancient ports in South India.

IAS General Studies Notes Links
Nrega Notes 28 States Of India
IAS Exam Eligibility IAS Syllabus PDF
Length Of Ganga River UPSC Mains Paper
How Many Territories In India Ews Certificate Online

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