06 Sep 2019: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

A.GS1 Related
B.GS2 Related
POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
1. Russia proposes joint development of submarines with India
2. Culture Ministry rolls out 25 new mobile science museums
HEALTH
1. Govt. launches campaign to promote ‘eat right movement’
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. PM unveils ‘Act Far East’ policy
EDUCATION
1. Institute of Eminence tag for five
C.GS3 Related
SECURITY
1. CBI to get Centralised Technology Vertical
D. GS4 Related
E. Editorials
POLITY
1. No life-long bungalows or facilities to ex-CMs, says Rajasthan HC
HEALTH
1. A weak chase: On controlling hepatitis B
ECONOMY
1. Will PSB mergers alter the banking scenario?
F. Tidbits
1. Hyderabad’s priceless map lies in neglect
2. US backs India naming terrorists
3. US backs India naming terrorists
4. Modi raises Zakir Naik’s extradition issue with Mahathir
5. Copy cat: Chinese firm creates first cloned kitten
6. WHO South-East Asia Region plans to banish measles, rubella by 2023
G. Prelims Facts
1. National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE)
2. Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report
H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

A. GS1 Related

Context:

Russia has offered India, joint design and development of conventional submarines.

Details:

• Russia has made the offer through an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) at the delegation-level dialogue between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok.
  • An Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) between two sovereign governments ensures transparency and avoids troubles.
• The proposal includes:
  • Joint design and development of a conventional submarine with Air Independent Propulsion (AIP)
  • Development through an IGA as per the Indian Navy requirements
  • Full access to technology and Intellectual Property Rights [IPR]
• In realizing this plan the Indian side will fully acquire all the necessary technological capabilities for constructing submarines of this type.
• The procurement is through the Strategic Partnership (SP) model of the defence procurement procedure
• Under Project 75(I), India plans to indigenously construct six submarines for the Indian Navy at a cost of over Rs. 40,000 crores and the Navy has issued an Expression of Interest (EoI).
• The indigenous AIP being developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) could be incorporated in the submarine.
• India has signed a series of mega defence deals with Russia in the last few years through the IGA route.
• India has ordered $14.5 billion worth of weapons from Russia, an announcement was made by Moscow after the 20th India Russia summit.

Context:

Culture Ministry has launched 25 new mobile science museums for aspirational districts.

Details:

• Union Culture and Tourism Minister of State (independent charge) Prahlad Singh Patel flagged off the science museum bus in Leh as a part of the mobile science exhibition programme of the Ministry.
• Simultaneously 25 new Mobile Science Exhibition buses for Aspirational Districts of India was launched.
• These museums-on-wheels will travel to schools in the 115 “aspirational districts”, as named by the Centre.
• Mobile Museums aim to take science education to students in areas without access to such services.
• The buses will travel to schools in aspirational districts throughout the year except during the vacations and will aim to create a scientific awareness among the rural children.
• Each specially designed bus contains 20 interactive exhibits and other demonstrations related to children and rural life.
• The exhibitions cover topics like measurement, machines in everyday life, food and health, chemistry and life with focus on water, energy, hygeine and sanitation and space science for human welfare.
• The program has been fully funded by Ministry of Culture.

Why MSE Programme in Leh, Ladakh Region?

The Science Explorer MSE programme in the Leh, Ladakh region will be the first of its kind in the region with a broad objective to:

•  Popularize science and technology among the students and general public.
•   Creating a scientific awareness in the society.
•   Inculcating a spirit of enquiry among the young people.
• Inspiring youngsters to pursue a career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
• Supplementing formal education imparted in schools and colleges with non-formal science education.
• Promoting a culture of science in the society.

Mobile Science Exhibition Programme (MSE):

• MSE programme was originally launched as Mobile Science Museum (MSM) in 1965, with a mission ‘If the people cannot visit the museum, let the museum visit the people at their doorsteps’.
• It is the largest and the longest running outreach programme of National Council of Science Museums (NCSM).
• Successful in supplementing formal education and creating scientific awareness since its inception, the programme had 23 such buses or vans till now.

National Council of Science Museums:

• National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) is an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India.
• It is primarily engaged in ‘Communicating Science to Empower People’ through its network of twenty-five Science Centres/Museums spread across India.
• With the help of its unique interactive science exhibits through which students can explore the basics of science and technology, travelling and short-term exhibitions, Mobile Science Exhibitions (MSE) units and a wide range of science based educational programmes and activities for public and students in particular, NCSM has now become a trend setter in the field of science communication both at national and international level.
• NCSM is the world’s largest network of science centres and museums that functions under a single administrative umbrella.

Read more about Aspirational Districts Programme.

Context:

After PM Narendra Modi’s Fit India Movement, the government has laid its focus on eat right initiatives, and has launched ‘Poshan Maah’.

Details:

• Government aims to promote healthy and balanced eating through initiatives launched in the month of September, declared as the Poshan Maah (nutrition month).
• Among its different goals are
  • Promotion of healthy and balanced eating
  • Attempt to fight malnutrition in far-flung villages by training the front line health workers.
• The significance of the initiative is underscored by a World Health Organisation’s (WHO) nutrition report that says 3.7 million deaths could be prevented by 2025 if governments boost their focus on healthier eating.

Initiatives:

• The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has also put in place robust regulatory measures under three major pillars: Eat Safe, Eat Health and Eat Sustainably for the programme.
• FSSAI has prescribed a limit for Total Polar Compounds (TPC) at 25% in cooking oil to avoid the harmful effects of reused cooking oil.
• Targeting the urban population, especially the college-going youth, the country’s top food regulator— Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)—has designed the app-based, Eat Right quiz.
• It is aimed at enhancing the knowledge of basics of food safety and nutrition.
• FSSAI has also launched the ‘Eat Right Online Store’ that offers goods such as coffee mugs, t-shirts, tote bags, fridge magnets, coasters etc. carrying campaign messages.
• To deal with malnutrition cases, especially in children living in villages, a four-week online learning course to train front line health workers like Anganwadi workers and midwives is also launched.
• The course will focus on basic concepts of nutrition, importance of nutrition in first 1000 days, reducing consumption of high fat salt and sugar foods and overall food safety.
• As part of ‘Eat Right India’ campaign, the central food regulator – Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has trained over 1.7 lakh food safety supervisors who will spread awareness and sensitise people and food vendors on food safety.

Eat Right India Campaign:

• Eat Right India campaign was launched in 2018.
• The campaign is led by FSSAI.
• It is a Pan-India cycle movement aimed to create consumer awareness about eating safe and nutritious food.
• It aims to engage, excite and enable citizens to improve their health and well being.
• ‘Eat Right India’, is built on two broad pillars of ‘Eat Healthy’ and ‘Eat Safe’.
• It is a collective effort to make both the demand and supply-side interventions through the engagement of key stakeholders.

Conclusion:

• The Eat Right India is aligned with the government’s flagship public health programmes such as POSHAN Abhiyaan, Anemia Mukt Bharat, Ayushman Bharat Yojana and Swachh Bharat Mission.
• The Eat Right India movement is a crucial preventive healthcare measure to trigger social and behavioural change through a judicious mix of regulatory measures, combined with soft interventions for ensuring awareness and capacity building of food businesses and citizens alike.
• The message of ‘Eat Right’ should be promoted everywhere. Citizens should choose healthy food and the food industry should manufacture healthy food.

FSSAI:

• Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is an autonomous statutory body.+
• It was established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (FSS Act).
• It consolidates various acts & orders that have hitherto handled food related issues in various Ministries and Departments.
• It was created for laying down science based standards for articles of food and to regulate their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import to ensure availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption.
• Ministry of Health & Family Welfare is the administrative Ministry of FSSAI.

Context:

In the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the ‘Act Far East’ policy to boost India’s engagement with the Russian region, at the plenary session of the Fifth Eastern Economic Forum (EEF).

Background:

• PM Narendra Modi was in Russia as the chief guest of the 5th Eastern Economic Forum.
• It is an international forum held each year in Vladivostok, Russia, for the purpose of encouraging foreign investment in the Russian Far East.
• Modi is the first Indian prime minister to visit to the Russian Far East Region.

Details:

• India concluded around 50 agreements worth $5 billion at the EEF-2019.
• PM announced a $1 billion line of credit for the development of the resource-rich region.
• Modi appreciated Mr. Putin’s vision for the welfare for Russia’s Far East, saying the President had opened up investment opportunities for India in the region.
• India’s connection to Russia’s Far East go back a long way. Indian firms have invested over $7 billion in taking stake in Russian oil and gas fields.
• India’s largest state-owned companies, as well as private business conglomerates, have been investing in the Far East, which includes ONGC’s investments in oil and gas projects, the development of coal and gold deposits by Tata Power and Sun Group, diamond polishing factories set up recently by KGK group and M Suresh, among others.
• India ventured into Russia when its flagship overseas firm ONGC Videsh in 2001 acquired a 20 per cent stake in Sakhalin-1 oil and gas field in Far East Russia.
• OVL later bought Imperial Energy, which has fields in Siberia, as also stakes in Vankor oilfield in eastern Siberia.
• IOC and its partners have picked up 29.9 per cent stake in a separate Taas-Yuryakh oilfield in East Siberia.
• Russian oil firm Rosneft in 2017 bought Essar Oil, which operates in Vadinar oil refinery in Gujarat and some 5,500 petrol pumps, for USD 12.9 billion.

Why India is so interested in Russian Far East?

• This is a region situated in the cold Siberian climate but more significantly, it shares borders with China, Mongolia, North Korea and Japan (maritime).
• On its own, it could be the eight largest – just behind India – in terms of area, and fourth least densely populated country.
• Both China and the US have been competing to have an upper hand in this region.
• Realising its geostrategic significance, India opened a consulate in Vladivostok in 1992.
• India was the first country to have a resident consulate in Vladivostok then.
• An understanding for Vladivostok-Chennai sea link was reached in 2018 when late Sushma Swaraj visited Russia as foreign minister.
• This Vladivostok-Chennai sea link is somewhat a counter to China’s Maritime Silk Route (MSR) plan as part of One Belt One Road project. China’s ambitious MSR plan is about establishing and hence directly controlling Asia-Africa sea route.
• Vladivostok-Chennai shipping link is likely to pass through or very close to the South China Sea, which China has turned into an international geostrategic hotspot by claiming exclusive control over the resource-rich maritime zone in the Pacific Ocean. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counter claims over the sea.
• There is an alternate possibility as well that Vladivostok-Chennai link would become an extension of existing India-Japan Pacific to Indian Ocean Corridor, which China considers as a challenge to its maritime OBOR plan in the region.
• Russian Far East is a resource rich region in a hostile climate. It is rich in oil, natural gas, timber, gold and diamond among other resources. India requires all of them.
• A busy Vladivostok-Chennai link means India strengthening its checks and balances equation with China.

Context:

The Human Resource Development Ministry has awarded the status of Institute of Eminence to the IIT-Madras, the IIT-Kharagpur, Delhi University, Benares Hindu University and the University of Hyderabad.

Details:

• Four private universities — the Vellore Institute of Technology, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Jamia Hamdard University and the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology — were issued Letters of Intent to grant them the status.
• The new greenfield Bharti Institute, a project of Airtel’s Satya Bharti Foundation, has also been issued the letter.
• Each university will be required to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry, laying out its plan to achieve the objective of becoming a world-class institution.
• The public institutions on the list will then be eligible for a government grant of 1,000 crore.

Institutions of Eminence scheme:

• The institutes of eminence scheme under the Union human resource development (HRD) ministry aims to project Indian institutes to global recognition.
• These institutions will not be subject to UGC inspections.
• They are free to set their own courses and curriculum, fee structure and merit-based admission systems.
• They will have complete academic, administrative and financial autonomy.
• They will receive special funding.
• Eligibility: Only higher education institutions currently placed in the top 500 of global rankings or top 50 of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) are eligible to apply for the eminence tag.
• The private Institutions of Eminence can also come up as greenfield ventures provided the sponsoring organisation submits a convincing perspective plan for 15 years.

C. GS3 Related

Category: SECURITY

1. CBI to get Centralised Technology Vertical

D. GS4 Related

E. Editorials

Context

• In a landmark verdict, the Rajasthan High Court has ruled that former chief ministers of the state cannot avail life-long facilities like government bungalow, telephone, and car
• The High Court termed the Rajasthan Ministers’ Salaries (Amendment) Act 2017 as “illegal” and ‘unconstitutional’.

What did the law say?

• To individuals who have served as Chief Minister for five consecutive years, section 7BB of the Act guaranteed for the remainder of their lives, a government residence of the same type and the same facilities and concessions to which a serving CM is entitled either in Jaipur or in any district headquarter.
• In case a government residence is not available or the individual does not use the residence, they would be reimbursed a fixed monthly amount.
• Such individuals were also entitled to a car provided by the state for use by them and the members of their family, a phone, and secretarial and other staff.

Background

• The High Court judgement came on a plea by veteran journalist Milapchand Dandiya who had challenged the law that gave life-long facilities to former CMs.
• According to the plea, former Chief Ministers of Rajasthan are given lifelong facilities such as government bungalow, car, driver, telephone services and a staff of 10.
• Dandiya”s plea, however, questioned the Rajasthan law referring to a Supreme Court order that quashed a similar Uttar Pradesh legislation, which granted permanent accommodation to the state’s former chief ministers.
  • A former Chief Minister is only a commoner and not a “special class of citizen” who can enjoy privileges, perks and official bungalows at taxpayers’ expense for his entire lifetime, the Supreme Court had ruled.
  • The court observed that “the Chief Minister, once he/she demits the office, is at par with the common citizen, though by virtue of the office held, he/she may be entitled to security and other protocols. But allotment of government bungalow, to be occupied during his/her lifetime, would not be guided by the constitutional principle of equality.”
• He had said that a financially backward state did not have the required resources, and that it would be unfair to spend public money on “luxurious lifestyles” of politicians.
• Counsel for the petitioner argued that “having regard to the egalitarian principle underlined by Article 14,… ‘freebies’ would be distribution of largesse, not based on any rationale”.

Court’s observation

• The court observed that Rajasthan is an economically backward state and such life-long facilities for former CMs was virtually a ‘misuse of public funds’.
• The court observed: “All power is public trust, to be held for and on behalf of the people and for their benefit. Once the holders of such power stray from the path of rectitude and help themselves to public largesse, the essence of the democratic principle and equality is violated. One is reminded of George Orwell’s apocryphal portrayal of a distorted meaning of equality in his much-celebrated Animal Farm— that all animals are born equal but some are more equal than others.” Assuring former CMs “significant largesse for life amounts to saying that such individuals are more equal than the other public servants and citizens of India”, the court said.

Context

• Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Thailand became the first four countries in the World Health Organization’s Southeast Asia region to have successfully controlled hepatitis B.
• The virus is said to be controlled when the disease prevalence is reduced to less than 1% among children less than five years of age.

A look at numbers in India

• Despite the introduction of hepatitis B vaccine in the Universal Immunisation Programme in 2002 and scaling-up nationwide in 2011, about one million people in India become chronically infected with the virus every year.
• According to the Health Ministry, as on February 2019, an estimated 40 million people in India were infected.
• The Govt has taken steps to increase the vaccination coverage and the disease prevalence in children aged less than five years. But it has not seen the disease drop below 1%. One of the reasons for this is the sub-optimal coverage of birth dose in all infants within 24 hours of birth.
• Hepatitis B birth dose, given in the first 24 hours, helps prevent vertical transmission from the mother to child.

Reasons for the low coverage

• It is the fear of wastage of vaccine when a 10-dose vial is used.
• Unfortunately, health-care workers are very often unaware of the WHO recommendation that allows hepatitis B open-vial policy. Opened vials of hepatitis B vaccine can be kept for a maximum duration of 28 days for use in other children if the vaccine meets certain conditions.

Issue Area

• Hepatitis B infection at a young age turns chronic, causing over 1,00,000 premature deaths annually from liver cirrhosis or liver cancer.

Way forward

• There is also a need to increase public awareness about the merits of the birth dose.

For Introduction: Kindly read

https://byjus.com/free-ias-prep/upsc-exam-comprehensive-news-analysis-aug31-2019/#Editorials

Concerns

• The largest of the mergers that has been proposed, which PNB is combining with two other entities, is going to give the bank which is about one third the size of the 50th largest bank in the world, which is low in ranking on the Global Standards.
• The correlation between size and efficiency is suspect beyond a certain minimum size.
• Evidences have also shown that in the Indian context large public sector banks underperform in relation to private banks, which are much smaller.
  • The Price To Book Value Ratio of HDFC Bank is close to 4, whereas the price to book value of SBI is around 1.25.
  • Therefore, the suggestion that getting bigger is going to, in itself, give some benefits is not validated by experience, either internationally or within India.
• Whenever a merger of such scale happens, the senior management gets distracted in terms of trying to make sure who gets what.
  • And therefore, in the short term, there is going to be some amount of disruption.

The biggest argument against big banks is that they can become too big to fail.

• The financial sector is all inter-connected and a risk in any part of the system is a risk to the entire system. If a large bank were to fail, it could bring down the whole financial sector with it, as was evident from the near death experience following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, which triggered the global financial crisis.
• No country can therefore afford the failure of a big bank. The tacit knowledge that the sovereign will be forced to rescue it encourages irresponsible behaviour by big banks.

Significance

Managing the NPA’s

• In terms of resolution of NPAs there is some merit in having the merger because there are coordination problems involved when you have multiple banks trying to resolve NPAs which are common to all of them.
• The middle and senior management who are deputed for meetings, have discussions with their counterparts from other banks.
• And then they have to go back to the top management for a decision, come back again for a meeting, and it goes on and on.
• Therefore, the resolution of NPAs becomes difficult when you have so many banks trying to arrive at an understanding amongst themselves.
• So, to the extent that the discussion is happening among fewer banks, the resolution of NPAs will be facilitated.

Appointing the top management gets easy for the Govt

• The most important rationale is that the multiplicity of banks was making enormous demands on the bandwidth of the Finance Ministry in terms of appointments of chairmen, managing directors, executive directors, independent directors.
• Even though they have the banks board bureau to advise them on appointments, the process is extremely time-consuming. There were long delays in making the senior appointments, as a result of which these banks have been incurring substantial costs.
• When the bank does not have a person at the top or persons at the top, or even directors in play, it exacts its own cost on the bank.
• And so, collapsing the number of banks makes it easier for the Ministry to monitor the banks on its watch

Consolidation of Private Banks in pipeline?

• A lesser number of banks means, hopefully, speedier decision-making across banks.
• And the other thing which it can trigger is some consolidation in private sector banks. Because the private sector banks would now be falling behind in terms of scale compared to some of these banks. And therefore, to some extent, this can force the private sector banks to think of a similar consolidation.

F. Tidbits

• A 10ft x 10ft map of Hyderabad dating from 1772 is slowly disappearing in one quiet corner in Idara-e-Adabiyat Urdu in the city at Panjagutta.
• After 2000 since the Idara was de-recognised, the source of income has dried up.
• It is found that there is a financial problem in taking care of the map and countless artefacts ranging from Mughal-era swords to Asaf Jahi era paintings to Abdullah Qutb Shah’s multi-lingual farmans.
• It is believed that the map was key to the decision to move the Asaf Jahi capital from Aurangabad to Hyderabad.
• The Hyderabad map predates the effort by Scottish soldier Colonel Colin Mackenzie of the East India Company, who created maps for the Nizam’s Dominions in 1780s.
• The maps were so useful for the East India Company during the Anglo-Mysore wars that he was made the Surveyor-General of India.
• However, his role is largely forgotten as Mackenzie is remembered more for the manuscripts and oral histories he collected.

• The U.S. has backed India’s move to declare JeM chief Masood Azhar and three others as terrorists individually under a new anti-terror law.
• The decision to declare all four of them as terrorists has been taken nearly a month after Parliament approved a crucial amendment to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment (UAPA) Act, 1967.
• Besides Azhar, India declared Mumbai terror attack accused Zaki-ur-Rehman-Lakhvi, fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, and Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed as individual terrorists.
• These four are involved in terrorist attacks in India and have been designated as global terrorists under United Nations.
• Under the new law, the government can impose a travel ban on individuals who have been designated as “terrorists” and seize their properties.
• The law is in conformity with United Nations conventions as well as international standards, the government said.
• The US Department of the Treasury has designated Saeed, 2008 Mumbai terror attacks mastermind, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, and the US, since 2012, has offered a USD 10 million reward for information that brings the JuD chief to justice.
• US President Donald Trump has repeatedly asked Pakistan to abide by its UN Security Council commitments to deny terrorists safe haven and block their access to funds.
• In May 2019, the United Nations had designated Azhar as a “global terrorist” after China lifted its hold on a proposal to blacklist him.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought the extradition of controversial Indian televangelist Zakir Naik, who is wanted in India for fuelling terrorism, when he met Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
• The extradition request was made on the sidelines of the fifth meeting of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) held here in the Russian Far East Region.
• Naik, a 53-year-old radical Islamic preacher, reportedly left India in 2016 and subsequently moved to Malaysia, a Muslim-majority nation, where he was granted permanent residency.
• He has been banned from any public activities in the multi-ethnic country after his remarks against Malaysian Hindus and Chinese.

• Chinese firm Sinogene has created the first cloned kitten becoming the Beijing-based company’s first successfully copied cat.
• With a growing pet market in China, and a huge appetite among their owners for spending, it is believed that the market for pet cloning is also set to rocket.
• Pet cloning is illegal in many countries but approved in countries including South Korea and the US
• The first major success in animal cloning was Dolly the sheep, born in Britain in 1996 as the first mammal cloned from an adult cell.
• In 2005, researchers in South Korea cloned the first dog.
• The Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in Seoul has cloned some 800 pets and charges $100,000 each.

• Member-countries of the World Health Organisation (WHO) South-East Asia Region have resolved to eliminate highly infectious childhood killer diseases measles and rubella by 2023.
• A resolution to eliminate the diseases was adopted at the 72nd session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia in Delhi.
• The resolution calls for ensuring a highly sensitive laboratory supported case-based surveillance system – better evidence for appropriate planning and response. It also emphasises on preparedness for outbreak response activities.
• All countries pledged to mobilise political, societal and financial support to ensure the interruption of transmission of indigenous measles and rubella virus by 2023.
• The new target to eliminate both the diseases will leverage the existing momentum and a strong political commitment, which is being demonstrated through unprecedented efforts, progress and successes in recent years.
• Eliminating measles will prevent 500,000 deaths a year in the region, while eliminating rubella/ CRS would avert about 55,000 cases of rubella and promote health and wellbeing of pregnant women and infants.
  • Measles is particularly dangerous for the poor, as it attacks malnourished children and those with reduced immunity.
  • It can cause serious complications, including blindness, encephalitis, severe diarrhoea, ear infection and pneumonia.
  • Rubella/ congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) causes irreversible birth defects.
• Measles elimination and rubella control has been a regional flagship priority since 2014.
• Bhutan, DPR Korea, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Timor-Leste have eliminated measles and Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Timor-Leste have controlled rubella.
• To achieve the new targets, the member-countries resolved to strengthen the immunisation systems for increasing and sustaining high level of population immunity against the two diseases at both the national and sub-national levels.

G. Prelims Facts

• The National Council for Teacher Education as a statutory body came into existence in pursuance of the National Council for Teacher Education Act, 1993
• The main objective of the NCTE is to achieve planned and coordinated development of the teacher education system throughout the country, the regulation and proper maintenance of Norms and Standards in the teacher education system and for matters connected therewith.

Objectives

• To regulate and properly maintain the Norms and Standards in the teacher education system and for matters connected therewith.
• It aims at training individuals for equipping them to teach pre-primary, primary, secondary and senior secondary stages in schools, non-formal and part-time education, adult education (correspondence) and distance education courses.

• It was first published in 2007 by the World Economic Forum.
  • It is Published biennially
• The index is a measurement of the factors that make it attractive to develop business in the travel and tourism industry of individual countries, rather than a measure of a country attractiveness as a tourist destination.
• The study scored countries on four indicators — enabling environment; travel and tourism policy and enabling conditions; infrastructure; natural and cultural rankings.
  • The four broad indicators looked at 14 variables, which were further subdivided into 90 indicators such as property rights, efficiency of the legal framework, quality of electricity supply, female labour force participation, visa requirements and the number of World Heritage cultural sites.
• The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI), that covered 140 economies, measures the set of factors and policies that enable sustainable development of travel and tourism sector which contributes to the development and competitiveness of a country.

India’s Ranking

• India has moved up six places to rank 34th.

Countries Ranking

• Spain held on to the top spot
• Spain was followed by France, Germany and Japan, with the United States replacing the UK in the top five.
  • Japan remains Asia’s most competitive travel and tourism economy, ranking 4th globally
• Others in the top 10 list include the United Kingdom at the 6th place, Australia (7th), Italy (8th), Canada (9th) and Switzerland (10th).
• The report further added that Asia-Pacific was one of the fastest-growing travel and tourism regions in this year’s ranking.
• Pakistan (121st) remains the least competitive country in South Asia when it comes to T&T, including the region’s least favourable safety and security (134th) conditions.

H. Practice Questions for UPSC Prelims Exam

Q1. Consider the following statements:

1. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is a statutory body.
2. Ministry of Health & Family Welfare is the administrative Ministry of FSSAI.

Which of the given statement/s is/are correct?

a. 1 only
b. 2 only
c. Both 1 and 2
d. Neither 1 nor 2

See

Q2. ‘Transformation of Aspirational Districts’ is under the aegis of

a. NITI Aayog
b. Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
c. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
d. Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare

See

Q3. Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Operates under the jurisdiction of

a. Ministry of Home affairs
b. Ministry of Defence
c. Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs
d. Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions

See

Q4. Consider the following statements:

1. Measles is a highly infectious illness caused by the rubeola virus.
2. Rubella causes irreversible birth defects.

Which of the given statement/s is/are correct?

a. 1 only
b. 2 only
c. Both 1 and 2
d. Neither 1 nor 2

See

1. India is in need of a movement on preventive health for all, in the backdrop of the increasing burden of non-communicable diseases among the population. Comment on the measures being undertaken in light of India’s target to be free of industrial trans-fats by 2022. (15 Marks, 250 Words).
2. The maiden visit by an Indian prime minister to Vladivostok is set to strengthen India’s position in Asia-Pacific that has emerged as the kernel of future geo-strategy. Discuss. (15 Marks, 250 Words)

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September 6th, 2019 CNA:-Download PDF Here