26th December 2020 Currents Affairs Analysis - IASToppers
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26th December 2020 Currents Affairs Analysis
By IASToppers' Editorial Team | 2020-12-26 17:00:00
Polity & Governance
Digital voter ID cards
The Election Commission (EC) is gearing up to launch ‘digital voter ID’ cards by on National Voters’
Day.
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January 25 is marked as National Voters’ Day in India.
‘Digital voter ID’:
The Elector’s Photo Identity Card or EPIC available in electronic form could soon avail the Voter
ID Card on mobile phone which could be downloadable.
Currently, the EPIC is only available in hard copy, and has to be produced in the original by the
voter on election day.
It will prevent the impersonation and establish the identity of genuine elector at the time of poll.
Features:
Digital voter ID cards will be optional.
It could be store on the government’s digital document safe — Digilocker.
The same verification process will also apply for overseas electors.
To ensure security of the digital voter card, there will be two QR codes.
The first code will contain the photo and demographic data of the individual.
The second will contain dynamic data.
Ahead of the election, the second code will get updated with information regarding the
date and time of the poll.
It will serve the purpose of the photo voter slip, although the Commission will continue paper
slip distribution as well.
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For electronic form of EPIC:
An eligible voter will have to provide her mobile number or email address to EC for applying for
enrolment in the voters’ list.
Once her name is included in the electoral roll, she will be intimated through an SMS or email.
The new voter can then download the Voter Card through OTP (One Time Password)
authentication.
The digital voter card looks similar to its physical look.
The soft copy may also have a QR code that will carry the voter’s enrolment details such as
name and date of birth and address.
Benefits:
Delivery of election ID cards has been a cumbersome process. Electronic form of EPIC will do
away with the need for it.
An electronic card will help the EC save costs on printing and distributing hard copy of EPIC.
It is useful to have the PDF file of her voter card on her phone, which will do away with the
necessity of first producing a voter’s slip on the day of voting.
EPIC (Electors Photo ID card):
The voter ID card or EPIC (Electors Photo Identity Card) is an identification card issued by the
Election Commission to all eligible voters to enable voter identification on Election Day.
All those who are already enrolled in the voter's list are eligible to receive a voter ID card also
known as election card.
It includes: personal details and a distinct identification number.
The election laws have made a provision of Electors Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) under Rule 28 of
Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
In future, data of a biometric nature like digital signature and fingerprints may also be contained
inside a microchip, embedded in the given election card.
Importance:
The EPIC (Electors Photo Identity Card) proves to be a unique identity document for all Indians.
The election card is helpful not only for casting a vote in elections but also acts as an identity
proof and address proof for opening a bank account, getting a new gas connection, and online
reservations for travel and accommodation.
A voter ID card is also essential for registration in the electoral roll in case a person migrates
to a place other than the place of his/her domicile.
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[Ref: Hindustan Times]
e-HRMS brochure
Union Home Secretary recently released e-HRMS brochure on Good Governance Day.
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Electronic Human Resource Management System (e-HRMS):
Also known as Manav Sampada, is a standard ICT solution for the Government sector,
addressing maximum requirements of State Governments related to personnel management.
The e-HRMS was launched by Union Minister of State for Personnel in 2017.
It had 25 applications of five modules.
The e-HRMS Application has been developed as a product model for providing a generalized
human resource management solution for Government Departments to help them in taking right
decisions at right time and for proper monitoring, manpower planning, recruitments, postings,
promotion and transfer based on employee skill sets.
Objective:
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To provide a generic, product based solution to the State/Central Government organisations for
better management of personnel through electronic service record.
Need:
To popularise the system in other ministries for its use in comprehensive manner.
Functions:
Through e-HRMS, government employees are accessing their service-related information.
It has digitized HR processes in the government of India, leading to several benefits for the
employees and increasing efficiency.
With the advanced version of e-HRMS, employees will be able:
To see all their details with respect to service book, leave, GPF, salary, etc.,
Apply for different kind of claims/reimbursements, loan/advances, leave, and leave
encashment, LTC advances, tour etc. on a single platform.
Advantages:
Providing dash board for employee and management
Updated service records
E-governance in office procedures
Reduced file movement
Faster service delivery
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Assist in decision making
Common document repository of employees
Standardization of master data
Minimize manual entry of data
Ease of sharing information among stake holders
E-sign for accountability/authenticity
e-HRMS integration for faster payments of GPF, advances, loans, reimbursement
Key facts:
Good Governance Day is observed in India annually on the 25th December, the birth anniversary
of former-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
It was established in 2014 to honor Prime Minister Vajpayee by fostering awareness among the
Indian people of accountability in government.
[Ref: Economic Times]
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Government Schemes & Policies
PM Kisan Samman Nidhi
Government of India released next installment of financial benefit under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi
program.
About PM Kisan Samman Nidhi:
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Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi is a central sector scheme of Ministry of Agriculture
and Farmers Welfare.
Under this scheme, all small and marginal farmers will be provided with income support of
Rs. 6,000 per year in three instalments which will be deposited directly to their bank
accounts.
Objective:
To provide income support to all eligible land-holding farmers and their families.
To supplement the financial needs of the farmers in procuring various inputs to ensure
proper crop health and appropriate yields, commensurate with the anticipated farm income.
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Similar programmes by states:
Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana- Madhya Pradesh
The Rythu Bandhu scheme- Telangana
Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income augmentation (KALIA)- Odisha
[Ref: PIB]
Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS)
Recently, the government has sanctioned 40 day overseas coaching camp in Hungary and Poland
under TOPS.
About Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS)
Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) was started by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and
Sports in 2014.
Aim: To improve India’s performance at Olympics and Paralympics.
It was revamped in April 2018 to have a technical support team for managing the TOPS
athletes and providing holistic support to probable athletes identified for the Tokyo-2021,
Paris-2024 and Los Angles-2028 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.
It includes foreign training, international competition, equipment and coaching camp besides
monthly stipend of Rs.50,000/- for each athlete.
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It covers the junior and sub-junior athletes with the objective of producing future champions.
The focus of the scheme is on Olympics sports discipline in which India has won medals in the
last conducted Asian Games as well as Commonwealth Games.
9 High priority sports disciplines have been identified, which includes-
Further, a periodic performance review is conducted for all athletes under the Scheme on the
basis on key performance indicators brought out by the Sports Authority of India (SAI) in
collaboration with the National Sports Federations (NSFs), coaches and other stakeholders.
For more information please refer: 4th March 2020 Current Affairs Analysis - IASToppers
[Ref-PIB]
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National Jal Jeevan Mission launched innovation challenge
The National Jal Jeevan Mission launched an innovation challenge for developing portable devices to
test drinking water quality.
About the Innovation Challenge:
Aim:
To ensure that water sources are tested at various locations, at different levels; thereby, helping
the policy framers to design programs which address the water contamination issues.
Objective:
To bring an innovative, modular, and cost-effective solution to develop portable devices that can
be used at the household level to test the drinking water quality instantly, easily and
accurately.
Water quality testing is one of the priority areas under Jal Jeevan Mission, the flagship
programme of Union Government.
What is Jal Jeevan Mission?
Government of India has restructured and subsumed the National Rural Drinking Water
Programme (NRDWP) into Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) to provide Functional Household Tap
Connection (FHTC) to every rural household i.e., Har Ghar Nal Se Jal (HGNSJ) by 2024.
Nodal ministry for the scheme is Jal Shakti Ministry.
The following kinds of works/ schemes are proposed to be taken up under JJM:
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The Jal Jeevan Scheme will be implemented through institutional mechanism at four levels
– national, state, district and gram panchayat or its sub committees.
Women will play a bigger role in this scheme and the paani samitis or the user group will
decide about the user fee for the sustainability of the scheme.
Highlights of the mission:
The government created the Ministry of Jal Shakti. It integrated the water resources
management part and service delivery of drinking water and sanitation.
This mission is complimentary to the Atal Bhujal Yojana which will ensure source sustainability.
The implementation will help reach India reach the Sustainable Development Goal target well
before 2030.
It will also provide an opportunity to reorient our water systems to meet the challenges posed
by climate change.
Space technology, aquifer mapping, 3-D contour mapping and use of sensor technology will be
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part of the programme.
Significance to the Women and the Community:
Women will now be able to take a lead in the programme.
Paani samiti will be a statutory subcommittee of the gram panchayat. The paani samithis will
have at least 50% representations by women and can go much more even upto 100%.
Concept of user fee gives a signal that water is a precious commodity.
Involvement of the community makes the mission a Jan Andolan.
Quality parameters:
Achievements:
2.90 Crore households have been provided tap water connections,
The tap water supply increased from 3.23 Crore (17%) in August, 2019 to 6.13 Crore (32%)
rural households of the country.
Every household in 20 districts, 425 blocks, 34 thousand Gram Panchayats and 64 thousand
villages of the country now have access to tap water connection.
[Ref: PIB]
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Environment, Ecology & Disaster Management
Whale Song recorded in the Indian Ocean
Recently, researchers discovered the unique blue whale song recordings from three locations in the
Northwest Indian Ocean.
They have recorded the song:
Off the coast of Oman in the northern Arabian Sea.
Off the Western Chagos Archipelago.
Off Madagascar in the southwestern Indian Ocean.
About Whale Song
Only some whales have been found singing such as baleen whale.
They used songs to communicate and socialise.
Characteristics of the songs:
Clicks
To navigate and identify their surroundings.
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As the sound bounces off objects, helping whales determine their shapes.
Whistles and Pulsed calls
During social activities.
A composition of moans, snores, chirps and cries.
Songs are typically below 4 kHz in frequency, which is within the human hearing range.
About Whales
Whales are the largest animals on Earth and Blue whale is largest among them.
They are warm-blooded mammals.
They roam all of the world's oceans and communicate with complex and mysterious sounds.
Despite living in the water, whales breathe air.
A thick layer of fat called blubber which insulates them from cold ocean waters.
There are two types of whales-
Toothed whales
They have teeth used to hunt and eat squid, fish, and seals.
Examples, sperm whales, dolphins, porpoises, orcas, etc.
Baleen whale
They are larger than toothed whales.
Examples, blue whales, humpbacks, right whales, bowhead whales, etc.
Whales are at the top of the food chain and have an important role in the overall health of the
marine environment.
Threats:
Unsustainable fishing and commercial whaling.
Shipping
Habitat loss.
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) status: Six out of the 13 great whale
species are classified as endangered or vulnerable.
It falls in Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
[Ref- The Indian Express]
Indian History
HC directs ASI to look into illegal construction near Qutub Minar
The Delhi high court recently directed Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and South Delhi Municipal
Corporation (SDMC) about unauthorized constructions near Qutub Minar.
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It has come up within 40 meters of Qutub Minar, an ASI-protected monument.
Background:
The permission for construction was taken from the civic body and the ASI on the basis of
“misrepresentation of facts and fabrication of documents”.
Permission could not be granted for any construction in the prohibited zone of 100 metres
abutting a protected monument.
About Qutub Minar:
Qutab Minar is a soaring, 73 m-high tower of victory, built in 1193 by Qutab-ud-din Aibak
immediately after the defeat of Delhi's last Hindu kingdom.
The tower has five distinct storeys. Qutab-ud-din raised the first storey, to which were added
three more storeys by his successor, Shams-ud-Din Iltutmish and in 1368, Firoz Shah
Tughlak constructed the fifth and the last storey.
The first three storeys are made of red sandstone; the fourth and fifth storeys are of marble and
sandstone.
Sher Shah Suri added an entrance while he was ruling and the Mughal emperor Humayun was in
exile.
At the foot of the tower is the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque, the first mosque to be built in India.
It is named after Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki a 13th-century Sufi saint; Shams-ud-din
Iltutmish was a devotee of his.
It has inscriptions praising Muhammad of Ghor.
An inscription over its eastern gate provocatively informs that it was built with material obtained
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from demolishing '27 Hindu temples'.
It was built over the ruins of the Lal Kot, the citadel of Dhillika.
UNESCO has declared the highest stone tower in India as a world heritage site.
Features:
The height of Qutub Minar is 72.5 meters, the tallest minaret in the world built of bricks.
It contains a spiral staircase.
Its closest comparator is the 62-metre all-brick Minaret of Jam in Afghanistan, a decade or so
before the probable start of the Delhi tower.
The surfaces of both are elaborately decorated with inscriptions and geometric patterns.
The shaft is fluted with "superb stalactite bracketing under the balconies" at the top of each
stage.
Minarets were slow to be used in India, and are often detached from the main mosque where
they exist.
[Ref: Hindustan Times]
Art & Culture
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Manipur’s Zomi people push for BTC-like council
Zomi ethnic group of Manipur has renewed its demand for a self-administered zone (Zoland
Territorial Council (ZTC) on the lines of the Bodoland Territorial Council in Assam.
The Zomi Council represents the none Zomi tribes.
Zomi ethnic group:
They are found in Burma, Bangladesh and India as Chin, Kuki, or Lushai.
The Zou / Zo are a Tibeto-Mongoloid group of people, a sub-family of the Chin-Kuki-Mizo race.
(Chin, Kuki, Zomi and Mizo tribes who are collectively known as Zo people)
In northeastern India, they are present in: Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur and Assam.
They called themselves Zomi because they are the descendants of their great great ancestor, 'Zo'.
The Zou are officially recognized as one of the 33 indigenous peoples of Manipur and are one
of the Scheduled tribes.
According to the 2001 Census, there is less than 3% of the population.
[Ref: The Hindu]
Science & Technology
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ISRO releases Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter data
The Indian Space Research Organization released the first set of data from the eight instruments aboard
the orbiter. The lander and rover of the Chandrayaan-2 mission were destroyed during the attempted
landing in September, 2019.
About Chandrayaan-2 mission:
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Chandrayaan-2 is India’s second Lunar exploration mission indigenously developed by the
Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
The mission consisted of:
Lunar Orbiter
Orbiter spacecraft are designed to go into orbit, especially one that does not
subsequently land.
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Lander (named Vikram)
Lander spacecraft are designed to reach the surface of a planet/celestial body and
survive long enough to telemeter data back to Earth.
Rover (named Pragyan)
A rover is a planetary surface exploration device designed to move across the solid
surface on a planet or other planetary mass celestial bodies.
Objective: To map and study the variations in Lunar surface composition, as well as the location
and abundance of lunar water.
The spacecraft was launched by a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark III.
The lander and the rover were scheduled to land on the near side of the Moon, in the south polar
region.
Unfortunately, the lander crashed while making an attempt to successfully land on
the Lunar surface.
A successful soft landing would have made India the fourth country after the Soviet Union,
United States and China to do so.
[Ref: Indian Express]
Persons in News
The Prime Minister pays tributes to Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya on his Jayanti
Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya is an Indian scholar, educational reformer, and a leader of the Indian
nationalist movement.
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Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya:
He was the son of Pandit Brij Nath, a noted Sanskrit scholar, and his early education took place
at two Sanskrit pathshalas (traditional schools).
Malaviya was a firm believer in the plurality of India.
He was elected president of Congress four times.
He also served on the Imperial Legislative Council (1909–20).
He also helped establish the Hindu Mahasabha (“Great Society of Hindus”) in 1906.
He was the principal founder in 1916 of the Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi.
Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya was also one of the founders of Scout and Guide in India.
Known as 'Mahamana', a title given to him by Mahatma Gandhi, Madan Mohan Malaviya was
conferred the Bharat Ratna posthumously in 2014.
Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya was the one who popularized the term 'Satyamev Jayate' which
means 'Truth Alone Triumphs'.
Magazines published by Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya:
Hindi-language weekly, the Abhyudaya (1907)
The Leader of Allahabad, an English-language daily (1909)
The Hindi monthly the Maryada (1910)
[Ref: PIB]
Key Facts for Prelims
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Nature AI Index
India was ranked 3rd in Artificial Intelligence research by Nature AI Index supplement.
The supplement tracked the top-quality research performance and collaborations.
Nature AI Index:
The Nature Index is a database of author affiliation information collated from research
articles published in an independently selected group of 82 high-quality science journals.
The database is compiled by Nature Research.
The Nature Index also provides institutions with an easy means to identify and highlight some of
their best scientific research.
India’s performance:
India has been 3rd most productive country with over 23000 papers.
Rank in overall index: 20th
Anna university in Chennai is the only Indian institution in top 100 research organization.
[Ref: Times of India]
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