Prelims Objective Practices Questions

(I.) Which of the following committees suggested privatisation of some operations in Indian railways?
A.) Usha Thorat Committee
B.) N Gopalaswami Committee
C.) Subhash Garg Committee
D.) Bibek Debroy committee

(II.) Which of the following activities belong to the Quaternary activities in the services sector of the economy?
1. Medical Tourism
2. Information-generation and sharing
3. Research and Development
4. Consultancy services
Select the correct answer code:

A.) 1, 2, 3
B.) 1, 3, 4
C.) 2, 3, 4
D.) 1, 2, 3, 4
Note:-
1. The quaternary sector consists of those industries providing information services.
2. Medical tourism is classified into tertiary sector.

(III.) The Deep tech includes which of the following:-
1. Advanced manufacturing
2. Artificial Intelligence
3. Big data
4. Blockchain
Select the correct answer code:

A.) 1, 2, 3
B.) 1, 2, 4
C.) 2, 3, 4
D.) 1, 2, 3, 4

Question of the Day :-

What have been the efforts by India to ref-forest the Indian landscape. How far have these efforts helped in regaining the forest growth.

Prelims Specific Facts

NEWS-1 Former Japan PM Abe assassinated

• He was the main architect of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quad, which brings together Australia, India, Japan and the US and is now perceived as the pre-eminent bloc in the Indo-Pacific.
• Even though he was out of office, Abe was still highly influ- ential in the governing Liberal Democratic Party and headed its largest faction, Seiwakai, but his ultra-nationalist views made him a divisive figure to many.
• His groundbreaking security reforms during his second stint, including legislation to expand the role of Japan’s Self-Defense Force, ultimately paved the way for the signing of the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) with India in September 2020, whereby the defence forces of the two sides can reciprocally access logistics facilities.
• Abe worked with former prime minister Manmohan Singh to elevate India-Japan relations to a “special strategic and global partnership” in December 2006 in order to boost all-round cooperation and contribute to greater regional peace and stability.
• Abe’s contributions to strengthening bilateral ties was recognised with the award of the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian award, to him last year.
• His famous Speech :- Confluence of the Two Seas – August 2007 – Indo- Pacific Concept.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shinzo Abe’s friendship laid the tracks for the Rs 1 lakh crore Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project, which involved the construction of a 505 km bullet train using Japan’s Shinkansen technology.
• When Prime Minister Modi went to Japan in 2014, the Indo-Japan nuclear deal was still uncertain as Tokyo was sensitive about a pact with a non-Nuclear-Proliferation-Treaty member country. However, Shinzo Abe’s government convinced the anti-nuclear hawks in Japan to sign the agreement in 2016.
• The deal between India and Japan reportedly turned out to be key to India’s deals with US and French nuclear firms, which were either owned by or had stakes in Japanese firms.

*// Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan's longest serving leader.
*// Senior police officers in Nara named the suspect as unemployed 41 year old Tetsuya Yamagami, who said he had used a handmade gun.

NEWS-2 Polavaram

• Polavaram irrigation project across the Godavari in Andhra Pradesh has been receiving huge in flows of flood waters owing to heavy rain in maharashtra.
• It is an under-construction multi-purpose irrigation National project on the Godavari River in Andhra Pradesh.
• It will facilitate an inter-basin water transfer from the Godavari River to the Krishna river through its Right canal.
• Its reservoir spreads in parts of Chhattisgarh and Orissa States also.
• The project is a multipurpose major terminal reservoir project for the development of Irrigation, Hydropower and drinking water facilities.
• The project was started in 2008, accorded national status in 2014 in the Andhra Pradesh Bifurcation Act.

NEWS-3 KHADC to invite talk on Instrument of Accession

• A tribal council in Meghalaya has called for a meeting of traditional heads to revisit the Instrument of Accession, that made the Khasi domain a part of the Indian Union seven decades ago.
• Meghalaya is divided into three regions dominated by as many matrilineal communities- the Khasi, Garos and Jaintias.
• The Khasi hills straddle 25 Himas or States that formed the Federation of Khasi States.
• Annexed Agreement signed with the Dominion of India between December 15, 1947 and March 19, 1948 should be studied. The treaty was signed by Governor General of India, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, on August 17, 1948.

NEWS-4 How Shinzo Abe restored Japan’s global Standing

Editorial of the Day

1. Equal pay in sports will bring in more women as players and fans

• New Zealand Cricket striking a deal to remunerate its women cricketers the same as their male counterparts is a major landmark in the fight to close the gender pay gap in sports. From August, New Zealand’s men and women players will be entitled to the same match fees, both at the international and domestic levels. This comes four months after the United States’ women’s national footballers won the six year-long battle with their federation to secure equal compensation. The agreements are expected to be game changers, encouraging more girls to take up the sports.
• As New Zealand captain Sophie Devine said, “It’s great to be recognised in the same agreement, alongside the men. It’s a massive step forward and will be a huge drawcard for young women and girls.” But victories in equal pay struggles have not come easy.
• Tennis moved first because of the untiring efforts of Bil lie Jean King, who pressured US Open to shell out the same for men and women back in 1973. That it took another 34 years for the other three Grand Slam tournaments to come around, with Wimbledon the last in 2007, shows the road is still uphill. Football, basketball and golf remain holdouts. Seen in this context, the decisions in New Zealand and the U.S. appear seismic.

2. A plan that is much more than more than just planting trees

• Van Mahotsav, which literally means “celebrate the forest”. The history of Van Mahotsav Day goes back to July 1947, when it was first organised by the Punjabi botanist, M.S. Randhawa. Subsequently, in 1950, Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi, an environmentalist and Union Minister of Agriculture and Food, expanded its reach and national scope.
• According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), deforestation and forest degradation contribute around 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The total area occupied by primary forests in India has de creased by 3.6%.
  
• The aim now
  • Typically, governments have re lied on afforestation and reforestation as a means of establishing trees on non-treed land. These strategies have now evolved. The focus is now on forest landscape restoration the process of re gaining ecological functionality and improving human welfare across deforested or degraded for est landscapes.
  • Forest landscape restoration seeks to involve communities in the process of designing and executing mutually advantageous interventions for the upgradation of landscapes. Nearly two billion hectares of degraded land in the world (and 140 million hectares in India) have scope for potential restoration as forest land.
  • the diversity of the species while planting trees. Natural forests with diverse native tree species are more efficient in se questering carbon than mono culture tree plantations. Planting diverse species is also healthier for local communities and their livelihoods. An international study published earlier this year in the journal, Science, found that diversifying species in forest plantations has a positive impact on the quality of the forests.
  • The community is proactively planting native species such as Jhand (Pro sopis cineraria), Desi Kikar (Acacia nilotica) and Pharwan (Tamarix aphylla), which are resilient and acclimatised. And most of these saplings have a high survival rate of 90%, a vital requirement for sustainable activities.
• A pivotal role
  • Tree planting comes with varied environmental and ecological benefits. Forests are integral in regulating ecosystems, influencing the carbon cycle and mitigating the effects of climate change. Annually, forests absorb roughly 2.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. This absorption includes nearly 33% of the carbon dioxide released from burning fossil fuels.B
  • But beyond the environmental benefits, there is the human dimension that is at the front and centre. Millions of lives and livelihoods are intertwined with our forests. Forests are a boon for local communities and their livelihoods by functioning as a resource base for goods and services. India is an agrarian economy. According to academics from the World Re sources Institute, forest ecosystems enrich soil fertility and water availability, enhancing agricultural productivity, and in turn the rural economy.
• India and programmes
  • The span 2021-2030 is the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, emphasising efforts to restore de graded terrestrial ecosystems including forests. In 2011, the Bonn Challenge was launched with a global goal to restore 150 million hectares of degraded and deforest ed landscapes by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030. India joined the Bonn Challenge in 2015, pledging to restore 26 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2030. An additional car bon sink of 2.5 billion-3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent through forest and tree cover is to be created by 2030.
  • There are a myriad government programmes such as Compensatory Afforestation, the National Afforestation Programme, the National Mission for a Green India (Green India Mission), the NagarVan scheme and the Forest Fire Prevention and Management Scheme to name a few. There is a spotlight on youth via the Green Skill Development Programme for youth who aspire to attain employment in the environment and for est sectors.
  • A large scale tree planting programme called ‘Teanganaku Haritha Haram’.