1) The National Green Tribunal can hear cases related to which of the following Acts?
1. The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974.
2. The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
3. The Biological Diversity Act, 2002.
4. Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
Select the correct answer code:
a) 1, 2, 3
b) 2, 3, 4
c) 1, 2, 4
d) 1, 2, 3, 4
Solution:-These include the following:
The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974;
The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Cess Act, 1977;
The Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980;
The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981;
The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986;
The Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991;
2)Ecological Succession is generally characterized by
1. Increased productivity
2. Decreased niche development
3. Increased complexity of food webs
Select the correct answer code:
a) 1, 2
b) 1, 3
c) 2, 3
d) 1, 2, 3
3)“A large tree shades a small plant, retarding the growth of the small plant. The small plant has no effect on the large tree” this example is related to which type of biotic interaction?
a) Commensalism
b) Amensalism
c) Competition
d) Neutralism
MAP OF THE DAY : –
DNA vs RNA :-
| DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) | RNA (Ribonucleic acid) |
| Definition | |
| It is a long polymer. It has a deoxyribose and phosphate backbone having four distinct bases: thymine, adenine, cytosine, and guanine. | Is a polymer with a ribose and phosphate backbone with four varying bases: uracil, cytosine, adenine, and guanine. |
| Location | |
| It is located in the nucleus of a cell and in the mitochondria. | It is found in the cytoplasm, nucleus, and in the ribosome. |
| Sugar portion | |
| It has 2-deoxyribose. | It has Ribose. |
| Function | |
| DNA is functional is the transmission of genetic information. It forms as a media for long-term storage. | RNA is functional is the transmission of the genetic code that is necessary for the protein creation from the nucleus to the ribosome. |
| Predominant Structure | |
| The DNA is a double-stranded molecule that has a long chain of nucleotides. | The RNA is a single-stranded molecule which has a shorter chain of nucleotides. |
| Propagation | |
| DNA replicates on its own, it is self-replicating. | RNA does not replicate on its own. It is synthesized from DNA when required. |
| Nitrogenous Bases and Pairing | |
| The base pairing is as follows: GC(Guanine pairs with Cytosine) A-T(Adenine pairs with Thymine). | The base pairing is as follows: GC(Guanine pairs with Cytosine) A-U(Adenine pairs with Uracil). |
News :- RBI to pump in ₹1 lakh crore
Among the measures announced was liquidity infusion of ₹1 lakh crore, of which ₹50,000 crore is exclusively for non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), via banks.
The NBFCs have experienced liquidity shortage since banks have not offered them any moratorium for repayment, while these entities have had to extend the moratorium option to their customers.The RBI will extend another ₹50,000 crore to refinancing agencies like Nabard, Sidbi and National Housing Bank.
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)
NABARD is a development bank focussing primarily on the rural sector of the country. It is the apex banking institution to provide finance for Agriculture and rural development. Its headquarter is located in Mumbai, the country’s financial capital.
It is responsible for the development of the small industries, cottage industries, and any other such village or rural projects.
It is a statutory body established in 1982 under Parliamentary act-National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Act, 1981.
It supervises Cooperative Banks and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and helping them develop sound banking practices and integrate them to the CBS (Core Banking Solution) platform.
- NABARD was established on the recommendations of B.Sivaramman Committee.
- NABARD is 100% GOI entity.
Reserve Bank of India is the central bank of the country with sole right to regulate the banking industry and supervise the various institutions/banks that also include NABARD defined under Banking Regulation Act of 1949
2)NBFC :- A Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) is a company registered under the Companies Act, 1956 engaged in the business of loans and advances, acquisition of shares/stocks/bonds/debentures/securities issued by Government or local authority or other marketable securities of a like nature, leasing, hire-purchase, insurance business, chit business but does not include any institution whose principal business is that of agriculture activity, industrial activity, purchase or sale of any goods (other than securities) or providing any services and sale/purchase/construction
of immovable property.
What is difference between banks & NBFCs?
NBFCs lend and make investments and hence their activities are akin to that of banks; however there are a few differences as given below:
- NBFC cannot accept demand deposits;
- NBFCs do not form part of the payment and settlement system and cannot issue cheques drawn on itself;
- deposit insurance facility of Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation is not available to depositors of NBFCs, unlike in case of banks.
3) SIDBI :- Small industrial Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is a development financial institution in India, headquartered at Lucknow and having its offices all over the country.
Its purpose is to provide refinance facilities and short term lending to industries, and serves as the principal financial institution in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector. SIDBI also coordinates the functions of institutions engaged in similar activities. It was established on April 2, 1990, through an Act of Parliament. It is headquartered in Lucknow.
SIDBI operates under the Department of Financial Services, Government of India.
SBI holds most shares in SIDBI (16.73 %) then GOI(15.4) then LIC (14.25%).
4)Minor forest produce in exemption list:- Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has added the collection, harvest and process of minor forest produce to the list of activities that will be permitted.
Minor forest produce include non-timber items such as bamboo, roots,seeds, fruits, flowers andplants. A number of peoplefrom the Scheduled Tribes and other forest dwelling communities depend onthe collection and sale of such items for their livelihood.
5)Tribals using indigenous practices to sustain during lockdown:- Tribal communities in southern Rajasthan are utilising their indigenous practices of food and agricultural management to tide over the difficult period of nationwide lockdown enforced to control the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tribals have adopted a number of micronutrient rich plant foods as their daily dietary habits.
The region’s commonly consumed foodgrains and vegetables, such as rajan, dhimda, kodra, bati, baota, kang,cheena, hama, hamli and gujro, are rich in iron and dietary fibre content. The consumption of these grains and maintenance of diverse food habits based on the locally available oilseeds, pulses, fruits and spices have helped the tribal people develop immunity against diseases.
6)Fact sheet :- Siddalingeshwara temple car festival at Rawoor village in Kalaburagi districtof Karnataka.
7)New indigenous kit may soon accelerate testing:- The Chitra GeneLAMP-N, made by scientists at the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST).
Based on :- N-Gene Test
The N-Genetest is a confirmatory test and widely employed in Germany and China among other countries.
However, the design of it is complicatedand can be expensive. However, India has managed to develop it satisfactorily while keeping costs low.
Some methods of Virus Testing :-
i) Rapid-Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RTPCR) tests are considered the gold standard for detecting the virus.
It involves extracting RNA from a swab, collected from the throat or nose, converting it into DNA, magnifying the quantity of DNA and using chemical probes to bind target genes that distinguish SARSCoV-2 from other viruses.
ii)By employing its in-house technology called reverse transcriptase loop mediated amplification of viral nucleic acid (RTLAMP),
it zooms inon regions of the virus’ nucleocaspid (N) gene and can analyse a batch in 10 minutes.
Editorial of the Day :-
1)A virus, social democracy, and dividends for Kerala :-
Central Theme:- kerala has managed the crisis by building on legacies of egalitarianism, social rights and public trust
Crisis and Rebound in Kerala:- Though Kerala was the first State with a recorded case of coronavirus and once led the country in active cases, it now ranks 10th of all States and the total number of active cases (in a State that has done the most aggressive testing in In dia) has been declining for over a week and is now below the number of recovered cases.
How Kerala developed Social Contact and Social Democracy :- In Kerala, the social pact itself emerged from recurrent episodes of popular mobilisation — from the temple entry move ment of the 1930s, to the peasant and workers’ movements in the 1950s and 1960s, a mass literacy movement in the 1980s, the Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP) led movement for people’s decen tralised planning in the 1990s, and, most recently, various gender and environmental movements.
Other Reasons:-
- Competitive Party system
- Active civil society
- Good Public Healthcare amid so much Privatization.
- Strong Local Government
How it fought corona:-
- Rigorous Testing
- Door to door delivery by using volunteers and already active civil society.
- Schemes like Kudumbshree and community kitchen.
- Relief package of 20000 crore even before lockdown was announced.
Editorial 2 :-
Institutional fixes and the need for ethical politics
Central Theme :- Critique of Anti defection law.
Now a days we are seeing a new mechanism of Bypassing the Anti-defection law.
Under this novel method, a set of legislators of the party in power is made to resign from the Assembly to reduce the total strength of the House enough for the other party to cross the halfway mark to form government.
This mass exodus happened in Karnataka, there the Speaker gave a very good decision to disqualify and also not permit the legislators for bye polls. (but s.c upheld only disqualification and not bar from bye polls).
The constitutionality of the Tenth Schedule was challenged for violating the Basic Structure of Constitution with regard to parliamentary democracy and free speech, but the Supreme Court in Kihoto Hollohan v. Zachill hu (1992) in a 32 verdict upheld the law while reserving the right of judicial review of the Speaker’s decision.
2 Broad Criticisms:- Hence, the anti-defection law, on the one hand, severely restricts the freedom of a legislator and makes her a slave of party whips.
On the other hand, it has not been able to meet its primary objective of preventing horse trading and continues to be circumvented to bring down elected governments.
Solution to the Problems:-
For addressing the first issue, as the Dinesh Goswami Committee also suggested, the scope of the binding whip should be res tricted to a vote of confidence.
For addressing the second issue, it is best to institutionalise the Karnataka Speaker’s decision to bar the defected members from contest ing in the ensuing bypoll, if not for a longer period, and thereby disin centivise MLAs from jumping ship.
Editorial 3 :-A season of change
About IMDs changed monsoon normal:-
The agency follows a two stage forecast system: indicating in April whether there are chances of drought or any other anomaly and then a second up date, in late June, with a more granular look at how the monsoon will likely distribute over the country and whether danger signs are imminent.
‘Normal’ means India will get 100% of its long period average, with a potential 5% error margin.
In April last year, it said the monsoon would be ‘near normal’, an arbitrary category. Private forecasters expected a shortfall, predicated on the development of a future El Niño.
Recent two changes :-
It made two key changes this year:
- reducing the definition of ‘normal’ rainfall by 1 cm, to 88 cm and, (LongPeriodAverage- 1961-2010 from 1951-2000)
- officially updating monsoon onset and arrival dates for many States.
The monsoon was ar riving later in many places, had long weak spells, and lingered longer.
This has already heralded thinking, in the agency, on whether India should move to a new monsoon accounting calendar instead of the century long tradition of June-September.
10)Kisan Rath will link farmers to transport options :- In a bid to ease the disruption of agricultural supply chains, especially for perishable produce, the Agriculture Ministry has launched a Kisan Rath mobile application, which will connect farmers and traders to a network of more than 5 lakh trucks and 20,000 tractors.
The application, developed by the National Informatics Centre, is meant to help farmers and tradersnwho are searching for vehicles to move produce.