GS-I: Census 2021 may skip caste count
NEWS
What’s new in 2021 Census?
Source: The Hindu
GS-II: Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
Context
The U.S has withdrawn from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
What’s the issue?
US in early December last year announced that it would suspend its obligations under the INF treaty by Feb. 2, citing Russian “cheating,” unless Moscow comes into compliance with the terms of the pact.
The U.S. government says the new Russian missile violates provisions of the pact that ban production, testing and deployment of land-based cruise and ballistic missiles with a range of 310 to 3,400 miles.
What would happen in the absence of treaty?
It is unclear what INF-prohibited systems the United States could deploy to Europe or Asia in the near term. The U.S. military has not developed any land-based missiles within the prohibited ranges for decades and has only just started funding a new ground-launched cruise missile to match the 9M729.
Russia could also effectively reclassify the RS-26 Rubezh, an experimental system that has been tested just above the INF Treaty’s 5,500-kilometer limit. To avoid violating the INF, Russian officials previously described the RS-26 as an intercontinental ballistic missile. However, it could form the basis for a missile of a slightly shorter range if Moscow wished to boost its INF forces — without counting it under the U.S.-Russian New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, governing longer-range systems.
This move is also likely to undermine the 2010 New START treaty governing U.S. and Russian long-range nuclear systems. The INF Treaty’s demise will undercut New START by reopening questions on the relationship between intermediate and strategic systems that have been resolved for 30 years by the elimination of ground-based, intermediate-range missiles.
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty:
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty, formally Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Elimination of Their Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles) is a 1987 arms control agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Under the INF Treaty, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. agreed to eliminate within three years all ground-launched-missiles of 500-5,500 km range and not to develop, produce or deploy these in future.
Importance of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in U.S.-Russia relations:
Under the Treaty, the two parties agreed that a whole important class of nuclear weapons would be removed from Europe, and only tactical nuclear weapons (TNW) or short-range missiles mostly deployed on the territory of Germany would remain.
The INF Treaty for years served to mitigate fears of both parties in relation to possibility of military escalation, operational miscalculation, and helping to shift the logic of MAD mutually assured destruction] to the higher “more sensitive” political level.
Source: The Hindu
Treating drug-resistant tuberculosis multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) got a shot in the arm when the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new drug Pretomanid.
Pretomanid
What makes the new drug so promising?
How is MDR-TB and XDR-TB identified?
Which category of drug-resistant TB patients will benefit from this new drug?
How safe is the drug for clinical use?
Why healing TB is deadly?
Source: The Hindu
The Madhya Pradesh government has indicated that it plans to initiate steps towards creation of a Legislative Council.
Debate over two houses
Provision for a second House
Members of LC
Election of MLCs
LC vis-à-vis Rajya Sabha
States with LCs
Source: Indian Express
GS-III: Seriousness of the problem unemployment in India
Context
Indian economy is slowing. This is largely a result of weakening demand, mostly in rural areas. Slowing demand has contributed to the declining availability of jobs, where jobless growth is already a problem.
The seriousness of the problem
Employment-unemployment surveys of National Sample Survey Office (NSSO): latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) tells us the following total number of workers in the economy was 472.5 million in 2011-12, which fell to 457 million in 2017-18. The absolute number of workers declined by 15.5 million over six years.
Reasons for Unemployment
Problems
Conclusion
Stagnant wages and jobless growth are not just indicators of a weakening economy, but also a recipe for political instability and a crisis in the countryside. The government should acknowledge the extent of the problem and then try to address it.
Source: Live Mint
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