Syllabus subtopic: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
News: In a bid to ensure quality scrap for the steel industry, the government has come out with a Steel Scrap Recycling Policy that aims to reduce imports, conserve resources and save energy.
Prelims focus: Key features of the Scrapping policy and National Steel Policy.
Mains focus: Need for and significance of the policy
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Key features of the policy:
Need for the policy:
Benefits of using scrap:
Concerns:
The policy has raised several market concerns ranging from a surge of mixed metal (unprocessed) scrap flowing into the country to challenges of setting up recycling centres.
Source: The Hindu
Syllabus subtopic: Various Security forces and agencies and their mandate.
News: The Union government is expected to take away the security cover by Special Protection Group (SPG) being provided at present to Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi. They will, however, continue to get a Z+ security cover, where they will be provided commandos belonging to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
Prelims focus: Roles and features of various security forces.
Mains focus: Need for and significance of these security forces.
How are security levels decided?
Origins of SPG:
Various categories of security:
Besides the SPG, VIPs in India are protected by other security forces as well. The levels of security cover are determined by the threat perception around the individual.
Source: The Hindu
Syllabus subtopic: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights.
News: Kerala Cabinet has approved a Rs 1,548-crore fiber-optic network project. To be completed by December 2020, the project seeks to fulfil the government’s aim of making internet access a ‘citizen’s right’.
Prelims focus: About the project.
Mains focus: Significance and the need for the project, challenges present and ways to address them.
About the fiber- optic network project:
Significance:
The project is expected to help the country’s IT industry and open major opportunities in the fields of artificial intelligence, blockchain, and startups. It is also expected to help in better management of the transport sector.
Source: The Hindu
Syllabus subtopic: India and its neighbourhood- relations.
News: Nepal government has strongly objected to the inclusion of ‘Kalapani’ under the Indian Territory as per the newly released political map of India.
Prelims focus: Location of Kalapani.
Mains focus: About the dispute, India’s concerns and solutions.
Issue
Where is it located?
Nepal claims that the river located towards the west of the territory is the main Kali river and thus it falls in its territory, India claims a ridgeline towards the east of the Kalapani territory and hence, includes it in the Indian Union.
Genesis of the dispute:
Way ahead:
While the two countries have made a lot of headway in ties, sensitive issues such as border need to be handled carefully and New Delhi has to be mindful of Nepal’s concerns.
Source: The Hindu
Syllabus subtopic: India and its neighbourhood- relations.
News: Quad countries recently reviewed situation in Indo- Pacific region. The participants also supported an ASEAN-led mechanism for the regional architecture for the region.
Prelims focus: Members of the Quad grouping, countries in the Indian ocean region, Chinese military bases.
Mains focus: The Quad grouping- features, significance, concerns and potential.
Background:
The 10- nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is considered one of the most influential groupings in the region and India and several other countries including the US, China, Japan and Australia are its dialogue partners.
About Quad
Significance of Quad:
Quad is an opportunity for like-minded countries to share notes and collaborate on projects of mutual interest.
Members share a vision of an open and free Indo-Pacific.
It is one of the many avenues for interaction among India, Australia, Japan and the US and should not be seen in an exclusive context.
Way ahead:
Source: Indian Express
Syllabus subtopic: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights.
News: NASA’s Voyager 2 has exited heliosphere and has entered interstellar space. It is now at 11 billion miles from the earth.
Prelims and Mains focus: Key features, objectives and achievements of Voyager 1 & 2
Achievements:
About Interstellar space?
Scientists use the heliopause to mark where interstellar space begins, although depending on how you define our solar system it can stretch all the way to the Oort Cloud, which begins 1,000 times farther away from the sun than Earth’s orbit.
About Heliosphere:
The heliosphere is a bubble around the sun created by the outward flow of the solar wind from the sun and the opposing inward flow of the interstellar wind. That heliosphere is the region influenced by the dynamic properties of the sun that are carried in the solar wind–such as magnetic fields, energetic particles and solar wind plasma. The heliopause marks the end of the heliosphere and the beginning of interstellar space.
About Voyager mission:
The Voyager spacecraft are the third and fourth human spacecraft to fly beyond all the planets in our solar system. Pioneers 10 and 11 preceded Voyager in outstripping the gravitational attraction of the Sun but on February 17, 1998, Voyager 1 passed Pioneer 10 to become the most distant human-made object in space.
Source: The Hindu
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