UPSC Key- December 21, 2022: Why you should read ‘Appropriation Bill’ or ‘Cartagena Protocol and Nagoya Protocol’ or ‘BF.7’ for UPSC CSE

Low-value loans fuelling NPAs in education sector

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Low-value education loans (up to Rs 7.5 lakh) constitute a bulk of the defaults in the education loan portfolio of banks, according to data accessed by The Indian Express. Data on Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) in education loans of Public Sector Banks (PSBs), obtained through the Right to Information Act, show that the default rate is much lower for loans disbursed to students in premier institutes as compared to those in secondary institutes.

• India’s public sector banks have struggled with high levels of non-performing assets (NPAs)- What are the Non-Performing Assets (NPAs)?

• What are the reasons for assets becoming non-performing assets?

• What are the impacts of High level of non-performing assets (NPAs) on India’s Economy?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:   

📍RBI: Bank NPA ratio at 6-year low, but fintechs expose system to new risks

📍New RBI report says asset quality, capital position of banking system continues to improve. That’s something to build on

Centre sounds Covid alert, asks states to track positive samples

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: General Science and Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: 

• General Studies II: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Indian diaspora.

• General Studies III: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nanotechnology, bio-technology.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-With Covid-19 cases on the rise in several countries including China, the Union Health Ministry raised an alert Tuesday and directed all states and UTs to sequence all positive case samples on a daily basis. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will hold a meeting Wednesday with senior officials and experts to review the Covid-19 situation in the country — India has been reporting around 1,200 cases a week.

• The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) is jointly initiated by whom?

• What do you understand by the term ‘Genome’?

• How Genome and Gene differ from each other?

• The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG)-Role, Under which Ministry?

• What Lessons India learnt from Second Wave of Covid-19?

• China Covid-19 surge: What’s happening?

• Why BF.7 is in news?

• What is BF.7?

• “The very success of China’s zero-Covid policy is now turning out to be a weakness, with reports of a surge in cases. The vast majority of its population has not been infected by the virus and hence has no immunity”-Comment

• What is the official picture?

• So what’s the problem then?

• What exactly is zero-Covid?

• With this “zero-COVID” policy, have China’s COVID cases slowed down?

• How China defends its zero-Covid policy?

• Why is the current large-scale public protest in China unusual?

• What about vaccinations?

• For Your Information-Globally, the number of Covid-19 cases has remained almost stable at around 3.3 million in a week. However, the number of deaths increased by 10% over the preceding week, according to the latest situation report of the World Health Organisation released on December 14. “The number of newly reported weekly deaths increased across three WHO regions: the African Region (+975%; partly due to batch reporting from South Africa), the Region of the Americas (+37%), and the Eastern Mediterranean Region (+81%),” the report said.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:   

📍Fear rises over new Covid wave, countries ponder how to help Xi

📍Virus & fear surge in China: what’s happening and why

IN PARLIAMENT

In RS, Opp slams govt during debate on Appropriation Bills

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Government Budgeting.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had on Monday (December 19) moved the Appropriation (No. 5) Bill-2022, and Appropriation (No. 4) Bill-2022 for consideration and return, aimed at authorising payment and appropriation of additional spending of Rs 3.25-lakh crore from the Consolidated Fund of India for the current financial year (2022-23).

• Appropriation Bill-What do you know about this Bill?

• What does appropriation mean in government?

• Appropriation Bill and Article 114 of the constitution

• What is the Procedure Followed for the Appropriation Bill in Parliament?

• Power of Rajya Sabha over Appropriation Bill?

• Appropriation Bill and Appropriation Act-Know the Difference

• Appropriation Bill vs Finance Bill-Know the Difference

• What do you understand by ‘Vote on Account’?

• The budget consists of two types of expenditure—the expenditure ‘charged’ upon the Consolidated Fund of India and the expenditure ‘made’ from the Consolidated Fund of India, what are the ‘Charged’ and ‘made’ Expenditure?

• Annual Financial Statement (AFS) or Union Budget, Article 112 of the Indian Constitution and Stages of Budget in the parliament

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:   

📍5 Questions | ‘Budget not brought about seriously’: BRS MP K Keshava Rao

EXPLAINED

The Biodiversity Commitment

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change – that do not require subject specialization.

Main Examination: General Studies II: Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-A major international environmental conference has just concluded in Montreal, Canada, promising to take urgent action to protect and restore the world’s biodiversity — all the different forms of life, plants as well as animals, that inhabit this planet.

• The Montreal Conference-Why significant?

• What are the key areas agreed on?

• What is ‘30-by-30’?

• For Your Information- The Montreal Conference was the biodiversity equivalent of the more high-profile climate meetings that are held every year. Signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a 1993 agreement, meet every two years — not annually like the climate meetings — to work on a global plan to halt biodiversity loss and restore natural ecosystems. The Montreal meeting was the 15th edition of this conference, hence the name COP15 — or the 15th Conference of the Parties to the CBD.

• What will be the financial mechanism for this deal?

• What will be the role of Big companies?

• What is the most significant part of the agreement?

• Do You Know-The Montreal Conference has delivered a new agreement called the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), which contains four goals and 23 targets that need to be achieved by 2030. The GBF is being compared to the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change that is guiding global climate action.

• Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD)-compare and contrast

• The Cartagena Protocol of 2003 and the Nagoya Protocol of 2014-Know in detail

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:   

📍Why have countries failed to meet their biodiversity goals?

FIRST WINTER FOG HITS DELHI: WHAT IS FOG, AND WHAT CAUSES IT?

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian and World Geography-Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World.

Mains Examination: General Studies I: Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc., geographical features and their location-changes in critical geographical features (including water-bodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- For two consecutive mornings, dense fog has enveloped northwestern India, including Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, parts of Uttar Pradesh, and parts of Rajasthan. The fog episodes, which follow a comparatively warm start to the winter, are likely to recur over the Indo Gangetic Plain for the next three days, keeping visibility poor in the hours before and after daybreak.

• How does fog form?

• What’s been happening over north-western India?

• What are the characteristics of the fog over Delhi?

• What is the link between pollution levels and fog?

• Why the days have been unusually warm for winter this December with the maximum temperature remaining above normal?

• What are western disturbances?

• What is the cause of western disturbances?

• What is the effect of western disturbances?

• What is the impact of western disturbances on the climate of India in general and on Delhi in particular?

• Do You Know-Western disturbances are storms that originate in the Mediterranean region. They bring easterly winds to Delhi, along with a spike in moisture and increased clouding or rainfall. They are regular features in winter. In monsoon and summer, they have more tropical characteristics and bring rain and thunderstorms. In winter, they bring rain and snow over the hills, and more moisture to the plains. The cloud cover results in higher minimum temperatures at night and lower day-time or maximum temperatures.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:   

📍How western disturbances are keeping Delhi weather in a flux

📍Why these winters in Delhi are not wintry enough

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