Zune3-1

Question 1

What has hasten the spread of Super bugs world over ?

Answer 1

-Antibiotics

Question 2

Why there exists a rampant usage of antibiotics in farm industry ?

Answer 2

1. Unregulated sale
   - Over-the-Counter without prescription
2. Use of WHO certified ‘Critically Important’ antibiotics
   - Colistin
3. Rise in protein demand
   - To gain weight of poultry
4. No integrated policy on control over Antibiotics use
   - BIS recommends not to use systemic antibiotics but its Voluntary
   - FSSAI sets maximal residue limits for sea food but not for poultry
   - Directorate General of Health Services specified withdrawal period of drugs for poultry & Livestock on packet
   - Agriculture ministry recommends to prohibit antibiotics as growth promoters. Still no legislation.
5. Anitbiotics resistance awareness is very low in India.
6. Imports on Antibiotics from China unregulated
7. Herbal growth promoter feed supplements are costly and prohibit its use by smaller players.

Question 3

What are the risks of Antibiotics resistance ?

Answer 3

1. Super bugs resistant to Antibiotics.
2. World will need new class of antibiotics.
   - However, no new class of antibiotics hit the market since late 1980’s
3. Mild Infections require stronger dosage.
4. Increase in Annual healthcare
5. Treating fatal diseases like Sepsis, Pneumonia and TB are becoming very tough.

Question 4

What are the measures needed to prohibit the Antibiotic resistance ?

Answer 4

1. Ban OTC sale for growth promotion and mass disease prevention and only allowed for treatment of Sick animals
2. Antibiotics not to be allowed in feed
3. Promote herbal supplements
4. Stringent control over Antibiotics from manufacturing site to user
5. Veterinarians should be trained on judicious use of antibiotics
   - Recommends generics to prevent gain of any incentives
6. Labeling System on Poultry products - Raised with/without use of Antibiotics
7. National level database in public domain of antibiotics use and resistance trends in humans, animals and food chain
8. Citizen Awareness

Question 5

Why Banking sector is among the most vulnerable in G-20 today ?

Answer 5

• Insufficient Capital Adequacy. If pile of bad loans increase further, No help from bank recapitalization
• Issue of inadequate compensation to top management peers to private banks i.e. not able to retain talent.
• Failure of procedures and technology i.e. accountability -Nirav Modi & Rotomac scams

Question 6

What is the way forward to reform Banking sector ?

Answer 6

Nayak Committee recommendations
-Dilute stake of PSBs below 50% so that freed from government constraints
IMF recommendations
-Greater participation of private sector
-Cautious reduction in SLR and assessing effectiveness of direct lending boosts capacity to support credit to economy.

Question 7

What are the key features of draft Pesticides Management Bill, 2017 ?

Answer 7

• It seeks to replace Insecticides Act 1968
• Stated Objectives
  1. Availability of Quality pesticides
  2. Minimize contamination of agriculture commodities by pesticide residue
  3. Creating awareness regarding safe and judicious use of pesticides
• Detailed clauses for registration of new molecules i.e. tighten guidelines
• Penalties on sale of prohibited or spurious pesticides to Rs 50 Lakh and Up to 5 years from current Rs 2000 and Up to 3 years imprisonment.
• Provision to pay compensation to farmers - Under Consumer protection Act, 1986
• State Government role - Must report all cases of poisoning to centre on quarterly basis and can also ban pesticides up to 6 months. Currently Can ban up to 2 months.

Question 8

What are the issues with draft Pesticides Management Bill, 2017 ?

Answer 8

Manufactures vs farmers
-In case of any incidents, the liability will not be on manufacturers but dealers and farmers.
-Farmers pointed out how will they be compensated at times when production fall due to use of spurious pesticide.
Adverse effect of pesticides neglected
- encourages pesticides use to increase productivity instead of promoting organic farming
-It does not keep safety as a central provision; instead it places efficacy and pest control as its primary goals
-failed to recognize pesticides have contributed significantly to the current economic and ecological crisis in agriculture.
Dealers issues
-It also states that the dealer’s license will be suspended or cancelled. Dealers complain that they do not have infrastructures to test products.
State governments
-Does not ease the powers of regulation and registration to the state governments which has been a long pending demand of many governments.

Bill does not provide for automatic review of cleared pesticides after several years of usage, and farmers and laborers will not be able to seek compensation from the consumer forum as envisaged in the bill.

Question 9

What steps needed to be taken to resolve issues with draft Pesticides Management Bill, 2017 ?

Answer 9

• Objective of the bill should be to minimize pesticide usage and not about producing safer pesticides.
• Strengthen state governments role
  1. Existing draft provides inadequate representation to states in both pesticide board and the registration committee.
  2. Must have final say as they have the best understanding on the agro ecological climate, environment and soil conditions.
• Any one selling without a prescription should be legally punished
• Need for a ban on advertisement of pesticides as they are by design suited to the commercial interest of the advertiser and aimed at influencing buying behavior of farmers, who are often uneducated and unaware.

Question 10

Why India should prepare for Cyber warfare ?

Answer 10

• World moves from era of Cold War to Code War
  1. Damage to physical or digital infrastructure
• water system or electric grid
  2. Interference in political affairs
• leaks and espionage
  3. Targeted cyber attacks coming from adverse nation states
• China
• Stuxnet, which damaged the Iranian centrifuge facility at Natanz is an example
  4. Absence of clarity
• Never be certain about the capability of the other side and Chances of success if we launch a cyber counter-strike.
  5. Push towards greater digital dependence with Demonetization for cashless system, Aadhaar and the wider platforms such Digital India and Smart Cities will push things further along.
  6. India is not even a signatory to some of the basic international frameworks on cybersecurity like the Convention of Cybercrime of the Council of Europe which not only European nations but Japan, US, South Africa have become signatories to, except India.
  7. Indian laws are not in tandem with the ever-changing global cyberspace.
• to deal with issues like cyber-espionage, data theft and so on.
• Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act 2000) is the sole law that deals with cyberspace in India and was passed way back in 2000

Question 11

How India can prepare for Cyber Warfare ?

Answer 11

1. Critical cyber infrastructure needs to be defended and the establishment of National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre(NCIIPC) is a good step in this direction
2. Individual ministries and private companies must put procedures in place to honestly report breaches.
3. The upgrading of the Defence Cyber Agency to a Cyber Command must be implemented at the soonest.
4. Secure India from acts of state and non-state actors, including protocol for grievance redressal in international forums.
5. Computer emergency response team (CERT)must be strengthened and aligned with military and foreign affairs operations.
6. Joint task force between the government and key technology players will be crucial.
7. government should push for the creation of global charter of digital human rights.
8. national gold standard should be created, which ensures that Indian hardware and software companies adhere to the highest safety protocols
9. Impart cybercrime investigation training and technological know-how to the various law enforcement agencies.
10. international cybersecurity cooperation

Question 12

what are potential of following technologies in education ?

Answer 12

Artificial intelligence
-Personalisation
1.adapt to each student’s individual learning needs and can target instruction based on their strengths and weaknesses
-Tutoring
1.Virtual teaching assistants can be used to answer many frequently asked questions
-With AI teachers could analyse students’ abilities, interests and potential through education profiles
-Meaningful and immediate feedback to students
Virtual reality and Augmented reality
-Virtual reality cannot show the real world, but it creates completely virtual one, as with video games
-Augmented Reality enables users to see the real world with virtual objects, places, and contexts. Thus, AR does not replace the reality, but augment it
-In short blasts of 10 or 12 minutes, VR changes the way student experiences a subject & better understanding of concepts
-Helps one visualize almost accurately
Big data
-One-to-one tutoring platforms leverage Big Data and learning analytics to provide tutors with real-time feedback about their students’ performances, strengths and weaknesses.
-Big Data can save us hours upon hours of time and effort when it comes to realizing goals

Question 13

what are potential demerits of following technologies in education ?

Answer 13

• psychological need of a child. It cannot teach empathy-harm children’s social development
• High costs remain a challenge
• Addiction To The Virtual World
• Privacy- gain access to even more personal data, which they collect, store, and cross-reference.
• Schools may have a tendency to gather more data than they need and conflicting results can make it difficult to prioritize the information

need for technological advancements to be synergized with traditional way of teaching to have quality education

Question 14

Explain the Current banking system crises ?

Answer 14

• Rise in NPAs
• Moral hazards within banks eg-PNB fraud
• Public sector banks lacks professionalism
• Political pressure forces to lend to NPA

Question 15

What actions GoI has already taken to address the issue of banking crises ?

Answer 15

• Recapitalization
• Bank Board Bureau
• Mission Indradhanush
• Bankruptcy Code

Question 16

What measures are needed to overhaul the Current banking system crises ?

Answer 16

-RBI new framework for resolution of stressed assets
1.Mandatory update of NPA above Rs 5 crore on weekly basis
-Corporate governance
1.Acceptance of the Kotak committee recommendations
2.PJ Nayak committee on corporate governance
i.e.
government banks brought under the Companies Act rather than Bank Nationalisation Act as that would allow them to improve their performance and create good governance structure at the board level
-IMF suggestions
1.restructuring of PSBs
2. further empowering RBI over PSBs, increasing the supervisory resources of insurance regulator IRDAI, and enhancing SEBI’s oversight of capital markets and financial market infrastructure.
3.consider privatizing weak public sector banks (PSBs) by selling their viable assets rather than merging them with stronger banks,
-RBI requires reform
1.Two deliverables: Price stability and soundness of banks.
-Review of NPA’S/Restructured advances via Asset Reconstruction Company
-Improving credit risk management
1.sensitivity analysis and contingency planning
-Enforce accountability i.e. loaning decisions taken at higher level

Question 17

How India aims to balance energy demands along with environment ?

Answer 17

• Clean Energy
  1. Solar power - price of batteries coming down, ISA
  2. Targets of Paris agreement
  3. EV
  4. Offshore Wind energy i.e. Windmills on coast
  5. Nuclear power plants
• Increase Efficiency
  1. Bharat Stage standards
• 2016, GOI move to BS-6 from BS-4
  2. Energy rating labels must provide information about an appliance’s energy consumption for user informed decision
  i. e. BEE (Bureau of energy efficiency) regularizes these labels
• Offset the environmental loss
  1. striving towards the goal of 33%forest cover

Question 18

Whats are the concerns associated with GOI approach to cleaner energy ?

Answer 18

• Draft national energy policy
  1. Despite existing coal plants are running at low efficiencies, still relies on coal power to sustain the nation’s base load requirement to meet rising energy demand.
  2. Ministry of Coal continues to push its ambitious targets to raise coal production to 1.5 billion tonnes by 2020
  3. fails to highlight gradual substitution of internal combustion engines with electric vehicles.
• Solar energy equipment manufacturing is still costly
  1. Solar Panels
• Off shore win energy would still take time to materialize as high cost
• Compensatory afforestation act largely criticized as its leading to deforestation and loss of rights to forest dwellers.

Question 19

A recent report submitted to the union government has pointed out that the Make in India initiative has failed to demonstrate its true potential due to various reasons. With special focus on defence indigenisation efforts, examine why Make in India has failed to live upto its potential.

Answer 19

Background
-Make In India - Defense Indegnisation at heart of programme
Why Make In India failed
-Factor costs i.e.land, labor, electricity, transport, capital and others
-Low investment in R&D
-Demonetization/GST made credit difficult from banks
Concerns
-Only assembling rather than building it
-Naval Design Bureau has progressed to achieve best ships in world but still weapons/sensors largely imported
-Procedural delays
1.About 52 months while laid down 18-25 months stipulated in Defense procurement policy
-Still buying Rafale rather than technology transfer
Measures
-Monitoring delay of each scheme under defense procurement policy and assigned to specific office under MoD
-Indegnisation of Critical Technologies as no one will shared
-Inter services prioritization based on budgetary projections
-Placing moratorium on imports.
Conclusion
-Need Made In rather than Make In India

Question 20

What are the objectives of the National Action Plan for Dairy Development: Vision-2022? In the light of government’s sustained efforts towards conservation of native breeds through Rashtriya Gokul Mission and lobbying by certain groups against crossbred cows, examine critically if it’s feasible to achieve objectives of National Action Plan for Dairy Development: Vision-2022.

Answer 20

Background
-India working on creating additional milk processing infrastructure to double the dairy farmers’ income by 2022
Objectives of National action plan for diary development
-Fill gaps in infrastructure to handle increased milk production and doubling the farmers income
1.Milk processing infrastructure for value-added products
-Enhance outreach of dairy cooperatives
Concerns
-Rashtriya Gokul Mission that aims to raise the productivity of indigenous and nondescript cattle by creating “super elite” population of indigenous .Questions raised whether the milk production would be increased due to this step alone.
-grown by just 3.74 per cent between 1992 and 2012
1.one-third expansion in country’s in-milk bovine population between 2015-16 and 2023-24 is not feasible.
- constraints with respect to fodder, feed and water resources
-State governments enacted stringent laws against cattle slaughter making it virtually impossible to dispose of unproductive animals.
-Action Plan talks of enhancing artificial insemination (AI) coverage but there is no clarity on how to be achieved.
-already facing surplus situation in milk powder and have been priced out of the world market. There is no market If output were really to touch 300 mt
-Lobbying for no cross breeding with foreign varieties to preserve indigenous breeds by spreading false news like cancer causing etc.
Way forward
-National Bovine Productivity Mission
1.creation of e Pashuhaat portal - important role in linking milk producers and breeders for indigenous breeds
Conclusion
-targets need to be more practical

Question 21

Is the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) an all-encompassing solution for power sector woes? Critically evaluate its performance.

Answer 21

Background
-UDAY launched in 2015 and is aimed at reviving electricity distribution companies (discoms),
1.financial turnaround and revival of Power Distribution companies(DISCOMs) and ensures sustainable permanent solution
2.allows DISCOMs in selected states to convert their debt into state bonds as well as roll out number of measures to improve efficiency at power plants
3.Improve operational efficiency by swapping of coal linkages, monitoring technical and commercial losses , smart metering in states
Performance
-improvement from 22 per cent to 15 per cent in Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C or distribution) losses by FY19
-Discoms finances are disciplined by immediate reduction in interest cost
Concerns
-stuck projects remaining sizable and threat of bad loans looming large,questions are being raised about efficacy of UDAY scheme
-discoms utilized funds to clear balance-sheet without much attempt to improve efficiency
-Over and above prevailing maladies in distribution system rising share of renewable energy (RE) is increasing the average cost of supply, as it is displacing consumption of low-cost coal.
-Bonds issued are essentially held by same entities that had lent funds to State electricity boards (SEBs).
-Interest received lower by at least 4-6 per cent; this means that there is loss of income. Intuitively, it can be seen that every ₹1 lakh crore of UDAY bonds issued involves loss of up to ₹6,000 crore for banks and FIs that have lent money to them.
Way forward
-dedicated PPAs( power purchase agreement)and supply of low-cost fuel
1.To address NPA issue, discoms need to sign more of medium- and long-term Power purchasing agreements, with differentiated procurement strategy for base load and peak load.
2. improvements on the coal side already imminent

Question 22

Does proper implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 act as an obstacle to economic growth? Critically comment.

Answer 22

Background
-landmark legislation
No, it is not an impediment to economic growth because
-land ownership
-livelihood of people and promote sustainable forest management
1.reverse migration
2.Minor forest produce, selling bamboo, tribal art and handicrafts along with integration with TRIFED
3.Sikkim adopted the Integrated Organic Farming Systems (IOFS) i.e use of local resources, effective recycling of farm waste for productive purposes, community-led local systems for water conservation, organic farming etc
challenges
-Land and forest rights are not effectively given to the targeted
1.Individual rights more & very less community rights
-Delay in granting rights
1.verification process requires coordination of number of authorities from different departments
-Lack of financial resources
1.social benefits such as academics, health etc
-In some cases locals were encouraged to deforest areas, for growing food & plantations
Way forward
-government need to understand potential of FRA to address rural distress
-state governments bring amendments to their forest law, especially laws related to minor forest produce

Question 23

What is grid parity? What are the merits and demerits of central grid? Do you think micro-grid is the way forward for rural and remote communities in India? Discuss.

Answer 23

Grid parity
-When an alternative form of energy generates power at levelized cost of electricity that’s equal to or less than price of buying power from the electric grid.
-One of most important things energy analysts look at when determining how economically viable an alternative energy form is.
Central Grid
-interconnected system of local and regional grids to provide continuous supply of electricity in whole country.
Merits
-relief to power deficit regions
-better management of demand, ensuring the stability of the electricity grid
-lower tariffs
Demerits
- reliability cannot be assured.
1.Despite central grid, problems of load shedding and power outages
-Distribution – the link between power generation plants and the end users is a complex
1.one fourth of India’s population still lacks access to the grid
-Does not offer fault isolation capability so whole grid have to be shut down to rectify faults.
-Transmission losses increase over long distances
-Due to location, Price differences arise
Micro grid
- small-scale localized power generation and distribution network, capable of operating independently or in conjunction with the main grid.
Micro grid is the way forward for rural communities
-way to provide reliable supply of power, with additional benefit of reducing demands upon conventional distribution network
1.potential to support main grid by exporting surplus power.
2.Typically micro-grids use power from combination of sources
3. can help reduce GHGs by facilitating use of low-carbon energy sources such as solar and wind
- cost of energy storage equipment is falling
1.communities where cost of connection to conventional power distribution networks is prohibitive, micro grids which incorporate energy storage offer cost competitive way of providing power.
-Modular nature make them easy to install and run in remote and hard to access locations.
-catalyst to realize the vision of power-for-all in India.
-In event of calamity, they are self-sufficient and can provide resilient power backups.
-In India, micro-grids are increasingly being used in commercial or industrial parks that consider these an extension of captive power localized source of power or at least mixed with back-up power
Concerns
- Private entrepreneurs investing in village micro-grids
1.Mera Gao Power in Uttar Pradesh and Mlinda Foundation in West Bengal
2.But heavily subsidized by government. This makes it hard for investors to be sure of return.
Way forward
-Mix
1.International Solar Alliance will provide boosts

Question 24

Despite two measures - demonetization & GST, India has made slow progress towards formal economy. discuss reasons & measures to formalize economy ?

Answer 24

Intro
-Formal sector - regular wages & recognized as tax payer
-90% informal workforce
Why formalize
-Measurement of economy
-Enhanced tax collection with wide tax base & tax consolidation i.e. group of companies as single entity for tax purposes
-Working regulations preventing exploitation
-Better access to credit
-Skill & education will be more emphasized
Measures
-Financial Inclusion i.e. access to formal credit, banking facilities & financial knowledge
1.Jan Dhan Yojana
2.Bank Mitras i.e. Banking Correspondents
3.Priority sector lendings
4.Lead Bank scheme i.e. “area approach” for targeted and focused banking. Districts had been assigned to different banks i.e. lead banks
-Improve Quality of Human Capital
1.SSA
2.SWAYAM i.e. life long learning opportunities from online archives
3.Skill India
-Robust Infrastructure
1.Rail-Road-Electricity
- Labor laws
1.Overlapping & outdated laws must be removed
2.focus on ease of doing business through simplified laws
Conclusion
-Arjun SenGupta committee i.e. Inverse relationship between growth & informal sector

Question 25

Lone wolf attacks are security and political challenge. How to deal with such strikes . Discuss.

Answer 25

Intro
-Commit violent terrorist attacks alone without material assistance and command from any outside group
-Radicalized by ideology of external groups
eg
1.London Pop show (Ariana Grande) attacks
2.Paris attacks
3.Boston marathon bombings
4. Mehdi Masroor Biswas ( Bangalore based techie) ISIS tweeter handler
5.Areeb Majeed -Radicalized & join ISIS . During NIA interrogation told that asked to do menial jobs rather than part of war zone
Political Challenge
-To find root cause of radicalization and not possible without help of community leaders
Security Challenge
-Tracking suspicious behaviors of radicalization
Measures
-Approach
1.Lone wolf attacks i,e. Orlando night club shootings (2016) & Las Vegas shootings (2017) raised awareness over world over
2.Need to track down radicalized groups through monitoring of social media
3. Big data
4. Police/ Intelligence agencies should be manned with counselors/ psychologists to reverse radicalisation
5.Hardened ideologists must be prosecuted under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act
6. IS handlers exploits the existing loopholes in legal mechanisms to radicalized in EU. Therefore Must be tighten time to time
Conclusion
-Aftermath 26/11 attacks, Formation of regional hubs for NSG in major metro cities were welcome step
-Since IS threat had been transnational, Coalition efforts for intelligence sharing & operations is must

Question 26

Critically examine features of Bharatmala Pariyojana (BMP) initiative & likely impact on economic growth ?

Answer 26

Intro
-Ministry of Road Transport & Highways decided to develop around 1900 kms of roads as green field expressways out of which 800 kms under Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase -1
-Bharatmala scheme, under which 34,800 km of highways would be constructed between 2017-22
Features
-Highway development initiative
-Components in Phase 1
1.Economic corridor
2.Inter corridor & feeder roads
3. Corridor efficiency
4.Border/International connectivity roads
5.Coastal/Port connectivity roads
-Special attention to backward & tribal areas, religious/tourist places/border/international/port areas
Impact on Economy
-Provide linkage to 550 districts against 300 districts currently, So enhanced economic activity
-Generate large employment
1.Constrcution
2.Highway amenities
-Positive impact on Logistics Performance Index (LPI)
Conclusion
-Outlays (6.92 trillion rupees) not big boosts if considered with inflation
-Aim of 34800 kms addition not too ambitious as 27000 kms of national highways had been added in last 5 years

Question 27

What do you understand by moral hazards?It is said that recapitalization of banks adds risk of moral hazard. Elaborate

Answer 27

Intro
-Moral hazard in economic terms When one party gets involved in risky event knowing that it been protected against risk & damaging morals of other players
-Recapitalization
1.Semi write offs of loans
2. NPAs
3.Bad lending again
4.Distort level playing field between PSBs & private banks
Recapitalization & Moral hazard
-IDBI recapitalization weakened incentives for other state run lenders who were recapitalizing by raising equity on timely basis
-Cyclic problem
-Tap taxpayers money & discourage tax payers
Arvind Subramaniyam View
-To some extent, Moral hazard is unavoidable. There must be need to balance perverse incentives created against necessity of reviving economy and there comes reforms for it “
1.Indradhanush Scheme i.e.Recapitalization of PSBs with full comply with Basel-III
2.Bank Board Bureau
a.Component of Indradhanush scheme
b.Replace appointment boards of PSBs
3.Advice on merger & acquisitions & raising funds
4.Separate functioning of banks from government by acting as middle link.
3.S4A Scheme i.e. scheme for sustainable structuring of stressed assets i.e. divide into sustainable & unsustainable components
4.Restructuring ARCs i.e. Asset Reconstruction company i.e. buys NPAs from banks so that they can clean their balance sheets
5.Consolidation banks such as SBI mergers

Question 28

What is the difference between S4A & SDR scheme

Answer 28

S4A scheme for sustainable structuring of stressed assets
-Allow existing promoter to continue in management even being minority holder
-Lenders have options to hold additional debentures instead of equity
SDR
-Strategic Debt Restructuring Scheme
-Promoter is de-link and ownership got changed
-Only equity holding is allowed

Question 29

Discuss role of technology especially data in tackling modern slavery ?

Answer 29

Intro
-Slavery abolished 150 years ago but still exists in form of forced/bonded labor, trafficking & exploitation
-ILO reports every 4th victim is child
Role of technology in tackling modern slavery
-Creation of systematic local database & sharing with local level law enforcement authorities to recognize irregularities
1.For example, Conviction of Ross Ulbricht, founder of silk road website (drug trafficker)
-Training of border personals/public transport to identify possible instances
-Co-operation between Transport/Border personnel/victims to crackdown hotspots
GOI Steps
-PENCIL portal i.e. track child/adolescent from work & rehabilitate
-Khoya Paya portal i.e. missing child
-TRACKCHILD portal i.e.missing children
-AADHAR Registration
-CCTNS to connect police stations across states
-Registration & Auditing of staffing organisations
Conclusion
-Strongest response to slavery -Netherlands/UK/USAustralia
-MH has special cells
-Mandatory registration for placement agencies in JHK & CG

Question 30

If we don;t have system that gives everyone a chance to gain necessary skills, differences in education and family background will lead to even greater inequality. Discuss in context of fears being expressed about computers replacing humans ?

Answer 30

Intro
-Low skilled jobs will be lost due to automation
-India experiencing demographic dividend but also skill levels are less than 3%
Measures
-Skill India, Start Up India, Stand Up India, Mudra
-software skilling
-Reservation with modifications to advance weaker sections
-Global skill centers at 4 main cities in states

Question 31

What are the mandate and significance of work being carried out by ‘Bioversity International’. How is it different from India’s National Biodiversity Authority. Examine

Answer 31

Intro
-Bioversity International
1.Global research for nourishing agricultural biodiversity
Mandate
-Scientific evidences, practices, policy options to safeguard agricultural biodiversity
-Seeks to create seed banks across world
Significance
-To meet 4 global challenges
1.Improved nutrition
2.Climate change
3.Sustainable production
4.Agricultural biodiversity
-Agricultural biodiversity helps in varied ecosystem services such as pollinators, soil microbes
Difference
Bioversity International
-Limited to Agricultural biodiversity
National Biodiversity Authority
-Statutory Autonomous body under Biodiversity act 2002 after India signed Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) ,1992
-Under MoEF & not limited to agricultural biodiversity.

Question 32

Employing Army resources for civilian works is an acknowledgement of civil institutional failure & has long term costs. Comment

Answer 32

Intro
-Recently , Army to construct three railway footbridges in Mumbai
-Civil works done
1.Law & order
2.Natural disaster
3.Bridges like 2016 Pontoon bridge on Yamuna flood plains for AOL event, Kumbh Mela, 2010 Foot-bridge during common wealth games which got fall before days to event which got completed in quicktime
Why
-They are rigorously trained in handling crises situations
1.Resource rich
2.Mobilize quickly
3.Expertise
4.Wide public trust
Long term costs
-Underestimation of Civil Institutions
1.Dera saccha sauda protest
-Frequent help in crises might lead to assumption across public about Army being effective substitute i.e. threat to democracy
Conclusion
-Take lessons from 1950s
1.Major BM Kaul undertaken construction of 1450 barracks and family accommodation in Ambala
2.However, It was turned down by General Thamiyya
3.But Kaul gets go ahead from defense minister V.K. Menon
4.By 1959, got completed and battalion moved to NEFA (till 1972, afterwards Arunachal Pradesh)
5. Indo-china War 1962 suffered
-Upgrade, train and regular inspect civil institutions.

Question 33

With advent of new age digital & social media, Fake news has pervaded all spheres of life i.e. political, economic & social with negative implications.What measures need to be taken by various stakeholders to combat fake news menace.Discuss

Answer 33

Intro
-Deliberate misinformation or hoaxes
-Examples
1.During 2016 demonetization, Fake news that new notes equipped with spying technology tracked up to 120 mts below earth
2.July 2017, Published photograph of hoisting Pakistani flag causing wide outrage. Later, it revealed to be Islamic flag
Measures
-Algorithms i.e. for example website created two weeks ago likely to be fake
-Using third party fact checkers enlisted with International Fact Checking Network (IFCN) Florida based
1.FB users in US & Germany can now flag articles they think are false which will finally go to fact checkers enlisted with IFCN
-Workshops to use discretion among citizens by cross reference
-Uniform guidelines like traditional media

Question 34

what is the difference between blue economy and Blue Water economy with respect to Maritime diplomacy. Examine why both blue economy and Blue Water economy are important for India

Answer 34

background
-Coastline covers 9 States and two union territories
-vulnerable to natural disasters
-lacking resilience and adaptive capacity
-development deficits
blue economy
- Defined by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development ( UNCTAD) - sustainable economy for Ocean based Marine environment
- it is integration of Ocean economy development with social inclusion and environmental sustainability using innovative business models
Blue Water economy
-no agreed definition
- generally denotes economic activities conducted on high seas that means Marine transportation deep sea fishing and deep sea mineral exploration
Difference between blue economy from Blue Water economy
-environment
-inclusive and sustainable development
Why both are important for India
- Indian Ocean - 90% India’s trade
-string of pearls strategy of China in Indian ocean
-protect the energy routes
-coastal shipping
a.China and Netherlands expertise and has major share in coastal shipping and inland water navigation
b. India’s sagarmala project that is to modernize ports envisage doubling share of coastal shipping by 6% to 12% by 2025
way forward
-Marine ICT,Marine research, fisheries, coastal tourism
-coastal economic zones (CEZ) and sagarmala project is a welcome move

Question 35

examine significance of section 24 of right to fair compensation and transparency in land acquisition rehabilitation and resettlement act and reasons why it has become issue nowadays

Answer 35

background
-This act aims for enhanced compensation, consent to be acquired, detailed rehabilitation and resettlement
-change the relationship between state and individual empowering latter against former
section 24
- retrospective clause
a.Under certain circumstances, Acquired land could be returned to the affected families If five or more years prior to the act not paid compensation or not taken possession shall be returned
significance
-Individual lands returned under section 24.
-section 24 was upheld by Supreme Court as well as high court
why issue
-2015, ordinance to lapse this section was introduced but eventually withdrawn
-Recently Supreme Court implemented provisions of the lapsed ordinance and it was the variance with other benches of Supreme Court
Conclusion
-Constitutional 5 judge bench must decides judgement validity

Question 36

Does replacing existing bus transport especially CNG based ones with e vehicles and encouraging citizens to move towards e vehicles address pollution in cities. Critically examine

Answer 36

background
- emissions includes nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides carbon monoxide etc
yes
- zero direct emissions
- reduced noise pollution
No
-70-95 percent particulate matter by road transportation not from tail pipe emissions but Road dust by brakes and tyres
- battery is too expensive
- recharge points still at nascent stage
- It results in indirect pollution through coal based power plants
- not suitable for power crunch cities
way forward
-EV couple with renewable energy Investments can results in sustainable development
-dedicated charging spots and discounted/free parking
-government should provide initial user base for Electrical vehicles to grow for example all new government and corporate vehicles must be electrical vehicles and their office buildings must install EV Infrastructures

Question 37

Government of India drops idea of electric vehicle policy. Why

Answer 37

background
-Decision to create EV policy created uncertainty for past year in automobile industry
-FAME India 2015 scheme ( faster adoption and manufacturing of hybrid and electrical vehicles in India)
a. part of national electric mobility mission plan
b.incentivize all vehicle segments
c. Technology includes strong hybrid, plug in hybrid, battery EV’s
way forward
-Need overhaul of countries energy and transport infrastructure
a.EV charging stations
b.increase in electricity generation
c. EV batteries to be cheaper

Question 38

What is cryptojacking. Examine why cryptojacking possesses challenges to critical infrastructure , regulator’s and Consumers alike

Answer 38

cryptojacking
-secret use of electronic device to mine cryptocurrency i.e. installing program but secretly mines continuously
challenges
-critical infrastructure
a.Infrastructure security firm Radiflow discovered cryptocurrency mining malware in operational network of water utility systems in Europe
b.Malware run quietly in background and use the processing power of the industrial control systems
c.It can hang, pause or crash the plant
d.Since Industrial plants do not use lot of processing power for baseline operations but draw lot of electricity, its miners first choice as they can mask malware CPU and power consumption
e.These industrial control systems running on outdated & unpatched software
regulator
-lack of Technical competence which mostly lies in private sector
-Overlapping Jurisdictions due to decentralized transactions
-anonymity of users making it impossible for investigating Agencies to establish identity
-transnational nature of crimes making it difficult to prosecute under domestic laws
consumers
-no dispute settlement mechanism
-make system freeze
way forward
-invest in technology especially security walls for critical infrastructure
-people must be aware about consequences
-Training of personals for regulator’s as well as consumers

Question 39

How Bitcoin Works ?

Answer 39

How Can One get Bitcoins
1,Mining
-Bitcoins are hidden in data blocks created by satoshi and spread across internet
-can be Mined by solving these data blocks
-One data block fetches n bitcoins
2.Exchange
-can buy from someone who mined them at prevailing exchange rate
Where are bitcoins stored
-Digital wallets or E wallets and can be access via unique key
benefits
1.low transaction cost i.e. virtual 0
-tea growers in Assam can export tea to foreign countries in return of payment in Bitcoins.No fees will be given to pay pal.
2.high divisibility
10^-8 Bitcoin = 1 Satoshi
Therefore,
one laptop equal to 1 Bitcoin today
one laptop equal to 0.00165 Bitcoin in future
3.Smart Contract
-conditional scripting capabilities
-if event x happens Pay Y an amount of Z Bitcoins at particular time
4.harder to counterfeit
-CryptoCurrency mathematical algorithms used are in block-chain technology
-all transactions are digital in nature
disadvantage
1.very less acceptability
-high fluctuating values i.e.ups and downs
-complex as even literate requires computer,special software and knowledge of how it works
challenges
1.black markets
2.money laundering
3. Unauthorised mining i.e. Industrial plants targeted pointed by Radiflow
how it works
-decentralized peer to peer electronic payment system without any centralized server
-once transaction is done it gets updated in the public ledger accessible to all users
-process of maintaining this ledger and validating transactions is called mining
how it works-Sequence
1.request
2.broadcast to peer2peer network
3.transaction
4.transaction combined with transaction to create new block of data for ledger
5.added to the block-chain that is permanent and unalterable
6.transaction confirmed and is done by miner
role of the miner
1.everybody can be a miner
2.decentralized network has no Authority to delegate the task of mining but there must be some kind of mechanism to prevent one ruling party from abusing it
For example,Someone creates thousands of peers and spread forged transactions, system will break immediately
3. Satoshi set rule i.e. miners needs to invest some work of their computers to qualify for this task i.e. in fact defined as hash product of cryptographic functions that connects new Block with predecessor and is called SHA256 hash algorithm
-miners compete to solve cryptographic puzzle and after finding solution build block and add to block-chain that is add the so called transaction that gives him specific number of Bitcoins.It is the only way to create valid Bitcoins.
-since there are finite miners, time for transaction confirmation will depend on network activity.

Question 40

Monero crypto currency ?

Answer 40

-JavaScript implementation which has made it possible to embedded miner into website in such a way that website visitor CPU will be used to mine Monero until visitor is consuming content of a webpage
-can be done via user consent instead of serving ads but without inform consent it’s ethically a fraud
Benefits
-Egalitarian mining process made it viable to distribute the mining effort opening new funding avenues for both legitimate online publishers and malicious hackers who covertly embed mining code into websites and apps

Question 41

Why is it important for India to create more salary jobs. how to create such jobs . discuss

Answer 41

background
-Around 12 million enter labor market every year and India undergoing jobless growth
-Only 3 million jobs created from 2005 to 2012
why salary jobs
1.lies in lower middle income category according to World Bank
-To join Global middle class by 2047
2.wide inequalities
3.demographic dividend to demographic curse
4. public sector employees only 5% manpower and need to create more jobs
5.Informal jobs adversely affects due to lack of skills and low productivity
6.casual/contract jobs
-uncertainty in employment and social security
7. regular jobs will retain women in workforce
8.it’s not only about jobs but quality jobs
-Agriculture has productivity half of countries average
-Construction/Retail has job creation but low productivity
How to create more jobs
1.stringent labor regulations
-high level of protection to small fraction of workers and barriers for entry of other workers
-reforms required in land and labor market
2.National Job Adviser to PM in PMO to align job growth with Economic planning
3. growth of SME
-digital startups are glamorous but SME score jobs
4.Special package for labor intensive industries
-Food processing
-Leather footwear
-Wood manufacturer/Furniture
-Textiles
5. public jobs increase i.e. health education police judiciary
6.upgrading skills
7.flexible labor market for response to market
-Entry/Exit for firms
-High cost of dismissing regular workers hinder them to hire
For example, It needs to be lower i.e. 1 month compensation