VISION

VISION

Material For Exam

Recent Update

Saturday, October 12, 2019

Daily Current Affairs, 12th October 2019

16:24





1) World Migratory Bird Day: 12 October
•World Migratory Bird Day is observed on 12 October every year. It is an annual awareness-raising campaign highlighting the need for the conservation of migratory birds and their habitats. It has a global outreach and is an effective tool to help raise global awareness of the threats faced by migratory birds.

 •Theme for 2019: Protect Birds: Be the Solution to Plastic Pollution!

2) India to extend over $60 mn line of credit to Comoros
•The 1st ever ‘India International Cooperatives Trade Fair’ has been inaugurated in New Delhi. The 3 day Fair is a major platform to promote export of products of cooperatives which will lead to enhanced rural and farm prosperity. Organisations from 35 countries and more than 150 Indian cooperatives are participating in the Fair.

 •Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar also launched ‘Yuva Sahakar’ Cooperative Enterprise Support and Innovation Scheme 2019.

3) 1st India Sports Summit held in New Delhi
•Minister of State for Youth and Sports Kiren Rijiju inagurated 1st India Sports Summit 2019 in New Delhi. He also underlined the need to induce a national sporting culture with the aim to make India a sporting powerhouse at the event. He also announced that a ‘Fit India’ mission office would be set up, with the help of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), to promote the aforementioned goals.




4) India-China 2nd Informal Summit begins in Tamil Nadu
•The 2nd “India-China Informal Summit” between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China’s President Xi Jinping begins at Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu.

 •The 1st summit took place in Wuhan in the wake of the Doklam crisis in April, 2018.

5) 2nd edition of India-Bangladesh CORPAT begins
•The 2nd edition of Coordinated Patrol (CORPAT) of the navies of India and Bangladesh has begun in Northern Bay of Bengal. Guided-missile destroyer INS Ranvijay and ingeniously built missile Corvette INS Kuthar are participating in the exercise along with BNS Ali Haider and BNS Shadinota from Bangladesh. The exercise aims at development of mutual communication and sharing of best practices between the two navies.

 •The India Bangladesh CORPAT commenced in 2018.

6) Ashleigh Barty wins ‘The Don’ Award
•Ashleigh Barty has been awarded Australian sport’s highest individual honour ‘The Don’ Award at the annual Sport Australia Hall of Fame. With the award, she has joined legends like Cathy Freeman and Ian Thorpe in lifting the prestigious prize.

 •Barty was the first Australian to win the French Open in 46 years and is now aiming to become the first Australian woman to end the season with the No.1 ranking since Margaret Court in 1973.

7) Ramesh Pandey selected for Asia Environmental Enforcement Award
•Indian Forest Service officer Ramesh Pandey has been selected for the prestigious Asia Environmental Enforcement Award by the United Nations Environment Programme. He is known for his investigation and intelligence gathering on poachers. He will receive the award at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok. The selection panel has recognised his excellent work in combating trans-boundary environmental crime.

 •Asia Environmental Enforcement Awards aims to publicly recognise outstanding achievements by public organisations and individuals in Asia to combat transboundary environmental crime.
Read More
at
Labels: , ,

The HINDU Notes – 12th October 2019

16:00




📰 Camaraderie marks start of Modi-Xi ‘informal summit’

PM takes visiting dignitary on a tour of the monuments at Mamallapuram.

•The second “informal summit” between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China’s President Xi Jinping began on Friday at Mamallapuram, a town famously associated with Pallava rulers, with the two leaders spending the evening together for a few hours and getting a glimpse of the blend of south Indian art and culture.

•In April 2018, the first summit took place in Wuhan in the wake of the Doklam crisis. The present meeting is being held in the midst of China reacting strongly to the Indian government’s decision on Article 370 and bifurcation of Jammu & Kashmir.

•As soon as Mr. Xi, who arrived in Chennai at about 2 p.m., reached Mamallapuram around 5 pm to begin the meeting, Mr. Modi, dressed in the traditional attire of Tamil Nadu, received him. While taking Mr. Xi on a tour of the monuments — Arjuna’s Penance, Panch (Five) Rathas and the Shore Temple — for over an hour, Mr. Modi was seen explaining different features of the monuments to the visiting dignitary.

•After taking a close look at the Varaha Cave, located behind the Arjuna’s Penance. they displayed camaraderie by raising hands together in the backdrop of another monument, Krishna’s Butter Ball [which is a natural rock formation, perched precariously on the hillock slope].

•At the Panch Rathas, when Mr. Modi and Mr. Xi relaxed for a while, the former served the latter tender coconut water. After going around the Shore Temple, they watched a cultural programme presented by artists of Kalakshetra Foundation.

•The programme, lasting about 45 minutes, was a mixture of “Bharatanatyam,” the form of classical dance of Tamil Nadu and regarded as one of the oldest forms of classical dances of India, and “Kathakali,” the classical dance of Kerala.

•It ended with the recital of “Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram,” a favourite ‘bhajan’ song of Mahatma Gandhi. Later, the two leaders took a photograph with all the artists. In the ambience of the Shore Temple, Mr. Modi hosted a dinner for Mr Xi.

•“The free flowing nature of the informal summit at the UNESCO world heritage site will continue and deepen contacts at the highest level and guide the future trajectory of India-China relationship,” External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Ravesh Kumar tweeted.

📰 Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed Ali wins Peace Nobel
Read More
Read more »
at
Labels:

THE HINDU NEWSPAPER IMPORTANT ARTICLES 12.10.2019

06:47
Read More
at
Labels: , ,

Baliyan IAS Prelims 2020 Test 2 With Solution PDF Download

06:38




Baliyan IAS Prelims 2020 Test 2 With Solution PDF




  • Baliyan IAS Prelims 2020 Test 2 Question – Click here
  • Baliyan IAS Prelims 2020 Test 2 Solution – Click here
Read More
at
Labels: , , ,

Baliyan IAS Prelims 2020 Test 1 With Solution PDF Download

06:38




Baliyan IAS Prelims 2020 Test 1 With Solution PDF




  • Baliyan IAS Prelims 2020 Test 1 Question – Click here
  • Baliyan IAS Prelims 2020 Test 1 Solution – Click here
Read More
at
Labels: , , ,

Shankar IAS Prelims 2020 Test 1 With Solution PDF Download

06:31




Shankar IAS Prelims 2020 Test 1 With Solution PDF

  • Shankar IAS Prelims 2020 Test 1 Question – Click here
  • Shankar IAS Prelims 2020 Test 1 Solution – Click here
Read More
at
Labels: , , , ,

UPSC Civil Services (Main) Examination, 2018 reserved list released

06:26

UPSC Civil Services (Main) Examination, 2018 reserved list released





Civil Services Mains Examination 2018
Click Here to download UPSC Civil Services (Main) Examination, 2018 reserved list released

Click Here to Like our Facebook page for latest updates and free ebooks
Read More
at
Labels: ,

Friday, October 11, 2019

Daily Current Affairs, 11th October 2019

19:50





1) International Day of the Girl Child: 11 October
•The United Nations observes International Day of the Girl Child on 11th of October every year. The day aims to highlight and address the needs and challenges girls face, while promoting girls’ empowerment and the fulfillment of their human rights.

 •The theme for 2019: GirlForce: Unscripted and Unstoppable.

 2) SARAS Aajeevika Mela begins in New Delhi
•SARAS Aajeevika Mela has begun at India Gate Lawns, in New Delhi. It has been organized by the Ministry of Rural Development under the initiative of the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission. It aims to bring the rural women Self Help Groups (SHGs) formed with support of DAY-NRLM, under one platform to show-case their skills, sell their products and help them build linkages with bulk buyers.

 •Over 200 stalls have been set-up at the Mela venue, where nearly 500 rural SHG craftswomen from 29 States and UTs will show-case varied range of products like handicrafts, handlooms, natural food products and a food court with regional cuisines at India Gate Lawns.

3) 38th India Carpet Expo begins in Varanasi
•The 38th India Carpet Expo will be held in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. The expo will be organized by the Carpet Export Promotion Council (CEPC). The India Carpet Expo aims to promote the cultural heritage and weaving skills of Indian hand-made carpets and other floor coverings for the visiting overseas carpet buyers.

 •India carpet expo also acts as a platform for international carpet buyers, buying houses, buying agents, architects and Indian carpet manufacturers and exporters to meet and establish business relationship.

4) Maharashtra & Goa Circle celebrating National Postal Week
•The Maharashtra and Goa Circle of the India Post is celebrating National Postal Week. The postal circle is observing the National Postal Week in each of the six regions under its jurisdiction – Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Aurangabad and Goa.

 •The week is being celebrated to spread awareness about services provided by the department and efforts made to meet changing requirements of customers. The week also commemorates the establishment of the Universal Postal Union in 1874 in the Swiss capital Berne.

5) Railway police’s website & mobile app “Sahyatri” launched
•Union Minister Nityanand Rai has launched a Government Railway Police’s website “railways.delhipolice.gov.in” and a mobile application “Sahyatri”. The database of criminals, including their photographs, active in railways’ jurisdiction all over India would be uploaded on the Railway police’s website. It will also have the facility to scan and read QR codes and make an emergency call.

 •The Sahyatri app will help railway passengers find out the jurisdiction of a police station and the details of GRP officials by geo-tagging with Google Maps. It will also help the railway police in addressing complaints of passengers from across India and crime detection by integrating the criminal database online.

6) GoI launches Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (SUMAN) initiative




•Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan has launched the Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (SUMAN) initiative in New Delhi. The initiative was launched during the 13th Conference of Central Council of Health and Family Welfare.

 •The initiative aims to assure dignified, respectful and quality health care at no cost for every woman and newborn visiting the public health facility in order to end all preventable maternal and newborn deaths. It also provides a positive birth experience to both mother and infant. With the initiative, the government is committed to achieve the target of reducing the maternal mortality and child mortality.

7) 9th RCEP Intersessional Ministerial Meeting to be held in Thailand
•The 9th Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Intersessional Ministerial Meeting will be held in Bangkok, Thailand. This will be the final Ministerial meeting before the 3rd Leaders’ Summit which will be held on November 4, 2019 in Bangkok.

 •Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal will represent India in the meeting. He will also hold a series of bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Japan, Singapore, China, Australia and New Zealand during the Bangkok Ministerial.

8) Moody’s cuts India’s GDP growth forecast to 5.8% for FY20
•Moody, the rating agency has lowered its 2019-20 GDP growth forecast for India to 5.8% from 6.2%. It stated that the Indian economy is experiencing a pronounced slowdown partly due to long-lasting factors.Moody, the rating agency has lowered its 2019-20 GDP growth forecast for India to 5.8% from 6.2%. It stated that the Indian economy is experiencing a pronounced slowdown partly due to long-lasting factors.

 9) Gujarat to host conference of State Power Ministers
•Gujarat will host the State Power Ministers’ Conference. It will take place at Kevadia, on the banks of Narmada river. The 2 day conference will see discussions on policies related to emerging technologies in sustainable and renewable energy sector. It will also look after the implementation of Prime Minister Kusum Yojana, Solar Roof top, renewable energy development in the border areas, projects for Ultra Mega Renewable Energy Parks, ease of doing business in solar and wind energy space and the concerning issues related to regulatory matters, land and infrastructure.

 10) GeM signs MOU with Union Bank of India
•Government e-Marketplace signed an MoU with Union Bank of India. As per the MoU, UBI will be able to offer an array of services including transfer of funds through GeM Pool Accounts, advising of Performance Bank Guarantees and Earnest Money Deposit to the registered users on the GeM portal. The MoU will facilitate a cashless, paperless and transparent payment system on the portal and will create an efficient procurement system for government entities.

 •GeM is an initiative of the Government of India offering one stop platform facilitating online procurement of common use goods and services required by various government departments, organisations, Public Sector Units.

11) The Nobel Prize in Literature 2018 and 2019
•The Nobel Prizes in Literature 2018 and 2019 were announced at The Swedish Academy in Stockholm. Both winners will receive a full cash prize, valued this year at 9-million kronor ($918,000), a gold medal and a diploma.

 •The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2018 is awarded to the Polish author Olga Tokarczuk. She has been awarded “for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life.”

 •The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2019 is awarded to the Austrian author Peter Handke. He has been awarded “for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience.”

12) The Nobel Peace Prize for 2019
•The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2019 to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali. He has been awarded for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea. The prize is also meant to recognise all the stakeholders working for peace and reconciliation in Ethiopia and in the East and Northeast African regions.

 •He will receive a full cash prize, valued this year at 9-million kronor ($918,000), a gold medal and a diploma.
Read More
at
Labels: , ,

The HINDU Notes – 11th October 2019

14:47




📰 The contrasting optics in the run-up to Chennai and Wuhan summits

The atmospherics have clearly been much worse before Chennai as compared to the Wuhan summit.

•During the run-up to the Wuhan summit, the first “informal” summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in April 2018, several measures were taken by both governments to ensure the smoothest setting for talks. From the moment preparations began in February, both New Delhi and Beijing were careful to avoid language on issues that could become irritants — Kashmir, Tibet, terrorism, trade deficit, the Belt and Road Initiative and Indo-Pacific partnerships.

•The differences to the run-up to the Chennai summit should be studied closer in order to build more accurate expectations from the meet. In February 2018, according to a leaked memo, newly-appointed Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale had reminded senior government officials that according to policy, none should attend the series of functions planned to mark the day the Dalai Lama fled to India from Tibet in 1959, or grace public events hosted by Tibetan community leadership, seen as a precursor to building better ‘optics’ with Beijing.

•The government also cancelled a global parliamentarians conference due to be held in Delhi in April 2018. In February 2018, China too took a big step away from its traditional backing of Pakistan, by supporting the Financial Action Task Force decision to “greylist” Pakistan for its failure to check terror financing, and to initiate steps on reducing the whopping $60 billion trade deficit between the two countries.

•A series of carefully coordinated and choreographed visits followed, with New Delhi and Beijing exchanging high-level visitors including Chinese Commerce Minister Zhong Shan, then Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman leading up to a visit by then External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj who announced the Wuhan summit in a joint appearance with Chinese FM Wang Yi.

•The contrast to the preparations for the Chennai summit could not be more obvious. The official announcement came just two days before Mr. Xi’s arrival, which is unprecedented for a visit of this importance. It is curious that the two sides didn’t attempt a joint announcement in Delhi, while Chinese Vice-Minister Luo Zhaohui was in town last week.

•External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar did make a preparatory visit to Beijing in August, but it was over-run by having to explain the government’s move on Article 370. Despite his reassurances, Beijing went ahead and pushed for an informal United Nations Security Council meet to discuss the move, a first in many decades.

•China followed that up with FM Wang’s criticism of the move in his speech at the UN General Assembly in September. Another key difference is the Trump-Modi equation, which was under considerable strain pre-Wuhan, especially over Harley Davidson motorbike tariffs, and has vastly improved post-Houston, and this is being factored in by Beijing as well.

•“I think, more than the optics, the situation for both countries is different this time around,” says former National Security Adviser and foremost China expert Shiv Shankar Menon. “When Wuhan happened, both China and India had other preoccupations — China was worried by the trade war with the U.S. and India was heading in to election season. Neither wanted to deal with another standoff [like Doklam]. This time, the desire for the talks isn’t as mutual.”

•As a result, China’s raising Kashmir is sharper than the past, and linked both to its support for Pakistan as well as implications for Chinese-occupied parts of PoK (Aksai Chin), and the statement by Mr. Xi and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday prompted a protest from the MEA.

•Analysts and former diplomats point out that the invitation to Mr. Khan itself, in the same week as the Chennai summit, casts a doubt on Beijing’s intentions to “hyphenate” China’s ties with India and Pakistan.

Negative stories

•Adding to the bad optics were a flurry of negative stories that officials on both sides blamed each other for. The Chinese MoFA was forced to issue a clarification over its decision to deny the Indian Embassy in Beijing its chosen venue for Gandhi Jayanti celebrations because of a space conflict with China’s 70th anniversary celebrations.

•The government’s decision to hold major mountain combat exercises Him Vijay in Arunachal Pradesh was protested by China. India then reportedly protested comments by the Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan about Kashmir, and so on. Instead of Mr. Xi making a “stand-alone” visit to India, as Mr. Modi did with Wuhan, the Chinese President will fly to Nepal next where BRI projects, including a railway line between both countries, are sure to create new concerns for India.

•Analysts say that while none of these ‘hiccups’ denote any break from stated policies on both sides, they could have been avoided.

•“The atmospherics have clearly been much worse before Chennai [summit] compared to the Wuhan summit, and differences have resurfaced in a fairly serious manner between both sides recently. For the leaders, the challenge now is to impart and restore a sense of stability to the relationship,” advised former Ambassador to China Ashok Kantha.

•Some diplomats say the differences in preparations cropped up as early as May this year, when New Delhi had proposed Varanasi as the venue for the summit. Then Ambassador Mr. Luo had scoped possible locations there, including the boat ride on the Ganga and the ‘aarti’ along the Ghats that Mr. Modi had accompanied French President Emmanuel Macron and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to in the past.

•However, the Chinese government said that Mr. Xi’s plane would be too large to fit the runway at the Lal Bahadur Shastri airport, and asked for alternatives, which led the government to Chennai and Mamallapuram. Officials are hoping that a similar spirit of accommodation will ensure the upcoming summit takes off successfully, despite the hitches in the run up to it.

📰 India slams Turkey for Syria action
Read More
Read more »
at
Labels:

Forum IAS Pre Independence History PDF Download

07:46

Forum IAS Pre Independence History PDF









Click Here to download Forum IAS Pre Independence History PDF

Click Here to Like our Facebook page for latest updates and free ebooks
Read More
at
Labels: , , , ,