Civil Services Chronicle June 2020

1 Rethinking Reservation Policy: Supreme Court Quashes 100% Quota for Tribal Teachers

2 Oil Prices Nosedive

3 US Halts Funding to WHO

4 Task Force on National Infrastructure Pipeline

5 First Merger of Unequal-mass Binary Black Holes

6 Coronavirus: Impact on Environment

Turkmenistan

1 New Features Added to e-NAM

2 Central Govt Making Concerted Efforts to Facilitate Farmers in Direct Marketing

3 GI Tag for Various Products

4 Govt. Unveils Bank of Schemes, Ideas, Innovation and Research portal

5 Helicopter Money

6 Currency Swap Line

7 Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme

8 Monetary Policy Committee

9 RBI Announces Special Liquidity Facility for Mutual Funds

10 Government Fast Tracks Digitisation of Bill of Lading to Deal with Post COVID-19 World Trade

11 MNRE Urges States to Set up Renewable Energy Manufacturing Parks

1 Constitutional Crisis Looms Large for Maharashtra CM

2 Ordinance to Reduce Salaries of Parliamentarians by 30% for a year Ap-proved By Cabinet

3 State Governments Invoking NSA for Protecting Corona Warriors from Attacks

4 Union Home Ministry J&K Domicile Order Offers Protection to All Gov-ernment Posts

5 Supreme Court Modifies Order: Free COVID-19 Tests in Private Labs Only for Persons Covered Under ‘Ayushman Yojana’

6 Celebrating 47 years of Kesavananda Bharati Case

7 Govt Launches iGOT Portal to Train Doctors, Health Care Workers to Combat COVID-19

1 India’s Tightened FDI Rules Upset China

2 US President Passes Executive Order on Immigration

3 UNCTAD Releases the Trade and Development Report

4 India Opposes Allocation of SDR

1 New Comprehensive Geologic Map of the Moon

2 Mystery of Saturn’s Hot Upper Atmosphere Solved

3 Deciphering How the Universe Got its Structure

4 Exoplanet Kepler-1649c Discovered

5 New Insights on Improving Immunotherapy for Cancer

6 Indian Initiative on Earth Bio Genome Sequencing (IIEBS)

7 Supercomputers Help Fight COVID-19

8 Chitra GeneLAMP-N and Chitra Magna: Indigenous Technologies to Fight COVID-19

1 India Stresses on Climate Finance in First Virtual Petersberg Climate Dialogue

2 Ozone Layer Hole over Arctic Closes

3 How Coronavirus and Climate Change are Interlinked

4 Coronavirus Lockdown Reduced Earth’s Seismic Noise Levels

5 New Species of Green Pit Viper Discovered in Arunachal Pradesh

6 Significant Laws that have come into play During Coronavirus Pandemic

1 Newsmakers

2 On the Hot Seat

3 Faces Only in Memory

4 Summit/Seminar

5 Survey/Study/Report

6 Organisations

7 Places in News

8 Miscellaneous

1 Tablighi Jamaat : A Society of Preachers

2 Indian Council for Cultural Relations Celebrates 70th Anniversary

3 Meru Jatra Festival Banned in Odisha

4 Heritage Crafts Village in Odisha Wears Deserted Look Amidst Lockdown

5 Union Culture Ministry Launches Draft List of Intangible Cultural Heritage

6 Nihangs: The Valiant Sikh Warriors

1 MHRD Launches “Samadhan" Challenge to Fight Against COVID-19 & Fu-ture Challenges

2 Governor’s Rule Imposed in Assam’s Bodoland Territorial Area Districts

3 Human-Rights Body Seeks Relief for Starving Chakmas and Hajongs

4 World Bank’s April 2020 Commodity Markets Outlook Released

5 Global Report on Food Crises 2020

6 BRO Constructs Bridge on Subansiri River in Record Time

7 New Development Bank Provides 1 billion USD Financial Assistance to India

8 India Attends G20 Finance Ministerial Meeting

9 Biofortified Carrot Variety

10 Ways and Means Advances

11 Kisan Rath Mobile App

12 Online Platform for Issuance of Certificate of Origin

13 Unravelling the Bacterial Surface Architecture

14 DRDO Develops First Mobile Testing Lab for COVID-19

15 CSIR-CSIO Develops Electrostatic Disinfection Technology

16 INST Designs Computer-based Nanomaterials

17 Lithium Abundance in Interstellar Space & Red Giants

18 Demo 2 Mission

19 Geofencing

20 Government Guidelines on Temp & Humidity

21 UV Disinfection Trolley

22 Environmental Impact Assessment Amended by Environment Ministry

23 NGT Directs Team of Centre, CPCB to Supervise Scientific Disposal of COVID-19 Waste

24 Groundwater in Ten Districts of Bihar Contaminated by Uranium

25 Earth Day Celebrated On April 22

1 Parliament Q & A

General Studies Mains Questions And Answers

1 Analyse the impact of COVID-19 on rural lives and livelihood in India and suggest a measure to deal with the situation.

2 Examine how Coronavirus pandemic has affected women?

3 What is Micro irrigation? What are the various benefits of Micro irrigation techniques over traditional irrigation methods?

4 What are the provisions of National Medical Bill Act. Critically analyse the act and the various issues related with it.

5 Do you think that Anti-Defection Law in India need amendment? Discuss

6 Discuss the Right to Information Act’s role in fostering a more informed citizenry and an accountable government so far. What are the various concerns related to the RTI act?

7 A report issued by the US State Department raised concerns that China might be conducting nuclear tests, in violation of its Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) undertakings. Briefly describe what is CTBT and its significance in current context? And should India Sign it?

8 Analyse the vulnerabilities and preparation of armed forces to deal with biowarfare like situation. Also, Suggest a way forward to deal with the situation.

9 Discuss the root causes of the Naxalite movement in India. Also comment on the latest efforts undertaken by the government to address this issue.

10 The method of Rice-fish co-culture would definitely enhance farm production, reduce environmental degradation and improve the quality of life of farmers. Analyse.

11 India has world’s 4 per cent of the water resources, but still is counted amongst the water stressed nations. What are the reasons that caused this stress and what steps need to be taken to bring India back to water-adequacy?

12 Forest Fires pose a threat not only to the forest wealth but also to the entire regime. In view of this statement discuss the various adverse impacts of Forest Fires.

13 Define moral relativism with suitable examples.

14 Bring out the meaning of the statement “No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness” .

15 Discuss how aptitude differs from ability and achievement? Explain which aptitudes act as foundational values for Civil Services in India.