Civil Services Chronicle May 2020

1 PM Garib Kalyan Relief Package

2 Revival of SAARC

3 RBI Guidelines for Regulating Payment Aggregators and Payment Gateways

4 Multiple Mega Food Parks and Integrated Cold Chain Projects Sanctioned under PMKSY

5 UN Report: Map and Monitor Peatland Degradation

6 Centre to Form National Interlinking of Rivers Authority

7 NASA’s Mars 2020 Mission

Italy

1 APEDA Signs MoU with SFAC

2 Recapitalisation of Regional Rural Banks

3 RBI Writes Down AT-1 Bonds to Reconstruct Yes Bank

4 NSE Enters Bear Market

5 Merger of Banks Comes into Effect

6 India’s First Land Record Service Index

1 Parliament Approves Three Central Sanskrit Universities

2 Govt Invokes Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 to Fight Coronavirus

3 Govt Declared Masks, Hand Sanitisers ‘Essential’ Commodities

4 Government Approves Change of Land Use for Central Vista Development

5 India Releases Draft Defence Procurement Procedure 2020

6 UP Passes Ordinance to Recover Damages to Property during Protests, Strikes

7 ECI Unveils Roadmap for Revamp of Electoral Process

8 Supreme Court Ruling Against Judicial Transparency

9 Madras High Court Sets Aside Restraints on Puducherry Lt.Governor

1 India’s Ban on OCI Sparks Panic

2 ‘Unanimous’ ICC Gives Go-ahead to Probe Afghanistan Alleged War Crimes

3 India Accepted as Observer in Indian Ocean Commission

4 Crude Oil Price-War Unleashed

5 G20 Nations to Inject $5 trillion to Combat COVID-19

6 IMF: Recession Due to COVID-19 to be Worse than 2009

1 Milky Way’s Edge Discovered

2 HD74423: The Star That Pulsates on One Side

3 WASP-76 b: The Exoplanet Where It Rains Iron

4 Scientists Sequence Sturgeon Genome

5 New Way to Block Human Papillomavirus Discovered

6 Key Cellular Mechanism in Huntington Disease Discovered

7 Towards an Era of Quantum Internet

1 Rise in Black Carbon at Himalayan Glaciers

2 Snow in Antarctica, Turning Red

3 National Chambal Sanctuary Declared an Eco-Sensitive Zone

4 Red Panda Species are Two species, Not One

5 State of India’s Birds 2020

6 Red Panda Species are Two species, Not One

7 State of India’s Birds 2020

8 Coral bleaching at the Great Barrier Reef

1 Maharaja Ranjit Singh Voted the Greatest Leader in World History

1 Cabinet Gives Stimulus to Domestic Manufacturing of Medical Devices

2 Contact Tracing to Help Control Disease Outbreaks

3 New POCSO Rules Make the Law Against Sexual Offences More Stringent

1 SC Clears Permanent Commission for Women in Navy

2 Army Launches Operation Namaste to Combat COVID-19

3 Section 188 IPC Invoked for Violating COVID-19 Lockdown

4 PM-CARES: An Emergency Relief Fund

5 India Falls steeply on Freedom index

6 Parliament Passes Amendment Allowing Putin to Stay in Power

7 Employment-based Backlog to Double by 2030

8 Danube-Oder-Elbe Canal Becomes a Sore Point

9 India-Japan Sign Rail Project

10 India Ranks 144 in World Happiness Report

11 India-European Union Flagship Call Announced on Integrated Local Energy Systems

12 US Defence Production Act Invoked to Lift Up Ventilator Production

13 India to Provide Financial Assistance for Building Schools in Nepal

14 Bhoomi Rashi Portal

15 Whitefly Resistant Cotton Variety

16 ARI-516 - New Hybrid Variety of Grapes

17 Invest India Business Immunity Platform

18 Country-by-Country Report

19 World Water Day: Billions will have Limited Access to Water by 2050

20 Global Recycling Day

21 Tribal Affairs Ministry Constitutes Community Forest Resources

22 Global Coalition for Biodiversity Launched on World Wildlife Day

23 Sahyadri Megha: New Paddy Variety Resistant to Blast Disease

24 UK Confirmed as First co-chair of Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure

25 Building a Comprehensive Human Single-cell Atlas

26 Ikaria wariootia: The Ancestor of All Animals

27 ICONSAT- 2020

28 DAC Approves Procurement of Tejas Mk1A for Indian Air Force

29 MACS 4028: Biofortified Wheat Variety

1 PARLIAMENT Q & A

1 Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products Scheme

2 LLP Settlement Scheme 2020

3 Kerala Sought Relaxation of FRBM Rules

4 Companies (Amendment) Bill 2020

5 National Supercomputing Mission: Boosting India’s Supercomputing Capacity

Mock Test Papers

Prelims

1 PRELIMS Mock Test 2020

General Studies Mains Questions And Answers

1 Green Revolution, despite of several achievements is marred by serious defects. Examine.

2 What do you understand by the term regional disparity? Briefly discuss the consequences of regional imbalances in India. Suggest appropriate measures to reduce regional imbalance in India.

3 What was the immediate trigger of the World War-I? Also list other reasons for the breakout of the war.

4 What factors were responsible for the dispatch of Cabinet Mission? Do you think that it represented a change of attitude on the part of the British Government?

5 Critically analyse the provisions of Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019.

6 Examine the need of Prison reforms in India.

7 Recently, amendments were made in the Unlawful Activities Prevention act. Critically analyse the significant changes as a result of the amendments.

8 Critically examine the need of National Register of citizen’s at national level.

9 Competition law should support the independence of CCI in its effort to foster competitive and dynamic markets for growth. Critically Examine.

10 The nomination of Ex- Chief Justice of India to Rajya Sabha recently has drawn sharp reactions from the legal fraternity as well as the political opposition, and brings into focus the question of the judiciary’s independence. Debate on the question, if this was the right decision?

11 Analyse the need for a data firewall keeping in light the recent leak of medical data of patient as reported by a German cybersecurity firm.

12 The Covid-19 crises could bring the country up to digital speed. Examine the statement.

13 The Indian government is preparing to install a nationwide facial recognition system, but the plan draws criticism from rights activists and tech experts who warn of the risks to privacy and from increased surveillance. Examine.

14 Discuss how Wildfires Can Affect Climate Change.

15 Why honesty is a priceless asset for a civil servant?

Case Study

1 Case Study