Current Affairs - Points to Ponder
Recently, the Supreme Court ruled that undertrial prisoners' right to life does not diminish.
You need to study the following points for the above topic:
- Read related past events and cases on prisoners and correlate with the right to life.
- Provisions related to right to life in the Indian Constitution.
- Supreme Court's 2019 judgment on prisoners' right to dignity.
Supreme Court to review the validity of law on sedition.
You need to study the following points for the above topic:
- Constitutional validity of Section 124 of IPC.
- Some recent cases and the Supreme Court's stance in similar cases during the past two decades.
- Sedition law being misused by people in power against their adversaries.
- New legislations having provisions related to actions inciting violence and disorder, disrupting safety and security, and indulging in terrorism; viz. Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Public Safety Act, National Security Act, etc.
400th birth anniversary of Guru Tegh Bahadur
Read the following point for the above topic:
- His ideology, path of liberation, nationality, philosophy and spirituality.
Dada Saheb Phalke: The father of Indian cinema.
Read the following points for the above topic:
- His contribution to society and Indian cinema.
- Changes in Indian cinema over the years.
News: RBI moderated retail inflation in its monetary policy amid a 22% growth in industrial production in March 2021.
Read the following points for the above topic:
- Retail inflation as a tool of RBI's monetary policy.
- Institutions and criteria associated with the calculation of Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
Owing to the impact of the second wave of COVID-19, economic growth will be hit but still, we have manpower shortage in some sectors.
There is a shortage of manpower in:
- Logistics (dispatch and delivery)
- Medical professionals
- Diagnostic sector
- Tech talent in areas like AI, data engineering, cyber security, etc.
- Note: Read about the skill development and employment mobility initiatives in India.
- How education and industry tie-up can bridge the gap.
With respect to the second wave of COVID-19 in India, the Indian Coronavirus strain has become a 'variant of concern at global level'.
You need to study the following points for the above topic:
- What is mutation and how the process of mutation works.
- Mechanism in RNA viruses.
- Coronavirus spike protein.
Recently, a US-based democracy watchdog institution downgraded India's status with reference to the functioning of democracy in India.
You need to study the following points for the above topic:
- Democracy watchdog institutions in India and the world.
- Focus areas (parameters) and credentials of watchdog institutions.
For understanding this issue, you need to study the following concepts:
- The pillars of Indian democracy.
- How Indian democracy functions.
- How it is different from western democracies.
- Definition and constitutional provisions related to Indian democracy.
Know meaning and explanations of the following:
- Partly free democracy
- Flawed democracy
- Complex democracy
- Electoral autocracy
- Western bias and hypocrisy
- Western liberal value systems
- Rule of law
- Nationalism vs Liberalism
- Ideologies of religious institutions
- Freedom of speech and expression
- Freedom of conscience
- Freedom of religion
- Free speech
Reasons behind the growth of mutual fund industry during economic slowdown.
You need to study the following points for the above topic:
- What are mutual funds?
- What is a Systematic Investment Plan (SIP)?
- Understand equity funds, retail investment and money market schemes.
- Domestic funds and foreign funds in Indian market.
Currently, the bad bank concept is in the news concerning NPAs and other issues.
You need to study the following points for the above topic:
- NPAs: Reasons before and after the pandemic.
- National Asset Reconstruction Company (NARC) plan.
- Stressed portfolios of the Public Sector Banks (PSBs).
- Non-classified loans as NPAs.
- Bad bank: Challenges and consequences.