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Defence related Current Affairs
( January 21 to December 21)

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New Supreme Commander of Indian Armed Forces 🇮🇳

✓The first ever tribal president of India, the second woman presidential elect and also the second president from the state of Odisha: NDA's presidential candidate Madam Draupadi Murmu has crossed the 50% mark and won the elections!

✓She will now be taking oath as India’s 15th President on 25th July.

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22-07-22, current affairs

Important for upcoming defence exams.

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#DAILY_PRACTICE #WAT_SET

1.Virgin
2. Streak
3. Pick
4. Train
5. Respect
6. Warm
7. Rogue
8. Dew
9. Crime
10.Gesture
11.Tribe
12.Translate
13.Gender
14.Plastic
15.Guard

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#DAILY_PRACTICE #SRT_SET

1) You are at unknown city and lost your purse. You need money. As a stranger how will u manage? . . . . . . . .

2) He was asked to organize the farewell party. He...

3) He was to appear for an exam and all of a sudden the curfew was imposed in that area, he...

4) He went for the picnic with his friends and on the way he had hot arguments with them. He...

5) There is a person who sells smuggled goods. You too, like many others, have purchased a wristwatch from him. But it doesn't work. You....

6) His friend was always quarrelling with him and the papers were near. He.....

7) His boss gives a piece of work and orders him to follow his instructions to complete the work, but the work is difficult to finish within time. He.....

8. In his compartment, two gunmen forced passengers to give their belongings. He ......

9. You are travelling on an auto which collides with a car and driver starts beating auto driver. You ......

10. Recently, his younger brother has become arrogant. He ......

11.Question of his marriage created a struggle between his father and grandfather. He will.....

12. If you got chance to become prime minister of india then what three changes you would like to introduce.....

13. One fine afternoon you were walking down the road, suddenly a man steals a ladies handbag and in the process stabs the lady. You ......

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#DAILY_PRACTICE
#TAT_SET542

Important TAT image for all Entries.
Try to write within the prescribed time i.e. 4 minutes.
Be honest with your preparation and attempt this image and write a desirable story.

(For better practice,Write the story on A4 paper within the prescribed time.)

Healthy and constructive reviews are welcome.

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23-07-22, current affairs

Important for upcoming defence exams.

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#DAILY_PRACTICE
#TAT_SET543

Important TAT image for all Entries.
Try to write within the prescribed time i.e. 4 minutes.
Be honest with your preparation and attempt this image and write a desirable story.

(For better practice,Write the story on A4 paper within the prescribed time.)

Healthy and constructive reviews are welcome.

For more @ssbgeneraldiscussion

#DAILY_PRACTICE #WAT_SET

1.Ideal
2.Social
3.Secular
4.India
5.Extremism
6.Concept
7.Process
8.Blurred
9.Pink
10.Umbrella
11.Please
12.Rubbish

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#Important_notes_ssb_Lecturette #GD_Material

Heatwaves in India[1/3]

✓The advent of heatwaves has adversely affected the whole world and India is no outlier in this context. According to a report by Lancet, India’s vulnerability to extreme heat increased 15% from 1990 to 2019.

✓The five warmest years ever recorded in India have all been in the last decade.

✓In May 2022, the European Space Agency recorded land surface temperatures nearing 55°C over many parts of northwest India, crossing 60°C in some pockets. The five warmest years ever recorded in India have all been in the last decade.

✓Moreover, humidity, scant rain, and high temperatures have pushed up discomfort levels, making the lives of those without cooling facilities even tougher. Heat stress should no longer come as a surprise. It demands a comprehensive response.

❓What is a Heatwave?

✓A heatwave is a period of abnormally high temperatures, a common phenomenon in India during the months of May-June and in some rare cases even extends till July.

✓India Meteorological Department (IMD) classifies heat waves according to regions and their temperature ranges.As per IMD, the number of heatwave days in India has increased from 413 over 1981-1990 to 600 over 2011-2020.

✓This sharp rise in the number of heatwave days has resulted due to the increasing impact of climate change.

‼️What is the Criteria for Declaring a Heatwave?

✓The Heatwave is considered when the maximum temperature of a station reaches at least 40°C for Plains and at least 30°C for Hilly regions.

✓If the normal maximum temperature of a station is less than or equal to 40°C, then an increase of 5°C to 6°C from the normal temperature is considered to be heat wave condition.

✓Further, an increase of 7°C or more from the normal temperature is considered a severe heat wave condition.

✓If the normal maximum temperature of a station is more than 40°C, then an increase of 4°C to 5°C from the normal temperature is considered to be heat wave condition. Further, an increase of 6°C or more is considered a severe heat wave condition.

✓Additionally, if the actual maximum temperature remains 45°C or more irrespective of normal maximum temperature, a heat wave is declared.

✓In 2016, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) issued comprehensive guidelines to prepare national level key strategies for mitigating the impact of heatwaves.

❓What are the Impacts of Heat Waves In India?

-Economic Impacts: The frequent occurrence of heat waves also adversely affects different sectors of the economy.
For instance, the livelihood of poor and marginal farmers is negatively impacted due to the loss of working days.

✓Heatwaves also have an adverse impact on daily wage workers’ productivity, impacting the economy.

-Impact on Agriculture Sector: Crop yields suffer when temperatures exceed the ideal range.

✓Farmers in Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh have reported losses in their wheat crop in the past rabi season. Across India, wheat production could be down 6-7% due to heat waves.

-Livestock is also vulnerable to heatwaves.

✓Researchers at Cornell University estimate that, by 2100, milk yields in India could drop by 25% (against 2005 levels) in arid and semi-arid dairy farming due to increased heat stress.

-Impact on Electricity Usage: Naturally, heatwaves impact power load.

✓In the North India, the average daily peak demand in April was 13% higher than 2021 and 30% higher in May.

-Human Mortality: Mortality due to heat waves occurs because of rising temperature, lack of public awareness programmes, and inadequate long-term mitigation measures.

✓According to a 2019 report of the Tata Centre for Development and the University of Chicago, by 2100, annually, more than 1.5 million people will be likely to die due to extreme heat caused by climate change.

✓The increased heat will lead to an increase in diseases like diabetes, circulatory and respiratory conditions, as well as mental health challenges.

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Heatwaves in India[2/3]

-Food Insecurity: The concurrence of heat and drought events are causing crop production losses and tree mortality.

✓The risks to health and food production will be made more severe from the sudden food production losses exacerbated by heat-induced labour productivity losses.

✓These interacting impacts will increase food prices, reduce household incomes, and lead to malnutrition and climate-related deaths, especially in tropical regions.

-Impact on Workers: Workers in sectors like agriculture and construction will be severely impacted in 2030 because India’s large population depends on these sectors for their livelihoods.

-Weaker Sections to be Specifically Affected: The climate science community has reported overwhelming evidence that extreme events such as heatwaves are likely to become more intense, more frequent and of longer duration in future unless emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosols are significantly cut globally.

✓It is important to remember that heatwaves in India, such as the current event, have the potential to influence thousands of vulnerable and poor people who contributed very little to the climate crisis.

‼️What Long-Term Strategies does India need to Adopt to Mitigate the Impacts of Heat Waves?

-A Heat Waves Action Plan: The adverse impacts of heat waves indicate that effective disaster adaptation strategies and more robust disaster management policies are required in heatwave zones to lessen the impact of heatwaves.

✓As deaths due to heatwaves are preventable, the government must prioritise preparing a long-term action plan to safeguard human lives, livestock, and wildlife.

✓Effective implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-30 with the State playing a leading role and sharing responsibility with other stakeholders is now the need of the hour.

-Public Awareness and Early Warning Systems: Disseminating public awareness through print, electronic and social media, providing heat-proof shelter facilities in heatwave prone areas during summer, easing access to public drinking water, and afforestation programmes in urban and rural areas would help mitigate heat wave fatalities.

✓Death from heat waves can be prevented by installing improved early warning systems that communicate heatwave threats, recommend different preventative measures, and constrain disaster impacts.

-Implementing Climate Action Plans: National Action Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC) should be implemented in true spirit for inclusive growth and ecological sustainability.

✓Nature-based solutions should be taken into account, not just for tackling climate change but also doing it in a way that is ethical and promoting intergenerational justice.

-Recognition of Heat Waves as a Natural Disaster: Recognising heat waves as a major disaster is long due. India still has a long way to go in building public awareness, particularly on how individuals and local communities can take care of themselves.

✓Declaring heat waves as a natural disaster would help the state and district administration prepare a heatwave action plan at the regional level.

✓Also, there needs to be clear guidelines regarding when to shut schools or how long one should stay outdoors if that’s unavoidable.

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Heatwaves in India[3/3]

-Sustainable Cooling: Passive cooling technology, a widely-used strategy to create naturally ventilated buildings, can be a vital alternative to address the urban heat island for residential and commercial buildings.

✓The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in the third part of its AR6 stated that ancient Indian building designs that have used this technology, can be adapted to modern facilities in the context of global warming.

-Replacing Dark Roofs: A big reason that cities are hotter than rural areas is that they are covered by dark roofs, roads and parking lots that absorb and retain heat.

✓One of the long term solutions can be replacing the dark surfaces with lighter and more reflective materials, it will result in a comparatively cooler environment.

-Climate-Resilient Crops: A dynamic understanding of risks is needed to evaluate whether the crops we have relied on so far will also be the ones to provide food and nutrition security in future.

✓Provisions will have to be made for insurance against crop loss and mixed cropping should be promoted.

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Demographic Transition in India[1/2]

✓With a population of 1.4 billion, India accounts for about 17.5 per cent of the world’s population, 1 of every 6 people on the planet live in India.

✓According to the 2022 edition of the United Nations’ World Population Prospects (WPP), India is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country in 2023.

✓India is currently at a stage of demographic transition with a substantial percentage of the youth population.

✓The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has released ‘Youth in India 2022’ Report, which shows that the population share of the youth is starting to decline whereas the share of the elderly is expected to increase during 2021-2036.

✓The proportion of elderly population to the total population has increased from 6.8% in 1991 to 9.2% in 2016 and is projected to reach 14.9% in 2036.

✓On the contrary, youth in the age group of 15-29 years comprise 27.2% of the population for the year 2021 which is expected to decrease to 22.7 by 2036.

✓The large number of youths in the light of its impact on work participation and dependency ratios, has been called a window of opportunity in terms of growth and development of our country, an opportunity which would need to be seized before the window closes.

‼️What is India’s Demographic Dividend?

-About:

✓According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), demographic dividend means the economic growth potential that can result from shifts in a population’s age structure.

✓Mainly when the share of the working-age population (15 to 64) is larger than the non-working-age share of the population (14 and younger, and 65 and older).

-Median Age:

✓The median age in India is 28 years., compared to 38 in China and the US, 43 in Western Europe, and 48 in Japan.

-Diversity in India’s States:

✓While India is a young country, the status and pace of population ageing vary among States.
Southern States, which are advanced in demographic transition, already have a higher percentage of older people.

✓While Kerala’s population is already ageing, in Bihar the working age cohort is predicted to continue increasing till 2051.

✓The differences in age structure reflect differences in economic development and health of the states.

❓How can India take Advantage from the Demographic Dividend?

-Increase in Fiscal Space: Fiscal resources can be diverted from spending on children to investing in modern physical and human infrastructure that will increase economic sustainability of India.

-Rise in Workforce: With more than 65% of the working age population, India can rise as an economic superpower, supplying more than half of Asia’s potential workforce over the coming decades.

✓Increase in the Labour Force that enhances the productivity of the economy.

✓Rise in Women’s Workforce that naturally accompanies a decline in fertility, and which can be a new source of growth.

‼️What are the Challenges Associated with Demographic Dividend in India?

-Unfulfilled Educational Requirements: While over 95% of India’s children attend primary school, the National Family Health Surveys confirms that poor infrastructure in government schools, malnutrition, and scarcity of trained teachers have resulted in poor learning outcomes.

✓The gender inequality in education is a concern as in India, boys are more likely to be enrolled in secondary and tertiary school than girls.

✓However, in the Philippines, China and Thailand, it is the reverse and in Japan, South Korea, and Indonesia, the gender differences are rather minimal.

-Low Human Development Parameters: India ranked at 131st position by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Index 2020, which is alarming.

✓Therefore, health and education parameters need to be improved substantially to make the Indian workforce efficient and skilled.

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Demographic Transition in India[2/2]

-Jobless Growth: There is mounting concern that future growth could turn out to be jobless due to de-industrialization, de-globalization, and the industrial revolution 4.0.

✓As per the NSSO Periodic Labour Force Survey 2017-18, India’s labour force participation rate for the age-group 15-59 years is around 53%, that is, around half of the working age population is jobless.

✓The informal nature of the economy in India is another hurdle in reaping the benefits of demographic transition in India.

-Absence of Proper Policies:
Without proper policies, the increase in the working-age population may lead to rising unemployment, fuelling economic and social risks.

-Rise in the Share of Elderly Population: A greater proportion of youth at present will result in a greater proportion of elderly in the population in future.
This will create a demand for better healthcare facilities and development of welfare schemes/programmes for elderly people.

✓People, typically in informal employment, don’t have social security, it will add burden to the respective state.

❓What Should be Our Approach Forward?

-Upgrading Education Standards: Irrespective of rural or urban setting, the public school system must ensure that every child completes high school education, and is pushed into appropriate skilling, training and vocational education in line with market demand.

✓Modernising school curricula, deploying new technology to put in place virtual classrooms together with Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS) and investing in open digital universities would further help yield a higher educated workforce.

-Fulfilling Health Related Requirements: More finance for health as well as better health facilities from the available funding needs to be ensured and reproductive healthcare services need to be made accessible on a rights-based approach.

-Bridging Gender Gaps in Workforce: New skills and opportunities for women and girls befitting their participation in a 3 trillion dollar economy is urgently needed.

This can be done by:
•Legally compulsory gender budgeting to analyse gender disaggregated data and its impact on policies

•Increasing childcare benefits
Boosting tax incentives for part-time work

-Federal Approach for Diverse States: A new federal approach to governance reforms for demographic dividend will need to be put in place for policy coordination between States on various emerging population issues such as migration, ageing, skilling, female workforce participation and urbanisation.

✓Inter-ministerial coordination for strategic planning, investment, monitoring and course correction should be an important feature of
this governance arrangement.

✓The Health and Education Ministries can collaborate to disseminate key information to help adolescents safeguard their health and ability to learn.

-Inter-Sectoral Collaborations: Moving forward towards safeguarding the futures of adolescents, it is imperative to put in place mechanisms for better inter-sectoral collaboration.

✓For instance, School mid-day meals exemplify how improved nutrition benefits learning.
Studies have established strong links between nutrition and cognitive scores among teenagers.

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Social Media and Politics in India [1/2]

✓Human history from the Stone Age to Metal Age is now in the Digital age with the most promising tool-social media. It mirrors the real world.

✓Public opinion is the currency of democracy. Social media platforms are increasingly becoming the primary ground for public discourse and mobilisation of public opinion, a tool where people are able to talk about the issues of day to day life and also of national importance.

✓Social media today is no longer just an innocent space to connect with friends and family. Instead, it has metamorphosed into becoming an influential space for political activity and creating a new political dialogue.

❓How does Social Media Benefit Indian Politics?

-Bringing Awareness to the Masses: Historically, the people were never as aware as they are now about government policies.
Government outreach is increasing through the effective use of social media through different social media campaigns spreading awareness among the people.

✓As an example, social media was highly effective in promoting precautionary awareness and mobilising leads for medicines during the Covid pandemic.

-Bridging the Gap: Social Media has been instrumental in bringing people and their representatives close.

✓The communication barriers that did not allow people to interact with the leaders have reduced significantly because of social media.

✓Politicians are reaching out to their supporters on social media.
They are making sure to keep the public in the loop through their engagements and posts on social media.

✓It has increased the ability for ordinary citizens to take part in the political process.

✓Besides this, social media has been actively used for influencing diplomatic relations between India and its friendly countries.

-Reducing Barriers: These platforms present a cheap and low-barrier channel of people-politician communication, by potentially intensifying political democracy by allowing many to enter into political races.

-Improved Analytical System: As compared to traditional methods of public opinion measurement, social media allows time and cost effective data collection and analysis with less human effort.

✓Data analytics has evolved itself to become the brain of every election campaign. It helps the election campaign committee understand the voters better and align their policies to their needs.

‼️What are the Negative Impact of Politicisation of Social Media?

-Political Polarisation: One of the most common criticisms of social media is that it creates echo chambers where people only see viewpoints they agree with.

✓The campaigns sometimes spark religious and social tensions in different parts of the country.
Social media has enabled a style of populist politics, which on the negative side allows hate speech and extreme speech to thrive in digital spaces that are unregulated, particularly in regional languages.

-Propaganda Setting: According to Google Transparency Report, political parties mostly in the last two years have spent around 800 million dollars(Rs 5,900 crore) on election ads.

✓Micro-targeting can enable dishonest campaigns to spread toxic discourse without much consequence.

-Unequal Participation: Social media also distorts policymakers’ perception of public opinion.

✓This is because it is believed that social media platforms tend to represent every walk of life, but not everyone’s voice is heard equally.

-Political Tactics: The Political parties with the help of social media are able to get information regarding voters likes and dislikes and further manipulate them, especially the Swing Voters, whose views can be changed by manipulating information.

✓Social media gives people more voice and can sometimes be used, by anyone, to spread hoaxes and misinformation.

✓Social media has made people better informed but also easier to manipulate.

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Social Media and Politics in India[2/2]

❓What Should be the Approach Moving Forward?

-Law to Facilitate Transparency: A meaningful framework to combat disinformation at scale must be built on the understanding that it is a political problem.

✓Transparency and Regulations need to be brought to bring governance of speech within the ambit of the democratic process and to control the weaponization of social media.

✓It should also include safeguards for user privacy since platforms are a repository of the private information of citizens.

-Structural Reforms in Platforms: Blanket immunity for platforms as intermediaries no longer makes sense since platforms are far more interventionist with user content.

✓Therefore, platform accountability should be linked to their distribution model.

✓Furthermore, Platforms can make it possible for the users to make an informed choice regarding which feed to subscribe or opt-out of.

-Checks on Use of Personal data: Regulations should be maintained to ensure checks on use of personal data in the context of electoral campaigns complies with national laws.

-Maintaining a Level Playing Field: Democracy, in its true spirit, demands equal opportunities for all parties, and free & fair elections give all parties equal opportunities.

✓Strict norms for use of social media for political purposes is the need of the hour so that minority political campaigns are given equal attention.

✓The Election Commission of India and its Model Code of Conduct go to great lengths to make sure that one party doesn’t have an undue advantage over another just because it is in power.

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