DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS IAS | UPSC Prelims and Mains Exam – 10th September 2022

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Syllabus

• Prelims – History

In News: A statue of Subhas Chandra Bose was unveiled by Prime Minister at India Gate, inaugurated along with the Kartavya Path that was earlier known as Rajpath.

Subhas Chandra Bose’s early life

• Born to an upper-class Bengali family in 1897 in Cuttack, Subhas Chandra Bose was the ninth child of Janakinath and Prabhavati Bose.
• In 1909, S C Bose moved to Ravenshaw Collegiate School, where he completed his secondary education.
• While he continued his European education throughout his life, he became less drawn to Anglicized ways than his family.
• Influenced by the teachings of Ramakrishna and his disciple Swami Vivekananda, as well as the themes of Bengali novelist Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in his novel Ananda Math, Subhas found what he was looking for: “his Motherland’s freedom and revival”.
• After school, he entered the Presidency College in Calcutta in 1913, where he studied philosophy.
• His earliest battle with British authority occurred while he was a student, against Professor of History E F Oaten, who had once in class spoken about England’s civilizing mission in India.
• Afterwards, Bose went to Cambridge University to prepare for the Indian Civil Services (ICS) exam in 1920.
• But later, determined to join the struggle for India’s freedom, he abandoned the project and resigned from the ICS to join the Mahatma Gandhi-led national movement.

Bose’s Disagreements with Gandhi

• After reaching Bombay, now Mumbai, in 1921, he obtained an audience with Gandhi to get a better understanding of his plan of action.
• While Gandhiji was willing to wait a long time for Independence, Bose wanted immediate action, if not immediate results.
• Gandhiji was anti-materialistic and hostile to modern technology, Bose saw technology and mass production as essential to survival and dignity.
• Gandhiji wanted a decentralized society and disliked the modern state; Bose wanted a strong central government and saw the modern state as the only solution to India’s problems.
• And finally, Bose did not share Gandhi’s dedication to non-violence.
• Despite tensions between the two, Bose was well aware of the significance of a leader like Gandhi. Bose was the first to call him the “father of the nation” during an address from the Azad Hind Radio from Singapore in July 1944.

The rift within the Congress

• Bose devoted his life to the nationalist movement, gaining considerable political influence and becoming one of the most powerful leaders in the Congress party.
• In 1938, he was elected Congress president in the Haripura session, where he tried to push for swaraj as a “National Demand” and opposed the idea of an Indian federation under British rule.
• He stood for re-election in 1939 and defeated Dr Pattabhi Sitaramayya, the Gandhiji-backed candidate.
• 12 of the 15 members of the Working Committee resigned from their roles
• Bose tried to set up another working committee, but after being unable to do so, was forced to resign and was replaced by Prasad.
• Within a week, he created the “Forward Bloc” within the Congress Party, in order to bring the radical-left elements of the party together.

A dramatic escape

• Bose was arrested in 1940 before he could launch a campaign to remove the monument dedicated to the victims of the Black Hole of Calcutta, an incident when a number of European soldiers died while imprisoned in 1756.
• After going on a hunger strike, he was released from jail in December.
• He soon began his escape from India, travelling by road, rail, air and foot in various disguises to avoid British surveillance.
• He entered Soviet-controlled Kabul via the northwest of India and finally reached Nazi Germany, where he remained for two years.
• He was provided assistance to defeat the British, and Bose was allowed to start the Azad Hind Radio and was provided with a few thousand Indian prisoners of war captured by Germany.
• Bose soon turned his focus to South East Asia, specifically Singapore, a British stronghold that had been taken over by Japan

The INA and World War II

• The Indian National Army was formed in 1942, consisting of thousands of Indian prisoners of war captured by the Japanese, and supported by Japanese troops.
• After his arrival in Singapore, Bose, issued from there his famous call, ‘Delhi Chalo’, and announced the formation of the Azad Hind Government and the Indian National Army on 21st October 1943.
• The headquarters of the provisional government was moved to Rangoon in January 1944, and after fighting at the Arakan Front, the INA crossed the Indo-Burma border and marched towards Imphal and Kohima in March.
• The Chalo Delhi campaign ended at Imphal however, as the British and British Indian armies, were able to defeat the Japanese forces and the INA and push them out of Kohima as well.
• After the Japanese surrendered on August 16, Bose left South East Asia on a Japanese plane and headed toward China. The plane, however, crashed, leaving Bose badly burned and dead.

Source: Indian Express

Previous Year Question

Q.1) He wrote biographies of Mazzini, Garibaldi, Shivaji and Shrikrishna; stayed in America for some time; and was also elected to the Central Assembly. He was (2018)

1. Aurobindo Ghosh
2. Bipin Chandra Pal
3. Lala Lajpat Rai
4. Motilal Nehru

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Syllabus

• Prelims – History

In News: Vice President calls Dara Shikoh as torchbearer of social harmony.

• He also said that India had a glorious heritage of not only ‘tolerance’ for others’ views, but a unique culture of ‘engagement’ with all views – a culture of pluralism and syncretism.
• He further said that this spirit of mutual respect was exemplified by Indian kings too – from the time of the great Asoka to the crown prince Dara Shikoh.

About Dara Shikoh

• He (1615-59) was the eldest son of Shah Jahan.
• He is described as a “liberal Muslim” who tried to find commonalities between Hindu and Islamic traditions.
• He is known as a pioneer of the academic movement for interfaith understanding in India.
• He had a deep understanding and knowledge of major religions, particularly Islam and Hinduism.
• He was inclined towards philosophy and mysticism over military pursuits in comparison to Aurangzeb.
• In 1655, his father declared him the Crown Prince, but was defeated by Aurangzeb, his younger brother, in 1657 after Shah Jahan fell ill.
• He was assassinated by Aurangzeb, in a bitter struggle for the throne on 30^th August, 1659 when he was 44.

Works:

Connection between Hinduism and Islam:

• His most important works, Majma-ul-Bahrain (Mingling of Two Oceans) and Sirr-i-Akbar (Great Mystery), are devoted to the cause of establishing connections between Hinduism and Islam.

Promotion of Indian Culture:

• He acquired proficiency in Sanskrit and Persian, which enabled him to play a key role in popularising Indian culture and Hindu religious thought.
• He translated the Upanishads and other important sources of Hindu religion and spirituality from Sanskrit to Persian. Through these translations, he was responsible for taking the Hindu culture and spiritual traditions to Europe and the West.

Source: Pib.Gov

Previous Year Question

Q.1) Who among the following Mughal Emperors shifted emphasis from illustrated manuscripts to album and individual portrait?

1. Humayun
2. Akbar
3. Jahangir
4. Shah Jahan

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Syllabus

• Prelims – Current Affairs

In News:

• Government of India said that Indian Railways has successfully completed trials of the second generation Vande Bharat train that will come with enhanced passenger comfort and safety features.
• Regular production of these trains will begin from October.
• The Railways has set a target of rolling out 75 such trains by August 2023.

About Vande Bharat Trains

• In the Union Budget for 2022-2023, the Finance Minister has proposed the development and manufacture of 400 new Vande Bharat trains in the next three years.
• These trains, dubbed as Train 18 during the development phase, operate without a locomotive and are based on a propulsion system called distributed traction power technology, by which each car of the train set is powered.
• The new train, which touched a speed of 180 kmph during trials, will be primarily made at Integral Coach Factory, Chennai.
• The train can accelerate from 0-100 kmph in 52 seconds and reach a speed of 160 kmph in 130 seconds as compared to the earlier version, which can go from 0-100 kmph in 54.6 seconds and 160 kmph in 146 seconds.
• The weight of the train is also lesser by 38 tonne.
• The new Vande Bharat has made-in-India ‘photo-catalytic ultra violet air purification system’ that will filter and clean the air, deactivating 99.9% of viruses and bacteria.
• The train will have higher battery back up of three hours and a better flood level.
• It will also offer wifi-enabled content on demand.
• The trains will be pre-fitted with the Kavach (the indigenously-developed train collision avoidance system).

Source: The Hindu

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Syllabus

• Prelims – Current Affairs
• Mains – GS 3 (Economy)

Context: India, the world’s largest exporter of rice, has banned exports of broken rice.

Key details:

• It has banned the exports amid a 6 per cent reduction in paddy acreage in the ongoing Kharif season and increase in rice prices.
• It has also imposed a 20 per cent duty on exports of various grades of rice, except basmati.
• Area sown under paddy has dipped by 2.2 million hectares this Kharif over the last amid a shortfall of rain in major rice-producing states like West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh.
• India exports 20-22 million tonne rice annually, including 4 million tonne basmati rice.

Rice Growing Regions of India:

The rice growing areas in the country can be broadly grouped into five regions as given below:

North-Eastern Region:

• This region comprises of Assam and North eastern states.
• In Assam rice is grown in the Basin of Brahmaputra River.
• This region receives very heavy rainfall and rice is grown under rain fed condition.

Eastern Region:

• It region comprises of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Eastern Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.
• In this region rice is grown in the basins of Ganga and Mahanadi rivers and has the highest intensity of rice cultivation in the country.
• This region receives heavy rainfall and rice is grown mainly under rainfed conditions.

Northern Region:

• This region comprises of Haryana, Punjab, Western Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir.
• The region experiences low winter temperature and single crop of rice from May-July to September- December is grown.

Western Region:

• This region comprises of Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan.
• Rice is largely grown under rainfed condition during June-August to October – December.

Southern Region:

• This region comprises of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu.
• Rice is mainly grown in deltaic tracts of Godavari, Krishna, and Cauvery rivers and the non-deltaic rainfed area of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

Why India is so crucial for global rice supply?

• India’s rice exports touched a record 5 million tonnes in 2021, more than the combined shipments of the world’s next four biggest exporters of the grain: Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, and the United States.
• India, the world’s biggest rice consumer after China, has a market share of more than 40% of the global rice trade.
• High domestic stocks and low local prices allowed India to offer rice at deep discounts over the past two years, helping poorer nations, many in Asia and Africa, grapple with soaring wheat prices.
• India exports rice to more than 150 countries, and any reduction in its shipments would fuel food inflation.
• The grain is a staple for more than 3 billion people, and when India banned exports in 2007, global prices shot to new peaks.
• It would also allow rival suppliers Thailand and Vietnam to raise prices that are already more than 30% above Indian shipments.
• Other than serving Asian buyers like China, Nepal, Bangladesh and the Philippines, India supplies rice to countries such as Togo, Benin, Senegal, and Cameroon.

Source: The Hindu

Previous Year Question

Q.1) Which of the following factors/policies were affecting the price of rice in India in the recent past? (2020)

1. Minimum Support Price
2. Government’s trading
3. Government’s stockpiling
4. Consumer subsidies

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

1. 1, 2 and 4 only
2. 1, 3 and 4 only
3. 2 and 3 only
4. 1, 2, 3 and 4

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Syllabus

• Mains – GS 1 (Society – Urbanization); GS 3 (Disaster Management) ( as Case study)

Context: There was unprecedented flooding in India’s tech capital Bengaluru.

• Urban Flooding is an inundation of land in a constructed setting, particularly in densely populated areas.
• Previous such flooding incidents: Kochi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chennai.

Reasons

Natural:

• Higher rainfall: As per the IMD, monsoon has become frequent and unpredictable.
• Storm surges (for coastal cities):g., Cyclone Amphan in 2020 flooded the streets of Kolkata. Within eastern India, the storm killed 98 people and caused $13.8 billion (2020 USD).
• Groundwater levels: In Chennai, the replenished groundwater table across the city after rains becomes a challenge for several buildings with basements.

Anthropogenic:

• Encroachment on Drainage Channels: In Indian cities and towns, due to increased land prices and less availability of land in the city centre.
• New developments are coming up in low-lying areas, usually as encroachments over lakes, wetlands and riverbeds.
• A large number of wetlands that soaked up the rainwater has encroached. Bangalore had 262 lakes in the 1960s; now only 10 of them hold water.
• Climate Change: Exacerbated by changing climate, resulting in extreme events. The climate change has caused an increase in the frequency of short duration heavy rainfall leading to higher water run-off.
• Rapid and unplanned urbanization: In Bengaluru, stormwater drains were not directly connected to its water bodies. In some places, the runoff water was flowing into constructed deviation canals. CAG found that this increased the chances of flash floods.
• Destruction of mangroves: Mumbai lost about 40% of its mangroves between 1995 and 2005.
• Poor civic management of storm water drainage: CAG report (last year) pulled up Bengaluru municipality for this poor management.
• Lack of data: CAG also found that the Bengaluru municipality did not maintain proper records of the stormwater management funds allotted to it under the JNNURM.
• Lack of coordination: CAG report also noted the lack of coordination between the municipality and the Bangalore Development Authority on drainage-related matters.

Steps to mitigate urban flooding:

• Sponge Cities Mission: The idea of a sponge city is to make cities more permeable so as to hold and use the water which falls upon them.
• Implementation of Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) in a planned manner.
• Stormwater disposal system: The Brihanmumbai Storm Water Disposal System or BRIMSTOWAD, the project to overhaul Mumbai city’s old stormwater drainage system was started after the 2005 deluge.
• Water-sensitive urban design (WSUD in Australia): regards urban stormwater runoff, and waste water as a resource rather than a nuisance or liability.
• Bioswales or ‘Rain Garden’ (New York): are landscape features that collect polluted stormwater runoff, soak it into the ground, and filter out pollution.
• Rainwater harvesting:
  • People must invest heavily in rainwater harvesting.
  • Need to make sure that collection of the rainwater as much as possible, use that to recharge our aquifers and try to design our plots and apartments and gated communities as zero rainfall discharge areas.
• Design on a watershed basis:
  • Every lake is a micro or mini watershed. Authorities must understand that a watershed is a hydrological unit, understand how water flows and ensure that it is drained into channels and flows into the lake.
  • When the lake overflows, it connects to the next downstream lake, for which they will need sluice gates that they can operate.

For a city like Bengaluru, it takes a special kind of skill to mitigate floods. The city has an average elevation of 920 metres and cascades down into valleys and rivers on all sides. Unlike Chennai, Mumbai or Kolkata, this city is on a hill or a ridge line. It calls for great incompetence if the city can create floods.

Therefore, there is a need to include public open spaces within the urban fabric in the form of storm management infrastructure, which could help our cities transform into water-sensitive cities.

Source: The Hindu

Syllabus

• GS-1: Effects of globalization on Indian society;  Social empowerment
• GS-2: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context: In keeping with the spirit of the ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’, the country is taking steps to curb littered and unmanaged plastic waste pollution.

• Since July 1, 2022, India has banned the manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale, and use of single-use plastic (SUP) items with low utility and high littering potential.

Read Complete Details on Single-use plastics ban

Q.1) Consider the following pairs:

City and River

1. Hyderabad – Musi
2. Delhi – Yamuna
3. Bengaluru – Arkavathi
4. Kolkata – Hooghly

How many pairs given is/are correctly matched?

1. One pair only
2. Two pairs only
3. Three pairs only
4. All four pairs

Q.2) Consider the following statements regarding National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQSs):

1. NAAQSs standards for ambient air quality set by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
2. NAAQSs contain 10 pollutants.

Which of statements given above is/are correct?

1. 1 only
2. 2 only
3. Both 1 and 2
4. Neither 1 nor 2

Q.3) Consider the following statements about Dara Shikoh

1. He is known as a pioneer of the academic movement for interfaith understanding in India.
2. His important works include Majma-ul-Bahrain and Sirr-i-Akbar to the cause of establishing connections between Hinduism and Islam.

Choose the correct statements:

1. 1 only
2. 2 only
3. Both 1 and 2
4. Neither 1 nor 2

Comment the answers to the above questions in the comment section below!!

ANSWERS FOR ’10th September 2022 – Daily Practice MCQs’ will be updated along with tomorrow’s Daily Current Affairs.

Q.1) – a

Q.2) – c

Q.3) – c