UPSC Current Affairs Pointers brings you essential current affairs of the past week, every Monday, to aid you in your Prelims and Mains preparation of UPSC, State PCS, and other competitive examinations.
Event
— World AIDS Day has been observed annually since December 1, 1988.
— It aims to provide a global platform to create awareness about HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) /AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).
— The theme for this year is “Take the right path: My health, my right!”
Source: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
About HIV
— Once contracted, HIV has the potential to attack the body’s immune cells called CD4, which help the body to respond to infection. Once HIV attacks the CD4 cells, it starts replicating itself and destroys, weakening the body’s immune system making it more prone to certain “opportunistic infections” that take advantage of the weak immune system.
— Some of the opportunistic infections associated with AIDS include cryptococcal meningitis, toxoplasmosis, oesophageal candidiasis and certain cancers.
— Certain bodily fluids such as blood, semen, vaginal fluids, rectal fluids and breastmilk can be carriers for HIV. It can be transmitted through unprotected sex, transfusion of contaminated blood, sharing needles and syringes and from a mother with HIV to her infant during pregnancy.
— As of now, there is no cure for HIV and it can be treated by the administration of antiretroviral (ART) drugs that stop the virus from replicating itself.
— December 3 is annually observed as the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) by the United Nations since 1992.
— The theme for this year is “Amplifying the leadership of persons with disabilities for an inclusive and sustainable future.”
— In India, the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 was enacted to give effect to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Important Day
— The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has adopted the resolution to declare December 21, observed as Winter Solstice, as World Meditation Day.
— In 2014, India took the lead in declaring June 21 as the International Day of Yoga.
Polity
— Over 60,000 ineligible persons, including income taxpayers, in Kerala have been pocketing central government’s flagship Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kishan).
— The Government of India launched the PM-Kisan Yojana in 2018. Under this scheme, farmers receive Rs 6000 yearly in three instalments of Rs 2000 each every four months.
— It is a Central Sector scheme with 100% funding from the Government of India and the fund is transferred to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.
— A Farmer ID, also known as Kisan Pehchaan Patra, is an Aadhaar-based unique digital identity linked dynamically to a state’s land records bearing information such as demographics, crops sown and ownership details.
— It will form the core of the Farmers’ Registry, one of the three registries under the AgriStack component of the Centre’s Digital Agriculture Mission for the creation of digital public infrastructure in the farm sector, which got the Union Cabinet’s approval earlier this year.
— The Government aims to create digital identities for 11 crore farmers in three phases by 2026-27 — 6 crore of them this fiscal itself.
— Gujarat is set to become the first state to avail of the Centre’s incentives for creating a Farmers’ Registry.
— According to the study, Oxford University’s Saïd Business School in collaboration with the Gates Foundation, reveals how digital governance under the highest level of political leadership can help nations overcome traditional bottlenecks in infrastructure development.
— PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation) was launched in 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It combines leadership with video conferencing, drone feeds, and data management to enable oversight of critical infrastructure.
— The platform’s impact has helped complete long-delayed projects like segments of National Highway 8 in Maharashtra, the Chenab Bridge in Jammu and Kashmir, which is now the world’s highest rail bridge, and the Bogibeel Bridge in Assam, which had languished for more than a decade before being completed within three years of coming under review in PRAGATI.
— PARIVESH (Proactive and responsive facilitation by interactive, virtuous and environmental single window hub) is an application to seek clearances related to environment, wildlife and forest from central, state and district authorities.
Environment
— Ratapani Tiger Reserve of Madhya Pradesh has been notified as the 57th Tiger Reserve of the country.
— It has a core area of 763.8 sq km, buffer area of 507.6 sq km and total area of 1271.4 sq km. Now, there are Eight tiger reserves in Madhya Pradesh.
— A tiger reserve in India is a designated area established under the Project Tiger initiative of 1973 to ensure the conservation of tigers and their habitats. These reserves are part of the government’s efforts to protect the tiger population, maintain biodiversity, and restore ecological balance.
— Currently, there are 57 tiger reserves in India, spread across around 82,000 sq kilometres and accounting for over 2.3 per cent of India’s geographical area, as per the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
Science and Technology
— The government has announced the soft launch of Nafithromycin, India’s first indigenously developed antibiotic designed to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
— Nafithromycin is designed for the treatment of Community-Acquired Bacterial Pneumonia (CABP), a serious illness caused by drug-resistant bacteria that affects vulnerable populations.
— It has been developed with support from the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), which is a unit of the Department of Biotechnology.
— Nafithromycin is marketed as “Miqnaf” by the pharmaceutical company Wolkardt. It is 10 times more potent than Azithromycin, a safer, faster, and more tolerable solution for patients.
Economy
— The government on December 2 withdrew the windfall gains tax on domestic production of crude oil and export of diesel, petrol, and aviation turbine fuel (ATF). It was first introduced on July 1, 2022.
— “Windfall gains tax” was a term used to describe cesses under the ambit of central excise imposed on fuel exports and domestic crude oil production, to tax super-normal profits of fuel exporters and oil producers.
— In case of domestic crude oil and ATF exports, the windfall gains tax was in the form of Special Additional Excise Duty (SAED), while on diesel and petrol, it was a combination of SAED and Additional Excise Duty (AED), the latter also known as Road and Infrastructure Cess (RIC).
Uttar Pradesh was the biggest producer of potato in the country in 2021-22. It was followed by West Bengal.
— Odisha food supplies and consumer welfare minister KC Patra accused the West Bengal government of creating an artificial scarcity of potatoes to “tarnish the reputation” of the state’s BJP government.
— India is the second largest producer of potato in the world, after China.
— In India, potatoes are grown during the rabi (winter-spring) season, mainly in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Assam, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.
— A small quantity of potato is also grown during the kharif (monsoon) season in Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.
— With a production of 161 lakh tonnes, Uttar Pradesh was the biggest producer of potato in the country in 2021-22. It was followed by West Bengal, which recorded a production of 124 lakh metric tonnes.
— Potato is a temperate climate crop, requiring low temperatures from 15°C to 25°C, and Odisha’s agro-climatic conditions are not conducive for potato cultivation.
Shaktikanta Das addresses a press conference at the RBI headquarters in Mumbai on Friday. (PTI)
— The MPC of RBI has announced the bi-monthly monetary policy for FY25. They have kept the repo rate unchanged at 6.5 percent, maintaining their neutral stance. However, the RBI slashed the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 50 basis points (bps) to 4 per cent from 4.5 per cent in a bid to boost liquidity in the financial system.
— Under Section 45ZB of the amended RBI Act, 1934, the central government is empowered to constitute a six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to determine the policy interest rate required to achieve the inflation target. The first such MPC was constituted on September 29, 2016.
— The MPC shall consist of the RBI Governor as its ex officio chairperson, the Deputy Governor in charge of monetary policy, an officer of the Bank to be nominated by the Central Board and three persons to be appointed by the central government.
— The CRR is the percentage of a bank’s total deposits that is required to maintain liquid cash with the RBI as a reserve.
— The interest rate that the RBI charges when commercial banks borrow money from it is called the repo rate. It is used by the banks to meet their short-term funding needs.
International
— India has contributed nearly $2 billion to the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB), and 20 externally aided projects, with loans amounting to $4,867 million. It came as a response in the Lok Sabha session.
— NDB was established in 2015 by BRICS with an initial subscription of five hundred thousand shares totalling USD 50 billion from the founding members (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). The headquarter is located in Shanghai.
— Belgium has become first of its kind in the world to recognise sex workers’ rights, offering them the same benefits as other workers, including maternity leave, pensions, health insurance, and sick leave.
— This landmark legislation, introduced after sex work was decriminalised in 2022, ensures sex workers have the same protections as other professions.
— On December 2, the ICJ began hearings in a case that seeks its advisory opinion on the obligations of countries on climate change under existing international laws, and the legal consequences of those obligations.
— The ICJ is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN). It was established in June 1945 by the Charter of the United Nations and began work in April 1946.
— The court is the successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ), which was brought into being through, and by, the League of Nations.
— The ICJ is based at the Peace Palace in The Hague. It is the only one of the six principal organs of the UN that is not located in New York City.
— All members of the UN are automatically parties to the ICJ statute, but this does not automatically give the ICJ jurisdiction over disputes involving them. The ICJ gets jurisdiction only if both parties consent to it.
— The judgment of the ICJ is final and technically binding on the parties to a case. However, the ICJ has no way to ensure compliance of its orders, and its authority is derived from the willingness of countries to abide by them.
— The ICJ has 15 judges who are elected to nine-year terms by the UN General Assembly and Security Council, which vote simultaneously but separately.
Persons in News
(Just FYI: Noting historical personalities’ anniversaries aids UPSC prep. UPSC often includes such personalities in questions, so revisiting their lives refreshes your static syllabus.)
— Captain Avhilash Rawat has received the 2024 International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea for the “extraordinary courage” shown in a Red Sea rescue mission earlier this year.
Moinuddin was born in 1141 CE in Sistan, a province in Persia (Iran) which borders present-day Afghanistan. He is said to have been a descendent of Prophet Muhmmad. (Wikimedia Commons)
— On November 27, the Ajmer Court admitted a petition requesting a survey of the Ajmer Sharif Dargah, the shrine of the revered Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti (also spelt ‘Muinuddin’, ‘Muiniiddin’, or ‘Mu’in al-din’).
— Moinuddin was born in 1141 CE in Sistan, a province in Persia (Iran) which borders present-day Afghanistan.
— While on the path of self-discovery and spirituality, Moinuddin met Khwaja Usman Harooni, a Sufi master of the Chishti order, in whom he found a mentor and spiritual teacher, and was initiated into the Chishti silsila (chain of spiritual descent).
— Moinuddin accepted Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki as his first follower, with whom he journeyed to Multan, where he studied Sanskrit and talked to Hindu scholars. He then went to Lahore, then to Delhi, and finally reached Ajmer in 1191.
— He met his wife, Bibi Ummatullah, in Ajmer, and decided to stay in the city. Moinuddin died in 1236. A pucca mausoleum for the pir was first constructed in the 1460s.
— The current white marble dome of the Ajmer Dargah was built in 1532, during the reign of the Mughal emperor Humayun, according to an inscription on the northern wall of the building.
— Other leaders of the Chishti order of Sufism: Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, and Nasiruddin Mahmud Chiragh Dehlavi.
Places in News
(Just FYI: The location of the place is important, considering that UPSC has asked several questions about places that were in the news, such as Aleppo and Kirkuk, in the 2018 UPSC Prelims. Plotting them on a world map is the best way to remember them.)
Location of Aleppo
— The Syrian military said that rebels had entered large parts of Aleppo city during an offensive in which dozens of soldiers had been killed, forcing the army to redeploy. This marked a major movement in the Syrian civil war that began in 2011.
— Syrian rebel forces are also trying to get control of Hama, a city south of Aleppo.
— The Syrian civil war began around the “Arab Spring” of 2010, dubbed so as many countries in the Middle East and North Africa saw uprisings against authoritarian governments that had been in power for decades. In some nations, such as Tunisia and Egypt, ruling governments were forced out. In most others, governments and militaries crushed the movements.
— Places in Syria that were in the news: Aleppo, Hama, Idlib, Latakia, Damascus, Saraqib, and Bab al-Hawa.
— A court in Ajmer last Wednesday admitted a petition requesting a survey of the Ajmer Sharif Dargah, the shrine of the revered Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti.
— Ajmer, then referred to as Ajaymeru, was once the capital of the Chauhans, a Rajput clan that ruled parts of present-day Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh from the seventh to the 12th centuries CE. Ajaydeva is credited with constructing the city in the mid-12th century.
— The Afghan invader Muhammad of Ghor sacked the town after he defeated Prithviraj III (popularly known as Prithviraj Chauhan) in the Second Battle of Tarain in 1192.
— The Nazca Lines were discovered by chance in the mid-1920s. It took almost a century to discover some 430 of these geoglyphs. And then, in a span of under six months, artificial intelligence (AI) fuelled a spurt of 303 fresh discoveries.
— Geoglyphs are motifs created on the ground by manipulating surface stones, soil, or gravel. The ones in Nazca — the oldest among which are more than 2,000 years old — were built by removing rocks and earth to create “negative” images.
— The Nazca Lines of Peru is a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its depictions of larger-than-life animals, plants, and imaginary beings.
The site at Kumhrar, before being covered up in 2004–05, displayed stumps and pits where 80 sandstone pillars once stood, supporting the Buddhist assembly hall. (Special arrangement)
— The ASI has decided to uncover the Mauryan pillars at the archaeological site of Kumhrar, a little over five km from the Patna railway station.
— The ASI had excavated the 80-pillar assembly hall in two phases. The first excavation, in 1912-15, was done by American archeologist David Brainard Spooner, who found one pillar, a number of stone fragments and 80 pits, which, he concluded, were spots where the other pillars stood. The second excavation, in 1961-55, was by the K P Jayaswal Research Institute in Patna, found four more pillars.
— Historians believe that it was here, in this open-air hall, with its 80 pillars standing on a wooden floor and holding up a wooden ceiling, that Emperor Ashoka, who ruled between 268 and 280 BCE, called a decisive meeting of the third Buddhist Council to unify the faction-ridden Buddhist sangha.
Sukhbir Singh Badal and former Rajya Sabha MP Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa were made to stand guard. (Express photo)
— The former Punjab deputy Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader were found to be ‘tankhaiya’ or guilty of religious misconduct by Akal Takht. As punishment, he was directed to perform the duties of a ‘sewadar’, sitting outside the Golden Temple. On December 4, an assassination attempt was made on him while he was on guard duty at the Golden temple.
— The Akal Takht, which faces the Harmandir Sahib in the Golden Temple complex, was established by the sixth Sikh master Guru Hargobind in 1606 following the execution of his father, Guru Arjan Dev, by the Mughals.
— Guru Hargobind used this platform for governance, and is believed to have issued the first directive (Hukamnama) from here, urging Sikh congregations to contribute horses and weapons to the Panth.
— The Jathedar (head) of the Akal Takht, following the enactment of the Sikh Gurdwaras Act in 1925, is appointed by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), a body formed in 1920 to manage Sikh shrines and free them from British-supported mahants.
— The SGPC is currently the apex governing body of all Sikh gurdwaras in the states of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, and the Union Territory of Chandigarh.
— Any person who identifies as a Sikh can be summoned to the Akal Takht, tried, and sentenced.
— An Ajmer court admitting a petition to survey the revered Dargah Sharif has renewed similar demands for the historic Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra which is an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)-protected monument.
— The mosque was commissioned by Qutbuddin Aibak, a slave-turned-general in the Ghurid army, who established the Mamluk Dynasty to kickstart the Delhi Sultanate in 1206.
— It was commissioned by Qutabuddin after the Muhammad of Ghor defeated Prithviraj III (popularly known as Prithviraj Chauhan) in the Second Battle of Tarain.
— The central mihrab in the mosque contains an inscription indicating its completion in 1199, with the roof of a second dome from the north giving a date of 1200. This makes it the oldest surviving monument in Ajmer, and the second oldest completed mosque in North India after the Quwwat ul Islam mosque in Delhi.
Awards
Jasleen Kaur at the award ceremony in London. (David Parry/PA Media Assignments)
— Indian-origin Scottish artist Jasleen Kaur has won the prestigious Turner Prize 2024 for her exhibition, “Alter Altar”, that reflects on plurality, personal and political themes.
— The prize is named after English painter JMW Turner (1775-1851), known for his paintings of sceneries, the ocean and dramatic depictions of light. Many of his works show red and yellow hues of sunsets in great detail.
— The Turner Prize was first awarded in 1984, founded by a group called the Patrons of New Art. It sought to “encourage wider interest in contemporary art and assist Tate in acquiring new works.”
— Malcolm Morley, the prize’s first recipient, however, criticised it for turning artists against each other like a “blood sport”.
— Today, £25,000 is awarded to the winner and £10,000 to the other shortlisted artists.
— The prize is awarded to a British artist working globally or an immigrant working in Britain. Before Kaur, the only other Indian-origin artist to have won the prize was sculptor Anish Kapoor in 1991.
— The Tripura government has bagged seven National Panchayat Awards. The awards will be given out at the National Panchayat Award Ceremony slated to be held on December 11 in New Delhi.
— The Amarpur RD block in Tripura’s Gomati district has been ranked the best district panchayat and the best block panchayat under the Nanaji Deshmukh Sarvottam Panchayat Satat Vikas Puraskar.
— Gomati district will get Rs 5 crore and Amarpur RD block another Rs 1.75 crore as prize money for winning the award.
Terms making buzz
— Lake-effect snow: It happens when warm, moist air rising from a body of water mixes with cold dry air overhead. Recently, parts of Michigan were battered by lake-effect snow.
— Hornbill Festival: The Hornbill Festival is taking place in Nagaland from December 1 to December 10, 2024. The festival is organised by the Nagaland government.
— Rock bolt technology: This is an Australian technique that involves removing loose landslide debris by soil nailing in soil and rock bolting in bedrock. It is successfully treating active landslide zones in the hilly areas of Uttarakhand.
Test Your Knowledge
(Note: The best way to remember facts for UPSC and other competitive exams is to recall them through MCQs. Try to solve the following questions on your own.)
A. Consider the following pairs :
| Towns sometimes mentioned in news | Country | |
| 1. | Aleppo | Syria |
| 2. | Kirkuk | Yemen |
| 3. | Mosul | Palestine |
| 4. | Mazar-i-sharif | Afghanistan |
Which of the pairs given above are correctly matched?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 1 and 4 only
(c) 2 and 3 only
(d) 3 and 4 only
B. PRAGATI app is related to which of the following:
(a) overseeing infrastructure project
(b) database of undertrial prisoners
(c) interstate GST collection platform
(d) women safety
C. Consider the following statements about the International Cout of Justice (ICJ):
1. The ICJ is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN) which was established in June 1955.
2. It is the only principal organ of the UN that is not located in New York City.
Which of the following statements is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
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