Syllabus: GS-I, Subject: Society and Social Justice, Topic: Social Sector-Education, Issue: The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009

Context: Maharashtra exempted private schools from RTE quota admissions

The Right To Education (RTE) Act, 2009:

• mandates that private schools reserve 25% of Class 1 seats for children from weaker sections and disadvantaged groups in the neighborhood.
• Students under this quota are given fee concessions, with the state government meant to reimburse private schools.
• Maharashtra have exempted private schools within a 1 km radius of government or aided schools from the 25% admission requirement under RTE-2009.
• Karnataka (2018) and Kerala (2011) have earlier made similar exemption.

Reasons: 

• State governments have also often failed to reimburse the fees for students admitted through this quota. ( Mandated under 12(2) of RTE act)
• Allowing children in private school has resulted in drastic drop in enrollment in government school.
• The move has been criticized as it is closing down the window of quality education for disadvantaged section.

Syllabus: GS-III, Subject: Economy, Topic: Infrastructure, Issue: infrastructure project in Jammu and Kashmir

Context: Prime Minister  inaugurated the Banihal-Sangaldan section.

Benefits:

• Alternative travel option to the Valley when roads are not usable.
• Opens far-off areas of Jammu division for tourists.
• Reduces travel time between Srinagar and Jammu to 3-3.5 hours (currently 5-6 hours by road).
• Facilitates hassle-free transport of goods like apples, dry fruits, pashmina shawls, and handicrafts to other parts of the country.
• Expected significant reduction in the cost of transporting daily use items to the Valley from other parts of the country.

 Challenges;

• The Himalayas are young, geologically unstable nature.
• Construction projects faced difficulties due to heavy snowfall, difficult terrain, and seismic activity in Zones IV and V.

Innovation:

• Railways engineers developed the Himalayan Tunneling Method (HTM), using horseshoe-shaped tunnels instead of D-shaped ones,
• HTM involves constructing tunnels in a curved shape, providing structural strength in loose soil conditions, particularly in areas with steep inclines exceeding 70 degrees.
• This enhances the stability and durability of infrastructure in the region, ensuring safer transportation and connectivity.

Syllabus: GS-II, Subject: Governance, Topic: important aspects of governance, Issue: Multidimensional and localized index at district level

Context: Recently Maharashtra has created a District development index

Need for Multidimensional and localized index at district level:

• Large average population of districts (86 million people larger than UAE and Singapore population)
• Develop grass root insight by analyzing socio-economic indicators
• Highlight the significant disparities in the income concentration across districts,
• Help in establishing varied measures for different localities and regions, tailored to their culture, urbanization, development and demography.
• Brings Transparency and ensure accountability of stakeholders.
• Helps in tracking and supporting the contemporary socio-economic and infrastructure development at the district level

Existing initiative in this direction

• Bottom-up policies are founded on three key pillars — data collection, best governance practices and incentivized collaboration between different departments.
• Aspirational Districts Programme – As per NITI AAYOG transformed the lives of about 25 crore people in 112 districts with visible outcomes
• Schemes such as the One District One Product (ODOP) is increasing district level productivity.

District level data can be used to created district level industrial cluster. This will catalyze district-level productivity and value-creation.

+1 Advantage:

Syllabus: GS-III, Subject: Economy, Topic: Agriculture and allied sector, Issue: New Grain Storage Plan

Context: Prime Minister launched world’s largest grain storage plan in the cooperative sector.

• Aiming to set up storage infrastructure of 700 lakh metric tons over five years.(Almost double of existing storage capacity)
• Pilot project being carried out by primary agricultural credit societies.

Expected benefits:

• Cut down losses due to lack of adequate infrastructure.
• Enable farmers to sell their output at an opportune time in terms of prices.
• emphasis on co-operative societies.

+1 Advantage:

Source: Indian Express

Syllabus: GS- III, Subject: Environment and ecology and Disaster Management, Topic: Land degradation, Issue: Land Management Practices

Land management:

• Land is central to all human activities yet its multidimensional character is ignored in land management practices.
• This leads excessive stress, land degradation, and environmental draw down.

Challenge of land management in India

• High population density (2.4% of the world’s area 17% of the global population)
• Large degraded land (around 30 %) (Arable land-55%, forestland -22%).
• Access to agricultural land is an important livelihood issue.
• Pressure on land due to–
  • Land demand of growing population,
  • infrastructure,
  • rapid urbanization,
  • social, cultural, and environmental aspects
• Competition and conflicts over land use – increase in land prices and changing land rights.
• Challenges in adopting good land management practice –
  • Knowledge gaps,
  • a short-term planning bias,
  • a fragmented approach,
  • lack of action for unforeseen events, and regulatory barriers.

Suggestions:

• Establishment of multi-stakeholder platforms at district and sub-district levels (by using constitutional provision under Article 243ZD)
• A landscape approach:
  • to assess the potential of land
  • the scope of allocation
  • reallocation of land for appropriate uses.
• Follow global approach-
• European Landscape Convention– landscape is a key element of individual and social well-being
• K. Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology- highlighted the importance of sustainable land management in its brief.

+1 Advantage:

Source: The Hindu

Syllabus: GS-II, Subject: Polity, Topic: Elections and RPA, Issue: Free and fair elections

 Free and Fair Elections :

• A part of the basic structure of the constitution.
• Mechanism to hold free and fair elections–
  • Election Commission of India ,
  • Representation of The People Act (RPA), 1950 and 1951,
• Threat to free and fair election–
  • degeneration of institutions (visible in Chandigarh mayor election) and
  • communalism
• judiciary has intervened at times to ensure the sanctity of elections.

+1 Advantage for Mains:

Source: The Hindu

Syllabus: GS-III Subject: Current Affairs Topic: Defence related

Context: The Supreme Court hearing on plea filed by Indian Coast Guard officer Priyanka Tyagi.

• A Permanent Commission means a career in the Army till you retire.

Supreme Court Observations:

1. Ensure that women are granted permanent commission in Indian Coast Guard.
2. The government must come up with a policy which treats women fairly.
3. Women are no lesser beings.

Syllabus: GS-III Subject: Current Affairs Topic: Defence related, Issue: Defence Manufacturing

Context: Private sector facilities for the manufacture of ammunition and missiles opened in Uttar Pradesh.

Significance:

1. This is the first private sector endeavour in ammunitions manufacturing in India.
2. Need for self-reliance in missiles and ammunition.
3. Recent geo-political events emphasise the need for reliable supply of ammunition from internal sources.
4. Important for preparedness of a long-drawn conflict.

Syllabus: GS-III, Subject: Economy Topic: Trade and External Sector, Issue: Trade Diplomacy

Context: Hike in customs duties targeted at imports of Chinese components and inputs.

Trade diplomacy is the use of diplomatic strategies and negotiations to promote international trade and economic cooperation between nations.

+1 Advantage (for Mains)

• China’s share in the total Indian merchandise imports and exports (FY2023) stands at 14% and 3%, respectively.
• This import dependency has left India vulnerable to supply chain disruption.

Related Concepts:

• China +1 strategy is a business strategy aimed at diversifying supply chains and manufacturing operations to reduce over-reliance on China.
• Most Favoured Nation (MFN) rate: is the standard tariff that a member country of the WTO applies to imports from all other WTO members.
  • Unless there’s a specific trade agreement in place.

Source: Indian Express

Syllabus: GS-II Subject: International Relations Topic: International institutions, agencies and fora, Issue: NATO

Context:

• Hungary’s parliament approved Sweden’s NATO accession.
• Sweden abandoned its non-alignment policy after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
• It became the 32nd member of NATO.

Prelims Connect: (Institutions in news)

Source: Indian Express