Monday, January 14, 2019

comprehensive news analysis

Comprehensive News Analysis: 14th Jan, 2019.

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BYJUS IAS iasprep@byjus.com

CNA:
A. GS1 Related
SOCIAL ISSUES
1. Is ‘compromise’ the route that one stop centres should choose?
B. GS2 Related
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. At mini 2+2, India, U.S. review progress on pacts
2. India for Afghan-led peace talks
3. India to grow crops for UAE, Saudi Arabia
C. GS3 Related
ENVIRONMENT
1. Survey spots 3 new bird visitors
2. Train hits killed 49 elephants in 3 years
ECONOMY
1. Panel pulls up govt. for diverting coal cess
2. Govt. plans technology centres for MSMEs
D. GS4 Related
E. Editorials
GOVERNANCE
1. Basic income works and works well – On Universal Basic Income
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. A way out of the morass – On USA’s plan to pull out of Afghanistan

CNA:
A. GS1 Related
Nothing here today.
B. GS2 Related
POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
1.Farmers under KALIA scheme to get money by January 26
C. GS3 Related
ENVIRONEMENT
1.‘70% towns along Ganga let out garbage into the river’
HEALTH
1.Artificial Intelligence (AI)
D. GS4 Related
Nothing here today.
E. Editorials
1.Is there a renewed quota debate?” (10 per cent reservation in government jobs and educational institutions to “economically weaker” sections in the General category.)
2.The lowdown on HAL’s order book
13 Jan 2019: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A. GS1 Related
B. GS2 Related
POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
1.Farmers under KALIA scheme to get money by January 26
C. GS3 Related
ENVIRONEMENT
1.‘70% towns along Ganga let out garbage into the river’
HEALTH
1.Artificial Intelligence (AI)
D. GS4 Related
E. Editorials
1.Is there a renewed quota debate?” (10 per cent reservation in government jobs and educational institutions to “economically weaker” sections in the General category.)
2.The lowdown on HAL’s order book
F. Tidbits
1.‘Mental health apps have gaps in information’
2.Quota Bill gets President’s assent, becomes law
G. Prelims Facts
1. ‘Monkey fever’ cases hit 62 in Shivamogga
H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions
 
A. GS1 Related
Nothing here for today!!!
 
B. GS2 Related
 
Context
  • Beneficiaries who have enrolled under the Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme in the first phase will receive monetary assistance by January 26, Odisha’s Cooperation Minister S.N. Patro said on Saturday.
KALIA scheme
  • KALIA is progressive, inclusive and will make a direct attack on poverty by way of massive investment in the agriculture sector and making benefits reach the most needy through direct benefit transfer (DBT) mode.
  • KALIA scheme covers the cultivators, loanee, as well as non-loanee farmers, share croppers and landless agricultural labourers. It also specifically takes care of vulnerable agricultural families identified through gram panchayats and crop loans are made available at 0% interest.
  • All the small and marginal farmers of the State (92% cultivators) will be covered under the scheme. An amount of ₹10,000 per family at the rate of ₹5,000 for Kharif and Rabi shall be provided as financial assistance for taking up cultivation.
  • The farmers will have complete independence to take up interventions as per their needs. This component is not linked to extent of land owned and will greatly benefit share croppers and actual cultivators most of whom own very small extent of land.
  • Under this initiative, 10 lakh landless households will be supported with a unit cost of ₹12,500 to take up activities like small goat rearing units, mini layer units, duck units, fishery kits for fishermen and women, mushroom cultivation and bee keeping.
  • As regards financial assistance to vulnerable agriculture households and landless labourers, an annual financial assistance of ₹10,000 per household will be provided to take care of their sustenance. Deserving families will be identified and selected by gram panchayats. About 10 lakh households will be covered over two years.
  • Further, life insurance cover of ₹2 lakh and additional personal accident cover of ₹2 lakh will be provided to both cultivators and agricultural labourers covering about 57 lakh households.
 
C. GS3 Related
 
Context
  • Four-and-a-half years after the Centre launched its flagship Namami Gange programme to clean up the Ganga, a government- commissioned assessment has found that 66 towns and cities along the river still have nullahs or drains flowing directly into the Ganga. Almost 85% of these nullahs do not even have screens set up to stop garbage from entering the river.
  • Of the 92 towns surveyed, 72 still have old or legacy dump sites on the ghats. Only 19 towns have a municipal solid waste plant, according to an assessment done by the Quality Council of India (QCI).
Namami Gange Programme
  • Namami Gange programme was launched as a mission to achieve the target of cleaning river Ganga in an effective manner with the unceasing involvement of all stakeholders, especially five major Ganga basin States – Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal.
  • The programme envisages: River Surface Cleaning, Sewerage Treatment Infrastructure, River Front Development, Bio-Diversity, Afforestation and Public Awareness.
  • The program would be implemented by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), and its state counterpart organizations i.e., State Program Management Groups (SPMGs).
  • In order to improve implementation, a three-tier mechanism has been proposed for project monitoring comprising of a) High level task force chaired by Cabinet Secretary assisted by NMCG at national level, b) State level committee chaired by Chief Secretary assisted by SPMG at state level and c) District level committee chaired by the District Magistrate.
  • The program emphasizes on improved coordination mechanisms between various Ministries/Agencies of Central and State governments.
 
Context
  • A study in 2018 by the Centre for Internet & Society India claimed that artificial intelligence (AI) could help add $957 billion to the Indian economy by 2035.
A note on artificial intelligence
  • From the early days of human civilization efforts have been made to replace human hands with machines to make lives easier. Human beings then started looking beyond machines, developing robots and other advanced technologies that could just read the human mind and do the required work.
  • Intelligence is the ability to take variables from our senses and to process certain decisions using the brain. Artificial intelligence helps a machine in doing the same. Such a system has a receptor, sensors (to pick data from environment), a memory (that tells what to do depending on what signal it gets), and then it takes a decision that will communicate to another device.
  • The term Artificial Intelligence was first coined by American scientist John McCarthy in 1955. Over the years improvement in technology, algorithms, computing power and storage power has made the concept realistic.
  • This can be termed as the fourth Industrial Revolution. Each cycle of the Industrial Revolution changes the lives of the common man in unpredictable ways. This has already helped in improvements like in healthcare making surgeries of eye easier, predicting floods and droughts, etc.
  • The partnership between think tank in India NITI Aayog (National Institute for Transforming India) with Google to develop India’s artificial intelligence ecosystem will help to improve healthcare, education, agriculture, transportation, develop innovative governance systems and improve overall economic productivity. This will also help in promoting entrepreneurs associated with it, research in the field in premier institutions like IITs and providing crash course to students across India.
  • Development in such advanced technologies affects employment opportunities also as machines can do the work of many labours. Whether they can compete with a human brain is also a question.
  • India is already making progress in computing technologies with its Digital India campaign in the recent past. Now taking a step towards Artificial Intelligence brings with it various new applications. But the drawbacks of using them are also predicted and how it will design our future is to be seen.
 
D. GS4 Related
Nothing here for today!!!