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📰 NEWS (04-01-2022): ■ SC notice to Centre on ILP system. • The Supreme Court on Monday sought responses from the Centre and the Manipur government on a plea challenging the system of Inner Line Permit (ILP) in the state. • Manipur is the fourth state after Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram where the ILP regime is applicable. • To visit ILP-regime states, outsiders, including people from other states of the country, need permission. • The plea contended that the ILP provides unrestrained power to the state to restrict entry and exit of non-indigenous people or those who are not permanent residents of Manipur. • It further argued that ILP hampers tourism within the state, which is a major source of revenue generation for those areas. ■ India seeks emergency meeting of WTO's General Council in Geneva over COVID package. • India has sought an emergency meeting of the General Council of the World Trade Organization (WTO) this month in Geneva over COVID Packages.  • India also expressed disappointment over no progress on TRIPs (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) waiver proposal to deal with the pandemic and has called for including this proposal into WTO's proposed response package, the official added. • WTO is a 164-member multilateral body which formulate rules for global exports and imports and adjudicates disputes between two or more than two countries on trade-related issues. • The General Council is WTO's highest decision-making body in Geneva that meets regularly to carry out the functions of WTO. • TRIPs is a multilateral agreement on intellectual property (IP) rights such as copyright, industrial designs, patents and protection of undisclosed information or trade secrets that came into effect in January 1995. ■ RBI approves small, offline e-payments. • The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has come out with the framework for facilitating small-value digital payments in offline mode, a move that would promote digital payments in semi-urban and rural areas. • An offline digital payment does not require Internet or telecom connectivity. • Under this new framework, such payments can be carried out face-to-face (proximity mode) using any channel or instrument like cards, wallets and mobile devices,” the RBI said. • “Such transactions would not require an Additional Factor of Authentication (AFA). Since the transactions are offline, alerts (by way of SMS and / or e-mail) will be received by the customer after a time lag,” it added. • There is a limit of ₹200 per transaction and an overall limit of ₹2,000 for all transactions until the balance in the account is replenished. Balance replenishment can only occur in an online mode. ■ Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty (NPT): • The NPT is a landmark international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament. • A total of 191 States have joined the Treaty, including the five nuclear-weapon States. • The five nuclear weapon states are China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. • The treaty was opened for signature in 1968 and entered into force in 1970. • The NPT only recognises a country as a nuclear power if tests were conducted before 1967. India isn’t ready to sign the treaty as a non-nuclear weapons state. • Because Non-nuclear states aren’t allowed to have nuclear weapons, nuclear-weapon states have no obligation to give them up.

■ Crude oil : • Crude oil is a mixture of comparatively volatile liquid hydrocarbons (compounds composed mainly of Hydrogen & Carbon), though it also contains some nitrogen, sulfur, and oxygen. •  It is often called as "Black gold". • Crude oil is refined to produce usable products such as gasoline, diesel and various forms of petrochemicals. • Almost all crude oil ranges from 82 to 87 percent carbon by weight and 12 to 15 percent hydrogen by weight. • Crude oils are customarily characterized by the type of hydrocarbon compound that is most prevalent in them : Paraffins, Naphthenes, and Aromatics. • Paraffins are the most common hydrocarbons in crude oil. • Crude oil is a mixture of such widely varying constituents and proportions, its physical properties also vary widely. • In appearance, for instance, it ranges from colourless to black. • Possibly the most important physical property is specific gravity (i.e., the ratio of the weight of equal volumes of a crude oil and pure water at standard conditions). • In laboratory measurement of specific gravity, it is customary to assign pure water a measurement of 1; substances lighter than water, such as crude oil, would receive measurements less than 1. • The petroleum industry, however, uses the American Petroleum Institute (API) gravity scale, in which pure water has been arbitrarily assigned an API gravity of 10°. Liquids lighter than water, such as oil, have API gravities numerically greater than 10. • On the basis of their API gravity, crude oils can be classified as heavy, medium, and light as follows : 1) Heavy: 10–20° API gravity. 2) Medium: 20–25° API gravity. 3) Light: above 25° API gravity. • Crude oil also is categorized as “sweet” or “sour” depending on the level of sulfur, which occurs either as elemental sulfur or in compounds such as hydrogen sulfide. • Sweet crudes have sulfur contents of 0.5 percent or less by weight. • Sour crudes have sulfur contents of 1 percent or more by weight. • Generally, the heavier the crude oil, the greater its sulfur content. • Excess sulfur is removed from crude oil during refining, because sulfur oxides released into the atmosphere during combustion of oil are a major pollutant.

📰 News: GST Council decides to defer rate hike on textiles from 5% to 12%. • The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, in its 46th meeting, on Friday decided to defer the proposed hike in tax rate for the textiles sector to 12 per cent from 5 per cent, which was to be implemented from January 1. • In November, the Finance Ministry notified a uniform 12 per cent rate for manmade fibre, yarn, fabrics and apparels. The rate hike was notified to be made effective from January 1. □ About GST Council : • It is a constitutional body under Article 279A. • It makes recommendations to the Union and State Government on issues related to Goods and Service Tax. • GST was introduced by the 101st Constitutional Amendment Act, 2016. • The GST Council is chaired by the Union Finance Minister and other members are the Union State Minister of Revenue or Finance and Ministers in-charge of Finance or Taxation of all the States. • It is considered as a federal body where both the centre and the states get due representation. • Article 279A (1) of the amended Indian Constitution states that the GST Council has to be constituted by the President within 60 days of the commencement of the Article 279A. • Article 279A (4) specifies that the Council will make recommendations to the Union and the States on the important issues related to GST, such as, the goods and services will be subject or exempted from the Goods and Services Tax. • Every decision of the Goods and Services Tax Council shall be taken at a meeting by a majority of not less than three-fourths of the weighted votes of the members present and voting. • The vote of the Central Government shall have a weightage of one third of the total votes cast. • The votes of all the State Governments taken together shall have a weightage of two-thirds of the total votes cast, in that meeting.

📰 News: India welcomes Egypt as member of New Development Bank of BRICS. • India welcomed Egypt's entry as the fourth new member of the New Development Bank (NDB) that was established by the BRICS countries six years ago. • The NDB admitted Bangladesh, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Uruguay as its new members in September 2021. • The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China  South Africa) set up the bank with an aim to mobilise resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in emerging economies. • The BRICS brings together five of the largest developing countries of the world, representing 41% of the global population, 24% of the global GDP and 16% of the global trade. • Projects in areas such as transport, water and sanitation, clean energy, digital infrastructure, social infrastructure and urban development are within the scope of the bank. □ About BRICS : • BRICS is an acronym for 5 emerging economies of the world – Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa. The term BRIC was coined by Jim O’ Neil, the then chairman of Goldman Sachs in 2001. • The first BRIC summit took place in the year 2009 in Yekaterinburg (Russia). • Initially, it was known as BRIC but later on, South Africa joined this group in the year 2010 and making it BRICS. • BRICS does not exist in form of organization, but it is an annual summit between the supreme leaders of five nations. • The BRICS Leaders’ Summit is convened annually. • The chair of BRICS 2021 is India. India hosted the 13th BRICS summit in 2021. • The theme for 13th BRICS summit 2021 this year is ‘BRICS @ 15: Intra-BRICS Cooperation for Continuity, Consolidation and Consensus’. • The main objectives of the grouping is broadening, deepening, and intensifying cooperation among the member countries for mutually beneficial, sustainable and equitable development, providing financial assistance to member nations, development of the member nations, cooperate with the member nations for trade and development, support projects and infrastructure of the member nation. • It also provides financial assistance to countries other than its members. • The Chairmanship of the forum is rotated annually among the members, in accordance with the acronym B-R-I-C-S. • NEW Development Bank (NDB) is established by the member nations to support projects through loans, guarantees, and other financial instruments. Its headquarters is in Shanghai, China.

■ Good Governance Index 2021: • Good Governance Index 2021 was prepared by the Department of Administration Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) and it was released on Good Governance Day, December 25. • The objectives of GGI are to provide quantifiable data to compare the state of governance in all states and UTs, enable them to formulate and implement suitable strategies for improving governance and shift to result-oriented approaches and administration. • Good Governance Index, GGI 2021 Framework covered ten sectors and 58 indicators. • Gujarat tops the composite ranking in the 58 indicator index followed by Maharashtra and Goa. • Delhi tops the Union Territories category composite ranking. • The 10 sectors of GGI 2020-21 are 1) Agriculture and Allied Sectors, 2) Commerce & Industries, 3) Human Resource Development, 4) Public Health, 5.) Public Infrastructure & Utilities, 6) Economic Governance, 7) Social Welfare & Development, 8) Judicial & Public Security, 9) Environment, and 10) Citizen-Centric Governance. • The GGI 2020-21 categorises States and UTs into four categories, (i) Other States – Group A; (ii) Other States – Group B; (iii) North-East and Hill States; and (iv) Union Territories. • The GGI 2021 says that 20 States have improved their composite GGI scores over the GGI 2019 index scores.

■ Bottom trawling: • Bottom trawling - Bottom trawling is an industrial fishing method where a large net with heavy weights is dragged across the seafloor. • When the weighted nets and trawl doors are dragged along the seafloor, everything in their path is disturbed or destroyed, including seagrasses, coral reefs or rock gardens where fish hide from predators. It damages the marine ecosystem.

📰 News: Two more vaccines and a drug join India’s fight against COVID-19. • India has approved two more vaccines under emergency use authorisation and an antiviral drug, Molnupiravir. • Currently, India uses Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik V in its vaccination programme. • Corbevax to be made by Hyderabad-based Biological-E is a protein sub-unit vaccine and Covovax, to be manufactured by Serum Institute of India, Pune, is a nanoparticle-based vaccine. • Corbevax is co-developed by Biological E, Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, United States, and American company Dynavax Technologies. • Covovax is produced by the Serum Institute of India under licence from Novavax, a U.S.-based biotechnology company.  • Covovax has been approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) under its Emergency Use Listing and, therefore, will also be available globally as part of the COVAX initiative to ensure that at least 40% of world is vaccinated on priority. • Molnupiravir, that was approved this month by the U.S. Food and Drugs Administration (U.S. FDA), on the heels of Paxlovid by Pfizer Inc, is said to be a promising drug for those with mild and moderate disease and also easily administered as a pill. 13 companies in India are set to manufacture this drug. It has been approved under emergency use authorisation for treating adults with COVID-19 “who have high risk of progression to disease”.

📰 News: Extend "Garima Greh scheme" to entire LGBTQIA+ community: HC. • The Madras High Court has disapproved of the practice of Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment restricting the benefit of ‘Garima Greh’ scheme only to transgenders. • The benefit under the scheme has to be extended to the entire LGBTQIA+ community. The Ministry shall take this into consideration and enlarge the scope of the scheme. • The Ministry reported it had a mandate to deal with transgender persons alone for whom it had introduced ‘Garima Greh’ scheme. • Under the scheme, the transgender persons get a secure living space and care. The Centre had provided 100% financial assistance for setting up such shelters in 12 States including Tamil Nadu. Basic requirements such as food, counselling, medical services and skill development training would be provided in those shelters. • Stressing the importance of extending the scheme to entire LGBTQIA+ community, the judge said: “Only then can it be considered a wholesome and non-discriminative scheme. The Ministry has to bear in mind that persons from LGBTQIA+ community do not have any support from their family or from the society at large.”

📰 News (27-12-2021): ■ India imposes anti-dumping duty on 5 Chinese goods for 5 years: • India has imposed anti-dumping duty on five Chinese products, including certain aluminium goods and some chemicals, for five years to guard local manufacturers from cheap imports from the neighbouring country. • These duties were imposed following recommendations of the Commerce Ministry’s investigation arm, the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR). • The domestic industry has suffered material injury due to the dumping, the DGTR has said. □ What is Anti-Dumping Duty? : • Dumping is said to occur when the goods are exported by a country to another country at a price lower than its normal value. • This is an unfair trade practice which can have a distortive effect on international trade. • Anti-dumping is a measure to rectify the situation arising out of the dumping of goods and its trade distortive effect. • In fact, anti-dumping is an instrument for ensuring fair trade and is not a measure of protection for the domestic industry. • It provides relief to the domestic industry against the injury caused by dumping. • The use of anti-dumping measure as an instrument of fair competition is permitted by the WTO. ■ India gives food aid, defence equipment to Mozambique: • India handed over two Fast Interceptor Craft (FIC) and other self defence equipment to Mozambique to assist in its capacity building as the Central African nation battles growing terror threats. • INS Kesari entered Port of Maputo in Mozambique to deliver 500 tonnes of food aid as well as the defence equipment, under the eight edition of Mission Sagar by the Navy to assist friendly foreign countries in the region. • The equipment will be useful be useful as Mozambique is hit by terrorism in its North, a defence official said. • Terrorist group Islamic State, also known as Da’esh, and its affiliates have rapidly spread in Central Africa. • INS Kesari, a Landing Ship Tank (Large) had undertaken similar mission in May-June 2020 to provide humanitarian and medical assistance to Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar and Comoros, including deployment of medical assistance teams of the Indian Navy in multiple locations. Since May 2020, ships have been deployed to 15 friendly countries under SAGAR missions, the Navy said. • Separately, INS Sudarshini which is on deployment to Gulf region as part of Navy’s efforts towards familiarising friendly navies on various facets of operations and training on board sail training platforms visited Port Sahid Bahonar, Bandar Abbas in Iran on December 22 on a three day visit. • Mozambique shares borders with Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Eswatini. □ About Mission SAGAR: • Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) was launched in 2015. It is India’s strategic vision for the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). • Through SAGAR, India seeks to deepen economic and security cooperation with its maritime neighbours and assist in building their maritime security capabilities. • Further, India seeks to safeguard its national interests and ensure Indian Ocean region to become inclusive, collaborative and respect international law. ■ Desmond Tutu, who fought for a 'Rainbow nation', dies. • South African anti-apartheid icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu, described as the country's moral compass, died on Sunday aged 90. • Desmond Tutu is a tireless activist. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for combatting white minority rule in his country. • Tutu coined the term "Rainbow Nation" to describe South Africa when Nelson Mandela became the country's first black president in 1994.

■ NASA telescope on million-mile voyage. • The world's most powerful space telescope blasted off on Saturday to its outpost 1.5 million kilometres (930,000 miles) from Earth. • The James Webb Space Telescope left Earth enclosed in its Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou Space Centre in French Guiana. • It is expected to beam back new clues that will help scientists understand more about the origins of the Universe and Earth-like planets beyond our solar system. • Its orbit will be much farther than Hubble Space Telescope, which has been 600 kilometres above the Earth since 1990. • The location of Webb's orbit is called the Lagrange 2 point and was chosen in part because it will keep the Earth, the Sun and the Moon all on the same side of its sun shield. □ Lagrangian Points: • Lagrangian points are locations in space where gravitational forces and the orbital motion of a body balance each other. Therefore, they can be used by spacecraft to 'hover'. (Or) • Lagrange Points are positions in space where the gravitational forces of a two body system like the Sun and the Earth produce enhanced regions of attraction and repulsion. These can be used by spacecraft to reduce fuel consumption needed to remain in position. • The unstable Lagrange points are L1, L2 and L3. • The stable Lagrange point are L4 and L5. • L2 is located 1.5 million kilometres directly 'behind' the Earth as viewed from the Sun.

Lagrangian points.