UPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS SIMPLIFIED

Inflation Inflation refers to the rise in the prices of most goods and services of daily or common use, such as food, clothing, housing, recreation, transport, consumer staples, etc. Inflation measures the average price change in a basket of commodities and services over time. Inflation is indicative of the decrease in the purchasing power of a unit of a country’s currency. This could ultimately lead to a deceleration in economic growth. However, a moderate level of inflation is required in the economy to ensure that production is promoted. In India, inflation is primarily measured by two main indices —WPI & CPI which measure wholesale and retail-level price changes, respectively. #Core Inflation It is the change in the costs of goods and services but does not include those from the food and energy sectors. This measure of inflation excludes these items because their prices are much more volatile. Core inflation = Headline inflation – (Food and Fuel) inflation. # Wholesale Price Index It measures the changes in the prices of goods sold and traded in bulk by wholesale businesses to other businesses. Published by the Office of Economic Adviser, Ministry of Commerce and Industry. It is the most widely used inflation indicator in India. Major criticism for this index is that the general public does not buy products at wholesale price. The base year of All-India WPI has been revised from 2004-05 to 2011-12 in 2017. # Consumer Price Index It measures price changes from the perspective of a retail buyer. It is released by the National Statistical Office (NSO). The CPI calculates the difference in the price of commodities and services such as food, medical care, education, electronics etc, which Indian consumers buy for use. The CPI has several sub-groups including food and beverages, fuel and light, housing and clothing, bedding and footwear. Four types of CPI are as follows: CPI for Industrial Workers (IW). CPI for Agricultural Labourer (AL). CPI for Rural Labourer (RL). CPI (Rural/Urban/Combined). Of these, the first three are compiled by the Labour Bureau in the Ministry of Labour and Employment. Fourth is compiled by the NSO in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Base Year for CPI in general is 2012. However the base year for CPI for Industrial Worker (CPI-IW) is 2016. # The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) uses CPI data to control inflation (within range 4+/-2%). In April 2014, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had adopted the CPI as its key measure of inflation. # CPI vs. WPI WPI tracks inflation at the producer level and CPI captures changes in prices levels at the consumer level. WPI does not capture changes in the prices of services, which CPI does.

Rule-6 (1) of the IAS (Cadre) Rules-1954 Central deputation in the Indian Administrative Service is covered under Rule-6 (1) of the IAS (Cadre) Rules-1954, inserted in May 1969. It states: “A cadre officer may, with the concurrence of the State Governments concerned and the Central Government, be deputed for service under the Central Government or another State Government or under a company, association or body of individuals, whether incorporated or not, which is wholly or substantially owned or controlled by the Central Government or by another State Government. Provided that in case of any disagreement, the matter shall be decided by the Central Government and the State Government or State Governments concerned shall give effect to the decision of the Central Government.” As on January 1, 2021, out of around 5,200 IAS officers in the country, 458 were on central deputation.

e-Shram Portal Recently, the Ministry of Labour and Employment launched the e-Shram portal. The formation of e-Shram portal came after the Supreme Court directed the Government to complete the registration process of unorganized workers so that they can avail the welfare benefits given under various government schemes. It aims to register 38 crore unorganised workers such as construction labourers, migrant workforce, street vendors, and domestic workers, among others. The workers will be issued an e-Shram card containing a 12 digit unique number. If a worker is registered on the eSHRAM portal and meets with an accident, he will be eligible for Rs 2.0 Lakh on death or permanent disability and Rs 1.0 lakh on partial disability.

‘Special camps to register brick kiln, plantation workers on e-Shram portal’ - The Hindu https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/special-camps-to-register-brick-kiln-plantation-workers-on-e-shram-portal/article38293764.ece

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) * Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is an Indian state-owned aerospace and defence company headquartered in Bangalore (Bengaluru), India. It is governed under the management of the Indian Ministry of Defence. * The government-owned corporation is primarily involved in the operations of the aerospace and is currently involved in the design, fabrication and assembly of aircraft, jet engines, helicopters and their spare parts. * The HAL HF-24 Marut fighter-bomber was the first fighter aircraft made in India.

Applications of 5G technology High-Speed mobile network: 5G will revolutionize the mobile experience with supercharged wireless network. Compared to conventional mobile transmission technologies, voice and high-speed data can be simultaneously transferred efficiently in 5G. Entertainment and multimedia: 5G can provide 120 frames per second, high resolution and higher dynamic range video streaming without interruption. Audiovisual experience will be rewritten after the implementation of the latest technologies powered by 5G wireless. Augmented Reality and virtual Reality services will be better experienced over 5G. Internet of Things:  IoT applications collects huge amount of data from millions of devices and sensors and thus requires an efficient network for data collection, processing, transmission, control and real-time analytics which 5G network is a better candidate. Smart cities: Smart city application like traffic management, Instant weather update, local area broadcasting, energy management, smart power grid, smart lighting of street, water resource management, crowd management, emergency response etc can use a reliable 5G wireless network for its functioning. Smart farming: 5G technology will be used for agriculture and smart farming in the future. Using smart RFID sensors and GPS technology, farmers can track the location of livestock and manage them easily. Smart sensors can be used for irrigation control, access control and energy management. Mission critical applications: Like telemedicine services, remote control of critical infrastructure and vehicles. It has the potential to transform industries with highly reliable, low latency link. Better Governance: Better speed and connectivity would reduce red tapism. It will enhance speedy completion of projects and better implementation of policies. It will enable accountability in the system through a better monitoring system and will reduce corruption. Employment generation: 5G wireless technology will open greater opportunity for new device manufactures and application developers. New VoIP devices and smart devices will be introduced in the market and thus more job opportunities as well. This will help in inclusive growth reaping demographic dividend. Enhanced Security: 5G wireless technology is one the best solution for security surveillance due to higher bandwidth and unlicensed spectrum. It will enhance better coordination among various agencies. Smart appliances which can be configured and accessed from remote locations, closed circuit cameras will provide high quality real-time video for security purposes. Logistics and shipping: Logistic and shipping industry can make use of smart 5G technology for goods tracking, fleet management, centralized database management, staff scheduling and real-time delivery tracking and reporting. Industrial Growth: Future industries will depend on smart wireless technologies like 5G and LTE advanced for efficient automation of equipment, maintenance, safety, tracking, smart packing, shipping, logistics and energy management. Agricultural applications: 5g technology can be used for agriculture and smart farming in future. Using smart RFID sensors and GPS technology, farmers can track location of livestock and manage them easily. Smart sensors can be used for irrigation control, access control and energy management. Healthcare and mission critical applications: 5G technology will support medical practitioners to perform advanced medical procedures with reliable wireless network connected to another side of the globe. Doctors can connect with patients from anywhere anytime and advice them when necessary. Scientists are working on smart medical devices which can perform remote surgery. Smart medical devices like wearable will continuously monitor patient’s condition and activate alert during emergency.

5G Technology 5G or fifth generation is the latest upgrade in the long-term evolution (LTE) mobile broadband networks. 5G enables a new kind of network that is designed to connect virtually everyone and everything together including machines, objects, and devices.  It’s a unified platform which is much more capable than previous mobile services with more capacity, lower latency, faster data delivery rate and better utilisation of spectrum. # The low, mid, and high-frequency spectrum 5G mainly works in 3 bands, namely low, mid and high frequency spectrum — all of which have their own uses as well as limitations. The low band spectrum has a great promise in terms of coverage and speed of internet and data exchange but the maximum speed is limited to 100 Mbps (Megabits per second). So Telcos can use and install it for commercial cell phone users who may not have specific demands for very high speed internet, the low band spectrum may not be optimal for specialized needs of the industry. The mid-band spectrum offers higher speeds compared to the low band, but has limitations in terms of coverage area and penetration of signals. This band may be used by industries and specialized factory units for building captive networks that can be moulded into the needs of that particular industry. The high-band spectrum offers the highest speed of all the three bands, but has extremely limited coverage and signal penetration strength. Internet speeds in the high-band spectrum of 5G has been tested to be as high as 20 Gbps (giga bits per second), while, in most cases, the maximum internet data speed in 4G has been recorded at 1 Gbps. # Salient Features Capability: 5G will provide much faster mobile broadband service as compared to the previous versions and will provide support to previous services like mission critical communication and the massive Internet Of Things (IoT). Upgraded LTE: 5G is the latest upgrade in the long-term evolution (LTE) mobile broadband networks. Speed: With peak delivering rate of up to 20 Gbps and an average of 100Mbps, it will be much faster as compared to its predecessors. The speed increment is partly achieved partly by using higher-frequency radio waves than previous networks. Capacity: There will be up to 100 x increase in traffic capacity and network efficiency. Spectrum usage: Will provide better usage for every bit of spectrum, from low bands below 1 GHz to high bands. Latency: It’s expected to have lower latency with better instantaneous, real-time access of the data. The 5G, like 4G LTE, also uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) but the new 5G NR (New Radio) air interface will enhance OFDM and provide better flexibility in data delivery. Millimeter wave spectrum: The 5G networks will operate in the millimeter wave spectrum (30-300 GHz) which has the advantage of sending large amounts of data at very high speeds because the frequency is so high, it experiences little interference from surrounding signals.