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📰 News (12-01-2022): ■ India’s passport rank improves to 83 from 90: • India’s passport power has improved this quarter compared to 2021. It now ranks at 83rd position in the Henley Passport Index, climbing seven places from 90th rank last year. • Japan and Singapore top the index. • However, in 2020, its rank stood at 84 while in 2016, India was ranked 85th along with Mali and Uzbekistan. • The current rankings are for first quarter of 2022 and India shares the position with Sao Tome and Principe in Central Africa, behind Rwanda and Uganda. • Since 2005, Henley Passport Index ranks world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without prior visa and is based on data from International Air Transport Association (IATA). • India now has visa-free access to 60 destinations worldwide with Oman and Armenia being the latest additions. India has added 35 more destinations since 2006. ■ BrahMos advanced variant test fired: • An extended range sea-to-sea variant of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was test fired on Tuesday from the recently commissioned stealth guided missile destroyer INS Visakhapatnam. • “Advanced sea-to-sea variant of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was tested from INS Visakhapatnam today. Missile hit the designated target ship precisely,” the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said. • BrahMos is joint collaboration between India and Russia and is capable of being launched from land, sea, sub-sea and air against surface and sea-based targets, with a range capped at 290 km initially and to be extended till 600km. • INS Visakhapatnam is the first of four ingenuously designed and built Project-15B class stealth guided missile destroyers and was commissioned in November 2021. ■ No molnupiravir: ICMR team. • The ICMR’s National Task Force for COVID-19 has decided against including antiviral drug molnupiravir in the Clinical Management Protocol for COVID-19 as of now, official sources said on Tuesday. • The experts of the task force cited safety concerns, and argued that Molnupiravir was not of much benefit in COVID treatment to arrive at the decision in a meeting held on Monday. • Molnupiravir is an antiviral drug that inhibits SARS-CoV-2 replication by viral mutagenesis. This anti-COVID pill got the Drug Regulator General of India’s approval on December 28 for restricted use in emergencies. • Mutagenesis is a process by which the genetic information of an organism is changed by the production of mutation.

📰 News (10-01-2022): ■ Former RBI governor Urjit Patel appointed vice president of AIIB: • Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Urjit Patel has been appointed vice-president of the Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). • The AIIB, launched in Beijing in 2015, has approved more loans for India than any other member of the bank. China is its biggest shareholder and India is the second-largest. The U.S. and Japan are not among its 104 members. • The AIIB has funded 28 projects in India amounting to $6.7 billion. • It has recently emphasised green projects and supporting public health initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic, besides infrastructure. • In October, India applied for loans from the AIIB and ADB to procure 667 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines with the ADB expected to lend $1.5 billion and the AIIB around $500 million, under the ADB’s Asia Pacific Vaccine Access Facility (APVAX) initiative. ■ Veer Baal Diwas' to be observed on December 26 as tribute to Guru Gobind Singh’s sons: • Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday declared that December 26 shall henceforth be marked as “Veer Baal Diwas” to pay homage to the courage of the “Sahibzades”, four sons of Guru Gobind Singh, the last Sikh guru. • While all four were martyred, the date has been chosen as it was the day observed as the martyrdom day of the Sahibzadas Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh, who were killed at the tender age of six and nine in Sirhind by Mughal forces. • Guru Gobind Singh was the 10th and last of Sikh gurus in human form. He was enthroned at the 'Guru Gaddi' at the age of nine, following the martyrdom of his father, the ninth Guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji. ■ SKOCH Award for Assam mission on malnutrition: • A mission to combat malnourishment among children aged six months to five years has earned the SKOCH Award for southern Assam’s Cachar district. • Instituted in 2003, SKOCH Award recognises people, projects and institutions that go the extra mile to make India a better nation.

■ Places, Species, Other names in News (December 2021): □ Places : ● Mount Semeru - It is an active volcano. It recently erupted. It is located on the East of the island Java in Indonesia. ● Barbados - It is an island country situated on the eastern Caribbean. Barbados is the now the world's newest republic after officially removing Queen Elizabeth II as the head of state in an overnight ceremony in its capital, Bridgetown. ● Nigeen lake at Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir. ● Living root bridge at Mawlynnong in Meghalaya.[Roots of ficus trees]. □ Species : ● Boesenbergia albolutea & Boesenbergia rubrolutea - These 2 plant species became extinct in the wild now. The species belong to the family of Zingiberaceae, the ginger family of flowering plants. □ Other names : ● Poshan Tracker - The Poshan Tracker was previously known as the ICDS-CAS (Integrated Child Development Services-Common Application Software). • It was set up with the aim of tracking and improving various services delivered at anganwadis and to ensure nutritional management of beneficiaries. • This real-time monitoring system is one of the key pillars of Poshan Abhiyan or Nutrition Mission approved by the Union Cabinet in November 2017. ● Hornbill festival - Nagaland ● Project RE-HAB (Reducing Elephant-Human Attacks using Bees). It is implemented by the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC). ● Saryu Nahar irrigation project - It interlinks 5 rivers. They are Ghaghara, Saryu, Rapti, Banganga and Rohini. ● Herd immunity - Herd immunity, or community immunity, is when a large part of the population of an area is immune to a specific disease. If enough people are resistant to the cause of a disease, such as virus or bacteria, it has nowhere to go. (Or) when larger percentage of the population is infected or vaccinated so that virus spread in the population is significantly slowed or stopped. ● Black box - The Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and Flight Data Recorder (FDR) popularly known as ‘Black Box’. Firstly, a black box is neither black nor shaped like a box. In fact, it is bright orange in colour. Flight Data Recorder (FDR) stores flight history and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) that records all sounds within the cockpit including conversations between pilots.  ● Operation Devi Shakti - It is India's evacuation mission from Afghanistan to India. Under this mission, Indian government evacuated many people from Afghanistan after Taliban captured Afghanistan. ● Call your Cop - It's a mobile application launched by Nagaland Police. The App will enable all citizens of the state especially those in distress to get in touch directly with the police as easily available with just one click away. ● Konyaks Tribe are the largest tribal group in Nagaland. ● Super Typhoon Rai in Philippines. ● Tiangong - China's space station. It means Heavenly palace. ● Operations launched by Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB): • "Operation Save Kurma" to focus on the poaching, transportation and illegal trade of live turtles and tortoises • "Operation Turtshield- I, Operation Turtshield-II" to tackle the illegal trade of live turtles • "Operation Lesknow, Lesknow-II, Lesknow-III" to gain attention of enforcement agencies towards the illegal wildlife trade in lesser-known species of wildlife • "Operation Clean Art" to drag attention of enforcement agencies towards illegal wildlife trade in Mongoose hair brushes • "Operation Softgold" to tackle Shahtoosh Shawl(made from Chiru wool) illegal trade and to spread awareness among the weavers and traders engaged in this trade • "Operation Birbil" to curb illegal trade in wild cat and wild bird species • "Operation Wildnet, Wildnet-II, Wildnet-III, Wildnet-IV” to draw the attention of the enforcement agencies within the country to focus their attention on the ever increasing illegal wildlife trade over internet using social media platforms. • "Operation Freefly” on illegal trade of live birds and “Operation Wetmark” to ensure prohibition of sale of meat of wild animals in wet markets across the country.

UPSC Mains Essay Paper 2021.

📰 News: Telangana tops in highest number of ODF villages. • Telangana stood first in the country in the list of highest number of open defecation free (ODF Plus) villages under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) Phase-II programme till December 31, 2021. • As many as 13,737 out of 14,200 villages in the State are in the ODF Plus list, which is 96.74%. This was followed by Tamil Nadu with 4,432 villages (35.39%) and Karnataka with 1,511 villages (5.59%). Gujarat took the 17th position with only 83 villages (0.45%). • The State government has enacted a new Telangana Panchayat Raj Act to ensure holistic development of villages. • A secretary has been posted in every panchayat for smooth execution of welfare programmes, close monitoring, digital reporting and to ensure prevalence of good governance in villages. • Multi-purpose workers have been appointed to maintain proper sanitation in villages. • Apart from this, the government has stressed on garbage collection and scientific disposal. Garbage bins have been distributed to all households as part of solid waste management. It has also provided dedicated tractor trolleys with partitions to collect dry and wet waste and transport the garbage to segregation-cum-compost sheds. • There are 12,769 dedicated compost sheds in all gram panchayats. Tankers have also been provided to water the plants for greenery in villages. • Sanitation drives have often been carried out through the Palle Pragathi programme in villages. • Vermicompost made out of wet litter is given to plants in the green belt of villages as manure. Also, magic soak pits and drainage facilities have been arranged in all houses for proper liquid waste management. • The implementation of Palle Pragathi programme for holistic development of villages is being uploaded on SBM (G) 2.0 mobile app, which gets reported at the national level dashboard.

📰 News: Order to install CCTVs in spas is against SC verdict on Right to Privacy: HC judge • Justice G.R. Swaminathan of the Madras High Court has said that a recent order passed by another judge of the same court, mandating the installation of CCTV cameras inside spas [massage and therapy centres], appears to run counter to the law laid down by the Supreme Court in the landmark Justice K.S.Puttaswamy case on the Right to Privacy. • Justice Swaminathan observed that Article 21 of the Constitution guarantees the fundamental right to privacy to all. • “Through a unanimous verdict, the Supreme Court declared that the right to life and personal liberty guaranteed in Article 21 also includes implicitly a right to privacy. • The Court held that privacy as guaranteed in Article 21 takes several different forms — It includes a right to bodily autonomy, a right to informational privacy and a right to a privacy of choice. • The installation of CCTV equipment inside premises such as a spa would unquestionably infract upon a person’s bodily autonomy.  • He noted that the other judge’s order directed the installation of CCTV cameras not in public spaces, but in “intimate, private spaces”. • In the first place, unless a legislature mandates by law that CCTV cameras ought to be installed in a certain space, to do so would violate Article 21, he said. • No right can be absolute. But restrictions can be put in place only by the legislature or the executive. The reach of the fundamental rights cannot be curtailed by any judicial measure. • The Supreme Court alone can do so in exercise of its power under Article 142, the judge said. ● Article 21 of Constitution of India deals with Protection of Life and Personal Liberty. [Right to Privacy] ● Article 142 of Constitution of India deals with Enforcement of decrees and orders of the Supreme Court. • It states that the Apex Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction may pass such decree or make such order as is necessary for doing “complete justice” in any case pending before it. • Such orders of the Supreme Court are enforceable throughout the territory of India as prescribed by any law made by Parliament or order of the President of India. • From Article 142, the Supreme Court derives overarching powers to perform the functions of Executive and legislative in order to bring about complete justice.

■ Goods and Services Tax (GST): • GST is an indirect tax which has replaced many indirect taxes in India such as the excise duty, VAT, services tax, etc. • The Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 was passed in the Parliament on 29th March 2017 and came into effect on 1st July 2017. • France is the 1st country to implement the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the year 1954.  • GST is simple and easy to administer because multiple indirect taxes at the central and state levels are being replaced by a single tax “GST”. • Under GST regime, there are five distinct tax slabs to make tax collection easy, these are – 0%, 5%, 12%, 18%, 28%. Most of the items of daily consumption of masses are charged 5% tax, while luxury items attract 28% tax.  • To encourage gems and jewellery industry which is a prime export of India, there is a special rate, which is 0.25% for precious and semi-precious rough stones while 3% on gold. • GST to be levied by the Centre is called Central GST (CGST). GST that to be levied by the States is called State GST (SGST) and the GST to be levied by Union Territory is called Union Territory Goods and Services Tax (UTGST). • Import of goods or services would be treated as inter-state supplies and would be subject to Integrated Goods & Services Tax (IGST) in addition to the applicable customs duties. • CGST, SGST & IGST are levied at rates to be mutually agreed upon by the Centre and the States. The rates are notified on the recommendation of the GST Council. □ What is GST Compensation Cess? • GST is a consumption-based tax so it results in loss of revenue for manufacturing heavy states. • It is charged at the time of supply and depends on the destination of consumption. • For instance, if a good is manufactured in state A but consumed in state B, then the revenue generated through GST collection is credited to the state of consumption (state B) and not to the state of production (state A). • Due to the consumption-based nature of GST, manufacturing states like Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu feared a revenue loss. • Thus, GST Compensation Cess or GST Cess was introduced by the government to compensate for the possible revenue losses suffered by such manufacturing states. • However, under existing rules, this compensation cess will be levied only for the first 5 years of the GST regime – from July 1st, 2017 to July 1st, 2022/till June 2022. Currently, the states are asking the Centre to extend the GST Compensation Cess for few more years. • The compensation cess payable to states is calculated based on the methodology specified in the GST (Compensation to States) Act, 2017. □ Do all items come under GST? • Not all items are covered under GST. Taxation for certain items such as Alcohol, Tobacco etc. are still not under the GST domain. • States argue that including them would hamper their revenue and they would suffer a huge resource. • Few products are exempted from GST. Items which are used for everyday purposes. Since they are basic essentials, they do not attract any GST at all. Some of the products exempted from GST include: Fresh fish, Fresh milk, Fresh ginger, garlic, melon, grapes, unprocessed green-tea leaves, un-roasted Coffee beans etc. Agriculture products such as corn, wheat, soybean, maize, rice and more.