UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week

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Report

Moody’s report on water stress affecting India’s credit profile should spur conversations on using new technologies for sustainable use.

— Lancet Global Health

• According to the data published in the Lancet Global Health, Half the adult Indian population does not meet the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) guidelines on sufficient physical activity.
• More women (57 percent) than men (42 percent men) are physically inactive. Most alarmingly, the prevalence of insufficient physical activity among Indian adults has risen sharply from 22.3 percent in 2000 to 49.4 percent in 2022.

— Moody’s Report

• Global rating firm Moody’s has warned that India’s growing water shortage and frequent climate change-driven natural disasters can negatively affect the country’s sovereign credit strength.
• According to Moody’s, India is facing a growing water shortage as water consumption increases amid rapid economic growth and increasingly frequent natural disasters due to climate change.
• India’s average annual water availability per capita is likely to drop to 1,367 cubic meters by 2031 from an already-low 1,486 cubic meters in 2021.
• Water stress happens when there is less than 1,700 cubic meters of water per person and Water scarcity occurs when the amount drops below 1,000 cubic meters.

(Just FYI: The main purpose of the data is to develop an understanding of the topicyou don’t need to learn all the data. Having an approximate idea of data can help you in the fact based questions of prelims and as fodder for the answers of UPSC Mains. Also, “Water crisis” and related issues are one of the frequently asked topics by UPSC.)

Economy

— JP Morgan Index

• The Indian Government Bonds (IGBs) has been included in the JP Morgan’s emerging markets bond indices. This inclusion  is likely to bring nearly $20-25 billion into the country.
• Only IGBs designated under the Fully Accessible Route (FAR) are index-eligible.
• The inclusion of Indian bonds will be staggered into the GBI-EM Global Diversified Index (GBI-EM GD) over 10 months from June 28, 2024, through March 31, 2025.
• Bloomberg has also announced that Indian government bonds will be included in the Bloomberg Emerging Market (EM) Local Currency Government Index and related indices from January 31, 2025.

(Point to Focus: Only Investment Grade Bonds (IGBs) that are Fixed Annual Rate (FAR) qualify for the JP Morgan Index. It will help you in eliminating other options.)

Environment

The aim is to reduce Danish greenhouse gas emissions by 70 per cent from 1990 levels by 2030, said Taxation Minister Jeppe Bruus. (File Photo)

— Carbon Tax

• Denmark has become the first country in the world to tax livestock farmers for the greenhouse gases emitted by their cows, sheep and pigs from 2030.
• The deal proposed taxing farmers 300 Danish crowns ($43.16) per tonne of CO2 in 2030, increasing to 750 crowns by 2035.
• New Zealand has proposed a similar tax on livestock in 2022 was scrapped recently after widespread protests from farmers.

Science and Technology

— Chandrayaan-4

• According to the ISRO’s chairman, ISRO’s Chandrayaan-4 mission would not be launched at one go and instead, different parts of the spacecraft would be sent into orbit through two launches, and the spacecraft would be assembled in space before proceeding to the Moon.
• ISRO has planned to launch the Space Docking Experiment (SPADEX) mission to demonstrate docking of spacecraft in Earth’s orbit for Chandrayaan-4.

(Please Note: It is a developing story, so certain facts are expected to change. Keep a track!)

Achievement

At least 10 different forms of craftsmanship survive in the Valley, including Pashmina and Kani shawls. (File Photo)

— World Craft City

• Jammu & Kashmir has become the fourth Indian city to be recognised as a ‘World Craft City’ by the World Craft Council (WCC).
• In 2021, it was designated as part of the UNESCO Creative City Network (UCCN) for crafts and folk arts.
• Jaipur, Malappuram, and Mysore are the other Indian cities that have previously been recognised as World Craft Cities.
• World Craft City initiative was launched in 2014 by the World Crafts Council AISBL (WCC-International) to recognise the pivotal role local authorities, craftspeople, and communities play in cultural, economic, and social development worldwide.

Person in News

“For my strange story — about mothers and daughters, about bodies, beauty standards, and Bombay street food — to find such a global audience is thrilling,” she added. (Source: Commonwealth Foundation)

— Sanjana Thakur

• Sanjana Thakur, a 26-year-old writer from Mumbaihas won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for her story “Aishwarya Rai.” The story is about a woman who tries out “possible mothers” from a local shelter. She received a cash prize of £5,000.
• Thakur is the third Indian writer to clinch the prize, which was launched in 2012. It was earlier won by Indian writers Parashar Kulkarni (2016) for his story ‘Cow and Company’ and Kritika Pandey (2020) for ‘The Great Indian Tee and Snakes’.

— Arundhati Roy

• She has been honoured with the prestigious Pen Pinter Prize 2024 for her “unflinching and unswerving” writings.
• The PEN Pinter Prize is awarded annually to a writer resident in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Commonwealth or former Commonwealth who, in the words of Harold Pinter’s Nobel speech, casts an ‘unflinching, unswerving’ gaze upon the world.

(Source: englishpen.org)

— Ravi Agrawal

• Ravi Agrawal, a 1988-batch IRS officer, has been appointed as the new chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the administrative body for the Income Tax Department.

Places in News

(Just FYI: The location of the place is important, considering that UPSC has asked several questions about places that were in the news, such as Aleppo and Kirkuk, in the 2018 UPSC Prelims. The best way to remember them is to plot them on a world map)

A view of Derbent synagogue following an attack by gunmen and a fire, in Derbent in the region of Dagestan, Russia June 24, 2024, in this still image taken from video. (Head of the Dagestan region Sergei Melikov via Telegram/Handout via REUTERS)

— Dagestan

• At least 15 policemen and several civilians were killed by gunmen in possibly coordinated attacks in Russia’s southern republic of Dagestan on June 23.
• Dagestan means “the land of the mountains” in Persian and Turkish, and lies on the transcontinental Caucasus mountain range.
• Derbent city in the southern republic of Dagestan is the oldest continuously inhabited city on earth. It is home to an ancient Jewish community and a UNESCO World Heritage site (declared in 2003).

— Saipan

• Julian Assange will be tried in a US court on the island of Saipan.
• Saipan is the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands (NMI), a US Commonwealth in the Western Pacific, which begins roughly 70km north of Guam and stretches across 14 islands.
• The Northern Mariana Islands, similar to Guam and Puerto Rico, are part of the US but aren’t full states.
• The US took control of Saipan during World War II. After decades under US control, residents in 1975 voted to join the US as a territory. The territory has a permanent delegate in the US House of Representatives.

— Peace

• La Paz and Sucre are cities in Bolivia. The Bolivian armed forces withdrew from the presidential palace in La Paz after President Luis Arce condemned an attempted coup and sought international support.

— Kerala

• Kerala Assembly on June 24 unanimously passed a resolution urging the Centre to rename the state as “Keralam’’ in the Constitution.
• Kerala is the English word for the Malyali Keralam. The earliest mention of the word can be found in Emperor Ashoka’s Rock Edict II, dated to 257 BCE.
• Keralaputra, literally “son of Kerala” in Sanskrit, refers to the dynasty of the Cheras, one of the three main kingdoms of southern India.
• The state of Kerala came into being on November 1, 1956.

Sports

— Duckworth-Lewis method (DLS)

• Statistician Frank Duckworth, who co-created the Duckworth-Lewis method with Tony Lewis, has died at 84.
• This method was first used in international cricket in 1997 and was fully adopted by the ICC in 1999.
• In 2014, it was updated by Australian statistician Steven Stern and renamed the DLS (Duckworth-Lewis-Stern) method.
• This method is used when there is a rain interruption in the Cricket match due to which the overs are cut down or the in the second innings of the game if rain interrupts the chasing team’s position is calculated by this method.
• The method converts all possible combinations of balls and wickets in hand to a combined “resources remaining” figure, which is expressed in percentage — full 50 overs, and 10 wickets in hand means 100% resources available.

(Just FYI: With the unpredictability of the UPSC examinations and questions like the ICC World Test Championship question 2021, you can’t be sure of anything. It is wise to know what it is and not go into too much detail.)

Terms making buzz

GI tag for Dodol. (Representational)

— Hamster Kombat App: It is an incremental or a clicker game in which users repeatedly click on an object or complete tasks to earn points. In Iran, it has become very famous as many users expect that they will be able to access a purported cryptocurrency associated with the games that is still not traded publicly.

— Stupid: The Goa government formally applied for a Geographical Indication (GI) tag for the Goan sweet called Dodol. It is a classic Goan sweet that is often called a cousin of Bebinca, the ‘Queen of Goan desserts’.

— Cohabitation: In France’s National Assembly, there is a real possibility that the President and the Prime Minister, leader of the National Assembly, will not be from the same party. This phenomenon is called cohabitation, and has only occurred thrice ever since France transitioned into the Fifth Republic.

Test Your Knowledge

(Note: The best way to remember facts is to recall them, try to solve these questions on your own.)

A. Consider the following pairs:

Which of the following pairs given above are correctly matched?

(a) 1 and 3

(b) 2 and 4

(c) 2, 3 and 4

(d) 1 and 4

B. Cohabitation in the context of France’s National Assembly means:

(a) When the joint sitting of the Parliament is called for passing an important legislature.

(b)  When the President and the Prime Minister will not be from the same party in the National Assembly.

(c) When a mid-term election is called by the President

(d) When a National emergency is passed by both houses with a simple majority.

C. Consider the following cities:

1. Srinagar

2. Jaipur

3. Varanasi

4. Mysore

How many of the above cities are recognised as a ‘World Craft City’ by the World Craft Council (WCC)?

(a) Only one

(b) Only two

(c) Only three

(d) All four

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