History, Indian Art & Culture-GS Paper I

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Geography-GS Paper-1

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Social Issues-GS Paper 1

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Constitution, Polity and Governance- GS Paper II

1. Cauvery Authority to meet on June 16; Mekedatu dam may not be discussed
2. Himachal not to relent; tussle with Punjab over British-era Shanan project set to escalate

1. The subject of the proposed Mekedatu dam may not figure at the Cauvery Water Management Authority’s meeting to be held in New Delhi.
2. Tussle between Punjab and Himachal Pradesh continues over the 99-year-old lease of the British-era Shanan Hydropower Project situated in Himachal Pradesh’s Jogindernagar, the Himachal Pradesh government has yet again made it clear that it will not relent.
   • The project is presently under the control of the Punjab government, and its lease will expire in March 2024.

Social Justice: Education, Health and Human Resource-GS Paper II

1. Piped potable water across India will avert 4,00,000 diarrhoea deaths, finds WHO

1. If the Centre succeeds in its marquee Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), a nearly ₹3.6 trillion enterprise to provide piped potable water to all of India, it would avert close to 4,00,000 deaths from diarrhoea, a modelling study by the World Health Organization (WHO) and commissioned by the Jal Shakti Ministry.
   • Additionally, this would avoid 14 million DALYs (Disability Adjusted Life Years) from diarrhoea, save close to $101 billion and 66.6 million hours every day of time that would otherwise have been spent — predominantly by women — collecting water, the authors of the study noted.
     • A DALY represents the loss of the equivalent of one year of full health and are a way to account for the years of life lost due to premature mortality (YLLs) and the years lived with a disability (YLDs), due to prevalent cases of a disease or a health condition, in a population.
   • Currently about 12.3 crore rural households, or 62%, have piped water connections up from 3.2 crore or about 16.6% from 2019 when the scheme was launched.
   • The Centre has claimed that it will achieve 100% coverage by 2024.
   • A fully functional tap water connection is defined as a household getting at least 55 litres of per capita per day of potable water all through the year.
   • Every dollar invested in sanitation interventions gives a $4.3 return in the form of reduced health care costs.

International Relations-GS Paper II

1. India, France, UAE hold exercise in Gulf of Oman
2. A pragmatic approach, for better India-Nepal ties

1. Navies of India, France and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) held the maiden trilateral maritime partnership exercise on June 7 and June 8 in the Gulf of Oman. The Indian Navy deployed stealth frigate INS Tarkash for the exercise.
   • The exercise has further strengthened the maritime ties between the navies and enhanced interoperability to address traditional and non-traditional threats in the maritime environment thus ensuring safety of mercantile trade and freedom of navigation at high seas in the region
2. Despite daunting challenges to Nepal’s democracy, governance and stability and seemingly intractable bilateral irritants, the Prime Ministers of Nepal and India have shown that a pragmatic approach and mutual sensitivity can re-energise bilateral relations.
   • The Prime Minister of Nepal, Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda’s first bilateral visit to India since assuming office in the current term is notable
   • India and Nepal were able to review the entire spectrum of the bilateral agenda covering political, economic, trade, energy, security and developmental cooperation.
   • differences on the border issue
   • transform the economic landscape of the sub-region, such as hydropower projects to supply energy to India (and eventually to Bangladesh), infrastructure, access to Indian river transport, innovative tourism circuits, and better connectivity
   • unprecedented cross-party consensus when the Mahàkali Treaty, identifying the Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project (PMP), with power stations of equal capacity on both banks of the river
   • new dimension of cooperation in the power sector with the transmission passage (trilateral power transaction) from Nepal to Bangladesh through India
   • digital financial connectivity is another crucial development-facilitating cross-border digital payments
     • regional cooperation in the space sector, and space technology applications in telecommunication and broadcasting, tele-medicine, tele-education, e-governance, banking and ATM services, meteorological data transmission, disaster response and the networking of academic and research institutions.
   • real challenge for Nepal is to depoliticise cooperation with India, especially in water resources cooperation, improve the quality of democracy and governance at home, and check unbridled corruption, which is alarming even by South Asian standards.
   • For India, it may be necessary to address the perception in Nepal that it is no longer a foreign policy priority, and to give a sense of ownership, equality and credit for major forward movement in sectors such as hydropower to parties across the political spectrum, rather than only to the government of the day.

Indian Economic Development-GS Paper III

1. ‘Economy on autopilot, won’t overheat for years’
2. The necessity of electricity distribution companies
3. Forex reserves jump $5.9 bn to $595 bn: Reserve Bank data
4. Govt. to clarify TCS on foreign spends

1. The Indian economy is now on “autopilot” mode and will grow steadily in the range of 6.5-7% till 2030, even without further reforms, Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) V. Anantha Nageswaran asserted.
2. The Electricity Act 2003 provided the framework for the dismantling of the State Electricity Boards and the separation of generation, transmission and distribution into separate companies.
   • Electricity generation was delicensed, while transmission and distribution remained licenced and regulated activities.
   • share of private investment in the creation of new generating capacity has increased rapidly.
   • Tariff-based bids for the supply of electricity to distribution companies (Discoms) has been the key to the extraordinary success of the National Solar Mission.
   • India now has one of the cheapest rates for solar power supply in the world.
   • The Electricity Act gives consumers with a load of 1 MW and above the right to open access, enabling them to buy electricity from whomever they choose to and pay the Discom only for the use of their distribution network and a cross-subsidy surcharge.
   • The explicit mandate in the Electricity Act to the State Electricity Regulatory Commissions, to progressively reduce cross-subsidies, remains unimplemented.
   • The problems with Discoms, however, lie in the domain of political economy.
   • State governments find it difficult to give timely subsidies as required by law.
   • There is the political economy issue of misgovernance and rent seeking in some States where privatisation, as in Delhi, may perhaps be the only solution.
   • Investment in generating capacity has been taking place primarily on the strength of long-term PPAs with Discoms.
   • Financing, equity as well as debt are de-risked by these PPAs which have the implicit guarantee of the state.
   • The energy transition to renewables is accelerating and the reliability of power supply is increasing.
   • This is based on Discoms projecting demand and entering long-term contracts for meeting increasing demand.
   • Without Discoms this edifice would collapse; and without new investment, we may face power shortages again.
3. India’s forex kitty jumped $5.929 billion to $595.067 billion for the week ended.
   • The foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, increased by $$5.27 billion to $526.201 billion, according to the Weekly Statistical Supplement released by RBI
4. The Union Budget had raised the tax collected at source (TCS) rate to 20% from 5% on overseas tour packages and outflows under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) that permits $2.5 lakh dollars a year to be sent abroad.

Science and Technology- GS Paper III

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Biodiversity and Environment, Disaster Management- GS Paper III

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Security: Internal and External- GS Paper III

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Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude-GS Paper IV

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