Daily Prelims Newsletter(UPSC)|08 JUN 2021 | RaghukulCS

Daily Prelims Newsletter For UPSC
| RaghukulCS

08 June 2021-Tuesday

Table Of Contents

Science and Technology 

  • Herd Immunity 

Economy

  • Anti-Dumping Duty

Security 

  • Operation Blue Star

International Relations 

  • Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) 

Places in News 

  • Syria 

News in Short 

  • Performance Grading Index

Science and Technology

Herd Immunity

Why in News?

With the weakening of second wave of COVID-19, there is an argument that India must have reached 75-80% immunity level and this can prevent further waves from excalating.

About Herd Immunity:

  • Community immunity or herd Immunity occurs when a large number of people are vaccinated or have developed immunity against a disease, lowering the chances of others being infected by it.
  • When a sufficient percentage of population is vaccinated, it slows the spread of disease.
  • The decline of disease incidence is greater than the proportion of individuals immunized either by vaccines or recovering from virus.
  • It happens because vaccination reduces the spread of an infectious agent by reducing the amount and/or duration of pathogen shedding by vaccines, retarding transmission.
  • This approach requires infected people to build natural immunity and stop the human-to-human transmission. Thus, the disease spread will be subsequently halted.

Economy

Anti-Dumping Duty

Why in News?

Recently, the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) recommended extension of the existing anti-dumping duty on Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE-Teflon) imports from Russia till October 312021.

About Anti-Dumping Duty:

  • In international trade practices, dumping is said to occur when a country or a firm exports an item at a price lower than the price of that product in its domestic market.
  • Dumping impacts the price of that product in the importing country, negatively hitting margins and profits of local manufacturers.
  • Thus, Anti-dumping duty is imposed to rectify this situation arising out of the dumping of goods and its trade distortive effect on local economy.

NOTE: Although it is a protectionist tariff, use of anti-dumping measures as an instrument of fair competition is permitted by the WTO.

About Directorate General of Trade Remedies

  • It is the apex national authority under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
  • It administers all trade remedial measures likeanti-dumping, countervailing duties and safeguard measures.
  • It also provides trade defence support to the domestic industries and exporters in dealing with instances of trade remedy investigations instituted against them by other countries.

Related Information:

  • Countervailing Duties (CVDs) are tariffs levied on imported goods in order to offset subsidies made to producers and exporters of these goods in the exporting country.
  • CVDs aim to level the playing field between domestic and foreign producers of the product.

Security

Operation Blue Star

Why in News?

Recently, the 37thanniversary of Operation Blue Star was observed by the country.

About Operation Blue Star:

  • It wasthe code name given to an Indian Military Operation undertaken to remove the separatists hiding inside the Golden Temple at Amritsar on 5thJune, 1984.
  • The operation was ordered by the then PM Indira Gandhi, primarily to take control of the Harmandir Sahib Complex in Amritsar (alsocalled as the Golden Temple).
  • The Indian military entered into the premises of the temple to drive out the Sikh extremist religious leader, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his armed followers.
  • This Operation helped in eliminating Khalistani terrorismin the country.

Related Information: National Security Guard

  • It is a counter-terrorism unitwhich formally came into existence in 1986 by an act of Parliament- ‘National Security Guard Act, 1986’.
  • Its headquarters is in Manesar, Gurugram.
  • The idea behind raising such force came in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star, Akshardham Temple attack and the assassination of former PM Indira Gandhi, tocombat terrorist activities to protect states against internal disturbances.

International Relations

Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)

Why in News?

The OPCW has recently told the UN Security Council that out of investigated 77 allegations against Syria, and it was concluded that in 17 cases chemical weapons were likely used by Syria.

About OPCW:

  • It is an international organization established by the Chemical Weapons Convention, 1997.
  • Headquarters: Hague, Netherlands.
  • It aims to implement and enforce the non-proliferation treaty, which prohibits the use, stockpiling, or transfer of chemical weapons by the signatory states.
  • After the 2001 Relationship Agreement between the OPCW and the UN, the OPCW reports about its inspections and other activities to the UN through the office of the UN Secretary General.
  • OPCW was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize,2013 for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons.
  • OPCW is authorized to perform inspections to verify that signatory states are adhering to the convention.

Places in News

Syria

  • Neighbouring Countries: Turkey, Iraq, Jordan,Lebanon and Israel.
  • Neighbouring oceans: Mediterranean Sea on it’s west.

News in Short

Performance Grading Index

Why in News?

Recently,Ministry of Education released the Performance Grading Index for 2019-20.

About the Performance Grading Index (PGI):

  • PGI is a tool to grade States and UTs on their performance across 70 indicators on school education.
  • It was first published in 2019.
  • Objective: To encourage States & UTs to adopt best practices in recruitment and transfer of teachers, electronic attendance of students & teachers, etc.
  • It assists the States & UTs to identify gaps and design appropriate interventions to bridge them.
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