Daily Prelims Newsletter|30 Jun 2021|RaghukulCS|UPSC

Daily Prelims Newsletter For UPSC
| RaghukulCS

30 June 2021-Wednesday

Table Of Contents

Environment

  • Barnadi Wildlife Sanctuary

Science and Technology

  • 2-DG oral drug
  • Co-WIN App

Economy

  • PCA Framework

Polity and Governance

  • Attorney General

Environment

Barnadi Wildlife Sanctuary

Why in News?

Recently, the WWF-India (World Wide Fund for Nature) found a few tigers inhabiting the Barnadi Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam.

About Bardani Wildlife Sanctuary:

  • Located in northern Assam’s Baksa and Udalguri districts bordering Bhutan.
  • It is bordered by the Barnadi and Nalapara river to the west and east respectively.

Protection Status:

  • It was declared as the WLS in 1980 by the Govt. of Assam.
  • It was established particularly to protect the Pygmy Hog and Hispid Hare.

Biodiversity:

  • It is important for threatened species such as the Asian Elephant, Tiger,etc.
  • About 60% of the BWS is known to be
  • Forest type:
    • Tropical Moist Deciduousin the northern part of the Sanctuary,
    • Mixed scrub and grassland in the southern part with few trees.
  • Other Protected Areas in Assam:
    • Dibru-Saikhowa National Park,
    • Manas National Park,
    • Nameri National Park,
    • Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park.
    • Kaziranga National Park.

Science and Technology

2-DG oral drug

Why in News?

  • Dr Reddy’s Labs has recently announced the commercial launch of drug 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG).
  • It is an anti-Covid drug developed indigenously by DRDO.
  • This drug is approved for emergency use as an adjunct therapy for treatment of coronavirus patients in hospital settings.
  • The drug comes in powder form in a sachet, which is taken orally by dissolving it in water.
  • It accumulates around the virus’ infected cells and prevents its’ growth by stopping viral synthesis and energy production.
  • The drug’sselective accumulation only in virally infected cells makes this drug unique.
  • The drug is reported to reduce patient’s average recovery time by two and a half days and oxygen demand by upto 40%.

Co-WIN App

Why in News

India will soon provide an open-source version of its CoWIN app to about 50 countries from Central Asia, Africa and Latin America who have indicated an interest in this technology.

About Co-WIN Platform

  • It is a cloud-based IT platform, supposed to handle minute details for India’s Covid-19 immunisation programme like:
    • Registering beneficiaries,
    • Allocating vaccination centres,
    • Sending text messages with name of their designated vaccinator to beneficiaries
    • Live monitoring of vials in the cold storage.

Agencies Involved:

  • It is owned by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
    • It was earlier used for conducting Pulse Polio and other crucial immunisation programmes in the country.
  • This platform was expanded for roling out Covid-19 vaccines and the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MEITY) along with the National Informatics Centre (NIC) are providing the backend and the tech infrastructure required for it.

Features:

  • Monitoringof the inoculation drive
  • Tracking the listed beneficiaries for vaccination on a real-time basis.
  • Thus, cancounter proxy vaccinations.
  • Aadhaar enabled to ease identification of beneficiary.

Economy

PCA Framework

Why in News?

UCO Bank has urged RBI to lift PCA framework.

About PCA (Prompt and Corrective Action) Framework:

  • PCA norms allow RBI to place certain restrictionslike halting branch expansion and stopping dividend payment to the shareholders.
  • RBI can even cap a bank’s lending limit and exposure to one entity or sector.
  • Other corrective action that can be imposed on banks include:
    • special audit,
    • restructuring operations, and
    • activation of recovery plan.
    • The RBI can also supersede the bank’s board, under PCA.
  • The PCA is invoked when certain prescribedrisk thresholds are breached based on, asset quality, profitability, capital, etc.
  • Another threshold, is maximum tolerance limit, which sets net NPA at over 12% and negative return on assets for four consecutive years.

Banks usual course of action post PCA categorisation:

  • Launch special drives to reduce the stock of NPAs
  • Contain generation of fresh NPAs.
  • Banks are alsonot allowed to enter into new lines of business.

  • RBI also imposesrestrictions on the bank on borrowings from interbank market.

Polity and Governance

Attorney General

Why in News?

GoI has extended the tenure of Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal by another year.

About Attorney General:

  • He is the GoI’s chief legal advisor, and GoI’sprimary lawyer in the Supreme Court of India.
  • He is also apart of the Union Executive.

Appointment and eligibility:

  • Under Article 76(1), he is appointed by the President of India and holds office during the pleasure of the President.
  • He must be a person qualified enough to be appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Courte., he must have either completed 5 years in High Court of any of the Indian states as a judge oratleast 10 years in High Court as an advocate.
  • He must be an Indian Citizen.
  • He may be an eminent jurist, in the eye of the President.

Powers and Functions:

  • He is necessary to provide legal advice to the GoIon matters referred to him. He must also perform other legal duties assigned to him by the President.
  • He has the right of audience in all Courts in Indiaand the right to participate in the proceedings of any house of theParliament, but not to vote.
  • He appears on behalf of GoI in all cases (including suits, appeals and other proceedings) in the Supreme Court of India in which GoI is concerned.
  • He also represents the GoI in any reference made by the President to the Supreme Court under Article 143 of the Constitution.
  • He can accept briefs but cannot appear against the Government.
  • He can’t defend an accused in the criminal proceedingsor accept the directorship of a company without the permission of GoI.
  • He is assisted by Solicitor Generals and Additional Solicitor Generals.
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