DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

Chief of Defence Staff (CDS)

The Chief Of Defence Staff (CDS)  was set up by the Government of India in 2020 on the recommendation of the Kargil Committee headed by K.Subramanyam in 2000.

The first CDS was Gen. Bipin Rawat who joined the office on 1 January 2020.  

The Chief of Defence Staff is described as the ‘first among equals among the service chiefs. The CDS is a four-star General/Officer who will act as the Principal Military Advisor to the Defence Minister on all tri-services (Army, Navy, and Indian Air Force) matters.

Roles and Functions-

• CDS will head Department of Military Affairs (Latest department of Defence Ministry)
• He will be the permanent Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC)
• He will act as the military adviser to the Nuclear Command Authority (chaired by the Prime Minister), which handles India’s nuclear arsenal. 
• He will ensure the integration of land-air-sea operations through the eventual setting up of theatre commands.
• Promoting the use of indigenous equipment by the Services.
• Implement the five-year Defence Capital Acquisition Plan (DCAP) and the two-year roll-on Annual Acquisition Plans.
• CDS will administer the tri-services organizations/agencies related to Cyber and Space.
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Service Conditions-

• Can serve up to a maximum age of 65 years
• He will not be eligible to hold any government office after demitting (resigning) as the CDS.
• No private employment without prior approval for a period of five years after demitting the office of CDS.
• He will have the salary and perquisites equivalent to a service chief

Coonoor 

Located in the Nilgiris District of Tamil Nadu.

 It has an average elevation of 1,850 meters (6,070 feet) above sea level. 

Nilgiri Mountains are part of the Western Ghats. (Highest Peak - Doddabetta, at 2,637 metres (8,652 ft)).

The Nilgiri Hills are part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (itself part of the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves) and form a part of the protected bio reserves in India.

Nigiri mountains are also known as Blue mountains due to the  bluish flowers of kurinji shrubs endemic to that area.

The Nilgiri Hills are separated from the Mysore Plateau to the north by the Moyar River

Nilgiri is surrounded by 3 national parks - 

• Mudumalai National Park (in the northern part of the range where Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu meet)
• Mukurthi National Park lies in the southwest part of the range, in Kerala, and
• Silent Valley National Park lies just to the south

Tribal people of the Nilgiri hills include Badagas, Todas, Kotas, Irullas and Kurumbas. They mainly depend on forests for their day-to-day life.

In July 2005 UNESCO recognized Nilgiri Mountain Railway as a World Heritage Site

MI-17-V5 Helicopter

The Mi-17 (NATO reporting name: Hip) is a Soviet-designed Russian military helicopter family produced by Kazan Helicopters. It is known as the Mi-8M series in Russian service. The helicopter is mostly used as a transport helicopter for various humanitarian and disaster relief missions, troop and arms transport, fire support, convoy escort, patrol, and search-and-rescue (SAR) missions as well as an armed gunship version.

Indian Air Force is using this since 2012

The Defence Services Staff College (DSSC) 

It is a defense service training institution of the Ministry of Defence located in Wellington, Tamil Nadu

It trains officers of all three services of the Indian Armed Forces – (Indian Military Service, Indian Naval Service, Indian Airforce Service), selected officers from the Paramilitary forces and the Civil Services, and Officers from friendly foreign countries for command and staff appointments.

Ken and Betwa Rivers

• Ken and Betwa rivers originate in MP and are the tributaries of Yamuna.
• Ken river originates at Ahirgawan, Kaimur range near Jabalpur district and meets with Yamuna in Banda district of UP
• Betwa River arises in the Vindhya Range just north of Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh. and meets with Yamuna in the Hamirpur district of UP.
• Rajghat, Paricha, and Matatila dams are over Betwa river, whereas Gangau Dam is over Ken river.
• Ken River passes through Panna tiger reserve.

Benefits of river interlinking:

• Enhances water and food security.
• Proper utilization of water.
• Boost to agriculture.
• Disaster mitigation.
• Boost transportation.
• Rejuvenate Bio-diversity

National Perspective Plan for interlinking of rivers:

• The National River Linking Project (NRLP) formally known as the National Perspective Plan, envisages the transfer of water from water ‘surplus’ basins where there is flooding, to water ‘deficit’ basins where there is drought/scarcity, through inter-basin water transfer projects.
• Under the National Perspective Plan (NPP), the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) has identified 30 links (16 under the Peninsular Component and 14 under the Himalayan Component) for the preparation of feasibility reports (FRs).
• The NPP for transferring water from water surplus basins to water-deficit basins was prepared in August 1980.

Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill, 2021

• The Bill establishes the National Board, the State Boards and the National Registry to regulate and supervise Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) clinics
• It establishes ART Banks to promote ethical practice.
• It will help in maintaining a database of all clinics and medical professionals serving in the field.
• It proposes stringent punishment for those who attempt to control the offspring’s sex, sell embryos or gametes.

National Nutrition Mission / Poshan Abhiyaan

Nodal Ministry - Ministry of Women and Child Development

It is under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS)which ensures convergence with various programs i.e., Anganwadi Services, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), Scheme for Adolescent Girls (SAG) of MWCD Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), National Health Mission (NHM), Swachh-Bharat Mission, Public Distribution System (PDS), Department Food & Public Distribution, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation.

This flagship program is to improve nutritional outcomes for children, pregnant women, and lactating mothers. 

Launched on 8th March, on the occasion of International Women’s Day 2018, the POSHAN Abhiyaan directs the attention of the country towards the problem of malnutrition and addresses it in a mission mode.

It targeted the goal of attaining “Kuposhan Mukt Bharat" or malnutrition-free India, by 2022.

Post the launch of the Abhiyaan, NITI Aayog was entrusted with closely monitoring the scheme and undertaking periodic evaluations.

Aims:

• To reduce stunting, undernutrition, anemia (among young children, women, and adolescent girls), and low birth weight by 2%, 2%, 3%, and 2% per annum respectively.
• To address the problem of malnutrition in a mission mode

Finance:

• 50% of the total budget comes from the World Bank or other multilateral development banks and the rest of the 50% is through the Centre’s budgetary support.
• The Centre's budgetary support is further divided into 60:40 between the Centre and the States, 90:10 for the north-eastern region and the Himalayan States, and 100% for the Union Territories (UTs) without legislature.

Prevalence in India: Kindly refer to the November 25 news report on the NHFS-5 Survey on Malnutrition in India.

Unified Payment Interface (UPI)

• It is an instant real-time payment system, allowing users to transfer money on a real-time basis, across multiple bank accounts without revealing details of one’s bank account to the other party, using a single application.
• UPI is an indigenous payment system which works with the help of a smartphone.
• UPI was developed by National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) under the guidelines of RBI. UPI is based on the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) platform. NPCI launched UPI with 21 member banks in 2016.
• The top UPI apps today include PhonePe, Paytm, Google Pay, Amazon Pay and BHIM, the latter being the Government offering.
• The per transaction limit of UPI is Rs.1 lakh.
• As part of an agreement, India's UPI will be linked to Singapore's Pay Now.

National Payments Corporation of India

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), an umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India, is an initiative of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) under the provisions of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007.

It is a “Not for Profit” Company under the provisions of Section 25 of Companies Act 1956 (now Section 8 of Companies Act 2013), with an intention to provide infrastructure to the entire Banking system in India for physical as well as electronic payment and settlement systems.

List of other NPCI Products - 

• Bharat Interface for Money-Unified Payments Interface (BHIM-UPI)
• Aadhaar enabled Payment System (AePS)
• National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC)
• National Automated Clearing House (NACH)
• Immediate Payment Service (IMPS)
• Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS)
• RuPay

RBI Regulatory Sandbox

The Regulatory Sandbox(RS) usually refers to live testing of new products or services in a controlled/test regulatory environment for which regulators may (or may not) permit certain regulatory relaxations for the limited purpose of the testing. The RS allows the regulator, the innovators, the financial service providers (as potential deployers of the technology) and the customers (as final users) to conduct field tests to collect evidence on the benefits and risks of new financial innovations, while carefully monitoring and containing their risks. It can provide a structured avenue for the regulator to engage with the ecosystem and to develop innovation-enabling or innovation-responsive regulations that facilitate delivery of relevant, low-cost financial products. The RS is an important tool which enables more dynamic, evidence-based regulatory environments which learn from, and evolve with, emerging technologies.

Objectives

• The objective of the RS is to foster responsible innovation in financial services, promote efficiency and bring benefit to consumers.
• The RS is, at its core, a formal regulatory programme for market participants to test new products, services or business models with customers in a live environment, subject to certain safeguards and oversight. 
• The proposed financial service to be launched under the RS should include new or emerging technology, or use of existing technology in an innovative way and should address a problem and bring benefits to consumers.

On Device Wallet

On Device Wallet or mobile wallet is a virtual wallet that stores payment card information on a mobile device. These are a convenient way for a user to make in-store payments and can be used at merchants listed with the mobile wallet service provider. Eg - Apple Wallet, Samsung Pay

RBI Accommodative Stance / Monetary Easing

Literally the word accommodative means willing to fit in someone’s wishes or needs.

This happens when a central bank (RBI) attempts to expand the overall money supply to boost the economy when the economic growth is slowing down. The major aim is to increase spending. 

Accommodative monetary policy is implemented to allow the money supply to rise in line with national income and the demand for money. This is also known as “easy monetary policy” or Loose Credit.

When the economy slows down, the central bank (RBI) can implement an Accommodative Monetary Policy to stimulate the economy. It does this by running a succession of decreases in the Interest rates, making the cost of borrowing cheaper.

This makes borrowing easier for businesses, which stimulates investment and expansion of operations. The immediate result of monetary easing is generally a boost in stock prices. In the medium term, it promotes economic growth. 

However, if this policy remains for too long, it can lead to a situation in which there is a glut of currency or too many money chasing too few goods and services, leading to inflation. For this reason, most central banks alternate between policies of monetary easing and monetary tightening to encourage growth while keeping inflation under control.

World Inequality Lab

• It is a research laboratory focusing on the study of inequality worldwide. The WIL hosts the World Inequality Database, the most extensive public database on global inequality dynamics.
• It gathers social scientists committed to helping everyone understand the drivers of inequality worldwide through evidence-based research.
• Missions:
  • The extension of the World Inequality Database.
  • The publication of working papers, reports and methodological handbooks.
  • The dissemination in academic circles and public debates.

IUCN

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

●       IUCN is a membership union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations

●       Created in 1948, it is the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it.

●       It is headquartered in Gland,  Switzerland.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species.

BCCI

The Board of Control for Cricket in India is the governing body for cricket in India and is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India.

Headquarters: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

Founded: December 1928

President: Sourav Ganguly

Men’s Coach: Rahul Dravid

Women’s Coach: Ramesh Powar

Germany

Germany is a Western European country with a landscape of forests, rivers, mountain ranges and North Sea beaches. It is the seventh largest country in Europe.

Capital: Berlin

Currency: Euro

President: Frank Walter Steinmeier