UPSC Key—29th March, 2024: Elephant Corridors in India, GDP Deflator and Role of Governor in Legislative Procedure

5,000 Indians in Cambodia, forced into cyber scams; MHA takes note

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Basics of cyber security

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Over 5,000 Indians are trapped in Cambodia, where they are allegedly being held against their will and forced to carry out cyber frauds on people back home. The government estimates that the fraudsters have allegedly duped people of at least Rs 500 crore in India over the past six months.

• What do you understand by the term ‘Cyber Slavery’?

• Why Indians are trapped in Cambodia?

• What steps Government of India has taken so far?

• Why Cyber Security is required?

• What kind of data’s are vulnerable and What information can be compromised?

• What are the or what should be the features of Cyber Security?

• Know Cyber Security initiatives in India- Computer Emergency Response Team – India (CERT-IN), Cyber Surakshit Bharat Initiative, National Cyber Security Coordination Centre (NCCC), Cyber Swachhta Kendra, Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), Cyberdome (Kerala)

• Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI)-Know the facts like who publishes and what are the components of this Index etc.

• What is the difference between cyberslavery and cyber fraud?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍PIL against ‘new age’ cyber crimes: Delhi HC seeks Centre, RBI stand

EXPRESS NETWORK

Stage-two test a success, Skyroot closer to India’s 1^st pvt orbital rocket launch

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nanotechnology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Space-tech company Skyroot Aerospace has successfully test-fired the second stage of its rocket Vikram-1, the company said Thursday, a major landmark that pushes it closer to India’s first private orbital rocket launch in mid-2024.

• What is Skyroot?

• “This is a significant milestone for the Indian space industry, marking the successful test of the largest propulsion system ever designed and manufactured by the Indian private sector so far”-Explain

• The Vikram-1 rocket-Know key features

• The Department of Space and ISRO are considering bringing in private players to the space industry for what reasons?

• Have you heard of “Mission Prarambh”?

• Do You Know-Vikram-1 is a three-stage, solid-fuel based rocket. Testing of the “second stage” is significant because this stage propels satellites from the dense atmosphere of Earth to the deep vacuum of outer space. “This is a significant milestone for the Indian space industry, marking the successful test of the largest propulsion system ever designed and manufactured by the Indian private sector so far, and the first carbon-composite-built motor tested at ISRO,” said Pawan Chandana, co-founder and CEO of Skyroot Aerospace. “All test parameters are within expected bounds, and this achievement takes us another step closer to the upcoming orbital launch of the Vikram-1 rocket,” he added. Chandana had earlier told The Indian Express that Skyroot is planning to launch Vikram 1 “in the middle of this year” and has already signed up customers for the first orbital launch.

The test was conducted Wednesday at the propulsion testbed of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) at its Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, Skyroot said. It lasted 85 seconds and recorded a peak thrust at sea-level of 186 kilonewtons (kN), which will translate to about 235kN during flight in vacuum, the company said. Skyroot had in 2022 carried out a sub-orbital launch — taking payloads just to the edge of outer space — with its single-stage rocket Vikram-S.

Earlier this week, the sub-orbital launch by another private space company, Agnikul, was postponed after a rehearsal. Apart from the “second-stage” testing of Vikram-1, the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre shared its proprietary head-mounted safe arm (HMSA), an electromechanical device that enables or disables triggering of the explosive systems in a rocket to operate it safely.
This comes days after the first sub-orbital launch by the second private launch provider Agnikul was postponed after a rehearsal.

• What is Low Earth Orbit (LEO)?

• What is cryogenic engine?

• Does ISRO have a cryogenic engine?

• Who made cryogenic engine for ISRO?

• For Your Information-According to ISRO, A Cryogenic rocket stage is more efficient and provides more thrust for every kilogram of propellant it burns compared to solid and earth-storable liquid propellant rocket stages. Specific impulse (a measure of the efficiency) achievable with cryogenic propellants (liquid Hydrogen and liquid Oxygen) is much higher compared to earth storable liquid and solid propellants, giving it a substantial payload advantage. However, cryogenic stage is technically a very complex system compared to solid or earth-storable liquid propellant stages due to its use of propellants at extremely low temperatures and the associated thermal and structural problems.

• How India’s first privately developed launch vehicle will be Beneficial for India’s Space Sector?

• What about Foreign Investment in Space sector?

• Is there any Government initiatives taken so far in this regard?

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of private players in the space sector?

• What is Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center or IN-SPACe?

• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)-About the Organisation

• Know about India’s satellite launch vehicles

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍India’s first private rocket signals a foray into a field dominated by governments

Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:
📍India has achieved remarkable successes in unmanned space missions including the Chandrayaan and Mars Orbiter Mission, but has not ventured into manned space missions, both in terms of technology and logistics? Explain critically (UPSC GS3, 2017)
📍Discuss India’s achievements in the field of Space Science and Technology. How the application of this technology has helped India in its socio-economic development? (UPSC GS3, 2016)

Arunachal, Assam told to ready elephant corridor plan

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-The wildlife division of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) recently directed the forest departments of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam to prepare a proposal to notify the Dulung-Subansiri elephant corridor – downstream of the 2000 MW Lower Subansiri hydroelectric project.

• Map Work-Dulung-Subansiri elephant corridor

• Distribution and Population of Elephants in India-Know in detail

• Why Elephant Corridors in India is required?

• Have you heard of Project Elephant?

• What Current Data on Elephants says in India’s context?

• For Your Information-The proposal to demarcate the corridor will be presented during the next meeting of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL), which is the apex government body on wildlife conservation and regulation of development projects in wildlife areas. Notification of the elephant corridor will involve physically marking the relevant areas used by elephants on the ground as well as potentially notifying parts of the corridor as either a wildlife sanctuary or a conservation reserve.

Including the corridor as part of a legally notified protected area will provide legal sanctity to it. An expert committee of the NBWL, which was inspecting the compliance of conditions imposed on the Arunachal Pradesh government, as part of the clearance of the hydroelectric project, had recommended the notification of the elephant corridor in May last year.

The ministry’s directions to the state departments come in the backdrop of the NBWL’s meeting in January this year, which saw deliberations on ways to protect the critical elephant corridor. During the deliberations, members of the wildlife board concluded that this corridor is important, as it facilitates the east-west movement of elephants across the Subansiri River. The corridor, however, is fragile and requires urgent restoration efforts, they had noted.

The proposal to demarcate the Dulung-Subansiri elephant corridor downstream of the 2000 MW Lower Subansiri hydroelectric project will be presented during the next meeting of the National Board for Wildlife. An elephant corridor is a strip of land that enables connectivity in otherwise fragmented wildlife habitats. They help animal movement and enable genetic exchange which in turn helps in sustaining elephant population.

The wildlife board’s recommendation to the states was based on the Wildlife Institute of India’s (WII) rapid assessment of the elephant corridor, which looked at the corridor’s functionality to elephants as well as the potential impacts of the hydroelectric projects and related developments on the corridor. The NBWL had commissioned the rapid assessment last year to recommend ways to ensure connectivity between Panir Reserve Forest and Dulung Reserve Forest.

The 2000 MW Lower Subansiri hydro-project, executed by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), has been in the works since 2003 and is yet to be commissioned. It is located in the Kamle and Dhemaji districts of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, respectively, and is being constructed on the Subansiri River, a tributary of the Brahmaputra River.
As per the WII’s study, even before the project’s commissioning, the establishment of a residential complex, offices, school, and other recreational spaces by the NHPC has already caused both habitat loss and hindrance to elephant movement. “Numerous commercial establishments and roads have proliferated, adding to the biotic pressure on the already tenuous elephant habitat,” the WII’s report stated.

“The Dulung-Subansiri corridor is functional and of vital importance in the larger landscape for elephants. However, the corridor is tenuous at present and thus needs to be immediately notified and marked on the ground. It is also timely to further strengthen the corridor,” the WII report added.

The WII report had also pointed out that hydropeaking for power generation from the project will pose a threat of sweeping away elephants, especially calves, due to flash floods. “Peaking operations resulting in a sudden increase in water depth by nearly 2.0 meters and accompanied by velocity could increase the risk of elephants, particularly calves, getting swept by flash floods,” the report said.

Hydropeaking refers to regulating the flow of water released from a dam to generate power, depending on demands. Even as the threats posed by hydropeaking were discussed during the NBWL’s January meeting, it has not yet commissioned any hydrological studies, as suggested by the WII, to understand the wider impacts of hydropeaking downstream of the power project.

• What is the Constitutional Provisions for Wildlife in Indian Constitution?

• Why Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972?

• What are the Salient Features of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972?

• How many bodies are established under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972?

• National Board for Wildlife (NBWL)-Know in detail

• National Board for Wildlife-Members, functions and role

• As a “Statutory Organization,” the National Board for Wildlife performs “advisory” functions-True or false?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Coming soon, a project to secure India’s elephant corridors

Previous year prelims question based on same theme:

📍With reference to Indian elephants, consider the following statements:
1. The leader of an elephant group is a female.
2. The maximum gestation period can be 22 months.
3. An elephant can normally go on calving till the age of 40 years only.
4. Among the States in India, the highest elephant population is in Kerala.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (Please refer UPSC prelims question paper 2020)

THE IDEAS PAGE

The deflator problem

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Rajeswari Sengupta writes: Official data shows that the Indian economy has been growing at 7-8 per cent in recent times. While economic activity seems to have recovered strongly after the pandemic, the actual improvement is uncertain because there are measurement issues. One important issue lies with the GDP deflator. Several experts wrote about this problem after the release of the 2011-12 base year series of national accounts. It’s time to revisit this issue.

• “One important issue lies with the GDP deflator”-Elaborate

• What are the arguments and accusations about GDP?

• For Your Information-According to the latest figures, nominal GDP increased by 10.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2023-24 (October-December). This translated into a real growth of 8.4 per cent, implying that the deflator was 1.7 per cent. The statistical problems are quite technical, and get very complex, very quickly.  In the old GDP measurement methodology, estimates of real GDP relied heavily on volume-based indices such as the index of industrial production. Real growth (for the most part) was calculated directly, and a deflator was then applied to produce a nominal growth figure. Hence, problems in the deflator did not really matter for real growth rate.

Under a new methodology adopted in 2015, GDP is measured in nominal terms, which is then deflated by price indices to derive the real numbers. The deflator has therefore become crucial. If the deflator underestimates actual inflation, then real growth will be overstated. This is what has been happening for the last year. There are two separate problems with India’s GDP deflator.

First, the National Statistics Office (NSO) does not use the international standard measure of output prices — the producer price index — to deflate GDP. This is because India does not have a PPI. The NSO proxies the PPI with the wholesale price index (WPI). However, the WPI does not track producer prices very well. It is, in fact, heavily skewed towards commodities such as oil and steel which are essential inputs in commodity importing countries like India. Also, the WPI does not measure the price of services, and services constitute two-thirds of the economy. This skew in the composition of WPI means that whenever commodity prices fall steeply, the WPI will decline, even if producer prices are still rising. This has been a major issue recently. Since September 2022, consumer price index (CPI) inflation has been above 5 per cent, as producers kept increasing prices, but WPI inflation has steadily declined, because global commodity prices have fallen. During April-December, 2023, WPI inflation averaged -1.0 per cent. This persistent fall in WPI inflation artificially inflated real GDP during 2023-24.

Second, most G20 countries calculate real gross value added (GVA) in the manufacturing sector using a methodology known as double deflation. In this method, nominal outputs are deflated using an output deflator, while inputs are deflated using a separate input deflator. Then the real inputs are subtracted from real outputs to derive real GVA. India, by contrast, deflates nominal numbers using a single deflator.

• Why does this matter?

• Can anything be done to quickly resolve this problem?

• “Whatever one can rightly say about India, the opposite is also true” and India’s GDP-connect the dot

• The primary responsibility for the measurement of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is with whom?

• What do you understand by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)?

• How the Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is calculated?

• What is the difference between real GDP and nominal GDP?

• What are the different types of Gross Domestic Product?

• GDP-How it is Calculated?

• Gross domestic product (GDP) and Gross National Product (GNP)-Key Differences

• What is Gross Value added (GVA)?

• How are GDP and GVA different?

• What do the GDP data show?

• What do the GVA data show?

• One of the most important tasks to measure GDP accurately is the immediate revision of the base year-why?

• The country’s GDP is presently computed with base year?

• “GDP estimates based on an outdated base would not adequately capture new activities being undertaken in the
economy”-What is the problem with current base yaer?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍GDP growth accelerates to 8.4% in Q3, estimate for FY24 pegged at 7.6%

EXPLAINED

Why Nov-Dec temperatures may decide the rabi output

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Major crops-cropping patterns in various parts of the country, – different types of irrigation and irrigation systems storage, transport and marketing of agricultural produce and issues and related constraints; e-technology in the aid of farmers.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Wheat, in recent times, has been a victim of terminal heat stress – the tendency for mercury spikes in March, just when the crop is in the final grain formation and filling stage.

• ‘Wheat, in recent times, has been a victim of terminal heat stress’-Explain

• What is terminal heat stress?

• What are the effects of terminal heat stress?

• The unusual heat of March leads to lower wheat production-Analyse India’s wheat production and how it is affected?

• Wheat Production in India-Rabi or Kharif Crop?

• Wheat Production in India-Know all the facts like Highest producing States, Geography and Environment associated with Wheat Production like Soil, temperature, Rainfall and Humidity etc.

• Do You Know-Wheat is sensitive to both heat stress and rain/ thunderstorms during the terminal grain filling and ripening period. This is the time when the crop’s earheads are heavy with grains. The more the weight accumulated from grain-filling, the more vulnerable is the crop to rain. These, when accompanied by high-velocity winds, make the stems prone to “lodging” or bending and even falling flat on the ground.

• Would wheat prices go up if production falls?

• How does one compensate the farmers for their losses (crop quantity and quality)?

• ‘The best policy instrument for these types of weather-related damages, be it unseasonal rains, hails or heat waves, is the PM-Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)’-Elaborate

• Which is the main rabi growing states in India?

• Kharif and Rabi Crops-Compare and Contrast

• Rabi crops, MSP and Doubling Farmers Income-How they are interconnected?

• Recommendation of Ashok Dalwai Committee and M. S. Swaminathan Committee-Key Highlights

• The Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP)-Know in Detail

• The Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP) and Minimum support prices (MSP)-Connect the dots

• How Government fix MSPs of crops before every planting season?

• How extreme heat affects crops?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Dry, cold winter and rabi crop

Previous Year UPSC Prelims Covering Similar Theme:
📍 With reference to the cultivation of Kharif crops in India in the last five years, consider the following statements: (Please refer GS1 Paper 2019 for complete question)
📍Consider the following crops: (Please refer GS1 Paper 2013 for complete question)
1. Cotton
2. Groundnut
3. Rice
4. Wheat
Which of these are Kharif crops?

Governor’s assent to state laws

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.

Mains Examination: 

• General Studies II: Appointment to various Constitutional posts, powers, functions and responsibilities of various Constitutional Bodies.

• General Studies II: Functions and responsibilities of the Union and the States, issues and challenges pertaining to the federal structure, devolution of powers and finances up to local levels and challenges therein

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-The Kerala government last week approached the Supreme Court saying President Droupadi Murmu had withheld assent to four Bills passed by the state “while disclosing no reason whatsoever”, and that Governor Arif Mohammed Khan had withheld assent to seven Bills — some for as long as two years — before referring them to the President. Kerala, which is ruled by the Left Democratic Front, urged the top court to declare the referring of state Bills to the President as “unconstitutional and lacking in good faith”.

• What is the newest chapter in the conflict between states ruled by opposition parties, and their Governors?

• The Kerala government and Kerala Governor-what is the current issue?

• Why the state government would approach the Supreme Court?

• What is the standard legislative procedure in state legislature?

• How Bills are passed in state assembly?

• What is role of governor in legislative procedure in state legislature?

• Every bill, after it is passed by the assembly or by both the Houses in case of a bicameral legislature, is presented to the governor for his assent. There are four alternatives before the governor-what are they?

• If the governor gives his assent to the bill, then what happens with the bill?

• If the governor withholds his assent to the bill, then what happens?

• Can the Governor withholds the Bills indefinitely?

• What Kerala Governor doing with the bills?

• Do You Know-Article 200 of the Constitution states that after a Bill has been passed by the state legislature, “it shall be presented to the Governor”. The Governor, then, has three options: give assent to the Bill, withhold assent, or reserve the Bill for consideration by the President.

For situations where assent is withheld, Article 200 states that “the Governor may, as soon as possible after the presentation to him…return the Bill…together with a message requesting that the House or Houses will reconsider the Bill or any specified provisions thereof…and if the Bill is passed again by the House or Houses with or without amendment and presented to the Governor for assent, the Governor shall not withhold assent therefrom.”

The latter part of the proviso clearly gives the state government the final say on enacting legislation. But it is the part saying “as soon as possible after the presentation to him”, which has led to states approaching the SC. Since the article does not provide a timeline, Governors have often withheld assent to Bills for extended periods, effectively leaving them, and the state legislature, in limbo.

• What is the role of the President of India in State legislature?

• For Your Information-In situations where a Bill is sent to the President for consideration, the President can either give or withhold assent. This is dealt with in Article 201. If assent is withheld, the President requests the Governor to return the Bill to the state legislature for reconsideration. The state government then has six months to reconsider the Bill — failing to do so results in its lapsing.

If the Bill is passed once again by the state legislature, it must be sent back to the President who, unlike the Governor, is under no obligation to give assent when assessing the reconsidered Bill. This is the only situation in which state governments do not have the final say in their own law-making process.

The Kerala government’s petition terms the actions of Governor Khan and President Murmu as “manifestly arbitrary”, i.e., an action that is unreasonable, irrational and which, as a result, violates the right to equality. The petition argues that the decision to keep Bills pending violates Article 200 by not making a decision “as soon as possible”. As such, the Governor had “subverted the functioning” of the state legislature and “rendered its existence itself ineffective and otiose” (serving no practical purpose), the government has said.

On President Murmu’s decision to withhold assent to four of the Bills referred to her, the Kerala government has argued that this was done without giving “any reason whatsoever”. This, it claims, is in violation of Article 201, which states that the President is required to return the Bill with a message containing “such amendments as he may recommend”.

The Kerala government’s petition terms the actions of Governor Khan and President Murmu as “manifestly arbitrary”, i.e., an action that is unreasonable, irrational and which, as a result, violates the right to equality. The petition argues that the decision to keep Bills pending violates Article 200 by not making a decision “as soon as possible”. As such, the Governor had “subverted the functioning” of the state legislature and “rendered its existence itself ineffective and otiose” (serving no practical purpose), the government has said.

On President Murmu’s decision to withhold assent to four of the Bills referred to her, the Kerala government has argued that this was done without giving “any reason whatsoever”. This, it claims, is in violation of Article 201, which states that the President is required to return the Bill with a message containing “such amendments as he may recommend”.

• The governor enjoys only a suspensive veto-What is suspensive veto?

• How powerful is a Governor?

• Office of Governor-know the historical background

• Why has the Governor’s role and powers recently become a matter of contention?

• What is the relationship between the Governor and the state government?

• Various attempts were made to understand the role of the governor to strengthening centre-state relations-Can you name those committees and their recommendations?

• Administrative Reforms Commission of 1968, the Rajamanar Committee of 1969, the Sarkaria commission of 1988 and Punchhi Commission-What were their recommendations in the context of role of Governor?

• The Sarkaria Commission, set up in 1983 to look into Centre-state relations, proposed certain points for the selection of Governors-Know them in detail

• What Punchhi Committee, constituted in 2007 on Centre-state relations said on selection the Governor?

• The Punchhi Committee recommended deleting the “Doctrine of Pleasure” from the Constitution-What is “Doctrine of Pleasure”?

• What Supreme Court of India said about the Governor’s role?

• How things changed after the S.R. Bommai case ,1994?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Explained: Governor’s powers, friction with states, and why this happens often

📍The 360° UPSC Debate | Does India really need state Governors?

Previous Year Prelims Questions Based on same theme:
📍Which one of the following suggested that the Governor should be an eminent person from outside the State and should be a detached figure without intense political links or should not have taken part in politics in the recent past? (Please refer Prelims 2019 GS question Paper for complete question)
📍Which of the following are the discretionary powers given to the Governor of a State? (Please refer Prelims 2014 GS question Paper for complete question)
1. Sending a report to the President of India for imposing the President’s rule
2. Appointing the Ministers
3. Reserving certain bills passed by the State Legislature for consideration of the President of India
4. Making the rules to conduct the business of the State Government

CARRYING CASH DURING ELECTION SEASON: WHAT EC RULES SAY

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Salient features of the Representation of People’s Act.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-With the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) in force across the country since the announcement of Lok Sabha elections on March 16, law enforcement agencies are on high alert for movement of cash, liquor, jewellery and other freebies that could be used to influence voters.

• What are the rules for carrying cash and other items?

• What happens after a seizure?

• For Your Information-The EC’s efforts are meant to keep an eye on campaign expenditure by candidates, which is capped at Rs 95 lakh per constituency in bigger states, and Rs 75 lakh per constituency in smaller ones. However, this adversely affects citizens as well.

For instance, according to EC instructions, the CISF or police authorities at airports are supposed to “instantaneously report to the Income Tax Department” anyone carrying cash worth more than Rs.10 lakh, or more than 1 kg in bullion. The Income Tax Department then has to “make necessary verification as per the Income Tax Laws and take necessary measures if no satisfactory explanation is given.” This means that cash or bullion can be seized till verification is completed, in order to ensure that it is not related to any political party or candidate.

At check-posts controlled by the surveillance teams, the EC makes it clear that “if cash of more than Rs 10 lakh is found in a vehicle, and there is no suspicion of commission of any crime or linkage to any candidate, agent or party functionary, then the SST shall not seize the cash, and [simply] pass on the information to the Income-Tax authority, for necessary action under Income Tax Laws.”

However, if a vehicle carrying a candidate, or his/her agent or party worker is found with over Rs 50,000 in cash or drugs, liquor, arms, or gift items worth over Rs.10,000, then the cash or other items will be seized. If during checking, there is any suspicion of a crime, the seizure will be done under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and an FIR will be filed within 24 hours.
When it comes to carrying liquor across state borders, the excise laws of the respective state apply. For instance, some states allow two bottles of sealed liquor to be carried in.

In case any cash or other items are seized, authorities are meant to return them if they are not related to any candidate or a crime.
“After seizure, the seized amount shall be deposited in such manner as directed by the Court and a copy of seizure of cash, in excess of Rs 10 lacs shall be forwarded to the Income Tax authority, engaged for the purpose,” the EC says.

A district-level committee will look at grievances, “in order to avoid inconvenience to the public and genuine persons”. The Committee, comprising the district election office’s nodal officer for expenditure monitoring, and the district treasury officer, shall suo-motu examine each case of seizure where no FIR/complaint has been filed, or where the seizure is not linked with any candidate, political party or election campaign. Moreover, it shall take immediate steps to return any cash seized, as per SoP given by the EC.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Model Code of Conduct comes into force for 2024 Lok Sabha elections: What does it mean?   

From birds to animals on land, sea: what’s driving deadly strain of H5N1?

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health,

Education, Human Resources.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Since 2020, a highly pathogenic type of bird flu, H5N1, has been spreading across the globe, posing an existential threat to birds and wildlife. The virus has infected birds in more than 80 countries (as of December 2023) and resulted in culling of millions of chickens and turkeys at commercial poultry farms. It also struck numerous species of wild birds, such as gulls and terns, killing them by thousands.

• What is bird flu?

• For Your Information-Bird flu, also known as avian flu, refers to an infectious viral illness that mainly infects and spreads among poultry and some wild birds. There are different strains of bird flu virus, which have been circulating for a very long time among at least 100 bird species, including wild waterfowl, such as ducks and geese, without much harming them.
From time to time, a form of the flu virus jumps from wild birds to poultry farms, and replicates in cramped warehouses of farmed birds. It then quickly evolves into a highly pathogenic flu virus that causes a larger wave of illness and death than usual among birds.

The currently circulating type of H5N1 is one such highly pathogenic flu virus. It has “descended from a virus that caused an outbreak on a goose farm in Guangdong, China, in 1996. That virus — one of a type of virus known as H5N1 — was highly pathogenic and killed more than 40 per cent of the farm birds it infected,” according to a report by Vox.
The new version of H5N1 first emerged in Europe in 2020 and then rapidly reached Europe, Africa, and Asia. By late 2021, it had spread to North America and in the fall of 2022, it appeared in South America. In February 2024, the virus stormed through mainland Antarctica.

• How has H5N1 impacted animals across the world?

• What’s behind the large-scale spread?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Explained: What is bird flu? How severe is the outbreak in India?

For any queries and feedback, contact priya.shukla@indianexpress.com

The Indian Express UPSC Key is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel and stay updated with the latest Updates.