23 May 2024, The Indian EXPRESS
No legal mandate to upload Form 17C, EC informs SC
Page no- 1
GS2- Salient Features of the Representation of People’s Act.
- Responding to a plea for uploading voter turnout data, polling station-wise, on its website at the close of polling day, the Election Commission told the Supreme Court Wednesday that it cannot upload Form 17C, which is the record of votes polled at a polling station, because there is no legal mandate to give it to anyone other than candidates and their agents.
Army conducts own survey on scheme for Agniveers, may recommend tweaks
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GS3- Various Security Forces and Agencies and their Mandate
- The Army is conducting an internal survey on the Agnipath scheme to assess its impact on its recruitment process so far, based on which it is likely to draw up recommendations for the incoming government on possible changes to the scheme, The Indian Express has learnt.
RBI’s record dividend of Rs 2.1 lakh cr to govt can help trim deficit
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GS3- Government Budgeting
- The Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday approved a highest-ever surplus transfer, or dividend, of Rs 2.11 lakh crore to the Central government for the accounting year 2023-24.
- This amount is much higher than both the budgeted (Rs 1.02 lakh crore announced in the Interim Budget for FY2025, including dividends from banks and financial institutions) and market expectation of Rs 1-1.1 lakh crore surplus, and would come as an unexpected boost to the government’s fiscal position.
Southeast Asia is origin of at least 45% cyber frauds targeting India: Officials
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GS3- Basics of Cyber Security
- Analysis of data by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), a division of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), has revealed that around 7,000 cyber-related complaints on average are registered with the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) daily and most of the frauds have origin in three Southeast Asian countries — Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos.
The India-Iran reconnect
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GS2- Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and Agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests
- The death of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter accident on May 20 has added another layer of uncertainty in a region already wracked by political tensions and war.
- What would this mean for India? It is unlikely that there will be any significant shift in Iran’s domestic or external policies since it is the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who will continue to exercise overall authority in the country.
To whom the forest belong
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GS3- Conservation, Environmental Pollution and Degradation
- The National Forest Academy has played a very important role in the field of environment. Last week, the Supreme Court (SC) commented on the importance of the environment and forests saying, “Human beings indulge themselves in selective amnesia when it comes to fathom the significance of forests… It’s the spirit of the forest that moves the earth.”
Mobile PLI scheme may be extended beyond 2026
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GS3- Changes in Industrial Policy and their Effects on Industrial Growth
- Smartphone PLI (production-linked incentive), the most successful of all 14 such schemes, may be extended by a couple of years beyond 2025-26 when it officially ends.
- The five-year PLI scheme, which started in 2020 ends in 2026, and each company has the flexibility to choose any five consecutive years.
- While Apple has chosen the period of 2021-2026, for Samsung it’s between 2020-2025.
Vajpayee, Gowda, Gujral
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GS1- Post-independence Consolidation and Reorganization within the country
- From winning a record mandate in 1984 to suffering humiliation five years later, from clawing back in a coalition in 1991 to sinking to its worst Lok Sabha performance until then — the 1980s and 90s were a political rollercoaster for the Congress.
- The election of 1996 was historic also because it brought the BJP to power for the first time, albeit for only 13 days.
- What followed was a third attempt at building a coalition government at the Centre after 1977 and 1989 — those experiments had lasted until 1979 and 1991 respectively; the 1996 edition would collapse in 1998.
Silent demise of world’s rangelands: why this matters
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GS1- Distribution of Key Natural Resources across the world (including South Asia and the Indian sub-continent)
- About half of the world’s rangelands are degraded and need policy interventions, and communities depending on them need focused support, according to a new report of the United Nations Convention on Combating Desertification (UNCCD).
Gopi Thotakura becomes India’s first space tourist: What is space tourism?
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GS3- Awareness in the fields of Space
- On Sunday (May 19), India-born aviator and commercial pilot Gopi Thotakura along with five other space tourists became the latest set of individuals to make a short recreational trip to space.
- Thotakura, who is based in the United States, is the first space tourist from India but about 50 others have made such trips, most of them in the last three years.
