1. INDIA OF TOMORROW PROGRAMME (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 - Economy

Context: The Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE.CO), IIM Ahmedabad’s startup incubator and investor, has brought on board Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) as a limited partner to back its new accelerator fund for investing in early-stage deeptech startups.

Key Points

• The development bank currently holds a corpus of INR 10,000 Cr under its Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) scheme launched in 2016, investing in Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) which in turn invest in startups.

• The government-owned lender will contribute ?20 crore, or half of the fund’s total corpus. CIIE.CO will provide the rest.
• The fund will aim to invest in pre-seed stage deep-tech startups in the country.
• The partnership is a part of SIDBI’s programme titled India of Tomorrow, under which it collaborates with different incubators in India
• Through this, SIDBI aims to enable seed funding to startups in exchange for equity and promote deeptech and science-led innovation
• The primary focus of the initiative is to support the startups with mentorship, ideas and technologies needed for India’s 2047 goal of becoming self-reliant in tech-based products and services space.

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2. ONLINE GAMING INDUSTRY (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 - Economy)

Context:  Softening its stance, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council decided to implement a 28 percent tax on electronic gaming, casinos, and horse racing, but this would be applied on the initial amount paid upon entry, and not on the total value of each bet placed.

• The proposed amendments are likely to be introduced from October 1, with a comprehensive review to be conducted six months after implementation.
• Despite dissent from a few states, including Goa, Sikkim, and Delhi, the Council proceeded with the decision without a vote, as the majority of states were in agreement.

Size of this gaming industry

• India’s gaming industry is expected to become a $5 billion industry by 2025, growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 28-30 per cent.
• The real-money gaming segment generated over ?10,000 crore in revenue in 2022.
• Some of the prominent companies in the sector are Games 24*7 which also operates Rummy Circle, Dream 11, MPL, Ace2Three, Gameskraft, apart from several others.
• Currently, online gaming companies pay the government a GST of 18 per cent levied on the Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) or the platform fee. Besides this, TDS of 30 per cent is deducted on the winnings. 
• Online gamers and poker players did not have any additional impact of GST on the value of bets placed by them, except for the platform fee collected by the online gaming company, till now.
• The high tax rate will make it more expensive for players to participate in online gaming. 
• This could lead to players seeking out offshore or illegitimate platforms that do not charge GST, or that charge a lower rate. 
• This would be a major setback for the legitimate online gaming industry in India, as it would allow these offshore and illegitimate platforms to gain an unfair advantage. 
• This could have several negative consequences, including the proliferation of gambling addiction and the loss of government revenue

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3. UNICORN STARTUP (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 - Economy)

Context: Emphasising that economic empowerment of women fuels growth, PM highlighted that at 1.4 million, 46% of elected representatives in India’s rural local bodies are women, and an increasing number of women joining self help groups has also been a powerful force for change.

• The PM highlighted that 15% of India’s unicorn startups have at least one woman founder, with a total wealth of $40 billion.
• Nearly, 80% of 'Stand-Up India' beneficiaries are women who secured bank loans for greenfield projects.

Unicorn startup

• About: Unicorns are privately held, venture-capital backed startups that have reached a value of $1 billion. 
• The term was first popularised by venture capitalist Aileen Lee.
• Very rare and require innovation: Because of their sheer size, unicorn investors tend to be private investors or venture capitalists, which means they are out of the reach of retail investors. 
• Based on growth potential: The valuation of unicorns is not expressly linked to their current financial performance, but largely based on their growth potential as perceived by investors and venture capitalists who have taken part in various funding rounds.

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4. DISTRIBUTION OF MILLETS (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 - Food Security)

Context: The Government has planned to increase distribution of Millets under public distribution scheme.

The distribution is under:

• Advance planning for achieving higher procurement targets of coarse grains with major contribution of Bajra and Ragi.
• State to include millet for distribution under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKAY) in lieu of wheat/rice.
• Procuring States are advised to convey the surplus quantity well in advance. Deficit States are advised to convey their requirement of coarse grains/millets well in advance. 
• States are requested to encourage the diversification of crops by enhancing the production of more coarse grains/millets
• To improve the level of nutrition among the beneficiaries covered under NFSA, all the States/ UTs have been requested to procure millets and distribute for NFSA beneficiaries as per local consumption preference and as per the guidelines issued by this Department from time to time.
• Government of India has made special efforts for popularizing millets. 
• Department of Food & Public Distribution and field offices i.e. Food Corporation India (FCI) and Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) have conducted awareness about the millets through organizing Millets Awareness Programme/Competition/Seminars etc. 
• Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (DA&FW) is promoting millets during India’s G20 presidency. Millets are also showcased in various events such as International Trade Fair, Surajkund Mela, etc. 
• A key event organized towards International Year of Millets was the Global Millets (Shree Anna) Conference, held from 18th -19th March 2023 at IARI Pusa campus, New Delhi. 
• In continuation to the efforts towards mainstreaming millets, a ‘Millets Experience Centre (MEC)’ has been opened in Dilli Haat, INA, New Delhi with an aim to raise awareness on Millets and encouraging its adoption among general public. 
• In order to encourage consumption of millets snacks in Departmental trainings/ meetings and millet based food items in Departmental canteens. 
• DA&FW has also installed vending machines for millet products through National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) to various Ministries/ Departments.
• Millet and its product have been identified as One District One Product (ODOP) in 19 Districts of 10 States.
• The Indian Council of Agriculture Research- Indian Institute of Millet Research (ICAR-IIMR), Hyderabad is also regularly conducting workshop on millets recipe/ millet sweets like kheer and cookies/ cooking with millets for all sector of people including chefs. 
• IIMR through its nutri hub is conducting relevant entrepreneurial programme like nutri-cereals entrepreneurship and startup training programme (NEST). 
• ICAR/IIMR Hyderabad has developed various ready to eat and ready to cook millet based foods. 
• “Eatrite” branding of millet foods have been successfully built through campaigning, popularization and awareness programmes.

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5. OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT (Syllabus: GS Paper 2 - Polity & Governance

Context: Between 2019 and 2021, 136 people were arrested under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) and two were convicted, the government told the Rajya Sabha

Official Secrets Act (OSA)

• The OSA has its roots in the Colonial era. 
• The original version was The Indian Official Secrets Act (Act XIV), 1889. 
• This was brought in with the main objective of muzzling the voice of a large number of newspapers that had come up in several languages, and were opposing the Raj’s policies, building political consciousness and facing police crackdowns and prison terms. 
• It was amended and made more stringent in the form of The Indian Official Secrets Act, 1904, during Lord Curzon’s tenure as Viceroy of India. 
• In 1923, a newer version was notified. 
• The Indian Official Secrets Act (Act No XIX of 1923) was extended to all matters of secrecy and confidentiality in governance in the country.
• It broadly deals with two aspects - spying or espionage, covered under Section 3, and disclosure of other secret information of the government, under Section 5. 
• Secret information can be any official code, password, sketch, plan, model, article, note, document, or information. 
• Under Section 5, both the person communicating the information and the person receiving the information can be punished.
• Punishments under the Act range from three years to life imprisonment (if the intent is to declare war against India - section 5). 
• A person prosecuted under this Act can be charged with the crime even if the action was unintentional and not intended to endanger the security of the state. 
• The Act only empowers persons in positions of authority to handle official secrets, and others who handle it in prohibited areas or outside them are liable for punishment.

• For classifying a document, a government Ministry or Department follows the Manual of Departmental Security Instructions, 1994, not under OSA. 
• Also, OSA itself does not say what a “secret” document is. It is the government’s discretion to decide what falls under the ambit of a “secret” document to be charged under OSA. 
• It has often been argued that the law is in direct conflict with the Right to Information Act, 2005.

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6. PESA ACT (Syllabus: GS Paper 2- Polity & Governance)

Context: The Department of Panchayati Raj under the Jharkhand government recently published the draft rules for wide-ranging public consultation for implementing the provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act of 1996 or PESA in the state. 

Key provisions of the draft

• People living in Scheduled Areas in Jharkhand will be able to self-govern through Gram Sabhas. 
• Gram Sabhas will be able to form committees on their own for education, health, agriculture, public property, village defence, infrastructure, among others. 
• The rights for use of forest land, minor water bodies, minor minerals, intoxicants and natural resources have also been defined under the PESA Act.
• This will mean Gram Sabhas could make plans for minor minerals like soil, stone, sand, moram etc. and use them. 
• It will be the operator of the “sand ghat” (where sand is mined), or can use it for local needs at its own level. 
• Permission from Gram Sabhas will also be mandatory for mining of any mineral, meaning no mining lease or opencast mining permit for minor minerals will be issued without prior consultation with it. 
• All residents shall have equal rights to fish and collect resources like fox nuts in natural water resources like ponds. 
• The Sabhas can also reject rules  by the central and state governments that harm traditional customs and practices of the areas under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution. 
• Any tribal land can be acquired only after the Gram Sabha gives its permission.

Forest (Conservation) Amendment Billl vs PESA Act

• The PESA Act has been implemented in Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra out of the 10 states under the Fifth Schedule, but Odisha and Jharkhand are still out of its purview. 
• However, the Rajya Sabha passed the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023, according to which the permission of the Gram Sabha will no longer be necessary for any kind of construction or development work in non-notified forest areas. 
• If the government passes and implements the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, there will be no coordination between its own two laws.
• The flow of money will be affected too. 
• Not a square inch of land in Fifth Schedule regions belongs to state or central governments.

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7. ARTICLE 370 (Syllabus: GS Paper 2 - Polity)

Context: The Supreme Court raised the question whether the President’s power to declare inoperative Article 370 of the Constitution, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, will not continue to hold the field after the dissolution of the erstwhile State’s Constituent Assembly on January 26, 1957.

Article 370

• The Constituent Assembly of Jammu & Kashmir was empowered to recommend which articles of the Indian Constitution should apply to the state.
• The J&K Constituent Assembly was dissolved after it drafted the state’s constitution.
• Clause 3 of the article 370 gives the President of India the power to amend its provisions and scope.

• Removal of Article 370:

• It commenced with a presidential order issued nearly four years ago.
• Amendments were made to make applicable the entirety of India’s Constitution to Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).
• The State was also sundered into two Union Territories: J&K and Ladakh.
• It was done when the State was under President’s Rule with no elected Legislative Assembly in place.

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8. WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK (Syllabus: GS Paper 2 - Health)

Context: Many countries have made significant strides towards increasing the rate of exclusive breastfeeding, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on the first day of World Breastfeeding Week, August 1, 2023.

• Exclusive breastfeeding means feeding your baby only breast milk, not any other foods or liquids (including infant formula or water), except for medications or vitamin and mineral supplements.

Key Points

• Each year, the first week of August is designated as World Breastfeeding Week. 
• The week-long event aims to raise awareness about the significance of breastfeeding for infant development.
• The theme for this year is “Let’s make breastfeeding at work, work”, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the WHO announced, emphasising the need for greater breastfeeding support across all workplaces to sustain and improve progress on breastfeeding rates globally.
• Globally, the rate of exclusive breastfeeding has increased by a remarkable 10 percentage points over the past decade, reaching 48 per cent.
• Breastfeeding is the ultimate child survival and development intervention, from the earliest moments of a child’s life. 
• It protects babies from common infectious diseases and boosts children’s immune systems, providing the key nutrients children need to grow and develop to their full potential. 
• Babies who are not breastfed are 14 times more likely to die before they reach their first birthday than babies who are exclusively breastfed. 

‘MAA’ (Mothers’ Absolute Affection) Programme

• The Government of India launched the MAA Programme in 2016, to support the efforts towards promotion, protection and support of breastfeeding practices through health systems to achieve higher breastfeeding rates.
• It is a nationwide programme of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• The objectives of the MAA Programme;
• Build a positive environment for breastfeeding through awareness generation activities, targeting pregnant and lactating mothers, family members and society to promote optimal breastfeeding practices.
• Strengthen lactation support services at public health facilities through trained healthcare providers and skilled community health workers.g

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9. UNMESHA AND UNMESHA FESTIVAL (Syllabus: GS Paper 1 - Art & Culture)

Context: The President of India visited Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) to inaugurate ‘Unmesha’ - International Literature Festival and c- Festival of Folk and Tribal Performing Arts, being organised by the Ministry of Culture in association with Sahitya Akademi and Sangeet Natak Akademi respectively. 

Sangeet Natak Akademi

• About: The national level academy for performing arts set up by the Government of India.

• Origin: It was set up by the Indian education ministry on 31 May 1952 and became functional the following year, with the appointment of its first chairman, Dr. P. V. Rajamannar.

• Current Status: It is presently an Autonomous Body of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India and is fully funded by the Government for implementation of its schemes and programmes.

• Functions: The academy functions as the apex body of the performing arts in the country to preserve and promote the vast cultural heritage of India expressed in music, dance and drama. 

Sahitya Akademi

• The Sahitya Akademi was formally inaugurated by the Government of India on 12th March, 1954.
• Though it was set up by the Government, the Akademi functions as an autonomous organisation. It was registered as a society in January 1956, under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
• Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is the central institution for literary dialogue, publication and promotion in the country and the only institution that undertakes literary activities in 24 Indian languages, including English.
• Akademi gives 24 awards annually to literary works in the languages it has recognized and an equal number of awards to literary translations from and into the languages of India, both after a year-long process of scrutiny, discussion and selection.
• It also undertakes literary exchange programmes with various countries across the globe to promote Indian literature.
• The Sahitya Akademi award is the second-highest literary honour by the Government of India, after the Jnanpith award.

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10. BISI BELE BATH DISH (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 - Sci & Tech)

Context: A new study which retraced the phytogeographic history of Kapok buds or Capers, a spice used in South Indian rice dish "Bisi Bele Bath” and also a natural component of Liv 52 medicine, found that the genus has undergone a protracted evolution and has suggested its reclassification.  

Key Points

• India, with its rich biodiversity and diverse ecosystems, is home to many plant species. Capers (Capparis spp.) occupy a special position among these fascinating botanical marvels. 
• Capers, which belong to the family Capparaceae, have a long history interwoven with human culture, culinary traditions, and medicinal applications. 
• In addition, they have been an essential element of Indian culture for centuries. 
• The unopened flower buds, fruit, and juvenile shoots are used to add flavour to pickles, chutneys, and other traditional dishes. 
• Their distinctive sour and salty character imparts a distinctive flavour to various dishes, making them highly desirable in regional and international cuisines. 
• Since ancient times, traditional Indian medical systems such as Ayurveda and Siddha have acknowledged the therapeutic value of capers. 
• The root, bark, and fruit of the plant are used to manufacture herbal remedies for ailments such as digestive disorders, skin diseases, and respiratory disorders.

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