The Hindu: 5th April 2012,Thursaday

1. INS Chakra: Frontpage

Relevance: Know a bit about the technical details of INS Chakra like it’s a nuclear powered submarine belonging to Akula class of Russian submarines( also known as Nerpa submarines) weighing more than 8000 tonne, 190 MW reactor etc.

Also look for INS Arihant, Scorpene submarines, INS Vikrant, INS Vikramaditya, INS Viraat, INS Shivalik, INS Sahyadri, INS Satpura, Rani Rashmoni, ICGS Vishwast etc.

By the way, how will you convert a nautical mile into a km?

2. India now poised: Pg3

Relevance: With over 10 crore 3G connections by 2014 and about 36.7 crore mobile broadband connections by 2016, India is well poised to experience its second mobile revolution. Moreover, we need this badly for the success of various ICT interventions, e governance initiatives etc in order to realize the goal of inclusive development. But at the same time there is also a need to focus on the relevant content and the capacity development in rural areas, without which no technology can be effective.

It is in this context govt has come up with the projects like Bharat Nirman Kendras, Community Radio, DOT’s Sanchar Shakti project, National Rural Development and Training Authority Bill, National Broadband Network, SOFA, NOFA etc.

By the way, what are the teledensity figures for rural and urban India as published in the recent economic survey?

3. Food free from: Pg4

Relevance: In one of the survey published recently, it was claimed that about 70% of the milk in our country is adulterated.

It was in 2006 when the GOI amended its Food security act 1954 and came up with a more comprehensive legislation FSSA 2006 establishing FSS Authority of India as the nodal body to set the food standards in the country at par with the international norms. One of the main feature of the act was that it brought so many other laws like Food products order 1955, Milk regulations 2009 etc.under its umbrella providing much relief to the food industry.Know a bit about the legislation, Codex Alimentarius, Codex India, FAO etc.

http://www.fssai.gov.in/Codexindia.aspx

Do you know where the HQ of FAO is located?

4. President confers Padma: Pg7

Relevance: Though it’s not possible to remember all of them but one should know about the Padma Vibhushan winners and other high profile and popular people especially sports persons. They can be asked in PT as well as 2-3 markers in mains.

Clue: Some of the important names are KG Subhramanyam, Mario MMiranda, Bhupen Hazarika, Dr. Kantilal Sancheti, T V Rajeswar, Jatin Das, MS Gopalakrishnan, TV Gopalakrishnan, N Vittal, Shahid Parvez Khan, Devi Prasad Shetty, Ronen Sen, Vanraj bhatia, Priya Paul, Swati Piramal, Zaffar Iqbal, Jhuluan Goswami, Limba Ram, Ravi Chaturvedi, B. Muthuraman, M V Subbiah etc. Visit their wiki pages, this will help  in remembering them.

5. AERB joins: Pg7

Relevance: A welcome development which should help in conducting better design evaluation, risk assessment, address safety concerns etc of the nuclear power plants. Know about the members( Total 11: P5, India, Finland, South Africa, Canada, S Korea, Japan) and functions of MDEP group.

Do you know about the proposed Nuclear Regulatory Authority Bill which will replace the AERB as the sole regulatory agency.

6. Menace of twin deficits: Pg8

Relevance: A good read.

7. South China Sea: Pg11

Relevance: Know about the South China disputes in general like location of disputed territories like Spartley Islands, Paracel Islands, Pratas Islands, UNCLOS 1982, INS Aravat controversy etc.

8. Montek in China: Pg12

Relevance: Strategic Economic Dialogue initiated with China last year is an important development. It has already started five working groups on infrastructure, environment, energy etc under its ambit. It can be asked as a 5 marker in mains.

9. What affects monsoon: Pg 14

Clue: Take out a moment and read about the phenomenon of monsoon formation, its trajectory etc. from the XIIth class NCERT Geography book. I’m sure everyone has read it before but how many of us actually remember it?

Focus on the role played by jet streams, ITCZ, trade winds and corollis force, El nino, La nina, Southern Oscillations, ENSO, Indian Ocean dipole, El nino ‘Modoki’ etc.

10. Lack of school infra: Pg18

Relevance: The highlights of this important “RTE Forum” reports can be summarised as:

–> After one year of notification, 95% of the schools don’t adhere to the norms.

–> 93% of teacher candidates failed in CBSE’s eligibility test.

–> 60% of schools are not electrified.

–> 50% don’t have ramps mandatory under the Disability Act 1995.

–> 40% of primary schools have classroom ratio higher than prescribed 1:30 under the RTE.

11. Other potential 2 markers and tidbits: Fairy Queen(Pg11), Finance bill, appropriation bill and Art112, 113(Pg12), S Narsing Rao(Pg13).

I found only these items useful in Thursday’s paper. If you could spot some thing more which is relevant to CSE please feel free to post in comments section.