Current Affairs: 2022
MARCH 2022
China Increased its Military spending by 7%
Date: 06/03/2022
Relevance: G.S. Paper 2: International Relations
News: China's Defence spending would be hiked by 7.1% to 1.45 trillion Yuan or around $230 billion. The military budget was hiked by 6.8% last year when it crossed the $200 billion mark for the first time.
India military spending:
India’s military spending this year was announced as around $70 billion, a 4.4% hike from the previous year. However, a greater share of India’s defence spending goes towards imports and pensions..
Reason:
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U.S. has been applying military pressure on China by several means:
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monthly warship transits in the Taiwan Straits.
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close-in reconnaissance missions with spy planes in the East China Sea and the South China Sea of more than 1,200 times in 2021
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Formed the new security pact AUKUS with Australia and the U.K.
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Committee to study the prospects of AI in judicial domain
Date: 06/03/2022
Relevance: G.S. Paper 2:Polity
News: Supreme Court of India has constituted the Artificial Intelligence Committee which has mainly identified application of AI technology in translation of judicial documents.
e- courts:
The use of technology for e-filing, and virtual hearings has seen a dramatic rise post the COVID-Pandemic. From the beginning of the lockdown in 2020 until January 8 this year, the Supreme Court of India emerged as a global leader by conducting 1,81,909 virtual hearings.The High Courts (57.39 lakh cases) and the subordinate courts (1,08,36,087 cases) together have conducted 1.65 crore virtual hearings till November 30, 2021.
Thus to reduce the burden of Judiciary and speedy justice the prospects of Artificial Intelligence is being looked after
Ex Vayu Shakti 2022
Date: 06/03/2022
Relevance: G.S. Paper 3: Security
News: Exercise Vayu Shakti which was planned on 7th March in Pokhran Range, Rajasthan is now postponed.
Aim of the Exercise:
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To showcase the capability of the IAF to conduct full spectrum operations.
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To demonstrate India's Firepower
Highlights of Exercise:
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It is a triennial exercise.
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2022 exercise will witness the Rafael Jet participation for the first time.
Pakistan on FATF grey list
Date: 06/03/2022
Relevance: G.S. Paper 3: Security
News: FATF, Financial Action Task Force ( a global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog) has retained Pakistan on its terrorism financing “grey list” which is based in Paris.
Background:
Pakistan has been on the grey list of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) since June 2018 for failing to check money laundering, leading to terror financing, and was given a plan of action to complete it by October 2019 as it has failed itself in achieving all the targets given by FATF.
However FATF applauded Pakistan for achieving 26 of the 27 action items in its 2018 action plan and seven action items of the 2021 action plan of FATF Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering.
Plan to daily review the govt. finances
Date: 4/03/2022
Relevance: G.S. Paper 3: Economics
News: Finance Ministry will start review of revenue receipts, including tax collections, as well as expenditure, on daily basis from 15th March
Aim of the move: To keep the fiscal deficit within stated targets.
Reason:
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A possible deferment of the initial public offering (IPO) of LIC, which was expected to fetch more than ₹60,000 crore, to the next financial year due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
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To bring back thousands of Indian students stranded in Ukraine would impose an additional burden on the exchequer.
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The daily monitoring of tax and non-tax revenue collections would help the government take timely corrective actions
Quad Summit
Date; 4/03/2022
Relevance: International Relations
News: U.S. President hosted the Quad summit along with India, Australia and Japan
Announcement:
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They announced a new mechanism for humanitarian assistance in the Indo-Pacific, and the impact of the Ukraine crisis on the region.
They also discussed the need to stop the use of force in the Indo-Pacific region.
Trade Deficit
Date: 3-03-2022 Relevance: Prelims: Economy
News: Trade deficit widened to $21.2 billion in February
Present Trade Deficit:
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India’s merchandise exports rose 22.3% to $33.81 billion in February
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India's imports shot up 35% to surpass $55 billion
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February’s deficit was more than twice as wide as the pre-pandemic level of February 2020
Sectoral Deficit:
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Fertiliser imports surged more than sevenfold last month to $1.6 billion
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Coal imports more than doubled to $2.8 billion.
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Gold imports, at $4.68 billion, were 11.5% lower than February 2021, almost doubled from January’s $2.4 billion,: which was responsible for decline of FD in January.
Trade Deficit:
Trade deficit occurs when imports of goods as well as services exceed the exports of goods and services.
Trade deficit= Net Imports-Net Exports
India in the Indo-Pacific
Date: 3-03-2022 Relevance: G.S. Paper 2: International Relations
News: Australian High Commissioner to India, Barry O’Farrell said "India is clearly the natural leader in the region in terms of the vision the Quad signs up to in the Indo-Pacific region. He also said that the multi-nation defence exercise, MILAN, in Vishakapatnam demonstrates the cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.
Exercise MILAN
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In this exercise 14 countries, including Australia, took part, demonstrates the cooperation across countries in the Indo-Pacific.
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It aimed to secure a free, open and prosperous Indo-Pacific.
Quad Cooperation:
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All four Quad countries India, Australia, the U.S. and Japan are working together, whether it is on vaccine roll-out, disaster relief and other issues like climate change.
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Four potential sectors include: defence, economic issues, education and tourism.
Gender Roles in India
Date: 3rd March 2022
Relevance: G.S. Paper 1: Indian Society
Gender Roles In India
Date: 3rd March 2022 Relevance: G.S. Paper 1: Indian Society
The report titled "How Indians view gender roles in families and society” released by Pew Research Center, a Washington DC-based non-profit, based on the survey of Indians, the Gender roles in Indian Society are perceived as such:
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They mostly favour traditional gender roles in family life
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55% of Indians believed that men and women make equally good political leaders.
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Nine-in-ten Indians agree with the notion that a wife must always obey her husband, and the highlight being this notion was almost equally perceived by the women.
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Although most Indians expressed egalitarian views on gender roles 62% sayid that both men and women should be responsible for child care. However, 34% convinced that child care “should be handled primarily by women”.
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54% believe that both men and women” should be responsible for earning money, as many as 43% believed that earning an income is mainly the obligation of men.
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80% of Indians believe that when there are few jobs, men should have more rights to a job than women.
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Indians valued both sons and daughters, almost 94% said it is very important for a family to have at least one son, with the corresponding figure for daughters being 90%.
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64% of Indians also said that sons and daughters should have equal rights to inheritance from parents.
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4-in-10 adults said that sons should have the primary responsibility to care for ageing parents, only 2% said the same about daughters.
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40% of Indians saw “sex selective abortion as acceptable in at least some circumstances. 42% found this practice “completely unacceptable”. These views are same among youth, women, elderly and men.
Comparison with Global perspective:
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a global median of 70% said that it was very important for women to have the same rights as men, it is similar in India, with 72% of Indians saying gender equality is very important.
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Indians were less likely than people in North America (92% median), Western Europe (90%), and Latin America (82%) to place a high value on gender equality and more than sub-Saharan Africa (48% median) and the Middle-East-Northern Africa region (44%).
Conclusion: Prevalent gender norms “are part of a wider phenomenon in Indian society where, for a variety of historical, social, religious and economic reasons, families tend to place higher value on sons rather than daughters. Graduated Indians were less likely to hold traditional views on gender roles, although this did not extend to all gender-related issues.
Intergovernmental Panel on climate Change
Date: 1st March 2022
Relevance: G.S. Paper 3: Environment (Mainly Mains Exam)
Theme: climate Change impacts, adaptation and