. No.	Topic Name	Prelims/Mains
1.	About the Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojna (Urban)	Prelims & Mains
2.	Details of the NATO	Prelims & Mains
3.	About the Linkage of Voter ID Cards with Aadhar Card	Prelims & Mains
4.	Details of the Corbevax	Prelims Specific Topic

1 – About the Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojna (Urban):GS II

Topic à Government Policies and Interventions

 

·       Context:

 

·       The programme aims to construct approximately 112 crore homes in urban areas by August 15, 2022. It first appeared in 2015. The Cabinet approved an extension until December 31, 2024, in order to complete the dwellings that have already been approved.

 

·       About:

 

·       Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), a government programme run by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, is a part of Housing for All by 2022. (MoHUA).

·       It makes home loans more affordable for the urban poor by providing a discount on the interest rate of a home loan during EMI repayment (Equated Monthly Installments).

 

·       Beneficiaries:

 

·       For those who fall under the EWS/LIG and MIG classifications, especially those who reside in slums, the Mission focuses on the lack of urban housing.

·       The annual income of a family in the EWS (Economically Weaker Section) is capped at Rs. 3,00,00.

·       Families in the Low Income Group (LIG), defined as those making less than Rs. 6,00,000 per year, and

·       The Middle Income Groups (MIG I & II) have a maximum annual family income of Rs. 18,00,000.

·       A beneficiary family consists of a husband, wife, and any daughters or boys who are not married.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

·       PMAY-U Verticals:

 

·       In-situ slum regeneration (ISSR):

 

·       This vertical would be implemented with the concept of “Land as a Resource” with involvement from the business sector in order to offer homes to qualified slum dwellers.

·       Slum: A densely inhabited area with at least 300 inhabitants, or around 60 to 70 dwellings, that is shoddily constructed, crammed, and situated in a filthy environment without sufficient sanitary or drinking water utilities.

 

·       Housing with a Credit Linked Subsidy (CLSS):

 

·       For the purpose of buying, constructing, or improving dwellings, EWS, LIG, and MIG (I & II) recipients may apply for housing loans from banks, housing finance firms, or other organisations of a like nature and receive the following interest subsidies:

·       6.5% for loans under Rs. 6 lakh

·       4% for loans under Rs. 9 lakh

·       3% for loans under Rs. 12 lakh

 

·       Affordable Housing Partnership (AHP):

 

·       An affordable housing project may consist of a mixture of homes in different categories, but it will only be eligible for Central Assistance if at least 35% of the project’s dwellings fall into the EWS group.

 

·       Construction of private homes directed by beneficiaries (BLC):

 

·       For home construction or improvement, eligible EWS households can receive central aid up to Rs. 1.5 lakh per EWS dwelling.

 

·       Demand-driven Approach:

 

·       The PMAY-U adopts a demand-driven strategy, enhancing the concepts of cooperative federalism; whether there is a housing shortage is decided by the States and Union Territories (UTs).

·       The Mission is carried out as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme, with the exception of the CLSS vertical of the PMAY-U, which is being implemented as a Central Sector Scheme (CSS).

·       All Central Sector Schemes must be implemented and funded by the apparatus of the Central Government.

·       The Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) is run by state governments, with funding coming in part from the states.

 

·       Geotagging:

 

·       The process of geotagging entails including location data in a variety of media, including photography.

·       The state government is obligated by the PMAY-U regulations to ensure that each house built as part of the programme is geotagged to the Bhuvan HFA (housing for all) application.

·       The Indian Geo Platform known as Bhuvan was developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

·       Customers can use this web-based tool to access various mapping services.

 

·       Gender Equality:

 

·       The Mission promotes women’s emancipation by letting female members or joint members to purchase properties.

·       Women (with widows and single women receiving top priority), members of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes, as well as transgender people, are also given preference.

 

·       PMAY-U-funded projects include:

 

·       Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHCs):

 

·       Urban migrants and the disadvantaged will find it simpler to access excellent, affordable rental housing close to their places of employment in the industrial sector as well as in informal urban economies as a result.

 

·       Housing Technology Challenge:

 

·       For the house building sector, it seeks to identify and mainstream a variety of cutting-edge, environmentally friendly, and disaster-resistant construction technologies.

 

·       Awas Portal for CLSS:

 

·       On this single platform, all stakeholders are integrated in real time, including the MoHUA, central nodal agencies, key lending institutions, beneficiaries, and citizens.

·       The website streamlines the application procedure and makes it possible for recipients to check on the status of their financial aid.

 

Source à The Indian Express

 

2 – Details of the NATO:GS II

Topic à International Relations

 

·       About the NATO:

 

·       In order to guarantee collective defence against the Soviet Union, the United States, Canada, and a number of Western European nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty, also referred to as the Washington Treaty, in April 1949.

·       There are now 30 member states.

·       The original members of the group were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

·       Greece and Turkey joined the original signatories in 1952, followed by West Germany in 1955 (renamed Germany in 1990), Spain in 1982, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland in 1999, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia in 2004, Albania and Croatia in 2009, Montenegro in 2017 and North Macedonia in 1999. (2020).

·       France remained a NATO member but vacated its position in the organization’s integrated military command in 1966. 2009 saw its comeback.

·       Brussels, Belgium, is the headquarters.

·       The Allied Command Operations headquarters are in Mons, Belgium.

 

·       What objectives does NATO intend to fulfil?

 

·       Protecting each member state’s freedom and security through political and military action is NATO’s primary and ongoing objective.

·       Political objectives: NATO promotes democratic principles and offers members the chance to engage and cooperate on defence and security-related issues in order to resolve disagreements, build trust, and, in the long term, prevent conflict.

·       Military Objectives: NATO is committed to finding peaceful solutions to conflicts. If diplomatic attempts fail, it has the military power to carry out crisis-management operations.

·       According to a United Nations mandate or the collective defence clause of the Washington Treaty, Article 5, which served as the foundational agreement for NATO, these are carried out independently or in cooperation with other nations and international organisations.

·       Only once, on September 12, 2001, in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on the US World Trade Center, has NATO ever used Article 5.

 

Source à The Indian Express

 

3 – About the Linkage of Voter ID Cards with Aadhar Card:GS II

Topic à Election Related Issues

 

·       Details of the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021:

 

·       Important Information:

 

·       By altering section 23 of the Representation of People’s Act of 1950, it makes it possible for electoral register data to be linked with the Aadhaar ecosystem.

·       This makes an effort to lessen the chance of enrolling the same person more than once in different places.

·       When registering voters, the term “spouse of service voters” will no longer be used.

·       The law proposes four qualifying dates, as opposed to the previous single date, for updating the voting records to include those who have turned 18 years old: the first day of the months of January, April, July, and October (1st January).

·       Importance: Migrant voters may benefit from the opportunity to vote remotely made possible by the pairing of Aadhar data with voter identities.

·       The Aadhar linking is believed to help avoid tampered with and fake ballots.

·       If the word “wife” is changed to “spouse,” the law will become more “gender-neutral.”

 

·       Issues Regarding the Bill:

 

·       The Central Government Has the Final Say: If a person is “unable” to furnish their Aadhaar, the Central government may establish the conditions under which they would be permitted to join or remain on the electoral rolls.

·       The Central Government will therefore decide which arguments are acceptable for a voter to remain classified as a voter.

·       Transfer of Burden: Instead of the government aggressively ensuring registration on the electoral rolls to achieve universal adult franchise, it is now the responsibility of those who may be unable or unable to link their Aadhaar to defend their continuous inclusion on the electoral rolls.

·       Furthermore, since there is now no legal requirement to ensure a right to a hearing before such deletion, the deletion from the voter rolls will take place without any kind of procedural safeguards.

·       The Election Commission of India (ECI) now stores election data on a database that is separate from other government systems, raising privacy issues.

·       The proposed connectivity between the electoral database and Aadhaar will grant the ECI and UIDAI access to it. Privacy invasions could come from this.

·       Because they are unable to produce their Aadhaar information, the legitimate voters will forfeit their opportunity to vote.

·       Identification of Beneficiary Voters: The amendment will result in political profiling. The linkage of electoral IDs with Aadhaar numbers makes it much easier for the government to track down any voter who has used their Aadhaar to receive social benefits and subsidies.

·       Using information that is not readily available, political parties may use this to carefully tailor their messages to individual voters.

 

·       Upcoming steps to take:

 

·       Legislative procedure changes: Prior to passing any new legislation, the government must solicit public feedback and allow for a more in-depth parliamentary scrutiny.

·       It is essential to make sure that elected officials and common individuals alike have access to chances and privileges in a Parliamentary democracy like India.

·       A productive discussion of those worries and the significance of the proposal is required in order to identify and address any issues that a new law may bring up.

·       Other Techniques for Eliminating De-Duplication While there are issues with voters enrolling who are not citizens or who are enrolled in more than one constituency, these can be overcome by using alternative identification techniques.

·       Aadhaar cannot be used to verify a voter’s identity because it is an identification system for residents rather than for citizens.

·       Need for Comprehensive Laws A perfect electoral roll is necessary for a free and fair election to take place. In order for the Parliament to have an appropriate discussion, the Government should offer a comprehensive bill.

·       Additionally, the legislation needs to specify how much information will be exchanged between the two databases, how consent will be obtained, and whether or not permission to link the databases may be revoked.

·       Privacy Protection: Prior to implementing the Aadhaar-voter ID connection, the government must seek to enact the Personal Data Protection (PDP) law.

·       Before exchanging personal data with other government institutions, government organisations are required to abide by the PDP regime and obtain the express consent of the data subject.

 

Source à The Hindu

 

4 – Details of the Corbevax:

Prelims Specific Topic

 

·       Context:

 

·       In anticipation of the World Health Organization’s emergency use listing, the Central Government approved Biological E’s CorbeVax on August 10 as a precautionary dose for adults over 18 who have completed their full course of either Covishield or Covaxin vaccinations (EUL).

 

·       About:

 

·       India-born Covid-19 vaccine is presently going through Phase 3 clinical testing.

 

·       Working:

 

·       A vaccination called “recombinant protein sub-units” is what it is.

·       The spike protein on the virus’s surface, a specific SARS-CoV-2 component, is what it means to contain the virus.

·       The spike protein allows the virus to enter the cells of the body, where it can multiply and cause harm to individuals.

·       However, it is not anticipated to be harmful because the remainder of the virus is absent when this protein is supplied to the body.

·       The immune system is expected to respond poorly to the injected spike protein.

·       As a result, when the actual virus tries to infiltrate the body, it will already be ready for an immune response, making it unlikely that the person will actually become sick.

 

·       The Following Are the Differences Between Corbevax and Other Covid-19 Vaccines:

 

·       They are either viral vector vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna), inactivated vaccines (Covaxin, Sinovac-CoronaVac, and Sinopharm’s Vero Cell), or mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna).

·       Viral vector and mRNA vaccines use a coding to induce our cells to generate the spike proteins that the body needs to acquire immunity against.

·       In the case of Corbevax, protein itself is supplied.

·       MRNA immunizations work by using messenger RNA (mRNA), a molecule that efficiently carries out DNA instructions. MRNA acts as a design template for the synthesis of proteins inside of cells.

·       Viral vector vaccines use a modified form of a specific virus to deliver vital instructions to human cells (the vector).

·       Inactivated vaccines include dead bits of the complete SARS-CoV-2 virus to tackle the overall viral structure.

·       Similar to the Covid-19 mRNA and viral vector vaccines, Corbevax use a special technique to only target the spike protein.

 

Source à The Hindu