Expected topics for Mains 2012 - GS

 Heya,

I'll keep updating till 2nd - 3rd week of August'12.

Of course I need to sort below topics based on paper 1 and 2 for GS. Will do that when time permits.




1.  Government Programmes and policies
 
      (i)   Telecom policy        - laying optical fiber through out the nation in progress

             Water polic,2012

             New Science Policy 2013

      (ii)   NREGA                 -  under scanner

      (iii)  UGC Regulation Bill , 2010 - review

      (iv)  Higher Education bill

       (vi) Copyrights Act,2012

       (vii) NELP

        

   

2. Polity

       (i)   Presidential election issue
       (ii)  Prez. Reference on 2G SC-verdict    

• The Presidential Reference which, in effect and substance, seeks to question the correctness of the judgment in the 2G spectrum allocation case, is entirely impermissible and not maintainable, the former Attorney General and senior counsel, Soli Sorabjee
• Mr. Sorabjee said such reference would be plainly ultra vires Article 143 and not maintainable. The Supreme Court, under Article 143, was not invested with appellate or review jurisdiction in respect of a judgment which had attained finality.

       (iii)  Central Water Commission
       (iv) UGC , NCERT panels
        (v) NHRC / Freedom of rights to speech and expression
       
   
    Economy

          GAAR           DTC        GST

          Indian Depository Receipts   
          Insider Trading
       


3. International Issues :


Arab Spring  - Egypt , Uzbek in news

Eurozone crisis  - current trend

South Sudan

Soft coup in Paraguay

Delhi Investors summit on Afghan , Tokyo conf



  International Organisations :

  FAO

South China Sea Issue 

• Ten Southeast Asian nations had agreed on a code of conduct to prevent armed clashes over the South China Sea but still sought China’s agreement.
   
• The issue of contending maritime claims is the major topic of the talks held in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, in large part because tensions over the sea have escalated in recent months. Chinese and Philippine ships engaged in a standoff in one disputed area, and Vietnam last month protested Chinese energy proposals for seas both nations claim.

East China Sea Dispute

• China, Japan tensions flare over disputed islands
  • Japan on Wednesday lodged a formal protest with China, summoning its Ambassador in Tokyo, after three Chinese patrol boats were spotted in waters off disputed islands in the East China Sea, over which both countries claim sovereignty. The boats left the area after a warning from the coast guard;
  • The strain emerged as their Foreign Ministers met in Phnom Penh, on the sidelines of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) meeting, where China’s territorial disputes with many of its neighbours are in focus;
  • The two countries have in recent months sparred over the islands, referred to by Japan as the Senkaku islands. Tensions rose further in recent days after Tokyo spoke of plans to “buy” the islands from a private developer, a move rejected by China as a provocation. In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Liu Weimin told reporters China “does not accept the representation lodged by Japan”, adding that the vessels had “entered into the waters under Chinese jurisdiction to conduct official duties in accordance with Chinese law”.

 

4.Summits


Rio+20          - green economy focus

G20

Asean            - South China sea dispute takes centre stage

SCO              - India claims greater role

Tokyo declaration

CSTO



5.Foreign Affairs / Policy



NAM 2.0

India - Bangladesh

 - inland water trade renewed

India - China

• Chinese officials have said they are close to completing the repaving of the Xinjiang-Tibet national highway, which runs through the disputed Aksai Chin region (India holds claims to it), for the first time in 50 years. The 2,143-km road runs from Yecheng county in Kashgar prefecture in Xinjiang south to Lhatse in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR);
• The Xinjiang section of the road is 654.8 km in length. It is regarded as the highest traversable road in the world. Construction of the road began in 1951, and its completion in 1957 caught India by surprise, triggering tensions ahead of the 1962 conflict. The rebuilding of the road along with the earlier project of the high speed train through the region only increase the asymmetry of infrastructure between the countries in the region.

     

India - Nepal

India - Africa

India - US

         - Washington Accord (4 Er prac abroad)
         - OGPL
         - Millenium Alliance( promote innovation @ grassroot level)
         -

India - EU

       

INDIA, EU TO BEGIN TALKS ON FTA

Ø   FTA - Single Investor treaty - Issue Areas

 

US - Afghan - India
 
    - MNNA status : US-2-Afghan

    - Operation Enduring Freedom

    - Pak playing spoilers

Indo - Pak

   - Track 2 diplomacy

   - resolved to check cross border firing

   - river water sharing issue on the cards

   - FDI allowed , electricity exportes

   - Border trade routes opened 

6. National Issues

• Nuclear Energy
• Power Project issues - Tata Mundra Power Project , POSCO
• Economy slowdown - RBI and Govt measures

7. Science and Technology

• Higgs and Boson
• Bacterial Strain  -  GFAJ 1
• Decoding banana Genome and its benefits 
• DNSChanger
• Leish-F3 , Gla -SE vaccine

8. Environment , Climate

• IUCN Report on Extinct species
• Western Ghats as heritage site

• Monsoon worries - dam storage level dips  

  The monsoon was deficient by 23 per cent. Karnataka and Maharashtra had received scanty rain so far and the position had not improved to a satisfactory level.

  • Cultivation of groundnut and soyabean was expected to improve as there was good rain in parts of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat in the last two days;
  • The delay in arrival of monsoon and its slow progress has affected sowing of major kharif crops including paddy, pulses, oilseeds and coarse cereals. The rainy season is crucial for kharif season as only 40 per cent of cultivable area is irrigated.

• Decline in world's reefs 

  • More than 2,600 of the world's top marine scientists recently warned coral reefs around the world were in rapid decline and urged immediate global action on climate change to save what remains;
  • Coral reefs provide food and work for countless coastal inhabitants globally, generate significant revenues through tourism and function as a natural breakwater for waves and storms
  •   Caribbean 75-85 per cent  lost in the last 35 years. 
    Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the best-protected reef ecosystem on the planet,  50 per cent decline in the last 50 years;
    85 per cent of reefs in Asia's ‘Coral Triangle’ are directly threatened by human activities such as coastal development, pollution, and overfishing. 
  • The Coral Triangle covers Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, The Solomon Islands, and East Timor and contains nearly 30 per cent of the world's reefs and more than 3,000 species of fish.

9. Culture

       UNESCO Categ.1 Institute

       Film Commission

• Timbuktu 

  • The Islamists controlling northern Mali on Tuesday destroyed two tombs at the ancient Djingareyber mosque in fabled Timbuktu, vowing to destroy all World Heritage sites in the region.  
• Akbarabadi Masjid

10. Defense and Security

         DNSChanger


11. Personalities in news

       Dara Singh
       Anto Peter
       Gopalaswamy Parthasarathi
       Carlos Slim
       Anna Swatch
       Gagan Ulalmath 

12. Demography

      Demographic impact on Internet

      Population decline in Nagaland 


13. Health

      Kala Azar