Syllabus

• Prelims & Mains – CURRENT EVENT

Context: The United States is all set to elect the country’s next President in its 2024 general election, scheduled for November 5, 2024.

Background: –

• The U.S. votes for its President on the first Tuesday of November, every four years. The candidates are required to meet certain criteria to be eligible to contest, and the process itself starts months, or even years in advance.

Key takeaways

• According to the U.S. Constitution, a candidate must be a natural-born citizen, 35 years of age or older, and a resident of the U.S. for 14 years to be eligible to contest.
• The U.S. Presidential election process is a complex and multi-step system that involves several stages, including primaries, caucuses, national conventions, general elections, and the final decision through the Electoral College.

Step 1: Primaries and Caucuses

• Primaries and Caucuses — help in the selection of delegates who will represent the people at the upcoming conventions. These are simply two ways that people help states and political parties choose presidential nominees.
• Caucuses: It’s a stage at which party members select the best candidate through a series of discussions and votes. It’s a meeting of local members of a political party to select delegates to the national party convention. A caucus is said to be a substitute for primary elections. A delegate is defined as a person authorised to represent others as an elected representative to a political party conference.
• Primary: In this, party members vote for the best candidate that will represent them in the general election. Most states hold primaries six to nine months before a presidential election. Primary voters choose their preferred candidate anonymously by casting secret ballots.

Step 2: National Conventions

• National Party Conventions: After the primaries and caucuses, each party holds a National Convention where delegates formally nominate their candidate for president. During the convention, the candidate who has secured a majority of delegates through the primaries and caucuses is officially declared the party’s nominee. The nominee then selects a vice-presidential running mate.

Step 3: Presidential general election

• In general elections, people in every state across the US vote for one President and Vice President. The candidates’ names will be listed on the general election ballot.
• When people cast their vote, they are actually voting for a group of people known as electors. Each candidate running for President in your State has their own group of electors (known as a slate). When you vote for a Presidential candidate you are actually voting for your candidate’s preferred electors.

Step 4 : The electoral college

• The electoral college is the last step in the election of the President. The President is not elected through the popular vote cast by citizens, but through the electoral college process.
• There are 538 electors in the electoral college who indirectly choose the U.S. President. Each State gets the same number of electors as its members of Congress, both House and Senate.
• Selecting electors is a two- step process: first, the parties choose potential electors in States before the election. Then, voters in each State select their electors by casting ballots during the general election. However, this happens even though the names of potential electors may or may not appear on the ballot alongside the name of the presidential candidate. So, a voter is actually picking an elector and not the President directly when they cast their vote in the general election.
• The way the Electoral College works is that whoever wins the popular vote in a state uaually gets all the Electoral College votes from that state. So if Trump wins the popular vote in North Carolina, for example, he’ll get all of the Electoral College votes from that state, which is 15 electoral votes. A candidate needs at least 270 electors’ votes to win the presidential election.
• While the general election takes place in November and a projected winner is announced soon after, the electoral college casts their votes in mid-December. The U.S. Congress counts the electoral votes in early January. The new President’s term begins January 20, which is also called Inauguration Day.

Source: The Hindu

 Syllabus

• Prelims – CURRENT EVENT

Context: Scientists have discovered a fossil of a reptile species called Gondwanax paraisensis in southern Brazil.

Background: –

• The fossils of this newly discovered reptile species could provide insights into the emergence of dinosaurs. Gondwanax paraisensis is about 237 million years old, making it one of the oldest reptile fossils ever found.

Key takeaways

• The Gondwanax paraisensis was a small, four-legged reptile, roughly the size of a small dog. This reptile likely lived in what is now southern Brazil during the Triassic period, a time when the Earth was much hotter.
• The discovered fossil belongs to a group of extinct reptiles called silesaurids. There is no consensus among scientists on whether silesaurids were true dinosaurs or a species that came before them. A study of this newly discovered species could help in understanding what traits made dinosaurs so successful.
• The name Gondwanax means “lord of Gondwana,” referring to the southern part of the supercontinent Pangaea. The species name paraisensis honors the town of Paraiso do Sul where the fossil was found.
• In the Paleozoic era, Gondwana and Laurasia formed the supercontinent of Pangaea. Here many dinosaurs lived and went extinct, and their remains were ensconced in lava.
• Gondwanaland got cracked up at the end of the Jurassic era to create all our southern continents, Africa, Australia, and South America, as well as New Zealand, the Indian subcontinent, and the island of Madagascar, which has long been an area of study.
• India has been a hotspot for finding dinosaur fossils for decades. Records show that dinosaurs in India existed from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous — or between 200 million years and 65 million years ago.
• Dinosaur remains have been found over the years in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
• One of the most famous dinosaurs in the country is Rajasaurus. Its fossils were first found by GSI geologist Suresh Srivastava in the 1980s.

Source: Indian Express

 Syllabus

• Prelims & Mains – CURRENT EVENT

Context: BRICS Summit began in Kazan on Tuesday. This is the first summit that will be taking place after the first-ever expansion of BRICS in January this year.

Background: –

• For India, it is especially significant as Prime Minister Narendra Modi could meet China’s President Xi Jinping here, soon after the two countries agreed on a disengagement along the LAC.

Key takeaways

• BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
• The term “BRIC” was coined in 2001 by Jim O’Neill, a former Goldman Sachs  economist, to highlight the economic potential of Brazil, Russia, India, and China.
• Formation: The BRIC countries held their first formal summit in 2009 in  Yekaterinburg, Russia. South Africa joined the group in 2010, leading to the  acronym “BRICS”.
• Expansion: In 2024, BRICS expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the  United Arab Emirates, making it a ten-member organization.

Objectives and Goals:

• Economic Cooperation: BRICS aims to enhance economic cooperation among  member states through trade, investment, and financial collaboration.
• Political Stability: The organization promotes political stability and mutual support among its members.
• Global Influence: BRICS seeks to provide a counterbalance to Western-dominated global institutions like the IMF and World Bank.

Key Initiatives:

• New Development Bank (NDB): Established in 2014, the NDB aims to finance infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other emerging economies.
• Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA): This mechanism provides short-term liquidity support to BRICS countries facing balance of payments crises.
• BRICS Pay: A blockchain-based payment system designed to facilitate cross-border transactions without relying on the US dollar.

Source: The Hindu

 Syllabus

• Prelims & Mains – CURRENT EVENT

Context: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has said his government is working on a law to incentivise residents of the state to have more children.

Background:

• Andhra Pradesh achieved the Replacement Level of Fertility — that is, an average of 2.1 children per woman — in 2004, making it the fifth Indian state to do so after Kerala (1988), Tamil Nadu (2000), Himachal Pradesh (2002), and West Bengal (2003).

Key takeaways

• In the 25 years from 2011 and 2036, India’s population will increase by 31.1 crore. Almost half — 17 crore — will be added in five states: Bihar, UP, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh. As much as 19% of the total population increase during 2011-36 is expected to occur in UP.
• The contribution of the five Southern states — AP, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu — to the total increase in population during 2011-2036 is expected to be only 2.9 crore.
• With declining fertility and increasing life expectancy, the number of older persons in the population is expected to more than double from 10 crore in 2011 to 23 crore in 2036, their share in the population rising from 8.4% to 14.9% during this period.
• In Kerala, where lower fertility and mortality rates were achieved much sooner than other states, the proportion of persons aged 60 years and older will increase from 13% in 2011 to 23% in 2036 — or almost 1 in 4 individuals. The population of UP, by contrast, is expected to be comparatively younger.

Additional Information

• An aging population and a smaller population are two separate concerns. Typically, if two-thirds of the total population is in the working-age bracket it implies a “dividend” — because the dependency ratio (that is, the percentage of population that is not earning and is dependent on others) is less than 50%.
• Dependency is of two kinds: those below the age of 15, and those above the age of 60. A high percentage of aging population does imply that the state may have to spend more on taking care of this growing population.
• The issue of the total population of a state being lower compared to other states is different. This issue has come into sharp focus in public discussions on electoral delimitation — where fears have been expressed that Southern states could end up getting penalised by way of fewer seats in Lok Sabha.

Do government policies to boost fertility work ?

• There is no real evidence that people who have reached a certain level of prosperity and education can be incentivised to have more babies.
• Virtually nowhere in the world — Japan, China, Korea, France etc. — have pro-natalist policies worked. The only place where such policies had some impact to the extent that they did not allow the fertility rate to plummet to very low levels were in Scandinavian countries. Here the policies were more in the shape of family support, childcare support, gender equality, paternity leaves etc.

What is the way forward to address concerns about population?

• The solution is (internal) migration. There are three contributors to the total population: fertility, mortality, and migration. Migration can even out the imbalance caused by the mismatch in the pace of the demographic transition between North and South India.
• This is the model that the United States has employed over the decades — it is immigrants, their economic output and their fertility, that has helped sustain America’s economic dominance over the world.

Source: Indian Express

 Syllabus

• Prelims – SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Context: A new study suggests that the Betelgeuse star’s enigmatic brightening and dimming patterns may be caused by an unseen companion star.

Background: –

• Astrophysicists from the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Astrophysics have proposed the existence of a companion star, dubbed “Betelbuddy,” orbiting Betelgeuse. Their findings indicate that this companion acts like a cosmic snowplow, pushing aside light-blocking dust and temporarily increasing Betelgeuse’s apparent brightness.

About Betelgeuse

• Type: Betelgeuse is a red supergiant star.
• Constellation: It is located in the constellation Orion, marking the left shoulder of  the hunter.
• Brightness: Betelgeuse is usually the 10th-brightest star in the night sky.
• Distance: It is approximately 500 light-years away from Earth.
• Size: Betelgeuse is one of the largest stars known, with a diameter about 1,000  times that of the Sun.
• Luminosity: It is about 100,000 times more luminous than the Sun.
• Mass: Estimates suggest it has around 10-20 times the mass of the Sun.
• Variable Star: Betelgeuse is a variable star, meaning its brightness changes over  time. It has two distinct pulsation patterns: a short-term cycle of about a year and a longer six-year cycle. The researchers concluded that the longer cycle, known as a long secondary period, is likely caused by the Betelbuddy’s orbital motion through Betelgeuse’s surrounding dust.
• Recent Dimming: In late 2019 and early 2020, Betelgeuse experienced an unusual dimming event, leading to speculation that it might be about to go supernova.  However, recent studies suggest that this dimming was likely caused by a large  amount of dust ejected by the star.

Source: India Today

 Syllabus

• Prelims & Mains – POLITY

Context: A week after the Union Agriculture Minister decided to assign additional charge of Managing Director, National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED), to an Agriculture Ministry official, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) entrusted charge of the post to an official of the Ministry of Cooperation.

Background: –

• The ACC, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has Amit Shah, Union Minister of Home Affairs and Cooperation, as its only other ministerial member. It is responsible for appointing senior officials to key positions in the Central government, public sector undertakings and autonomous bodies.

Cabinet Committees:

• They are extra-constitutional and the Rules of Business provide for their establishment.
• The Prime Minister sets up these committees with selected members of the Cabinet and assigns specific functions to these committees.
• The Prime Minister may change the number of committees, and modify the functions assigned to them.
• The membership of each committee varies from three to eight. Usually, only Cabinet ministers are members of these committees. However, it is not unheard of for non-Cabinet ministers to be members or special invitees to committees.
• If the Prime Minister himself is a member of any such committee, he acts as the head of that committee.
• The committees resolve issues and formulate proposals for the consideration of the Cabinet and make decisions on matters assigned to them. The Cabinet is empowered to review such decisions.
• There are eight Cabinet committees at present — the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, Cabinet Committee on Investment and Growth, Cabinet Committee on Security, Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, Cabinet Committee on Employment & Skill Development, and Cabinet Committee on Accommodation.

Issues/Challenges of the Cabinet Committees:

• Due to overlapping mandates, there are delays, inefficiency, and conflict between committees as they fight for control over proposals leading to delayed decisions.
• There is a lack of expertise in committees leading to poorly informed decisions with unintended consequences that can lead to long-term policy ramifications.
• Committees may prioritize short-term gains over long-term strategic planning due to political considerations.
• Sometimes, committees might operate in isolation hindering a holistic approach by leading to duplication of effort, and missed opportunities for synergy.
• The decisions made by committees in secrecy lead to the erosion of trust and hinder the legislature from holding committees accountable.
• As the decision-making authority rests with only a few committees or individuals, it can lead to unbalanced decisions by potentially overlooking creative solutions.

Source: Indian Express

Q1.) Which of the following countries is NOT a member of BRICS?

1.  Argentina
2.  Russia
3.  India
4.  South Africa

Q2.) Betelgeuse, a star in the constellation Orion, is best described as:

1.  A red supergiant nearing the end of its life.
2.  A white dwarf with high surface temperature.
3.  The brightest star in the Milky Way galaxy.
4.  A planet in the Solar System.

Q3.) Which of the following statements regarding Cabinet Committees in India is/are correct?

1. Cabinet Committees are constitutional bodies established by the Prime Minister.
2. The Prime Minister is a member of all Cabinet Committees and acts as their head.
3. Non-Cabinet Ministers can be members or special invitees to Cabinet Committees.
4. Cabinet Committees are empowered to make decisions on matters assigned to them, but the Cabinet can review these decisions.

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

a. 1 and 2 only
b. 3 and 4 only
c.  1, 2, and 3 only
d. 2, 3, and 4 only

Comment the answers to the above questions in the comment section below!!

ANSWERS FOR ’  23rd October 2024 – Daily Practice MCQs’ will be updated along with tomorrow’s Daily Current Affairs

Q.1) –  b

Q.2) – b

Q.3) – b