Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 14-01-2020

Useful compilation of Civil Services oriented - Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 14-01-2020

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• SECTION 1 - TEN NEWS HEADLINES

1. SC not to review Sabarimala case, to examine ‘larger issues’ – A nine-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde said its objective was not to review the Sabarimala women entry case but examine ‘larger issues’ of law arising from practices such as the prohibition of women from entering mosques and temples, female genital mutilation among Dawoodi Bohras and the ban on Parsi women who married inter-faith from entering the fire temple. The Bench, however, clarified that it would not go into the legality of issues such as the practice of polygamy and ‘nikah-halala’ in Islam.
2. Retail inflation at 5-year high of 7.3% in December – According to information released by the National Statistical Office, retail inflation soared to a five-and-a-half year high of 7.35% in December 2019, with the shortage of onions driving the surge. Retail inflation based on the Consumer Price Index was only 2.11% in December 2018 and 5.54% in November 2019. The last time retail inflation touched 7.39% was in July 2014, just after Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his first term in office.
3. HC rules Musharraf trial illegal – In huge relief for Pakistan’s self-exiled former dictator, the Lahore High Court declared Pervez Musharraf’s trial in the high treason case as unconstitutional. A special court had given death sentence to the ex-Army chief on December 17 for holding the Constitution in abeyance. Lawyer Usama Malik said the High Court pointed out that Cabinet approval wasn’t given for the formation of the special court and it was only constituted by the Prime Minister’s Office and the Interior Ministry, which is illegal.
4. Hizb ultras led police to rogue officer – According to a senior government official, the police had been on the trail of Jammu and Kashmir DSP Davinder Singh for at least two days before his arrest. Singh was arrested while travelling in a vehicle with two wanted Hizb-ul Mujahideen militants and a lawyer.
5. Maharashtra, Gujarat lag behind in compensation for sewer deaths – Of the 926 deaths inside sewers in the country, from 1993 till December 31, 2019, families of 172 victims were yet to receive compensation, with Gujarat having the highest number of cases where the amount was not paid or the payment was unconfirmed (48), while Maharashtra was yet to pay or confirm payment of compensation in any of its 32 cases, according to data from the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK).
   
6. Register your drones or face penalty: govt. – The Ministry of Civil Aviation has asked all drone owners to voluntarily register their drones before January 31, failing which they would be penalised with a prison sentence of up to two years or a fine of up to ₹ 10 lakh. All drones in India must be registered on the Digital Sky portal and must have a unique identification number. All drone operators must also have an Unmanned Aircraft Operator Permit (UAOP). Both came into effect from December 1, 2018. If a person operates a drone without registering it, he or she may be booked for endangering someone's life or for negligence with respect to machinery- both of which are crimes under the Indian Penal Code and carry a punishment of up to six months.
7. Govt. launches road accident database – The government launched a central accident database management system that will help in analysing causes of road crashes and in devising safety interventions to reduce such accidents in the country. The IT tool, known as the Integrated Road Accident Database (IRAD), has been developed by the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) and will be implemented by the National Informatics Centre. The project costs ₹258 crore and is being supported by the World Bank. The system will be first piloted in the six States with highest fatalities from road crashes — Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. The IRAD will be improved on the basis of the learnings from the trial, following which it will be rolled out across the country.
8. Woman ostracised for going to court – A woman and her family have allegedly been ostracised for seven years in Odisha’s Puri district for defying her village’s diktat and opting to go to court to settle a dispute over her engagement as an anganwadi worker. Villagers, including her own parents staying in Bhatapada village under Brahmagiri block, have stopped talking to her in public due to an unwritten decree since 2013, said Bhanumati Pradhan, who along with her husband and children were forced to migrate from the village.
   
9. Priesthood is not for married men: ex-Pope – Former pope Benedict XVI has publicly urged his successor Pope Francis not to open the Catholic priesthood up to married men, in a plea that stunned Vatican experts. The ex-pontiff, who retired in 2013, issued the defence of clerical celibacy in a book written with arch-conservative Cardinal Robert Sarah, extracts of which were published exclusively by France’s Le Figaro. The Pope emeritus, 92, and Cardinal Sarah weighed in on the controversial question of whether or not to allow “viriprobati” — married “men of proven virtue” — to join the priesthood. Pope Francis is currently considering allowing it in remote locations, such as the Amazon, where communities seldom have Mass due to a lack of priests. The pair asked the whole Church not to be “swayed” by “bad pleas, theatrics, diabolical lies, fashionable errors that want to devalue priestly celibacy”.
10. Govt. gets cracking on GST evaders with data analytics – The Department of Revenue has identified as many as 931 cases of fraudulent GST (Goods and Services Tax) refund claims through data analytics and has now tasked the GST data analytics wing to scrutinise all past and pending refund claims filed all over the country for inverted duty structure. Refund claims worth more than ₹28,000 crore are said to have been filed by over 27,000 taxpayers so far on account of inverted duty structure in the current financial year.

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• SECTION 2 - DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

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• 1. CONSTITUTION AND LAW (Prelims, GS Paper 2, Essay paper)

1.1 SC not to review Sabarimala case but to examine larger issues

• Context -A nine-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde said its objective was not to review the Sabarimala women entry case but examine larger issues’ of law arising from practices such as the

1. prohibition of women from entering mosques and temples,
2. female genital mutilation among DawoodiBohras and
3. the ban on Parsi women who married inter-faith from entering the fire temple.

• The Bench, however, clarified that it would not go into the legality of issues such as the practice of polygamy and ‘nikah-halala’ in Islam.

• Background - Chief Justice Bobde explained that the basis of the Bench’s judicial enquiry would be seven questions referred to a larger Bench by a five-judge Bench on November 14, 2019. The five-judge Bench led by then Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, instead of deciding the Sabarimala review entrusted to it, sought an authoritative pronouncement on the Court’s power to decide the essentiality of religious practices. Framing seven questions, the Bench referred them to a seven-judge Bench. These referral questions included whether ‘essential religious practices’ be afforded constitutional protection under Article 26 (freedom to manage religious affairs).
• Work in Progress - Chief Justice Bobde, who succeeded Justice Gogoi, formed a Bench of nine, rather than seven judges, to examine these questions which concern multiple faiths. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the questions were too broad and needed fine-tuning.
• Directive to lawyers - The CJI asked the lawyers involved in the case to hold a conference on January 17 to reframe/add issues to be examined by the nine-judge Bench.

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• 2. ECONOMY (Prelims, GS Paper 3, Essay paper)

2.1 Retail inflation at five-year high of 7.3% in December

• Context - According to information released by the National Statistical Office, retail inflation soared to a five-and-a-half year high of 7.35% in December 2019, with the shortage of onions driving the surge.
• Background - Retail inflation based on the Consumer Price Index was only 2.11% in December 2018 and 5.54% in November 2019. The last time retail inflation touched 7.39% was in July 2014, just after Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his first term in office.
• Details - The hike in inflation in the vegetables category was at 60.5% last month in comparison to December 2018. Onion prices were above the ?100 per kg mark in many major cities due to a 26% fall in production.Overall, food inflation rose to 14.12% in December as against a negative rate of -2.65% in the same month of the previous year. It was also significantly higher than the 10.01% recorded in November 2019. Along with vegetables, high prices of pulses, meat and fish also contributed to last month’s spike. The inflation in pulses and products was recorded at 15.44%, while for meat and fish it was nearly 10%.
• Mandate to RBI -The Centre has mandated the Reserve Bank of India to keep inflation in the range of 2-6%. The RBI is scheduled to announce its next bi-monthly monetary policy on February 6. In its December policy, the central bank had kept the repo rate unchanged, citing inflationary concerns.
• Reasons - Independent credit rating agency ICRA’s principal economist Aditi Nayar said the revision in rail fares, rise in prices of some categories of automobiles and an unfavourable base effect may contribute to a further increase in core inflation to around 4% this month.

2.2  Indian Navy started using high flash high speed diesel (HFHSD IN 512), manufactured by Indian Oil Corporation.

2.3 Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) amended New Tariff Order (NTO) allowing consumers to have 200 channels instead of 100 at the same price of Rs. 130. 

2.4 Supreme Court constitutedfour-member committee for speedy auction of properties of now defunct Amrapali Group.

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• 3. ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY (Prelims, GS Paper 3, Essay paper)

No news in this section today.

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• 4. FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Prelims, GS Paper 2, Essay paper)

4.1 US-Iran relations – Five countries to discuss action against Iran

1. Five nations whose citizens died when an airliner was shot down by Iran last week will meet in London to discuss possible legal action.
2. All 176 people on board the flight died in the crash, minutes after the plane took off from Tehran airport.
3. Tehran had agreed to hand over the plane’s black boxes to Kiev for investigation.
4. Four of the five nations included Canada, Sweden, Afghanistan and Ukrain. Many on board were Iranians with dual citizenship.
5. After days of denials, Tehran said its air defences were fired in error while on alert after Iranian missile strikes on U.S. targets in Iraq.

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• 5. GOVERNMENT SCHEMES (Prelims, GS Paper 2, GS Paper 3)

No news in this section today.

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• 6. MISCELLANEOUS (Prelims, Various GS Papers)

6.1 Event -  International Kite Festival 2020

Edition – 31st
Time – January 7 to 14, 2020
Place(s) – Ahmedabad
Details – Since 1989, the city of Ahmedabad has hosted the International Kite Festival as part of the official celebration of Uttarayan.

That brings master kite makers and flyers from all over the world to demonstrate their unique creations and wow the crowds with highly unusual kites.


For instance - Malaysia brought wau-balang kites, Indonesia brought llayang-llayanghave, USA brought giant banner kites, Japan brought Rokkaku fighting kites, Italy brought Italian sculptural kites, Chinese brought Flying Dragon kites.


Other Kite Festivals - Kites are a real part of the culture in Asia, which is why most of the kite festivals around the world take place in those areas. Here are the Most Popular Kites Festival of the World –

1. Japan Kite Festival in Uchinada, Ishikawa
2. China Kite Festival called Weifang International Kite Festival
3. Jakarta Kite Festival in Pangandaran  
4. Washington D.C. International Kite Festival formerly called Smithsonian Kite Festival, and now known as The Blossom Kite Festival
5. Indonesia Kite Festival in Bali island, Bali Kite Festival
6. United-Kingdom Kite Festival in Bristol city, Bristol International Kite Festival
7. Netherlands Kite Festival in Valkenswaard, www.vliegerfestivalvalkenswaard.

6.2 Obituary -

1. Veteran Odia filmmaker ManmohanMohapatra passed away at the age of 69.
2. Conservative philosopher of Britain Roger Scruton passed away at the age of 75.
3. Noted Kannada scholar, epigraphist and activist Chidananda Murthy passed away at the age of 88.

6.3 Sports –  Awards and Honours -Polly Umrigar Award of Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) 2018-19

• JaspritBumrah- Best International Men Cricketer.
• PoonamYadav - Best International Women Cricketer.

6.4 Obituary – Natural disasters and accidents–Taal volcano erupted near Manila (Capital of Philippine).

6.5 Appointments – Lt Col.Yuvraj Malik appointed as new Director of the National Book Trust (NBT)

6.6  Firsts – Naval Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) landed on INS Vikramaditya, became FIRST indigenous fighter aircraft to land on an aircraft carrier. 

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• 7. POLITY (Prelims, GS Paper 2)

7.1  Appointment - Senior IPS officer A. P. Maheshwari was appointed as Director-General of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

7.2  Meetings - Island Development Agency (IDA) meeting chaired by Union Home Minister identifies 16 islands in Andaman & Nicobar and 10 in Lakshadweep for holistic development.

7.3 Resignations-Retirement - Economist Amit Bhaduri gave up emeritus professorship at Jawaharlal Nehru University. 

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• 8. SOCIAL ISSUES (Prelims, GS Paper 1, GS Paper )

No news in this section today.

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• 9. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (Prelims, GS Paper 3)

9.1    No news in this category today.

Facts, Charts and Rankings (Prelims)

10.1 Ranking – ‘Levels and Trends in Child Mortality’ report by United Nations

1. India is among the few countries in the world where, in 2018, the mortality for girls under 5 years of age exceeded that of boys.
2. Fewer countries showed gender disparities in child mortality, and across the world, boys are expected to have a higher probability of dying before reaching age 5 than girls. But this trend was not reflected in India.
3. According to India’s 2017 Sample Registration System, the States with the highest burden of neonatal mortality are Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh, with 32, 33 and 30 neonatal deaths per 1,000 live births, respectively.
4. India’s neonatal mortality rate is 23 per 1,000 live births.
5. Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttarakhand showed the largest gender gaps in under-5 mortality.
6. Child Mortality : The burden of child mortality is determined both by the mortality rate (the proportion of children who die) and by the estimated population of any given State (total number of annual births).  
7. In this sense, Uttar Pradesh is the State with the highest number of estimated newborn deaths in India, both because of the high neonatal mortality rate and because of the large cohort of births that occur every year in the State.
8. Half of all under-5 deaths in 2018 occurred in five countries: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia. India and Nigeria alone account for about a third.
9. Causes:The major causes of neonatal mortality are pre-term birth, intrapartum related events, and neonatal infection.
10. A child or a young adolescent died every five seconds in 2018.
11. Current trends predict that close to 10 million 5-14-year-olds, and 52 million children under 5 years of age, will die between 2019 and 2030.

Visit the website for complete rankings - https://www.unicef.org/publications/index_103264.html

10.2 Daily dose of FIVE Facts - 

1. G. Satheesh Reddy is the Chairman of DRDO.
2. VSAT stand for Very Small Aperture Terminals.
3. Minorities Rights Day was observed in India on December 18, 2019.
4. Mike Pompeo is the Secretary of State of United States.
5. Chabahar Port project involving India is in Sistan Baluchistan province of Iran.

10.3 Chart of the day – Nominations for Oscar Awards 2020

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• SECTION 3 - MCQs (Multiple Choice Questions)

Solve the online quiz given, right now. Check scores, and relative performance!

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