Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 25-01-2020

Useful compilation of Civil Services oriented - Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 25-01-2020

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• SECTION 1 - TEN NEWS HEADLINES

1. Criminalisation in Politics  – The Supreme Court agreed to examine a proposition made by the Election Commission (EC) to ask political parties to not give ticket to those with criminal antecedents. 46% of Members of Parliament have criminal records. Bench led by Justice Rohinton F. Nariman which also comprising Justice Ravindra S. Bhat, asked Mr. Singh and petitioner Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay’s lawyer, senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, to put their heads together and come up with a joint proposal detailing how it can be ensured that parties did not fall in with criminal politicians.The top court gave the two senior lawyers a week’s time to come up with their proposal. A September 2018 judgment of a Constitution Bench, had directed political parties to publish online the pending criminal cases against their candidates.
2. Coronavirus update – The Union Health Ministry extended its travel advisory to 12 more airports in addition to the current seven, with the World Health Organisation (WHO) confirming that 834 cases of coronavirus infection had been reported from China, along with 26 deaths. As many as 1,789 passengers underwent thermal screening at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport till January 19, while 262 passengers were screened in Hyderabad.
3. Nirbhaya Case – An advocate appearing for three of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case moved a Delhi court alleging that the Tihar jail authorities are not handing over certain documents and this is causing delay in filing their mercy and curative petitions. The plea is likely to be taken up for hearing on Jan 25. The Supreme court recently dismissed the curative petitions of other two convicts — Vinay and Mukesh Singh, 32. Mukesh’s mercy petition was rejected by the President earlier this month. The hanging of all four is to take place on February 1 at 6 a.m. according to the court order.
4. Child care scheme in urban areas –Urban areas are likely to receive a renewed focus under the government’s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme, which provides for anganwadis or day-care centres across the country for delivery of nutrition and pre-school education. The NITI Aayog, has prepared a draft working paper, which once approved would be circulated to different ministries for consultations. These include the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the Ministry of Urban Housing and Affairs and the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.Of the 14 lakh anganwadis across the country there are only 1.38 lakh anganwadis in urban areas.The first-ever pan-India survey on the nutrition status of children, highlighted that malnutrition among children in urban India is characterised by relatively poor levels of breastfeeding as mothers have to travel long distances for work.
5. Coronavirus update: mammoth quarantine effort – Chinese authorities rapidly expanded quarantine effort to 13 cities and a staggering 41 million people, as nervous residents were checked for fevers and the death toll climbed to 26. While the World Health Organization (WHO) held off on declaring a global emergency despite confirmed cases in half a dozen other countries, China expanded its lockdown to cover an area with a total population greater than Canada’s. A range of Lunar New Year festivities have been cancelled, while temporary closures of Beijing’s Forbidden City, Shanghai's Disneyland and a section of the Great Wall were announced to prevent the disease from spreading further. The previously unknown virus has caused alarm because of its similarity to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed hundreds across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-03.
6. Sri Lankan army war crime charges – President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s recent remarks that those reported missing from the time of the civil war were “actually dead” have sparked concern among families of disappeared persons.President Rajapaksa told this to the UN Resident Coordinator in a recent meeting.
7. Direct Tax collection – India’s corporate and income tax collection for the current year is likely to fall for the first time in at least two decades. Government was targetting direct tax collection of Rs. 13.5 lakh crore ($189 billion) for the year ending March 31, a 17% increase over the prior fiscal year. However, a sharp decline in demand has stung businesses, forcing companies to cut investment and jobs, denting tax collections and prompting the government to forecast a 5% growth for this fiscal year — the slowest in 11 years.
8. Monetary policy has limits, need fiscal steps too: RBI – Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das called for structural reforms and fiscal measures to activate growth, saying monetary policy has its limits. The governor identified five growth drives that could be prioritised to push growth. These are food processing industries, tourism, e-commerce, startups and efforts to become a part of the global value chain.
9. FATF: Pakistan may escape blacklist – With Pakistan getting the all clear on 14 out of 27 action plans by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) at the recent review meeting, chances of it escaping the dreaded blacklist are much brighter as geopolitical considerations and some clever diplomatic moves by Islamabad might make things easier at February’s FATF plenary in Paris. There is a definite softening of the western position on Pakistan. China has pushed to get Pakistan off the hook at the FATF and will continue to make efforts in the next meeting.The current desire to give Pakistan a reprieve may have its roots in the on-going peace process in Afghanistan. The US needs Pakistan to deliver the Taliban on the peace deal, which would allow Donald Trump to bring back US troops from Afghanistan before the elections scheduled for Nov.
10. Nearly 40% of girls aged 15-18 yrs don’t go to school in India – Ten years after the Right to Education (RTE) Act came into being, nearly 40% of adolescent girls in the age group of 15-18 years don’t attend school while 30% of girls from poorest families have never set foot in a classroom. According to the report by Right to Education Forum and Centre for Budget Policy Studies with support of the World Bank and Unicef, poor compliance of RTE —12.7% across India— has been primarily due to the downward trend in financing school education, which has come down from 4.14% in 2014-15 to 3.40% in 2019-20. RTE Act of 2019 mandates education for children between the age of 6-14 years under Article 21A of the Constitution. 

Important Exam Notifications
S. No.	Institution	Exam or Post Name	Vacancies or Seats	Qualification	Last Date to Apply	Link for Details
1	NABARD	Officer Gr A (Asst Manager)	150	Degree, PG (Relevant Disciplines)	Feb 3, 2020	https://www.nabard.org/auth/writereaddata/CareerNotices/1401205207Asst.%20Manager%20(P&SS)%20-%20Advt%202020.pdf
2	ECIL	Technical Officer	11	Diploma, Degree, PG (Agriculture)	Feb 11, 2020	http://www.ecil.co.in/jobs/Advt_No__06_2020.pdf
3	NRCG	Young Professional - I, II	9	Degree (Law)	Feb 12, 2020	https://nrcgrapes.icar.gov.in/announcements/Walk-in%20test-interview%2011%20Feb%202020.pdf
4	CBSE	CTET July 2020	138	Sr Sec./ Any Degree with D.El.Ed/ B.El.Ed/ B.Ed/ BA	Feb 10, 2020	https://ctet.nic.in/webinfo/Handler/FileHandler.ashx?i=File&ii=224&iii=Y
5	Rubber Board	Analytical Trainee	24	Diploma, Degree, PG (Relevant Discipline)	Feb 18, 2020	https://img.freejobalert.com/uploads/2020/01/Notification-Rubber-Board-Analytical-Trainee-Posts.pdf
6	IIPA	Consultant	6	PG	Jan 27, 2020	http://webline.co.in/fsipdf/recruitment-of-technical-associates-and-project-associates-I-II-III.pdf
7	Forest Survey of India	Technical Associate, Project Associate I, II, III	38	Any Degree, PG Degree/ Diploma (Relevant Discipline)	-	http://webline.co.in/fsipdf/recruitment-of-technical-associates-and-project-associates-I-II-III.pdf

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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 Government recognised schools cannot impart Religious studies of one religion exclusively – Kerala High Court

• Context – The Kerala High Court held that schools which are required to have recognition under the Right to Education (RTE) Act are not entitled to impart religious study of one religion exclusively in preference to other religion.
• Details–

1. The writ petition was filed by a private unaided school run by Hidaya Educational and Charitable Trust, Manacaud, imparting elementary education, challenging the State’s action of closing down the school on the premise that it promotes exclusive religious instruction and admits only students from one particular community thereby posing threat to the secular fabric of society.
2. The decision was observed on the basis of the case Ms. Aruna Roy and Ors. Vs Union of India and Ors. The Supreme Court in this case cautioned against religious education based on religious exclusivism.
3. Justice A. Mohammed Mushtaq was examining the case. 

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

2.1 Budget Special: Power Sector

• India’s aspiration of becoming a $5 trillion economy can fulfilled only if we have a robust power sector.
• The National Investment Pipeline has 25% of its infra spend from the power sector.
• Key Issues

1. The larger share of non-fossil fuel generation (exceeding 25% of supply for 5 months of the year) increases the cost of maintaining base-load generation across the year.
2. The state governments (electricity is an state issue) have to take actions to improve operational performance of utilities by roll out of smart meters, smart digitization and private participation.
3. Regulatory reforms continue to lag with only a few states implementing real tariff increase which lead to delayed payments to suppliers.

• Developments

1. The generation capacity in electrical industry expanded at the rate of 4.2% over past year, which is ahead of demand (1.1%).
2. Non-fossil fuel generation has grown in share from 21.5% to 23.9% during the year.
3. The capacity utilisation of thermal power plants averaged 57.5%.
4. The prices of short-term electricity traded on the power exchanges remained steady at the rate of 12% during the year.

2.2 Government of India and the World Bank sign US $ 210 million loan agreement for Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project of Maharashtra.

2.3 West Bengal was the top state in vegetable production in 2018-19 at 29.55 million tonne (MT).

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

3.1 Top FIVE global risks in next decade are environmental – World Economic Forum (WEF) Report

• The top five risks by likelihood over the next decade are –

1. Extreme weather events like floods and storms 
2. Failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation
3. Major natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and geomagnetic storms
4. Major biodiversity losses and ecosystem collapse
5. Human-made environmental damage and disasters

• Eighteen per cent more people died due to seven major extreme weather events in 2019 and most of them were in Asia and Africa.
• The world witnessed two major wildfires in the Amazon rainforest and Australia in 2019.
• The WEF annual meeting held in the Swiss town of Davos from January 21 to 24.
• Younger generation, consisting of Millenials (born between 1981 and 1996) have ranked environmental risks higher than other older respondents in the short- and long-terms.
• Report warned about the increasing economic and societal costs due to non-communicable diseases and the lack of research on vaccines and drug resistance.
• Economic confrontations and domestic political polarisation are significant short-term risks in 2020.

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

4.1 Ganga-Volga Dialogue of Civilizations

• Edition – First
• Place – New Delhi
Time – January 2020
• Details  –

1. As many as 15 scholars from Russia and India spoke at the dialogue and deliberated upon the existing and emerging spheres of bilateral cooperation between the two countries.
2. Special emphasis was placed on implementing the decisions agreed to at the 20th India-Russia Summit held in Vladivostok in September 2019, including the utilization of the $1 billion Line of Credit extended by India for development of Russia’s Far East by Indian companies.

• The Ganga-Volta Civilizations Dialogue was organized by the Ministry of External Affairs of India in cooperation with Doctor Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation.
  

4.2 Ruling Nepal Communist Party won16 seats out of 18 in National Assembly - the upper house of parliament.

4.3 India, Bangladesh signed agreement to upgrade 50 km Ashuganj (river port) to Akhaura (land port) road in Bangladesh into four-lane highway.

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

5.1 Not Available Today

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• 6. MISCELLANEOUS (Prelims, Various GS Papers)

6.1  Defence – Missile Launch

• India successfully test-fired the K-4 nuclear capable submarine-launched ballistic missiles off the coast of Visakhapatnam for the second time in the past five days.
• The missile is developed by the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO).
• It has a range of 3,500 km.
• The missile is being developed for integration with India's Arihant class nuclear submarines.
• It was test-fired from an underwater platform.
• India has capable of firing nuclear-capable inter-continental ballistic missile Agni 5 with a range of over 5,000 km.
• In November, India conducted successful night trial of 'Agni-II' surface-to-surface medium range nuclear capable missile with a strike range of 2000 km.

6.2 Films, Arts, Literature and Culture – Dipa Chaudhury and Puneet Gupta awarded Romain Rolland Prize for translating French cartoon series “Asterix” in Hindi.

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• 7. POLITY (Prelims, GS Paper 2)

7.1 Uttar Pradesh Foundation Day celebrated on Jan 24

• On 24 January 1950, the United Provinces was renamed as Uttar Pradesh. 
• This was the third occasion when the Uttar Pradesh Foundation Day was celebrated.
• Present Chief Minister – Yogi Aadityanath; First Chief Minister - Govind Ballabh Pant
• Present Governor – Anandi Ben Patel; First Governor – H. P. Modi 
• Sarojini Naidu was the first governor United Province, which makes her first female to became the governor of an Indian state.
• Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath laid foundation of 18 Atal Residential Schools for children of labourers on this occasion.

7.2  International Day of Education observed on January 24. This year’s theme was ‘Learning for people, planet, prosperity and peace’.

7.3  National Girl Child Day celebrated on January 24. Government announced to set up ten chairs in various universities in the name of eminent women to encourage women to carry out research activities.

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• 8. SOCIAL ISSUES (Prelims, GS Paper 1, GS Paper 2)

8.1  Extremists surrendered in Assam

• A total of 644 militants of eight banned insurgent outfits of ULFA (I), NDFB, RNLF, KLO, CPI (Maoist), NSLA, ADF and NLFB surrendered.
• ULFA - United Liberation Front of Assam, founded 1979
• NDFB - National Democratic Front of Boroland, founded 1986
• Most of the insurgents in Northeast India favour a separate nation while others seek regional autonomy. Some groups demand complete independence. Others wanted religious law.

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

9.1 TSGENCO and SAP bags Computer Society of India (CSI) award

• The Telangana State Power Generation Corporation (TSGENCO) and SAP (India) have jointly bagged the Computer Society of India (CSI) special interest group (SIG) e-governance award of excellence-2019.
• The award is provided for their project – Leveraging TS-Genco Business Process using SAP File Life-cycle Management (e-office) and Analytics (dashboard).
• CSI was established in 1965. It is the first and largest body of computer professionals in India.
• CSI SIG e-governance award was established in 2002. It is provided in three categories.  
• Telangana State Power Generation Corporation Limited was founded in June 2014. Its headquarters is at Hyderabad. Its present CMD is Dr. Prabhakar Rao. It has five Thermal-coal based plants, Twelve Hydro-water based plants and one plant based on non-conventional electricity generation.All these plants in total have approx. 6500 MW installed capacity.
• SAP stand for Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing. It is a European multinational software corporation that makes enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations.

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• 10. FACTS, CHARTS, RANKINGS and EDITORIALS (Prelims + GS Mains)

10.1 Ranking –World Tourism Barometer, January 2020 by United Nations World Tourism Organisation

• International tourist arrivals (overnight visitors) worldwide grew 4% in 2019 to reach 1.5 billion, based on data reported by destinations around the world.
• 2019 was another year of strong growth, although slower compared to the exceptional rates of 2017 (+6%) and 2018 (+6%).  
• Demand was slower mainly in advanced economies and particularly in Europe.
  

• Download pdf of the report from here –

https://www.ttr.tirol/sites/default/files/2019-02/UNWTO%20Barometer%20Vol.%2017%20%28J%C3%A4nner%202019%29.pdf

10.2 Daily dose of FIVE Facts -

1. A night-time arrested landing of the naval variant of LCA (light combat aircraft) Tejas was successfully carried out at Shore Based Test Facility (SBTF) in Nov 2019. 
2. Prakash Javadekar assigned the charge of the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, in addition to his existing portfolio.
3. Brazil’s President will be the chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations in 2020.
4. International Day for Tolerance was observed on November 16. 
5. Indian Oil in Nov. 2019 began supplying a special winter-grade diesel to Ladakh.

10.3 Today’s best editorials to read 

• We offer you 7 excellent editorials from across 10 newspapers we have scanned. 

CLICK HERE TO OPEN AND READ!

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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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