Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 07-01-2020

Useful compilation of Civil Services oriented - Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 07-01-2020

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• SECTION 1 - TEN NEWS HEADLINES

1. JNU students, staff want V-C removed -The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) and the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers Association (JNUTA) demanded the immediate removal of JNU Vice-Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar following the brutal attack by masked goons on the university campus. Under fire for allowing the violence to continue, the Delhi police said an FIR had been registered against “unknown persons” for rioting and damage to property. No arrests have been made so far.
2. Delhi poll on Feb. 8, counting on Feb. – 11-The election to the 70-member Delhi Assembly will be held on February 8 and the votes will be counted on February 11, the Election Commission announced. At a press conference at the EC headquarters, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said the poll notification would be issued on January 14. The last date for filing of nominations is January 21, scrutiny will be done on January 22 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is January 24. Mr.Arora said 1,47,03,692 electors — 1,46,92,136 general category and 11,556 service voters — were eligible to vote in the poll to be held at 13,750 polling stations.
3. New satellites will help Gaganyaan crew  – India plans to ring in its own era of space-to-space tracking and communication of its space assets this year by putting up a new satellite series called the Indian Data Relay Satellite System. The IDRSS is planned to track and be constantly in touch with Indian satellites, in particular those in low-earth orbits which have limited coverage of earth. n the coming years, it will be vital to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), whose road map is dotted with advanced LEO missions such as space docking, space station, as well as distant expeditions to moon, Mars and Venus.
4. State can regulate minority institutions: SC  – The Supreme Court held that the State is well within its rights to introduce a regulatory regime in the “national interest” to provide minority educational institutions with well-qualified teachers in order for them to “achieve excellence in education.” The managements of minority institutions cannot ignore such a legal regime by saying that it is their fundamental right under Article 30 of the Constitution to establish and administer their educational institutions according to their choice.
5. House to vote on limiting Trump’s war powers  – U.S. lawmakers have few options for tamping down any escalation by President Donald Trump of tensions with Iran, despite Democrats’ outrage over his failure to inform Congress in advance about a strike against a top Iranian military commander. Members of Congress begin to return from their year-end holiday recess, and Democrats said they will attempt quickly to pass legislation to bar him — or any future U.S. commander-in-chief — from conducting a campaign against Iran without obtaining Congress’ approval.
6. China’s PLA begins major military drill in Tibet – The Chinese army has begun major military exercises in the high-altitude Tibet bordering India, deploying latest weapons, including the Type 15 light battle tank and the new 155-MM vehicle-mounted howitzer. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Tibet Military Command started its New Year exercises in which it has deployed helicopters, armoured vehicles, heavy artillery and anti-aircraft missiles across the region from Lhasa, capital of Tibet, to the border defence front lines with elevations of more than 4,000 m.
7. Pak. arrests main accused in Nankana Sahib vandalism case – The main accused in the recent vandalism at the Gurdwara Nankana Sahib in Pakistan’s Punjab province was arrested and charged with a non-bailable section of the stringent anti-terrorism act and blasphemy. Gurdwara Nankana Sahib, also known as Gurdwara Janam Asthan, is a site near Lahore, where the first Guru of Sikhs, Guru Nanak, was born. The suspect, identified as Imran Chisti, is the elder brother of Mohammad Hassan, who married a teenage Sikh girl in September 2019 after allegedly abducting and converting her to Islam, triggering a controversy.Chisti, a government employee working in the Fisheries Department, was arrested for his role in the violent incident at the Gurudwara in Nankana.
8. 1917 wins big at Golden Globes – War epic ‘1917’ shocked the Golden Globes by claiming the top prize for best drama film, while Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ won the most honours, massively boosting their prospects for next month’s Oscars. ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ — an homage to 1960s Tinsel town — won three prizes, including best comedy, but Martin Scorsese’s much-vaunted Netflix crime saga The Irishman went home empty-handed.
9. Equities plunge amid global sell – off over West Asia fears -Indian equities lost heavy ground amid a global sell-off as investors turned jittery due to increasing geopolitical tension in the West Asia region which threatens to push up international price of crude, of which India is one of the biggest importers globally. The 30-share Sensex lost 787.98 points, or 1.90%, to close at 40,676.63. As many as 28 constituents of the index ended the day in red, with stocks such as HDFC, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India and Tata Steel among others shedding more than 2% each.
10. Tata-Mistry case: – NCLAT no to modifying verdict-The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) dismissed the petition of the Registrar of Companies seeking modification of its judgment in the Tata-Mistry case and said the ruling had not cast any aspersions on the RoC.

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• SECTION 2 - DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

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• 1. CONSTITUTION AND LAW

No news in this section today.

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• 2. ECONOMY

RBI buy Rs. 10,000 crores of long-term securities, sells same amount of short-term bonds in special open market operations (OMO).
 

1. In the third special open market operation, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) bought Rs. 10,000 crore of three long-term securities while selling a same amount of three short-term bonds under open market operations (OMOs).
2. Though the RBI offered to sell four securities in the auction, it accepted bids for three bonds.
3. In the current OMO purchase auction, the RBI offered to purchase three securities including 10-year benchmark government bond, as against just one bond in the previous two auctions.
4. It got bids worth Rs. 64,505 crore for the three bonds but choose to accept only Rs. 10,000 crore of bids under the OMO purchase auction.
5. It got 198 bids for 7.32 percent-2024 but accepted 12 bids and for 7.27 percent-2026 bonds the RBI received 163 bids and accepted only two bids.
6. The RBI received 224 bids for 6.45 percent-2029 security but accepted only 22 bids.
7. It offered to sell four government securities-6.65 percent- 2020; 7.80 percent-2020; 8.27 percent-2020 and 8.12 percent-2020 through OMO sale. These securities were offered by the RBI in the previous two OMO sale auctions.
8. It received Rs 47,540 crore of bids but accepted to sell Rs 10,000 crore of bids.
9. In terms of number of bids, the central bank received 26 bids for 6.65 per cent-2020; 40 for 7.80 per cent-2020 and 35 for 8.27 per cent-2020 but accepted 7, 3 and 4 bids, respectively.
10. For 8.12 percent-2020 bond, it received 41 bids but did not accept any of them. In the previous two similar auctions, the RBI had purchased Rs 20,000 crore and sold Rs 15,326 crore of bonds.
11. These special OMO auctions are similar to the US Federal Reserves' Operation Twist aimed at faster transmission of policy rates.
    

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal inaugurated the National Stock Exchange (NSE) Knowledge Hub in New Delhi. The Knowledge Hub is an Artificial Intelligence powered learning ecosystem that will assist the banking, financial services and insurance sector.

ESAF Small Finance Bank files draft papers with SEBI to float a Rs. 976-crore initial public offering. ESAF Small Finance Bank is an Indian small finance bank providing banking services and small loans to the under-banked. ESAF stands for Evangelical Social Action Forum.

PSU Container Corporation Of India (Concor) has incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary, named Concor Last Mile Logistics on January 6, 2020. The objects of the above Company are inter-alia to develop goods sheds, operate and manage freight terminals/goods sheds, develop warehouses, provide first mile-last mile connectivity and other services related thereto.

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• 3. ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

Room air conditioners to now have default temperature of 24 degree Celsius: Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE).

1. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) said all room air conditioners should have a default temperature of 24 degrees Celsius.
2. This means that when the room air conditioner is switched on, it will start at 24 degree Celsius.
3. The central government in consultation with BEE had notified new energy performance standards for room air conditioners (RACs) on October 30, 2019.
4. According to the notification, all brands and types of star-labelled RACs, which are rated from one star to five stars based on their energy efficiencies and manufactured, commercially purchased or sold in India, shall ensure default setting of temperature in the room air conditioners at 24 degrees Celsius, with effect from January 1, 2020.
5. The new norms provide that the Indian Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (ISEER) as per the new standards will range from 3.30 to 5 for split and 2.70 to 3.50 for window air conditioners.
6. However, these performance standards, except default temperature of 24 degrees Celsius, will be applicable from January 1, 2021, onwards.
7. The BEE launched a voluntary star-labelling programme for fixed-speed RACs in 2006 and this programme became mandatory on January 12, 2009.
8. There after, in 2015, a voluntary star-labelling programme for inverter RACs was also started, which was further made mandatory with effect from January 1, 2018.
9. The BEE star-labelling programme for RACs now covers both fixed and inverter RAC up to a cooling capacity of 10,465 watts (2.97 tonne of refrigeration).
10. Continual enhancement in performance levels has resulted in substantial energy-efficiency improvement of about 43 percent in the minimum energy performance standards for split units, which are the most-popular RACs sold in the market.
11. The ISEER is the energy performance index used for RACs and its assessment is based on the bin hours defined in ISO 16358.
12. The star-labelling programme for RACs has led to saving of an estimated 4.6 billion units of energy in 2017-18 and a cumulative energy saving of 46 billion units translating to a reduction of 38 million tonnes of carbon emission.
13. The BEE is a statutory body under the ministry of power, government of India. It develops policies and strategies with the objective of reducing the energy intensity of the Indian economy.
     

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• 4. FOREIGN AFFAIRS

The 20 Indian fishermen, who were released from a Pakistani jail in a goodwill gesture amidst tense bilateral ties, reached the Wagah Border. The Indian fishermen, most of whom hail from Andhra Pradesh, were handed over to the Border Security Force by the Pakistan Rangers.

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• 5. GOVERNMENT SCHEMES

Kolkata Police starts third edition of 'Sukanya' project for girls’ self-defence training.

1. Kolkata Police started third edition of 'Sukanya' project from January 6, 2019.
2. The project is aimed to provide girls studying in schools and colleges in the city with self-defence training. 
3. The third batch of 'Sukanya' started at 100 city-based schools and colleges situated in Kolkata Police jurisdiction. 
4. Girl students of VIII, IX, XI and girls studying in the first year at educational institutions in this area will be part of it. 
5. Sukanya is an initiative of the Kolkata Police's Community Policing Wing to provide self-defence training to girl students of city-based schools, colleges and universities.
6. The initiative is funded by Women and Child Development and Social Welfare Department of the state government.
   

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• 6. MISCELLANEOUS

77th Golden Globe Awards

1.  The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in film, both American and International, and the American television.
2. The annual ceremony, at which the awards are presented, is a major part of the film industry's awards season, which culminates each year in the Academy Awards.
3. The eligibility period for the Golden Globes corresponds to the calendar year (i.e. January 1 through December 31).  
4. The 76th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and television in 2018, were held on January 6, 2019.
5. The 77th Golden Globe Awards took place on January 5, 2020 in Beverly Hills, California (US).
6. Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Actress given in two categories: Drama and Musical or Comedy.
7. Drama - Best Motion Picture: 1917, Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix in ‘Joker’, Best Actress: Renée Zellweger in ‘Judy Garland'
8. Musical or Comedy - Best Motion Picture: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Best Actor: TaronEgerton in ‘Rocketman’, Best Actress: Awkwafina in ‘The Farewell’
   Best Director: Sam Mendes for ‘1917’
9. Best Foreign Language Film: ‘Parasite’ (South Korea)
10. Cecil B DeMille Award: Tom Hanks
11.  Carol Burnett Award: Ellen DeGeneres.

Defence: Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) to observe 2020 as 'year of mobility' for troops' welfare, housing.

Sports: Indian Grandmaster P. Magesh Chandran won Hastings International Chess Congress tournament in England.

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• 7. POLITY

Obituary: Former Padma Vibhushan Triloki Nath Chaturvedi passed away at the age of 90 in Noida.

1. Triloki Nath Chaturvedi (January 18, 1929 –January 5, 2020), was an officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and was the 14th Governor of Karnataka from 2002–2007.
2. After retirement from IAS Chaturvedi held the office of Comptroller and Auditor General of India from 1984 to 1989.
3. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1991.
4. He became Governor of Karnataka on 21 August 2002.
5. He was also the Governor of Kerala from 25 February 2004, following the death of Sikander Bakht, until June 2004, when he was replaced by a newly appointed governor.
6. Chaturvedi gained wide recognition for his role as Karnataka Governor.
7. He was replaced as governor by Rameshwar Thakur on 21 August 2007.
8. He was a prospective contender for the post of President of India in 2017.

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• 8. SOCIAL ISSUES

No news in this section today.

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• 9. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

No news in this section today.

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• SECTION 3 - MCQs (Multiple Choice Questions)

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