Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 28-02-2020

Useful compilation of Civil Services oriented - Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 28-02-2020

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• SECTION 1 - TEN NEWS HEADLINES

1. CAA violence in Delhi – toll rises to 38, Delhi returns to normalcy – The death toll in the violence that has rocked north-east Delhi rose to 38, with 11 more persons succumbing to injuries at various hospitals. The national capital was, however, spared any major clashes, shifting the focus to investigation, relief and rehabilitation. 48 FIRs had been registered and 514 suspects arrested or detained for questioning so far. Special teams also carried out raids in the Delhi-National Capital Region to arrest rioters. A case of murder and arson was lodged against Aam Aadmi Party corporator Tahir Hussain and other unidentified persons at the Dayalpur police station. The party announced that Mr.Hussain had been suspended from primary membership till investigations are completed, after a complaint was filed by the father of Ankit Sharma, who was found dead in a drain near his home in Chand Bagh.
2. CAA violence in Delhi – Sanders attacks Trump for being non-committal on riots – Leading Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders attacked US President Donald Trump for “failure on human rights leadership”, saying Trump’s comment that handling the unrest over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was up to India was inadequate. Sanders tweeted, “Over 200 million Muslims call India home. Widespread anti-Muslim mob violence has killed at least 27 and injured many more. Trump responds by saying, ‘That’s up to India’. This is a failure of leadership on human rights.” Sanders took on Trump for his reaction at the press meet in India on questions about the clashes.
3. COVID-19 Outbreak – India evacuated its nationals from Wuhan and brought back those who were quarantined on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked off Yokohama in Japan amid the COVID-19 outbreak. A civilian aircraft evacuated 119 Indian nationals and five foreign citizens — two from Sri Lanka and one each from Nepal, South Africa and Peru — who were quarantined on board the cruise ship. Two Indian crew members did not board the special flight as they wanted to complete the extended quarantine period put in place by the Government of Japan. All the evacuees will undergo a 14-day quarantine at the facility set up by the Army in Manesar.
4. Ganga pollution – The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has pulled up the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) for its inability to prevent drains in Kanpur from polluting the Ganga. Some of these drains were tapped under cleaning works under the Namami Ganga Programme. The CPCB and the UPPCB had been jointly monitoring 24 drains — two in Unnao and 22 in Kanpur — since March 2019. Drains that revealed “high colour” from chemical effluents or Biochemical Oxygen Demand and Dissolved Oxygen — an indicator of microbial presence — were to be cleaned and errant municipal bodies or industrial units were to be fined or face shutdowns. Over a thousand industries, including sugarcane, pulp and paper and tanneries, and slaughter houses had been marked out and monitored for effluent load.
5. US – India Defence Deal – Lockheed Martin will deliver six MH-60R Multi-Role Helicopters (MRH) to the Navy in 2021 and the order would be completed by 2025, sources said on Thursday. The deal, worth around $2.2 billion, was signed early this week during the visit of U.S. President Donald Trump.
6. COVID-19 Outbreak: Saudi Arabia bans foreign pilgrims as Japan plans to close schools–Saudi Arabia has taken the unprecedented step of banning foreign pilgrims from entering the country five months before the annual hajj pilgrimages, while Japan will close its schools next week as countries around the world scramble to halt the spread of the coronavirus. So far, the virus has killed nearly 3,000 people and infected more than 82,000, prompting warnings that the world is fast approaching a “tipping point”. Saudi Arabia announced the ban late after more than 330 cases were confirmed around the Middle East, most of them in Iran. Authorities in Riyadh said the ban was temporary, but did not say how long it might last. Schools across the country to close their doors from 2 March in Japan. The country has so far confirmed 178 cases of the virus.
7. Syrian rebels retake key town in Idlib from Assad forces – Turkish-backed Syrian rebels have retaken a key town from Bashar al-Assad’s forces in the country’s last opposition-held territory of Idlibas fighting continues despite growing international calls for a ceasefire. The loss of the town, which is strategically located at the crossroads of Syria’s main two highways, is the first major setback for advancing Syrian government troops since Turkey decided to deploy soldiers and equipment to bolster rebel groups earlier this month.
8. Pakistan PM Imran Khan meets Qatar's Emir ahead of signing of US-Taliban peace deal– Pakistan foreign office said in a statement the focus of Khan's visit will be on "strengthening the bilateral cooperation and exchanging views on regional developments This is the second visit of Prime Minister Khan to Qatar after taking office in 2018.
9. Putin says he rejected body double plan – Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed there was a secret plan to use a double to make public appearances for him, while insisting he vetoed it – and that he is the real Putin. Putin’s comments showed that a conspiracy theory widespread on the internet that the Russian strongman has been impersonated over the years or even replaced by a lookalike is not entirely without basis.
10. HC to hear plea for FIRs against BJP leaders on April 13 – The Delhi High Court adjourned to April 13 the hearing on a petition seeking FIRs against three BJP leaders — Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra and ParveshVerma — for their alleged hate speeches. The Central government and the Delhi police have been given four weeks to file their affidavit on the issue.A Bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice C. Hari Shankar also allowed the Union government to become a party to the matter, following submissions by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

Important Exam Notifications
S. No.	Institution	Exam or Post Name	Vacancies or Seats	Qualification	Last Date to Apply	Link for Details
1	ECIL	Technical Officer	5	Degree	March 9, 2020	http://careers.ecil.co.in/app/ADVT_13_2020.pdf
2	THSTI	Sr Pro. Asso., Pro. Asso. – II, Research Associate, SRF	5	Degree. PG (Relevant Engg Discipline), Ph.D	March 16, 2020	https://thsti.in/ethsti/writereaddata/158271892803THS-RN-01-2020-02-II.pdf
3	NESAC	Research Scientist	12	Degree, PG (Relevant Engg Discipline)	March 23, 2020	https://nesac.gov.in/assets/resources/2020/02/Advertisement_Research-Scientist-Feb-2020.pdf
4	National Institute of Hydrology	Resource Person, Research Scientist, Research Associate	13	Degree, PG (Relevant Engg Discipline), Ph.D	March 12, 2020	http://nihroorkee.gov.in/sites/default/files/Advertisement-2020.pdf
5	Sainik School, Nagrota	TGT, Band Master, General Employee	6	10th Class, BA, B.Ed	March  10, 2020	http://sainikschoolnagrota.com/wp-content/uploads/Advt.-Website-Upload.pdf
6	Gauhati Medical College & Hosp	Staff Nurse	300	B.Sc Nursing/ GNM	Feb 29, 2020	http://formonline.net/gmch_assam_staff_nurse_2020/Pdf/ib.pdf
7	Staff Selection Board, Silvassa	PGT & Asst Teacher – 323 Posts	323	12th Class, D.Ed, Degree, PG	March 16, 2020	https://img.freejobalert.com/uploads/2020/01/Notification-SSB-Silvasa-PGT-Asst-Teacher-Posts.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 Kerala High Court banned all forms of agitations by student groups on school and college campuses

• Background - The Court issued this order while hearing a petition filed by 20 educational institutions against campus politics.The Court had prohibited campus politics in 2017 but the decision was not implemented.
• Judgement - Banning the strikes in educational institutes the court said these institutesare meant for academic activities but can be made a venue for peaceful discussions. Any form of agitation that affects the academic atmosphere on campuses should not be there.Right to education is a fundamental right (Article 21-A) and nobody has the right to violate that right.
• Opposition - Student wings of political parties consider the verdict which infringes upon fundamental rights of freedom of speech and expression {Article 19(1)(a)}. Campus politics has a larger role in socialising students and instilling in them the values of democracy and secularism.A student group is also a type of a Pressure Group.
• A pressure group is a group of people who are organised actively for promoting and defending their common interest.It is called so, as it attempts to bring a change in public policy by exerting pressure on the government.

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

2.1 Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA)  launched the Simplified Proforma for Incorporating Company Electronically Plus (SPICe+) web form

• This was part of the Ease of Doing Business (EODB) initiative of Government of India.
• The SPICe+ form will replace the existing SPICe form. 
• SPICefor was launched in 2016 and is a single form for multiple services for incorporation of a company.
• SPICe+ would offer 10 services by three Central Government ministries and departments and one State Government (Maharashtra) ministry. It will help save many procedures, time and cost for starting a business in India.
• The three Central Government ministries are Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Ministry of Labour and Ministry of Finance.
• SPICe+ has two parts – Part A and Part B offering bunch of services.
• India has improved its ranking to the 63rd spot on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business (EODB) survey, 2019 out of 190 countries but the report had cited India was lagging behind in certain parameters such as starting a business.The latest step is an effort towards achieving the government’s target of reaching the 50th spot.
  

2.2 National Thermal Power Corporation got approval of CCI to acquire 74.50% of issued and paid-up share capital of THDC India Ltd from the government..

2.3 Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas DharmendraPradhan met US Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette in New Delhi.

2.4 Ten lakh smart meters installed across India under Smart Meter National Programme (SMNP) of Centre implemented by EESL (Energy Efficiency Services Limited).

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

3.1 Locals poisoned four Tigers; Goa CM emphasised to demarcate and fence the borders of wildlife sanctuaries

• Locals in Mhadei, Goa poisoned four Tigers after their complaints were not attended by forest authorities. Chief Minister of Goa stated to demarcate and fence the borders of the wildlife sanctuaries in order to end 80 per cent of the problem. (In photo: Tiger Reserves in India)
• Wild animals cause loss to villagers by predating their livestock, by damaging crops while humans affect wild life by spreading residential garbage in forests, through vehicle-wildlife collisions etc.
• Expansion of human settlements into forests, allowing livestock to graze in forest areas, use of forest land for agriculture, unscientific structures and practices of forest management, decreased availability of edible grasses for wild herbivores and decreased prey base caused by poaching of herbivores are the main reasons carnivores moving out of forests in search of prey and to indulge in cattle lifting.
• India has the largest population of Tiger, Asian elephant, Leopard, Sloth Bear, Gaur etc. In India animals are inclusive to humans. All deities have animals associated with them. The Velip community in Goa worship the tigers and this practice is done even today. The Bishnoi community in Rajasthan consider nature as god.  
• Inclusion of local community in forest wildlife management and better compensation procedures for the loss caused to villagers can be some of the measure which can be taken to prevent such incidents in future.
• Some of the innovative practices world-wide 

1. In Tadoba Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra, it was ensured that money which comes through tourism be used for development  of locals.
2. In the Western Ghats of India, Elephant tracking collars embedded with SMS chips automatically text nearby residents, warning them of recent elephant movements.
3. In Canada, wildlife corridors, areas of preserved native habitat in human dominated regions, providing wildlife with a safe pathway.
4. Some African villagers have all natural solutions like bees and hot peppers to keep Elephants in forests. Elephants dislike the chemical capsaicin found in chilli peppers.
   

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

4.1 Sri Lanka announced withdrawal from a UNHRC resolution that called for accountability to human rights abuses committed during the nation's civil war with the Tamil separatists that ended in 2009.

4.2 JanezJansa of the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) appointed as new PM of Slovenia.

4.3 In Malaysia 94-year old Mahathir Mohamad resumed work with a new title of interim prime minister, a day after resigning.

4.4 President Faure Gnassingbe re-elected for a fourth term in power in Togo.

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

5.1 Andhra Pradeshgovernment launched 'JaganannaVasathi Deevena' scheme of providing financial assistance for the hostel and mess charges of college students.

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• 6. MISCELLANEOUS (Prelims, Various GS Papers)

6.1 Weekly Roundup – Defence

• Defence Minister laid foundation stone of new Army Headquarters ‘Thal Sena Bhawan’ at Delhi Cantt.
• Training course on Vessel Search Technique is being organized by the Indian Coast Guard jointly with the Australian Border Force began in Chennai from February 24 to 28.
• Chief of Defence Staff General BipinRawat pays tribute at the National War Memorial in New Delhi on its first anniversary.  
• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurates new Light Combat Helicopter Production Hangar at HAL Complex in Bengaluru.
• 6th offshore patrol vessel (OPV) ‘Vajra’ of the Indian Coast Guard commissioned in Chennai. It was built by L&T Shipbuilding under the ‘Make in India' policy. The ship would be utilized for day and night patrol/surveillance along with anti-terrorist/ anti-smuggling operations in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) as well as Coastal Security. India has over 7500 km vast coastline, an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of over 20 lakh sqkms and more than one lakh merchant ships transiting per year through Indian waters for global trade. Capabilities –  Two Navigation Radars with ultra-modern technology, Sophisticated navigational and latest communication systems, Capable of carrying a twin-engine helicopter.
• 13-day-long Indo-UK joint military exercise – Ajeya Warrior – conclude in Salisbury (UK).
  

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• 7. POLITY (Prelims, GS Paper 2)

7.1 Mizoram asked Centre to review border with Assam

• The Mizoram government has sought the revision of the boundary with Assam, based on the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR), 1873 and the Inner Line of the Lushai Hills Notification of 1993.The MizoZirlai Pawl (MZP) has been constantly demanding the state government to immediately resolve the border dispute.
• The border dispute between Mizoram and Assam is a long-pending issue.The border issue has remained relatively calm, except a few instances in 1994, 2007 and 2018. Several dialogues held since 1995 to resolve the border dispute have yielded little result.
• What is BEFR? - The BEFR allows Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland not to let non-resident Indians in without an inner-line permit for a temporary stay.
• Mizoram used to be the Lushai Hills district of Assam before being made a Union Territory in 1972 and a State in 1987.Mizoram shares a 123-km border with southern Assam and has been claiming a 509-square mile stretch “occupied” by the neighbouring State.
• The last border stand-off between the two States had taken place at Zophai in March 2018 when members of a students’ body of Mizoram attempted to construct a wooden resting shed there.
• The 2018 border dispute was put under control with the intervention of the Centre, which asked both the Mizoram and Assam governments to maintain status quo on the disputed land till issues are resolved.
• A joint committee was also constituted by both the state governments under the Union Home Ministry.
• The committee carried out an inspection of illegal structures in the inner line reserved forest area along the Mizoram-Assam border, which was suspended again following a dispute at zero point in Dholchera-Phaisen area in April 2018.
• The Mizoram Cabinet had in July 2019 declared that the inner-line reserve forest area belonged to Mizoram and is the actual boundary of the State.

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

8.1 International Conference on Standardisation of AYUSH Terminologies (ICoSDiTAUS) 2020

• Time – February 2020
• Place – New Delhi
• Organisers – Ministry of AYUSH and the WHO 
• ICoSDiTAUS-2020 was the biggest ever international event dedicated to standardisation of Diagnosis and Terminologies of Traditional Medicine in terms of the broad level of participation covering virtually all the continents.
• 16 countries which came together for the cause of Traditional Medicine at this conference are Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Serbia, Curacao, Cuba, Myanmar, Equatorial Guinea, Qatar, Ghana, Bhutan, Uzbekistan, India, Switzerland, Iran, Jamaica and Japan.
• AYUSH is an abbreviation of Ayurveda, Yoga  and  Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy.
• Issues Discussed

1. Challenges in counting and classification of Traditional Medicine (TM).
2. Potential of strategic use of data and evidence to advance TM systems into public health.
3. Adapting World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Classification of Diseases (ICD) to TM Systems and their implementation.

• International Classification of Diseases(ICD) – 

1. The ICD provides a method of classifying diseases, injuries, and causes of death.
2. The World Health Organization (WHO) has published the ICDs to standardize the methods of recording and tracking instances of diagnosed disease all over the world, making it possible to conduct research on diseases, their causes, and their treatments.
3. The ICD is currently in its 10th revision (ICD-10). However, the WHO also publishes annual minor updates and triennial major updates.
4. The 11th revision of the ICD (ICD-11) was accepted by WHO's World Health Assembly (WHA) on 25 May 2019 and will come into effect on 1 January 2022.
5. This new version is fully electronic, allows more details to be recorded and is significantly easier to use and to implement, which will lead to fewer mistakes and lower costs, and make it more accessible, particularly for low-resource settings.
6. More than 100 countries use the system to report mortality data, a primary indicator of health status.

• The ICoSDiTAUS adopted the “New Delhi Declaration on Collection and Classification of TM Diagnostic Data”.The New Delhi declaration emphasised the commitment of the countries to TMas a significant area of health care. 

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

9.1 Animal which does not need oxygen to produce the energy needed for its survival discovered.

• Scientists named it HenneguyaSalminicola.
• It is a tiny, less than 10-celled parasite which lives in the muscles of salmon fish.
• It does not not have a mitochondrial genome. Mitochondria is the “powerhouse” of the cell, which captures oxygen to make energy.
• Its absence indicates that the parasite does not breathe oxygen.
• It is a relative of jellyfish and corals and as it evolved, it gave up breathing and consuming oxygen or became anaerobic to produce energy but it is not yet clear how the parasite generates energy.
• It may be drawing it from the surrounding fish cells or it may have a different type of respiration such as oxygen-free breathing, which typically characterises anaerobic non-animal organisms like fungi, amoebas or ciliate lineages.
• Aerobic respiration was thought to be prevalent in animals but now it is confirmed that animals can survive with anaerobic respiration.

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

10.1   Ranking – Catch Them Moving – report on transit retail by Knight Frank India

• Travellers from Mumbai airport are India’s highest spending flyers, with the average retail revenue per passenger at $7, followed by $6 by flyers from Delhi Airport
•  Delhi airport tops the list of duty-free revenue per passenger (meaning international passengers) at $10-11, followed by Mumbai airport at $9-10 and Bengaluru airport at $5-6..
• Retail opportunity for airports will grow from $1.4 billion in 2019 to $9.3 billion by 2030.
• Duty-free retail, which is about 50% of the total retail opportunity, currently at $0.7 billion, is expected to grow to $2 billion by 2030.
• Food and beverage tops the list, accounting for 47% of total retail sales at Delhi and Mumbai airports and 66% at Bengaluru.  
• Apparel, jewellery-accessories and books-gifts-toys are the other hot-selling categories. 
• Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru airports in FY 2019 saw non-aeronautical revenue account for 70%, 54% and 49%, respectively, of their total revenue.
• Estimated current size of transit retail in India at $2.2 billion.
• This overall transit retail opportunity is estimated to grow to $21.6 billion by 2030.

Download pdf of the report from here –

https://content.knightfrank.com/research/1923/documents/en/transit-retail-2020-think-india-think-retail-6990.pdf

10.2 Daily dose of FIVE Facts -

• A. Namboothiri won the 55th Jnanpith Award on November 29, 2019.
• Headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is at Brussels.
• Goa hosted the second edition of the Startup India Global Venture Capital Summit, in Dec2019.
• Japan has developed the QZSS satellite navigation system.
• Minorities Rights Day was observed in India on December 18.

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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