Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 16-04-2020

Useful compilation of Civil Services oriented - Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 16-04-2020

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• SECTION 1 - TEN NEWS HEADLINES

1. COVID-19 pandemic update – Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) came up with the fresh directives to manage the pandemic. Wearing face covers and masks is now compulsory in public places and workplaces, spitting in public is a punishable offence and selling liquor, gutka and tobacco is strictly prohibited. All industries operating in rural areas and the government’s flagship rural jobs scheme will also be allowed to reopen from April 20 if they follow social distancing norms and other safeguards against the COVID-19 infection. The lockdown is scheduled to end on May 3.
2. COVID-19 pandemic update - Nearly one in five districts in India is a hotspot. Every district in India is classified into a hotspot, potential hotspot or a green zone. Of India’s 736 districts, 170 were ‘hotspots’, defined as places with at least 15 confirmed infections or where there was an exponential rise in cases. There were 207 ‘potential hotspots,’. There were 11,439 confirmed cases and 377 deaths. A total of 1,306 people have been been discharged after recovery. Details of these districts were not shared but in all of these places —potential or not — testing would be ramped up to include checking even those who displayed ‘influenza-like illnesses’ and breathlessness.
3. Monsoon predictions - India will likely have a normal monsoon, with a chance of ‘above normal’ rain in August and September. The IMD issues a two-stage forecast: the first in April, followed by a more detailed one in the last week of May, which will also illustrate how the monsoon will spread over the country. The IMD’s confidence stems largely from global weather models pointing to negligible chances of El Nino, a warming of the central equatorial Pacific that’s associated with the drying up of monsoon rain. It has also officially redefined the definition of what constitutes ‘normal’ rainfall and reduced it by 1 cm to 88 cm. The June-September rainfall accounts for 75% of the country’s annual rainfall.
4. COVID-19 impact - U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered a freeze on funding for the World Health Organization (WHO) for “mismanaging” the coronavirus crisis. With the world battling to get on top of the pandemic that has killed 1,25,000 people, Mr. Trump fired a broadside at the WHO and halted payments amounting to $400 million last year. The outbreak could have been contained “with very little death” if the WHO had accurately assessed the situation in China, where the disease broke out late last year, charged Mr. Trump. Beijing hit back, saying the move was bad for the global fight. “This U.S. decision will weaken WHO’s capacities and undermine the international cooperation against the epidemic.
5. COVID-19 measures - In the first such donation of its kind, Russia’s State-owned defence exports company Rosoboronexport has committed $2million (Rs. 15.3 crore) to the newly set up ‘PM CARES Fund’, diplomatic and government sources confirmed. The proposed donation to the fund that has been set up specially to assist the government’s efforts in combating the COVID-19 pandemic, marks a significant shift in India’s policy on accepting contributions from foreign government owned companies. Thus far, the government had been only open to contributions from “NRIs, PIOs and international entities such as foundations”.
6. Elections in South Korea – S. Korean President Moon Jae-in’s ruling party is projected to win a general election, exit polls showed, as mask-wearing voters cast their ballots under strict precautions against SARS-CoV-2. The election was closely watched around the world as one of the first nationwide votes since the epidemic began. The disease has caused delays in many other political calendars. A ruling party majority in Parliament would help Mr. Moon to push through his agenda in his final two years in office, with a looser fiscal policy aimed at creating jobs, a higher minimum wage and engagement with North Korea his priorities. Voters at some 14,000 disinfected polling stations across the country had to wear masks, have their temperatures checked, use hand sanitizer and plastic gloves and maintain a safe distance from others.
7. Indian Economy: Downwards journey of rupee - The rupee slipped 17 paise against the dollar amid heightened uncertainty over the economy as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to spread at a brisk pace. The rupee opened at 76.07 compared to the previous close of 76.27, touching the day’s low of 76.48 a dollar before closing at 76.44, an all-time low. The rupee, which has weakened about 7% against the dollar this year, hit a record intraday low of 76.55 last week. The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against the basket of six currencies was trading 0.3% higher at 99.19.
8. Indian Economy: Stock Market - The Indian equity benchmarks gained strong ground in the first half of the session but pared all the gains at the fag end and ended in the red. The 30-share Sensex, which gained nearly 880 points to touch an intra-day high of 31,568.35, closed at 30,379.81, down 310.21 points, or 1.01%. The broader Nifty ended the day at 8,925.30, shedding 68.55 points or 0.76%. Market participants attributed the fall to the overall weak trend in most markets on account of concerns related to a weak economic outlook. Interestingly, even as the benchmarks fell, many of the side counters gained ground with over 1,400 stocks advancing in BSE, as against 955 that declined.
9. Internal Defence: Army Chief to visit J&K - Army chief General M M Naravane will head to Kashmir to review the operational situation and preparedness against the backdrop of the surge in ceasefire violations and infiltration attempts along the Line of Control, which comes at a time when both India and Pakistan are grappling with the coronavirus pandemic. Gen Naravane, in particular, will be visiting the 15 Corps headquarters in Srinagar and the 28 Infantry Mountain Division in Kupwara during his two-day tour to discuss the ongoing counter-infiltration as well as counter-terrorist operations with the commanders on the ground. The visit comes soon after the recent spike in ceasefire violations (CFVs) along the 778-km LoC, with both the Indian and Pakistani armies deploying artillery guns and anti-tank guided missiles to target each other’s posts and locations.
10. Indian Economy: Biggest monthly drop in Exports since 1991 - India’s exports witnessed the steepest monthly decline since at least economic liberalisation in 1991, slumping almost 35% in March as the coronavirus pandemic took a toll on global trade. Exports at $21.4 billion in March, a decline of 34.6%. It eclipsed the 34.1% crash seen in May 2009, which was the biggest monthly collapse since April 1991. Imports too fell 28.7% to $31.2 billion, indicating that there was a severe demand contraction, as 29 of the 30 major categories, barring transport equipment, saw lower value of shipments into the country.

Important Exam Notifications
S. No.	Institution	Exam or Post Name	Vacancies or Seats	Qualification	Last Date to Apply	Link for Details
1	South Central Railway	Specialist, GDMO & Other	204	10th, 10+2, ITI, MBBS	April 15, 2020	https://scr.indianrailways.gov.in/uploads/files/1586579033251-Drs.CH.LGD.pdf
2	Central Railway	Specialist	12	MBBS	April 20, 2020	https://www.iip.res.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Advt.-No.-02-2020.pdf
3	Northern Railway	Contract Medical Practitioner	134	DNB/ Diploma,	April 16, 2020	https://img.freejobalert.com/uploads/2020/04/Notification-Northern-Railway-Contract-Medical-Practitioner-Staff-Nurse-Posts.pdf
4	NHM, HP	Epidemiologist, Entomologist	19	MBBS/ BDS with MPH	April 16, 2020	http://www.nrhmhp.gov.in/sites/default/files/files/R-Advertisement%20No_%20001-2020.pdf
5	MAPIT	Manager & Trainer	166	BE/ B.Tech/ M.Sc/ MCA	April 20, 2020	https://img.freejobalert.com/uploads/2020/04/Notifiction-MAPIT-Manager-Trainer-Posts.pdf
6	Eastern Railway	Medical Practitioner & Nursing Staff	15	-	April 16, 2020	https://er.indianrailways.gov.in/view_detail.jsp?lang=0&dcd=2222&id=0,4,268#
7	North Central Railway	Contract Med Practitioner/ GDMO	37	MBBS	April 14, 2020	https://ncr.indianrailways.gov.in/cris//uploads/files/1586416891803-pers.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 Conducting Floor Test or not is a decision of Governor : Supreme Court

• The SC has held that a Governor can call for a floor test any time he/she objectively feels a government in power has lost the confidence of the House but while directing a trust vote, the Governor should not favour a particular political party.
• Timing of a trust vote may tilt the balance towards the party possessing a majority at the time the trust vote is directed.
• Governor’s power to call for a floor test is not restricted only before the inception of a State government immediately after elections, but continues throughout its term.
• The SC has clarified that the Governor’s power of trust vote does not hamper any disqualification proceedings pending before the Speaker.
• A Governor need not wait for the Speaker’s decision on the resignation of rebel Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) before calling for a trust vote.
• Trust Vote - A confidence motion or a vote of confidence or a trust vote, is sought by the government in power on the floor of the House. It enables the elected representatives to determine if the Council of Ministers commanded the confidence of the House. The idea underlying the trust vote is to uphold the political accountability of the elected government to the State legislature.
• No-confidence motion - A no-confidence motion, or vote of no-confidence, or a no-trust vote, can be sought by any House member to express that they no longer have confidence in the government.
• Floor Test - It is a term used for the test of the majority.
• Constitutional Provisions Related to Governor -  
• Article 163: It talks about the discretionary power of the governor.
• Article 256: The executive power of the Union shall extend to the giving of such directions to a State as may appear to the Government of India to be necessary for that purpose.
• Article 257: The executive power of the Union shall also extend to the giving of directions to a State as to the construction and maintenance of means of communication declared in the direction to be of national or military importance.
• Article 356: In the event that a state government is unable to function according to constitutional provisions, the Central government can take direct control of the state machinery.

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

2.1 Government extends term of Banks Board Bureau members by two years

• Retail inflation, based on Consumer Price Index (CPI), declines to 4-month low of 5.91% in March –

1. A sharp fall in vegetable prices has led India’s retail inflation to ease from 6.58% in February to a four-month low of 5.91% in March but supply shortages due to the 21-day lockdown could push up inflation in the short run.
2. Food inflation declined from 10.81% in February to 8.76% in March because of falling onion prices, this was reflected in vegetable inflation softening from 31.61% to 18.63% in the two-month period.
3. In March, rural inflation at 6.09% stood higher than urban inflation at 5.66% while fuel inflation marginally rose to 6.59% from 6.36% in February.

• Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation declines to 4-month low of 1% in March –

1. The annual rate of inflation based on monthly wholesale price index (WPI) stood at 1 per cent in March over the same month last year. The official WPI for all commodities (base 2011-12=100) for March 2020 declined by 0.9 per cent to 121.1 from 122.2 for the previous month.

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

3.1 India will receive normal monsoon this season - India Meteorological Department (IMD) 

• The scientists, including those from Imperial College London in the UK, discovered forest soil pertaining to a time between 145 and 66 million years ago within 900 kilometres of the South Pole.
• The IMD issues a two-stage forecast: the first in April, followed by a more detailed one in the last week of May, which will also illustrate how the monsoon will spread over the country. 
• The IMD’s confidence stems largely from global weather models pointing to negligible chances of El Nino, a warming of the central equatorial Pacific that’s associated with the drying up of monsoon rain.
• The June-September rainfall accounts for 75% of the country’s annual rainfall.
• Normal Rain Fall – Quantitatively the monsoon seasonal rainfall of 100% of the Long Period Average (LPA) with a model error of ± 5% is called Normal Rain Fall 
• Long Period Average (LPA) - The LPA of the season rainfall over the country as a whole for the period 1961-2010 is 88 cm.
• IMD officially redefined the definition of what constitutes ‘normal’ rainfall and reduced it by 1 cm to 88 cm. 
• The expectation of excess rain comes from a forecast by the dynamical model or the Monsoon Mission Coupled Forecast System — that relies on supercomputers, mathematically simulating the physics of the ocean and the atmosphere.
• El Niño is the warm phase of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and is associated with a band of warm ocean water that develops in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific (between approximately the International Date Line and 120°W), including the area off the Pacific coast of South America. Originally, the term El Niño applied to an annual weak warm ocean current that ran southwards along the coast of Peru and Ecuador at about Christmas time.

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

4.1 President Donald Trump announced halt of US $ 500 million annual US funding to WHO

• The decision came US logging a single-day record of 2,228 deaths after it had plateaued and fallen to around 1500 deaths the two previous days. Virus cases across the US crossed 6,00,000  accounting for nearly a third of the global cases, and three times as many as the next worse affected country (Spain).
• WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he regrets Trump’s decision and added that now is the time for the world to be united.  
• Trump’s move was condemned by domestic and international principals, from Democrat lawmakers to Bill Gates to UN secretary general Antonio Gutteres, who said now is not the time to reduce resources for WHO or any humanitarian body involved in the fight against Covid-19. 
• China and EU also condemned the move.
• Question Marks over WHO - The system that has been developed to provide a global response to epidemics and pandemics has failed miserably. Covid-19 has spread all over the world, shutting down entire countries. The World Health Organization, global health governance’s centrepiece, has been sidelined.
• Two main elements of this global health governance system combined to lead to its subsequent failure during the Covid-19 outbreak.
• The first is the WHO’s central role in disease surveillance and response coordination. The WHO was simply not fit for this purpose. This stems from its subservience to major funding states, which dates back to the 1970s.
• A second important aspect of global health governance pre-Covid-19 was its operation through domestic state institutions. The underlying assumption was that infectious diseases are likely to emerge in developing countries, due to their poor sanitation and governance capacities, then spread to other parts of the world.
• Although very limited financial support was available to help developing countries build up their domestic health systems, they were subjected to ongoing surveillance by the WHO and developed countries. 
• The blow to WHO came amid reports that Trump had insisted on his name being printed on stimulus cheques of a minimum $ 1200 due to be mailed to Americans.

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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 Weekly Roundup – Corporate

• Tata Power bags Edison Award for social innovation - Tata Power has won the Edison Award for social innovation. The Edison Awards, named after Thomas Alva Edison, recognises and honours the world’s best innovations and innovators. Tata Power got the awards for its ‘Club Enerji #Switchoff2SwitchOn’ campaign. The sustainability initiative has brought in 533 participating schools across India that have saved 29.8 million units of power since it started in 2007. Tata Power is India’s largest integrated power company and has an installed capacity of 10,763 megawatts together with its subsidiaries and jointly controlled entities.
• HUL partners with UNICEF to support India’s fight against COVID-19 - Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) major Hindustan Unilever on April 8, 2020 said it has collaborated with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for a mass communication campaign to inform and empower the general public against the COVID-19 pandemic. The mass media campaign, titled #BreakTheChain’ or #VirusKiKadiTodo’ will have 5 and 15 second informative assets to empower general public with prevention strategies to protect themselves against COVID-19. Based on three key themes - social distancing, hand washing and generosity, the campaign will generate these short informative assets across India through television, news portals and prominent social media channels, it added.
• HLL Lifecare Limited develops diagnostic kit named ‘MakeSure’ for COVID-19 - HLL Lifecare Limited, a Central government enterprise under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, has developed a rapid antibody diagnostic kit named ‘MakeSure’ for COVID-19. The kit has been manufactured at HLL’s rapid diagnostic kit manufacturing facility at Manesar and has been validated and approved by the NIV, Pune and the ICMR for use in India.
• DRDO, Wipro 3D develop full face shield for medical staff treating COVID-19 patients - Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and private firm Wipro 3D have together developed a full-face shield for doctors and medical staff treating COVID-19 patients.
• Microsoft buys corp.com to save Windows users from cybercriminals - Microsoft Corporation has agreed to buy the domain corp.com from a private owner for an undisclosed sum, in an effort to prevent cybercriminals from abusing it owing to a problem known as “namespace collision”. Microsoft has bought the domain from its Wisconsin-based owner Mike O’Connor “in a bid to keep it out of the hands of those who might abuse its awesome power”. Mike bought corp.com 26 years ago and hoped Microsoft would buy it someday because “hundreds of thousands of confused Windows PCs are constantly trying to share sensitive data with corp.com”.
• Covid-19: Apple, Google to assist governments, health agencies in contact tracing - Apple and Google on April 10, 2002 announced a joint effort to assist governments and health agencies in enabling contact tracing to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Since Covid-19 can be transmitted through close proximity to affected individuals, public health officials have identified contact tracing as a valuable tool to help contain its spread.
• Google Maps to show locations of COVID-19 food, night shelters in India - Google on April 6, 2020 said it will now show the locations of food and night shelters on Google Maps in cities across India to help people find these essential services during the ongoing lockdown.
• WhatsApp to limit sharing of frequently forwarded messages to only one chat at a time - WhatsApp is rolling out a new feature that will allow users to share frequently forwarded messages to only one chat at a time, in a bid to curb the spread of misinformation and fake news through its platform amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Harley-Davidson in April 2020 launched Low Rider S motorcycle priced at Rs 14.69 lakh.

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• 7. POLITY (Prelims, GS Paper 2)

7.1 73rd foundation day of Himachal Pradesh celebrated on April 15

• Himachal Day is a gazetted public holiday in the Himachal Pradesh state in India.
• It was on this day in 1948 that Himachal Pradesh was created as a province of India.
• As Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Birthday is usually a gazetted holiday in the state on April 14th, this forms part of a two-day break in Himachal Pradesh.
• History of Himachal Day - Himachal Pradesh is a state in northern India. Bordering Tibet, it is noted for its Himalayan landscapes (Himachal means 'snow-laden region') and is a popular tourist destination for trekking and enjoying the natural beauty.
• The state also has the fourth highest per capita income of the Indian States and is the third fastest growing economy in India.
• Following independence from Britain in 1947, the Chief Commissioner's Province of Himachal Pradesh was created on April 15th 1948 as a result of the integration of 28 petty princely states (including feudal princes and zaildars) in the promontories of the western Himalayas.
• On December 18th 1970 the State of Himachal Pradesh Act was passed by Parliament and the new state came into being on January 25th 1971.  
• Himachal then became the eighteenth state of the Indian Union. This event is marked by the public holiday of Statehood Day in Himachal Pradesh on January 25th each year.

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

8.1 Aarogya Setu is world’s fastest app to reach 50 mn download: NITI Aayog CEO.

8.2 Chairman, members of UPSC to forego 30% of their basic pay for one year from April 1, 2020 to aid the government’s fight against coronavirus.

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

9.1 Not Available Today

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

10.1 Report and Rankings – World Economic Outlook Report 2020 by IMF

•  The Covid-19 pandemic is having a severe effect on the world economy.
• It is expected to cause a -3% change in global output in 2020, which is much worse than the 2008-09 financial crises.
• Emerging Asia - Emerging Asia is projected to be the only region that grows in 2020, at a rate of 1.0% - still more than 5 percentage points below the previous decade’s average.

1. India - India’s growth is expected to dip to 1.9% in 2020 and rebound to 7.4% in 2021. India’s growth projection for 2020 is 3.9% less than what was projected for the country in the January update.
2. China - First quarter economic activity could have contracted by 8% year on year. Projected to grow at 1.2% in 2020 and 9.2% in 2021.
3. Other - Apart from India’s modest 1.9% in 2020, Indonesia is expected to grow at 0.5%, while others in the region experience contractions.

• Advanced economies - Advanced economies will have an output change of -6.1% in 2020 followed by 4.5% in 2021.

1. USA - The U.S. is projected to contract by 5.9% in 2020 and grow by 4.7% 2021. 
2. Euro area - Will contract by 7.5% in 2020 and grow by 4.7% 2021.

• Impact on Global GDP - The cumulative loss to global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over 2020 and 2021 from the pandemic crisis could be around 9 trillion dollars, greater than the economies of Japan and Germany, combined.
• Measures to combat the impact – 

1. Targeted fiscal, monetary and financial sector interventions
2. Cushioning the impact on the most-exposed households and businesses
3. Reducing firm closures , i.e., preserving economic relationships
4. Monetary stimulus by large central banks and liquidity facilities to reduce systemic stress
5. Strong multilateral cooperation including to help financially constrained countries facing twin health and funding shocks

• International Monetary Fund - IMF works to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world. It was created in 1945. India Joined it on December 27, 1945.
• World Economic Outlook – Survey published twice a year in the months of April and October.

To download the report visit here –

https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/Issues/2020/01/20/weo-update-january2020

10.2 Daily dose of  FIVE Facts -

• www.strandedinindia.com portal was launched by Ministry of Tourism in March 2020 for foreigners unable to leave India because of lockdown.
• WhatsApp has launched 'Coronavirus Information Hub' in partnership with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and UNDP.
• Numaligarh Refinery Limited is owned by BPCL.
• Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman in Feb 2020 unveiled EASE 3.0 initiative to improve customer experiences at public sector banks.  
• The Banks Board Bureau (BBB) has recommended G.R. Chinatala as the next Chairman of NABARD.

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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