Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 08-05-2020

Useful compilation of Civil Services oriented - Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 08-05-2020

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• SECTION 1 - TEN NEWS HEADLINES

1. Vizag gas leak claims 11 lives; over 350 hospitalised – Eleven people, including a six-year-old girl, died and over 350 were admitted to hospitals after styrene monomer gas leaked from a chemical plant belonging to LG Polymers India at R.R. Venkatapuram in Visakhapatnam. The gas leak began around 3.30 a.m. in the plant, which is situated in the midst of a densely populated area. It was set up in 1961 in the area, then a suburb. The gas reportedly spread over a radius of about 3 km, affecting at least five villages — R.R. Venkatapuram, Padmapuram, B.C. Colony, Gopalapatnam and Kamparapalem. About 2,000 people were evacuated from the 3-km radius. The gas is not lethal but prolonged exposure to it could affect the central nervous system, which may lead to depletion of oxygen to the brain and cause nausea, vomiting and breathlessness. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy announced compensation of ₹1 crore for family members of the deceased.
2. India registers 3,561 new cases, 89 deaths in a day – India registered 3,561 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 52,952. With 89 deaths, the tally mounted to 1,783. The country currently has 35,902 active cases, with All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) director Randeep Guleria stating that according to data released by experts and going by the current trend, the cases are likely to peak in June-July. According to data from the Union Health Ministry, 15,266 persons have been cured so far with 1,084 patients cured in the past 24 hours. However, the State Health Departments put the total number of cases at 54,299, of which 36,761 are active. The number of deaths rose to 1,832.
3. Penniless and hungry, a long march home on other side of Vindhyas – Thousands of migrant workers from Bengaluru, a majority of them young men in their 20s and 30s, have begun their long trek home to Uttar Pradesh and other States in North India on foot. Though Karnataka government announced that it would re-start Shramik Express trains to northern States, they have not turned back to Bengaluru. National Highway 44 is dotted with small groups people, their faces covered in handkerchiefs or masks, carrying luggage and water bottles. Despite several challenges on the road — uncertainty over their next meal, soaring mercury, difficulty in crossing borders — their resolve to reach home was firm.
4. King of fruits now delivered at your doorstep – The joint collaboration of the Telangana Horticulture department and the Department of Posts, Telangana Postal Circle, to deliver the ‘king of fruit’ at the doorstep of consumers overcoming the limitations of social distancing in these times of COVID-19 crisis has evoked tremendous response in twin cities. Within a few days of the Horticulture department taking orders over the phone and then through its website Tfresh.org from May 3, orders have been placed so far for 40 tonnes of mangoes and two tonnes of sweet lime.
5. Factory working hours increased in M.P. – Madhya Pradesh allowed employers to increase working hours in factories by four hours, from eight to 12. It has also allowed up to 72 hours a week in overtime. Newly opened industrial units can organise third-party inspections. They will be exempted from the requirement of keeping registers and inspections. Industries can change shifts at their convenience. New industries will be exempted from all Sections of the Factories Act, 1948, except for Sections 6, 7, 8, 21-41 (H), 59, 67, 68, 79, 88 and 112..
6. Management Aptitude Test can be taken at home – Applicants for the Management Aptitude Test (MAT) — for MBA course admissions in more than 600 business schools across the country — can now take the test sitting at home. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, MAT authorities have decided to introduce an Internet-based test with remote proctoring through artificial intelligence-based tools this year.
7. Virus attack worse than Pearl Harbor – Donald Trump has said the COVID-19 pandemic is a worse attack on the U.S. than either Pearl Harbor or 9/11, taking aim once again at China, which he said should have stopped the disease in its tracks. The President has ramped up his rhetoric against Beijing in recent weeks, as the death toll in the U.S. has continued to climb, and as he agitates to re-open the shuttered — and stuttering — economy. While some European and Asian nations have started easing lockdowns, experts have warned that despite the economic pain, social distancing measures remain necessary until a vaccine is developed. Globally, the virus has infected 3.7 million people and killed more than 2,60,000 — a quarter of them in the U.S.
8. Surge in domestic violence: WHO – Emergency services across Europe have seen a sharp rise in domestic abuse calls under sweeping lockdowns imposed across the continent, the World Health Organization’s regional office said. Billions of people are subject to some form of stay-at-home orders across the globe, and experts say women and children are most vulnerable to abuse. Domestic violence often increases in times of crisis, and is exacerbated due to restrictions and containment measures put in place to limit the spread of the new coronavirus. The UN agency for sexual and reproductive health (UNFPA) has estimated that there would be 31 mn more cases of domestic violence worldwide if lockdowns continue for another 6 months.
9. Trump vetoes Iran resolution – U.S. President Donald Trump vetoed what he called a “very insulting” congressional resolution seeking to limit his war powers in Iran. In a statement, Mr. Trump said he had used his veto because the resolution — a rare bipartisan rebuke to the President approved in March — was based on “misunderstandings of facts and law.” The measure stemmed from fears among both Mr. Trump’s Republicans and Democrats that the White House was stumbling into war with the Islamic republic. In the statement, Mr. Trump said the Congress misinterpreted his constitutional authority as being limited to “defence of the U.S. and its forces against imminent attack.”.
10. Russia tops Germany, France after record spike in infections – Russia’s coronavirus cases overtook France and Germany to become the fifth highest number in the world after a record daily rise, and Moscow’s mayor said the real figure, not captured by official statistics, was much higher. The official tally surged to 1,77,160, meaning Russia now has more registered cases than Germany or France, as the number of new cases of the novel coronavirus jumped by 11,231 in the past 24 hours. More than half of all cases and deaths are in Moscow, the epicentre of Russia’s outbreak, which reported a record overnight increase of 6,703 new cases, bringing its official total to 92,676.

Important Exam Notifications
S. No.	Institution	Exam or Post Name	Vacancies or Seats	Qualification	Last Date to Apply	Link for Details
1	Sambalpur DCCB	Support Staff (Peon)	30	10th Class	May 25, 2020	http://sambalpurdccb.com/Uploads/ADVERTISEMENT%20FOR%20THE%20POST%20OF%20SUPPORT%20STAFF%20(PEON)%20IN%20THE%20BANK..pdf
2	Regional Centre for Biotech.	Chief Scientific Officer, Chief Scientist	6	Any Degree, PG, Ph.D	May 29, 2020	https://www.rcb.res.in/upload/Final%20Advtisement%20for%20BSU%20Positions%20.pdf
3	CMFRI	Senior Research Fellow, Field Assistant	8	Any Degree, PG	May 20, 2020	http://www.cmfri.org.in/uploads/jobs/Marine%20mammal%20project-SRF%20&%20FA%20Advt.pdf
4	NIEPID	Jr Special Education Teacher, Statistical Asst	11	12th Class, B.Com, B.Ed, M.Ed, PG	June 15, 2020	http://www.niepid.nic.in/emp012020/NIEPID.pdf
5	NARL	Junior Research Fellow	8	PG Degree	May 15, 2020	https://www.narl.gov.in/PDFs/RAJRF2020.pdf
6	DME, Assam	Accountant, Account Asst, Cashier, Stenographer, Driver	78	HSLC, Diploma, Degree	May 27, 2020	https://dme.assam.gov.in/sites/default/files/swf_utility_folder/departments/dme_lipl_in_oid_8/menu/document/advertisement-grade-iiinon-technical_posts_of_lmc.pdf
7	ASRLM	State Project Manager, Project Manager	40	Degree, PG	June 11, 2020	https://asrlms.assam.gov.in/sites/default/files/swf_utility_folder/departments/asrlm_pnrd_uneecopscloud_com_oid_66/this_comm/hradvt05052020.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 In a notable judgment, the Delhi High Court has quashed the decision of a private college to refuse renewal of service contract of an ad-hoc Professor who had opted to take maternity leave

• In the case Manisha Priyadarsini vs Aurobindo College-Evening and others, the Court observed that maternity leave cannot be a legitimate ground for denying extension of tenure to the petitioner. The Court added that such denial would amount to penalizing a woman for electing to become a mother.
• This is violative of the basic principle of equality in the eyes of law.
• It would also tantamount to depriving her of the protection assured under Article 21 of the Constitution of India of her right to employment and protection of her reproductive rights as a woman.
• Such a consequence is therefore absolutely unacceptable and goes against the very grain of the equality principles enshrined in Articles 14 and 16.
• While directing the College to reinstate the Appellant Professor within one week, the Division Bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Asha Menon imposed a cost of Rs. 50,000 on the Respondents for giving arbitrary and unmerited reasons for not renewing the term of the Appellant.
• Case History - The Appellant was a contractual Assistant Professor at the Respondent College, and her term was coming to an end in March 2019. It has been a practice to renew the term of contractual teachers for 120 days after giving them a nominal break of one day between the two terms. On Feb 22, 2019, she had requested the Respondent College for grant of maternity leave alongwith all other eligible benefits under the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 but after reiterating the request for maternity leave several times, she received a communication stating that the college had not "forced" her to join duty and that she should also inform the college of the date when she "intended" to join, thus, indicating that she was still on their rolls but later she received a communication from the College stating that the Delhi University doesn't extend maternity benefits to contractual teachers, thus, rejecting her request for maternity leave. On May 24, 2019 she reported to College to continue wiCMIE's weekly series of data pointed to a steady increase in unemployment since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in India, with the week to 29 March showing the sharpest spike to 23.81 percent.th her duties but five days later it was informed to her that her tenure had ended on March 18, 2019, she was no longer on the rolls of the college and therefore, there was no question of her joining back on duty or being assigned any work.

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

2.1  Unemployment rate of country rose to 27.11% for the week ended May 3 from below 7% before the start of the coronavirus pandemic in mid-March - Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE)  

• The rate of unemployment was the highest in the urban areas, which constitute the most number of the red zones due to the COVID-19 cases, at 29.22 percent, as against 26.69 percent for the rural areas.
• Scenes of migrants fleeing urban centres like Delhi and Mumbai only confirmed the long-held concerns on their employment as the economic activity came to a grinding halt.
• The government has so far announced income and food support to the vulnerable people as part of a Rs 1.70 lakh crore fiscal stimulus to the economic, financial and possibly humanitarian crisis, and is also mulling a second round of measures soon.
• The US has seen a huge spike in unemployment as over 26 million people have claimed for state support because of losing their jobs.
• As per CMIE's data, the monthly unemployment rate in April stood at 23.52 percent, up from March's 8.74 percent.
• As of the end of April, Puducherry in South India had the highest number of unemployment at 75.8 percent, followed by neighbouring Tamil Nadu 49.8 percent, Jharkhand 47.1 percent and Bihar 46.6 percent.
• Maharashtra's unemployment rate was pegged at 20.9 percent by the CMIE, while the same for Haryana stood at 43.2 percent, Uttar Pradesh at 21.5 percent and Karnataka at 29.8 pe cent.
• Hilly states had the lowest incidence of unemployment as of April, the think tank said, pointing out that the rate in Himachal Pradesh stood at 2.2 percent, Sikkim at 2.3 percent and Uttarakhand at 6.5 percent.

2.2 Duty hike in Petrol and Diesel

• Centre hikes duties on petrol and diesel by Rs 10 and Rs 13 per litre respectively.
• Retail prices will see no change as the price hike will be absorbed by oil marketing companies against the fall in crude prices. 
• Road and Infrastructure Cess was hiked by Rs. 8 for both petrol and diesel. 
• Special additional excise duty (SAED) was hiked by Rs. 2 per litre and Rs. 5 per litre for petrol and diesel respectively.

2.3 Government sets target of constructing roads worth Rs 15 lakh cr in next two years: Nitin Gadkari.

2.4 Government to run awareness campaign in 1 lakh villages to promote use of bio/organic fertilisers and reducing consumption of chemical nutrients.

2.5 Google said it had blocked and removed 2.7 billion ‘bad advertisements’ globally in 2019, and suspended nearly one million advertiser accounts for policy violations as part of its efforts to protect users from misleading ads.

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

3.1 WIHG researchers reveal 35000-year history of river erosion in Ladakh Himalayas

• Scientists and students from Dehradun-based Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG), an autonomous institute under the Department of Science & Technology, have revealed 35-thousand-year history of river erosion in Ladakh Himalayas.
• The study will help to understand river-borne erosion and sedimentation.

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

4.1 Pulitzer Prize 2020

• The Pulitzer Prize is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine and online journalism, literature, and musical composition in the United States.
• It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fortune as a newspaper publisher, and is administered by Columbia University.
• Prizes are awarded yearly in twenty-one categories.
• In twenty of the categories, each winner receives a certificate and a US$15,000 cash award (raised from $10,000 in 2017).
• The winner in the public service category is awarded a gold medal.
• For year 2020 J&K based photographers Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan and Channi Anand awarded Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. 
• Before to this five journalists from India has been awarded with this prize -

1. Vijay Seshadri: He won a Pulitzer Prize in 2014 for his collection of poems 3 Sections. He is the fifth person of Indian origin to receive the prestigious award. Seshadri is a poet, essayist and a literary critic.
2. Gobind Behari Lal: He won the Pulitzer in 1937 in the journalism category. He shared the prize with four other reporters for covering science at the Harvard University.
3. Jhumpa Lahiri: She won a Pulitzer, in 2000, for her short story collection Interpreter of Maladies. Her first novel The Namesake was turned into a movie of the same name.
4. Geeta Anand: She won a Pulitzer Prize, in 2003, for her work on Pompe disease which is a muscular condition which has also been adapted into a movie called Extraordinary Measures.
5. Siddhartha Mukherjee: He is a cancer physician and researcher. He won the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction, in 2011, for his book, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. He is an Indian-born American physician and scientist.

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

5.1 Dr. Harsh Vardhan launches the ‘AYUSH Sanjivani’ App and inter-disciplinary studies on potential of AYUSH in prevention of COVID 19

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• 6. MISCELLANEOUS (Prelims, Various GS Papers)

6.1 Weekly Roundup - Defence

• Vande Bharat Mission - Indian Navy launched Operation “Samudra Setu” (Sea Bridge) - a massive repatriation effort, the largest in history, to evacuate Indian citizens who have been stranded in various countries due to the travel lockdown over COVID-19 pandemic. Indian Naval Ships Jalashwa and Magar are presently enroute to Malè in Maldives to commence evacuation operations as part of Phase-1. A total of one thousand persons are planned to be evacuated during the first trip, catering for COVID- related social distancing norms vis-a-vis the carrying capacity and medical facilities available on-board. While 64 flights have been roped in to bring Indians from various countries. The evacuated personnel will be disembarked at Kochi in Kerala and will be under the care of state authorities. Meanwhile, the first Air India Express flight carrying 177 passengers from Abu Dhabi landed at Kochi. 
• COVID-19: Indian Navy’s personal protective equipment (PPE) certified for production and use by Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INM).
• Total global military expenditure rose by 3.6% to $1,917 billion in 2019: SIPRI - The total global military expenditure rose by 3.6% to $1,917 billion in 2019, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). China ($261 billion, 5.1% increase) and India ($71.1 billion, 6.8% increase) were the second- and third-largest spenders, after the US ($732 billion, 5.3% increase).
  

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• 7. POLITY (Prelims, GS Paper 2)

7.1 Defence Minister approves abolition of 9,304 posts in the Military Engineering Service

• This is in line with the recommendations of the Lt. Gen. D.B. Shekatkar (Retd.) Committee, which had suggested measures to enhance combat capability and rebalance armed forces’ expenditure.
• One of the recommendations was to restructure the civilian workforce in a manner that the work of the MES could be partly done by departmentally employed staff and other works could be outsourced.
• It was aimed at making the MES an effective organisation with a leaner workforce, well equipped to handle complex issues in the emerging scenario in an efficient and cost- effective manner, it added.
• The 11-member committee, appointed by the late Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar in 2016 with a broad mandate, had made about 99 recommendations from optimising defence budget to the need for a Chief of the Defence Staff.
• The recommendations, if implemented over the next five years, can result in savings of up to Rs. 25,000 crore in defence expenditure.
• Of these, the first batch of 65 recommendations pertaining to the Army were approved in August 2017.

 7.2 Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury reappointed Chairperson of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.

7.3 Tamil Nadu government to convert late CM J. Jayalalithaa’s ‘Veda Nilayam’ residence in Chennai into a memorial.

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

8.1 Vesak (Buddha Purnima), the Day of the Full Moon, observed on May 7.

• The day falls on the Poornima (full moon) of the Hindu month Vaishakha (April or May).
• It marks the birth anniversary of Gautam Buddha, founder of Buddhism.
• Gautam Buddha - He was born as Siddhartha Gautama in circa 563 BCE, in a royal family in Lumbini, Nepal. His belonged to the Sakya clan which ruled from Kapilvastu. At the age of 29, Gautama left home to seek true knowledge and after 49 consecutive days of meditation, Gautam attained Bodhi (enlightenment) under a pipal tree at Bodhgaya, Bihar. Buddha gave his first sermon in the village of Sarnath, near Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. This event is known as Dharma Chakra Pravartana (turning of the wheel of law). He died at the age of 80 in 483 BCE at Kushinagara, Uttar Pradesh. The event is known as Mahaparinibban or Mahaparinirvana. He is believed to be the eighth of the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu (Dashavatar).
• It was on the Day of Vesak that the Buddha in his eightieth year passed away. 
• It was also on the Day of Vesak that the Buddha attained enlightenment.

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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 Reports/ Rankings – Lost at Home 2019 Report by UNICEF

• The report was for year 2019.
• 19 mn children were living in displacement within their own countries due to conflict and violence.
• Estimated 46 million people were internally displaced by conflict and violence.
• Around 12 million new displacements of children, out of which 3.8 million were caused by conflict and violence, and 8.2 million by disasters related to weather like flooding and storms.
• UNICEF also called on governments to take concrete action and investment that will help provide protection and equitable access to these victims.

10.2 Daily dose of  FIVE Facts -

• Dun & Bradstreet publishes Composite Business Optimism Index for the Indian economy every quarter.
• Bureaucrat Nagendra Nath Sinha has been appointed as Rural Development Secretary.
• Anurag Srivastava took charge as the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in April 2020.
• The government has decided to include AYUSH Health and Wellness Centre component of Ayushman Bharat in National AYUSH Mission (NAM).
• Ibrahim Mohamed Solih is the President of Maldives.

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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