Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 17-09-2020

Useful compilation of Civil Services oriented - Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 17-09-2020

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• SECTION 1 - TEN NEWS HEADLINES

1. Social – 17000 page chargesheet names 15 for Delhi riots conspiracy – A little less than 200 days after filing an FIR to investigate the conspiracy behind the riots which rocked north-east Delhi in Feb, Delhi police’s special cell filed a 17,000-page chargesheet against 15 people, all anti-CAA protesters, in a city court. This was the culmination of the first phase of the probe. The chargesheet has named as accused, among others, United Against Hate activist Khalid Saifi; Congress ex-councillor Ishrat Jahan; AAP ex-councillor Tahir Hussain; RJD youth wing’s Meeran Haider; Pinjda Tod activists Gulfisha Fatima, Safoora Zargar, Natasha Narwal, and Devangana Kalita. Six other accused — Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Danish, Parvez Ahmed, Ilyas, and Faizal Kha —have been arrested in this case but not named in this chargesheet. Police will file supplementary chargesheets naming them and other people who may be arrested. The accused have been charged under a plethora of sections of IPC and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
2. Misc. – Tatas set to bag new Parl bldg project with lowest ₹862 crore bid – Infrastructure major Tata Projects Ltd has emerged as the lowest bidder for the New Parliament House building project by quoting Rs 861.9 crore, 8.4% less than the CPWD-estimated cost of Rs 899 crore. Larsen and Toubro Ltd quoted the second lowest bid of Rs 865 crore. The project will be awarded after scrutiny and going by the practice, the lowest bidder would bag the project. Work could start in December or latest by January, and has to be completed within 21 months from the day Central Public Works Department (CPWD) allows construction to start. The successful bidder will be allowed to carry out construction round the clock in three shifts, therefore, considering this provision, the period for project completion has been squeezed further. Though the government had targeted to complete the new Parliament building by July 2022, the timeline has been pushed by at least six months due to the ongoing Covid pandemic.
3. COVID-19 Updates – Russia inks pact to test, supply Sputnik V vaccine to India – The Russia Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which is piloting Russia’s Sputnik V candidate vaccine, currently in Phase 3 trials, has partnered with the Hyderabad-based Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories to test, and subject to regulatory approvals in India, supply 100 million doses of the vaccine. G.V. Prasad, co-chairman and managing director, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, said in a joint statement with RDIF: “We are pleased to partner with RDIF to bring the vaccine to India. The Phase 1 and 2 results have shown promise, and we will be conducting Phase 3 trials in India to meet the requirements of the Indian regulators. Sputnik V vaccine could provide a credible option in our fight against COVID-19 in India.”.
4. India-China Standoff – China rebuts Rajnath, says India violated agreements – China blamed India for “violating” border agreements and said India bore responsibility for the recent tensions, a day after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told Parliament that China had, by amassing troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) this summer, violated the 1993 and 1996 boundary agreements that have helped keep the peace along the border for years. “The responsibility for the current situation does not lie with China,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a press briefing, in response to a question on Mr. Singh’s statement.
5. Agriculture – Farmers fear end of MSP regime – Farmers in Punjab and Haryana are up in arms against the Centre’s agriculture-related Bills as they fear their enactment — one of these has already been passed in the Lok Sabha — would be a step towards the abolition of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) regime. Agriculture experts too share similar concerns that this could leave farmers vulnerable to possible exploitation at the hands of big corporate houses. The three farm-related Bills, which are all set to become law after being passed in the ongoing session of Parliament, are anti-farmer. The one on essential commodities removes all cereals, pulses, oilseeds, potato and onion from trade restrictions and price control — this will ultimately benefit only the middlemen and traders.
6. Social – Babri demolition case verdict on September 30 – The judgment in the Babri Masjid demolition case will be delivered by a Special CBI court here on Sept 30, almost 28 years after the structure in Ayodhya was razed to the ground. Special Judge S.K. Yadav has directed all the 32 accused to appear in court. Among the accused are senior BJP leader and former Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani and his colleagues Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Kalyan Singh, Vinay Katiyar and Sadhvi Rithambara. Mr. Singh was the CM of U.P. when Babri Masjid was demolished on Dec 6, 1992.
7. World – Air strikes accompany Israel-Gulf pacts – Militants in Gaza launched rockets into Israel and Israeli aircraft hit targets in the Palestinian enclave in an explosive backdrop to the signing of pacts for formal ties between Israel and the two Gulf Arab countries. The Israeli military said it launched about 10 air strikes in Hamas Islamist-run Gaza early on Wednesday and that 15 rockets had been fired from the territory at Israeli communities near the border, where sirens sounded before dawn.
8. COVID-19 Updates – In coronavirus vaccine race, China inoculates thousands before trials are completed – China is inoculating tens of thousands of its citizens with experimental coronavirus vaccines and attracting international interest in their development, despite expert concerns over the safety of drugs that have not completed standard testing. China launched a vaccine emergency use programme in July, offering three experimental shots developed by a unit of state pharmaceutical giant China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) and US-listed Sinovac Biotech. A fourth Covid-19 vaccine being developed by CanSino Biologics was approved for use by the Chinese military in June.
9. World – Barbados to remove Queen Elizabeth as head of state – It aims to complete the process in time for the 55th anniversary of independence from Britain, in November 2021. Barbados would not be the first former British colony in the Caribbean to become a republic. Guyana took that step in 1970, less than four years after gaining independence from Britain. Trinidad and Tobago followed suit in 1976 and Dominica in 1978. It is actually quite unusual for a country to remove the Queen as its head of state. The last to do so was Mauritius in 1992. Other Caribbean countries like Dominica, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago became republics in the 1970s.
10. Economy  – RBI Governor dashes hopes of V-shaped eco recovery –RBI Governor Mr. Das squashed expectations of a V-shaped recovery and called for a policy focus on increasing India’s participation in global value chains. “High frequency indicators of agricultural activity, the purchasing manager’s index and certain private estimates on unemployment point to some stabilisation of economic activity in the second quarter of the current year,” said Das, while delivering his address at an event organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Important Exam Notifications
S. No.	Institution	Exam or Post Name	Vacancies or Seats	Qualification	Last Date to Apply	Link for Details
1	BECIL	Sr Programmer/ Sr Software Developer, Programmer	9	BCA, B.Tech, MCA	SEPT-22-2020	https://www.becil.com/uploads/vacancy/56cf886e081f9c2e7f10e7a60f4dfc0f.pdf
2	Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology	Young Professional	25	BE/ B.Tech/ PG (Relevant Subject)/ PG Diploma/ LLB/ CA/ ICWA	15 DAYS	https://www.meity.gov.in/writereaddata/files/Advertisement%20Young%20Professionals.pdf
3	NEIGRIHMS	Field Worker	10	MSW/ PG	SEP-25-2020	http://neigrihms.gov.in/Latest%20News/Other/2020/MSW.pdf
4	IIIM, Jammu	Sr Project, Project Associate-I, Project Asst/ Technician, Field Asst	22	B.Tech, B.Sc, M.Sc, Diploma (Engg) or Ph.D	SEP-23-2020	https://www.iiim.res.in/job/Advt_No_13_2020.pdf
5	Bharat Electronics Limited	Project Engineer – I	14	B.E./ B.Tech	OCT-5-2020	https://www.bel-india.in/Documentviews.aspx?fileName=Web-adv-for-PE-I-SDSC-Kochi-15-09-2020.pdf
6	BPSC	66 Combined (Prelims) Competitive Exam	731	Any Degree	OCT-20-2020	http://www.freejobalert.com/bpsc-cce/842021/#CCE2020
7	ICDS, Jashpur	Anganwadi Worker, Anganwadi Helper	10	8th, 12th Class	SEP-28-2020	https://cdn.s3waas.gov.in/s385fc37b18c57097425b52fc7afbb6969/uploads/2020/09/2020091595.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 Not Available Today

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

2.1 Brahmin priests in Bengal to get Rs.1,000 monthly allowance: Govt

 

• Key points –

1. With an eye on next year’s Assembly elections, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has announced a Rs 1,000 monthly allowance and free housing for 8,000 “poor Sanatan Brahmin priests”.
2. The Trinamool Congress chief also announced the formation of a Dalit Sahitya Academy, which will be headed by writer Manoranjan Byapari, and reconstituted the existing Hindi Academy.
3. The BJP enjoys strong support in Dalit and tribal communities, and in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections received massive backing from the Namasudra Dalit community, most of whom migrated to the state from present-day Bangladesh.
4. The Opposition party also enjoys the support of a significant chunk of the Hindi-speaking population in the state. While Kolkata and Howrah have a fairly large Hindi-speaking population, at least eight of the state’s 23 districts share borders with the Hindi-speaking states of Bihar and Jharkhand.

• CM’s views –

1. Many of the priests eligible for this allowance have regular day jobs and are not attached to temples. Many of them conduct pujas at the homes of customers while doing regular day jobs.
2. Congratulating people on the occasion of Hindi Diwas, the CM said the Hindi Academy established in 2011 would be reconstituted, with editor and former Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Gupta as its chairperson. IPS officer MK Singh will be the co-chairperson of the 25-member body.
3. The TMC chief also said that manuscripts conserved in Bishnupur museum would be digitised.

• Political theatre –

1. In response to the CM’s announcements, BJP leader Rahul Sinha said, “When Mamata Banerjee realised that her party will lose the coming Assembly elections, the government is talking about Brahmins, Hindi-Sanskrit and Dalit literature. Why did they not speak about these earlier? The people of West Bengal know that after the elections Mamata will forget these things.”
2. CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty also lashed out at the government, saying “At this time, the state government should have done something for the helpless youth or for the poor people. Instead of doing so, the state government is doing dirty religious politics. This is a very dangerous trend and unfortunate also.

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

3.1 INCOIS have discovered a way to measure the quantity of chlorophyll-a that indicates abundance of phytoplankton in the Bay of Bengal in real-time

• Prerequisites – 
  

1. INCOIS - Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services
2. Phytoplankton- They are tiny microscopic floating plants found in water bodies.
3. Key Points -
4. Study of phytoplankton biomass is done by analyzing chlorophyll-a, a dominant pigment found in its cells.
5. Phytoplanktons contribute more than half of the oxygen in the environment and reduce global warming by absorbing human-induced carbon dioxide. They serve as the base of the ocean food chain. Important bioindicators regulating life in oceans, their abundance determines the overall health of the ocean ecosystem.
6. The scientists closely tracked the long-term trends of chlorophyll-a in the northwestern Bay of Bengal studying satellite data spanning over the last 16 years (Jan 2003 to Dec 2018).
7. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), NASA’s VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) sensor and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s OCM-2 (Ocean Colour Monitor-2) were used for satellite data.

• Results -

1. There were two peaks of chlorophyll-a — the primary peak occurred during the pre-southwest monsoon due to the recurrent phytoplankton bloom in the coastal water and the secondary peak occurred during the end of the southwest monsoon, spreading to far offshore areas. This peaks might be caused by events like upwelling, wind-induced vertical mixing, convective overturn and chemicals from various sources including river runoff.
2. Study reveals that the study area experienced maximum spatial variability during pre-southwest monsoon with salinity, and nutrients, the major controlling factors for the abundance and distribution of phytoplankton.
3. Increase in nutrients could tell an overall improved health status of the ecosystems as a whole; at the same time excessive phytoplanktons could be detrimental to ocean health because of eutrophication (water body becomes overly enriched with minerals and nutrients which induce excessive growth of algae or algal bloom).
4. This process also results in oxygen depletion of the water body affecting other aquatic animals.

• The road ahead -

1. Continuous monitoring of the ocean ecosystem is the need of the hour to devise mitigation systems to encounter disruption caused by algal bloom because of excessive phytoplankton enrichment in the coastal water.

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

4.1 Weekly Round-up I  

 

• Defence Ministers of India and China meet on the sidelines of SCO meeting - Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met his Chinese counterpart, Defence Minister and State Councillor General Wei Fenghe on September 4, 2020 in Moscow on the sidelines of a meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the meeting was requested by the Chinese delegation.
• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh meets his Iranian counterpart in Tehran - Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on September 6, 2020 met his Iranian counterpart Brigadier General Amir Hatami in Tehran and discussed regional security situation including Afghanistan and issues of bilateral cooperation.
• Rajnath Singh attends SCO Defence Ministers summit in Moscow - Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh addressed the Combined Meeting of Defence Ministers of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Member States in Moscow on September 4, 2020.
• PM Modi delivers key note address to the 3rd leadership summit of USISPF - Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered key note address to the third leadership summit of US India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF) on September 3, 2020. The week-long summit titled “US-India Week: Navigating New Challenges” is being held from August 31 to September 4.
• India-Japan-Australia to launch resilient supply chain initiative in Indo-Pacific region - India-Japan-Australia have decided to launch an initiative to build a resilient supply chain in the Indo-Pacific region with an eye on creating a free and transparent trade & investment environment. This was decided at a virtual meeting held on September 1, 2020 comprising Australia’s Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, Senator Simon Birmingham, India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, and Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Kajiyama Hiroshi.
• India, Russia held naval exercise ‘INDRA NAVY’ in Bay of Bengal - The Indian and Russian navies conducted bilateral maritime naval exercise ‘INDRA NAVY’ in the Bay of Bengal on September 4-5, 2020. The biennial exercise was started in 2003.  
• 5th BRICS Culture Ministers’ Meet hosted by Russian Federation - Union Minister of State (I//C) for Culture and Tourism Prahlad Singh Patel virtually attended 5th BRICS Culture Ministers’ Meeting on September 3, 2020. The Meeting was held through video conference under the Chairpersonship of Russian Federation.
• Virtual meeting of BRICS Foreign Ministers convened by Russia - A virtual meeting of the BRICS Foreign Ministers was convened by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on September 4, 2020. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar urged full support of BRICS in reforming the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
• India sending 2 teams to UN missions for Covid effort to DR Congo & S. Sudan - India is contributing two teams of specialists to strengthen medical facilities in UN peacekeeping operations in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to meet the Covid-19 challenge. New Delhi was responding to a request from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for assistance.
• Virtual meeting of Education Ministers of G20 nations held - A virtual meeting of Education Ministers of G20 nations as held on September 5, 2020. Discussions were focussed on three areas: Education Continuity in Times of Crises, Early Childhood Education and Internationalization in Education. India was represented by Union Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.  
• Times Higher Education (THE) launches World University Rankings 2021 - Times Higher Education (THE) on September 2, 2020 announced the results of its World University Rankings 2021 in which UK’s University of Oxford retained top spot for the fifth consecutive year. Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru is in the 301-350 band and is the best ranked Indian institution.
• External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar holds talks with his Nigerian counterpart - India and Nigeria in Sept 2020 vowed to deepen cooperation to counter terrorism, insurgency and piracy while also boosting trade exchanges as EAM held talks with his Nigerian counterpart G. Onyeama via video conferencing.
• Cabinet approves pact between India, Finland for cooperation in geology - Union Cabinet on September 2, 2020 approved a memorandum of understanding between India and Finland for cooperation in the field of geology and mineral resources.
• India-Japan MoU for cooperation in the field of good quality textiles approved - Union Cabinet on September 2, 2020 approved for signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Textiles Committee, India and M/s Nissenken Quality Evaluation Centre, Japan for improving quality and testing of Indian textiles and Clothing for the Japanese market.
• Trial run on Gumti river route connecting Bangladesh with Tripura starts - The trial run from Daudkandi in Bangladesh to Sonamura in Tripura started on September 3, 2020 as the MV Premier sailed from Daudkandi with cement cargo. It will cover a distance of 93 kilometers through river Gumti to reach Sonamura.
• Ex-cricketer Matthew Hayden appointed Member of Australia-India Council - The Australian government has appointed former cricketer Matthew Hayden (48) and Indian-origin politician Lisa Singh as Members of Australia-India Council for advancing business ties with India.

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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 Formed 16-member committee to study ancient Indian culture: Union Minister Prahlad Patel

• Key points –

1. The government has formed an expert committee for conducting a study on the origin and evolution of Indian culture dating back to around 12,000 years ago.
2. In a written reply in Lok Sabha, Mr. Patel said the 16-member committee will include K.N. Dikshit, Chairman, Indian Archaeological Society, New Delhi and former Joint Director General, Archaeological Survey of India, among others.
3. A committee has been set up for conducting a holistic study of origin and evolution of Indian culture since 12,000 years before present and its interface with other cultures of the world.
4. In a reply to another query on the Ministry’s plans to use the report of the said committee in textbooks for the purpose of educational research, he said at present, there is no such proposal.

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• 7. POLITY (Prelims, GS Paper 2)

7.1 Parliament nod to Bills to ensure quality homeopathy, Indian system of medicine

• Key points –

1. Parliament has given its nod to two Bills that propose a medical education system that improve access to quality and affordable medical education by ensuring availability of adequate and high quality homoeopathy and Indian system of medicine professionals across the country.
2. Lok Sabha has passed the National Commission for Homoeopathy Bill and the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Bill.

• Highlights –

1. Rajya Sabha had passed them earlier, and the lower House nod to the two proposed legislations mean that they are set to become laws after getting formal approval from President Ram Nath Kovind.
2. Some Opposition members protested against the Bill, saying the Centre needed to undertake wider consultation.
3. Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said the proposed laws will help in better administration of homeopathy and Indian system of medicines.
4. The proposed legislations promote equitable and universal healthcare that encourages community health perspective and make services of such medical professionals accessible to all citizens.
5. They promote national health goals, encourage medical professionals to adopt latest medical research in their work and to contribute to research with an objective, periodic and transparent assessment of medical institutions.
6. They facilitate maintenance of a medical register of homeopathy and Indian system of medicine and enforce high ethical standards in all aspects of medical services.

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

8.1 Hindi Diwas 2020

•  Key points –

1. Hindi Diwas is celebrated every year on September 14 to mark the adaptation of Hindi (written in Devanagari script) as the official language by the Constituent Assembly in 1949.
2. The decision to mark September 14 as Hindi Diwas was taken by Jawaharlal Nehru.
3. Hindi got its name from the Persian word Hind, meaning 'land of the Indus River'.

• Interesting facts about the language –

1. Hindi is an Indo-European language – Hindi is a standardised from of Hindustani, along with Urdu. Hindi is derived directly from Hindustani in North India and was standardised in the 19th century.
2. 5th most spoken language – Hindi is the fifth most spoken language. It is spoken by 366 million people across the globe.
3. Countries where Hindi is spoken – Hindi is spoken in many countries including Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, USA, UK, Germany, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, Uganda, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad, Mauritius, and South Africa.
4. Modern Devanagari script – The modern Devanagari script came into existence in the 11th century.
5. Some prominent Hindi writers – There were many writers like Kaka Kalelkar, Maithili Sharan Gupta, Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Seth Govindadas made important contributions to make Hindi the official language.
6. English has borrowed a great number of words from Hindi – Examples of Hindi loanwords include avatar, bandanna, bungalow, dinghy, guru, jungle, khaki, karma, loot, mantra, nirvana, punch, pyjamas, sorbet, shampoo, thug, typhoon and yoga.
7. Hindi, easy to learn – Each letter of the Hindi alphabet has its own independent and distinct sound. As a result, Hindi words are pronounced exactly as they are written, making the Hindi language easy to learn.
8. Aadhaar, dabba, hartal, shaadi among 26 new Indian English words added to Oxford Dictionary – The 10th edition of the Oxford dictionary, which was launched in January, has 384 Indian English words.
9. Bihar first state to adopt Hindi – In the year 1881, Bihar replaced Urdu with Hindi as its sole official state language, thus, becoming the first state of India to adopt Hindi as its official language.
10. No articles in Hindi language – There are no articles in Hindi language as English has three articles: a, an, and the. One of the most interesting facts about Hindi is that every noun has its own gender, either masculine or feminine.

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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 Not Available Today

10.2 Daily dose of  FIVE Facts -

• The Defence Ministry recently signed contract with the Tata Power Company Limited for supply of Pinaka rocket regiments for the Army.
• The govt in Aug 2020 appointed Ashwani Bhatia as the Managing Director (MD) of the State Bank of India (SBI).
• Mike Pompeo is the Secretary of State of United States.
• According to the NEP 2020, a National Professional Standards for Teachers will be developed by the National Council for Teacher Education.
• The Indian Air Force is procuring Hammer missiles from France for use from Rafale aircrafts.

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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