Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 10-10-2020

Useful compilation of Civil Services oriented - Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 10-10-2020

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• SECTION 1 - TEN NEWS HEADLINES

1. Awards and Honors – UN’s World Food Programme wins 2020 Nobel Peace Prize – The United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) won the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to combat hunger around the world and improve conditions for peace in areas affected by conflict. The Rome-based organisation says it helps some 97 million people in about 88 countries each year, and that one in nine people worldwide still do not have enough to eat. WFP runs a logistics service that has dispatched medical cargoes to over 120 countries throughout the pandemic to help governments and health partners fighting COVID-19. It also has provided passenger services to ferry humanitarian and health workers where commercial flights were unavailable.
2. Polity and Governance – Bhima Koregaon: NIA files chargesheet – The National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed a second supplementary chargesheet against seven accused and one absconding accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon case. The central agency has named Father Stan Swamy, 83, Prof. Anand Teltumbde, 70, Gautam Navlakha, 67, Prof. Hany Babu, 54, and three members of the cultural group Kabir Kala Manch — Sagar Gorkhe, 32, Ramesh Gaichor, 38, and Jyoti Jagtap, 32. The absconding accused is the brother of Mr. Teltumbde — Milind Teltumbde. According to a NIA press release, “All these accused conspired with other accused persons to further the ideology of terrorist organisation CPI (Maoist) and abetted violence, brought into hatred and incited disaffection towards the government established by law and promoted enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, caste and community. The absconding accused Milind Teltumbde also organised training camps for imparting weapons training to other accused persons.”
3. Covid-19 Updates – Active COVID-19 cases drop below 9 lakh after a month  – The number of active COVID-19 cases in the country has fallen below the nine lakh mark after a month, the Union Health Ministry said. The country registered 8.93 lakh active cases on Friday. On September 9, it was 8.97 lakh, the Ministry said in a release.Presently, the active cases stand at 8,93,592 and comprise 12.94% of the total cases, demonstrating a steady falling percentage of the total cases. The declining trend of the percentage active cases is commensurately supported by the rising percentage of recovered cases. The total recovered cases stand at 59,06,069. The gap between recovered cases and active cases has crossed 50 lakh (50,12,477).
4. Miscellaneous – Citizen poll throws up three contenders for national butterfly tag – A citizen poll to identify the national butterfly has concluded with three species garnering the highest number of votes. Krishna Peacock (Papilio krishna), Indian Jezebel (Delias eucharis), and Orange Oakleaf (Kallima inachus), the frontrunners, have unique features such as ability to camouflage as a dead leaf, exhibit iridescence to stave off predators, and aid farmers in getting rid of pests. The organisers will submit the names of the top three to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. The onus is on the Centre to choose one among them to join the ranks of the Bengal Tiger, Indian Peacock, Indian Lotus, banyan tree, and mango as yet another national symbol, says Kalesh Sadasivan, one of the core members of the organising group. The nationwide poll organised by the National Butterfly Campaign Consortium, a collective of 50 butterfly experts and enthusiasts, from September 10 to the midnight of October 8 yielded 59,754 votes.
5. Defence – DRDO tests anti-radiation missile – A new-generation anti-radiation missile, RudraM-I, was successfully flight-tested by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). This is the first indigenous anti-radiation missile. An anti-radiation missile can locate and target radiation-emitting sources such as enemy radars, communication sites and other radio frequency-emitting targets. They can play a key role in neutralising any jamming platforms of the enemy or take out radar stations, thereby clearing a path for fighter jets to carry out an offensive and prevent own systems from being jammed. The RudraM-I was successfully flight-tested onto a radiation target located on Wheeler Island off the coast of Odisha. The missile was launched from an SU-30 MkI fighter aircraft.
6. Economy – Interest rates on home loans above ₹30 lakh likely to drop – Interest rates on home loans above Rs 30 lakh will become cheaper, with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) making it less expensive for banks and finance companies to extend big-ticket home loans. The biggest reduction is expected in home loans of over Rs 75 lakh. At present, home loan rates are linked to loan size. Rates are lowest for loans up to Rs 30 lakh and rise with the size of the loan. For example, SBI charges 7% on loan up to Rs 30 lakh and 7.25% on loan between Rs 30 lakh and Rs 75 lakh. The interest rates on loan above Rs 75 lakh is 7.35%. Similarly, Punjab National Bank has kept it at 7.15%, 7.25% and 7.30%-7.40% in the three slabs of loans. HDFC Limited also charges differential rates of 6.95% on loan up to Rs 30 lakh and 7.05% on above that.
7. World – China slams Quad as a ‘closed clique’ – China on Friday said it was opposed to “organising closed and exclusive cliques”, underlining its wary response to this week’s ministerial meeting of the Quad grouping, or India, Australia, Japan and the U.S. At ministerial meet in Tokyo, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo singled out China as a threat to the region, although the three other Foreign Ministers, including External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, did not directly mention China. They did, however, express broad concerns about maintaining a rules-based order, freedom of navigation and the peaceful resolution of disputes in the region.
8. Economy – RBI forecasts end to contraction by Q4  – The Reserve Bank of India reiterated its resolve to revive growth impulses in the economy and mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic’s worst impacts by extending its accommodative policy stance for the rest of this year as well as 2021-22, even as it held key policy rates unchanged in the face of high inflation. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said growth may “break out of contraction” mode by the January-March 2021 quarter as “silver linings” are visible from September’s economic indicators as well as the COVID-19 caseload curve. However, real GDP (gross domestic product) for the full year is expected to decline by 9.5%, “with risks tilted to the downside”.
9. World – Armenia-Azerbaijan talks begin in Moscow – Armenia and Azerbaijan held their first high-level talks on Friday after nearly two weeks of fierce clashes over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, with hopes rising that a ceasefire could be brokered in Moscow. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who has repeatedly vowed to use his military to retake the breakaway province, said the talks represented a historic opportunity for Armenia. Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said his country was “ready for the resumption of the peace process” led by international brokers. France, which along with Russia and the U.S. is mediating to end the conflict, said there was a chance of a breakthrough at the talks but it was far from certain.
10. World – Pakistan bans Tik-Tok over immoral content – Pakistan’s telecom regulator blocked TikTok on Friday for failing to filter out “immoral and indecent” content, another blow to the social media app that has come under increasing scrutiny as its popularity has surged across the globe. The ban comes in view of “complaints from different segments of the society against immoral and indecent content on the video sharing application,” said the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).  The PTA said it would review its ban, subject to a satisfactory mechanism by TikTok to moderate unlawful content.

Important Exam Notifications
S. No.	Institution	Exam or Post Name	Vacancies or Seats	Qualification	Last Date to Apply	Link for Details
1	-	Stenographer Grade C&D Exam 2020	-	12th Class with Typing	NOV-4-2020	http://www.freejobalert.com/ssc-stenographer/761146/#Stenographer-2020
2	SVNIRTAR	Asst Professor, Accountant & Other	10	Diploma, Degree, PG Deg/Dip	NOV-6-2020	http://svnirtar.nic.in/sites/default/files/news/recruitment%20notice.pdf
3	Ministry of Health & Family Welfare	Sr Tech. Consultant, Consultant Tech., Consultant	5	Degree, PG Deg/Dip	OCT-28-2020	https://main.mohfw.gov.in/sites/default/files/Material%20for%20Advertsiement%205%20posts%20Trauma%20%26%20Burns%20October%202020_0.pdf
4	CRRI	Project Asst & Project Associate II	9	Dip Deg (Civil Engg./ Tech), B.Tech/ BE	OCT-15-2020	https://www.crridom.gov.in/sites/default/files/CCN%20Advertisement%20for%20project%20staff.pdf
5	Chittaranjan Locomotive Works	Contract Medical Practitioner	15	MBBS with PG Diploma/ Degree	OCT-15-2020	ESZMBBS with PG Diploma/ Degree
6	Samagra Siksha, Vizianagaram	Assistant Statistical Officer, Community Mobilization Officer	6	Ass. Sta. Officer, Comm	OCT-17-2020	https://cdn.s3waas.gov.in/s3cee631121c2ec9232f3a2f028ad5c89b/uploads/2020/10/2020100814.pdf
7	DMHO, Kurnool	Urban ASHA	139	10th Class	OCT-13-2020	https://cdn.s3waas.gov.in/s37f24d240521d99071c93af3917215ef7/uploads/2020/10/2020100855.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 MPC appointments

 

Key points –

• Government has appointed PMEAC Member Ashima Goyal, Shashanka Bhide, Senior Advisor, National Council for Applied Economic Research and Jayanth Verma, Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) panel that sets interest rates.
• The three have replaced Pami Dua, Chetan Ghate, and Ravindra Dholakia.
• The MPC is tasked with RBI's monetary policy and setting of interest rates.
• In its last MPC meeting in August, the MPC kept policy rates unchanged to help tame inflation that in recent times had surged past 6 percent mark, and said the economy is in an extremely weak condition following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jayanth R. Varma –

• Varma is professor, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He teaches courses in capital markets, fixed income, alternative investments, risk management and corporate finance. He has been the Dean of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad for three years.
• Ashima Goyal –
• Goyal has widely published in institutional and open economy macroeconomics, international finance and governance, with more than a hundred articles in national and international journals.
• She has also authored and edited a number of books including Macroeconomics and Markets in Developing and Emerging Economies and A Concise Handbook of the Indian Economy in the 21st Century.

Shashanka Bhide –

• He has a PhD in Agricultural Economics, Iowa State University. Currently, he is senior advisor, National Council for Applied Economic Research. He also serves as a member of the Board of Governors of the Institute for Social and Economic Change in Bangalore.

2.2 WTO revises trade forecast up

 

 

Key point –  

• The World Trade Organization (WTO) has revised upwards its forecast for the decline in world merchandise trade at 9.2% in 2020 as in opposition to 12.9% drop projected earlier, primarily based on a powerful trade efficiency in June and July as lockdowns have been eased and economic activity accelerated.

Highlights –

• The forecast for subsequent 12 months is extra pessimistic than the earlier estimate of 21.3% development, leaving merchandise trade effectively beneath its pre-pandemic development in 2021.
• WTO stated that the current trade forecast of 7.2% for 2021 appears to be closer to the ‘weak recovery’ scenario than to a ‘quick return to trend’.
• However, it cautioned that these estimates are topic to an unusually excessive diploma of uncertainty since they rely on the evolution of the pandemic and authorities responses to it.
• It also stated that there is some limited upside potential if a vaccine or other medical treatments prove to be effective, but their impact would be less immediate.
• In April, the WTO had offered two attainable eventualities for global trade. In an optimistic state of affairs, it stated international merchandise trade may fall 13% in 2020 and rebound 21% in 2021.
• In a pessimistic case, the amount of worldwide goods trade may drop as a lot as 32% this 12 months with the potential for a 24% enhance subsequent 12 months.
• It had additionally stated the decline is prone to exceed the trade droop introduced by the worldwide monetary disaster of 2008-09.
• The WTO stated that the volume of world merchandise trade is only expected to decline around twice as much as world GDP at market exchange rates, rather than six times as much during the 2009 collapse.

Future outlook –

• As per the report, the tempo of enlargement may sluggish sharply as soon as pent up demand is exhausted and enterprise inventories have been replenished.
• The 14.3% quarter-on-quarter decline in world merchandise trade within the second quarter is the biggest on file, however high-frequency knowledge level to a partial rebound within the third quarter.
• The resurgence of Covid-19 requiring additional lockdowns may scale back international GDP development by 2 to three share factors subsequent 12 months. Other draw back dangers embody an unsure outlook for fiscal coverage and difficult job markets in lots of nations.
• Together, these dangers may shave as much as Four share factors off of world merchandise trade development in 2021. On the opposite hand, fast deployment of an efficient vaccine may increase confidence and lift output development by 1 to 2 share factors in 2021.
• Asia’s exports are forecast to contract 4.5% in 2020 earlier than rising 5.7% in 2021 whereas the projection for imports is -4.4% and 6.2%, respectively.

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

3.1 66th Wildlife Week

 

 

Theme 2020 – 

• RoaR (Roar and Revive) – Exploring Human-Animal Relationships.

Key points –

• The Wildlife Week is celebrated in India every year from 02 to 08 October to conserve and protect the fauna or animal life of the country.
• It was conceptualized in 1952 to raise awareness of safeguarding the lives of wildlife through critical action.
• In 2020, we celebrated 66th Wildlife Week.
• Campaign RoAR aspires to provide a platform to celebrate the special place of wild plants and animals in their many varied and beautiful forms. It also offers the opportunity to appreciate the interactions between people and animals around us.

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

4.1 Quad nations to strengthen coordination to counter China in Indo-Pacific

 

Key point –

• Amid the growing global concern over China's expansionist behaviour, India, the US, Japan, and Australia have agreed to step up coordination in ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

Highlights –

• Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne affirmed strengthening of a free, open and rules-based international order.
• Pompeo called for deeper collaboration with India, Japan, and Australia as a bulwark against China's growing regional influence.
• India, according to reports, is expected to invite Australia to take part in an annual naval drill, expanding what has been a trilateral event with the US and Japan.
• Suga, Japan's new prime minister, said Quad's “free and open Indo-Pacific” initiative, a concept to counter China's growing assertiveness, is more important than ever amid challenges from the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Beijing has denounced the Quad as an attempt to contain its development.

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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 Not Available Today

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• 7. POLITY (Prelims, GS Paper 2)

7.1 Weekly Round-up – Polity and Governance

• Parliament passes bill to declare 5 new IIITs as institutes of national importance - Parliament has passed a bill to declare the five new IIITs in Surat, Bhopal, Bhagalpur, Agartala and Raichur as institutes of national importance, enabling them to award degrees. The Indian Institutes of Information Technology Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020, was passed by Rajya Sabha on September 22 and by Lok Sabha in March 2020.  
• Parliament passes Homoeopathy Central Council (Amendment) Bill, 2020 - The Homoeopathy Central Council (Amendment) Bill, 2020 has been passed by the Parliament. The bill seeks to further extend the time to form the Central Council of Homeopathy by one year. The Council will regulate homoeopathic education and practice. The Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on September 22, 2020 and by the Rajya Sabha on September 18.
• Parliament passes Indian Medicine Central Council (Amendment) Bill, 2020 - The Indian Medicine Central Council (Amendment) Bill, 2020 has been passed by the Parliament. The Bill amends the Indian Medicine Central Council Act, 1970 and seeks a year’s time to reconstitute the central council and provides for a board of directors to exercise its powers in the interim period. The Indian medicine system includes ayurveda, yoga, and naturopathy. The Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on September 22, 2020 and by the Rajya Sabha on September 18.
• National Medical Commission replaces Medical Council of India - The National Medical Commission (NMC) replaced the Medical Council of India (MCI) as the country's apex regulator of medical education and profession from September 25, 2020. Dr Suresh Chandra Sharma was appointed as chairman for a period of three years. The four autonomous boards under the NMC Act -- the Under-Graduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB), Post-Graduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB), Medical Assessment and Rating Board and the Ethics and Medical Registration Board -- have also been constituted.
• 40% of toilets surveyed by CAG in government schools non-existent, unused - Public sector units claimed to have constructed 1.4 lakh toilets in government schools as part of a Right to Education project, but almost 40% of those surveyed by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) were found to be non-existent, partially constructed, or unused. This was revealed by the CAG in an audit report presented in Parliament on September 23, 2020.
• Former Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Dr. Sekhar Basu dies at 65 - Former Atomic Energy Commission Chairman and Secretary, DAE (Department of Atomic Energy) Dr. Sekhar Basu passed away on September 24, 2020 at the age of 68 in Kolkata. He also served as Director, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). He was awarded Padma Shri in 2014.
• Minister of State for Railways Suresh Angadi dies at 65 - Minister of State for Railways Suresh Angadi passed away in New Delhi on September 23, 2020 due to COVID-19. The 65-year-old BJP leader, a four-time MP, was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 2004 and won continuously from Belagavi constituency in Karnataka.

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

8.1 The Nobel Prize in Physics 2020

 

 

Highlights –  

• Three scientists have won the Nobel Prize in physics for establishing the all-too-weird reality of black holes — the straight-out-of-science-fiction cosmic monsters that suck up light and time and will eventually swallow us, too.
• Roger Penrose of Britain, Reinhard Genzel of Germany and Andrea Ghez of the United States explained to the world these dead ends of the cosmos that are still not completely understood but are deeply connected, somehow, to the creation of galaxies.
• Penrose, an 89-year-old at the University of Oxford, received half of the prize for proving with mathematics in 1964 that Einstein’s general theory of relativity predicted the formation of black holes, even though Einstein himself didn’t think they existed.
• Genzel, who is at both the Max Planck Institute in Germany and the University of California, Berkeley, and Ghez, of the University of California, Los Angeles, received the other half of the prize for discovering in the 1990s a supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy.
• While the three scientists showed the existence of black holes, it wasn’t until last year that people could see one for themselves when another science team captured the first and only optical image of one.
• It looks like a flaming doughnut from hell but is in a galaxy 53 million light-years from Earth.
• What fascinated Penrose more than the black hole was what was at the other end of it, something called the “singularity.” It’s something science still can’t figure out. Singularity, that’s a place where the densities and curvatures go to infinity.
• Martin Rees, the British astronomer royal, noted that Penrose triggered a “renaissance” in the study of relativity in the 1960s, and that, together with a young Stephen Hawking, he helped firm up evidence for the Big Bang and black holes.
• In the 1990s, Genzel and Ghez, leading separate groups of astronomers, trained their sights on the dust-covered center of our Milky Way galaxy, a region called Sagittarius A(asterisk), where something strange was going on. It was “an extremely heavy, invisible object that pulls on the jumble of stars, causing them to rush around at dizzying speeds.”
• It was a black hole. Not just an ordinary black hole, but a supermassive one, 4 million times the mass of our sun.

Important details –

• The Nobel comes with a gold medal and 10 million kronor (more than $1.1 million), courtesy of a bequest left 124 years ago by the prize’s creator, Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite.
• Recently, the Nobel in medicine was awarded to Americans Harvey J. Alter and Charles M. Rice and British-born scientist Michael Houghton for discovering the liver-ravaging hepatitis C virus.

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

9.1 Weekly Round-up – Science and Technology

• Bacteria behind deaths of 330 Botswana elephants - Toxins in water produced by cyanobacteria killed more than 300 elephants in Botswana this year, officials said on September 21, 2020, announcing the result of an investigation into the deaths which had baffled and alarmed conservationists. Cyanobacteria are microscopic organisms common in water and sometimes found in soil. Not all produce toxins but scientists say toxic ones are occurring more frequently as climate change drives up global temperatures. Other animals in the Okavango Panhandle region appeared unharmed.
• Over 380 whales die in mass stranding on Australian coast - At least 380 whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia, officials said on September 23, 2020, as hopes faded of saving more than a few dozen of those creatures still trapped. Nearly the entire pod of 460 long-finned pilot whales stuck in Macquarie Harbour — on the rugged and sparsely populated west coast of Tasmania — has now perished.
• NASA announces Artemis Plan to land first woman, next man on moon in 2024 - NASA on September 21, 2020 shared an update to its Artemis program, including the latest Phase 1 plan to land the first woman and the next man on the surface of the Moon in 2024. Under the Artemis program, robots and humans will search for, and potentially extract, resources such as water that can be converted into other usable resources, including oxygen and fuel.

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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 -

• National Aerospace Laboratories, Bengaluru has developed a portable ventilator has been named SwasthVayu.
• Harsh Vardhan Shringla has been appointed as India's next Foreign Secretary.
• PM Modi in March 2020 announced the creation of the Prime Minister’s- Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) Fund.
• Rajasthan government has partnered with healthcare startup MedCords to provide online consultation and medicine delivery to the people through its Aayu & Sehat Sathi apps.
• FICCI organised the Virtual Healthcare and Hygiene EXPO 2020 in June.

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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