Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 12-10-2020

Useful compilation of Civil Services oriented - Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 12-10-2020

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• SECTION 1 - TEN NEWS HEADLINES

1. COVID-19 Updates – Paper-strip virus test to be out soon: Vardhan – Union Health Minister said his Ministry would soon roll out the FELUDA paper-strip test for SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis. This has been developed by the CSIR-IGIB and approved by the Drug Controller General of India for a commercial launch. The test showed 96% sensitivity and 98% specificity. This compares favourably to the ICMR’s current acceptation criteria of RT-PCR kit of at least 95% sensitivity and at least 99% specificity, however, that “an exact date on the availability cannot be specified yet”.
2. India Society – CBI files gangrape, murder FIR, reaches Hathras for case file – Just hours after posting an FIR and a press statement on taking over the investigation into the Hathras gang-rape and murder of a Dalit woman, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) removed the same from its website. The CBI formally took over the case after the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) issued a notification authorising the agency to investigate the case, and registered an FIR early on Sunday under Sections 307 (attempt to murder), 376 (D) (gang-rape), and 302 (murder) of the IPC and Section 3(2)(v) of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. The Anti-Corruption Branch of the CBI’s Ghaziabad unit mentioned “rape, attempt to murder, gang rape and murder (other)” as suspected offences in the case. Though the FIR and a press release were published on the agency’s website, the FIR was later removed.”
3. Environment and Ecology – ‘Blue Flag’ tag for Kasarkod, Padubidri beaches – Two beaches in Karnataka are among the eight in India that have bagged the coveted eco-label ‘Blue Flag’ from the international agency, Foundation for Environment Education, Denmark. The two are Kasarkod beach near Honnavar in Uttara Kannada and Padubidri beach near Udupi. Earlier, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had embarked upon a programme for ‘Blue Flag’ certification for 13 beaches in the country. A ‘Blue Flag’ beach is an eco-tourism model to provide tourists clean and hygienic bathing water, facilities/amenities, safe and healthy environment and sustainable development of the area. The certification is awarded by the Denmark-based agency based on 33 stringent criteria in four major heads: environmental education and information, bathing water quality, environment management and conservation and safety and services in the beaches.
4. Covid-19 Effects – School closure may cost India dear – The extended closure of schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic could dent India’s future earnings by anywhere between $420 billion and $600 billion, as depleted learning levels of students will translate into poorer productivity going forward. Warning that as many as 5.5 million students could drop out of schools across South Asia, the bank has said dropouts, combined with substantial learning losses for those who remain enrolled in schools, would cost South Asia as much as $622 billion in future earnings and gross domestic product. This figure could climb further to $880 billion, as per a more pessimistic scenario envisaged by the bank on the lifetime impact of school closures on the productivity of this generation of students.
5. World – China backs Iran nuclear deal, calls for new West Asia forum – China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has called for a new forum to defuse tensions in the West Asia after a meeting with his Iranian counterpart where he reiterated Beijing’s support for Tehran. Mr. Wang and Javad Zarif also reaffirmed their commitment to Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, an implicit rebuke of the U.S. for abandoning the accord during their Saturday meeting in China’s southwestern Tengchong city. Iran has been locked in an acrimonious relationship with Saudi Arabia, the other major West Asian power, over the war in Yemen, Iranian influence in Iraq and Saudi support for Washington’s sanctions on Tehran.
6. World – China grants $90 million to Sri Lanka after visit by official – China announced that it was providing a $90 million grant to Sri Lanka, two days after the island nation’s President sought help from a visiting Chinese delegation in disproving a perception that China-funded megaprojects are “debt traps.” Calling the financial assistance a “timely grant,” the Chinese Embassy in Colombo said that it would be used for medical care, education and water supplies in Sri Lanka’s rural areas. and that it would “contribute to the well-being of (Sri Lankans) in a post-COVID era.”  The announcement follows a visit to the Indian Ocean island nation on Friday by a Chinese delegation led by Yang Jiechi, a Communist Party Politburo member and a former Foreign Minister.
7. World – S. Korea urges North to stick to its pledges – S. Korea urged N. Korea to commit to its past disarmament pledges while expressing concerns over the North’s unveiling of a suspected new long-range missile during a military parade. During celebrations marking the 75th birthday of its ruling party in Pyongyang, N. Korea paraded a variety of weapons systems, including two missiles that were disclosed for the first time to a foreign audience. One is what appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile that is larger than any of the North’s known ICBMs, and the other would likely be an upgraded version of a missile that can be fired from submarines. While some experts say they could be mock-ups of missiles under development, their disclosures suggest North Korea has been continuously pushing to boost its weapons capability amid a stalemate in nuclear diplomacy with the United States.
8. Covid-19 updates – States not ready to unlock schools, will take a call after festive season – The Union education ministry has paved the way for re-opening of schools from Oct 15 under Unlock 5.0, but most states are not willing to throw the school gates open yet. While some states are still deliberating on when to open schools, many are waiting for the festival season to get over even as parents in most states are not willing to send their children to school. Hectic consultations are on within various government departments in the states, with many even taking up the issue in their cabinet meetings. Meetings are also on with stakeholders, especially parents. Many states have set up panels to review the situation.
9. Economy – Fruit, veggie sellers avail of 46% of vendors’ loan – The finance ministry asked banks in a meeting with the lenders to speed up disbursement of loans under the PM Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) scheme. As part of this, any street vendor registered with an urban body is eligible for a collateralfree loan of Rs 10,000. The govt has put in place an online platform where it can get a view on the status of all loans disbursed under the scheme. Although the PM SVANidhi - aimed at benefiting 50 lakh street vendors - was announced by the finance minister, it is being operationalised through a tie-up between the housing & urban affairs ministry and Sidbi. As against the targeted 50 lakh, only 21 lakh applications have been collected, 9 lakh loans sanctioned and 2.7 lakh disbursed.
10. Corporate World  – Razorpay 6th to reach unicorn status in 2020 – Payments startup Razorpay’s valuation has more than doubled to $1 billion with its latest $100-million fund-raise, co-led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and marquee venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. With this, India has seen the addition of half-a-dozen unicorns (those valued at over $1billion each) this year, in the midst of a pandemic. For Razorpay, the pandemic accelerated its journey to the coveted unicorn club. The Bengaluru-based company saw five times growth in transaction value to $25 billion as compared to last year and business quickly recovered past pre-Covid levels.

Important Exam Notifications
S. No.	Institution	Exam or Post Name	Vacancies or Seats	Qualification	Last Date to Apply	Link for Details
1	-	Foreman, Senior Sci. Asst, Asst Professor	44	MBBS, Degree (Engg)	OCT-29-2020	https://upsc.gov.in/sites/default/files/Advt-No-12-2020-Engl.pdf
2	-	Stenographer Grade C&D Exam 2020	-	12th Class with Typing	NOV-4-2020	http://www.freejobalert.com/ssc-stenographer/761146/#Stenographer-2020
3	NALCO	GDMO, Specialist	16	MBBS, MD/ MS	NOV-2-2020	https://img.freejobalert.com/uploads/2020/10/Notification-NALCO-GDMO-Specialist-Posts.pdf
4	IIT, Delhi	Sr Project Scientist, Project Asst, Project Attendant	6	BE/ B.Tech, M.Tech/ M.E/ M. Des	OCT-24-2020	http://ird.iitd.ac.in/sites/default/files/jobs/project/IITD-IRD-156-2020.pdf
5	NFSU	Assistant Pro, Research Associate & Lab. Asst	13	Degree, PG	OCT-28-2020	https://www.gfsu.edu.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Advertisement-Notification-NFSU-SOM-Contract-081020-01.pdf
6	CMET, Pune	RA, JRF/ Project Associate I/ Project Staff I	6	M.Sc/ ME/ M.Tech, Ph. D with NET	OCT-23-2020	http://cmet.gov.in/sites/default/files/jobs/PN-SP-085A-09102020.pdf
7	CPRI	Engineering Officer Gr.1	11	BE/ B.Tech	NOV-6-2020	https://img.freejobalert.com/uploads/2020/10/Notification-CPRI-Engineering-Officer-Gr-I-Posts.pdf

 

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• SECTION 2 - DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

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• 1. CONSTITUTION AND LAW (Prelims, GS Paper 2, Essay paper)

1.1 SC on Shaheen Bagh Protest

 

 

Key point –  

• The Supreme Court has said that he indefinite occupation of public places or roads by demonstrators, which can cause inconvenience to people and violate their rights, is not acceptable.

Highlights –

• The apex court made the observations as it heard a batch of pleas against the anti-citizenship law protests in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh earlier in 2020.
• The top court added that authorities have to act on their own and cannot hide behind courts.
• Shaheen Bagh became the epicentre of the anti-CAA protests as women with young children staged a sit-in there for over three months.
• The protest at Shaheen Bagh ended in March this year (2020) in view of the COVID-19 outbreak and a subsequent lockdown announced by the government to contain the spread of the disease.

Important details –

• The CAA, which was passed on December 12, 2019, amended Section 2 of the Citizenship Act, 1955 in a manner which made any person belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan eligible to apply for Indian citizenship by naturalization even if they were illegal migrants.
• However, the Muslim community was excluded from the purview of this amendment, thereby, preventing Muslim illegal migrants from availing the opportunity to apply for Indian citizenship, a benefit which was extended to illegal migrants from the other six communities by the amendment.
• The exclusion of Muslim triggered widespread protests across the country, as did the linking of citizenship with religion.

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

2.1 India leads the world in real-time transactions

 

FIS global’s report – 

• India has emerged as the global leader in real-time payments, handling 41 million transactions per day.
• The real-time activity has further improved in the country, with volumes jumping more than twice this year and the transaction value increasing 80 per cent.
• India saw growth of around 213 per cent in the number of real-time payments processed over the past year; Bahrain, Ghana, the Philippines, and Australia witnessed faster growth in the same period.
• Furthermore, in terms of the increase in the monetary value of real-time payment transactions, the Philippines, Bahrain, Australia, and Ghana saw twofold increase.
• China and South Korea, with more than 38 million and 12 million daily transactions per day, respectively, completed the top three in the Asia-Pacific region, along with India.
• The Immediate Payment System (IMPS), and Unified Payment Interface (UPI) have revolutionised real-time payment in India.
• Now UPI, in volume terms, is touching new highs every month and the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital payments hugely.

Important details –

• While the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has been successful in democratising digital payments over the past few years, especially with the launch of UPI, the RBI has now invited private players to form a pan-Indian new umbrella entity (NUE) for retail payment systems.
• Many banks, including the country’s largest lender State Bank of India, are likely interested to bid for it.

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

3.1 Not Available Today

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

4.1 Cyber Security agreement between India and Japan

 

Highlights –

• The union cabinet, chaired by PM Modi has given its approval for signing a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) in the field of cybersecurity between India and Japan.
• The agreement is aimed at enhancing cooperation in emerging technologies, protection of critical infrastructure, cyberspace and to mitigate threats to communication networks.
• The officials said that India and Japan are committed to an “open, interoperable, free, fair, secure and reliable” cyberspace environment and will work towards promoting the Internet as an engine of innovation and economic growth.
• The approval to the pact by the cabinet comes in the midst of growing concerns over cyber attacks from China, particularly after India banned over 100 mobile apps with Chinese links.
• Both sides, through the MoC, affirm cooperation in the international arena including in the United Nations.
• The pact will also provide for sharing strategies and best practices to promote the integrity of the supply chain of information and communication technology (ICT) products.
• It will also strengthen the security of ICT infrastructure through government-to-government and business-to-business cooperation.

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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 Round-up – Banking and Finance

• Regional rural banks incur net loss of Rs 2,206 crore in FY20: NABARD - Regional rural banks (RRBs) as a group reported net loss of Rs 2,206 crore in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020, as against Rs 652-crore net loss in FY19, according to data published by NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development). As on March 31, 2020, there were 45 RRBs functioning in 685 districts of 26 states and 3 UTs. These RRBs were sponsored by 15 commercial banks and had 21,850 branches.
• Centre to waive compound interest on loans up to Rs 2 cr in 6-month moratorium - In a relief to individual borrowers and medium and small industries, the Centre has agreed in the Supreme Court to waive compound interest (interest on interest) charged on loans of up to two crore rupees for a six-month moratorium period announced due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• NSE successfully tests operations from its disaster recovery site - National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) on October 1, 2020 said it has successfully completed live trading and other operations from its disaster recovery site. The exercises were conducted on September 28 and September 29. This was done to test NSE’s BCP (Business Continuity Planning) preparedness.
• BSE, Yes Bank to run awareness & knowledge-sharing programmes for SMEs - Stock exchange BSE on September 28, 2020 said it has signed a pact with private sector lender Yes Bank to empower the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) listed on the platform through awareness and knowledge-sharing programmes.
• Axis Bank launches ‘Full Power Digital Account’ - Axis Bank has launched a full-feature savings account termed as ‘Full Power Digital Account’ that can be opened digitally. Video-based KYC is required for opening the account.
• RBI approves appointment of CoD to run Dhanlaxmi Bank till CEO’s appointment - Dhanlaxmi Bank on October 1, 2020 said that the RBI has approved a three-member interim committee of directors, headed by G. Subramonia Iyer, to run the private sector bank after the shareholders voted out its MD and CEO Sunil Gurbaxani in AGM held on September 30.
• Lakshmi Vilas Bank to be run by 3 independent directors' panel: RBI - RBI has approved that the day-to-day affairs of Lakshmi Vilas Bank will be run by a Committee of Directors (CoD) comprising three independent directors. The development comes after the shareholders of the bank rejected the reappointment of 7 out of 10 directors on the bank's board, including its interim MD and CEO, S. Sundar.

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• 7. POLITY (Prelims, GS Paper 2)

7.1 Not Available Today

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

8.1 No finance companies with FDI from Mauritius: RBI   

 

Highlights –  

• The RBI has stated that finance companies cannot be set up with foreign direct investment (FDI) from Mauritius and other such jurisdictions that do not meet the benchmarks laid down by the Financial Action Task Force.
• Indian manufacturing or any other non-financial services companies have no such restrictions on FDI.
• Also, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) from such jurisdictions are free to register with the Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to trade on Indian stock exchanges.
• However, according to RBI, the rules are tighter for finance companies since they are permitted to leverage several times their equity with public funds.
• According to people in the know, the RBI stance originates from suspected round-tripping of funds by promoters of Indian companies. However, this rule can hurt genuine business initiatives.

     Other steps taken till now –

• Mauritius was listed in FATF’s -grey list, for a greater scrutiny and monitoring by the international body.
• The Indian Central Bank has been rejecting applications for NFBCs from Indian startups which are funded by venture capital (VC) and private equity (PV) funds registered in Mauritius.
• Government of India has also amended its FDI policies for creating bureaucratic hurdles for Chinese companies that seeks to invest or buy strategic interests in India.
• India has set up a screening panel headed by the home secretary, with the DPIIT secretary as a member for the scrutiny of FDI proposals from China.

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

9.1 Pricing, marketing leeway to gas producers, e-bidding allowed

 

Key point –

• The government has come up with a new model of giving marketing and pricing freedom to natural gas producers in India, with the Union Cabinet clearing a standardised e-bidding process for price discovery from new production areas and high-pressure, high-temperature fields.

Highlights –

• Through the new platform, market players and consumers will be discovering prices for new production areas whose field development plan (FDP) got clearances after February 2019.
• Experts believe that the move will help major producers like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries, and Vedanta's Cairn Oil and Gas.
• They also expect that the new mechanism will lead to immediate production of at least 40 million metric standard cubic meter per day (mmscmd) of natural gas from the Krishna Godawari basin only.
• According to the regulations, producers will not be allowed to participate in the bidding process. Their affiliate companies can participate in the price-discovery initiative.
• All these new discoveries will be governed by the new e-bidding mechanism and affiliate marketing mechanism, which will be managed by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH).
• Officials have stated that the country produces around 84 mmscmd of natural gas and we import almost the same. The new pricing mechanism will help in coming up with 40 mmscmd additional production in KG basin only. This will reduce our dependency on natural gas imports.
• This will not have any impact on the existing pricing formula for natural gas under the administered price mechanism, which the government came out with in November 2014. The capping on prices for difficult fields will also continue in the existing format.
• This comes after the prices touched a historic low of $1.79 per million metric British thermal unit (mmBtu) for the October-March period of FY21, down 25 per cent from $2.39 per mmBtu during April-September.

Other details –

• The government has reduced the ceiling price for gas produced from deepwater, ultra-deepwater and high-pressure and high-temperature areas by 28 per cent to $4.06 per mmBtu for the period under review, as compared to $5.61 per mmBtu during the April-September period of 2020.
• The current prices are the lowest in the last six years, since the new pricing system was implemented in November 2014.

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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 -

• Sahitya Akademi Award winner Debesh Roy passed away in May 2020 in Kolkata at the age of 84.
• Hollywood actress Olivia de Havilland died at the age of 104 in Paris in July 2020?
• Soumya Swaminathan is the Chief Scientist of the World Health Organization (WHO).
• In Afghanistan, militants affiliated with the Islamic State group stormed a prison in the city of Jalalabad and freed over 400 militants on Aug 3.
• Lok Sabha member H. Vasanthakumar died at 70 in Chennai in Aug 2020.
• Loktantrik Janata Dal member M. V. Shreyams Kumar was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Kerala in Aug 2020.

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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