Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 03-12-2020

Useful compilation of Civil Services oriented - Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 03-12-2020

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• SECTION 1 - TEN NEWS HEADLINES

1. Polity and Governance – Farmers demand special Parliament session to repeal new laws - Farmers’ groups agitating against the new agriculture laws have upped the ante ahead of their discussions with the Centre, calling for a special session of Parliament to repeal the laws — a demand central to the stir. Farmers’ representatives, who had met Union ministers Mr. Tomar and Piyush Goyal, called for an intensification of protests even as the Centre offered to “address concerns” through discussions but the demand for a special Parliament session has deepened the deadlock, further shrinking the middle ground between the two sides. Farm groups under the banner of Samyukt Kisan Morcha coordination committee held marathon meetings to prepare a detailed note, flagging off six points in their letter to Tomar.
2. Internal Security –  ‘India will not accept less than bottom line in talks with China’ - Talks with China on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) could take much longer, External Affairs Minister indicated, drawing a parallel to a similar military stand-off in Arunachal Pradesh’s ‘Sumdorong Chu’ in 1986 that took nearly nine years to resolve. Adding that India and China must take a “long view” of the border dispute and not just the “incidents” at the LAC this year, Mr. Jaishankar cautioned Beijing against dealing with India through the prism of a “third party”, in a reference to India’s close ties with the United States. The two sides signed the breakthrough 1993 agreement on the Maintenance of Peace and Tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control..
3. Covid-19 Updates – Britain approves Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine - Britain approved Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, jumping ahead of the rest of the world in the race to begin the most crucial mass inoculation programme in history with a shot tested in wide-scale clinical trials. PM Boris Johnson touted the green light from the U.K.’s medicine authority as a global win and a ray of hope amid the pandemic. “Fantastic news,” Mr. Johnson told Parliament, though he cautioned that people should not get too carried away. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) granted emergency use approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which they say is 95% effective in preventing illness, just 23 days since Pfizer published the first data from i final stage clinical trial. Britain said it would start vaccinating those most at risk of dying early next week after it gets 8,00,000 doses from Pfizer’s manufacturing centre in Belgium..
4. Education – 2021 board exams will be in written mode: CBSE - Board examinations will be conducted in written mode and not online, the Central Board of Secondary Education said. Given that practical examinations may not be possible for many students due to the COVID-19 pandemic, alternatives are being considered for the 2020-21 examination cycle. The statement added that “in case students are not able to do practicals in classes before the exams, alternatives to practical exams will have to be explored”. Schools across the country shut down in March due to the pandemic. The board exams for 2019-2020 were partially completed when the lockdown happened..
5. Social – Honey marketed by prominent Indian brands failed a key test of purity - The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has claimed, citing an investigation it conducted. Current regulations specify around eighteen parameters that honey must comply with for producers to label it ‘pure honey’. CSE food researchers selected thirteen brands of raw and processed honey, including Dabur, Patanjali, Baidyanath and Zandu, and subjected them to tests that are required under national food regulatory laws to be labelled as honey. Most brands passed muster but when subjected to one test, called Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR, that can ascertain the composition of a product at the molecular level) that was done at a lab in Germany, only three brands (spanning six samples) passed: Saffola, Markfed Sohna and Nature’s Nectar (one sample of two). There were often multiple samples tested for each brand. The NMR test is not required by Indian law for honey that is being marketed locally but is needed for export...
6. Constitution and Law – Ex-HC judge held for abusive posts against peers, their kin - A former judge of the Madras and Calcutta high courts, C S Karnan, was arrested by the Chennai police cybercrime wing for allegedly obscene and abusive social media posts against several judges and their family members. The action comes two days after the Madras high court pulled up the Tamil Nadu DGP and Chennai commissioner of police and issued summons to them for their inaction against the retired judge even though three cases had been registered against him for a series of offensive posts. A police team picked up Justice Karnan (retd) from his residence in Avadi. He was later produced before a magistrate’s court and remanded in Puzhal prison. The police have registered a case against him for offences punishable under IPC Sections 509..
7. Awards and Honors – Winners of Infosys Prize announced - The Infosys Science Foundation (ISF) announced the winners of the Infosys Prize 2020 in six categories for their contributions to science and research — Engineering and Computer Science, Humanities, Life Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences. After a virtual press conference announcing the winners, they were awarded in a virtual ceremony the same day. The prize consists of a gold medal, a citation and a purse of $1,00,000. According to a release from the foundation, the winners were picked from 257 nominations. The winners are: Hari Balakrishnan from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Engineering and Computer Science); Prachi Deshpande from the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata (Humanities); Rajan Sankaranarayanan from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad (Life Sciences); Sourav Chatterjee from Stanford University (Mathematical Sciences); Arindam Ghosh from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (Physical Sciences) and Raj Chetty from Harvard University (Social Sciences).
8. US Presidential Elections – No evidence of decisive poll fraud: AG - In yet another setback for U.S. President Donald Trump, Attorney General William Barr has said that there is no widespread evidence of election fraud, contradicting Mr. Trump’s claims that his opponent Joe Biden stole the election on the basis of mail-in voting. The President and his allies have asked for recounts, mounted legal challenges, and engaged in political manoeuvring to prevent States from certifying their elections over the last few weeks but their efforts have been unsuccessful, with key battleground States like Arizona, Wisconsin, Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan certifying their election results recently. Last month, Mr. Barr had authorised federal prosecutors to investigate “substantial allegations” of election irregularities — something not usually done until after the election is certified, causing one official, who objected to the memo from Mr. Barr, to step down. Mr. Trump continued tweeting his allegations of election fraud on Tuesday after Mr. Barr’s views were made public.
9. World – Afghan government, Taliban reach breakthrough deal even as fighting shows no let-up - Afghan government and Taliban representatives said they had reached a preliminary deal to press on with peace talks, their first written agreement in nineteen years of war and welcomed by the United States as a chance to halt the violence. The agreement lays out the way forward for discussion but is considered a breakthrough because it will allow negotiators to move on to more substantive issues, including talks on a ceasefire, even as Taliban attacks on Afghan government forces have continued unabated. 'The procedure including its preamble of the negotiation has been finalised and from now on, the negotiation will begin on the agenda,' Nader Nadery, a member of the Afghan government's negotiating team,..
10. Economy – China buys first Indian rice in decades amid scarce supply - China has begun importing Indian rice for the first time in at least three decades due to tightening supplies from Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam and an offer of sharply discounted prices. India is the world’s biggest rice exporter and China the biggest importer. Beijing buys about four million tonnes a year but has avoided purchases from India, citing quality issues. The rice imports come despite political tensions over a border dispute in the Himalayas which erupted into a clash in June in which twenty Indian soldiers were killed. India has since tightened rules for investments from China and banned dozens of Chinese mobile apps. Although the public mood in India has been anti-China, the country has remained engaged with Indian businesses.

Important Exam Notifications
S. No.	Institution	Exam or Post Name	Vacancies or Seats	Qualification	Last Date to Apply	Link for Details
1	Bank of Baroda	Head	7	Any Degree	15-12-2020	https://www.bankofbaroda.in/writereaddata/Images/pdf/Detailed-Advertisement-Recruitment-of-Business-Heads-Final-25-11-2020.pdf
2	HLL Lifecare Limited	Executive, Commercial Asst, Pharmacist	20	ITI, Diploma, Degree	24-12-2020	https://img.freejobalert.com/uploads/2020/12/Notification-HLL-Lifecare-Various-Vacancy.pdf
3	BECIL	Patient Care Manager	5	Degree	15-12-2020	https://www.becil.com/uploads/vacancy/49b0754b0667757e378c8df52a5619b0.pdf
4	IIT, Delhi	Project Scientist, Sr. Project Scientist	6	B.Tech./ M.Sc/ M.Tech	14-12-2020	http://ird.iitd.ac.in/sites/default/files/jobs/project/IIRD-IRD-183-2020.pdf
5	NCDC	Assistant Director, Lab Technician, Lab Atten.	24	10+2, DMLT, BMLT, MSc	09-12-2020	https://ncdc.gov.in/showfile.php?lid=612

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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 Not Available Today

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

3.1 National Pollution Control Day 2020

 

 

Key points 

• December 2 is observed as National Pollution Control Day every year.
• The day is observed in the memory of those who have lost their lives in the Bhopal Gas tragedy on the night of December 2nd and 3rd, 1984.
• Many people died due to poisonous gas Methyl Isocyanate also known as MIC. Bhopal Gas Tragedy is considered as one of the biggest industrial pollution disasters.

Importance –

• According to the National Health Portal of India, every year around 7 million people globally die due to air pollution, 4 million of whom die from indoor air pollution.
• The pollution level is so high that nine of ten people globally do not have access to safe air.
• Notably, the pollutants present in the air are so tiny that it can pass through mucus membrane and other protective barriers to damage the lungs, heart, and brain.
• The key objectives are to educate people about the importance of pollution control acts and making them aware about industrial disasters.
• The day aims to bring awareness to people about prevention of air, soil, noise, and water pollution.

Theme 2020 –

• This year's theme for the Pollution Control Day was to raise awareness about the importance of pollution control measures and to educate people on how to prevent pollution.

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

4.1 Weekly Round-up – Foreign Affairs I

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered an address at the third Annual Bloomberg New Economy Forum on November 17. Modi said it is time to think about post-COVID requirements of the world and called for rejuvenation of urban centres. Established in 2018 by Michael Bloomberg, the Forum seeks to build a community of leaders to engage in discussions leading to actionable solutions about the critical challenges facing the world economy.
• 12th BRICS summit held virtually - Terrorism is the biggest problem before the world, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on November 17, 2020 while addressing the 12th BRICS summit held virtually. The theme of this year’s summit is – ‘BRICS Partnership for Global Stability, Shared Security and Innovative Growth’.
• India launches special edition wrist watches for Mujib Centenary year - A limited series of special edition wristwatches was released in Dhaka on November 17, 2020 for the Mujib Centenary year (‘Mujib Borsho’). The special edition watches, designed and commissioned by the High Commission of India, bear the images of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
• Canada-based University of Regina will soon return to India a statue of Hindu goddess Annapoorna that was stolen from a shrine in Varanasi more than 100 years ago and found its way to the varsity’s art gallery.

• Executive Director of International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol on November 20, 2020 said that India has moved to the centre stage of international Energy Affairs and is a role model for other major emerging economies. He was speaking at the virtual launch of the Energy Technology Perspectives 2020. Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar delivered the keynote address.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with his Bhutanese counterpart Lotay Tshering launched RuPay card Phase-II that will allow Bhutanese card holders to access the RuPay network in India.
• Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce & Industry addressed the Asia Health 2020 summit of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on November 20, 2020. Goyal said India will play an important role in ensuring cost-effective and innovative healthcare solutions for future.
• Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on November 20 virtually participated in the G20 Finance Ministers meeting in Delhi.
• Moody’s Investors Service has lowered the contraction rate for India’s gross domestic product to 10.6% for 2020-21 from its earlier 11.5%. It also revised upwards its expectation for GDP growth rate to 10.8% for 2021-22 from the earlier 10.6%.
• The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has busted an international drug smuggling racket with the seizure of over half a kg of cocaine couriered from Trinidad & Tobago to Mumbai. Codenamed ‘Calypso’, the operation spanning three days was carried out in Mumbai and Udaipur, Rajasthan.
• India is at 77th position in a global list that measures business bribery risks of 2020. The list by TRACE, an anti-bribery standard setting organisation, measures business bribery risk in 194 countries. North Korea, Turkmenistan, South Sudan, Venezuela and Eritrea present the highest commercial bribery risk, while Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden and New Zealand present the lowest.
• President Ram Nath Kovind accepted credentials from new envoys of Hungary, Maldives, Chad and Tajikistan on November 20, 2020 in a virtual ceremony. They are: Andras Laszlo Kiraly: Ambassador of Hungary; Hussain Niyaaz: High Commissioner of Maldives; Soungui Ahmed: Ambassador of Chad & Lukmon Bobokalonzoda: Ambassador of Tajikistan.
• The Comptroller and Auditor General of India, Girish Chandra Murmu, has been elected External Auditor of Inter Parliamentary Union, Geneva, for a three-year term.

4.2 Singapore – the first country to approve sale of lab-grown meat     

 

Highlights –  

• Singapore has given US start-up Eat Just the nod to sell its lab-grown chicken meat, in what the firm says is the world's first regulatory approval for so-called clean meat that does not come from slaughtered animals.
• Demand for alternatives to regular meat is surging due to consumer concerns about health, animal welfare and the environment.
• Plant-based meat options, popularised by Beyond Meat Inc and Impossible Foods, increasingly feature on supermarket shelves and restaurant menus.
• However, so-called clean or cultured meat, which is grown from animal muscle cells in a lab, is still at a nascent stage given high production costs.
• The firm said the meat will be sold as nuggets and had previously pegged their cost at $50 each.
• But co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrick said the cost has since come down and the meat would be priced at parity to premium chicken when it first launches in a restaurant in Singapore "in the very near term".
• The company is targeting operating profitability before the end of 2021, and hopes to go public soon after.
• Globally more than two dozen firms are testing lab-grown fish, beef and chicken, hoping to break into an unproven segment of the alternative meat market, which Barclays estimates could be worth $140 billion by 2029.

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

5.1 Review meeting for the progress of Unnat Bharat Abhiyan Scheme (UBA) held

 

Key points of the Meeting –

• The Union Education Minister emphasised five things. First, to identify three to five core issues common amongst all the villages and few issues based on local conditions and work on these. Second, efforts should be made to maximise the number of Higher Educational Institutions under the scheme. Third, to use UBA in sensitizing the school teachers regarding National Education Policy, 2020. Fourth, need for a portal was highlighted to serve as an interactive platform for different institutions wherein they can motivate each other and  lastly to carry out a state-wise study and set targets regarding the parameters under UBA such as improvement in literacy, healthcare etc.

Unnat Bharat Abhiyan - 

 

• Launched in 2014, it is a flagship program of the Ministry of Education. It aims to link the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) with a set of at least (5) villages for the economic and social betterment. It covers two major domains – human development and material development - in an integrated way. The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IITD) has been designated as the National Coordinating Institute (NCI) for the scheme.

Objectives -

• Identify & select existing innovative technologies, enable customisation of technologies, or devise implementation methods for innovative solutions. To engage the faculty and students of HEIs in doing so. To allow HEIs to contribute to devising systems for smooth implementation of various Government programmes.

Unnat Bharat Abhiyan 2.0 –

• Upgraded version of UBA 1.0 was launched in 2018. UBA 1.0 was the Invitation Mode in which Participating Institutions were invited to be a part of UBA. Whereas UBA 2.0 is the Challenge Mode where all HEIs are required to willingly adopt at least five villages.

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• 6. MISCELLANEOUS (Prelims, Various GS Papers)

6.1 Weekly Round-up – Corporate World

• Twitter is launching tweets that disappear in 24 hours called “Fleets” globally, echoing social media sites like Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram that already have disappearing posts.
• Microsoft has unveiled a new security chip called Pluton that has been designed to protect the future Windows PCs.
• Infosys and the ATP announced the renewal of their partnership for a further three years that will see the IT services major continue as the latter's Global Technology Services Partner and Digital Innovation Partner through 2023. ATP is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuit.
• Realty developer DLF has been recognised as an index component of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) in emerging markets category. DLF is the only real estate company from India to be included in the DJSI index and it joins the ranks of 11 companies from India to be recognised for the benchmark for Corporate Sustainability.
• The Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA) celebrated the National Pharmacy Week (NPW) from November 16 to 22, 2020 with its theme as: “Pharmacists: Frontline Health Professionals”.
• Larsen & Toubro has delivered the first hardware, a booster segment, for the Gaganyaan Launch Vehicle to the Indian Space Research Organisation ahead of schedule, in a virtual flag-off ceremony presided by ISRO Chairman K Sivan.
• Fifty-one-year-old A. M. Arun, the founder of Vasan Eye Care, passed away in Chennai on November 16, 2020. In 1991, Arun took over the reins of the family’s pharmacy business ‘Vasan Medical Hall’ in Trichy. In 2002, he forayed into the eye care business. Today the network includes 170 eye care hospitals in India and 27 dental Hospitals across 4 states in South India.
• State-owned Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) appointed Mahua Acharya as the head of its new subsidiary Convergence that focuses on delivering clean, affordable and reliable energy.
• HDFC Mutual Fund said its board of directors had approved the appointment of Navneet Munot as its next managing director and chief executive officer. Munot was the chief investment officer of SBI Funds Management.

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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 UK approves Pfizer’s Covid vaccine

Highlights – 

• The UK has become the first country to approve the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and its German partner BioNTech SE.
• The emergency authorization clears the way for the deployment of a vaccine that’s expected to play a significant role in the global effort to halt the coronavirus.
• Britain's approval of BioNTech-Pfizer's vaccine against Covid-19 marks a "historic moment" in the battle against the pandemic.
• Pfizer and its German partner said in November that the shot, relying on novel technology called messenger RNA, was 95% effective in a final analysis of clinical-trial data.
• The UK had signaled it would move swiftly in approving a vaccine as part of an operation to protect its population, and doctors across the country were put on standby for a possible rollout.
• The U.K. has ordered enough doses of the two-shot Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to immunize 20 million people.
• The companies also have deals to supply hundreds of millions of shots to Europe, the U.S., Japan and elsewhere.
• Recently, Pfizer and BioNTech sought regulatory clearance for their vaccine in the European Union, putting the shot on track for potential approval there before the end of the year. In the U.S., a Food and Drug Administration panel is set to meet on December 10 to discuss the vaccine.

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

9.1 China’s Chang’e 5 mission 

 

 

Highlights – 

• China’s Chang’e 5 mission, tasked with bringing a sample of lunar dirt back to Earth, has successfully landed on the Moon, marking the third time that China has placed a robotic spacecraft on the lunar surface.
• The lander will soon begin digging up samples of lunar soil, which will be returned to our planet later this month (December).
• Chang’e 5 launched from China’s Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on November 23rd, flying to space on top of a Long March 5 rocket. It’s a complex mission consisting of four main spacecraft that will all work together to bring between 2 to 4 kilograms of lunar dirt back to Earth.
• The quartet traveled to the Moon attached together and got into lunar orbit on November 28th.
• Two of those four spacecraft include a lander and an ascent vehicle, which are stacked on top of each other. On November 28th, the pair separated from the third spacecraft, Chang’e-5’s service module, which remained in orbit around the Moon. The lander and ascent module have already touched down on the lunar surface.
• Now over the next few days, the lander will use a robotic arm to drill into the lunar dirt and scoop up rocks, storing them inside a sample container.
• The sample will eventually be transferred to the fourth spacecraft, a reentry capsule tasked with bringing the material to the ground. It’s unclear exactly when that landing will take place, but it could occur around December 16th or 17th. China is targeting somewhere in Inner Mongolia for the landing spot.
• If all goes to plan, China will become one of three countries to bring back samples from the Moon.
• US astronauts retrieved lunar soil samples during the Apollo missions in the 1960s and 70s, and the former Soviet Union brought back lunar material through a series of robotic missions in the 1970s.
• The last successful lunar sample return mission occurred in 1976 with the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 mission. With Chang’e-5, China could bring the first material back from the Moon in nearly half a century.
• Chang’e-5 isn’t the only mission that could bring rocks from another world to Earth this month. Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission, which has been in space since 2014, is slated to return a sample of material from an asteroid named Ryugu this weekend (1st week of December).

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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 -

• India will host the Women’s Under-17 football World Cup 2022.
• Sampurnanand Stadium is situated in Varanasi.
• Famous Violinist T. N. Krishnan died in Chennai in Nov 2020 at the age of 92.
• K.P. Sharma Oli is the Prime Minister of Nepal.
• Anders Antonsen has won the Men’s Singles title at the Denmark Open Badminton 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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