Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 26-12-2020

Useful compilation of Civil Services oriented - Daily Current Affairs - Civil Services - 26-12-2020

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• SECTION 1 - TEN NEWS HEADLINES

1. Covid-19 – Dry run for vaccine rollout in four States next week: govt. – The Centre is gearing up for the roll out of the COVID-19 vaccine across the country, with four States to initiate a dry-run next week. Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat and Punjab have been selected considering the geographical locations. Each State will plan it in two districts and preferably in different (five) session type settings, e.g. district hospital, CHC/PHC, urban site, private health facility, rural outreach, etc. This exercise would enable end-to-end mobilisation and testing of the COVID-19 vaccination process and check the usage of Co-WIN in the field environment, the linkages between planning, implementation and reporting mechanisms and identify challenges and guide the actual implementation, including improvements in the process.
2. Polity & Governance – 21-year-old student set to become Mayor – If the party’s seniors approve the nomination, a 21-year-old woman college student who is a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) will become the youngest Mayor of Thiruvananthapuram. The district committee of the CPI(M) has proposed Arya Rajendran for the Mayor’s post in the city Corporation. The party’s State Committee must endorse the choice, which would make her the youngest in the job. Party leaders remained tight-lipped, but CPI(M) sources confirmed that the nomination had been made, with an announcement expected soon. Ms. Rajendran, who won the election from the Mudavanmugal ward in the State capital, is a B.Sc student at the All Saints College in the city. She is the State president of Balasangham, a children’s organisation, and a member of the State Committee of the Students Federation of India (SFI) and the CPI(M)’s Kesavadev Road branch committee.
3. World – Russia opens criminal case against Navalny’s ally Sobol – Russian law enforcement agencies has opened a criminal case against Lyubov Sobol, an ally of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, and took her in for questioning after raiding her home. There was no immediate comment from the police. Supporters of Mr. Navalny said the police action appeared to be a response to Ms. Sobol visiting the home of an alleged FSB security service agent in Moscow. Mr. Navalny had earlier said the man took part in a botched plot to poison him in August. The FSB has dismissed Mr. Navalny’s allegations as a provocation designed to discredit it.
4. World – Trump loses Wisconsin lawsuit – A federal appeals court has upheld a decision dismissing a lawsuit seeking to declare President Donald Trump won swing state Wisconsin. Democrat Joe Biden defeated Mr. Trump by 0.6 points in Wisconsin in the November 6 election, a key victory that helped propel Biden to the White House. Mr. Trump filed the lawsuit in the Eastern District of Wisconsin on December 2 against the state elections commission, arguing the court should order the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature to declare he had won the state. U.S. District Judge Brett Justice Ludwig, a Trump appointee, refused, ruling on December 12 that Mr. Trump’s arguments “fail as a matter of law and fact.”
5. World – EU envoys assess post-Brexit trade deal – Ambassadors from the European Union’s 27 nations convened on Christmas Day to start assessing the free trade deal the bloc has struck with former member Britain, a historic accord that takes effect in just a week. At the exceptional meeting, the EU delegations asked for more time to study the texts before sending them to lawmakers at the European Parliament, according to an EU diplomat. The ambassadors are expected to meet again on December 28. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed agreement as a “new beginning” for the U.K. in its relationship with its European neighbours. In a Christmas message, Mr. Johnson sought to sell the deal to a weary public after years of Brexit-related wrangling since the U.K. voted narrowly to leave the EU in 2016. Although the U.K. formally left the bloc on January 31, it remains in a transition period tied to EU rules until the end of 2020. Without a trade deal to set out the terms of their new relationship, tariffs and other impediments would have been imposed on trade between the two sides starting January 1.
6. Agriculture – Farmer unions refute PM’s charge of changing demands – Refuting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s allegation that farmer unions were moving the goalposts every day, the All-India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) on December 25 said the only demand of the farmers was an “assured, guaranteed and legalised” income by announcing a minimum support price (MSP) for all crops. Earlier in the day, speaking at a programme to release an instalment of ₹18,000 crore to nine crore beneficiaries of the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana, Mr. Modi said people with a certain political ideology, instigating the farmers agitation, were moving the goalposts every day to raise new issues not even concerned with the movement and were not allowing discussions for political reasons.
7. Education – From ’21, one exam for central univ admissions – In a move intended to end the tyranny of cut-off marks based on Class 12 boards for college admissions, the government has set up a sevenmember panel to recommend modalities for “high quality aptitude test” for admission to undergraduate programmes in central universities that will come into effect from the 2021-22 academic session. The computer-based common entrance exam, to be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), will be mandatory for admission to all central universities. The plans include a general test as well as subject-specific tests.
8. Covid-19 – At 253, India’s daily deaths fall below 300 for the first time since June 9 – India’s daily death toll from Covid-19 fell below 300 for the first time since June 9, as 253 fatalities were recorded in the country on Christmas Day. Most of the major states reported a fall in fatalities as compared with the previous day, even as fresh cases dropped to under 23,000. However, despite the steady decline in Covid numbers for more than three months now, India has still recorded the fourth highest count of cases in the world so far in December after the US, Brazil and Russia. Till December 24, the month’s tally of new cases in India was 6,84,896. This puts December in line to register the lowest monthly case count since June. December is likely to log the highest number of Covid cases worldwide since the outbreak of the pandemic.
9. Polity & Governance – Tripura launches scheme for violence victims’ kin – Tripura government has launched a scheme to provide jobs to next of kin of those who died in political violence over a period of 46 years with 2018 as a cut-off year. This was one of the assurances the ruling BJP declared in its vision document released ahead of State’s Assembly elections held in February 2018. Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath, who is assigned to inform important decisions of the State government, said a committee which was set up immediately after the last Cabinet meeting already started scrutinising applications.
10. Covid-19 – US leads world in Covid shots, 1m doses given in first 10 days – The US now leads the world in Covid-19 vaccine shots administered, with more than 1.1 million doses given in the first10 days. Three states have now vaccinated more than 1% of their populations: North Dakota, West Virginia, and Alaska. California leads in total vaccinations at 128,000 shots even as it has become the first US state to surpass 2 million confirmed cases of Covid-19. The vaccination numbers fall short of a US goal to administer 20 million shots in 2020. That amount will be disbursed to states by the end of the month, but not in time to be administered. Shots are rolling out from Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc.

Important Exam Notifications
S. No	Institution	Exam or Post Name	Vacancies or Seats	Qualification	Last Date to Apply	Link for Details
1	ESIC, New Delhi	Specialist Grade  II (Jr Scale)	7	PG (Relevant Disciplines)	01-02-2021	https://www.esic.nic.in/attachments/recruitmentfile/8cccc27e42f206f81b1c2af99551084a.pdf
2	HLL Lifecare Limited	Research Intern	5	M.Sc, M.Pharm (Relevant Disciplines)	31-12-2020	https://img.freejobalert.com/uploads/2020/12/Notification-HLL-Lifecare-Limited-Research-Intern-Posts.pdf
3	Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion	Asst Vice President, Manager & Asst Manager	11	Any Degree, PG	25-01-2021	https://dipp.gov.in/sites/default/files/vacancy-Manager-23December2020.pdf
4	National Fertilizers Limited	Accounts Assistant	13	B.Com	22-01-2021	https://www.nationalfertilizers.com/images/pdf/career/noida/ADV-%20ACCOUNTS%20ASSISTANT.pdf
5	BECIL	Content Flagger	5	Any Degree	04-01-2021	https://www.becil.com/uploads/vacancy/93e68bcf2e0c807f40ff841c10eae0e5.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 India loses Cairn case

 

 

Key point –

• An international arbitration tribunal has awarded $1.2 billion in damages plus interest and costs to British oil explorer Cairn Energy Plc in a tax dispute with the Indian government, dealing a blow to New Delhi’s efforts to tackle aggressive tax avoidance by foreign companies.

Highlights –

• Cairn approached the tribunal after India’s 2015 tax demand of $2.74 billion over the group’s reorganisation in 2006, resulting in the creation of Cairn India Ltd.
• The ruling marks India’s second major setback in three months at international tribunals over invoking a controversial 2012 law that allowed the government to claim taxes with retrospective effect.
• In September 2020, an arbitration court favoured Vodafone Group Plc.
• The amendments to the tax law in 2012 provided Indian officials with power to demand taxes for deals struck before the law was approved in Parliament if the underlying assets in a transaction between two foreign entities were in India.
• In Cairn’s case, the government had seized dividends, tax refunds and shares to partly recover dues after the oil explorer sold a controlling stake in its Indian unit to Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Group in 2011. The tribunal directed India to repay the money with interest.

Other important details –

• The tax row with Vodafone relates to the firm’s $11 billion offshore transaction in 2007 to buy Hutchison Essar Ltd—later renamed Vodafone India Ltd and entails a $2 billion tax claim.
• In January 2012, the SC ruled that Vodafone’s purchase of Hutchison Essar was not taxable in India but the government later that year clarified in the Income Tax Act that such deals were taxable here.
• The Cairn arbitration was around the protection granted to foreign investments in India.
• In view of the fact that investors were invoking bilateral investment treaties to seek remedy for impairment of their assets arising from tax demands, India brought in a new model treaty in 2015 for re-negotiation and terminated all the 73 treaties that existed with other countries.
• India made multiple policy attempts to resolve disputes arising from the 2012 amendment to the IT Act, but they did not succeed as the amendment stayed in the statute book.

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

2.1 Kerala announces Rs.10000 crore development projects

 

 

 

Highlights – 

• Months ahead of the assembly elections, the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic government in Kerala has announced Rs 10,000 crore worth development projects would either be completed or launched in 100 days in the state.
• It has also enhanced welfare pension and extended the distribution of the free provision kit for ration card holders, a hit among the commoners, for another four months from January.
• Assembly elections are likely to be held in the state in April-May 2021.
• Nine new industrial units, including the Defence Park in Palakkad, would be inaugurated in January 2021.
• From January 1, 2021, welfare pensions would be raised to Rs 1,500, increasing them by Rs 100 each as a new year gift for the people.
• As per the reports, free provision kits will be provided to all ration card holders, for the next four months. Over 80 lakh families will be benefited from it.
• The kits, comprising among others edible oil, atta, sugar, black gram (chana), were launched in April during the first phase of COVID-19 lockdown.
• CM Vijayan said more job opening would be ensured in the IT sector and the government would create eight lakh working days through the employment guarantee scheme.
• Twenty seven new tourism projects, worth Rs 310 crore, construction of 30,000 new houses under LIFE Mission, opening of 30 new school buildings, 49 new family health centres, 153 new kudumbashree budget hotels were among the several projects announced by Vijayan.
• The inauguration of the first phase of the Kerala Fiber Optic Network (KFON) project, envisaged to provide free internet, would be held in February 2021.

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

3.1 Ladakh’s Tso Kar wetland complex on list of Ramsar sites now

 

 

 

Key points – 

• One more wetland in India has been added to the list of recognised sites of international importance under the treaty of Ramsar Convention, taking the number of such wetlands in the country to 42, the highest in South Asia.
• The latest site to be added to the list is a high-altitude wetland complex of two connected lakes, Startsapuk Tso and Tso Kar, in Ladakh.

Important details –

• In November 2020, two wetlands -- the Lonar lake in Maharashtra and Sur Sarovar, also known as Keetham lake, in Agra -- were added to the list of Ramsar sites. Before that, Kabartal in Bihar's Begusarai district was recognised as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention. It was the first such site in the state to figure in the list.
• The Asan Conservation Reserve in Dehradun, the first wetland from Uttarakhand to be recognised by Ramsar, was added to the list in October 2020.
• The other Ramsar sites in India include Chilika Lake in Odisha, Keoladeo National Park in Rajasthan, Harike Lake in Punjab, Loktak Lake in Manipur and Wular Lake in Jammu and Kashmir.
• The convention, signed in 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar, is one of the oldest inter-governmental accords for preserving the ecological character of wetlands. Also known as the Convention on Wetlands, it aims to develop a global network of wetlands for the conservation of biological diversity and for sustaining human life.
• Over 170 countries are party to the Ramsar Convention and over 2,000 designated sites covering over 20 crore hectares have been recognised under it.
• Wetlands provide a wide range of important resources and ecosystem services such as food, water, fibre, groundwater recharge, water purification, flood moderation, erosion control and climate regulation.
• In January 2020, 10 wetlands in India were recognised by the Ramsar Convention. These include Nandur Madhameshwar in Maharashtra, Keshopur-Miani, Beas Conservation Reserve and Nangal in Punjab, and Nawabganj, Parvati Agra, Saman, Samaspur, Sandi and SarsaiNawar in Uttar Pradesh.
• The other Ramsar sites are in Rajasthan, Kerala, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh.

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

4.1 Not Available Today

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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 India test-fires Army version of medium-range surface-to-air missile

 

 

 

Highlights – 

• India successfully conducted the first Army version test of state-of-the-art Medium-Range Surface-to-Air Missile (MRSAM) from a defence facility off Odisha coast on December 23.
• The most advanced sleek missile has been developed by India in a joint collaboration with Israel. The missile achieved a 'direct hit'.
• The missile was flight tested in full operational configuration from the launching complex - III of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur-on-sea.
• The missile targeted an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) Banshee, a British drone.

Important details –

• Having a strike range of nearly 100 km, the 4.5-meter long nuclear-capable ballistic missile weighs around 2.7 tonne and can carry a payload of 60 kg.
• Apart from the missile, the launching platform includes a Multi-Functional Surveillance and Threat Alert Radar (MFSTAR) for detection, tracking, and guidance of the missile.
• The new generation MRSAM has been developed to neutralise airborne threats like jets, missiles and rockets, including projectiles launched simultaneously.
• The missile has a speed of Mach 2 and possesses high degrees of maneuverability at the target interception range.
• Earlier, three trials of the naval version of the missile were conducted from the same test facility in 2016 followed by a user trial from INS Kochi in 2017.

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• 7. POLITY (Prelims, GS Paper 2)

7.1 J&K govt. asks High Court to review its judgment on Roshni Act

• The Jammu and Kashmir High Court on December 11, 2020 deferred the hearing of a review petition filed by the UT government against its judgment on the Roshni Act to December 16.
• The court had on October 9 declared the J&K State Land (Vesting of Occupants Ownership) Act 2001, also known as Roshni Act, “void ab initio” and ordered a CBI investigation into all instances of alleged irregularities in the transfer of state lands to private individuals.
• Formally the Jammu and Kashmir State Land (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act, 2001, the act was passed by the then National Conference government led by Farooq Abdullah to give ownership to people in possession of state land, with a cut-off of 1990, and against a payment as determined by the government. Since the aim was to generate resources for hydroelectric power projects, it was called Roshni (Light) Act.
• Under the act, the government gave free ownership rights on agricultural land to farmers occupying it, who only needed to pay Rs 100 per kanal of land as documentation fee.

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

8.1 Regional Academic Centre for space at IIT-BHU in Varanasi

 

Key point –.

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will set up its Regional Academic Centre for Space (RAC-S) at IIT-BHU in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi.

Highlights –

• A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed virtually between IIT-BHU and ISRO which will pave the way for advanced research in the future technology of the Indian space programme.
• IIT-BHU director Prof P K Jain said that the RAC-S will act as a major facilitator for promoting space technology activities in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.
• IIT-BHU will act as a catalyst for capacity building, awareness creation and research and development activities of ISRO, and the activities of RAC-S shall be directed to maximise the utilisation of research potential, infrastructure, expertise available at ISRO and IIT-BHU.
• With the help of the RAC-S, IIT-BHU will leverage research in space science and space technology, space application, agriculture, telecommunications, meteorology, and water resources to design developmental models for effective natural resource management.
• The Centre will facilitate short and long-term projects to propel the culture of research and development. Short-term projects for B. Tech and M. Tech students from the institute and associate institutes will also be included in this sequence.
• Long term research and development projects, leading to the Ph.D. programme, will also be offered. Capacity building programmes like conferences, exhibitions and short courses will also be organised to strengthen the knowledge base in the field.

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

9.1 News Round-up – World of Science

• World carbon dioxide emissions drop 7% in 2020: Global Carbon Project - A locked-down pandemic-struck world cut its carbon dioxide emissions this year by 7%, the biggest drop ever. The Global Carbon Project calculated that the world will have put 37 billion US tons (34 billion metric tons) of carbon dioxide in the air in 2020. That’s down from 40.1 billion US tons (36.4 billion metric tons) in 2019. The study published was published on December 10 in the journal Earth System Science Data.
• DRDO demonstrates quantum communication between two labs in Hyderabad - DRDO on December 9, 2020 successfully demonstrated communication between its two labs in Hyderabad using Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) technology. The Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) and The Research Centre Imarat (RCI) were the two labs that participated in this demonstration.
• China launches two satellites for gravitational wave detection - China on December 10, 2020 launched two satellites for the detection of gravitational waves into orbit from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan Province. The two satellites, which compose the Gravitational Wave High-energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-sky Monitor (GECAM) mission, will be used to monitor high-energy celestial phenomena such as gravitational wave gamma-ray bursts.

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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 -

• ‘Advancing Innovation for Global Aviation Development’ was the theme of the International Civil Aviation Day observed on Dec 7.
• Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal in Dec 2020 addressed the CEO Forum of India- Sweden strategic business partnership.
• Swiggy expands to 125 cities under the Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) Scheme.
• National Pollution Control Day is observed every year in India to mark the gas disaster in Bhopal (MP) in the year 1984.
• Conservation of Wetlands is the aim of the Ramsar (a city in Iran) Convention adopted in 1971.

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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