IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

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Parliament passes Bill to ban e-cigarettes

News

• A Bill banning the manufacture and sale of electronic cigarettes, but not their possession and use, was passed by Parliament.

Electronic cigarettes

• Rajya Sabha passed the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes (Production, Manufacture, Import, Export, Transport, Sale, Distribution, Storage and Advertisement) Bill, 2019 by voice vote after four hours of discussion.
• The Bill, which was passed by the Lok Sabha on November 27, will replace an ordinance brought by the government on September 18.

Swedish Royal couple arrive in Delhi on five-day India visit

News

• King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden arrived on a five-day India visit. The King will have meetings with President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on ways to further boost bilateral ties between the two nations.
• Apart from Delhi, the royal couple is scheduled to visit Mumbai and Uttarakhand.

India, Sweden to sign MoU for polar science cooperation

• India and Sweden are likely to sign their first maritime cooperation agreement, Cooperation in Polar Science, during the visit to India of the Swedish royal couple and senior Ministers, including Foreign Minister Anne Linde.
• In the last few years, India has signed a series of maritime information exchange as well as military logistics support agreements, extending the reach of its armed forces.
• The pact with Russia, in advanced stages of discussion, will give India access to Russian bases in the Arctic for logistics and operational turnaround. However, the agreement with Sweden is scientific in nature..
• The ties between India and Sweden have been on an upward trajectory in the last few years. The bilateral trade volume was $3.37 billion in 2018.

Chief of Defence Staff to come under RTI Act

News

• An implementation committee constituted to finalise the responsibilities of the soon-to-be-created post of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) has submitted its report, Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.
• The government said the post would come under the ambit of the Right to Information Act.

Chief of Defence Staff

• In his Independence Day address this year, Prime Minister announced the creation of Chief of Defence Staff, who will be above the chiefs of the three services, a long-pending demand to integrate the services.
• The committee was headed by the National Security Adviser and comprised the Cabinet Secretary and the Defence Secretary, among others. It was given 90 days to submit its recommendations.
• The Chief of Defence Staff will act as the single-point military adviser to the government on military and strategic issues and oversee procurement, training and logistics.
• As part of the military reforms, several committees have recommended the creation of the post.

Delhi government maintained revenue surplus over last 5 years: CAG report on State finances

News

• The Delhi government has maintained a revenue surplus over the last five years, a CAG audit report on State finances tabled in the Assembly said.
• The audit report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), for the year ended March 2018, noted that tax revenue and non-tax revenue also registered an increase of 14.70% and 101.05% respectively over the previous year.

‘Japan tracking J&K situation very carefully’

News

Japan is tracking the situation in the Kashmir Valley and hopes for a peaceful solution to the difficulties in the region, a representative of Tokyo said.

Atsushi Kaifu, Deputy Press Secretary of Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, commented on Kashmir, while declaring that Tokyo remains focussed on connectivity projects in India, including in the northeastern region.

• The comments came a day after the Foreign and Defence Ministers of Japan Toshimitsu Motegi and Taro Kono discussed a wide range of regional and global issues with their Indian counterparts S. Jaishankar and Rajnath Singh at the First Japan-India 2+2 Foreign and Defence Ministerial Meeting.
• India’s action had drawn a sharp response from Pakistan as well as China, which had also opposed the decision to create the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh out of the erstwhile State, saying it affected China’s sovereignty. Beijing also has a similar position on India’s northeastern State of Arunachal Pradesh.
• Beijing continues to include Arunachal Pradesh in the India-China border dispute and has criticised foreign visitors to the State.
• It is understood that infrastructure in the northeastern region will build a connectivity continuum that will help in better ties between India and the Indo-Pacific region, especially the ASEAN countries. , including the South China Sea.
• The official addressed concerns over the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor or the bullet train project and asserted that it is on track.

Report on state of forests

News

• The Environment Ministry is likely to release an update on the state of forests in India in December, Environment Minister said.

India State of Forest Report

• The India State of Forest Report (ISFR) is a biennial exercise to estimate the forest cover, the density of forest vegetation, tree cover across States, and the progress of plantation outside regions officially designated ‘forest.’
• The exercise involves both satellite mapping and surveys to map increase or decrease in forest cover. Mr. Javadekar was addressing a meeting of Forest officials and Ministers on the utilisation of the Compensatory Afforestation Funds.
• The law prescribes how the funds collected by the Centre from industrial projects for razing forests can be used by States. Forest Ministers from Himachal Pradesh, Telangana, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura were present.
• The latest ISFR, or the report of 2017, was released in February 2018, after a delay of nearly three months.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Operating ratio of Railways worst in last 10 years: CAG

News

• The Railways recorded an operating ratio of 98.44 per cent in 2017-18 which is the worst in the previous 10 years, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has said in a report tabled in Parliament.

Operating ratio

• A measure of expenditure against revenue, the operating ratio shows how efficiently the railway is operating and how healthy its finances are. An operating ratio of 98.44 per cent means that the Railways spent Rs 98.44 to earn Rs 100.
• The national auditor in its report on the railways’ finances, said that the railways would have ended up with a negative balance of Rs 5,676.29 crore instead of a surplus of Rs 1,665.61 crore but for the advance received from NTPC and IRCON.
• The Railways has also been unable to meet its operational cost of passenger services and other coaching services. Almost 95 per cent of the profit from freight traffic was utilised to compensate for the loss on operation of passenger and other coaching services, it said.
• The audit analysis of the finance accounts of Indian Railways revealed a declining trend of revenue surplus and the share of internal resources in capital expenditure. The net revenue surplus decreased by 66.10 per cent from Rs 4,913.00 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 1,665.61 crore in 2017-18.
• The share of internal resources in total capital expenditure also decreased to 3.01 per cent in 2017-18.
• This had resulted in greater dependence on Gross Budgetary Support and Extra Budgetary Resources.
• The CAG also recommended that railways need to take steps to augment their internal revenues, so that dependence on gross and extra budgetary resources is contained.
• It advised the railways to avoid creating new funds without any “justifiable reason”.

HSL poised to deliver India’s first missile tracking ship in New Year

News

• India’s first missile tracking ship being built at Hindustan Shipyard Limited is in advanced stage of construction.

New Year gift

• It is expected to be New Year gift to the Indian Navy, if the indications available at the HSL, a Ministry of Defence enterprise, hold water.
• The project which was launched in 2014 directly under the supervision of the National Technical Research Organisation, the Prime Minister’s Office and the National Security Advisor is being undertaken without a name due to secrecy attached to it.
• Built with an objective to provide a robust shield to India’s nuclear missile shield, is referred to as VC 11184, the yard where the construction was taken up. It will be given a name only after its induction into the Navy.
• The ship fitted with primary X band and secondary S band active electrically scanned array radar. It will have facility for 300 personnel, huge deck for landing of a helicopter and multiple missile tracking antennas. It will have a displacement capacity of 10,000 tonne with a speed limit of 26 knots.
• HSL, founded on June 21, 1941 by Scindia Steam Navigation Company Ltd, was transferred from the Ministry of Shipping to the Ministry of Defence in February, 2010 in recognition of its strategic importance.

China imposes sanctions on U.S. over Hong Kong unrest

News

• China suspended U.S. warship visits and sanctioned American NGOs in retaliation for the passage of a Bill backing pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.

Suspended U.S. warship visits

• The financial hub has been rocked by nearly six months of increasingly violent unrest demanding greater autonomy, which Beijing has frequently blamed on foreign influence.
• Last week U.S. President Donald Trump signed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which requires the President to annually review the city’s favourable trade status and threatens to revoke it if the semi-autonomous territory’s freedoms are quashed.
• In response to the unreasonable behaviour of the U.S. side, the Chinese government has decided to suspend reviewing the applications for U.S. warships to go to Hong Kong for (rest and) recuperation as of today.
• They would also apply sanctions to a number of U.S.-based NGOs, without giving much details.
• Sanctions will apply to NGOs that had acted “badly” over the recent unrest in Hong Kong, including the National Endowment for Democracy, Human Rights Watch and Freedom House.

UN chief warns of ‘point of no return’ on climate change

News

• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the world’s efforts to stop climate change have been utterly inadequate” so far and there is a danger global warming could pass the point of no return.

Danger global warming

• Speaking before a two-week international climate conference in Madrid, the U.N. chief said the impact of rising temperatures including more extreme weather is already being felt around the world, with dramatic consequences for humans and other species.
• Delegates from almost 200 countries will try to put the finishing touches on the rules governing the 2015 Paris climate accord at the Dec. 2-13 meeting, including how to create functioning international emissions trading systems and compensate poor countries for losses they suffer from rising sea levels and other consequences of climate change.
• Organizers expect around 29,000 visitors, including some 50 heads of state and government for Monday’s opening, as well as scientists, seasoned negotiators and activists during the two-week meeting.
• Some of the world’s largest carbon emitters the United States, China and India will be represented by ministers or lower-level officials.
• More than 5,000 police officers are charged with keeping the summit safe. Although authorities have stepped-up border controls and cybersecurity measures, authorities have kept the country’s terror alert one level under the highest, where it has been ever since extremist attacks in Tunisia and France in mid-2015.

Manufacturing PMI improves

News

• Manufacturing activity increased in November from a two-year low in the previous month, driven by a modest increase in the growth of new orders and production, a private sector survey report showed.

Growth in the manufacturing sector

• The Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to 51.2 in November, up from 50.6 in October.
• A reading above 50 implies an expansion in activity, while a reading below 50 denotes contraction.
• The growth in the overall manufacturing sector was mainly propped up by growth in the consumer goods segment, while the intermediate goods segment returned to expansion.
• The survey respondents reported a deterioration in the operating conditions in the capital goods segment.

PSLV gearing up for its 50th flight

News

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is preparing for the 50th flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), popularly dubbed the the space agency’s trusted workhorse. The PSLV-C48 mission is scheduled for lift-off on December 11.

50th flight

• • To date, 49 PSLV missions have lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. They include the initial three developmental flights designated PSLV D1, D2 and D3 and 46 operational flights. The total count includes two failed missions and the PSLV variants such as PSLV-XL and PSLV-CA.
  • The PSLV-C47 mission that flew on November 27 this year should have been logged as the 50th flight had the ISRO stuck to the natural progression of numbers. After the PSLV-C12 flight on April 20, 2009, the space agency nimbly leap-frogged to the C14 mission. ISRO lore goes that the number 13 was bypassed allegedly due to its association with ill luck!
  • Along with heftier sibling Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), the PSLV continues to remain the mainstay of the Indian space programme.
  • In a ‘career’ spanning nearly three decades, the PSLV has launched more than 45 Indian payloads including Chandrayaan 1 and Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan) spacecrafts and 310 foreign satellites. The C37 mission has the credit of placing a whopping 104 satellites in orbit, a record.
  • The 50th flight would have on board 10 satellites, including India’s RISAT-2BR1 and nine small satellites from abroad.
  • Successor to the SLV and ASLV, the PSLV is ISRO’s third-gen launch vehicle, capable of placing payloads in different orbits including the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).

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