IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

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Delhi civic body sets aside Rs 15 crore for illegal colony work

News

• The South Delhi Municipal Corporation will now be able to spend its money for infrastructure development in unauthorised colonies.

Infrastructure development

• It has made provisions of Rs 15 crore for development works in colonies that got regularised after the Bill to this effect was passed in the Parliament in November this year.
• The Corporation had earlier maintained that they cannot spend money on these colonies except for cleaning and sanitation work as they are unauthorised.
• Rs 15 crore has been provisioned for development works in the recently-regularised colonies, and it will be distributed equally.
• An additional fund of Rs 15 lakh will be provided to the councillor for carrying out development works.
• The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has started a web portal on which over 17,000 people have opened their accounts to get their houses registered. They will have to submit the required documents and complete other formalities to get a conveyance deed from DDA. After this, they can get their houses registered from the revenue department.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

General Bipin Rawat named India’s first Chief of Defence Staff

News

• Outgoing Army chief General Bipin Rawat has been appointed the country’s first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), effective December 31.

Country’s first Chief of Defence Staff

• Rawat will retire as the Chief of Army Staff on the same day. As CDS, Rawat will have salary and perquisites at par with the three services chiefs and will head the newly created Department of Military Affairs in the Ministry of Defence and function as its Secretary.
• The decision comes a week after the Union Cabinet on December 24 approved the creation of the post of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) as the principal military adviser to the government.
• The CDS will not exercise any military command, including over the three services chiefs, so as to be able to provide impartial advice to the political leadership.
• The four-star rank, however, will be responsible for achieving “jointness in operation, logistics, transport, training, support services, communications, repairs and maintenance of the three services” within three years of assuming office.
• The CDS will also bring about reforms in the functioning of three services aimed at augmenting combat capabilities of the Armed Forces by reducing wasteful expenditure, while ensuring optimal utilisation of infrastructure and rationalising it through jointness among the services.
• With Rawat joining the new post, Vice Chief of the Army, Lieutenant General Manoj Mukund Naravane is set to replace him as the Army chief. He will serve till April 2022, when he turns 62.

CDS can serve up to maximum age of 65 years: Govt amends rules

News

• The defence ministry has amended rules to allow the Chief of Defence Staff to serve up to a maximum age limit of 65 years.

Maximum age limit

• The changes have been made in the services rules of the Army, Navy and the Indian Air Force for extension of retirement age of the Chief of Defence Staff to a maximum of 65 years if a service chief is appointed to the post.
• In a landmark decision, the Cabinet Committee on Security approved the creation of the CDS, who will act as the principal military adviser to the defence minister on all matters relating to the tri-services.
• According to existing rules, the service chiefs can serve for a maximum period of three years or till attaining the age of 62, whichever is earlier.
• The CDS will not be eligible to hold any government post after demitting office.
• The CDS will not be allowed to take up any private employment without prior approval for a period of five years after demitting the office.
• A key mandate of the CDS will be to facilitate restructuring of military commands for optimal utilisation of resources by bringing about jointness in operations, including through establishment of joint/theatre commands.
• Bringing about jointness in operation, logistics, transport, training, support services, communications, repairs and maintenance of the three services within three years will be another major mandate of the CDS.
• The tri-service agencies, organisations and commands relating to cyber and space will be under the command of the CDS and he will also function as the Military Adviser to the Nuclear Command Authority.
• The Chiefs of Staff Committee (CoSC) comprises chiefs of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force and the senior-most member is appointed its chairperson.

Maharashtra farmers whose loan dues exceed Rs 2 lakh ineligible for waiver

News

• Four days after the Maharashtra Cabinet approved farm loan waiver up to Rs 2 lakh, the state cooperation department issued a government resolution (GR) stating that farmers having outstanding loan of more than Rs 2 lakh as on September 30, 2019, will not be eligible for the waiver.

Jyotirao Phule Farmer Loan Waiver Scheme

• The farm loan waiver scheme, named Jyotirao Phule Farmer Loan Waiver Scheme, is likely to benefit around 40 lakh farmers. It is estimated to put an additional burden of Rs 30,000 crore on the government.
• Farmers whose loan is up to Rs 2 lakh, taken between April 1, 2015, and March 31, 2019, and which has not been repaid till September 30, 2019, will be eligible for the waiver irrespective of their landholding.
• However, if the principal crop loan amount taken during this period along with the interest exceeds Rs 2 lakh, and which has not been repaid by September, then those farmers will not be eligible for the waiver.
• Also, farmers who had availed loans from nationalised, district and cooperative banks as well as cooperative societies will be considered for the scheme.
• The GR, also stated that others who would not get the benefit of the scheme are elected representatives, including serving and former ministers, current and former MLAs, central and state government employees, whose monthly family income is more than Rs 25,000, excluding Class IV employees.
• Those who pay tax on the income incurred from non-agriculture sector, pensioners whose monthly income is more than Rs 25,000, excluding former servicemen, would also not get the benefit.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Navy bans Facebook after 11 personnel arrested for espionage with Pakistan links

News

• Days after an espionage racket was busted and 11 sailors were arrested for passing on sensitive information to a Pakistani handler, the Indian Navy has banned the use of Facebook by its personnel.
• Besides, the Navy has also barred usage of smartphones at naval bases, dockyards and warships.

Spy racket

• The spy racket was busted on December 19 by the Andhra Pradesh Intelligence Department, which claimed that the sailors, recruited in 2017, allegedly passed information like locations of naval ships and submarines after they fell into a honey trap.
• An FIR against the seven sailors has been registered at Counter-Intelligence Department at Vijayawada.

Amit Shah unveils new insignia for CRPF’s VIP security wing

News

• Union Home Minister Amit Shah unveiled a new insignia for the CRPF’s VIP security wing that protects 59 high-risk dignitaries, including members of the Gandhi family and a host of Union ministers.

CRPF’s VIP security wing

• • The logo with a “Garuda”, sword and shield will give a distinct identity to the unit.
  • The home minister unveiled the logo during an event, where he laid the foundation for raising a new headquarters building for the CRPF.
  • The VIP security wing of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was raised in 2014 and has four battalions, comprising about 4,000 personnel.
  • The insignia will bear the motto of the force “Always, Aware, Alert”.
  • Of the 59 protectees under this unit, 15 are under the top category of “Z+”, 21 under the “Z” category and the remaining 23 under various other categories.
  • The elite wing of the CRPF has bases across the country and is armed with smart assault weapons like MP-5 rifles and Glock pistols, apart from encrypted communication gadgets and armoured protection devices.

Huawei too allowed to be part of 5G spectrum trials

News

• The government has decided to give 5G spectrum for trials to all players, including Huawei.

5G spectrum

• Huawei’s gear is cheaper and more cost-efficient for domestic telecom companies, and this decision of the government that all vendors will be included in the trials will come as a relief for the Chinese telecom major which has been facing trouble from the US government.
• Countries like Australia and New Zealand have banned Huawei from 5G trials. UK’s British Telecom has said it would phase out Huawei tech from its existing 4G network by 2021, and not use it in 5G core networks.
• The US effectively banned Huawei from selling its products calling it a security risk. It claims Huawei’s equipment poses a risk because of back-door installations in its systems that could leak data.
• The US has also claimed that Huawei’s owners have close links with the Chinese military, a charge that the company has denied. The US has been warning other countries from relying on the Chinese telecom player for their 5G networks.

Maharashtra to become third state to take measures to curb overfishing

News

• In a move to curb overfishing of juvenile fish, Maharashtra’s fisheries department has asked the government to notify the minimum landing/legal size (MLS) for 58 commercially important fish species in the state.
• The MLS is the size at which a particular species can be legally caught, retained and traded. At present, there is no ban or penalty levied on fishermen for catching juvenile fish in the state.

Curb overfishing

• Only Kerala and Karnataka have so far notified similar guidelines. Last year, Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) had submitted to the state a proposal to reduce juvenile fishing.
• A juvenile fish is a fish catch much before it attains its maximum size or has reproduced even once.
• For better implementation, the state fisheries department has also proposed random species wise sample collection at sea or in the landing centre or ports to check the MLS.
• Acting on the CMFRI proposal for size restriction on fishing, the ministry of fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying had issued an advisory, directing all coastal states to implement the MLS for catching, landing and trading of fish by modifying the Marine Fishing Regulation Act (MFRA).
• The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-CMFRI had then developed models for each state, listing recommendations for MLS fish, identifying appropriate sizes of mesh (in cm), which can help control juvenile overfishing.
• Combined with extreme weather events and increase in juvenile fish catch, according to annual fish marine estimates, in 2018, there was a major decline in marine fish landings catch in the state. It fell to 2.95 lakh tonnes from 3.81 lakh tonnes in 2017, a 22.5 per cent decline.

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