IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

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Navy to set up women-friendly facilities on its fleet

News

• The Navy said it has decided to set up women-friendly facilities on its indigenously-built aircraft carrier and other bigger ships amid demands for induction of women.

Women- friendly

• The first indigenously-built aircraft carrier Vikrant would be women- friendly. Statement comes a day after Sub-Lieutenant Shivangi became the first naval woman pilot to join operational duties in the presence of top officials at its base. Fulfilling her long-cherished dream, she received her ‘qualification wings’ from the Vice-Admiral.
• A roadmap has been prepared by the Navy on deployment of women on warships, which has been a long-pending demand. The Vice-Admiral said legal and other issues needed to be sorted out before putting women on combat duty. The appeal in this regard was pending in the Supreme Court.

New energy-rich food aims to counter urban malnutrition

News

• Children suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in urban areas are likely to get ready-to-eat energy dense nutritious food (EDNF) paste to fight deficiencies. While the plan has been approved in principle by the Maharashtra government, it is awaiting a nod from the Centre.

Energy dense nutritious food

• The ready to eat EDNF is a paste made of peanuts, oil, sugar, milk powder, nuts, and other nutrition-rich ingredients. Used as a medical intervention, the paste is given to SAM-affected children along with other meals in anganwadis.
• In Maharashtra, 22 districts have recorded high incidence of stunting and the worst affected are Nandurbar, Yavatmal and Parbhani.
• While malnutrition in tribal and rural areas is mostly triggered due to inadequate food or lack of it, in urban areas, lack of proper micronutrient-rich food, high intake of junk food have been the common reasons.
• Through the anganwadis, the government gives take-home ration to children between six months and three years of age, SAM-affected children between six months and six years, and pregnant and lactating mothers.
• Additionally, a morning snack and hot cooked meals for lunch are given to children between three and six years.

This decade set to be hottest in history: U.N. report

News

• The past decade is almost certain to be the hottest on record, weather experts warned, painting a bleak picture of vanishing sea ice, devastating heatwaves and encroaching seas in a report launched at a climate summit in Spain.

Hottest on record

• An annual assessment of the Earth’s climate by the Geneva-based World Meteorological Organization (WMO) underscored the stakes at two weeks of talks aimed at shoring up the 2015 Paris Agreement to avert catastrophic global warming.
• The report also noted that surges in sea temperatures known as “marine heatwaves” which devastate underwater life had become more common.
• The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere hit a record level of 407.8 parts per million in 2018 and continued to rise in 2019. Opening the climate summit on Monday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had warned that 400 parts per million had once been considered an “unthinkable” tipping point.
• A drumbeat of dire reports from climate science in the past year has fuelled environmental activism, prompted some companies to commit to slashing emissions and raised concerns among investors about the stability of asset prices.

Report’s findings:

• Average temperatures for the five-year (2015-2019) and 10-year (2010-2019) periods are almost certain to be the highest on record.
• 2019 is on course to be the second or third-warmest year on record.
• Sea water is 26% more acidic than at the start of the industrial era, degrading marine ecosystems.
• Arctic sea-ice neared record lows in September and October, and Antarctica also saw record low ice several times this year.
• Climate change is a key driver of a recent rise in global hunger after a decade of steady declines, with more than 820 million people suffering from hunger in 2018.
• Weather disasters displaced millions of people this year and affected rainfall patterns from India to northern Russia and the central United States, and many other regions.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

US threatens 100% tariffs on certain French goods

News

• S. President Donald Trump meeting his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in London on the sidelines of the NATO alliance talks, the U.S. announced that it could levy up to 100% on $2.4 billion in French imports of into the country.

100% tariffs

• These announcement, which comes after an adverse conclusion by the office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) following a trade practices investigation into France’s Digital Services Tax (DST), could including champagne, porcelain and some cheeses.
• The ‘301’ trade probe against France was launched in July after Mr Macron signed the DST into law, aimed at taxing digital companies that did substantial business in France.
• The DST is a 3% tax on the turnover of digital companies with global turnover of at least EURO 750 million, EURO 25 million of which is from France. U.S. tech giants including Google, Amazon and Facebook had called for the tax to be scrapped.
• The probe found that the “ French DST discriminates against U.S. digital companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon” as per a USTR statement which said the tax was inconsistent with prevailing tax principles due to its retroactivities, application to revenue rather than income and extraterritorial application.
• The statement said the tax was aimed at penalizing specific U.S. tech firms.
• The ‘301’ probe is a trade tool authorized by Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974 which the U.S. uses to assert its rights under trade agreements if it decides American industries are facing “unfair” foreign trade practices.
• Having used the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) dispute settlement mechanism alone in recent times, the U.S., under the Trump administration, has brought the 301 back into use, launching a 2017 probe against China.

India and Sweden sign three agreements

News

• India and Sweden signed three agreements that will help both countries to cooperate in the frontier of science and technology and address climate change and maritime issues.

Three agreements

• The agreements were signed after the Indian delegation held talks with the Swedish team led by King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia who are on a four day visit to India.
• Both sides signed the Protocol of Cooperation between the Department of Science and Technology of India and the Swedish Energy Agency and the MoU between the Ministry of Earth Sciences of India and the Ministry of Education and Research of Sweden on cooperation of polar science.
• A third agreement was sealed between the two countries on Recognition of Seafarer Certificates pursuant to Regulation I/10 of the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watch.
• The aim of this agreement is to promote of safety of maritime environment.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

• Terror incidents declined since abrogation of special status to J&K; infiltration attempts up: Govt

  News

  • Nineteen civilians, including non-Kashmiris, were killed in various terror-related incidents in the Kashmir Valley since August 5, when the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 was revoked, the Lok Sabha was informed.
  • Minister of State for Home said there had been an increase in infiltration from across the border. From August 5 to October 31, the “net infiltration” was 59.

Tax department issues 2.10 crore tax refunds till November; ₹1.46-lakh crore refunded

News

• The Income Tax Department processed as many as 10 crore tax refund cases, returning back over ₹1.46 lakh crore in first eight months of 2019-20, up 20% over the last year as a centralized processing centre has expedited the process.

Tax refund

• The Centralised Processing Centre (CPC) processed 4.70 crore tax returns between April 2019 and November 28 (almost eight months of current 2019-20 year) as opposed to 3.91 crore returns being processed in the same period a year back.
• It processed 2.10 crore tax refund cases for current Assessment Year 2019-20 as on November 28, 2019, compared to 1.75 crore refunds for the same period in FY 2018-19, an increase of 20%.
• The total amount of refunds issued in FY 2019-20 till November 28 was ₹1.46 lakh crore as compared to ₹1.19 lakh crore in the same period of the previous year (an increase of 22.7.
• Of the 2.10-crore refunds processed in 2019-20, 68% of refunds were issued within 30 days from the date of the e-verification of income tax return as compared to 57% for the same period in FY 2018-19.

Porting request will now be met in days: TRAI

News

• Mobile phone users will now be able to switch their telecom service provider while retaining their old number in a maximum of five days, December 16 onwards, as the new regulations on mobile number portability come into effect.

New regulations

• The amended rules, which provide for a penalty of up to ₹10,000 per wrongful rejection of porting request, also reduce the role that telecom operators play in the whole process.
• An individual porting request within a particular service area will be completed in three working days, the Telecom regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said.
• The request for port out from one circle to another will be completed in five working days, TRAI said.
• Under the new process, the mobile number portability service provider (MNPSP) has been tasked with generating and communicating the unique porting code (UPC) to a subscriber, instead of the telecom service provider. A UPC is an eight digit alpha numeric code that a subscriber wanting to switch their operator needs to generate by sending an SMS to ‘1900.’
• A record of the UPC will also be kept by the MNPSP, so that the porting request can be verified by the recipient operator as well.
• As per estimates, the rejection of porting requests on the grounds UPC Mismatch and Expired UPC, accounted for an average of around 45% of the total rejection of porting requests for the period April, 2017 to May, 2018. These can be brought down following the new regime.

Tiger population up by 750 in 4 years to 2,976

News

• Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister said in the Rajya Sabha the tiger population had increased by 750 in the last four years to 2,976.

Tiger population

• Earlier, the count was 2,226.Tigers have increased by 750 in the last four years.
• Minister said lions, tigers, elephants and rhinos are India’s assets and if reports of any deaths from viruses surface, special investigations are conducted.

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