IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

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Delhi air pollution: Prepare scheme to stop stubble burning, says Supreme Court

News

• The Supreme Court ordered the Centre to prepare a comprehensive national scheme, in consultation with States, within three months to wean small and marginal farmers away from stubble burning, which has been identified as a major source of air pollution choking the national capital.

Air pollution 

• The Bench also ordered States to distribute crop residue management tools and machines to small and marginal farmers free of cost. The States need to use their own funds to finance the scheme.
• The court further ordered an incentive of ₹100 per quintal for small and marginal farmers who engage in the management of the residue of their non-Basmati variety rice crop in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
• It asked the Delhi government to submit an action plan to deal with issues of garbage dumping and burning, pock-marked roads and the state of traffic congestion in the capital city. The court gave the government three weeks to repair the pot-holes.
• The Bench hauled up the chief secretaries of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh for doing almost nothing to prevent farmers from burning their crop residue.
• The court initially gave a seven-day deadline for the three States to collect stubble before the farmers burn them.

Ban proposed on sale, ads of junk food in school

News

• Aimed at enabling children to eat and grow healthy, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) released draft regulations titled Food Safety and Standards (Safe Food and healthy diets for School Children) Regulations, 2019.

Food Safety and Standards Regulations, 2019

• At the heart of these regulations is a fundamental idea to make it clear what is healthy for children and what is not.
• One of the important regulations proposed is that foods high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) cannot be sold to children in school canteens/mess premises/hostel kitchens or within 50 m of the school campus.
• Schools should adopt a comprehensive programme for promoting healthy diets among children. The school campus should be converted into ‘Eat Right School’ focussing on local and seasonal food and no food waste as per the specified benchmarks.
• According to studies, about 8% of schoolchildren are obese. FSSAI has also proposed that children have to be encouraged to consume balanced diet in the school as per the guidelines issued by the National Institute of Nutrition.
• Nutritionists, dieticians may be engaged by the school to assist in the preparation of menu periodically. Also it has been proposed that there should be regular inspection of school premises where safe, healthy and hygienic food should be served to students.
• The FSSAI has invited suggestions and objections from stakeholders within 30 days.

Denial rate for H-1B visas highest among major Indian IT firms: report

News

• As a result of the more restrictive Trump Administration policies, denial rates for H-1B petitions have increased significantly from just six per cent in 2015 to 24 per cent in the third quarter of the current fiscal, a study has showed.

Denial rates for H-1B petitions

• The study ,based on data received from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services or USCIS, also reflects that denial rate for H-1B visas is highest among major Indian IT companies, thus giving credence to charges that Indian companies are being unduly targeted by the current administration.
• For instance, the denial rate of H-1B petitions for initial employment for Amazon, Microsoft, Intel and Google in 2015 was just one per cent. In 2019, the same increased respectively to six, eight, seven and three per cent.
• The denial rate for Apple remained the same at two per cent.
• The denial rate for H-1B petitions for continuing employment was also high for Indian IT companies.
• In the first three quarters of fiscal 2019, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services adjudicators denied 24 per cent of H-1B petitions for “initial” employment and 12 per cent of H-1B petitions for “continuing” employment, it said.
• The 12 per cent denial rate for continuing employment is also historically high. It was only three per cent in 2015.

Pakistan among worst countries for internet freedom: report

News

• Pakistan is among the worst 10 countries in the world for internet and digital media freedom, according to a report by an internet watchdog.

Internet and digital media freedom

• The report placed Pakistan at 26, out of 100 (100 being the worst) one place down from last year’s ranking.
• The country scored 5 out of 25 for obstacles to access, 14 out of 35 for limits on content, and 7 out of 40 for violation of user rights index.
• Globally, Pakistan is among the worst 10 countries in terms of internet and digital media freedom. In terms of regional ranking, Pakistan emerged as the third worst country after Vietnam and China.
• Besides decline in internet freedom, the report found election manipulation in Pakistan through informational tactics such as the coordinated use of hyper-partisan commentators, bots, or news sites to disseminate false or misleading content as well as technical tactics, including intentional restrictions on connectivity and blocking of websites.
• Over 800,000 websites hosting political, religious and social content remain blocked while the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority continued to restrict content in a nontransparent and arbitrary fashion.
• It observed that most online commentators exercised a degree of self-censorship when writing on topics such as religion, blasphemy, civil-military relations, separatist movements, and women’s and other minority communities’ rights.

Pakistan exporting terror, says India at UNSC

News

• India lashed out at Pakistan for raising the issue of women’s rights in Kashmir in the UN Security Council, saying the country represents a system that has been exporting terrorism and “regressive” extremist ideologies and “stifling” women’s voices for narrow political gains.
• India’s strong response came after Pakistan’s outgoing UN envoy Maleeha Lodhi commented on the situation in Kashmir, revocation of Article 370 and women’s rights in the Valley.

Rice exporters require certification of inspection to export to European Union

News

• Indian rice exporters will now have to obtain a certification of inspection from a government agency to ship both the basmati and non-basmati varieties to countries of the European Union.

Rice export

• Two aromatic basmati rice varieties PB1 and 1401 witness maximum export to the EU.
• The European Commission had brought down in basmati rice the maximum residue limit (MRL) level for Tricyclazole, a fungicide used by farmers against a disease, to 0.01 mg per kg from 0.03 mg earlier. This was done for all countries.
• India, the world’s top rice exporter, exports about 3 lakh tonnes of basmati rice to the EU.
• The Export Inspection Council (EIC) is the official export certification body of India which ensures quality and safety of products exported from India.
• It was set up by the Government of India under the Export (Quality Control and Inspection) Act, 1963 to ensure sound development of export trade of India through quality control and inspection.
• The assurance to quality and safety is provided through either a consignment wise inspection or a quality assurance/food safety management based certification through its field organisation.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Over 11,000 scientists worldwide declare global climate emergency

News

• More than 11,000 scientists from 153 countries have declared a global climate emergency, warning that “untold suffering” is inevitable without deep and lasting shifts in human activities that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and other factors related to climate change.

Climate emergency

• The climate emergency declaration is based on the scientific analysis of more than 40 years of publicly available data, covering a broad range of factors including energy use, surface temperature, population growth, land clearing, deforestation, polar ice mass, fertility rates, gross domestic product and carbon emissions.
• The scientists noted that multiple global assemblies in recent decades have agreed that urgent action is essential, but greenhouse gas emissions are still rising rapidly.
• Other ominous signs include a sustained rise in the per capita meat production, the global tree cover loss and the number of airline passengers.
• There are certain encouraging signs the decrease in global birth rates, decelerated forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon and an increase in wind and solar power but even these changes are tinged with worry.

Pakistan views Afghan Taliban as reliable anti-India element in Afghanistan: U.S. Congressional report

News

• Pakistan considers Afghan Taliban as a “relatively friendly” and “reliable anti-India element” in Afghanistan as it fears a strategic encirclement by New Delhi whose interest in the war-torn country stems largely from its broader regional rivalry with Islamabad, a U.S. Congressional report has said.

Anti-India element

• In its latest report on Afghanistan, the independent and bipartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) identified Pakistan as the most important neighbors of Afghanistan.
• Pakistan wanted a weak government in Kabul and has played an active, and by many accounts, a negative role in Afghan affairs for decades.
• Pakistan’s security establishment, fearful of a strategic encirclement by India, apparently continues to view the Afghan Taliban as a relatively friendly and reliable anti-India element in Afghanistan.
• Pakistan’s security services maintain ties to Afghan insurgent groups, most notably to the Haqqani Network, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) that has become an official, semiautonomous component of the Taliban.
• It periodically prepares reports on issues of importance for Congressmen for them to make informed decisions.
• S. officials have long identified militant safe havens in Pakistan as a threat to Afghanistan’s security, though some Pakistani officials dispute the charge.
• Afghanistan-Pakistan relations are further complicated by the presence of over a million Afghan refugees in Pakistan, as well as a long-running and ethnically tinged dispute over their shared 1,600-mile border.
• The CRS warned that a potential collapse of the Afghan military and/or the government that commands it could have significant implications for the United States, particularly given the nature of negotiated security arrangements.

Hyderabad corporation introduces robotic manhole desilting machine

News

• GHMC has introduced mechanised cleaning of manholes and sewerage lines in its Serilingampally zone, by pressing robotic machinery into service.

Robotic machinery

• Equipped with four cameras, and a screen to view from above, the robotic machinery can clean the manholes of up to 30 feet depth, a statement from GHMC informed.
• Based on its performance in Serilingampally, it will be introduced in other zones too.
• Within GHMC limits, there are about 30,000 manholes at present. In the core city, maintenance of manholes is done by Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board and in surrounding municipalities.

 

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