IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

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India, Russia to form aftersales support groups

News

• India and Russia agreed to form specific working groups for after sales support of key defence platforms and intensify efforts to finalise a cooperation programme for 2021-2030.

Defence platforms

• This was agreed between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Russian counterpart General Sergei Shoigu at the 19th India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military and Military Technical Cooperation meeting.
• Defence Minister is on a three-day visit to Russia.
• The Ministers directed the respective teams to work closely for early conclusion of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Agreement on Reciprocal Logistics Support.
• In September, the two countries had signed an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) for mutual cooperation in joint manufacturing of spares, components, aggregates and other material related to Russian or Soviet-origin defence equipment.
• As part of measures to further deepen the military exchanges between the military training institutions, Russia would depute an officer for the National Defence College (NDC) course commencing 2020.

Maharashtra tops in justice delivery: Report

News

• Maharashtra has topped the list of states in delivering justice to people followed by Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Haryana, according to a report by Tata Trusts.

Justice delivery

• Among the small states (where population is less than one crore each), Goa has topped the list followed by Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh, it said.
• The India Justice Report 2019 is based on publicly available data of different government entities on the four pillars of justice delivery police, judiciary, prisons and legal aid.
• As per the findings, the country, as a whole, has about 18,200 judges with about 23% sanctioned posts vacant.
• Women are also poorly represented in these pillars, constituting just seven per cent of the police. Prisons are over-occupied at 114%, where 68% are under trials awaiting investigation, inquiry or trial. Regarding budgets, most states are not able to fully utilise the funds given to them by the Centre, while the increase in spending on the police, prisons and judiciary does not keep pace with overall increase in state expenditure.

Data from the Internet And Mobile Association of India shows Kerala is already halfway to its goal of 100% coverage

News

• Finance Minister of Kerala Thomas Isaac tweeted that the Kerala Fibre Optic Network project, pegged at ₹1,548 crore, would provide Internet to every household in the State. For 20 lakh BPL households it will be free.
• The project has an ambitious timeline it is slated for completion by December 2020.

Internet penetration rate

• Going by data in a recent report by the Internet And Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), Kerala is already halfway to its goal of 100% coverage.
• According to the IAMAI report, titled ‘India Internet 2019’, Kerala’s Internet penetration rate is the second highest in the country (54%), with Delhi NCR topping the list with 69% penetration.
• The lowest penetration rate was in Odisha (25), Jharkhand (26) and Bihar (28). It is to be noted that the figure for Jammu & Kashmir is not reflective of the current situation as the survey period was before it was divided.
• The IAMAI report also notes that Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Delhi have the highest proportion of female Internet users.
• TRAI data as of June 2019 also show that Kerala is well-placed in terms of Internet connections. It stands fourth among all telecom service areas in terms of Internet subscriptions per 100 population, behind Delhi, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. In urban areas, it does better — it ranks second behind Himachal Pradesh.
• Bihar has the lowest number, with 29 subscriptions per 100 population, while Uttar Pradesh’s number stands at 34.
• It is to be noted that Kerala is among States with a huge gap between the number of rural and urban Internet connections. This is also the case in Delhi and Himachal Pradesh.

Nepal protests new political map of India

News

• Nepal formally protested over the inclusion of the region of Kalapani in the new political map of India.

New political map

• A press release by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nepal said Kathmandu is committed to protect Nepal’s territorial integrity.
• The latest political map of India reiterated the Indian claims on the region that Nepal says belongs to its westernmost part.
• India claims the historic region as part of the state of Uttarakhand.

Centre clears ₹25,000-crore fund to help housing sector

News

• The Union Cabinet has approved the creation of an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) of ₹25,000 crore to provide last-mile funding for stalled affordable and middle-income housing projects across the country, Finance Minister announced.

To help housing sector

• The Minister had announced the proposal to create this fund in mid-September, which the Cabinet has now approved. All affordable and middle-income housing projects that are net worth positive and are registered with the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) and that have not been deemed liquidation-worthy will be eligible.
• The funds will be set up as Category-II Alternative Investment Fund registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India and will be managed by SBICAP Ventures Limited.
• According to the government’s estimates, there are more than 1,600 housing projects in which 4.58 lakh crore units are stalled.
• The Cabinet decision amends the original announcement by allowing housing projects that have been classified as non-performing assets (NPA) and that are under National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) proceedings also to be eligible for financing.
• The the fund would be professionally managed and that the financing would not be provided in a lump sum. Instead, the required amount for each stage of completion would be provided as required at that stage.
• The AIF is expected to pool investments from other government-related and private investors, including public financial institutions, sovereign wealth funds, public and private banks, domestic pension and provident funds, global pension funds and other institutional investors.
• The government further expects this fund to not only ease the stress in the real estate sector but also in other major sectors of the economy as well.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Three years since demonetisation, cash is back

News

• Three years since demonetisation, the level of cash with the public has grown faster than the GDP growth of the country, even as digital payments especially those on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform have seen robust growth.

Level of cash with the public

• Reserve Bank of India data show that the public held ₹20.49 lakh crore in cash as of September 2019, the latest data available, which is 13.3% more than the figure for the corresponding month of 2018.
• The data show that the cash held by the public made up 96% of the money in circulation, with most of the rest deposited in banks.
• In December 2016, one month after demonetisation and the enforced deposits in banks, this percentage stood at 83%.
• As a result, the value of transactions made through the four most popular modes UPI, debit cards, mobile banking, and prepaid instruments has seen robust growth over this three-year period. Players in the digital payments space do acknowledge, however, that it will still take a few years to move most people away from cash transactions and onto digital platforms.
• The best-performing of these instruments is clearly UPI, which has overtaken debit cards in the volume of transactions and is swiftly catching up with them in terms of value of transactions as well.
• According to the RBI’s annual report, the number of UPI payments in 2018-19, at 535 crore, for the first time surpassed the number of debit card transactions (441 crore).
• As of September 2019, there have been 496.5 crore UPI transactions in 2019-20 compared with 735.7 crore debit card transactions.

Kartarpur pilgrims need passports, OCI cards

News

• Indian passports and Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cards will be necessary for pilgrims visiting the Kartarpur Sahib shrine for the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the External Affairs Ministry said.
• India and Pakistan signed an agreement laying down the rules to be followed during the celebrations at Kartarpur that are expected to see thousands of pilgrims from all over the world.

NGT issues ultimatum to ban certain RO systems

News

• The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has given a “last opportunity” to the Union Environment Ministry to issue notifications pertaining to prohibition on the use of RO (reverse osmosis) systems, which result in wastage of almost 80% of water.

Reverse osmosis systems

• • The NGT was referring to an order passed by it in May this year where it had directed that “wherever RO is to be permitted, condition of recovery of water to the extent of more than 60% is required”.
  • The Bench had ordered the Environment Ministry to issue “appropriate notification prohibiting the use of RO where Total Dissolved Solids in water is less than 500 mg/l.
  • Further provision must be laid down for recovery of water up to 75% and use of such RO reject water for purposes such as utensil washing, flushing, gardening, cleaning of vehicles and mopping, the Bench had held, based on a report furnished by an NGT-appointed committee.

Air pollution web repository, research dating from 1905 launched

News:

• The National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) along with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has launched India’s first web repository documenting air quality studies done in the last 60 years.

Air quality studies

• The Indian Air quality Interactive Repository (IndAIR) has archived approximately 700 scanned materials from pre-Internet era (1950-1999), 1,215 research articles, 170 reports and case studies and 100 cases, to provide the history of air pollution research and legislation.
• Such a repository on air pollution is one of the first in the world.

Trade war: China says it has agreed with U.S. to cancel tariffs in phases

News

• China and the United States have agreed to cancel in phases the tariffs imposed during their months-long trade war, the Chinese commerce ministry said.

Trade war

• An interim U.S.-China trade deal is widely expected to include a U.S. pledge to scrap tariffs scheduled for Dec. 15 on about $156 billion worth of Chinese imports, including cell phones, laptop computers and toys.
• Chinese negotiators wanted the United States to drop 15% tariffs on about $125 billion worth of Chinese goods that took effect on Sept. 1. They also sought relief from earlier 25% tariffs on about $250 billion of imports, ranging from machinery and semiconductors to furniture.
• Since Trump took office in 2017, his administration has been pressing China to curb massive subsidies to state-owned firms and end the forced transfer of American technology to Chinese firms as a price of doing business in China.

 

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