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IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

Manipur becomes the 4th State to complete urban local bodies reforms Additional borrowing permission of Rs.75 crore issued.

Source: PIB INDIA

News

• Manipur has become the 4th State in the country to successfully undertake “Urban Local Bodies (ULB)” reforms stipulated by the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance in its letter to the States dated 17th May, 2020.

Aim:  Reforms in the Urban Local Bodies and the urban utilities reforms are aimed at financial strenghtening of ULBs in the States and to enable them to provide better public health and sanitation services. Economically rejuvenated ULBs will also be able to create good civic infrastructure.

ULB reforms

• The State has become eligible to mobilise additional financial resources of Rs.75 crore through Open Market Borrowings.
• Manipur has now joined the three other States namely, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana, who have completed this reform.
• On completion of Urban Local Bodies reform, these four States have been granted additional borrowing permission of Rs.7,481 crore. State wise amount of the additional borrowing permitted is as under:

Objectives

• The State will notify (a) floor rates of property tax in ULBs which are in consonance with the prevailing circle rates (i.e. guideline rates for property transactions) and (b) floor rates of user charges in respect of the provision of water-supply, drainage and sewerage which reflect current costs/ past inflation.
• The State will put in place a system of periodic increase in floor rates of property tax/ user charges in line with price increases.

So far 10 States have implemented the One Nation One Ration Card System, 7 States have done ease of doing business reforms, and 4 States have done local body reforms.

 Total additional borrowing permission issued so far to the States who have done the refoms stands at Rs.­­­54,265 crore.

13th India-Vietnam Defence Security Dialogue.

Source: PIB INDIA

News

• Indian Defence Secretary, co-chaired the 13th India-Vietnam Defence Security Dialogue along with his Vietnamese co-chair Sr Lt Gen Nguyen Chi Vinh, Deputy Defence Minister, Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Defence cooperation

• During their virtual interaction, Defence Secretary and the Deputy Defence Minister expressed satisfaction at the ongoing defence cooperation between the two countries in spite of the limitations imposed by COVID 19.
• During the virtual interaction, Defence Secretary and the Deputy Defence Minister exchanged views on the plan of action that has emanated from the recently concluded Virtual Summit between Indian Prime Minister  and Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam H.E. Nguyen Xuan Phuc .
• New areas of defence cooperation were also discussed. 
• Both the sides reviewed the progress on various bilateral defence cooperation initiatives and expressed commitment to further elevate engagements between the Armed Forces under the framework of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
• Both sides agreed that in the recent past our respective countries have made notable strides in Defence Industry and Technology cooperation and look forward to even greater cooperation in this field.

India-Bangladesh Police Chiefs’ Dialogue.

Source: PIB INDIA

News

• The first Delegation-Level virtual Police Chiefs’ Dialogue between the Police chiefs of India and Bangladesh was held in an environment of positivity and trust. 

Strengthen relationship

• While discussing ongoing bilateral cooperation, issues of mutual concern and the way forward, it was decided to further strengthen the relationship of the Police forces of the two countries. 
• As a step toward that, designated ‘nodal points’ would be established for timely and effective handling and response to existing as well as emerging security and counter-terrorism challenges. 
• Both sides agreed to enhance their work jointly against terrorist entities including the Global Terrorist Groups, as well as other fugitives, wherever they are present and active. 
• Both sides reiterated the need for sharing of real time intelligence and feedback through the designated ‘nodal points’, while appreciating each other’s ongoing action against insurgent groups operating in the region.
• The scope of enhanced coordination to combat trans-border criminal activities, including smuggling of drugs, Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN), arms and ammunition and human trafficking was also discussed.
• Both sides however emphasized the importance of this new high level mechanism, as the dialogue concluded with assurances of greater cooperation on both the sides to address all security challenges in future.

Supreme Court sets up panel to end farm law protests.

Source: Indian Express

News

• In a bid to end the ongoing impasse over the new farm laws, the Supreme Court suspended the implementation of the three farm laws until further notice, and also decided to set up a committee comprising experts to hear the parties and understand the ground situation.
• All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee in a statement expressed apprehension over some of the members chosen in the committee.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Ultra-high mobility electron gas can increase information transfer speed &data storage density in quantum devices.

Source: PIB INDIA

News

• Scientists have produced electron gas with ultra-high mobility, which can speed up transfer of quantum information and signal from one part of a device to another and increase data storage and memory.

New functionalities

• The need for attaining new functionalities in modern electronic devices has led to the manipulation of property of an electron called spin degree of freedom along with its charge.
• This has given rise to an altogether new field of spin-electronics or ‘spintronics’. It has been realized that a phenomenon called the ‘Rashba effect’, which consists of splitting of spin-bands in an electronic system, might play a key role in spintronic devices.
• Scientists, have produced an ultra-high mobility 2d-electron gas(2DEG) at the interface of two insulating oxide layers.
• Due to the high mobility of the electron gas, electrons do not collide inside the medium for a long distance and hence do not lose the memory and information. Hence, such a system can easily remember and transfer its memory for a long time and distance.
• In addition, since they collide less during their flow, their resistance is very low, and hence they don’t dissipate energy as heat. So, such devices do not heat up easily and need less input energy to operate. 
• Realization of large Rashba-effect at such oxide interfaces containing highly mobile electron gas may open up a new field of device physics, especially in the field of quantum technology applicable for next-generation data storage media and quantum computers.

Maritime security, coastal defence exercise begins.

Source: Indian Express

News

• The Navy will coordinate the second edition of the coastal defence exercise on January 12 and 13. It will be undertaken along the entire coastline and Exclusive Economic Zone of India.

Sea Vigil 2021

• The Navy said Sea Vigil 2021, a biennial exercise that began in January 2019, “will be undertaken along the entire 7516 km coastline and Exclusive Economic Zone of India and will involve all the 13 coastal States and Union Territories along with other maritime stakeholders, including the fishing and coastal communities”.
• The Navy said in a statement that the scale and conceptual expanse of the exercise is unprecedented in terms of the geographical extent, the number of stakeholders involved, the number of units participating and in terms of the objectives to be met.
• The exercise, is a build up towards the major Theatre-level exercise TROPEX (Theatre-level Readiness Operational Exercise) conducted by the Navy every two years.
• Sea Vigil and TROPEX together will cover the entire spectrum of maritime security challenges, including transition from peace to conflict, assets of the Indian Navy, Coast Guard, Customs and other maritime agencies will participate in Sea Vigil, and its conduct is also being facilitated by the Ministries of Defence, Home Affairs, Shipping, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Fisheries, Customs, State Governments and other agencies of Centre/ State.
• The Navy stated that while “smaller scale exercises are conducted in coastal states regularly, including combined exercises amongst adjoining states, the conduct of a security exercise at national-level is aimed to serve a larger purpose” as it “provides opportunity, at the apex level, to assess our preparedness in the domain of maritime security and coastal defence”.
• It said Sea Vigil 21 “will provide a realistic assessment of our strengths and weaknesses and thus will help in further strengthening maritime and national security”.

Apart from the Navy, the Indian Air Force, Coast Guard, National Security Guard, the Border Security Force, oil handling agencies and airports will participate in the exercise.

Survey: Tirthan sanctuary, Great Himalayan National Park best performers among protected areas.

Source: Indian Express

News

• Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Javadekar released Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE) of 146 national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in the country.

MEE of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries

• India has a network of 903 Protected Areas covering about 5 per cent of its total geographic area of the country.
• According to the survey, Tirthan Wildlife Sanctuary and Great Himalayan National Park in Himachal Pradesh have performed the best among the surveyed protected areas.
• The Turtle Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh was the worst performer in the survey.
• 70% of the global tiger population, 70% of Asiatic lions and more than 60% of leopard population in India is a certificate of India’s thriving biodiversity as these big cats sit at the top of food chain and their growing numbers shows the well-being of the whole ecosystem.
• This year onwards, 10 best nationalparks, five coastal and marine parks and top five zoos in the country will be ranked and awarded every year.
• Management Effectiveness Evaluation of Protected Areas has emerged as a key tool that is increasingly being used by governments and international bodies to understand strengths and weaknesses of the protected area management systems.
• India has systematically designated its Protected Areas in four legal categories — National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries, Conservation Reserves and Community Reserves under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

Under this Act, India has 903 formally designated Protected Areas with a total coverage 1,65,012.6 square km. Among these are 101 National Parks, 553 Wildlife Sanctuaries, 86 Conservation Reserves and 163 Community Reserves.

For the survey, 146 National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries across 29 states and Union territories were evaluated.