DAILY DIGEST for 31-01-2020 - USEFUL FOR ALL COMPETITIVE EXAMS

Namaste dear student

Happy to bring to you DAILY DIGEST. Read, digest, click, learn, succeed :)

 

PARTS -

(1) Daily Current Affairs + MCQ quiz to solve,

(2) TAP preparation videos playlists,

(3) VARTALAP Forum for answer-writing,

(4) CA with PT - 365 content

(5) Courses and solutions for you.

 

* * * * *

PART 1 - Daily Current Affairs + MCQ quiz to solve

 

SECTION 1 - TEN NEWS HEADLINES

1. Coronavirus Outbreak Updates – India reported its first positive case of the novel coronavirus (nCoV) from Kerala with a girl student, who was studying in Wuhan University and had travelled to India, testing positive for the virus. The government has announced that all persons who have come from China after January 15, will be tested for the virus as it has an incubation period of 14 days.India till date has screened 234 flights and 43,346 passengers. Worldwide we have a total of 7,711 confirmed cases and 170 deaths.Thrissur in Kerala has been put on high alert.
2. Anti-CAA protest comes under attack –A Jamia Millia Islamia student was shot at and injured by a young man, who shouted “kisko chahiye aazadi, mai doonga aazadi” (whoever wants freedom, I shall give freedom) before firing his handgun at an anti-CAA protest. The victim, who received a bullet injury in the arm and has been admitted to the AIIMS trauma centre for treatment, was identified as Shadab Farooq, a mass communication student. The shooter, whose identity and pictures brandishing a country-made handgun went viral on social media during the day, claimed he was a juvenile.
3. Kalakshetra cancelled permission for event – Kalakshetra Foundation withdrew the permission it had given to hold the book release function for T.M. Krishna’s Sebastian & Sons: A Brief History of Mrdangam Makers on its premises. The Foundation’s Director, Revathi Ramachandran, said that the institution was an autonomous body under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. Being a government organisation, it cannot allow any program that may instigate political, cultural and social disharmony. The decision was taken after a book review that had appeared contained certain statements related to the book that touched on controversial issues and had a lot of political overtones.
4. Apex court permits transport of minerals in Goa for 6 months – The Supreme Court clarified that its 2018 ban on mining operations in Goa does not bar private mining companies from transporting out whatever minerals they had extracted before the cut-off date of March 15, 2018. A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde gave the companies a six-month window to transport the minerals for which they had paid royalty.This litigation stems from a February 7, 2018 apex court judgment pronounced by a Bench led by Justice (now retired) Madan B. Lokur. It quashed all 88 mining leases renewed by the BJP government in Goa in 2015 to benefit private mining lease holders.
5. Plants violating ecological flow requirements – Over a year after the government made it mandatory for hydropower projects on the upper reaches of the river Ganga’s tributaries to release minimum quantities of water through the year, according to a report by Central Water Commission (CWC), 4 of the 11 projects are flouting norms. The ecological flow, or e-flow notification as it is called, specifies that the upper stretches of the Ganga — from its origins in the glaciers and until Haridwar — would have to maintain: 20% of the monthly average flow of the preceding 10-days between November and March, which is the dry season; 25% of the average during the ‘lean season’ of October, April and May; and 30% of monthly average during the monsoon months of June-September.
6. UK will become the first nation ever to leave EU – Jan 31, 2020 will mark a truly historic moment, as UK will officially leave EU. Britain and the EU fought tooth and nail for the best part of four years — with insults flying across the English Channel — over the terms of their divorce. Now, on the eve of one of the most significant events in EU history, the political eruptions have ceased and an uneasy quiet reigns — the calm before the next storm.
7. Trump impeachment resumed – President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial resumed for a second day of questioning by U.S. Senators before they address the explosive issue of whether to call witnesses such as former National Security Adviser John Bolton. Without witnesses, Republicans, who control the Senate, say the trial could end as early as Friday with Mr. Trump’s acquittal, which would leave him in office and allow him to claim vindication just as the Democratic Party holds its first nominating contest for the November 3 election in Iowa. Mr. Trump will hold a rally in the State on Thursday night.
8. Number of terror attacks dropped in Pakistan – Terror attacks in Pakistan plummeted by more than 85% over the past decade. It’s a welcome statistic for the country, but one that risks being overshadowed by international concern over its efforts to curb terror funding and lingering militant activity that could test any future peace agreement in neighbouring Afghanistan. The tally, put together by Pakistani think tanks, found terror attacks dropped from nearly 2,000 in 2009 to fewer than 250 in 2019, a steady decline that underscores the long-haul nature of fighting terror.
9. More time to Kotak to reduce promoter shareholding – The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has granted more time to Kotak Mahindra Bank to reduce promoter shareholding in the bank while capping promoter voting rights. At present, the promoter shareholding is 29.96%. The voting rights of the promoter will be capped at 15% from April 1, 2020 and the bank will get at least six months to reduce promoter stake to 26%. There is no compulsion for the bank to reduce promoter stake to 15%, as originally envisaged..
10. BS-VI costs: Oil cos to raise rates by Re. 1 at one go in April – State-run fuel retailers will raise fuel prices by 50 paise to Re 1 per litre in a go from April to recover investments made for producing Bharat Stage-VI (BSVI, akin to Euro-VI standard) petrol and diesel.Pump prices are linked to petrol and diesel rates in regional trasading hubs — Singapore and Dubai — as well as the rupee-dollar exchange rate. Since international benchmark prices for BS-VI equivalent fuels are higher, domestic rates will also have to rise.Crude prices are in the comfort zone and product prices are expected to face deflationary pressure as coronavirus casts a shadow over trade. India is set to leapfrog from BS-IV to BS-VI standard, which has nearly the same — or better in some regards — emission level as a CNG vehicle, from April 1.

SECTION 2 - DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

1. CONSTITUTION AND LAW (Prelims, GS Paper 2, Essay paper)

 

1.1 Anticipatory bail can be given till completion of trial – Supreme Court

• Context –A Constitution bench of Supreme Court held that anticipatory bail should not be limited by time under ordinary circumstances. The bench also discussed in the judgement the impact of recovery under Section 27 of Indian Evidence Act on the bail granted and concluded that an accused released on anticipatory bail need not surrender and seek regular bail for recovery under Section 27 of Evidence Act.
• Background – In this regard, the bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra, Indira Banerjee, Vineet Saran, M. R. Shah and Ravindra Bhat in the case Sushila Aggarwal and Ravindra Bhat in the case Sushila Aggarwal and others v State of NCT of Delhi and others largely re-affirmed the principles laid down in the case Shri Shri Gurbaksh Singh Sibbia and others v. State of Punjab (1980).
• The Sibbia judgment – 

1. Sibia jugement means Gurbaksh Singh Sibbia Etc vs State Of Punjab case on 9 April, 1980.
2. The Sibbia judgment, also by a five-judge bench, was considering the correctness of a judgment of Punjab and Haryana High Court which had restricted the scope of grant of anticipatory bail. The High Court, among other things, had held that in cases wherever a reasonable cause to secure incriminating material in terms of Section 27 of the Evidence Act could be made out, anticipatory bail should not be granted.
3. In Sibbia judgement, the SC disapproved the imposition of such a blanket restriction. The Court in that case held that while granting bail, the Court can impose a condition that in the event of a possibility of Section 27 recovery, the accused will be liable to be taken into custody. It was also added that the benefit of Section 27 can be claimed even in respect of "limited custody" or "deemed custody".
4. Deemed Custody – In State of U.P. v Deoman Upadhyaya, the Court had discussed a concept of "deemed custody" for the purpose of Section 27.
5. Conclusion - From these two judgments, the Constitution Bench in Sushila Aggarwal held that the "limited custody" or “deemed custody", which the police has over the accused released on anticipatory bail when he appears before the investigating officer as per the bail conditions, would satisfy the requirements of Section 27 of the Evidence Act.

 

2. ECONOMY (Prelims, GS Paper 3, Essay paper

 

2.1 Assam topped in budgetary practices: Transparency International
 

• Assam has emerged as the top state in terms of best practices followed in budget formulation, followed by Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, says a survey by Transparency International.
• The survey was based on FOUR parameters - public disclosure, budgetary process, post budget fiscal management and efforts to make budget more transparent and citizen friendly.
• The states which figured lower in the ranking were Goa, Maharashtra and Punjab.
• Transparency International is an international non-governmental organization.
• It was founded in 1993 based in Berlin, Germany.
• Its purpose is to take action to combat corruption and prevent criminal activities arising from corruption.
• It publishes various reports such as the Global Corruption Barometer and the Corruption Perceptions Index.

2.2 Public Sector Banks appointments–

SANJIV CHADHA - MD and CEO in Bank of Baroda,  

 

LINGAM VENKATA PRABHAKAR -MD and CEO in Canara Bank,

ATANU KUMAR DAS: MD and CEO in Bank of India

 

2.3 RESERVE BANK OF INDIA appointed its Executive Director JANAK RAJ as member of the six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).

 

3. ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY (Prelims, GS Paper 3, Essay paper)

 

3.1 Natural disasters cost $232 bn in 2019
 

• The global economy suffered a loss of $232 billion (Rs 16.5 lakh crore) due to natural disasters in 2019.
• The year was eighth-costliest in terms of weather-related disasters, adjusting for inflation.
• Weather-related disasters – 

1. Weather-related disasters, or events caused by atmospheric-driven scenarios, caused most of the damage at $229 billion — 17 per cent above the 21st century average.
2. Typhoons, floods and hurricanes proved to be the costliest.
3. The total count of natural disasters increased to 409 in 2019 from 394 a year ago.
4. Typhoons in Japan and monsoon floods in China hit the hardest, causing losses of $30 billion and $15 billion respectively. Typhoon Hagibis and Typhoon Faxai were the costliest.
5. Floods caused five of the top 10 costliest disasters: Spring and summer flooding in the United States; separate seasonal monsoon floods in China and India; and a major flood in Iran. Together, they accounted for more than $53 billion in direct economic impacts.

• In India –

1. June-October monsoon floods caused a loss of $10 billion to be the seventh- costliest. They also led to the death of 1,750 people — the most among all natural disasters last year.
2. Cyclone Fani, which affected Odisha in India and Bangladesh, was the tenth-most costly natural disaster in the world, according to the report.
3. Tropical cyclones have been the costliest natural catastrophe in the world in the last two decades.
4. In 2018, 2017, 2012, 2005 and 2004 cyclones accounted for nearly $909 billion of a total $1.43 trillion lost due to disasters.
5. The year ended the costliest decade until now in terms of such disasters, with a loss of $2.98 trillion.
6. It was at $1.1 trillion higher than in 2000-2009.

• The Asia-Pacific region — affected by earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and cyclones — accounted for $1.3 trillion. That’s 44 per cent of the total loss.
• Predictions for next year -India will be among the worst-hit by floods and heat waves due to changing climatic conditions. This will eat into the country’s gross domestic product too.

 

4. FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Prelims, GS Paper 2, Essay paper)

 

4.1 India opened its first Mahatma Gandhi Convention Centre in West African nation Niger at capital Niamey

• India inaugurated first ever convention made by it in Africa - the Mahatma Gandhi International Convention Centre (MGICC) in Western African state of Niger as part of its outreach to the continent.
• MGICC was jointly inaugurated by President of Niger MahamadouIssoufou with EAM of India S. Jaishankaron 21 January.  
• The Centre honours the memory of Mahatma Gandhi whose 150th birth anniversary was observed in 2019.
• The total cost of the project is US $ 56 million, with a grant assistance of US $ 35.48 million being provided by India and the rest US $ 20.52 million funded by the Niger government.
• The fourth edition of the India-Africa summit will be held in Delhi later this year.
• India and Niger relations have expanded significantly in the recent years. India has provided Lines of Credit worth $96.54 million to Niger for projects in transport, electrification, solar energy and potable drinking water. 
• Several hundreds of officials from Niger have utilized India’s capacity building training programmes under ITEC programme. 
• India has also extended $15 million grant assistance to Niger in support of organizing the African Union (AU) summit held in Niamey on 7-8 July 2019.

5. GOVERNMENT SCHEMES (Prelims, GS Paper 2, GS Paper 3)

5.1 Not Available Today

 

6. MISCELLANEOUS (Prelims, Various GS Papers)

 

6.1  Defence  –Weekly Round up

• Upgraded Sharang Artillery Guns to be inducted into Army - Gun Carriage Factory, Jabalpur (MP)
• Assam Rifles built War Memorial in Nagaland for 357 personnel martyred in anti-insurgency operations.
• Indian Coast Guardcommissioned new INTERCEPTOR BOAT C-448 at New Mangalore Port. Boat is built by L&T Shipyard.

 

7. POLITY (Prelims, GS Paper 2)

 

7.1 Saina Nehwal joined Bhartiya Janta Party along with her sister Chandranshu Nehwal

• Nehwalmay be fielded in the upcoming Delhi elections owing to her status as ÿouth icon.
• Nehwal made her entry into politics, but her aim for the near future remains the same—to move into the top 16 in the Race to Tokyo rankings by April 28 to qualify for her fourth consecutive Olympics.
• Nehwal is currently 22nd in the rankings.
• Otherwise P. V.Sindhu, ranked No. 6, in all likelihood will be only representative from India in women’s singles at Tokyo.
• P. V. Sindhu recently became the youngest Padma Bhushan awardee at the age of 24.
• Other sportspersons who joined politics – Navjot Singh Siddhu, Gautam Gambhir, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Mohammad Azharuddin, Nafisa Ali, Kirti Azad etc.

8. SOCIAL ISSUES (Prelims, GS Paper 1, GS Paper 2)

 

8.1 Chandauli of Uttar Pradesh topped list of 112 aspirational districts ranked by NITI Aayog

• Context - Chandauli district in Uttar Pradesh has topped the list of aspirational districts ranked by the government think tank NitiAayog in December 2019.Belangir (Odisha) and YSR (Andhra Pradesh) have been placed at the second and third positions, respectively.
• Process –  

1. The delta rankings took into account incremental progress made by over 112 aspirational districts across six developmental areas in December 2019.
2. Health and nutrition, education, agriculture and water resources, financial inclusion, skill development and basic infrastructure were the development areas that were taken into consideration for the ranking.
3. Background - Aspirational districts programme, launched in January 2018, aims to transform districts that have shown relatively lesser progress in key social areas and have emerged as pockets of under-development.The ranking of aspirational districts is done every month.
4. About NITI Aayog – Formed –January 1, 2015. Headquarters – New Delhi. Chairperson –Narendra Modi. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) – Amitabh Kant. Vice Chairperson– Rajiv Kumar.

 

9. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (Prelims, GS Paper 3)

 

9.1 NASA spacecraft passes by Nightingale
 

• OSIRIS-REx mission of NASA to bring an asteroid sample to Earth has successfully executed a 620-metre flyover of the site designated "Nightingale".
• Nightingale, OSIRIS-REx's primary sample collection site, is located within a crater high in asteroid Bennu's northern hemisphere.  
• To perform the pass the spacecraft left its 1.2-km safe home orbit and flew an almost 11-hour transit over the asteroid, aiming its science instruments toward the 16-m wide sample site before returning to orbit.
• Science observations from this flyover are the closest taken of a sample site to date.
• The primary goal of the Nightingale flyover was to collect the high-resolution imagery required to complete the spacecraft's Natural Feature Tracking image catalogue, which will document the sample collection site's surface features - such as boulders and craters.

10. FACTS, CHARTS, RANKINGS and EDITORIALS (Prelims + GS Mains)

 

10.1  Ranking – Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI), 2020

• India was ranked 72nd (up 8 places) in 2020 Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI)
• Switzerland topped the list of 132 countries, followed by the US and Singapore.
• Launched by INSEAD, GTCI ranks countries on the basis of their ability to grow, attract and retain talent.
  
  Download pdf of the report from here –
   
   https://gtcistudy.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/GTCI-2020-Report.pdf

10.2 Daily dose of FIVE Facts -

1. The Supreme Court in Nov 2019 paved the way for Arcelor Mittal to take over Essar Steel.
2. Silver Jubilee Celebrations of the Indian Women Press Corps were held in New Delhi in Nov. 2019.
3. The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People was observed on November 29.
4. Nand Kishore Singh is the Chairman of 15th Finance Commission.
5. Magnus Carlsen won the Tata Steel Chess rapid and blitz title in Kolkata on Nov 2019.

10.3 Today’s best editorials to read 

• We offer you 7 excellent editorials from across 10 newspapers we have scanned. 

Content Source: PTeducation.com