Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 24 September 2019

::NATIONAL::

Home ministry urges to move towards digital census by 2021

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has mooted the idea of a multipurpose identity card for citizens with all utilities like Aadhaar, passport, driving licence and bank accounts.
Mr Shah said, there should be a system that all data should be put together in a single card and in this regard, the digital census is very important.
Laying the foundation stone for Janganana Bhawan at Mansingh Road in New Delhi today, the Home Minister said, the Government will complete the massive Census exercise in March 2021 and for the first time a National Population Register, NPR will be prepared. He said, NPR will help in addressing problems ranging from law and order to nutrition.
Mr Shah said, the census is the basis of development of the last man in the queue and lays the road map for the future of the country.
The Home Minister said, this time the government is going to spend around 12 thousand crore rupees on NPR and census which is the highest among all the census conducted so far.
He said, a mobile App will be used in Census 2021 and it will be a transformation from paper census to digital census. Mr Shah said, it will be the 16th census from 1865 when the exercise was conducted for the first time. After independence, it will be the 8th one.

Supreme court demands least interference in judicial appointments and transfers

The Supreme Court on Monday issued a general reprimand against “interference” in judicial appointments and transfers, saying such intrusions did not “augur well” for the institution.
Chief Justice Gogoi recorded in an order that matters of judicial appointments, transfers, etc, go to the “root of the administration of justice”. Judicial review was severely restricted, the order said.
The Supreme Court Collegium has come under intense public criticism with its September 5 recommendation to modify its May 10, 2019 proposal to transfer Justice Kureshi to the Madhya Pradesh High Court as Chief Justice and instead shift him to the Tripura High Court.
The Collegium had changed its mind after the government expressed its displeasure in two back-to-back letters on August 23 and 27, following several months of silence, about Justice Kureshi taking charge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
The lawyers’ petition questioned the prolonged delay shown by the government to take a call on the Collegium’s May 10 recommendation to appoint Justice Kureshi as the Madhya Pradesh High Court Chief Justice. However, the Collegium proposal now to shift him to Tripura made the petition largely infructuous.
The publication of the September 5 resolution on Justice Kureshi came in the weekend before the three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice Gogoi was scheduled to hear the Gujarat lawyers’ plea.
The lawyers’ association had been criticising in open court the unexplained delay from the government in taking a call on Justice Kureshi.

::ECONOMY::

Centre stresses upon energy audit

Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, MSME Nitin Gadkari has stressed on the need of power audit, especially for those who are not following standards of energy efficiency norms.
Mr Gadkari was addressing the National Conclave to scale up energy efficiency in MSME sector in New Delhi today. He said, reducing the transportation cost is the top priority of the government.
Mr Gadkari said, the transportation cost in China is 8 to 10 per cent, in Europe 12 per cent but in India it is between 16 and 18 per cent.
The Minister said, government is developing waterways to reduce transportation costs. He said that the government is also working to replace the conventional fuel used in the waterways with LNG, methanol, CNGs, electric and solar power.
Speaking on the occasion, Power and New Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh said that upcoming new power tariff policy recommends cross-subsidy is phased out by 20 per cent per year. He said that New Power tariff policy is waiting for cabinet approval.
It recommends subsidies to be provided through DBT and allow users to choose their own power company.

Experts claim biofuels set to boom passenger traffic by 2030

India has committed to fly 10 crore passengers on biofuel-propelled planes by 2030, SpiceJet’s chairman and managing director, Ajay Singh said at UN’s SDG Climate Summit in New York.
“While we flew just one flight out of the 1.5 lakh flown on biofuels so far, we have committed that by 2030, India will fly 100 million of its passengers, the same number of total passengers we flew in 2015, using safe fuels,” he said.
Last year, SpiceJet operated its first-ever flight propelled by a blend of jatropha seeds and aviation turbine fuel for a technological demonstration.
Mr. Singh also raised the issue of Pakistan imposing a five-month long restriction on the use of its airspace to seek the support of UN member-nations to prevent “whims and fancies” of a country causing such disruptions which lead to burning of more fuel as well as higher carbon emissions.
He emphasised on the need for all stakeholders, including refineries, passengers, airports and governments, to work together to turn India's commitment into reality.
He said there was a need to not only find new ways to burn less fossil fuels, but also to find an alternative to fuel-guzzling planes by pursuing the development of electric aircraft for flying needs of the future.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

PM addresses UNSG climate summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for a comprehensive approach which includes education to reduce carbon footprint.
Addressing the United Nations climate Action Summit in New York today, Prime Minister said that People’s movement is the need of the hour to tackle the climate issues. He said, More needs to be done to tackle climate change.
Putting India's position to the world, he said, Need not greed has been our guiding principle. In his brief and crisp address, Prime Minister mentioned that India is encouraging e- mobility for transportation.
India has started Jal Jeevan Mission and India is going to spend 15 billion dollars in the next few years. He informed the world leaders that on its independence day this August 15th, India has called for to ban single-use plastic.
In a short while from now, Prime Minister will attend a High-level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage and 'Leaders' Dialogue on Strategic Responses to Terrorist and Violent Extremist Narratives' at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

India-U.S calls for combined decisive fight against terrorism

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a clarion call for a decisive fight against terrorism and its proponents. Addressing the historic Howdy Mody event, attended by 50,000 Indian Americans at Houston last night, the Prime Minister said, time has come to wipe out the menace of terrorism. US President Donald Trump also joined him in a rare gesture of friendship.
Without naming any country, Mr. Modi said, whole world knows who is aiding and abetting terrorists and President Trump stands solidly in the battle against terrorism.
Mr Modi said, India's decision to nullify Article 370 has caused trouble to those who cannot handle their country.
Addressing the event, President Trump said, they are working to eradicate terrorism. Mr Trump praised Modi government's economic reforms and said these reforms have lifted nearly three hundred million people out of poverty.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

New initiative launched to tackle inherited genetic diseases

Science and Technology and Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan today launched ‘UMMID’ initiative to tackle inherited genetic diseases of newborn babies.
Speaking on the occasion in New Delhi, he said congenital and hereditary genetic diseases are becoming a significant health burden and there is a need for adequate and effective genetic testing and counselling services.
Dr Vardhan further emphasized on the use of cutting edge scientific technology and molecular medicine for extending Universal Health Coverage for all.
The Minister also inaugurated NIDAN (National Inherited Diseases Administration) Kendras.
The new initiative aims at creating awareness about genetic disorders amongst clinicians and establish molecular diagnostics in hospitals so that the benefits of developments in medical genetics could reach patients.

::SPORTS::

South Africa beat India to level series

In Cricket, South Africa beat India by nine wickets in the third and final T20 International in Bengaluru last night. Riding on skipper Quinton de Kock's unbeaten 79 off 52 balls, the Proteas managed to level the 3 match series 1-1.
Batting first at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, India made 134 for 9 on a batting-friendly track, with opener Shikhar Dhawan scoring 36.
The visitors achieved the target in 16.5 overs as De Kock and Reeza Hendricks added 76 for the opening stand.
The first T20 at Dharamsala was a washout on 15th of this month while India won the second match at Mohali by seven-wickets last Wednesday.