Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 01 October 2020

::NATIONAL::

Ambedkar Social Innovation and Incubation Mission for scheduled castes

Social Justice and Empowerment Minister ThaawarchandGehlot today launched the Ambedkar Social Innovation and Incubation Mission under Venture Capital Fund for SCs, with a view to promoting innovation and enterprise among SC students studying in higher educational institutions.
Addressing the occasion, Mr Gehlot said that the Ministry had launched the Venture Capital Fund for SCs in 2014-15 with a view to developing entrepreneurship amongst the SC and Divyang youth and to enable them to become job-givers.
The objective of this fund is to provide concessional finance to the entities of the SC entrepreneurs. Under this fund, 117 companies promoted by SC entrepreneurs have been sanctioned financial assistance to set up business ventures.
The Minister said, under Ambedkar Social Innovation Incubation Mission initiative, one thousand SC youth will be identified in the next four years with start-up ideas through the Technology Business Incubators in various higher educational institutions.
They will be funded 30 lakh rupees in three years as equity funding to translate their start-up ideas into commercial ventures. Successful ventures would further qualify for venture funding of up to five Crore rupees from the Venture Capital Fund for SCs.

NSO report finds Indians spending half a day on self-care and maintenance

The average Indian spends half their day on self-care and maintenance, and around 11% of the time daily in employment and related activities. These are the findings of the Time Use Survey that was conducted in the country from January-December 2019 to measure the participation rate and time spent on paid activities, care activities and unpaid activities.
As per survey findings released Tuesday, Indians spent 50.4% or 726 minutes of their time daily on self-care and maintenance. Rural males spent an average 51.2% of their total time on these activities.
Both rural and urban males spent around 7% of their time on learning that includes self-study for distance education course work (video, audio, online) while rural females allocated 5.7% and urban females spent 6.1% of their average daily time on learning.

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::ECONOMY::

Fiscal deficit soars to 109% of budget target

India’s fiscal deficit soared to 109% of the Budget target in just the first five months of the year, with revenues remaining muted. However, the Centre stuck to its ₹12 lakh crore borrowing plan for the year with the Finance Ministry exuding confidence that it would manage to meet its expenditure commitments within this plan.
The Centre had already enhanced its borrowing target for the year by ₹4.2 lakh crore to ₹12 lakh crore in May this year as the initial adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the national lockdown became apparent.
Revenue collections were largely to blame for the fiscal deficit hitting ₹8.70 lakh crore compared to the target of ₹7.96 lakh crore, as tax revenue declined across the board. Rating agencies expect the fiscal deficit slippage to be much higher by the end of the year.
AditiNayar, principal economist at ICRA, reckoned that the deficit will rise to ₹14 lakh crore and the Centre would have to scale up its borrowings by at least ₹1.1 lakh crore, even if no further fiscal support measures were announced.
Care Ratings chief economist MadanSabnavis agreed that fiscal slippage would be quite wide. “We expect central government deficit to be in the region of 9% this year. This is notwithstanding the fact that there may be no new stimulus involving additional expenditure,” he said.

Core sectors shrink for sixth consecutive month

India’s eight core industrial sectors contracted by 8.5% in August compared to August 2019, marking the sixth month in a row of shrinking output.
The decline in August was sharper than the 8% decline in July as per revised data released by the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, with coal and fertilizers being the only two sectors registering growth of 3.6% and 7.3% year-on-year, respectively.
The sharpest decline on a year-on-year basis in August was registered in refinery products (19.1%), followed by cement (14.6%) and natural gas (9.5%). For the five months from April to August, the core sectors, which account for a little over 40% of the Index of Industrial Production, shrank 17.8%.
Earlier, the sectors’ July output was estimated to have shrunk 9.6%. The government has also revised the numbers for core sector performance in May, stating that output shrank 21.4% that month instead of the 23.4% reported earlier.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

India-China agree on five point agreement for disengagement at LAC

India and China have agreed to sincerely implement the agreement between the Foreign Ministers of the two countries in order to ensure disengagement at all the friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
The 19th meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) which was held today in virtual mode and was attended by delegation from both the sides reviewed the current situation along the LAC in the India-China border areas.
During the meeting both India and China positively evaluated the outcome of the 6th Senior Commanders meeting held on 21st of this month and emphasized the need to implement the steps outlined so as to avoid misunderstandings and to maintain stability on the ground.
In the same context, the need to strengthen communication, especially between the ground commanders, was also emphasized by both sides.
Both the sides agreed to continue to maintain close consultations at the diplomatic and military level. It was also agreed that the next round of the meeting of Senior Commanders will be held at an early date so that both sides can work towards early and complete disengagement of the troops along the LAC in accordance with the existing bilateral agreement and protocols, and fully restore peace and tranquility.

Japanese defence ministry seeks record budget for 2021

Japan's Defence Ministry is seeking a record-high budget of nearly 5.5 trillion yen ($55 billion) for fiscal 2021. The move is to fund more purchases of costly American stealth fighters and expand its capability to counter possible threats in both cyber and outer space.
The budget request made public today is the first under new Prime Minister YoshihideSuga. It would be an eight per cent increase from the current year, signalling a continuation of his predecessor Shinzo Abe's security policy. Japan's defence spending has risen for eight consecutive years since 2013, a year after Mr Abe took office.
The rise in spending came as Mr Abe pushed for Japan's Self-Defence Force to expand its international role and capability amid threats from North Korea and China.
Japan also faced demands from US President Donald Trump that US allies increase defense spending, which Japan did in part with costly American weapons purchases that also bolster weapons compatibility with American forces.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

DRDO test fires Brahmos supersonic missile

India today successfully test-fired BrahMos supersonic cruise missile with several indigenous features. The test firing of the missile was carried out by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, DRDO from Balasore in Odisha.
BrahMos surface-to-surface supersonic cruise missile features indigenous Booster and Airframe Section along with many other ‘Made in India’ sub-systems.
Defence Ministry said, the BrahMos Land-Attack Cruise Missile was cruising at a top speed of Mach 2.8. It is one more major step in enhancing the indigenous content.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has congratulated all the personnel of DRDO and team BrahMos for the spectacular mission.
Mr Singh said, today’s successful launch has paved the way for the serial production of the indigenous booster and other indigenous components of the powerful BrahMos Weapon System realizing Atmanirbhar Bharat pledge.

::SPORTS::

AFI releases revised calendar

The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has scheduled the first-ever National Open Throws Championships on October 26 and 27 at Patiala, marking the resumption of its calendar for 2020.
The revised calendar includes the zonal junior National championships and the junior National at Ranchi. The first major competition as part of the Olympic qualification process will be the Indian GP at Thiruvananthapuram on Feb. 12, followed by two more the same month. The Federation Cup will be held from March 10 to 14.

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