Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 02 June 2019

::NATIONAL::

VP urges nation to move towards progressive thinking

• Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu has underlined the need for writers and litterateurs to promote progressive and positive thinking among the people even while holding a mirror to the happenings in society.

• He was speaking at an event organised to mark the death anniversary of noted social reformer KandukuriVeeresalingam at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh yesterday.

• Vice President said that Veeresalingam was popularly known as Raja Ram Mohan Roy of Andhra and he was a strong advocate of widow remarriage, opposed the dowry and caste system as also child marriage and batted for empowering women through education.

• Vice President said writers, authors, columnists can change the mindset of the people through their progressive writing and can help remove disparities and evils in society.

• Stressing the need for protecting and preserving native languages, Mr Naidu urged intellectuals, educationists and journalists to strive towards promoting progressive thinking and bringing about an attitudinal change among the people to eliminate social evils.

Ex-EC denies possibility of manipulation EVM-VVPAT system

• Former Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi has said that there is no possibility of manipulating the EVM-VVPAT system. He however said that the Election Commission should explain to the opposition and the people by clearing doubts about it.

• In the recent LokSabha elections, the opposition had alleged that Electronic Voting Machines and VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Trail Machines) were being manipulated. The EC had refuted the allegations.

• Talking to PTI in Bengaluru today, Quraishi said People's trust has to be maintained and won. He said EVMs cannot be tampered because there are many checks and balances. He said, after the introduction of VVPATs any possibility of any tampering should completely disappear.

• On the opposition demand to go back to the ballot paper voting system, Quraishi said, rather than doing away with the EVMs, one should look at improving these machines.

::ECONOMY::

GST collection crosses 1lakh crore for the third time

• Even after slowdown in industrial activity, the Government managed to collect more than ₹1 lakh crore plus in May. This is third consecutive month of ₹1 lakh crore plus mobilization. However, collection in May was lower than all-time high of April.

• The growth in revenue collection has come at a time when industrial production has slowed down. Growth rate in Core sector (comprising of eight industrial sectors, steel, coal, electricity, cement, Refinery production, crude oil, natural gas and fertiliser) dropped to 2.6 per cent in April.

• These eight sectors together comprise of over 40 per cent in Index of Industrial Production (IIP), which reflects performance of overall industry. April figure for IIP to be released on June 12 while it turned negative in March.

• The revenue in May, 2018 was ₹ 94,016 crore and the revenue during May, 2019 is a growth of 6.67 per cent over the revenue in the same month last year. The revenue in May 2019 is 2.21 per cent higher than the monthly average of GST revenue in FY 2018-19 (₹ 98,114 crore).

• An amount of ₹ 18,934 crore has been released to the states as GST compensation for the months of February-March, 2019.

HRD ministry gives clarification on new draft policy

• The Centre has clarified that it has not taken any decision on the three-language system as suggested in the draft New Education Policy (NEP) prepared by a panel headed by eminent scientist K Kasturirangan.

• In a statement issued yesterday, Human Resource Development Ministry said, this is a draft policy submitted by the committee and is placed for the views of the general public. The HRD ministry said, the final decision will be taken after consulting state governments and getting feedback from the public.

• Union HRD Minister Ramesh PokhriyalNishank also clarified that it is just a recommendation and not a government policy. He said Prime Minister NarendraModi has already said that no particular language will be imposed on any region.

• Mr Nishank said it is just a draft and government will be collecting information from various states and then it will have further discussions.

• Information and Broadcasting Minister PrakashJavadekar also said that Modi government has always promoted all Indian languages and there is no intention of imposing any language on anybody.

• The committee led by former ISRO Chief K Kasturirangan submitted the draft education policy to the HRD Minister on Friday.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Trump urges for no deal Brexit for Britain

• US President Donald Trump has said that Britain should go for a no-deal Brexit with the EU and refuse to pay the agreed 39 billion pounds (45 billion euros, USD 50 billion) divorce bill.

• In an interview with the Sunday Times on the eve of his visit to London, Mr Trump urged Britain's government to follow his rule book in negotiating deals when it came to Brexit.

• The comments came after US President used another newspaper interview to declare that former foreign minister Boris Johnson would make an excellent prime minister to take over from Theresa May.

• Theresa May is to resign on 7th June after failing to get her EU divorce text through parliament.

• Mr Trump is to embark on a three-day state visit to Britain from tomorrow, during which he will meet Queen Elizabeth II and have talks with Ms May.

Tanzania becomes yet another African nation banning plastic bags

• A plastic bag ban comes into force in Tanzania as Africa leads efforts to stem the tide of plastic pollution. Tanzania is banning the importation, production, sale and use of plastic bags.

• It becomes the 34th African country to implement such restrictions, according to the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).

• Tanzania, known for wildlife tourism, has also issued a notice to travellers that they will have to "surrender" plastic bags in their possession before entering the country.

• Globally, 127 countries have some sort of plastic bag legislation. 91 of these include a ban or restriction on manufacturing, importation and retail distribution, according to the UNEP.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

AYUSH ministry launches app to expand coverage of events

• AYUSH Ministry has launched a mobile application to enable people to locate yoga events and centres providing training and instructors.

• The mobile app was launched ahead of International Yoga Day on June 21. According to a senior official of the AYUSH ministry, yoga locator is a map-based location app which will also enable yoga instructors to register themselves and reach out to a large number of people.

• The official said that yoga locator app will help people to locate yoga centres as well as yoga instructors within the preferred radius of their vicinity.

• It will be a permanent app which will give information to people about yoga activities happening in their vicinity throughout the year.

::SPORTS::

India expresses interest in hosting Asian cup football

• India is one of the three countries which have expressed interest to host the Asian Football Confederation, AFC's Asian Cup football tournament for Women to be held in 2022.

• The AFC said, Chinese Taipei and Uzbekistan are the other countries in contention to host Asia's premier women's competition.

• The three countries will now be invited to nominate their proposed venues for the tournament, with the host expected to be announced by the second quarter of 2020. If India gets the right to host the event, it will be their second time after 1980 in Kozhikode.

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