Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 02 August 2020

::NATIONAL::

ICCR organises International webinar on 'LokmanyaTilak - Swaraj to Self-reliant India'

Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated a two-day international webinar on the theme of 'LokmanyaTilak - Swaraj to Self-reliant India' organized by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations on the 100th death anniversary of the great freedom fighter LokmanyaBalGangadharTilak.
In his address, Mr Shah said that LokmanyaBalGangadharTilak played a key role in the making of the Indian Independence movement complete in letter and spirit.
The Home Minister said that the slogan of 'Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it' given by LokmanyaTilak, will always be written in golden letters in the history of the Indian Independence Movement.
Mr Shah said that this slogan may seem natural to utter in our times, but in the 19th century very few people could have dared of uttering it and sacrificing their life and working for it to make it turn into reality. Mr Shah further said that Tilak’s idea of India as a nation, Indian culture and Indian customs are equally relevant today.
Appealing to the youth, the Home Minister said that if one wants to know the glorious history of India and Indian culture, then BalGangadharTilak’s writings will have to be understood.

Plea in supreme court against contempt law

Senior journalists N. Ram and ArunShourie and advocate PrashantBhushan have jointly moved the Supreme Court against a law that allows criminal contempt action to be initiated on the “incurably vague” ground that a publication may tend to or even scandalise or lower the authority of a court of law.
They said the contempt law in question was unconstitutional, rooted in colonialism and produced a chilling effect on free speech and expression. Their petition, filed through advocate KaminiJaiswal, focuses on the legality of Section 2(c)(i) of the Contempt of Court Act.
The section holds that it amounts to criminal contempt if a person publishes, by words spoken or written or by any other act, anything “which scandalises or tends to scandalise or lowers or tends to lower the authority of any court”.
In back-to-back action, renewed hearings were also seen in another contempt case against the lawyer for his alleged remarks on the judiciary in an interview to Tehelka magazine. This case had been pending for eight years. The last hearing on it was in 2012.

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::ECONOMY::

MSME ministry approves employment generation program by KVIC

MSME Minister NitinGadkari has approved a unique employment generation program proposed by Khadi and Village Industries Commission, KVIC to make India AtmaNirbhar in Agarbatti production. The program named as KhadiAgarbattiAtmaNirbhar Mission aims at creating employment for unemployed and migrant workers in different parts of the country.
The pilot project will be launched soon and upon full-fledged implementation of the project, thousands of jobs will be created in the Agarbatti industry.
Under the scheme, KVIC will provide Automatic Agarbatti making machines and powder mixing machines to the artisans through the successful private Agarbatti manufacturers who will sign the agreement as business partners.
KVIC has decided to procure only locally made machines by Indian manufacturers which also aims at encouraging local production. KVIC will provide a 25 per cent subsidy on the cost of the machines and will recover the remaining 75 per cent of the cost from the artisans in easy installments every month.

Chinese bonds get record global inflows

Foreign investors made record net purchases of Chinese bonds traded through the country’s Bond Connect programme in July, boosted by record yield premiums over U.S. debt.
Net inflows into Chinese bonds through Bond Connect, which gives global investors access to the country’s onshore bond market through Hong Kong, totalled 75.5 billion yuan ($10.8 billion) in July, Bond Connect Co. said in a statement dated Friday.
Analysts say widening spreads reflect the differing approaches of the U.S. and Chinese central banks.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

EU calls for united efforts from members against China

European Union has called for a more united approach from its 27 member countries against an authoritarian China. In an interview to German media, EU’s High Representative for foreign and security policy, JosepBorrell said, China has become more aggressive in its neighbourhood, especially in the South China Sea or on the border with India.
He said, Chinese leaders did not hesitate to leave aside international commitments with the imposition of the Hong Kong National Security Law.
Borrell also called for a more coordinated approach among the EU, US and other democratic powers like India. He said, EU and US should be at the heart of this effort, but we should also be working closely with Japan, India, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and others.
Pondering steps to deal with China, Borell said, we can consider measures such as extending visas for Hong Kong citizens, restricting student exchanges with China, banning exports of tear gas.

UAE produces nuclear energy for the first time in Arab region

As the Barakah Nuclear Plant's 1st Unit got operational on Friday, UAE became the first country in the Arab World to produce nuclear energy.
The new plant is part of the UAE's graph to become less reliant on oil and gas, the current source of the vast majority of its energy. UAE is among the world's biggest fossil fuels producers.
Barakah plant situated in the Al Dhafrah region of Abu Dhabi started producing heat on Saturday, the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation said in a statement.
The plant, powered by South Korean technology , hopes to produce 5.6 gigawatts of electricity and supply up to 25% of the UAE's electricity needs, the corporation said.
President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan said this milestone, which comes a few days after the launch of the Hope Probe, confirms that UAE guided by Emirati cadres - is steadily progressing ahead with well-weighed plans towards building a robust knowledge base in all fields.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Central and South India fares well in Dhole conservation

Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh rank high in the conservation of the endangered dhole in India, according to a new study.
Scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society-India, the University of Florida, the Wildlife Conservation Trust, and the National Centre for Biological Sciences found that these three States were adequately equipped to maintain their high ranks in consolidating forest habitats and recover dhole populations by increasing prey density and reducing pressure on forests.
It also found that improving habitat conditions and prey densities in the Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha would “strengthen the link” between dhole populations in the Western Ghats and central India.
The paper titled ‘A strategic road map for conserving the endangered dhole Cuonalpinus in India’, was published recently in Mammal Review. Through the study, the scientists explored the conservation tenets of retention, recovery and restoration of dholes in India, said to be a global stronghold for the species, in the context of large carnivores facing high extinction risk.
As a country that perhaps supports the highest number of dholes in the world, we still do not have targeted management plans for scientific monitoring of the species.
Our study recognises taluks and States that need to be prioritised, and thereby offers a primer for designing a country-level plan to conserve their populations,” ArjunSrivathsa, lead author of the study, was quoted as saying in the release.

::SPORTS::

Sunil Chettri picked up as 2019 Asia cup’s favourite

Sunil Chhetri was on Saturday voted as the favourite player of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup by fans as he finished ahead of EldorShomurodov of Uzbekistan.
Chhetri beat Shomurodov 51-49 in the poll after trailing in the initial stages of voting.

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