Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 03 March 2020

::NATIONAL::

Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu today appealed to leaders of all parties and members to ensure better attendance in the meetings of Parliamentary's Committees.
He made the observation on an opening day today of the second part of Budget Session. He said, the first part of the Budget Session has largely been purposeful with 96 percent productivity along with quality discussions on the Motion of Thanks to the President's address and the Union Budget for 2020-21. Mr Naidu hoped that this part of the session would prove to be even more meaningful.
Mr Naidu told the members that this session offers several opportunities to raise important issues of larger public concern and discuss some major legislative proposals of the government.
Making comparison on the attendance, he said, the attendance of the Rajya Sabha members at 52.57 percent continues to be higher than that of Lok Sabha which is 46.37 percent.
On Department Related Standing Committees meetings, he reminded that out of 24 Committees, eight were with the Rajya Sabha and the remaining 16 with the Lok Sabha. He said, the highest attendance of 65.51 percent has been recorded in the meetings of the Committee on Health and Family Welfare.
Expressing his concern, the Chairman said, the sittings of Parliament are steadily declining over the years and it is around 60 to 70 sittings per year now as against 100 to 150 days per year in the 1950s.

The Election Commission has informed the Government that it is not in favour of state funding of elections, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur told the Lok Sabha in a written reply on Monday.
The commission is of the view that ..................

Comprehensive steps taken to curb fraud in public sector banks (PSBs) have resulted in a sharp decline in the amount involved, from 50,329 crore in 2013-14 to just 3,781 crore in the first three quarters of 2019-20, according to the Finance Ministry.
An online searchable database of frauds reported by banks, in the form of Central Fraud Registry, has been set up to enable timely identification, control and mitigation of fraud risk and for carrying out due diligence during the credit sanction process, the Ministry said in response to a question in the Lok Sabha.
The Fugitive Economic Offenders Act is being invoked to attach and confiscate the assets of violators and strip them of the entitlement to defend any civil claim.
The government has also asked these banks to strictly ensure rotational transfer of officials to mitigate the possibility of their involvement in any fraud. The bank heads have been empowered to issue requests for opening look-out circulars against suspects.
The government has also asked these banks to strictly ensure rotational transfer of officials to mitigate the possibility of their involvement in any fraud. The bank heads have been empowered to issue requests for opening look-out circulars against suspects.

Global agency OECD on Monday lowered its India’s GDP growth forecast to 5.1% from the earlier projection of 6.2% for 2020 on concerns of impact of the deadly COVID-19 on the domestic as well as the global economy.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said...................

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapksa has dissolved the parliament and called for general elections on 25th of next month. A gazette notification issued last night said nominations for elections will be received from 12th to 19th of this month.
The gazette was issued under powers vested with President to dissolve the parliament after four and a half years of its first sitting. The newly elected parliament will meet on 14th of May.
The parliament term was ending in August but general elections was called as the current government led by Prime minister Mahinda Rajpaksa is a minority government and expects to gain a majority in coming elections.
The previous government led by Ranil Wickremsinghe has resigned in November following defeat at the Presidential elections where Gotabaya was elected as President defeating Sajith Premadasa.
Meanwhile, Mr. Premadasa launched a new political alliance yesterday comprising of five political parties ..............

With new additions to the wildlife list put out by the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS), scientists say that the total number of migratory fauna from India comes to 457 species. Birds comprise 83% (380 species) of this figure.
Gopinathan Maheshwaran, who heads the avian section of the ZSI, said that birds make up the bulk of migratory species. Before COP 13, the number of migratory bird species stood at 378 and now it has reached 380.
According to Mr. Maheshwaran, the bird family Muscicapidae has the highest number of migratory species. “The next highest group of migratory birds is raptors or birds of prey, such as eagles, owls, vultures and kites which are from the family Accipitridae,” he added.
The estimate of 44 migratory mammal species................

The prestigious Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament has been postponed from April to September this year in the wake of the novel coronavirus outbreak across the world.
In a statement, the organisers said, the tournament which was .................