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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 03 June 2021

::NATIONAL::

The State government has decided to impose a 52-day ban on trawling operations.
This beginning midnight of June 9 and ending on July 31 midnight. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Fisheries Minister Saji Cheriyan with the stakeholders in the sector on Wednesday.

The State government had, for the first time extended the ban from 45 days, in force since 1994, to 52 days last year in view of the demand raised by traditional fishers.
The Swathanthra Matsya Thozhilali Federation (SMTF) and Matsya Thozhilali Aikya Vedi had favoured longer periods of ban on trawling operations during the monsoon as a measure to conserve marine fish resources.
The SMTF was in favour of a longer period of ban on monsoon operations though the Minister felt that the continuing lockdown and restrictions on fishing activities due to the pandemic spread as well as loss of fishing days had to be considered when the trawling ban was imposed.
The Minister is learnt to have said that a longer period of trawling ban may be considered in the future as a step to conserving resources.

Global satellite communication companies like OneWeb (a consortium led by Airtel CEO Sunil Mittal) and Elon Musk’s Starlink to offer high-speed broadband services more efficiently to customers in India.
The government has removed the artificial caps on the data rates they can offer, which were pegged at speeds of 2Mbps to 4Mbps.
The new technology, based on low earth orbit satellites (LEO), which is being used by the two companies, can offer broadband speeds of over 5GBPS.
The Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC) under Department of Telecommunications made amendments to the Standards for Interface Requirements for Communications.
This amendment will allow satellite communications services to use the high-capacity Ka band between 27 Ghz and 40 Ghz for both broadband and broadcasting services like direct-to-home (DTH).
Currently, they are allowed to use only C and Ku bands.

According to International Monetary Fund, the emerging-market nations’ struggle to claw out of the pandemic-induced economic crisis can spill over to hurt the developed world, which should be doing all it can to ensure better access to vaccines and a more equitable recovery.

Poorer nations are faced with the risk of interest rates increasing while their economies aren’t growing, and may find themselves “really strangled” to service debt, especially if it’s dollar-denominated.
That is not only danger for them, it is a danger for global supply chains, it’s a danger for investor confidence -- in other words, it has a ricochet impact on advanced economies.
Measures taken to stimulate the U.S. economy are, on balance, translating into “good news” for other countries because of the spillover effect of demand.
IMF’s chief concerned about 2022 and beyond, when even a relatively small increase in interest rates, combined with a possibly stronger dollar, could create problems for corporate and sovereign debt, which was high even before the crisis.

The ricochet effect is dominant if the negative abnormal returns of domestic non-announcing firms are larger than the negative abnormal returns of international non-announcing firms in the same industry.
The sensitivity to bad news tied to the business cycle may be due to the elevated risk level.

Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt received his golden visa from the UAE government on Wednesday.

In 2019, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) implemented a new system for long-term residence visas, thereby enabling foreigners to live, work and study in the UAE without the need of a national sponsor and with 100 per cent ownership of their business.
The Golden Visa system essentially offers long-term residency (5 and 10 years) to people belonging to the following groups: investors, entrepreneurs, individuals with outstanding talents the likes of researchers, medical professionals and those within the scientific and knowledge fields, and remarkable students.
The main benefit of the visa will be security as through the issuance of the Golden Visa, the UAE government has made it clear that they are committed to providing expatriates, investors and essentially everyone looking to make the UAE their home an extra reason to feel secure about their future.

Railways recorded more than 10% increase in Freight loading as compared to normal year of 2019-20.

A number of concessions are being given in Indian Railways to make Railways Freight movement very attractive.
Long term tariff contract with major customers envisages growth and retention of traffic by offering incentive over benchmark.
Schemes such as General Purpose Wagon Investment Scheme (GPWIS), Liberalised Wagon Investment Scheme (LWIS), Special Freight Train Operator (SFTO), etc. have been launched.
Freight speed has doubled over last 18 months.

Mustafa Yusuf has created “Tasks: To-Do Lists & Reminders,” an app that helps people plan, organise and collaborate personal and professional projects with ease.
The iOS app helps import tasks from notes or reminders with a one tap setup.
Developers selling digital goods and services - which is only a small fraction of the overall commerce the App Store facilitates - have now earned more than $200 billion since the App Store launched in 2008.
This year, WWDC21 from June 7-11 will be available free to more than 30 million Apple developers from 227 regions around the globe including India, enabling them to learn about the future of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS operating platforms.