Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 07 September 2020

::NATIONAL::

Centre announces back to village programme in Jammu & Kashmir UT

In the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the government announced the third phase of ambitious Back to Village (B2V) programme from October 2 to 12, this year.
The announcement was made by Principal Secretary, Power Development and Information Departments, RohitKansal who is also government spokesperson, at a press conference in Srinagar yesterday.
Terming the first two phases of Back to Village (B2V) as huge success, Mr Kansal said it is a unique programme which received tremendous respect from the people when 4000 Gazetted Officers from J&K administration visited each and every Panchayat of J&K.
The Phase-I of B2V was an introductory and interactive programme to understand the people’s grievances and demands. While Phase-II focused on the devolution of powers to panchayats and tried to understand how these panchayats are functioning and what are the grievances and demands,” he said and added “the Phase-III has been designed on the format for grievance redressal.”
He said that next month will be a festival of public grievance redressal, festival of public service delivery and festival of delivery of development at gram Panchayat level.

Rashtriay Poshan Maah to address malnutrition amongst children & women

The 3rd RashtriyaPoshanMaah is being celebrated this month to address malnutrition among young children and women. The objective of the PoshanMaah is to encourage Jan Bhagidaari to ensure health and nutrition for everyone.
Women and Child Development Ministry said the PoshanMaah is celebrated every year under POSHAN Abhiyaan, which was launched in 2018. Considering the prevalent COVID situation in the Country, the Ministry is encouraging all stakeholders to use digital platforms for celebrating PoshanMaah.
The importance of nutrition was recently emphasized by Prime Minister NarendraModi in the 68th edition of his Mann kiBaat programme on All India Radio on 30th of last month.

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::ECONOMY::

India witnessing V-shaped economic recovery claims finance ministry

India is witnessing a ‘V’ shaped recovery, the finance ministry said on Friday, pointing to a clutch of indicators such as manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI), auto sales, railway freight, steel and power consumption, e-way bills, highways toll and retail financial transactions.
Relative to advanced nations, the monthly economic review of the ministry for August said, contraction in India’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the April-June quarter has been ‘slightly higher’ but attributed the same to the stringent lockdown in the quarter that has helped keep Covid-19 mortality in check.
It flagged areas that may require specific attention including agrarian supply chains, factor markets, infrastructure, Information and communications technology (ICT), start-ups, financial inclusion, skilling and health care.
The report was optimistic in its outlook, stating that the worst was behind us as high frequency indicators were showing improvements since June.
The report suggested a calibrated re-orientation of India’s policy matrix towards building resilience for an uncertain future while specifying priority areas for policy action.
While the manufacturing sector was showing signs of recovery, the report advised wide-ranging structural reforms in land, legal, labour and capital markets to reverse the slowdown and to boost risk appetite.

Centre releases EODB rankings of states and UT’s

PiyushGoyalAndhra Pradesh topped the chart among all Indian States and Union Territories in the Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP) 2019 rankings. Uttar Pradesh and Telangana bagged second and third positions respectively.
The Commerce and Industry Ministry released the ranking of States and Union Territories (UTs) in terms of ease of doing business today in a function attended by Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman, Commerce & Industry Minister PiyushGoyal and Urban Development Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr.Goyal said that the Centre is committed towards promoting cooperative and competitive federalism. He said, India is among the top ten performers in terms of improvement in ease of doing business parameters in the last 2 years.
The BRAP ranking aims at triggering competition among states to improve business climate in order to attract domestic and global investors.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Germany threatens of sanctions against Russia

Tensions deepened between Germany and Russia over the alleged poisoning of opposition figure Alexei Navalny on Sunday, with Germany threatening sanctions and Russia accusing Berlin of delaying the investigation it demanded.
The Russian opposition leader and anti-corruption campaigner fell ill on a flight last month and was treated in a Siberian hospital before being evacuated to Berlin.
Germany said last week there was “unequivocal evidence” that President Vladimir Putin’s top foe had been poisoned using the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok.Germany will discuss possible sanctions against Russia if the Kremlin does not provide an explanation soon, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Sunday.
Mr. Maas said on Sunday there were “several indications” that Russia was behind the poisoning, in the strongest accusations yet from Germany. “The deadly substance with which Navalny was poisoned has in the past been found in the hands of Russian authorities.”
On the subject of which sanctions could be discussed by the EU, Maas did not rule out action relating to Nord Stream 2, a multi-billion-euro Russian-German gas pipeline nearing completion that has drawn the ire of US and European partners alike.
Britain earns European Union on Brexit
Britain will not blink first in Brexit trade negotiations with the European Union and is not scared of a no-deal exit at the end of the year, the country's top Brexit negotiator warned the bloc on Sunday.
Britain left the EU on Jan. 31 but talks have so far made little headway on agreeing a new trade deal for when a status-quo transition arrangement ends in December.

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::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Union minister to address first ever international day for clean air webinar

Environment Minister PrakashJavadekar will chair a webinar today on the first-ever International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies. Mr Javadekar will also review the progress of activities under the National Clean Air programme (NCAP) during the course of the webinar.
The webinar will be joined by Principal Secretaries of the Urban Development Departments and Environment Departments of 28 states and 8 Union Territories. Commissioners of 122 cities as identified in the NCAP programme will also participate.

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::SPORTS::

France win over Sweden in UEFA nations league

KylianMbappe scored with France's only shot on goal to give the World champion a 1-0 victory over Sweden in the UEFA Nations League on Saturday.
England, holder Portugal and Belgium all enjoyed winning starts.League A: Group 2: At Reykjavik: Iceland 0 lost to England 1 (Sterling 90+2-pen) 0. At Copenhagen: Denmark 0 lost to Belgium 2 (Denayer 9, Mertens 77).

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