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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 08 September 2019

::NATIONAL::

Government to spend huge amounts for JalJeevan mission

Prime Minister NarendraModi has announced that the central government will spend 3.5 lakh crore rupees in the next five years on 'JalJeevan Mission' to deliver potable water at every household across the country.
Addressing the state-level MahilaSakshamMelava or Empowered Women's Meet of Self Help Groups (SHG) organised by Maharashtra State Rural Livelihood Mission (UMED) in Aurangabad, he said that JalJeevan Mission has been launched in order to free women from the trouble of having to toil hard to fetch water. He said JalJeevan Mission involves saving water and delivering water at one's doorstep.
Mr Modi said that women are playing a vital role in the development of the country and pointed out that due to the SHGs, women are becoming financially independent that will help the country to become strong. He expressed the need to make the SHG movement more powerful in the country.
Speaking about other initiatives for the empowerment of women's SHGs, the Prime Minister said, "Under MUDRA scheme, one woman in every SHG will get a loan of 1 lakh rupees and this will help them start new ventures and grow their business.
Talking about the Marathwada region which has been experiencing severe drought since last many years, the Prime Minister credited the state government for having taken permanent measures to tackle the situation and lauded the scheme of Marathwada Water Grid initiated by Chief Minister DevendraFadnavis to make the region drought-free.

Centre claims Khadi registered high growth

The 150th birth anniversary of Father of Nation, Mahatma Gandhi will be celebrated on 2nd of October this year. In 1918 Mahatma Gandhi started his movement for Khadi as relief programme for the poor masses living in India's villages.
The khadi movement by Gandhi aimed at boycotting foreign cloth and he began promoting the spinning of khadi for rural self-employment and self-reliance. Mahatma Gandhi strongly advocated the usage of Khadi products.
Over the last five years, Prime Minister NarendraModi has left no stone unturned to popularize Khadi among the people. Mr Modi has given the Mantra of ‘Khadi for Nation, Khadi for fashion'.
The Prime Minister in his Mann Ki Baat address in October 2014 stressed on the need for use of khadi products as a homage to Mahatma Gandhi.
Mr Modi impressed upon the people to use at least one khadi product as it will benefit the poor and lit the lamp of prosperity in their life.
Talking exclusively to AIR News, Chairman of Khadi and Village Industries Commission(Kvic) Vinai Kumar Saxena said, the Khadi has registered a tremendous growth after the Prime Minister's appeal.

::ECONOMY::

Government to setup task force to identify high net worth infra projects

The government on Saturday said it had constituted a high-level task force to identify infrastructure projects for ₹100 lakh-crore worth investment to be made by 2024-25 as India aims to become a $5-trillion economy.
The task force, headed by the Economic Affairs Secretary, will draw up a ‘national infrastructure pipeline’ of ₹100 lakh-crore, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.
The task force will comprise secretaries from different Ministries, senior officials and the NITI Aayog CEO. It will identify technically feasible and financially/economically viable infrastructure projects that can be initiated in 2019-20.
To achieve the target of scaling India’s GDP to $5 trillion by 2024-25, the country needs to spend about $1.4 trillion (₹100 lakh crore) from the fiscal 2019-20 to 2024-25 on infrastructure, it added.In the past decade (fiscal 2008-17), India invested about $1.1 trillion in infrastructure.
The challenge is to step up annual infrastructure investment so that lack of infrastructure does not become a binding constraint on the growth of the Indian economy, the Ministry said.
Prime Minister NarendraModi, in his Independence Day speech, had said that ₹100 lakh crore would be invested in infrastructure over the next five years.These will include social and economic infrastructure projects.

SEBI calls for unification of corporate bond market

SEBI Chairman Ajay Tyagi has called for unification of corporate bond market with the more widely-traded government securities market to make it easier for investors to enter and exit the market.
Addressing an event in Mumbai, Mr.Tyagi said there is a need for seamless transmission of information from G-secs to the corporate bond market.
Reeling out data, Mr.Tyagi said the market has gained significant traction over the past years, as funds raised from the market touched Rs. 6.5 lakh crore mark or 16.3 percent of GDP in FY19 from Rs. 3.7 lakh crore mark or 13 percent of GDP in FY13.
To a question on a social stock exchange, which was announced in the budget, Mr.Tyagi said SEBI will be setting up a working group on the same.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Iran breaches nuclear deal, says it can further enrich Uranium

Iran said on Saturday it was now capable of raising uranium enrichment past the 20% level and had launched advanced centrifuge machines in further breaches of commitments to limit its nuclear activity under a 2015 deal with world powers.
The 2015 pact curbed Iran’s disputed nuclear programme in exchange for relief from sanctions, but has unravelled since the United States pulled out of it last year and acted to strangle Iran’s oil trade to push it into wider security concessions.
Since May, Iran has begun to exceed limits on its nuclear capacity set by the pact in retaliation for U.S. pressure on Iran to negotiate restrictions on its ballistic missile programme and support for proxy forces around the Middle East.
Iran says its measures are reversible if European signatories to the accord manage to restore its access to foreign trade promised under the nuclear deal but blocked by the reimposition of U.S. sanctions.
The deal capped the level of purity to which Iran can enrich uranium at 3.67% - suitable for civilian power generation and far below the 90% threshold of nuclear weapons grade.
U.N. nuclear inspectors reported in July that Iran had cranked up enrichment to 4.5% purity. Mr.Kamalvandi said Tehran could now exceed the 20% level, a significant leap towards the critical 90%, “but right now there is no need for that”.
Afghanistan accepts U.S assurance on Taliban deal
The Afghan government on Saturday welcomed a pledge by the Pentagon that the U.S. would only accept a “good deal” from the Taliban after a wave of insurgent attacks sparked concerns of a hasty U.S. withdrawal.
During a wide ranging press conference in Paris earlier on Saturday, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper sought to allay fears that Washington was looking for a quick exit from Afghanistan as it inches closer to a potential deal with the Taliban.
Kabul has been gripped by a surge in deadly violence even after the U.S. and the insurgents reached an agreement “in principle” that would see the U.S. pull thousands of troops from Afghanistan in return for various Taliban security promises.
According to parts of the deal made public so far, the Pentagon would pull about 5,000 of its roughly 13,000 or so troops from five bases across Afghanistan by early next year. The insurgents in turn will renounce al-Qaeda, promise to fight the Islamic State (IS) group and stop jihadists using Afghanistan as a safe haven.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

ISRO says 95% of Chandrayaan mission successful

ISRO says despite the loss of communication with Vikram Lander, 90 to 95 per cent of the mission objectives have been accomplished.
In a statement, it said the Orbiter has already been placed in the orbit around the moon.
This shall enrich our understanding of the Moon's evolution and mapping of the minerals and water molecules in the Polar Regions, using its eight state-of-the-art scientific instruments.
The ISRO said the Orbiter camera is the highest resolution camera in any lunar mission so far and shall provide high-resolution images which will be immensely useful to the global scientific community.
The statement said Vikram Lander followed the planned descent trajectory from its orbit of 35 Km to just below 2 km above the surface.
All the systems and sensors of the Lander functioned excellently until this point.
The chairman of the Indian Space Research organization, Dr K Sivan says that Prime Minister NarendraModi's speech at the space centre is a source of inspiration for scientists.In an interview to PrasarBharti, he said, the speech will keep all of us motivating.

::SPORTS::

Bianca Andresscu wins US open dafeating Serene Williams

Canadian teenager Bianca Andreescu stunned Serena Williams 6-3, 7-5 to grab the US Open 2019 women's singles title. The 19-year-old Andreescu becomes the first Canadian singles player to win a Grand Slam event.
Meanwhile, Serena Williams, has lost each of her last four Grand Slam finals, all with a chance to tie Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles.
Serena had defeated ElinaSvitolina 6-3, 6-1 in the semi-final to reach her 10th US Open final while Andreescu beat Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 7-6, 7-5 to reach the final.