Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 08 November 2020

::NATIONAL::

Supreme Court recently gave relief to Arnab Goswami in breach of privilege case for making derogatoryremarks against the CM of Maharashtra.
A breach of privilege is a violation of any of the privileges of MPs/Parliament (Article 105) or MLAs/Both thehouses of State Legislators (Article 194).
Any act that obstructs or impedes either House of the state legislature in performing its functions is treatedas breach of privilege.
As there is no law enacted by the Parliament, breach of privileges are governed by the British Parliamentaryconventions.

The Centre on Friday reiterated that electric vehicles (EVs) should be promoted in the country while diesel must be stopped from usage in automobiles.
The Indian industry has also now been asked to work towards making India an EV hub by 2025.

Charging infrastructure:

There are EV-specific concerns around batteries, charging and driving range that prevent a large-scale consumer pull, but these issues are being addressed rapidly.
On charging infrastructure, he said that the government will make sure there are enough charging stations — 50 in each district — so that EV users don’t have to worry about range of the vehicles.
India needs to import oil to cover over 80 per cent of its transport fuel, and the import of crude is a big economic problem.
Need to develop an ecosystem of fast-charging or swapping of batteries.

The Myanmar Army Chief has said that the issue of the citizenship of Rohingya is solely a matter of domestic law.
He said that the citizenship process in Myanmar is subject to the 1982 citizenship law which identifies only 135 indigenous ethnic groups and Bengalis or Rohingya are not among these.
He further said that Myanmar does not object to the Rohingya living inside the Myanmar territory.
However, the issue of citizenship, definition of indigenous people and their rights are matters of domestic law.
Refusing to accept international intervention, he said Myanmar is proceeding according to its own domestic law on this issue.

The Government has reopened a window for online submission of documentation for subsidy claims under the previous versions of the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) scheme.
TUFS was introduced in 1999 for providing credit linked capital investment subsidy for making globally competitive to the Indian textile industry and it has to reduce the capital cost for the textile industry.
In 2015, amended TUFS was launched with Aim of 'Make in India' and 'Zero Defect and Zero Effect' in manufacturing.

Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and Sirius, Russia, launched ‘AIM–Sirius Innovation Programme 3.0’– a 14-day virtual programme for Indian and Russian schoolchildren.
The first Indo-Russian bilateral youth innovation initiative, the AIM–Sirius programme seeks to develop technological solutions (both web- and mobile-based) for the two countries.
Innovations developed by the student teams will leverage 21st-century technologies such as app development, artificial intelligence, blockchain, machine learning, data analytics and visualization, UI/UX, virtual reality, augmented reality, gamification, 3D design, and rapid prototyping, among others.
AIM and Sirius’ mentors from the industry and academia will work closely with the teams.

On the “momentous” occasion of five years of One Rank One Pension (OROP), Prime Minister saluted soldiers for courageously protecting the nation.
The Defence Ministry had said that, the Centre has disbursed over Rs 42,700 crore to 20.6 lakh retired Defence personnel under the OROP scheme since its inception.
The OROP scheme has been effective since 1 July, 2014.
Under the scheme, the armed forces personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service gets the uniform pension, regardless of their date of retirement.