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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 12 December 2020

::NATIONAL::

The Supreme Court has slammed the Centre for not appointing mandatory member (law) in the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC).
It observing that executive acting in breach of judgments would be an “invitation to anarchy”.
In earlier order, held that it is mandatory to appoint a member (law) in its quorum. It had directed CERC and all state electricity commissions to appoint a member from the field of law with qualifications of a high court or district judge.
A contempt petition was filed before the court as directions of the apex court were sought to be breached on account of appointments made to the Central Commission on January 21, 2019, and thereafter on April 7, 2020, without appointing a member from the law.
Observing that there is “prima facie willful disobedience” on the part of the government, the top court had in August directed two members of the CERC to go on leave until a ‘member (law)’ is appointed to the Commission.
In the end, the apex court said that having expressed its anguish, it now specifically posed a question to the Additional Solicitor General as to when should we keep the matter, so that the government would have completed the task by then.

Nine states have completed ONORC Reform. These states include Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana,Karnataka, Kerala,Telangana,Tripura and Uttar Pradesh.
ONORC scheme was launched to make sure all the beneficiaries, especially the migrants can access the PublicDistribution System (PDS) from anywhere in the country through nation-wide portability of ration cards.
This will enhance freedom of the beneficiaries as they are not tied to one PDS shop.
It is being implemented under National Food Security Act, 2013.

Union Defence Minister attended the 14th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus(ADMM-Plus) organised online at Hanoi, Vietnam on 10 December 2020 that marked the 10th anniversary of ADMM Plus.
ADMM-Plus is the only official framework of Defense Minister's meetings in the Asia-Pacific Region.
It is a platform for ASEAN and its eight Dialogue Partners to strengthen security and defence cooperation for peace, stability, and development in the region.
The ADMM-Plus comprises the ten ASEAN countries as well as Australia, China, Japan, India, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Russia and the United States.

California asked to join the US Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against Google.
It making the state’s attorney general the first Democrat to openly support the litigation.
The department in October accused the $1 trillion California-based company of illegally using its market muscle to hobble rivals, and was joined by 11 other states when it was filed.
Google has denied wrongdoing, and the company has said that its search engine and other products are dominant because consumers prefer them.
The company must respond to California’s request to join the lawsuit by Dec. 18, said the judge in the case, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta.
The Justice Department welcomed California’s entry to the case, which says Google broke antitrust law to build and maintain dominance in search and search advertising.
California’s Becerra has been picked by President-elect Joe Biden as his nominee for secretary of health and human services - a prominent member of the health team to lead the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Reserve Bank of India has issued draft circular on declaration of dividend by non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) in pursuance to the announcement made in the monetary policy.
Accordingly, deposit-taking NBFCs and systemically important non-deposit-taking NBFCs must have their net non-performing assets below six percent and a capital adequacy ratio of at least 15 percent for the last three years, including the accounting year for which it proposes to declare dividend.
RBI has added that non-systemically important, non-deposit-taking NBFCs should have a leverage ratio of less than seven while core investment company - CIC should have Adjusted Net Worth (ANW) of at least 30 percent of its aggregate risk-weighted assets on balance sheet.
The apex bank has invited public comments on the draft circular, which need to be submitted by 24th of this month.
While announcing the monetary policy earlier this month, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had said that the growing significance of NBFCs and their interlinkages with different segments in the financial system has made it imperative to enhance their resilience.

India’s first indigenous mRNA vaccine candidate has received approval from Indian Drug regulators to initiate Phase one and two human clinical trials.
The novel mRNA vaccine candidate, HGCO19 has been developed by Gennova, Pune and supported with seed grant under the Ind-CEPI mission of the Department of Biotechnology.

About:

The mRNA vaccines do not use the conventional model to produce immune response. Instead, they carry the molecular instructions to make the protein in the body through a synthetic RNA of the virus. mRNA-based vaccines are scientifically the ideal choice to address a pandemic because of their rapid developmental timeline.
The mRNA vaccine is considered safe as is non-infectious, non-integrating in nature, and degraded by standard cellular mechanisms.
According to scientists, these vaccines can be quickly manufactured in an inexpensive manner under cGMP conditions to ensure their availability and accessibility for mass vaccination on a sustainable basis.
The neutralizing antibody response of the vaccine in mice and non-human primates was comparable with the sera from the convalescent patients of COVID-19.

Half the states, including tribal-dominated Schedule V area states, have not tapped into the Centre’s pre-matric scholarship scheme for tribal students depriving the deserving candidates of a monthly monetary benefit.
Over half of the funds earmarked for pre-matric scholarships under the Centre’s scheme for tribal children is lying unspent. Out of Rs 400 crore for the scholarship, only Rs 163.96 crore have been disbursed to 16 states and union territories.

About:

It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme meant for needy Scheduled Tribe (ST) students studying in classes IX and X.
It is under Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
Its objective is tosupport parents of ST children so that the incidence of drop-out is minimized.
To improve participation of ST children in pre-matric stage.
Recently it was found that half the states, including tribal-dominated Schedule V area states, have nottapped into this scheme depriving the deserving candidates of a monthly monetary benefit.