Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 13 JANUARY 2018

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 13 JANUARY 2019

::NATIONAL::

Election commission reviews poll prepardeness of states

•  A two day conference of the Chief Electoral Officers of all the States and UTs was organized by the Election commission on 11th and 12th of January. A comprehensive review of Poll Preparedness of the States prior to the General elections 2019 was conducted through these two days.
•  The primary focus of the Election commission was on the integrity of the electoral roll, meticulous planning for elections, EVM and VVPAT assessment and training and extensive voter outreach.
•  Addressing the CEOs, the Chief Election Commissioner of India Sh. Sunil Arora emphasized the fact that the electoral roll that is currently under the process of revision and finalization will be used in the forthcoming General elections. Hence, this particular revision assumes additional importance and care must be taken to ensure the purity of the Roll.
•  Sh. Arora reiterated the commitment of the Election commission of India to provide assured minimum facilities in all polling stations. He also directed the CEOs to have their Booth level, District level and state level Plans ready and conduct a meticulous assessment of all resources required for the conduct of elections.
•  The States and the UTs must assess their EVM/ VVPAT requirements and also ensure adherence to the timelines specified for completion of their First Level checking. He laid stress upon extensive Hands on experience of the EVM and VVPAT among the voters as well as during the training of polling officials as it helps to minimize the glitches and also boosts confidence among the stakeholders.
•  Through the two day conference, each and every aspect of conduct of election including availability of sufficient budget, manpower, resources, SVEEP, planning, polling station arrangements and IT applications including Suvidha, Sugam and C-Vigil were discussed in detail and the preparedness of States/UTs on each of these parameters was assessed.

QCI releases assessment report on Namame Ganga project

•  Four-and-a-half years after the Centre launched its flagship Namami Gange programme to clean up the Ganga, a government- commissioned assessment has found that 66 towns and cities along the river still have nullah s or drains flowing directly into the Ganga. Almost 85% of these nullah s do not even have screens set up to stop garbage from entering the river.
•  Of the 92 towns surveyed, 72 still have old or legacy dump sites on the ghats. Only 19 towns have a municipal solid waste plant, according to an assessment done by the Quality Council of India (QCI).
•  The third party assessment, which was conducted over a six-week period in November and December 2018, was commissioned by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD). It covered 92 of the 97 towns along the river located in five States: Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. Of the remaining five towns, three had no ghats along the river, while two were shut due to extreme weather conditions during the period of the survey.
•  While much of the focus of Namami Gange over the last four years has been on liquid waste management and sewage treatment plants, the Centre is now turning its focus to solid waste management as well, under the aegis of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban).
•  Perhaps unsurprisingly, most of the 12 towns that achieved an ‘A’ grade had populations of less than 1 lakh people. Most were located in the upstream States of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. A notable exception was the West Bengal town of Maheshtala, with a population of 4.5 lakh. Large cities such as Kolkata, Varanasi, Kanpur and Patna all achieved low scores.

::ECONOMY::

Vice president urges foreign investors to tap potential of the country

•  The time is right for foreign investors to tap the huge potential offered by India in various sectors — from real estate to healthcare, Vice President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu said here on Saturday.
•  “India is the bright spot in the world’s economy today,” he said, addressing foreign and Indian delegates at the inaugural session of the 25th edition of the CII Partnership Summit.
•  Inviting foreign investors to invest in India, he said forward-looking taxation reforms like the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) have converted India into an integrated market. Other noteworthy reforms like the implementation of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code was helping, he added.
•  Quoting a report, he said India’s income and consumption trends would be led by Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu in the south, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab in the north, and Maharashtra and Gujarat in the west.
•  Union Minister for Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu said the government wanted to make sure that India had friendly relations with almost all countries, so that the country is able to offer a platform that is mutually beneficial.
•  Mr. Prabhu said by the end of 2019 India could be able to create a trading platform, which would be participatory and democratic, transparent and mutually beneficial, under the WTO framework.

Commerce ministry says household savings could be turned to productive assets via capital market

•  Capital market is the only way one can get household savings into productive assets and hence, public policy must include ways to make capital markets more efficient and transparent, said Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Commerce and Industry.
•  “The point is clearly established that we need most-efficient, well-entrenched and deep-pocketed capital markets for economy to grow and therefore we have to make sure any public policy must address this important issue of how to make capital markets efficient, transparent and forward looking,” Mr. Prabhu added.
•  The Minister, who also handles the Aviation Ministry, further said that while investment is necessary along with it, efficient use of capital is more important and there is no other way but capital markets that would ensure growth.
•  On a different note, the Rajya Sabha member said that the government wanted to focus on the districts as part of a bottom-up approach for boosting economic growth and that it has identified such districts across the States of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh to begin with.
•  The Minister said it is now a certainty that the country’s $2.6 trillion GDP will grow to $5 trillion in seven to nine years, and to $10 trillion by 2035.
•  The measures being undertaken to push growth at the district level are aimed at achieving the broader targets set earlier, he added while stressing that it is certain that the country’s $2.6 trillion GDP will grow to $5 trillion in seven to nine years, and to $10 trillion by 2035.
•  According to the Minister, India is now targeting annual FDI inflows of $100 billion and the government had identified the sectors which can attract the investments and also prepared a list of 150 global companies with huge cash piles.

Online Coaching for UPSC PRE Exam

General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

::INTERNATIONAL::

External affairs ministry to attend first India-Central Asia dialogue

•  External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday left for a two-day visit to Uzbekistan to attend the first India-Central Asia Dialogue which is expected to focus on a plethora of regional issues including enhancing connectivity to war-ravaged Afghanistan.
•  The Dialogue, being held in Samarkand, will be co-chaired by Swaraj and Uzbekistan's Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov. The Foreign Minister of Afghanistan will also participate in the dialogue as a special invitee for the session dedicated to connectivity issues in the region, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.
•  Bound together by shared history and cultural linkages, India and the Central Asian states look forward to the Dialogue as an important initiative to enhance their cooperation in wide-ranging spheres including exploring ways to substantially enhance India's economic involvement in business and development sector of Central Asia, the MEA had said on Wednesday.
•  With Afghanistan joining, the participants of the Dialogue will also deliberate on developing viable connectivity options between India and Afghanistan and Central Asia to further facilitate trade and economic activity in the region, it said.
•  Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited five Central Asian countries in 2015 with an aim to deepen India's engagement with the hydrocarbon rich region. Swaraj visited the region last August. Officials said the India-Central Asia Dialogue, with the participation of Afghanistan, is expected to take India's engagement with all the countries of the region to a new level.

Nepal Army chief arrives for 2 day visit to India

•  Nepal's Army Chief Purna Chandra Thapa will arrive in New Delhi today on a four-day official visit. It will be his first official bilateral visit after taking over the command of the Nepal Army.
•  Shri Ram Nath Kovind, conferred the Honorary Rank of General of the Indian Army on Sukirtimaya Rashtradeep General Purna Chandra Thapa, Chief of the Army Staff, Nepalese Army, for his commendable military prowess and immeasurable contribution to fostering Nepal’s long and friendly association with India, at a special Investiture Ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan today
•  General Thapa will interact with senior Indian Army officials. He will also visit defence formations based at Jaipur and Lucknow.
•  The visit symbolizes the deep-rooted ties between the two armies and will help strengthen defence cooperation.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Chandrayaan findings help to reveal mystery on plasma particles

• A study using observations from Chandrayaan 1 mission has found how plasma particles from the solar wind make their way into the Moon’s night side, filling up the wake region, long thought to be devoid of plasma particles. This has significance in understanding bodies like the Moon which do not have global magnetic fields.
• In recent times, there has been a huge interest in understanding the plasma environment of the Moon, which is generated mainly by its interaction with the solar plasma wind flowing towards it from the Sun. This plasma wind consists of charged particles such as protons and is partly absorbed by the side of the Moon facing the sun. The rest of the solar plasma wind incident on the Moon flows around it, but leaves a wake (a void) on the side not facing the sun (the night-side of the Moon).
• Earlier, it was believed that this wake was devoid of any particles. But recent Moon missions such as Chandrayaan-1, Kaguya, Chang’e-1 and Artemis have found evidence of refilling of near lunar wake (heights of 100 km to 200 km above the lunar surface on the night side) with solar wind protons.
• The interaction between the Moon and the solar plasma is a topic of interest now because understanding it can help us study any celestial body which has no atmosphere or global magnetic field, such as asteroids and some planetary satellites.

::SPORTS::

India lose to Australia in first ODI

•  Australia have won the first One-day International of the three-match series.
•  In Sydney today, chasing a target of 289 runs, India made 254 runs losing nine wickets in the stipulated 50 overs. Rohit Sharma made a superb 133.
•  M.S. Dhoni scored 51. Bhuvneshwar Kumar contributed 29.
•  Earlier electing to bat, Australia posted a challenging 288 for five. Peter Handscomb top-scored for the hosts with his 73-run knock while Usman Khwaja 59 and Shaun Marsh 54 also scored half-centuries. Marcus Stoinis remained unbeaten on 47.

Click Here For Today's Current Affairs MCQ's

Click Here for Old Current Affairs Archive

This is a Part of Online Coaching Programme for UPSC Exam

Buy Printed Study Material for UPSC PRELIMS EXAM

Join Test Series for IAS (Pre.) Exam