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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 13 September 2019

::NATIONAL::

Supreme court continuous its stay on eviction of forest dwellers

The Supreme Court on Thursday continued its stay on the eviction of lakhs of Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers whose claims for forest land rights have been rejected under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006.
The Bench referred to how resorts and illegal structures have encroached on forest lands and led to the depletion of the green cover. Senior advocate Sanjay Parikh, appearing for one of the parties, said the focus should be on the lakhs of forest dwellers who face eviction.
The apex court gave the States further time to file affidavits responding to complaints that there was a high rate of rejection of claims, non-communication of rejection orders, unrealistic timelines in deciding claims, irregular holding of State Level Monitoring Committee meetings, lack of support from the district administrations concerned in providing revenue or forest maps, rejection of claims despite incomplete or insufficient evidence, etc.
The February 13 eviction order was stayed on February 28 after the Centre moved the apex court to modify the former order.The government had said the eviction order would affect a “large number of families”.

Armed forces to be at the forefront in combating bio terrorism

Bioterrorism is a real threat in today’s time and the armed forces medical services should be at the forefront of combating the menace, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on September 12.
Speaking at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO's) first military medicine conference, Mr. Singh said bioterrorism breaks out as a “contagious plague“.
This is the first military cooperation event hosted by India after becoming a full-time member of the SCO.India and Pakistan became members of the SCO in June 2017.
Meanwhile, Pakistan skipped the two-day SCO military medicine conference organised by India in New Delhi.
The conference is being attended by 27 international and 40 Indian delegates.At the conference, the inaugural session of which was addressed by Mr. Singh, the seat allotted to Pakistan was vacant.

::ECONOMY::

Industrial growth rebounds while inflation rises

Industrial activity rebounded in July to 4.3% on a broad-based recovery across key sectors such as mining, manufacturing and construction, official data released on Thursday showed.
In a separate release, data showed retail inflation rose in August to hit a 10-month high of 3.21% on quickening food price rises.
Growth in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) accelerated in July after a slump in June when it touched 1.17%. Within the index, the mining sector accelerated to 4.92% in July compared with 1.53% in June. The manufacturing sector, similarly, saw growth quicken to 4.15% from 0.23% over the same period.
Construction and infrastructure sector saw a turnaround in July, growing 2.13% after contracting 1.9% in the previous month. On the consumer side, the consumer durables sector reined in its contraction, contracting 2.7% in July compared with a steep contraction of 10.2% in the previous month. Consumer non-durables saw growth accelerating to 8.29% from 7.08%. The electricity sector, however, saw growth slowing in July to 4.75% from 8.19% in June.
“Consumer price inflation is likely to inch up further in the coming months with the waning of the base effect and seasonal factors,” Care Ratings added. “Although the RBI is likely to continue with its monetary easing, we do not expect a rate cut at the next monetary policy.

Government cracksdown on exporters claiming fraudulent refunds

In a joint operation, the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) have conducted pan-India searches against exporters claiming refunds fraudulently.
The searches were carried out on Wednesday by about 1,200 officials at 336 locations spread across 15 States including Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Maharashtra.
The operation revealed that many entities were either non-existent or had given fictitious addresses. Preliminary inquiries indicated that an Input Tax Credit (ITC) of more than ₹470 crore, with an invoice value of about ₹3,500 crore, was fake. It was also used for claiming cash refunds.
An Integrated-GST refund amount of around ₹450 crore is also under examination. Some consignments of these exporters have been intercepted at Vadodara Rail Container Terminal, Mundra port and NhavaSheva port to ascertain mis-declaration, said the Finance Ministry.
Based on the analysis of data provided by the Directorate General of Analytics and Risk Management, the agencies found that there was no, or negligible, payment of tax through cash by such exporters and their suppliers.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

India expresses concern at UNHRC over cross border terrorism

India has expressed concern on cross border terrorism emanating from Pakistan. Senior Indian diplomat Vijay Thakur Singh met UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet in Geneva yesterday and conveyed India's concerns on the threat posed by cross border terrorism.
She also briefed Bachelet on the steps taken towards the gradual return to normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir. MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, during her meeting met with the UNHR High Commissioner, Ms Singh conveyed India's concerns on the threat posed by cross border terrorism emanating from Pakistan.
In a clear reference to Pakistan, the Indian diplomat said those who speak on the human rights of minorities in other countries are trampling upon them at will in their own country. They cry victim when they actually are the perpetrators, she said.
In her UNHRC address, Ms Singh said that the recent legislative measures taken by India in Jammu and Kashmir were within the framework of its Constitution. She said, no country can accept interference in its internal affairs, certainly not India.

North Korea confirms launch of multi rocket launcher

North Korea today said, its leader Kim Jong Un observed the test-launch of a "super-large multiple rocket launcher" system, the latest in a series of weapons tests performed by Pyongyang amid stalled diplomacy over its nuclear programme.
The North Korean Central News Agency said, Kim, accompanied by top military and ruling Workers’ Party officials, supervised the two rounds of test-firings at an unidentified place yesterday.
It was the second known test of a super-large multiple rocket launcher, that North Korea says, is needed to cope with outside military threats. The first test of the weapon occurred on 24th of last month.
South Korea's military said, the North has launched unidentified projectiles from the Kaechon area in South Pyongan province. They flew approximately 330 kilometres.
The launch came shortly after Pyongyang said it was willing to resume working-level talks with the United States on denuclearisation later this month. While offering talks, North Korea still warned its dealings with the US may end if Washington fails to come to the negotiating table without new acceptable proposals.
Some experts said, North Korea aims to wrest concessions from the United States once their diplomacy resumes.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

NATGRID suggests connecting social media accounts with central database

The ambitious National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) project wants to link social media accounts to the huge database of records related to immigration entry and exit, banking and telephone details among others.
The project, initially started in 2009 with a budget of ₹2,800 crore, is an online database for collating scattered pieces of information and putting them on one platform. At least 10 central agencies like Intelligence Bureau (IB), Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and others will have access to the data on a secured platform.
The proposal has received resistance from the intelligence agencies, whose officials fear that linking the social media accounts to sensitive government data could expose the system to “trojan attacks.”
“Linking the database to social media accounts could jeopardise the entire exercise as it could be exposed to unknown virus attacks from open source Internet,” a senior government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Intelligence agencies had also earlier opposed the NATGRID itself amid fears that it would impinge on their territory and possibly result in leaks on the leads they were working on to other agencies.
An expression of interest (EOI) issued by NATGRID in 2017 had said “NATGRID is intending to set up an Entity Extraction, Visualization and Analytics (EVA) system that would collect and analyse information available from various data sources.”

::SPORTS::

India advances to second round of world cup qualifiers

In the Men's Football World Cup qualifying round, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu played the match of his life as India held Asian Champions Qatar to a goalless draw to earn their first point in a Group E second round in Doha yesterday. Gurpreet led the Indian team who are 41 rungs below Qatar in the FIFA rankings. Qatar are ranked 62nd in the world to India's 103.
The Bengaluru FC custodian, who was recently awarded the Arjuna award, made a string of saves to keep the hosts at bay for the entire duration of the match.
Qatar had 27 shots on target and yet failed to beat Gurpreet in India's goal as the team under Croatian Coach Igor Stimac celebrated the draw like a victory at the final whistle.