Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 18 September 2018

::NATIONAL::

NITI Aayog proposes new policy for Jhum cultivation

A recent NITI Aayog publication on shifting cultivation which is particularly practised in the northeastern States, has recommended that the Ministry of Agriculture should take up a “mission on shifting cultivation” to ensure inter-ministerial convergence.
“Central as well as State government departments of forests and environment, agriculture and allied departments often have divergent approaches towards shifting cultivation. This creates confusion among grass-roots level workers and jhum farmers,” said the report titled, “Mission on shifting cultivation: towards a transformational approach”.
The document that calls for policy coherence, said land for shifting cultivation should be recognised as “agricultural land” where farmers practise agro-forestry for the production of food rather than as forestland.
Locally referred to as jhum cultivation, this practice is considered as an important mainstay of food production for a considerable population in northeast India in States like Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Tripura and Manipur.
The publication also addresses the issue of food and nutritional security of communities involved in jhum cultivation during transition and transformation by broadening the public distribution system (PDS) to ensure widespread access to cereals and other basic food items.
The publication also suggested that shifting cultivation fallows must be legally perceived and categorised as ‘regenerating fallows’ and that credit facilities be extended to those who practise shifting cultivation.

Center says chinese intrusions declined by 10%

There has been a 10% decline in the number of Chinese transgressions this year, a senior government official told.The official said the presence of Chinese troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) has also reduced by around 30%. The manpower has been substituted with powerful surveillance equipment, he said.
Minister of State for Defence SubhashBhamre informed the RajyaSabha on February 5 that the number of transgressions was 426 in 2017.
The official claimed that the transgressions dropped after the 73-day standoff between the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army at Doklam on the China-Sikkim-Bhutan tri-junction near Nathu La last year. “The transgressions continue to take place due to the difference in perception of the actual boundary. But after Doklam, the diplomatic manoeuvring and dialogue with the counterparts at the border ensured there was no steep increase,” he said.
“There are many incidents of border transgressions that are not being recorded by both sides. If it’s reported, then it becomes part of the official record. The troops on both sides are communicating more and sorting out the differences,” said the official.
At least three intrusions were reported in Leh, Uttarakhand’sBarahoti and the strategically sensitive Asaphila in Arunachal Pradesh on August 15 when the two armies held a special Border Personnel Meeting at Nathu La in Sikkim.
Union Home Minister ShriRajnath Singh inaugurated two pilot projects of smart fencing along the Indo-Pak International Border in Jammu today.

::ECONOMY::

Merger of more nationalised banks proposed

The Centre on Monday proposed the amalgamation of state-owned Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank to create India’s third-largest bank.
The decision was taken at the meeting of a ministerial panel, headed by Finance Minister ArunJaitley, which oversees merger proposals of state-owned banks.
“This major decision was taken by Alternative Mechanism today to amalgamate Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank. While making this suggestion, we have borne in mind that we don’t want a merger of what are relatively weak banks,” Mr.Jaitley said, adding, “You can have two well-performing banks absorbing a weak one in the amalgamation process and hopefully creating a mega bank which will be sustainable, whose lending ability which will be far higher.”
On the choice of banks, Mr.Jaitley said it was the government’s assessment because one of the banks [Dena Bank] had been placed under the prompt corrective action framework. “We want to save all the banks. When you make a merger, you want to make sure the merged entity is a stronger entity.” Therefore, our capacity to subsume that weaker bank into the merged entity, which will be a stronger bank, is the principal factor that weighs with the government. Of course, we see the all India expanse and so on.
As a backgrounder to the decision, Mr.Jaitley added that the PSBs were too many in number and bank lending stood at Rs. 55 lakh crore by 2014. Before, 2008, the total amount of bank lending stood at Rs. 18 lakh crore, he said.

WEF report claims machines will overtake manpower by 2025

In less than seven years, by 2025, machines are projected to overtake humans in workplace task hours in 12 key industry sectors, according to a ‘Future of Jobs’ report by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Globally, almost half of all companies expect automation to cut their full-time workforce in the next four years; however, new jobs will still lead to a net gain in employment opportunities if sufficient reskilling is done. In India, 54% of employees in these sectors will need reskilling by 2022, the WEF said in the report released on Monday.
“Workforce transformations are no longer an aspect of the distant future,” WEF founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab, said in a preface to the report. Instead, technological changes such as high-speed mobile Internet and cloud technology, artificial intelligence, robots and automation are expected to drive a “significant shift on the frontier between humans and machines when it comes to existing work tasks between 2018 and 2022.”
In 2018, humans performed an average of 71% of total task hours across the 12 industries spanning manufacturing, services and high tech. By 2025, that will drop to just 48%, according to the WEF. Machines will perform the remaining 52%.
The companies surveyed represent more than 15 million workers in 20 developed and emerging countries. However, there are grounds for cautious optimism. “One set of estimates indicates that 75 million jobs may be displaced by a shift in the division of labour between humans and machines, while 133 million new roles may emerge that are more adapted to the new division of labour between humans, machines and algorithms,” the authors of the report wrote.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

India improves relationship with Malta

The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that India and Malta are growing at a steady pace and if we can work together, both can certainly grow faster.
The Vice President said that diplomatic relations between India and Malta were established soon after the independence of Malta and India see Malta as one of the most trusted partners within the EU. He further said that India was one of the first countries to recognize independence of Malta and now, we have taken the decision to open a resident mission in Malta in order to scale up our relationship.
Saying both economies are complimentary and technology based, the Vice President said that India and Malta need to bolster relationship with far more substantive cooperation on the economic, scientific and technological, human resource development fronts. Malta can take the advantage of India’s highly skilled professionals in the field of IT, financial services, health, pharmaceuticals, transport, freight and tourism, he added.
The Vice President said that India and Malta have signed three Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) in the field of (i) Maritime Cooperation; (ii) Diplomatic Training; and (iii) Tourism Cooperation. It is a good beginning in creating a modern, enabling framework for enhancing relations between both the countries, he added.
The Vice President thanked Malta for the assistance provided in the evacuation of Indians from Libya. He also conveyed his best wishes to the people of our friendly country Malta for the upcoming National Day of Malta.

British PM says no preferential treatment to non EU citizens post Brexit

EU and non-EU citizens, including those from India and Australia, could have the same immigration rights after Brexit, British Prime Minister Theresa May indicated on Monday.
Asked whether the EU would get a preferential deal on immigration rights that would mean they would continue to be able to travel to the U.K. more easily, the Prime Minister told BBC Radio 4 in an interview that one of the messages from the referendum was that people “didn’t want a situation where they could see people coming having those automatic rights to travel to the U.K. and a set of rules for people outside the EU.
The issue of preferential rights for EU citizens has been a controversial issue throughout the referendum campaign and afterwards. During the referendum campaign, some politicians courted voters from the South Asian diaspora with promises that Brexit — by enabling Britain to restrict the rights of EU citizens to travel to the U.K. — could provide the government with the capacity to ease rules for those from non-EU countries.
The Prime Minister has faced growing pressure over her Brexit plan — which has come to be dubbed as the “Chequers Plan” (after the location at which it was forged) that would result in Britain maintaining a common rulebook for goods, including agricultural products, with the EU after Brexit.
However, the plan faced criticism from within her own party, and triggered the resignation of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who recently referred to her plans as a “suicide vest”.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

WHO developing Benchmark Documents for practice in traditional medicine

World Health Organisation is developing Benchmark Documents for practice in Ayurveda, Panckarma and Unani system as part of its global strategy to provide safe, effective and accessible Traditional Medicine to global community.Development of these benchmarks documents is included in the Project Collaboration Agreement (PCA) between WHO and Ministry of AYUSH.
On this occasion, Secretary, Ministry of AYUSH Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha briefed about the activities undertaken by the Ministry of AYUSH. He informed that National Ayurveda Morbidity Standardized Terminology Engine (NAMSTE) is being actively used for documentation of AYUSH facilities and activities including recent rehabilitative activities undertaken by AYUSH at Kerala Flood.
He further informed about the activities undertaken by Ministry of AYUSH under AYUSHMAN BHARAT Scheme of Govt. of India and suggested that WHO may also provide assistance in this regard. He requested WHO may also help Ministry of AYUSH for developing country specific module and applications based program like M-Yoga and M-Ayurveda etc.
The purposes of the meeting are to review, comment and revise as required each of the three zero draft documents prepared by the experts. This is aimed at arriving at an International consensus regarding the structure and content of each of the documents.
The documents are expected to provide minimum requirements for qualified practice by practitioners of Ayurveda, Panchkarma and Unanito provide minimum safety requirement for practicing these and also to serve as a reference to national authorities to establish/ strengthen regulatory standards to ensure qualified practice of such system and patients safety.

::SPORTS::

India getting ready for deaf world tennis championship

PrithviSekhar stood out with his powerful game as the rest tried to keep pace with him on the fast courts of the Nehru Stadium as the Indian tennis team prepared in earnest for the Deaf World Championships to be held at Antalya, Turkey, from September 22 to 29.
The women’s team was particularly weakened after Parul Gupta pulled out, reportedly owing to a leg injury, leaving the task to run a successful campaign on JafreenShaik’s shoulders.
The men’s team tried to make it a meaningful exercise for someone like the 25-year-old Prithvi, who has been competing in the men’s professional circuit with considerable success, even at the international level.