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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 21 August 2018

::NATIONAL::

Total ban on firecrackers to be scrapped by centre

The Centre on Tuesday ruled out a national ban on firecrackers and suggested the production of “green crackers”, community cracker bursting in major cities and a freeze on the production of series crackers or laris as alternative measures to curb pollution during Diwali.
The Supreme Court was hearing a bunch of applications seeking a complete nationwide ban on the use, manufacture, licensing, sale, resale or distribution of firecrackers and sparklers of any kind in a bid to combat pollution on an emergency basis.
The Union Ministry of Environment submitted a five-page affidavit to the Supreme Court suggesting ways to deal with the pollution problem and chalking out short-term measures to combat pollution during Diwali.
The Centre proposed use of “reduced emission firecrackers or improved firecrackers”. These are “low emission sound and light emitting functional crackers with PM reduction by 30-35% and signifcant reduction in nitrogen oxide and sulpher dioxide due to in-situ water generation as dust suppressant and low cost due usage of low cost oxidants”.
The government said PESO could be approached to ensure that fireworks with permitted chemicals and decibel levels are used.

No NOTA options for Rajyasabha polls says supreme court

The Supreme Court on Tuesday scrapped the use of NOTA (none of the above) option for RajyaSabha polls, saying it would usher back the “Satan of defections.”
A three-judge Bench, led by Chief Justice of India DipakMisra, held that the option is meant only for universal adult suffrage and direct elections and not elections held by the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote as done in the RajyaSabha.
The court pointed out that in the voting in RajyaSabha elections, there is a whip and the elector is bound to obey the command of the party.
The court held that NOTA in an indirect election would not only run counter to the discipline expected from an elector under the Tenth Schedule but also be “counterproductive to the basic grammar of the law of disqualification on the ground of defection.”
The party discipline in this kind of election is of extreme significance, for that is the fulcrum of the existence of parties. It is essential in a parliamentary democracy. The thought of cross-voting and corruption is obnoxious

::ECONOMY::

Centre plans overseas UDAN scheme

State governments will be able to encourage tourism on preferred international air routes by offering subsidy to domestic airlines for a period of three years. The Ministry of Civil Aviation has prepared a draft scheme document for “UDAN International” and invited comments from stakeholders till September 4.
The scheme is designed for State governments that are keen to promote air connectivity on international routes identified by them and for which they are willing to provide subsidy to airlines.
The airlines will bid on the percentage of flight capacity for which they require financial assistance, provided that the figure doesn’t exceed 60% of the flight capacity. The entity that quotes the lowest amount will be awarded subsidy for a particular route.
When we look at international connectivity, we are looking at people with disposable incomes looking to undertake air travel for the purpose of tourism,” a source said, explaining the rationale behind not capping fares. So far, Assam has proposed to offer Rs. 100 crore per year for flights to Kathmandu, Dhaka, Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Yangon. Andhra Pradesh has also expressed its keenness to the Civil Aviation Ministry to encourage tourism.

NITI chief says trade deficit a greater concern

NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar said on Tuesday that he was more concerned about the rising trade deficit than the falling rupee, and called for efforts to push exports.
There is a constituency that benefits from strong rupee...The constituency should be put on back foot,” he added. The rupee on August 16 had slumped to a life-time low of 70.32 on strong demand for the U.S. dollar.
Mr. Kumar further said that economic policymaking should not focus only on fiscal deficit number, arguing that large economies like USA, China and European Union do not give much importance to fiscal deficit.
He, however, said that some revenue expenditure can be just brought to zero. The main worry, he added, was trade deficit. “I think it will be much better to try and push exports, as our share in world trade is low. Even our share in services sector in world trade is lower than China’s,” he noted.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

China has good hopes in trade talks with U.S

China said on Tuesday that it remains hopeful of “good results” from trade talks in Washington this week after U.S. President Trump threw cold water on the prospects for a breakthrough.
U.S. and Chinese officials are set to hold two days of talks in Washington starting Wednesday, their first formal discussions since June.
In an interview with Reuters, Mr. Trump said that he did not anticipate much from the talks to be led by China’s Vice-Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen, and David Malpass, a senior U.S. Treasury official.
While the talks are going on, Washington is due to slap fresh tariffs on a host of Chinese goods worth $16 billion, with Beijing pledging to react immediately with tit-for-tat tariffs.
Washington is also holding hearings this week on another $200 billion worth of Chinese goods which Mr. Trump has threatened to target for new tariffs.

Russian hackers after U.S think tanks

The Russian hacking unit that tried to interfere in the U.S. presidential election has been targeting conservative U.S. think tanks, Microsoft said.
Acting on a court order, the company last week seized control of six fake websites involved in such efforts, which also involved a site that mimicked the U.S. Senate, Microsoft president Brad Smith said in a blog post on Monday. The hackers were linked to the Russian military intelligence agency GRU, he wrote.
Mr. Smith said one such site appeared to mimic that of the International Republican Institute, which promotes democratic principles and whose board includes Republican Senators, among them John McCain, who have been critical of President Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin dismissed the fresh allegations, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying he did not know “which hackers are being talked about, what influencing of elections”.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Chandrayaan confirms presence of ice on moon

Scientists have confirmed the presence of frozen water deposits in the darkest and coldest parts of the moon’s polar regions using data from the Chandrayaan-I spacecraft, that was launched by India 10 years ago, NASA said on Tuesday.
With enough ice sitting at the surface — within the top few millimetres — water would possibly be accessible as a resource for future expeditions to explore and even stay on the moon, and potentially easier to access than the water detected beneath the Moon’s surface.
Scientists used data from NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) instrument to identify three specific signatures that definitively prove there is water ice at the surface of the moon.
Previous observations indirectly found possible signs of surface ice at the lunar south pole, but these could have been explained by other phenomena, such as unusually reflective lunar soil.

::SPORTS::

BCCI brings in new constitution

As per the Supreme Court order of August 9, the Tamil Nadu Registrar of Societies registered the new constitution of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Tuesday and the Board in turn informed its members that they have to amend their constitution in terms with the BCCI’s and report compliance by September 20.
The apex court order said: “Upon the registration of the said Constitution of BCCI, each of the members shall undertake registration of their respective Constitutions on similar lines within a period of 30 days thereafter.
“A compliance certificate must be furnished to the CoA, which shall file a status report before this Court with reference to the compliance undertaken by the State associations.''