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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 21 August 2019

::NATIONAL::

Centre emphasises defence indigenization of defence equipments to reduce imports

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has emphasized the need for indigenization of defence equipment to reduce dependence on imports and improve the operational capability of the armed forces.
He also stressed on keeping pace with technological advancements to bolster defence production. Mr Singh was speaking at a seminar of Modernization and Indigenization Plans of the Indian Air Force in New Delhi today.
The Defence Minister also invited foreign companies to invest in India's defence manufacturing. He said efforts are on to engage the private sector through Make In India initiative in the sector.
The Defence Minister hailed the Indian Air Force as a technologically advanced and extremely potent force. He said the recent offensive strike against terrorist outfits in India's neighbourhood speaks volumes about the reach and lethality of the formidable arm of the Armed Forces.
Delivering the keynote address at the seminar, Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa said high-end obsolete equipment is being replaced with the indigenously developed.
He said operational capability of the Air Force requires induction of the state-of-the-art equipment. He also stressed the need for procurement of more aircraft to project India's air power.

Supreme court concerned over Aadhar-Social media linking

The Supreme Court on Tuesday stressed the need to find a balance between the right to online privacy and the right of the State to detect people who use the web to spread panic and commit crimes.
The Bench’s comments were in response to submissions by Attorney General K.K. Venugopal, appearing for the Tamil Nadu government along with advocate BalajiSrinivasan, about the need to link social media profiles of registered users with their Aadhaar numbers, and if required, have platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp share the 12-digit unique identity with law enforcement agencies to help detect crimes.
AG Mr.Venugopal argued, “The linking of social media profiles with Aadhaar is needed to check fake news, defamatory articles, pornographic materials and anti-national and terror contents in the online media.”
He said the government found it a challenge to trace the ‘originator’ of such online content. The services of social media platforms, which were used to circulate such content, was the need of the hour.
The court, as the highest court in the country, and not the High Courts, should decide the issue that affected the privacy of an online user.
The court finally issued notice to the Centre and the States on the plea made by social media platforms for transferring the proceedings in High Courts to the apex court. It further scheduled the next hearing to September 13.

::ECONOMY::

RBI comments that Indian banks do not have good compliance culture

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has come down heavily on commercial banks after slapping a series of penalties for not complying with several regulatory guidelines.
Speaking at the FICCI-IBA banking seminar, RBI Deputy Governor in-charge of banking supervision M.K. Jain said that the compliance culture in the banking system was far from satisfactory.
He said following the global financial crisis, the importance of compliance had increased significantly, particularly in the areas of know-your-customer, anti-money laundering and appropriateness of banking products, among others.
Between January and July this year, the banking regulator had imposed penalties worth about ₹122.9 crore on 70 occasions on banks for non-compliance, he said.
Meanwhile Reserve Bank Deputy Governor N.S. Vishwanathan on August 20 exhorted bankers to ensure timely resolution of stressed assets under the new framework to extract the best value and underlined the need for dealing only in “genuine” cases.
The central bank will be coming out with the final guidelines for private and foreign bankers’ compensation soon, he said, speaking at the annual industry event Fibac.

Ministry of Housing wants RERA to stay and maintains confidence

Inaugurating the “Housing for all 2022: NAREDCO 15th National Convention: Real Estate Reflection Point: Readying for the future", the Minister for Housing & Urban Affairs, ShriHardeep Singh Puri said that “RERA has seen a resounding success, RERA is here to stay & has begun to show effect.
The Minister further added that “I am confident that Housing For All targets will be achieved well in time. With an enhanced target of 1.12 million Houses, We have already sanctioned 85 lakh Houses of which construction is in progress in more than 50 Lakh Houses apart from the 27 Lakh Housed which have already been delivered”.
Speaking about the Draft Model Tenancy Act(MTA), 2019, which has been shared with the States/UTs for seeking their views/commentsthe Minister said that more than 400 responses have been received from various stakeholders.
He further added that with rental policy in place, together with housing policy and other efforts from the ministry, should help revive/kick start one of the most important sectors of our economy.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

PM expresses concern over violence against Indian diaspora in London

Prime Minister NarendraModi yesterday held telephonic conversation with his British counterpart Boris Johnson during which he raised the issue of violence against members of the Indian diaspora celebrating Independence Day outside the Indian Mission in London.
According to a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office, Mr.Modi drew Johnson's attention to the challenges posed by vested interests pursuing their motivated agenda, including by violent means.
The statement said, Prime Minister Johnson regretted the incident and assured that all necessary steps would be taken to ensure safety and security of the High Commission, its personnel and visitors.
Violent clashes took place outside the Indian High Commission when thousands of people converged there for pre-planned protests and counter-demonstrations on 15th of August.
During the conversation, Prime Minister Modi also pointed out that terrorism had plagued all parts of the world, including India and Europe. He stressed the importance of effective steps to ward off the threats posed by radicalization, violence and intolerance.

Russia and China condemn US missile test

Russia and China have warned that a new US missile test had heightened military tensions and risked sparking an arms race.
The US and Russia ditched the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty this month after accusing each other of violating the accord.Washington said the agreement also tied its hands in dealing with other powers.
The US Department of Defense announced yesterday that it had tested a type of ground-launched missile that was banned under the 1987 INF agreement, which limited the use of nuclear and conventional medium-range weapons.
Russia's deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov told state news agency TASS that the US has obviously taken a course towards the escalation of military tensions.
In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman GengShuang said this measure from the US will trigger a new round of an arms race, leading to an escalation of military confrontation. He warned that the test will have a serious negative impact on the international and regional security situation.
The missile was launched from the US Navy-controlled San Nicolas Island off the coast of California.
The INF banned all land-based missiles that could travel between 500 and 5,500 kilometres in an effort to abolish the class of nuclear arms that then most threatened Europe.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Gulf of Mannar gets coral cover again

After the coral reef colonies in Gulf of Mannar (GoM) witnessed massive bleaching between 2005 and 2010 and 2016 due to high temperature and other factors, the Field Research Centre of the National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) launched coral restoration project and has successfully extended the live coral cover in dead coral reef areas.
The NCCR launched the restoration project during October 2018 around the islands in the GoM region and used species such as acroporaporites, favites, goniastrea and montipora corals for the restoration programme, an official release said.
Restoration of corals in the dead reef areas in the GoM became imperative to protect reef biodiversity after massive bleaching events recorded during the years 2005 to 2010 and in 2016, it said.
“Coral reef restoration is one of the important management strategies to restore reef ecosystem from degraded, damaged or destroyed state to healthy reef condition,” it said.
The NCCR had studied coral reef monitoring in the GoM, Lakshadweep Islands, the Andamans, Malvan and Gulf of Kutch under the World Bank project, it said, adding it had set up a Field Research Centre at Mandapam for long-term monitoring of coral reef status in respect of climate change and also focused on restoration of corals.

::SPORTS::

Indian hockey team enters finals of Olympic test event

Indian men's and women's hockey teams entered the finals of the Olympic Test Event in Tokyo today.
The men's team trounced the hosts Japan 6-3. Mandeep Singh struck a fine hat-trick while Nilakanta Sharma, NilamSanjeepXess and Gurjant Singh were the other scorers for India. Kentaro Fukuda, Kenta Tanaka and Kazuma Murata got on to the scoresheet for Japan.
The win put India in the second spot in the points table and they face toppers New Zealand in the summit clash tomorrow. The match is slated to begin at 8.30 a.m. Indian Standard Time.