Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 22 January 2020

::NATIONAL::

SC asks Parliament to review disqualifying powers of speakers

In a path breaking ruling, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said, the time has come when Parliament should have a rethink on whether disqualification petitions ought to be entrusted to a Speaker as a quasi-judicial authority when such Speaker continues to belong to a particular political party either de jure or de facto.
The Apex Court said, Parliament may seriously consider amending the Constitution to substitute Speaker of LokSabha and Legislative Assemblies as arbiter of disqualification issues with a Permanent Tribunal headed by a retired Supreme Court Judge or a retired Chief Justice of a High Court or some other mechanism to ensure swift and impartial decisions.
A bench headed by Justice R F Nariman took note of the role played by Speakers and inordinate delays in deciding pleas for disqualification of lawmakers and asked the Manipur Assembly Speaker to decide within four weeks the plea of a Congress leader seeking disqualification of BJP lawmaker and Manipur Forest Minister ThShyamkumar.
The bench added, in case no decision is forthcoming even after a period of four weeks, it will be open to any party to the proceedings to apply to this court for further directions/ reliefs in the matter. The top court was hearing the appeal of Congress leader KeishamMeghachandra Singh against the Manipur High Court order.

Census 2021 aims at accurate enumeration of dalits and tribals

As part of an attempt to better enumerate the Dalit and tribal population of the country, Census 2021 data collectors have been asked to carry charts with "pre-coded" sub castes that come under SC and ST categories in every state.
The instruction manual of the Census 2021 has a code directory that has enlisted and given a specific code to every SC and ST community in every state and Union Territory (UT). Unlike in 2011, when enumerators were asked to write down the community name of the SC or ST respondent, this time every sub caste and tribe has been pre-coded and the data collector will enter the code of the caste in the form, along with the name.
The code will then be scanned as part of post enumeration work which will give a better listing of how many persons belonging to SC and ST communities live in the country, what sort of lives they lead, what jobs they do, and whether they own a TV or a smartphone, among other details, an official said.
According to an official at the Registrar General of India, the move was decided because of the "unavailability of reliable and authentic data about the exact numbers of the certain groups even among SCs and STs, geographical areas of their spread and density has been a huge challenge in ensuring focused and outcome specific planning."
Census 2021 has already been notified with the house listing and housing Census - April to September, 2020 and population enumeration - 9th February to 28th February 2021. Nearly 30 lakh enumerators have been roped in for this from across the country.

::ECONOMY::

Growth of farmers instrumental in strengthening agrieconomy,claims centre

Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar has stressed on the efforts of taking various agriculture related policies to small scale farmers, saying growth of these farmers will play a decisive role in achieving the target of strengthening agricultural economy.
Mr Tomar said, due to defective implementation of some policies, small scale farmers lack facilities useful in agri-production.He was speaking at a day-long National Consultative Workshop on Strengthening Agri-Logistics in National Agriculture Market, e-NAM, in New Delhi today.
The Minister further said, his Ministry is working on bridging the gap and ensuring that small farmers connect with all beneficial policies effectively. Mr Tomar said, doubling income of small scale farmers by 2022 is the first priority.
The Minister admitted that there are several challenges in the logistics as it is a tedious task to take the agri-produce to the final stage. He said, start-up equipped with innovative technology can contribute in strengthening the logistics for agriculture. He also advocated for the digitalization of agri-Logistics platform under e- National Agriculture Market, e- NAM and called upon small farmers to get enrolled in it to reap the benefits.
Our Correspondent reports that the objective of the workshop is to deliberate upon comprehensive agriculture logistics and innovative solutions to enhance agriculture production in the country. It also aims at moving closer to better price discovery for farmers through a single unified market for agri-produce with the overarching goal of doubling farmers' income.

Report suggests India needs large scale investment to meet SDG targets by 2030

India needs a whopping USD 2.64 trillion investment to meet the UN's sustainable development goals (SDGs), offering the private sector an investment opportunity of over USD 1.12 trillion by 2030, according to a report.
Of the total USD 2.64 trillion of investment needed, the potential investment opportunity for the private sector is a whopping USD 1.12 trillion with USD 701.5 billion going into clean energy, USD 226.5 billion for digital access, USD 176.9 billion in transport infrastructure, and USD 19.2 billion for clean water and sanitation, said the report.
The opportunity in the water and sanitation is USD 19.2 billion as 24 per cent of the people still do not have access to clean water and sanitation and closing this gap by 2030 will require investment of close to USD 20 billion, said the report.
The Opportunity 2030 study spans 15 of the world's fastest-growing economies and estimates the potential private-sector investment opportunity to contribute to three of the most investment-ready SDGs (6,7 and 9).

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::INTERNATIONAL::

China to take coronavirus outbreak case seriously

Chinese President Xi Jinping today said that it's extremely crucial to take every possible measure to combat a new coronavirus that has infected more than 200 people in the country.
The President's remarks came the same day that the country reported a sharp rise in the number of people infected by the novel form of viral pneumonia, including the first cases in the capital. The outbreak comes as the country enters its busiest travel period when millions of board trains and planes for the Lunar New Year holidays.
Health authorities in the central city of Wuhan, said an additional 136 cases have been confirmed in the city, which now has a total of 198 infected patients. As of the weekend, a third patient had died, bringing the death toll to three.
Authorities in Thailand and in Japan have already identified at least three cases, all involving recent travel from China. At least a half-dozen countries in Asia and three US airports have started screening incoming airline passengers from central China.

Reports suggest global unemployment to rise in 2020

Global unemployment is projected to increase by around 2.5 million in 2020 and almost half a billion people are working fewer paid hours than they would like or lack adequate access to paid work, according to UN's International Labour Organization report.
The World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2020 (WESO) report, released on Monday, states that global unemployment has been roughly stable for the last nine years but slowing global economic growth means that, as the global labour force increases, not enough new jobs are being generated to absorb new entrants to the labour market.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) forecasts that unemployment will rise by about 2.5 million this year. The ILO is a UN agency whose mandate is to advance social justice and promote decent work by setting international labour standards.
In addition, 165 million people do not have enough paid work, and 120 million have either given up actively searching for work or otherwise lack access to the labour market. In total, more than 470 million people worldwide are affected, the report said.
The ILO report said that moderate or extreme working poverty is expected to edge up in 2020-21 in developing countries, increasing the obstacles to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 1 on eradicating poverty everywhere by 2030.
The report's authors recommend that countries ensure that economic growth and development occurs in a way that leads to the reduction of poverty and better working conditions in low-income countries, through structural transformation, technological upgrading and diversiﬁcation.
The annual WESO Trends report analyses key labour market issues, including unemployment, labour underutilisation, working poverty, income inequality, labour income share and factors that exclude people from decent work.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

France to train Indian flight surgeons for Gaganyaan

France will train Indian flight surgeons to enable them to monitor the health of astronauts selected for the ambitious human space mission Gaganyaan, officials said on Tuesday.
The two-week training is a critical aspect of the Gaganyaan project that is aimed at sending three Indians to space by 2022.
The flight surgeons, who will be Indian Air Force doctors specialising in aviation medicines and responsible for the health of astronauts before, during and after flight, will be shortlisted soon, an official from India's space agency ISRO added.
France has a well-established mechanism for space medicine. It also has the MEDES space clinic, a subsidiary of CNES, where space surgeons undergo training.
Officials said talks are also on whether to send the astronauts to France for further training.The four shortlisted astronauts -- all test pilots from the Indian Air Force -- are currently in Russia for an 11-month training programme.
India and France share robust ties in the area of space.The two countries had signed a joint vision for space cooperation in March 2018, months before Prime Minister NarendraModi announced the Gaganyaan project.
The vision statement envisaged developing technologies for human exploration of the universe under which ISRO and CNES would jointly develop capabilities and critical technologies.

::SPORTS::

Qatar and FIFA publish strategy ahead of world cup 2022

Qatar and FIFA today published the first jointly issued legacy planning strategy ahead of the football World Cup in 2022. FIFA and the Qatari Supreme Committee organisers said in a statement in Doha that it contains pledges on labour and LGBT rights alongside protections for activists and journalists.
It said a total of 22 objectives have been described in detail, together with more than 70 concrete initiatives and programmes to deliver the strategy.The 112-page "Sustainability Strategy" also sets out commitments on making the tournament inclusive for groups including the disabled.
It provides for boosting economic development, protecting the environment and promoting ethical business practices. On workers' rights, the document said Qatar would promote "decent working and living conditions and fair recruitment, including effective access" to remedial measures.