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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 24 July 2019

::NATIONAL::

Govt.denies U.S president’s claim on Kashmir mediation

External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar today said, it is India’s consistent position that all outstanding issues with Pakistan are discussed only bilaterally.
Making a brief statement in the RajyaSabha on US President Donald Trump’s claim with regard to Jammu and Kashmir, he assured the House that no such request of mediation was made by Prime Minister NarendraModi to the US President.
He said, any engagement with Pakistan will require an end to cross-border terrorism.
Earlier, Anand Sharma of Congress raised the issue saying the entire country is shocked to hear the claim made by US President. He said, the Prime Minister should come to Parliament and verify the US President’s statement.
US President claim about mediation in the Kashmir issue was also raised in the LokSabha. As soon as the House met for the day, Opposition members created uproar and shouted slogans demanding the presence of the Prime Minister to clear the air.
While raising the issue, Congress leader AdhirRanjanChowdhury said India cannot bow its head before anyone and Prime Minister NarendraModi should come to the House and clarify.

Supreme court to act against fraudulent builders

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Union and State governments to move against builders defrauding homebuyers even as it cancelled the registration of Amrapali Group under the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) and directed the State-owned National Buildings and Construction Corporation (NBCC) to complete the unfinished housing projects of the company in a relief for over 40,000 homebuyers.
The court directed the Enforcement Directorate and other law enforcement agencies to investigate and nail the people in the group responsible for fraud and money laundering. It sought a progress report. It fixed the next hearing for August 9.
The 270-page judgment made scathing remarks at the lender banks, Noida and Greater Noida authorities who remained mute spectators while the company and its directors conducted “sham transactions” under their very nose.
These included sub-lease of public land got on huge concessions, grant of NOC for illegal mortgages, diversion of loans to “dummy companies” run by their office boys and peons. All this without bothering to pay compensation to the farmers whose lands were taken away for housing projects.
The court accused the banks of “negligence and non-monitoring”; of turning a blind eye to such an extent that even the basic checks were not done. On the other hand, the group owed over Rs.5426.09 crore to the Noida and Greater Noida authorities.
The judgment also exposed the ways in which builders collude with banks and authorities to crush the hand which feeds them – the lower income and middle class homebuyers.

::ECONOMY::

Data breaches have caused Indian enterprises heavily

Data breaches have cost Indian enterprises Rs. 12.8 crore on an average during the first half of calendar 2019, a 7.29% increase compared with a year ago.
Each employee incurred a loss of Rs. 5,019 on account of lost data or stolen record, an increase of 9.76% from the prior year, said a study conducted by IBM Security in association with Ponemon Institute.
Some 45 enterprises across segments were part of the India leg of the study. By per capital cost, industrial, pharmaceuticals, technology, and financial sectors were the top affected verticals, found the study.
The root cause for 51% of data breaches was malicious or criminal attacks, and it cost companies $1 million more on average than those originating from accidental causes. System glitches accounted for 27% of data breaches while human errors accounted for 22%.
Commenting on the findings, VaidyanathanIyer, security software leader, IBM India/south Asia said: “India is witnessing a significant change in the nature of cybercrimes; it is now extremely organised and collaborative. The cost of data breach continues to grow year after year.”
“The findings highlight the fact it is critical for organisations to invest in risk assessment, cognitive threat, management and building digital trust to beef up cyber security,” added Mr.Iyer.

IMF cuts Indian growth forecast to 7 %

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cut India’s growth forecast for 2019-20 to 7% from its forecast in April of 7.3% on poor demand conditions, it said on Tuesday.
The IMF’s World Economic Outlook July update also cut India’s growth forecast in 2020-21 to 7.2% from the previous estimate of 7.5%.
In April, the IMF had cut India’s growth forecast for 2019-20 to 7.3%, which was 0.2 percentage points lower than the forecast made in January, which itself was 0.1 percentage points lower than the forecast made in October 2018.
The forecast of 7.2% growth for 2020-21 is 0.5 percentage points lower than what was forecast made in October and January. The 7% forecast for 2019-20, however, is in line with those made by the Reserve Bank of India, Chief Economic Adviser Krishnamurthy Subramanian and the Asian Development Bank.
The growth forecast for emerging markets and developing economies has also been cut by 0.3 percentage points for 2019 to 4.1% and by 0.1 percentage points for 2020 to 4.7%.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Boris Johnson to take over as British PM today

The new leader of Conservative party Boris Johnson will take over as Prime Minister of Britain today. Mr Johnson is scheduled to meet the Queen at Buckingham Palace where he will be invited to form a new government.
He is also expected to announce senior cabinet posts, including chancellor of the exchequer and home secretary.
Mr Johnson won a decisive victory over Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt for the party's leadership. After his victory, Mr Johnson said his priorities were to deliver Brexit, unite the country and defeat Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Mr Johnson will inherit a wafer-thin parliamentary majority and like his predecessor Theresa May, he will continue to rely on the support of the Democratic Unionists of Northern Ireland to govern.

India-U.K to expand cooperation via educational exchange programme

A new India-UK bilateral pilot scheme has been launched to support Britain's universities to collaborate with Indian partners to send UK students to India during their studies. The “UKEIRI Mobility Programme: Study in India”, an initiative of Universities UK International (UUKI) and British Council India, opened yesterday.
It aims to generate up to 200 opportunities for undergraduate students at UK universities to visit India by March 2021. Priority for the programme to visit India during their courses will be given to students from traditionally underrepresented groups.
The Study in India programme will support national and institutional-level objectives to increase the levels of outward student mobility from the UK to 13 per cent by 2020, as set out in UUKi's “Go International: Stand Out” campaign.
The programme will be funded by the UK and Indian governments as part of Phase 3 of the UK-India Education Research Initiative (UKEIRI) and delivered by the British Council, Universities UK International and EdCIL in India.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

ISRO plans for Aditya –L1 mission post Chandrayaan-2

After Chandrayaan-2, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has planned to launch its solar mission, Aditya-L1, during the first half of 2020.
Aditya-L1 is meant to observe the Sun’s corona, the outer layers of the star that span thousands of kilometres.
India on July 22 successfully launched its second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 on board its powerful rocket GSLV-MkIII-M1 from the spaceport in Sriharikota to land a rover on the celestial body and explore its unchartered south pole.
Another interplanetary mission to Venus will be launched in the next 2-3 years, according to Mr. Sivan, who is also the secretary, Department of Space.
Aditya-L1, with additional experiments, can provide observations of the Sun’s photosphere, chromosphere and corona.
In addition, particle payloads will study the particle flux emanating from the Sun, according to the ISRO. These payloads have to be placed outside the interference of the Earth’s magnetic field and cannot be useful in the low-earth orbit.

::SPORTS::

Indian captain maintains ICC test rankings

India skipper ViratKohli has retained his number one position in the latest ICC Test batsmen's rankings.
Kohli, who last featured in India's 2-1 Test series win over Australia, is sitting on 922 points. New Zealand's Kane Williamson (913) is second and CheteshwarPujara (881) third in the rankings released yesterday.
In the team rankings, India remain in the first place followed by New Zealand (2) and South Africa (3) with England (4) and Australia (5) rounding up the top five.