Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 25 July 2019

::NATIONAL::

Lok Sabha passes UAPA bill 2019 amid opposition protests

•  The Unlawful Activities Prevention (Amendment) Bill, 2019 was passed by the Lok Sabha, amid a walkout by the Opposition which opposed the clause that allows the government to designate individuals suspected to have terror links as “terrorists”.
•  We are bringing in laws that will end terrorism in the country, and we promise that the government will never misuse it. Terrorism has to be dealt with, with strict laws,” Home Minister Amit Shah said in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. He was speaking during the debate on amendments to the Unlawful Activities Prevention (Amendment) Bill, 2019.
•  Several Opposition leaders, including Trinamool Congress’s Mahua Moitra, objected to the changes saying the law could be misused to target individuals.
•  “If the Centre wants to target someone, they will get them somehow with the help of some law. Opposition leaders, minorities, right activists and others, if they disagree with the homogeneous idea of India that this government is trying to thrust upon us, the Opposition runs the risk of being labelled as anti-national,” Ms. Moitra said.
•  Replying to the Opposition’s allegations that anyone who questioned the government is termed anti-national, Mr. Shah said no one would harass genuine social activists.
•  The Home Minister also accused the Congress of double-speak, pointing out that they had brought in the law to control terrorism and then followed it up with amendments in 2004, 2008 and 2013.

Vice President urges parties to evolve code of conduct for those in public life

•  The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has expressed his concern over the all-round degeneration of values in different fields, including in politics and urged all political parties to evolve a code of conduct for those in public life to raise the level of public discourse.
•  Shri Naidu wanted the younger generation of politicians to learn from the life of Shri Chandra Shekhar who was not only committed to lofty ideals but always maintained decorum and dignity at all times irrespective of whether he was holding an office or not.
•  Calling for politics based on principles and programmes, the Vice President urged people to elect their representatives based on four essential qualities such as - Character, Capacity, Caliber and Conduct, but not on the basis of Caste, Community, Cash and Criminality.
•  Shri Naidu said the book traces the late leader’s political journey and his evolution into one of the country’s top socialist leaders, his association with the Congress party, his role as Young Turk, his stint in the Janata Party and his tenure as the Prime Minister of India.
•  Describing Shri Chandra Shekhar’s life as inspirational, the Vice President said that it was the story of an ordinary man who rose from a humble background to become the country’s Prime Minister. He was never attracted by the trappings of power. He always believed that politics was meant to serve the marginalized and deprived sections and not a vehicle to achieve power alone, Shri Naidu added.
•  Lauding the announcement made by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi earlier to build museums for all former Prime Ministers in Delhi, the Vice President said the new generation must know about the great leaders so that they get inspiration.

::ECONOMY::

GST council to reduce taxes on electric vehicles

•  The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, at its 36th meeting on Thursday, is likely to reduce the tax rate on electric vehicles, ease tax issues for the solar sector and deliberate on the tax rate on lotteries.
•  On the direct tax side, the government had, in the Budget, announced an additional income tax deduction of up to Rs. 1.5 lakh on the interest paid on loans taken to purchase electric vehicles.
•  In its last meeting, the Council had asked the Fitment Committee to look into the matter of reducing the GST rate on electric vehicles from 12% to 5%.
•  At the moment, according to a notification issued earlier this year, 70% of the cost of a solar plant is considered as goods and is taxed at 5%.
•  The remaining 30% is considered as services and is taxed at 18%. Solar manufacturers have approached the Council saying that the break up of goods and services is more along the lines of a 90-10 split rather than 70-30.
•  The third issue the GST Council is expected to discuss is the tax rate on lotteries. Currently, State-run lotteries are taxed at 18% while State-authorised lotteries are taxed at 28%.
•  The Council had, in its last meeting, said it would approach the Attorney General of India for his view on the matter. Those inputs have reportedly been received by the Council and will be discussed on Thursday.

Centre decides to expand buffer stock of sugar

•  The Centre has decided to expand the buffer stock of sugar and simultaneously halt the trend of raising the minimum support price for sugar cane to correct demand-supply imbalances, stabilise retail prices and reduce payment arrears from mills to farmers.
•  A series of bumper harvests over the past few years, combined with higher rates of sugar recovery from sugar cane, resulted in production vastly overshooting domestic demand and led to a crash in retail prices.
•  Estimates suggest that the country will produce 32.95 million tonnes of sugar in the current marketing year, as against the annual domestic demand of just 26 million tonnes.
•  At the same time, the Centre has been regularly increasing the Fair and Remunerative Price, the minimum price that mills must pay to sugar cane cultivators, an important vote bank, especially in Uttar Pradesh. As a result, payment arrears shot up to Rs. 25,000 crore earlier this year, and are still above the Rs. 15,000 crore mark.
•  The Cabinet has now decided to maintain the status quo by keeping the FRP unchanged at Rs. 275 a quintal for the next sugar marketing year, which begins in October. This decision is in line with the recommendation of the Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices, the Centre said in a statement.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Pak claims around 30000 militants operating in their territory

•  Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s dramatic admission that “30,000 to 40,000” militants — trained in Afghanistan and Kashmir — are still operating in Pakistan, may become a serious issue for Islamabad with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), government sources in New Delhi said.
•  They indicated that India was considering making the remarks a part of its submission ahead of the next meeting in October of the international terror financing watchdog.
•  In New Delhi, government sources said they were “glad” the Pakistani Prime Minister was “owning up” to the existence of these groups.
•  “It is, however, equally important for the Pakistani leadership to act on this knowledge by destroying the breeding ground of terrorists in areas under the control of Pakistan by taking credible and irreversible action,” an official told.
•  Mr. Khan’s remarks contradict the Pakistan army’s position on the existence of terror groups. In April this year, after FATF strictures spurred a crackdown on religious extremist institutions, the Pakistan army spokesperson had said there were “no terrorist organisations” in the country.
•  Government sources pointed out that the numbers given by Mr. Khan were considerably higher than those submitted by Pakistan at the FATF. Pakistan could face a “blacklisting” in October if it fails to comply with commitments on ending terrorism according to its action plan.

U.S unlikely to freeze security assistance to Pak

•  US President Donald Trump has hinted that he is unlikely to lift the freeze of security assistance to Pakistan till the time he is satisfied with Islamabad's actions against terrorist network.
•  During their first meeting in Washington, Mr Trump told Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan last night that US is paying 1.3 billion dollars to Pakistan in aid for many years but Pakistan is going against them.
•  Ties between the US and Pakistan strained after Trump, while announcing his Afghanistan and South Asia policy in August 2017, hit out at Pakistan for providing safe havens to agents of chaos that kill Americans in Afghanistan.
•  The US President had warned Islamabad that it has much to lose by harbouring terrorists.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Scientists decode birth of Milkyway galaxy

• The Milky Way, home to our sun and billions of other stars, merged with another smaller galaxy in a colossal cosmic collision roughly 10 billion years ago, scientists said on Monday based on data from the Gaia space observatory.
• The union of the Milky Way and the so-called dwarf galaxy Gaia-Enceladus increased our galaxy’s mass by about a quarter and triggered a period of accelerated star formation lasting about 2 to 4 billion years, the scientists said.
• High-precision measurements of the position, brightness and distance of around a million stars within 6,500 light years of the sun, obtained by the Gaia space telescope, helped pinpoint stars present before the merger and those that formed afterward.
• Certain stars with higher content of elements other than hydrogen or helium arose in the Milky Way, they found, and others with lower such content originated in Gaia-Enceladus, owing to its smaller mass. While the merger was dramatic and helped shape the Milky Way, it was not a star-destroying calamity.

::SPORTS::

Abhay & Tanvi wins Bengal open squash titles

•  Abhay Singh of Tamil Nadu and Asian Games medallist Tanvi Khanna clinched the men's and women's titles respectively in the sixth Bengal Open squash tournament in Kolkatta today.
•  Second seed Singh defeated top seed Abhishek Pradhan 11-6 11-6 11-4, while Tanvi fought her way past Tamil Nadu's Aparajitha Balamurukan 11-7 11-6 5-11 13-11.
•  Earlier, the under-15 category witnessed a thrilling battle with fifth-seeded Tamil Nadu girl Shameena Riaz upsetting top seed Soniya Bajaj from Maharashtra 9-11 11-7 11-5 7-11 11-8.

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