Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 27 May 2019

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 27 May 2019

::NATIONAL::

PM reiterates commitment to regional peace

  • Prime Minister NarendraModi told his Pakistani counterpart, Imran Khan, that creating trust and an environment free of violence and terrorism is essential for fostering peace and prosperity in the region.
  • External Affairs Ministry said, it was Mr Khan who called up Mr Modi to congratulate him on his re-election.Recalling his initiatives in line with his government's neighbourhood first policy, Mr Modi referred to his earlier suggestion to Mr Khan to fight poverty jointly.
  • Mr Modi also received telephone calls from the former president of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed and former prime minister of Nepal Madhav Nepal on his poll victory. Former Maldivian president congratulated Mr Modi on the historic mandate and noted that the relationship between the Maldives and India had deepened in recent times.
  • Mr Nasheed stressed the importance of close cooperation to fight the forces of extremism and radicalisation in the region.
  • On his part, Mr Modi thanked Mr Nasheed for his felicitation and reiterated his commitment to continue fostering a strong, mutually beneficial and all-round partnership between the two countries.
  • The MEA said Mr Madhav Nepal warmly congratulated Mr Modi on leading his party and alliance to a grand, historic and landslide poll victory.Mr Nepal also expressed the confidence that India's emergence as a front-ranking world power would qualitatively uplift the entire region.

IMD claims unfavourable flow of air hindering progress of Monsoons

  • The India Meteorological Department today said, unfavourable cross-equatorial flow over the Arabian Sea that aids in the progress of the monsoon is one of the reasons for its delay.
  • It said, monsoon reached the Andaman and Nicobar Islands on 18th May but it is yet to cover the entire region.
  • The IMD said, conditions are likely to become favourable for the movement of the southwest monsoon into some more parts of south Bay of Bengal, Andaman Islands and north Andaman Sea during Wednesday-Thursday.
  • It is also expected to make an onset over Kerala on 6th June, five days after its normal onset date. The weather department said, the monsoon was yet to get traction from the Arabian Sea.
  • On the other hand, heatwave conditions are very likely to continue over Vidarbha and at isolated pockets over central Maharashtra, Telangana, east Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, east Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Odisha during the next four-five days.

::ECONOMY::

IRDAI to simplify norms for fire cover

  • A working group of insurance regulator IRDAI, that revisited the structure of products providing cover to homes, offices, commercial establishments and MSMEs, has recommended many changes, from simplification of the policy wordings and provision of adequate cover to insuring homes in multi-storeyed apartments for total saleable price.
  • Seeking comments on the group’s report, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) said wordings and terms and conditions of the basic policy for fire and allied perils for all categories of risks are driven by the erstwhile All India Fire Tariff, 2001.
  • Insurers, however, have been permitted to sell add-ons to the basic cover. IRDAI had set up the group in view of the huge gap between economic losses and insured losses, post catastrophic events, for homes, offices, commercial establishments and MSMEs. The group submitted its second and last part of the report in November.
  • The group said there has to be a system of default sum insured for all the dwellings such that the insured value is a reasonable estimation of the correct value of construction cost of the building.
  • Towards this, it wanted the General Insurance Council or the IIB (Insurance Information Bureau) to create a database of cost of construction for each square feet of carpet area for different geographies and construction types.

Renewable energy sector struggling due to lack of support

  • When the BJP Government assumed office in 2014, the Indian solar industry was on tenterhooks. The Ministry of Commerce had recommended anti-dumping duties ranging between ₹6 and ₹47 per watt of solar modules imported from China, Malaysia, Taiwan and the U.S., and the recommendation had to be only formally notified by the Ministry of Finance.
  • Solar power had barely begun to take roots in India, and the country had a total installed solar power capacity of 2,632 MW. The industry was taking baby steps with the aid of cheap, imported modules.
  • The anti-dumping duty was going to kill it. On the other hand, a clutch of domestic players had set up module manufacturing plants in India, eyeing business from a sunrise industry. Crushed by cheap imports, they looked up to the government for protection.
  • The way the government handled a rather ticklish problem engendered confidence, which strengthened soon when the government set up an ambitious target of 175 GW for renewable energy — 100 GW for solar, 60 GW for wind and the rest for biomass and small hydro — to be met by 2022. Since the solar target was five times that set earlier by the previous government, it caused ripples of excitement around the world.
  • Again, the plea only fell on deaf ears. And, the industry says it has to contend with rampant corruption or extortionate prices while securing right-of-way in all States. On top of all this, the State government-owned utilities have been delaying paying their dues to the energy companies.
  • After a December 2014 study by CRISIL and IIT-Madras, which recommended kick-start support by the government, there has been absolute silence.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

European parliament votes for people’s party group

  • European Parliament published the provisional results for this year's elections, showing the European People's Party group winning 178 seats and remaining the largest political group in the legislature.
  • The second largest group is the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) with 152 seats, in the 751-member legislature.
  • The combination of two largest parties, traditionally forming a grand alliance big enough to be in the control in the legislature, fell short of a majority.
  • The third largest group is the ALDE group plus France's Renaissance with 108 seats. The group of Greens and European Free Alliance came in fourth place with 67 seats. The European Conservatives and Reformists group is the fifth-largest with 61 seats.
  • European Parliament announced that EU-wide turnout has risen over 50 per cent, the highest in 20 years and the first significant increase in turnout since 1979.

Mass demonstrations in Brazil in support of President

  • Thousands gathered in cities across Brazil today to show support for President JairBolsonaro, who faces an uncooperative Congress, street protests, a family corruption scandal and falling approval ratings five months into his term.
  • The stumbling start for the far-right leader who rode a wave of dissatisfaction with Brazil's political class to victory led his backers to call for the demonstrations, which represented a mixed bag of demands and protests. The idea for demonstrations in favor of Bolsonaro gained steam after tens of thousands of people across Brazil last week protested budget cuts to public education imposed by his government.
  • Bolsonaro, who earlier in his political career said he would close Congress if he were ever president, told reporters on Friday he didn't support calls to close institutions.
  • In a tweet, JanaínaPaschoal, a federal congresswoman whose name was floated as a potential vice president, said that Bolsonaro's biggest risk was himself, his sons and some of his staff members.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Sea water from ice age era discovered from Indian ocean

  • In a first, scientists have discovered the remnants of seawater dating back to the Ice Age, tucked inside rock formations in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Researchers from the University of Chicago in the U.S. made the discovery during a months-long scientific mission exploring the limestone deposits that form the Maldives.
  • The ship, the JOIDES Resolution, is specifically built for ocean science and is equipped with a drill that can extract cores of rock over a mile long from up to three miles beneath the seafloor.
  • When they extracted the water, they noticed their preliminary tests were coming back salty much saltier than normal seawater.
  • Further studies showed that the water was not from today’s ocean, but from the last remnants of a previous era that had migrated slowly through the rock.
  • Scientists are interested in reconstructing the last Ice Age because the patterns that drove its circulation, climate and weather were very different from today’s.
  • Understanding these patterns could shed light on how the planet’s climate will react in the future.

::SPORTS::

Indian Men’s team wins medal in archery worldcup

** Current Affairs