Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 28 NOVEMBER 2018

::NATIONAL::

Vice President addresses Global textiles conclave 2018

• The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has called for United Nations and other Multilateral Organisations to chalk out strategy to extradite economic fugitives. He was addressing the CITI Global Textiles Conclave 2018, organised to commemorate CITI Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

• The Vice President said that world leaders he had met during his visits to Europe, Latin America and Africa appreciated India’s development story and said that it was marching forward with remarkable growth. There was a tremendous interest in India’s growth story in the world community, he added.

• The Vice President said that Accountability and Transparency, Ethics in Business and Standards in Products must be maintained to sustain in the global competitive scenario.

• He said that India definitely has a competitive advantage in terms of abundant availability of raw material, skilled manpower, manufacturing competitiveness, huge spinning, weaving, processing and garment manufacturing facilities.

• With the world moving towards 4th industrial revolution based on cyber physical systems, Shri Naidu said that the Indian textile industry must take lead in industry 4.0 in view of the distinct advantage enjoyed by us in the IT sector. He called up on the textile industry to fully tap the potential of IoT cloud, artificial intelligence and big data and analytics.

Opposition seeks change in citizenship bill

• As Opposition MPs proposed an amendment to remove specific countries and religions from the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, at a joint parliamentary committee meeting on Tuesday, BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi wanted legal proceedings against six persecuted minorities to be dropped.

• The Bill proposes citizenship to six persecuted minorities — Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians and Buddhists from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who came to India before 2014.

• There has been vocal opposition to the Bill in BJP-ruled Assam as it would pave the way for giving citizenship, mostly to illegal Hindu migrants from Bangladesh in Assam, who came after March 1971, in violation of the agreement of the Assam Accord, 1985.

• Around 40 lakh people in Assam have been excluded from the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) published on July 30.

• The joint parliamentary committee, under the chairmanship of BJP MP Rajendra Agarwal, went through clause-by-clause amendments to the Bill.

• Congress MP Mr Roy said that it should be made country neutral too. “Why only Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, in the past we have had refugees seeking asylum from Sri Lanka and Myanmar too. Instead of listing the countries it should be made neutral,” he added.

• A senior government official said that as many as 18 amendments were moved in the 30-member committee comprising 13 BJP MPs.

::ECONOMY::

RBI governor proposes autonomy for the central bank

• Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel batted for autonomy of the institution in strong terms in his deposition before the Parliamentary Panel on Finance, Mr. Patel made a presentation on the impact of demonetisation and the status of non-performing assets in the banking sector.

• Mr. Patel made three key points at the meeting. First, he said, depositors’ interests were of primary importance for which autonomy was non-negotiable. Second, monetary policy should be the exclusive domain of the RBI.He also asserted that maintaining the central bank’s reserves was extremely essential to maintaining the country’s AAA rating.

• The issue of central bank autonomy rose to the fore again following RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya’s speech last month, in which he cautioned against the Centre impinging upon the RBI’s autonomy and trying to direct its policy on key issues such as the prompt corrective action (PCA) norms, the classification of power sector NPAs, and the quantum of surplus to be transferred to the Centre.

• Following a public back-and-forth between the central bank and the Finance Ministry, the issue came to a head when the Central Board of the Reserve Bank met on November 19 to take decisions on the issues raised.

• On October 1, the government superseded the board of IL&FS after some of its group entities defaulted on debt payments which triggered concerns of a liquidity crisis in the financial market.

• The total debt of the group was pegged at ₹94,215.6 crore as of October 8. As part of efforts to rescue the group, the government appointed a new board with Uday Kotak as its executive chairman.

Finance ministry claims over 3 lakh benefitted from Ayushman Bharat scheme

• Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said as many as 3 lakh poor people have benefited from Ayushman Bharat health scheme in the last one-and-a-half months.

• Speaking at the function to release the book 'Making of New India: Transformation under Modi Government in New Delhi Jaitley said that the NDA Government is both pro-business and pro-poor as the country needs greater resources to fund the poverty alleviation programmes.

• Mr Jaitley said if the country has to grow at a faster pace, faster than rest of the world in the next one or two decades, then contribution from the rural sector has to go up.

• The book, 'Making of New India: Transformation under Modi Government', contains 51 essays on themes ranging from economy to diplomacy, education to public health.

• President Ram Nath Kovind received the first copy of the book from Jaitley at a function in Rashtrapati Bhawan.Speaking on the occasion, the President said that contemporary governance has played a vital role in giving shape and form to an all-inclusive idea of 'New India'.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September launched the Ayushman Bharat- Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana which aims to provide a coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family annually.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

PM to meet Chinese premier in Argentina on sidelines of G 20summit

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet in Argentine capital Buenos Aires on the sidelines of the G20 summit this week.

• Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale announced on Tuesday that the bilateral meeting between the two leaders will cover issues of mutual interest. “It was decided at the BRICS summit in Johannesburg that both the leaders will meet frequently and both the countries were quite happy in incorporating it in their schedules,” Mr. Gokhale said, elaborating the list of bilateral meetings that have been firmed up for Mr. Modi’s visit to Buenos Aires.

• The announcement came in the backdrop of a letter from Congress MP Ninong Ering of Arunachal Pradesh, which urged the Prime Minister to discuss the issues relevant to the State with the Chinese President.

• In a letter to Mr. Modi, the Member of Parliament said that the issue of stapled visa and ecological issues should be on the agenda of the India-China leaders in Buenos Aires.

• Foreign Secretary Gokhale, however, declined to give details of the agenda of the bilateral talks, which are expected to be significant as it comes days after the dialogue between the Special Representatives (SR) of both India and China that pledged to increase ‘strategic communication’ between the two countries.

• Mr. Modi’s meeting with President Emmanuel Macron of France is also under planning, Mr. Gokhale said, without elaborating further.

Ukraine declares martial law after Russian seizure attempt

• Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday warned Ukraine against any “reckless acts” after Kiev declared martial law in response to Moscow’s seizure of three of its Navy vessels.

• The Ukrainian Parliament late on Monday voted in favour of President Petro Poroshenko’s request for the introduction of martial law in border areas for 30 days.

• The move came after Russian forces fired on, boarded and captured three of Kiev’s ships on Sunday off the coast of Crimea, sparking the most dangerous crisis between the ex-Soviet neighbours in years.

• The incident was the first major confrontation at sea in the long-running conflict pitting Ukraine against Moscow and Russian-backed separatists in the country’s east.

• It has raised fears of a wider escalation in a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014 and prompted international calls for restraint.

• Martial law gives Ukrainian authorities the power to mobilise citizens with military experience, regulate the media and restrict public rallies in affected areas.

• Meanwhile, a court in Russian-annexed Crimea on Tuesday ordered three Ukrainian sailors to be held in custody for two months.

• “For now, the court has ordered three people held until January 25” on accusations of crossing into Russian territory illegally, sajid Crimea’s rights ombudswoman Lyudmila Lubina.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Defence ministry launches Mission Raksha Gyan Shakti

• Raksha Mantri Smt Nirmala Sitharaman has formally launched ‘Mission Raksha Gyan Shakti’, here today. The event showcased salient inventions and innovations achieved by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) and Ordnance Factories (OFs) which have resulted in successful filing of Intellectual Property Right (IPR) applications.

• Smt Sitharaman also felicitated some of the scientists, who invented and innovated useful products for the nation.

• Smt Sitharaman highlighted that while India has always been a knowledge hub since ancient times, however, due to lack of awareness on modern legal framework for protection of IP rights, our knowledge and creativity have often not been utilised to its full potential.

• The IPR has emerged as a key ingredient of an ecosystem which stimulates innovation and ingenuity. An IP Facilitation Cell was established in April this year which has worked tirelessly to achieve ambitious targets of training 10,000 personnel of OFB and DPSUs on IPR and to facilitate filing of at least 1,000 new IPR applications.

• As part of the ongoing initiatives to enhance self-reliance in defence, the Department of Defence Production has instituted a new framework titled ‘Mission Raksha GyanShakti’ which aims to provide a boost to the IPR culture in indigenous defence industry.

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