Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 29 JANUARY 2019

::NATIONAL:::

Supreme court seeks status of foreigners in detention centres

•  The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Centre to provide it details of the number of foreigners lodged in detention centres in Assam.
•  A Bench led by Chief Justice of India RanjanGogoi sought the number of functioning detention centres, the status of pending cases against the detainees before the Foreigners’ Tribunal, the period of their detention and so on.
•  The information has to be provided by February 19, the next date of hearing in the court. On November 5 last year, the government informed the court about the framing of new guidelines for keeping foreign nationals in detention centres across the country.
•  In September, the court admitted the petition filed by Harsh Mander, who, speaking through his lawyer PrashantBhushan, compared the situation of families languishing in detention centres with the family separation policy imposed on illegal immigrants in the U.S. by the Trump administration.
•  The Bench had then sought responses from the Centre and the Assam government on the plight of families which languish in the State’s six detention centres as “declared foreigners,” separated from each other and their children.

Expert panel suggests India has attained saturation in managing tiger population of the countr

•  While conservation efforts are aimed at increasing the tiger count in India, global experts and officials in the government suggest that India must also prepare for a new challenge of reaching the limits of its management capacity.
•  Officially, India had 2,226 tigers as of 2014. An ongoing census is expected to reveal an update to these numbers. But Rajesh Gopal, head of the Global Tiger Forum, said that India’s current capacity to host tigers ranged from 2,500-3,000 tigers.
•  With dwindling core forests as well as the shrinking of tiger corridors ,officials said there were several challenges alongside the traditional challenges of poaching and man-animal conflict to India’s success at tiger conservation.
•  Recent attempts at translocating tigers to unpopulated reserves, such as Satkosia in Orissa, have ended badly, with one of the tigers dying.
•  Overall, given the low availability of prey in some reserves, this is the capacity that can be supported. However, there are vast tracts of potential tiger habitat that can be used to improve prey density, develop tiger corridors and therefore support a much larger population.
•  Since 2006, the WII has been tasked with coordinating the tiger estimation exercise. The once-in-four-years exercise calculated, in 2006, that India had only 1,411 tigers. This rose to 1,706 in 2010 and 2,226 in 2014 on the back of improved conservation measures and new estimation methods.

::ECONOMY::

Centre urges PSB’s to extend credit to MSME and housing sector

•  A few days before the presentation of the Vote on Account, Finance Minister PiyushGoyal on Monday held a meeting with the heads of public sector banks (PSBs) during which they discussed ways to increase support to the MSME sector and improve credit for homeowners.
•  During the meeting, also attended by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, the bankers reviewed the working of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) and discussed ways by which faster resolutions could be reached.
•  “They have also discussed various ways in which the operations of the banks can become more efficient, customer-friendly, profitable as well as ensure the stated goals of this government to reach financial inclusion of every Indian,said mr.Goyal
•  Mr.Goyal also said that the bankers spoke about how the working of the IBC had helped them recover large amounts of money both through the IBC mechanism and the NCLTs, and also due to the fact that many cases had been resolved without having to go through the IBC due to the pressure that is built up on large borrowers.
•  The Vote on Account is to be presented on February 1, while the RBI’s monetary policy review is scheduled for February 7.
•  “PCA banks were advised to maintain the trend of improvement in performance, with a view to bringing them out of the PCA framework at the earliest,” said a statement.
•  “In this connection, the significant reduction in NNPAs and significant de-risking of their credit portfolios during the current financial year were taken note of.”
• Centre launches National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP) to further strengthen agricultural education
•  Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare ShriRadha Mohan Singh addressed the inaugural function of the fourth Convention of 2-day "Agrivision-2019" organized by VidyarthiKalyanNyas in Pusa, New Delhi.
•  The Minister said that in order to make agriculture education useful, the recommendations of the 5th Dean Committee have been implemented in all the Agricultural Universities under which amendment of agricultural degree courses has been done to include biotechnology, information technology, bio-informatics, remote sensing, organic farming, agriculture business management etc
•  Shri Singh informed that the ICAR has recently launched Rs 1100 crore ambitious National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP) to attract talent and strengthen higher agricultural education in the country.
•  This project will be funded by the World Bank and the Indian Government on a 50:50 basis. In addition, a four year degree in Agriculture, Horticulture, Fisheries and Forestry has been declared a professional degree.
•  In order to promote the participation of students in agricultural business, Student READY (Rural Entrepreneurship Awareness Development Yojana) scheme is being run, under which practical experience of agriculture and entrepreneurship is provided to undergraduate students.
•  A MoU has been signed between the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare and the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to promote skill development in the field of agriculture.
•  Under this, skill development training programs are being organized regularly in KVKs across the country. These training programs are based on agriculture and related topics.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

India and OECD sign agreement for participation in Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2021.

• A Signing ceremony of Agreement between India and OECD for India’s participation in Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2021, in presence of Union HRD Minister, ShriPrakashJavadekar was held in New Delhi today.
• While addressing the gathering, the Minister said that the Government of India has decided that India will participate in the Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA) to be conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2021.
• He said that the participation in PISA 2021 would indicate the health of the education system and would motivate other schools /states in the subsequent cycles. This will lead to improvement in the learning levels of the children and enhance the quality of education in the country.
• He also informed that OECD has agreed to ask some of the questions based on Indian context. The Minister hoped that our students will perform well and we will get a good position in the overall rankings.
•  More than 80 countries, including 44 middle-income countries, have participated in the assessment since the first round of testing in 2000. Next round of PISA is going to be held in 2021.

China to step up growth prospects despite slowdown

•  China will take steps to spur growth amid a trade war with the United States, but there is limited room for aggressive stimulus in an economy already laden with massive debts and a property market prone to credit-driven spikes, policy insiders said.
•  China’s deepening economic slowdown has fanned market expectations of a big spending binge, especially if the bruising tariff war with Washington escalates, intensifying pressure on Chinese jobs and threatening social stability.
•  Such a move, plans for which have repeatedly been denied by China’s top leaders, would come at a price, however — similar moves in the past have quickly juiced growth rates but also buried the world’s No.2 economy under a mountain of debt.
•  During the 2008-09 global financial crisis, Beijing rolled out a 4 trillion yuan ($591 billion) spending package to fight a downturn that cost 20 million jobs in a matters of months, quickly reviving growth but also prompting a credit explosion.
•  The current slowdown was caused by China’s deleveraging drive in early 2016, which focused on State firms and local governments before broadening to the financial sector a year later. A crackdown on shadow lending pushed up borrowing costs and made it harder for small firms to get funds.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

WHO warns south-east asia on non-communicable diseases

•  Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) mainly cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes and cancer continue to be the top killers in the South-East Asia Region, claiming 8.5 million lives each year, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
•  Containing the NCDs has been listed by the WHO as its health goal for this year along with reducing mortality related to air pollution and climate change, global influenza pandemic etc.
•  One third of these deaths are premature and occur before the age of 70, affecting economically productive individuals. The four ‘major’ NCDs are caused, to a large extent, by four modifiable behavioural risk factors: tobacco use, unhealthy diet, insufficient physical activity and harmful use of alcohol.
•  Non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease, are collectively responsible for over 70% of all deaths worldwide, or 41 million people. These include 15 million people dying prematurely, aged between 30 and 69.
•  The paper published in The Lancet indicates that eating fibre-rich foods reduces the incidence of coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and colorectal cancer by 16% to 24%. A higher fibre intake is also associated with lower bodyweight, systolic blood pressure and total cholesterol when compared with lower intake.
•  Doctors then recommend eat less and enjoy your food by eating slowly, fill half your plate with fruits and vegetables, avoid oversized portions which causes weight gain, at least half of your grains should be whole grains, limit consumption of food high in trans fats.

::SPORTS::

ICC suspends Ambatirayudu for illegal bowling action

•  AmbatiRayudu has been suspended from bowling in International Cricket by the International Cricket Council (ICC), after having found his bowling action to be illegal.
•  Rayudu had been reported for suspect bowling action during the first of the three-match ODI series between India and Australia in Sydney, which India won 2-1.
•  ICC in a statement said, the suspension will remain in place until he is tested and can demonstrate he is able to bowl with a legal action.
•  Rayudu bowled two overs during India's 34-run defeat as ViratKohli was forced to use the 33-year-old's services after Mohammed Shami walked off the field with a niggle.

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