Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 29 September 2018

::NATIONAL::

Supreme court brings in gender equality at sabarimala

A deity in a temple does not have any constitutional rights, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud wrote in his separate opinion.Fundamental rights are meant for individuals not deities or idols.
Justice Chandrachud was countering arguments raised that the right to preserve the celibacy of the deity in the Sabarimala temple is a “protected constitutional right”. This constitutional right of the deity extends to excluding women from entering and praying at the Sabarimala temple.
Justice Chandrachud observed that the law recognises an idol or deity as a “juristic person which can own property and can sue and be sued in the court of law”. But to claim that a deity is the bearer of constitutional rights is a distinct issue, the judge reasoned.
“The fundamental rights guaranteed under Part III of the Constitution are geared towards the recognition of the individual as its basic unit. The individual is the bearer of rights under Part III of the Constitution. The deity may be a juristic person for the purposes of religious law and capable of asserting property rights.
However, the deity is not a ‘person’ for the purpose of Part III of the Constitution. The legal fiction which has led to the recognition of a deity as a juristic person cannot be extended to the gamut of rights under Part III of the Constitution,” Justice Chandrachud held.
On the other hand, the exclusion of women from the Sabarimala temple effects both, the religious and civic rights of the individual.

NGT directs states to act on river pollution

Taking suomotu cognisance of a report in newspapers on the increase in polluted river stretches in the country, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed all States and Union Territories to prepare action plans within two months.
Stating that the action plans should aim at improving the polluted stretches for “at least bathing purposes”, a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said, “We are of the view that the situation is far from satisfactory and action is required to be taken on war footing. There has to be meaningful further action to restore the minimum prescribed standards for all the rivers of the country.”
The tribunal specified that Chief Secretaries of each State and administrators of UTs will be “personally accountable for failure to formulate action plan.”
The bench directed that four-member committees, comprising representatives of State pollution control boards and the State governments, be constituted for preparing and executing the action plans.
“The action plan will include components like identification of polluting sources including functioning or status of sewage treatment plants, common effluent treatment plants, solid waste management and processing facilities, quantification and characterisation of sewage generated in the catchment area of the polluted river stretch” the bench said.
Stating that the pollution control boards had failed to check pollution, the bench said, “They have not been able to stop dumping of waste, discharge of effluents in rivers and water bodies.”

::ECONOMY::

RBI penalise bandhan bank for violating norms

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cracked the whip on Bandhan Bank freezing the remuneration of its MD and CEO Chandra ShekharGhosh for not bringing down promoters’ shareholding in the bank to 40% within three years of operations as mandated by it while granting the bank licence.
RBI had also barred the Kolkata-based lender from opening new branches. The bank has to take RBI’s prior approval for opening branches.
There is a three-layered structure for the group. Bandhan Financial Services holds 100% stake in Bandhan Financial Holdings which is the non-operative financial holding company and also the promoter of Bandhan Bank with a 82.28% stake. The bank started operations on August 23, 2015.
“RBI has communicated to us that since the bank was not able to bring down the shareholding of Non Operative Financial Holding Company (NOFHC) to 40% as required under the licensing condition, general permission to open new branches stands withdrawn and the bank can open branches with prior approval of RBI and the remuneration of the MD & CEO of the bank stands frozen at the existing level, till further notice,” the bank said in a stock exchange filing.
Bandhan Bank was listed at the end of March this year following an Initial Public Offering. While Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) norms ban promoters’ stake sale for one year after listing, banking industry sources said since the lender was aware of the RBI’s licensing conditions, it should have timed its IPO accordingly.

NITI Aayog and oracle to use blockchain technology for drug supply

In order to fight the growing problem of counterfeit drugs in India, NITI Aayog and Oraclesigned a Statement of Intent (SoI) to pilot a real drug supply-chain using blockchain distributed ledger and Internet of Things (IoT) software. Apollo Hospitals and Strides Pharma Sciences will partner in this effort.
Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, said “The problem of fake and counterfeit drugs is a major issue, costing the Indian pharma industry billions. At the same time, it’s putting patients at higher risk. This agreement with Oracle and our partnership with Apollo Hospitals and Strides Pharma, will help ensure that Indian drug manufacturers and healthcare experts have access to a standards-based, modern technology platform – blockchain and IoT, to help eliminate fake drug distribution.”
The major advantages of blockchain software will be its ability to allow the sharing of information across the drug supply chain securely with every exchange of information getting recorded, inability to tamper with any record of the drug movement and inability to delete any records so there can be no dispute, if an offender is caught.
Blockchain technology helps to permanently register a drug’s record in the manufacturer’s drug supply chain (serial number, labelling, scanning), leaving no scope for record tampering. At every point of hand change, it records the drug’s movement – from manufacturer to logistics, to stockist to hospital, or pharmacy to consumer. In case of a fake drug, the software will detect irregularity. Additionally, critical information such as chemical ingredients of the drug or maintenance of temperature control in case of life saving drugs or vaccines, can also be tracked.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Centre to look forward to trade potential of south asia

Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, launched the World Bank Group’s regional trade report “A Glass Half Full-The Promise of Regional Trade in South Asia” at a seminar organised by FICCI in New Delhi today.
Speaking on this occasion the Minister said that the potential for intra-trade growth in South Asia region has not been fully tapped as yet. The Minister further stated that during his recent trip to Bangladesh talks on boosting trade between the two countries were discussed and Bangladesh Trade Minister along with a delegation has been invited to India to discuss trade and investment potential between the two countries and India and Bangladesh are already working on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).
During the Minister’s recent visit to Bangladesh it has been decided to set up seven border haats some of which will start immediately. The Minister further added that the potential of services sector is yet to be explored in this region.
India’s top three trading partners in South Asia are Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. India’s trade with South Asia is only 3% of its global trade. Today India’s trade with the world stands at 637.4 billion USD but with South Asia it stands at only 19.1billion USD.
Deeper regional trade and connectivity can reduce the isolation of northeast India, give India better access to markets in East Asia, and allow it to substitute fossil fuels by cleaner hydropower from Nepal and Bhutan. Trade between India and Pakistan is a paltry USD 2 billion. The book shows that without artificial barriers, this should be USD 37 billion.

India-Uzbekistan cooperation further enhances in science & technology

A meeting between Union Minister for Electronics & Information Technology, Sh. Ravi Shankar Prasad and the Minister for Development of Information Technologies and Communications, Uzbekistan Mr ShuhratSadikov was held in New Delhi for strengthening bilateral cooperation between the two countries in ICT sector.
The Uzbek side appreciated India’s achievement under the Digital India programme and expressed interest for cooperation in the area of IT-ITeS trade promotion, e-Governance, HRD and Capacity building, Telemedicine etc. Further, the Uzbek side showed keen interest in techno-park cooperation.
Union IT Minister Sh. Ravi Shankar Prasad assured his counterpart that India will provide all possible technical support from the Indian side in the digital growth of Uzbekistan. Subsequently, in presence of both the Ministers Two Memorandum of Understandings (MoU’s) were signed
An Agreement between National Informatics Centre (NIC), India and e-Government System development centre of the Ministry for Development of Information Technologies and Communications of Uzbekistan for strengthening e-Governance cooperation.
A Declaration of Intent between CDAC, India and Tashkent University of Information Technologies, Uzbekistan for cooperation in the area of capacity building in ICT sector.
Sh. Prasad said that India will assist in creating technology parks in Uzbekistan and a pre-agreement was also signed with STPI in this regard.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

New embryo transfer technology centres being established

Twenty Embryo Transfer Technology Centres are being established in the country and a proposal of 19 centres has been approved so far .This was stated by the Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare ShriRadha Mohan Singh at the foundation laying ceremony of Embryo transfer Technology ceremony of Embryo Transfer Technology (ETT) centre in the Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation (BALF), Uruilikanchan, Pune.
The Minister further stated that 3000 high genetic merit bulls of indigenous bovine breeds are being produced from these centres. Two of these centres are to be set up in Nagpur and Pune in Maharashtra.
The Minister also said that there is a huge demand of semen from high genetic merit bulls of indigenous bovine breeds. At the same time, the number of certain breeds has decreased considerably and so, ETT can prove to be extremely effective in enhancing productivity and breed improvement.
Keeping this in mind, an ETT centre is being set up in BAIF, Urulikanchan and Rs 5.07 crore has been released for this. This centre will produce high genetic merit bovines of Gir, Sahiwal, LalKandhari, Dangi, Deoni and Gaolao.
In a separate function, while addressing the inauguration ceremony of National Level Workshop on Nutri-cereals (Millet), the Minister said that nutri-cereals (jowar, bajra, ragi and other small millets) as compared to wheat, paddy, maize etc. have special significance because of their nutritional value. These are used for foodgrain, animal feed and fuel.

::SPORTS::

Indian wins Asia cup title in last ball thriller

Bangladesh batsmen may have wilted under the big-match pressure after a three-figure opening partnership. But its bowling unit stretched India to the hilt to make the Asia Cup final a memorable night.
Had it not been for RavindraJadeja’s experience and Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s helping hand, India would have found it difficult to retain the title with a thrilling three-wicket win at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Friday night.
Chasing a moderate target of 223, India huffed and puffed before eventually crossing the line off the last ball, thanks to a 45-run partnership between the all-rounder duo, followed by a limping KedarJadhav and KuldeepYadav scoring the required six runs off the final over.