(FREE) UPSC Current Affairs 2024 PDF

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 29 September 2019

::NATIONAL::

Supreme court gives landmark verdict on maintenance issue in marital relationships

A man who claimed his wife deserted him and divorced her cannot later deny her grant of maintenance on the ground that she was unwilling to live with him, the Supreme Court reasoned in a judgment recently.
“The husband cannot urge that he can divorce his wife on the ground that she has deserted him and then deny maintenance which should otherwise be payable to her on the ground that even after divorce she is not willing to live with him,” a Bench of Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose observed.
Once the relationship of marriage comes to an end, the woman obviously is not under any obligation to live with her former husband, Justice Gupta, who wrote the verdict for the Bench, observed.
The deeming fiction of the divorced wife being treated as a wife can only be read for the limited purpose for grant of maintenance and the deeming fiction cannot be stretched to the illogical extent that the divorced wife is under a compulsion to live with the ex-husband, the court held.
The court was interpreting Section 125 (4) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The provision deals with maintenance from a husband to a wife.

Study finds evidence of coexistence of obesity and undernutrition amongst Indian children

Nearly 10% of children in the age group of 5-9 years and adolescents in the age group of 10-19 years are pre-diabetic, 5% are overweight and another 5% suffer from blood pressure.
These are among the key findings of the first-ever national nutrition survey conducted by the Centre, yet to be made public, providing for the first time hard evidence of the coexistence of obesity and undernutrition, among school going children.
The Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey conducted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and UNICEF between February 2016 and October 2018 is the first study undertaken to measure malnutrition, including micronutrient deficiencies through biochemical measures such as blood and urine samples, anthropometric data as well as details of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol and kidney function in children and adolescents.
The National Family Health Survey (NFHS), however, collects anthropometric data (weight for age, height for age, weight for height, mid-upper arm circumference) to measure prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight and household dietary intake to measure deficiencies.
An official of the Directorate General of Health Services said the report is likely to be made public any day. However, many closely involved with the study said the delay by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is inexplicable as the findings have been known for nearly six months and both NITI Aayog and the Prime Minister’s Office had given their assent for making them public.

::ECONOMY::

Centre bans exports of all onion varieties

In the light of skyrocketing prices, the government on Sunday prohibited onion exports until further notice and imposed limits on the stocks that can be held to prevent hoarding.
Government sources said the States had been asked to take “strict measures to prevent hoarding by traders, including organising raids”.
Further, a stock limit of 100 quintals for retail traders and 500 quintals for wholesale traders has been imposed.The retail price of onions have shot up to as much as ₹60 per kg in the metros. At one point, they even touched ₹80 per kg.
A central buffer of 56,700 metric tonnes was built by the government.The buffer stocks are maintained through the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED).
Supplies to Delhi, Haryana, and Andhra Pradesh are being conducted at regulated rates using these stocks.Other States have also been asked to use this buffer and indicate their demand to the Department of Consumer Affairs or NAFED.

Indian Forex reserves decline by September end

India's forex reserves declined by USD 388 million to USD 428.572 billion for the week ended September 20 due to a slide in core currency and gold assets.
The Reserve Bank data released on Friday showed that in the week to September 20, foreign currency assets a major component of overall reserves declined by USD 125 million to USD 396.670 billion.
It also showed that during the week, the value of gold reserves declined by USD 259 million to USD 27.843 billion, making it the second consecutive week of decline in the value of the precious metal held by India.
According to the data, country's special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund increased by USD 3 million to USD 1.435 billion during the week, while country's reserve position with the Fund declined by USD 6 million to USD 3.623 billion.

Online Coaching for UPSC PRE Exam

General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

::INTERNATIONAL::

India terms Pak PM’s UN speech as ‘hate speech’

In a strong rebuttal to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), India said Mr. Khan had engaged in “hate speech”.
Mr. Khan, who addressed the General Assembly shortly after Prime Minister NarendraModi on Friday morning, had warned of a “bloodbath” in Kashmir after India removes restrictions on the State, imposed after the revocation in early August of Article 370 that granted special status.
He had also outlined the linkages between the origins of RSS ideology and Nazism.MrModi’s address, while calling for a united fight against terrorism, made no reference to either Pakistan or Kashmir.
“Words matter in diplomacy. Invocation of phrases such as “pogrom”, “bloodbath”, “racial superiority”, “pick up the gun” and “fight to the end” reflect a medieval mindset and not a 21st century vision,” Ms.Maitra,india’s first secretary said.
“Pogroms, Prime Minister Imran Khan Niazi, are not a phenomenon of today’s vibrant democracies. We would request you to refresh your rather sketchy understanding of history. Do not forget the gruesome genocide perpetrated by Pakistan against its own people in 1971 and the role played by Lt. Gen A.A.K. Niazi. A sordid fact that the Honourable Prime Minister of Bangladesh reminded this Assembly about earlier this afternoon,” she added.
“Citizens of India do not need anyone else to speak on their behalf, least of all those who have built an industry of terrorism from the ideology of hate,” the diplomat said.

India joins group of countries to stop spread of fake news

Twenty countries, including France, Britain and India, have signed an agreement at the United Nations to stop the spread of fake news on-line. The signatories, which also included South Africa and Canada, committed to promoting independently reported, diverse and reliable information on the internet under an accord initiated by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a press freedom watchdog.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian yesterday said, the emergence of a global digital space is shaking up the world of information, bringing with it progress as well as risks. He added on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York that misinformation on-line, especially during election campaigns, undermined trust in democratic institutions. RSF said in a statement that the agreement underlined the responsibility of internet providers to promote trustworthy content and pluralism to escape the current information chaos.
Last week, Twitter shut down thousands of accounts worldwide for spreading misinformation, including some artificially amplifying pro-Saudi messaging as part of a regional propaganda war. Fake accounts from China seeking to sow discord among protesters in Hong Kong were also found.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Researchers find relation between food security and learning

With the introduction of SarvaShikshaAbhiyan and the mid-day meal scheme, there has been an increase in the number of children enrolling in schools. But new research says that Indian children are not able to perform well in their studies due to widespread food insecurity at home.
An international team from U.K. and India looked at data collected by Young Lives, a UK- and India-based research study of over 1,900 schoolchildren in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
The link between food insecurity at home and learning was more pronounced for those children who experienced chronic food insecurity and/or experienced it during early childhood (at 5 years).
Further, transitory spells of food insecurity at home did not affect the kids’ test scores in reading and vocabulary, but their mathematical skills were still affected. This suggests that children may be able to bounce back from short-term food insecurity in some learning domains, but not in others.
The researchers add that experiencing food insecurity at home during childhood can affect India’s economy through lower human capital accumulation.
As this is a study on a very small population, the team suggests regular surveys that measure food insecurity among households with children across the whole of India are needed, as this will allow for tracking the state of household food insecurity over time and devise locally-appropriate remedial measures.

::SPORTS::

India clinches SAFF U-18 title

In Football, India defeated Bangladesh by 2-1 in the final of SAFF Under-18 Championship 2019 to lift the title in Kathmandu today.
From the beginning, India played aggressively and VikramPratap Singh did not take much time to hand India a 1-0 lead. Singh scored in the second minute of the game.
Before the conclusion of the first half, Bangladesh's Yeasin managed to score an equaliser in 40th minute which brought the scoreline to 1-1.
In the second half, bothl the teams gave each other tough competition and restricted each other from scoring a goal.