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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 30 October 2020

::NATIONAL::

Centre forms commission to tackle air pollution in NCR

Dissolving the 22-year-old Environmental Pollution (Pr-evention and Control) Authority that has so far addressed air pollution in Delhi, the Centre has constituted a “permanent” body — Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas.
Encompassing Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, the all-powerful body assumes several powers to coordinate action among States, levy fines — ranging up to ₹1 crore or five years in prison — to address air pollution. Brought in via an ordinance on Thursday, the commission awaits a formal perusal by the Supreme Court before it can be brought into effect.
The Central Pollution Control Board and its State branches have the powers to implement provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act for air, water and land pollution. In case of dispute or a clash of jurisdictions, the commission's writ will prevail specific to matters concerning air pollution.
A major weakness, environmentalists and experts have said in tackling air pollution in Delhi-NCR, has been the inability of agencies such as the CPCB to consistently enforce rules on the ground.
Meanwhile,the air in the Capital deteriorated on Thursday with the average AQI rising to 395, which is in the upper end of the “very poor” category, said Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

CIC takes action against RTI officials for evasive response

A day after it was slammed by the Central Information Commission over a “preposterous” and “evasive” response to an Right to Information query related to the AarogyaSetu application, the Information Technology Ministry has issued directions to take action against the officers responsible.
“The Ministry has taken the lapses made in providing information on ArogyaSetu app very strictly. We have issued directions to initiate suitable action against the officers responsible for this,” an IT Ministry official, who did not want to be named, said.
The official added that the Ministry has also directed the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and National E-Governance Division (NeGD) to take suitable action against the officers dealing with the RTI query.
“We are committed to furnishing all the information sought under the RTI Act to the applicant and comply with the directions of the Central Information Commission (CIC),” the official said.

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::ECONOMY::

Cabinet approves procurement of ethanol by public sector OMC’s

Briefing media in New Delhi, Information and Broadcasting Minister PrakashJavadekar said, earlier, there used to be one rate for ethanol but now there will be different prices.
Additionally GST and transportation charges will also be payable.Oil Marketing Companies have been advised to fix realistic transportation charges so that long distance transportation of ethanol is not disincentivised.
In order to offer fair opportunity to the localized industry within the State and reduce crisscross movement of ethanol, Oil Marketing Companies shall decide the criteria for priority of ethanol from various sources taking in account various factors like cost of transportation, availability, etc.
Government has been implementing Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme wherein OMCs sell petrol blended with ethanol up to 10 per cent.
This programme has been extended to whole of India except Union Territories of Andaman Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands with effect from 1st April, 2019 to promote the use of alternative and environment friendly fuels.

Railway launches initiative for security of women passengers

Railways has launched MeriSaheli initiative for focused action on security of women passengers across all zones. Railways Ministry said, the objective of this mission is to provide safety and security to lady passengers travelling by trains for their entire journey from starting station to destination station.
MeriSaheli initiative was started as a pilot project in South Eastern Railway in September this year and after getting encouraging response from lady passengers, it was extended to all zones and Konkan Railway with effect from 17th of this month.
Railway Protection Force, RPF has launched this initiative for the security of lady passengers. This initiative is aimed to instill a sense of security among the lady passengers and respond effectively to any security-related issue faced by lady passengers. The RPF team collects only the seat numbers of the ladies and conveys them to stoppages en-route.
The platform duty RPF personnel at the stopping stations en-route keep unobtrusive watch over the concerned coaches and berths. The Ministry said, If some distress call comes from a train covered under MeriSaheli initiative, the disposal of the call is monitored at the level of senior officers.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

U.K to support and develop gift city and infrastructure pipeline in India

The United Kingdom has entered into a strategic partnership to develop India’s fledgling international financial services centre GIFT City, and agreed to set up a new Fund of Funds to be managed by the State Bank of India (SBI) group in order to route the U.K.’s future capital investments into India.
India and the U.K. also signed off on a new infrastructure finance and policy partnership to help India execute its National Infrastructure Pipeline that envisages investments worth $1.4 trillion, at the 10th Economic and Financial Dialogue between the two countries steered by U.K. Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Wednesday.
Bilateral trade between India and the U.K. stood at £24 billion in 2019. India is now the second-largest project investment source for the U.K.
To help combat the pandemic, the U.K. and India announced a joint investment of £8 million for research to understand and address the factors leading to the severity of the novel coronavirus in South Asian populations in the U.K. and in India.

India- Mexico expand bilateral relationship

The 8th India-Mexico Joint Commission Meeting was held through Video-Conference yesterday. The Meeting was co-chaired by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and his Mexican counterpart Marcelo Ebrard.
Taking stock of the bilateral relations, both sides appreciated the progress made in the bilateral trade and commercial relations between India and Mexico in recent years.
The two sides agreed that given their respective economic strengths, growing regional and global profile, India and Mexico will further work on strengthening their ‘Privileged Partnership’.
The two sides discussed a number of issues and agreed to add new momentum to the relations in the fields of Trade and Commerce, Agriculture, Health, Space, Science and Technology.
They also underscored the importance of the Joint Commission mechanism in deepening political dialogue, reviewing bilateral and multilateral co-operation.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Indian army develops new messaging application

Indian Army has developed a simple messaging application named the Secure Application for Internet (SAI). The application supports end to end secure voice, text and video calling services for Android platform over the internet.
The model is similar to commercially available messaging applications like Whatsapp, Telegram, SAMVAD and GIMS and utilises end to end encryption messaging protocol.
SAI scores over on security features with local in-house servers and coding which can be tweaked as per requirements.
Defence Ministry said, SAI will be utilised pan Army to facilitate secure messaging within the service. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has complimented Col Sai Shankar for his skill and ingenuity for developing the application.

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::SPORTS::

Boston marathon 2021 postponed

The 2021 Boston Marathon will be moved from its traditional slot in April until later in the year because of the coronavirus pandemic, organisers said on Wednesday.
The prestigious event cancelled this year for the first time in its 124-year history is usually held on the third Monday of April. The Boston Athletic Association said next year's event would now be postponed. No date was given.

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