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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 31 July 2019

::NATIONAL::

Supreme court claims too much reservation may impact equality of opportunity

The Supreme Court on Tuesday orally remarked that excessive quota may impact the right to equal opportunity guaranteed under the Constitution.
The Bench is examining whether to refer to a Constitution Bench a batch of petitions challenging the validity of a constitutional amendment providing 10% economic quota in government jobs and educational institutions.
Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan made a strong pitch for referring the issue to a Constitution Bench. He argued that economic reservation violated the 50% reservation ceiling limit fixed by a nine-judge Bench in the IndraSawhney case. Further, the 1992 judgment had barred reservation solely on economic criterion.
In a 6:3 majority verdict, the Supreme Court, in the IndraSawhney case, had held that “a backward class cannot be determined only and exclusively with reference to economic criterion. It may be a consideration or basis along with and in addition to social backwardness, but it can never be the sole criterion.”
After a gap of 27 years, the Constitution (103rd Amendment) Act of 2019 has provided 10% reservation in government jobs and educational institutions for the “economically backward” in the unreserved category.
The government, represented by Attorney General K.K. Venugopal, however, told the court that the 10% economic quota law was a move towards a classless and casteless society.

Triple talaq bills passed in Parliament

Parliament has passed the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2019 or Triple Talaq bill, with the RajyaSabha approving it last evening. 99 members voted in favour of the bill while 84 against it. The LokSabha has already passed the bill.
The bill seeks to declare the practice of instant Triple Talaq as void and illegal and makes it a cognizable offence. It also provides allowance to women victims and their dependent children. The offence is made compoundable with the permission of the Magistrate at the instance of the married Muslim woman upon whom talaq is pronounced.
The RajyaSabha also rejected the Opposition’s resolution referring the bill to Select Committee for further scrutiny. Parties, including Congress, DMK, TMC, Left and NCP voted against the bill while JD(U), AIADMK, TDP, TRS and BSP staged a walkout and did not participate in voting.
Replying to the debate on the bill, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, it has been brought to protect the rights of Muslim women and not to target any particular community. He said, the offence has been made compoundable and bailable.
Participating in the debate, Leader of the Opposition, GhulamNabi Azad attacked the government, accusing it of targeting the family set up among Muslims. He said the Triple Talaq Bill does not have provisions for protection of victim women and their maintenance.
Prime Minister NarendraModi said, a historic wrong done to Muslim women has been corrected and an archaic and medieval practice has been confined to the dustbin of history. Mr Modi said, it is an occasion to salute the remarkable courage of those Muslim women who have suffered great wrongs due to the practice of triple talaq.

::ECONOMY::

CAG submits first ever audit report on GST

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), in its first ever audit of the Goods and Services Tax, has said the government had failed to try out the system before its rollout, leading to inadequate compliance mechanisms, and lower tax revenues. The report was tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.
The report pointed out that the keystone of the tax system, the invoice matching system, had not yet been put in place even two years after the GST rollout. It added that compliance in terms of the number of returns filed had been falling month after month, and that the government had not been following the rules set out regarding the transfer of revenue to the States.
“The complexity of the return mechanism and the technical glitches resulted in rollback of invoice-matching, rendering the system prone to ITC [Input Tax Credit] frauds,” the CAG said. “Without invoice matching and auto generation of refunds, assessments, etc. on the whole, the envisaged GST tax compliance system is non-functional.”
The CAG said the extent of the changes that have to now be undertaken, as well as the suspension of key aspects of the GST system such as the invoice matching mechanism, show that there was inadequate coordination between the Department of Revenue, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs and the GST Network, “as well as failure to try out the system adequately before roll out”.

Atal innovation mission launches community innovation programme

NITI Aayog's flagship initiative, the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) will launch a new programme for Community Innovation in New Delhi today. The new initiative aims to encourage the spirit of innovation in the country.
It will be jointly inaugurated by Union Ministers Ramesh PokhriyalNishank and DharmendraPradhan. Speaking about it, AIM Mission Director, R Ramanan, said, the purpose of the programme is to make innovation eco-system socially inclusive as well as to ensure equitable distribution of infrastructure for innovation across the country.
He stressed that the new programme has been specifically designed for underserved, unserved regions of Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, Smart Cities, Aspirational districts, North-East, Jammu and Kashmir as well as rural and tribal regions of the country.
The Atal Innovation Mission is a flagship initiative set up by the NITI Aayog to promote innovation and entrepreneurship across the length and breadth of the country.
It has been created as an umbrella innovation organization to play an instrumental role in the alignment of innovation policies between central, state and sectoral innovation schemes incentivizing the establishment.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

UN warns of humanitarian crisis in Syria

The U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock urged the Security Council yesterday to take action to end the "bloody onslaught" in Syria's last opposition-held stronghold, warning that continued violence could create the worst humanitarian disaster of the 21st century.
Mr Lowcock told council members they have ignored previous pleas to stop the bombing and shelling in Idlib province by Syrian and Russian warplanes.
The Security Council has been deeply divided over the Syrian conflict since it began in 2011, with Russia backing the government and Western nations supporting the opposition.
Due to this, U.N.'s most powerful body could not take any significant action.

President of India reaches Gambia as part of 3 nation visit

President RamnathKovind has reached Gambia yesterday on his second leg of his three Nations visit. He was warmly welcomed by the Gambian President Adama Barrow with military honour at the Banjul Airport.
In a spectacular show, large crowds of flag-waving well-wishers lined up along the streets to greet and welcome the visiting President. This is the first-ever state visit to the Gambia by an Indian President.
AIR correspondent reports that during his two-day stay at Banjul, President will be discussing many issues with his counterpart.
Today the president will hold restricted and delegation-level talks with his counterpart. He will be addressing a special session of the National Assembly of Gambia. The National Assembly building complex in Banjul is one of the prominent projects in west Africa built under the line of credit extended by India.
Tomorrow He will attend an event by the Indian community and inaugurate an exhibition on Mahatma Gandhi and Khadi.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Study reveals shark fisheries declining in India

India is one of the world's largest shark fishing nations and Maharashtra and Gujarat together contribute more than 50% of the harvest. But recently there has been a drop in the size of the sharks and their numbers. This has affected the fisheries sector and traders.
A new study by researchers from India, Australia and UAE has tried to identify the local drivers of this decline.
Overfishing is one of the main reasons. The study published in May in Ambio adds that in India there is a high domestic demand for shark meat. “This study helped break the common perception that the sharks are caught for fin and exported. We found that for most of the fisherfolk, sharks were a non-target catch and was just an additional income. Few fishermen told us that they have sold large sharks for even ₹30,000 to ₹50,000,” says DivyaKarnad,an expert.
In 2013, The Ministry of Environment & Forests had brought out a policy called “Fins Naturally Attached” to prevent finning of sharks. But this did not bring about a major impact as there was still demand for whole sharks.
Also, the Indian Wildlife Act of 1972 has proved inadequate in protecting this species. Due to various efforts by the Government, only the whale shark numbers have made a revival.
The paper adds that the Indian Wildlife Act needs an urgent revival so that all endangered and critically endangered species in our waters get the required attention.

::SPORTS::

India’s Saipraneeth enters top 20 world badminton rankings

Indian shuttlerB.SaiPraneeth has jumped four places to enter in the top 20 players in the latest World Badminton Rankings. Praneeth is now World No.19 in Men's Singles badminton ranking.
Among other Indian Men's singles shuttlers, KidambiSrikanth has maintained his tenth position while Sameer Verma retains his 13th position.
In Women's Singles, P.V.Sindhu has retained her 5th position and SainaNehwal 8th position. In Men's Doubles, the pair of SatwiksairajRankireddy and ChiragShettyhave moved up by two points to 16th position. Japan's KentoMomota tops the rankings in Men's Singles while another Japanese Yamaguchi leads the rankings in Women's singles.