Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 14 July 2019

::NATIONAL::

Significant drop in Stone pelting incidents in Kashmir

According to officials, Stone pelting incidents in Jammu and Kashmir have come down significantly from a high of over 2,600 in 2016 to barely a few dozen in the first half of 2019.
The arrests of miscreants involved in stone pelting incidents also have come down from over 10,500 to just about a hundred.
There were 1,412 incidents of stone pelting in 2017 in which 2,838 trouble-makers were arrested and 63 of them were sent to jail.
In 2018, there were 1,458 incidents of stone pelting in which 3,797 miscreants were arrested and 65 of them were sent to jail, as per the statistics.
In the first six months of 2019, there were around 40 incidents of stone pelting in which about a hundred miscreants were detained, the official said.
There has been a marked improvement in the security scenario in the Valley ever since the imposition of Governor’s rule on June 19, 2018, when the BJP withdrew support to the Mehbooba Mufti-led government, he added.
After the six months of Governor’s rule, the President’s rule was imposed, which has been continuing.The security forces eliminated over 240 militants in the state in 2018, while there has been a dip in injuries caused due to stone pelting, another official said.

NSCN(IM) opposes move for tribal register

The Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN (IM)) has slammed the Nagaland government’s exercise to implement a Register of Indigenous Inhabitants of Nagaland (RIIN) as a bid to divide and undermine the inherent rights of the Nagas, besides diluting the peace process approaching a final settlement.
The NSCN-IM, the largest and most prominent of the armed Naga groups that had signed a framework accord with the Centre in August 2015, also termed the RIIN exercise a conspiracy of the groups that had agreed to the 16-Point Agreement of 1960.
That accord, signed between New Delhi and the Naga People’s Convention on July 26, 1960, paved the way for Nagaland’s statehood on December 1, 1963. The new State was earlier the Naga Hills-Tuensang area of Assam.
The agreement for forming a State “within the Indian Union” and to be “under the Ministry of External Affairs” followed a prolonged battle for the independence of Naga-inhabited areas.
The Nagaland State does and will not represent the national decision of the Naga people,” the NSCN-IM’s publicity wing said in a statement on Friday evening. “It [the State] was formed purely to divide the Nagas,” the NSCN-IM asserted, adding that all Nagas were indigenous in the ancestral homeland that is contiguous.
One of the major demands of the NSCN-IM, in ceasefire mode since July 1997, has been for bringing all Naga-inhabited areas under a single administrative umbrella in a homeland called ‘Greater Nagalim’.
There are more than 50 Naga tribes across Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Myanmar, besides Nagaland. Though the NSCN-IM has had its peace headquarters at Hebron near Nagaland’s Dimapur, most of its members belong to the Tangkhul community dominating the Ukhrul and Kampong districts of Manipur.

::ECONOMY::

Finance Ministry plans to raise borrowings from overseas market

The government, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in the Budget speech, plans to raise a portion of its gross borrowing from overseas markets.The government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will reportedly finalise the plans for the overseas issue of sovereign bonds by September.
A government bond or sovereign bond is a form of debt that the government undertakes wherein it issues bonds with the promise to pay periodic interest payments and also repay the entire face value of the bond on the maturity date. So far, the government has only issued bonds in the domestic market.
According to Ms. Sitharaman, India’s sovereign external debt to GDP ratio is among the lowest around the world, at less than 5%.
The market estimates that the government will only test the waters and borrow about $10 billion, which works out to about 10% of its gross market borrowing.
The government has been arguing that the quantum of its borrowing within India is ‘crowding out’ the private sector.
According to Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg, government borrowing accounts for about 80-85% of domestic savings. He also said that the overseas borrowing programme allows the government to maintain its gradual reduction of the fiscal deficit.
Had the government listened to some commentators and relaxed its fiscal deficit to say 4.4%, then this would have allowed it to borrow an additional Rs.2 lakh crore from the domestic market.
Therefore, borrowing overseas allows the government to raise funds in such a way that there is enough domestic credit available for the private sector.
The appetite of the international market for Indian bonds and their price will also say a lot about how India is viewed globally on the risk factor.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

After Taiwan buys US arms, China holds military drills on southeast coast

China's military recently carried out air and naval drills along its southeast coast, the Defence Ministry said on Sunday, following the latest arms sales from the United States to self-ruled Taiwan.
China's southeast coast is one of the country's most sensitive regions as it faces Taiwan across the narrow Taiwan Strait. China deems democratic Taiwan to be a wayward province, to be taken by force if needed.
China said it would impose sanctions on U.S. firms involved in a deal to sell $2.2 billion worth of tanks, missiles and related equipment to Taiwan, saying it harmed China's sovereignty and national security.
That announcement came as Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen was visiting New York on a transit stop to diplomatic allies in the Caribbean, a trip that has also infuriated Beijing, further straining Sino-U.S. ties already affected by a bitter trade war.
President Tsai said Taiwan and the United States can both forge even closer ties, and also thanked the United States for ”the importance it attaches to the security of the Taiwan Strait” and the recently announced arms sale, the statement said.
President Tsai also promised the United States that in the future in the Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan will continue to play a responsible partnership role, and defend democratic values and peace and stability in the region with like-minded countries, the statement added.
China has in recent years stepped up its military drills around Taiwan, including regularly flying what Beijing calls “island encirclement” exercises and sending warships into the waters around Taiwan.

France announces creation of new Space force Command

French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday announced the creation of a new national military space force command that will eventually be part of France air force.
The declaration — made on the eve of France's Bastille Day national celebrations that feature a military parade down Paris's Champs-Elysees — mirrors an initiative in the U.S. championed by President Donald Trump.
“To assure the development and the reinforcement of our capacities in space, a high command for space will be created in September,” Macron told military brass gathered for a traditional pre-Bastille Day reception.
France's declared interest in boosting its military readiness in space follows increased spending and interest in the area by the United States, China and Russia.
Observers see military activities — including spy satellites, location tracing and jamming, communications and cyber attacks — increasingly being set up in orbit around Earth.
In March, United Nations-backed talks in Geneva to prevent an arms race in outer space ended without agreement.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Chandrayaan-2 all set for 3.84 lakh km voyage

Chandrayaan-2, the first Indian moon landing mission, is all set to head on its 3.84 lakh km voyage to the moon in the wee hours of Monday, July 15.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has scheduled the launch of its lunar probe, by a GSLV MkIII rocket, from the country’s Sriharikota spaceport for 2.51 a.m. And the countdown is set to begin at 6.51 a.m. on Sunday.
A sequel to Chandrayaan-1, which was launched in 2008 and only orbited the moon at a distance of 100 km, Chandrayaan-2 entails the first attempt by any nation to make a landing on the moon’s mineral rich south pole.
The mission is to put a lander and a robotic, solar-powered rover with six wheels on the lunar terrain on September 6 for a brief on-site exploration.
Spacecraft has been integrated with the GSLV MkIII launch vehicle early July. During the journey, the lander rides on the parent spacecraft and the smaller rover nestles inside the lander. The entire assembly weighs about 3,840 kg, according to ISRO.
The combined entity is programmed to function autonomously through the course of the mission.
The rover would be launched from the lander after about four hours and would roam the terrain for about 500 m over the next 14 earth days — or one day on the moon.
ISRO’s new 5,000-seater launch viewing gallery is expected to be packed with late-night onlookers. President Ram Nath Kovind is scheduled to visit the centre to witness the launch.

::SPORTS::

Vinesh Phogat wins gold at Yasar Dogu International

Vinesh Phogat won her second consecutive gold in 53kg, winning the Yasar Dogu International with a commanding victory over Russia’s Ekaterina Poleshchuk.
The top Indian woman wrestler, who stood atop the podium at Grand Prix of Spain last week, beat her Russian opponent 9-5 in the final of the UWW ranking series tournament.
Vinesh’s was third gold in the women’s competition for India after Seema (50kg) and Manju (59kg) triumphed in their respective categories.