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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 26 August 2019

::NATIONAL::

PM urges citizens to fight against plastic pollution

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Sunday urged the people to observe the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi this year as a day to make India plastic-free and urged municipalities, NGOs and the corporate sector to come up with ways for safe disposal of accumulated plastic waste before Deepavali.
The call for a mass movement came after his Independence Day’s address in which he had urged the people to shun single-use plastic.
Mr.Modi urged all municipalities, municipal corporations, district administrations and gram panchayats, and government and non-governmental bodies to make adequate arrangements for collection and storage of plastic waste.
“I also appeal to the corporate sector to come out with ways and means for appropriate disposal of all accumulated plastic. It can be recycled; it can be transformed into fuel. This way we can accomplish our task of ensuring safe disposal of plastic waste before this Diwali,” he said.
He said resolve was required to take up the challenge and “what can be a greater inspiration than Gandhi?”. In his Independence Day’s address, Mr.Modi had urged the citizens to eliminate single-use plastic and suggested that shopkeepers give ecofriendly bags to customers.

Home ministry reviews security in LWE affected areas

Union Home Minister Amit Shah is presently holding a review meeting in New Delhi on the security situation in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected areas and development initiatives being undertaken there. Chief Ministers of Left Wing Extremism affected states are taking part in the meeting.
Apart from them, Union Ministers and Secretaries of several ministries, senior officials of Home Ministry and security agencies are also participating in the meeting. Chief Secretary and Director General of Police of LWE affected states are also present.
The last five years have seen a significant improvement in the LWE scenario across the country. There has been substantial decrease in LWE-related violence Since 2016.
As per latest Home Ministry data, the number of violent incidents have reduced by 43 per cent and resultant deaths by 61 per cent during last five years as compared to the preceding five-year period from 2009 to 13.

::ECONOMY ::

CII expects multi dimensional policy stimulus to boost growth

Industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has said that the multi-sectoral and multi-dimensional policy stimulus announced last week will have significant impact, imparting stability and underpinning a new growth impetus for India.
It said, the measures announced come at a time when the world economy is buffeted by global headwinds and trade slowdown. The Industry body further added it expects that the economy will climb up in the coming months.
On Friday, the government announced a raft of measures, including rollback of enhanced super-rich tax on foreign and domestic equity investors, exemption of start-ups from 'angel tax', a package to address distress in the automobile sector and upfront infusion of 70,000 crore rupees to public sector banks, in efforts to boost economic growth.

CBIC gives compulsory retirement to officers for corruption

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs(CBIC) has compulsorily retired another 22 senior officers of the rank of Superintendent/A.O. over corruption and other charges.
An official release said, the decision is in line with Prime Minister NarendraModi's Independence Day speech recently. Addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort, the Prime Minister had said that some black sheep in the tax administration may have misused their powers and harassed taxpayers, either by targeting honest assesses or by taking excessive action for minor or procedural violations.
He had said, the government recently compulsorily retired a significant number of tax officials and that this type of behaviour will not be tolerated.
Earlier, 27 high ranking Indian Revenue Service officers, including 12 officers from Central Board of Direct Taxes, were compulsorily retired under Fundamental Rule 56(J) earlier in June this year.

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::INTERNATIONAL ::

Republic of Congo announces new government

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a coalition government was announced today, seven months after the inauguration of new President Felix Tshisekedi.
Prime Minister SylvestreIlunga said the President has signed the decree and the government will begin work soon. He was talking to reporters before the members of the new government were announced by the Presidency's Spokesman.
The power-sharing agreement will see 23 members of the executive drawn from Tshisekedi's Direction For Change and the remaining 42 from former President Joseph Kabila's Common Front for Congo. Kabila presided over sub-Saharan Africa's biggest country for nearly two decades and still commands widespread support.
Mr Tshisekedi emerged victorious in elections that marked the Democratic Republic of Congo's first peaceful transition of power since the mineral-rich nation gained independence from Belgium in 1960.

G7 leaders agree to fight Amazon forest fires

The G7 leaders have vowed to help Brazil fight Amazon forest fires and repair damage in the region. French President Emmanuel Macron said, the summit leaders are nearing an agreement on how to support Brazil.
He said the agreement will involve both technical and financial mechanisms so that G7 nations can help them in the most effective way possible.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, her country and others will talk with Brazil about reforestation in the Amazon once fires there are extinguished. She said, Amazon forest fires are a global question and G7 countries must find common solutions.
Brazilian President JairBolsonaro tweeted that he has talked by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said Israel will send a specialized plane to help in the firefighting operation.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY ::

CSIR to certify air quality monitoring sensors in India

The Union Environment Ministry has tasked the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)-National Physical Laboratory (NPL) with certifying air quality monitoring instruments.
This is in anticipation of a rising demand by States — against the backdrop of the National Clean Air Campaign for low cost air quality monitoring instruments that can monitor levels of nitrous oxides, ozone and particulate matter.
The Centre in January launched a programme to reduce particulate matter (PM) pollution by 20%-30% in at least 102 cities by 2024. An edifice of this initiative is to have a vast monitoring network of sensors that can capture the rapid fluctuations of pollutants, necessary to ascertain how these gases and particles affected health.
Currently, the machines employed by State and Central Pollution Control Boards (SPCB and CPCB) are imported and can cost up to ₹1 crore to install and about ₹50 lakh to maintain over five years, SatchidanandaTripathi, Professor, Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, who works on air quality-related research, told
Currently, Delhi leads the numbers of cities, with around 35 air quality sensors maintained by the CPCB, and those maintained by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee as well as those by institutions funded by the Union Earth Sciences Ministry.
Over the years, several experts have noted that Delhi’s winter pollution woes, which lead it to being considered as among the most toxic cities in the world, had led to inadequate attention to rising pollution levels in other cities.

::SPORTS ::

PV Sindhu creates history in world badminton Championship

P V Sindhu on Sunday became the first Indian to win badminton World Championships gold by beating familiar rival NozomiOkuhara of Japan in a lop-sided final Basel on Sunday.
The Indian won 21-7 21-7 in the summit clash that lasted just 38 minutes.Two years after being robbed off the gold by Okuhara in an epic 110-minute final at Glasgow that went down as one of the greatest battles in badminton history, Sindhu finally exorcised the ghost of that heart-wrenching loss with a completely dominating win over the same opponent.
Sindhu has also won an Olympic silver in 2016 Rio Games, a silver at Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, an Asian Games silver at Jakarta and the BWF World Tour Finals last year.