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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 26 January 2020

::NATIONAL::

President claims Indian election practices has earned immense pride amongst global communities

President Ram NathKovind has said that the election practices in India have earned an immense pride in the global community. He said, the democratic fabric ensures and strengthens everyone's participation in the democracy.
Addressing a function in New Delhi on the 10th National Voter's Day the President applauded Election Commission's efforts in bringing electoral literacy among public aiming at strengthening democracy.
Mr Kovind observed that a section of people is still unaware of the adult franchise while people in the West got the rights to vote after great struggle.
On the occasion, Mr Kovind conferred 20 National Awards for the Best Electoral Practices on District and State-level Officers for their outstanding performance in the conduct of elections in different spheres.
These include IT initiatives, Security Management, Election Management and contribution in the field of voter awareness and outreach. Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora were also present on the occasion.

Health ministry confirms zero detection of corona virus in the country

Health Ministry has said that more than 20 thousand passengers from 96 flights have been screened so far for Novel Coronavirus symptoms. No case of the infection has been detected in the country so far. However, three persons have been put under observation.
The Ministry said that travel advisory has been extended to 12 more airports in addition to the current seven. National Institute of Virology, Pune is fully geared up to test samples of Coronavirus.
It said, ten other laboratories under the Indian Council of Medical Research’s Viral Research and Diagnostics Laboratories network are also equipped to test such samples, if a need arises.
The Union Health Ministry has also issued an advisory to people travelling to China in view of the outbreak of the Novel Corona virus in that country. It said, all travellers to China, in particular, Wuhan city to closely monitor their health.
The advisory suggested travellers to follow simple public health measures at all times. They include observing good personal hygiene, practice frequent handwashing with soap, follow respiratory etiquettes. It advised to avoid close contact with people who are unwell or showing symptoms of illness such as cough, runny nose.

::ECONOMY::

India faces tax shortfall in nearly two decades

India's corporate and income tax collection for the current year is likely to fall for the first time in at least two decades, over half a dozen senior tax officials told Reuters, amid a sharp fall in economic growth and cut in corporate tax rates.
The tax department had managed to collect only 7.3 trillion rupees as of Jan. 23, more than 5.5% below the amount collected by the same point last year, said a senior tax official.
After collecting taxes from companies in advance for the first three quarters, officials typically garner about 30-35% of annual direct taxes in the final three months, data from the past three years shows.
Direct taxes typically account for about 80% of the government's projections for annual revenue, and the shortfall may leave the government needing to boost borrowing to meet expenditure commitments.
The tax officials also say that a surprise cut in headline corporate tax rate last year aimed at wooing manufacturers and boosting investment in Asia's third-biggest economy is another key reason behind the sluggish tax collections.

Tea industry worried on Centre’s decision to amend plantation labour act

The Centre is going to repeal the Plantation Labour Act (PLA), 1951 that makes it mandatory for planters to provide workers non-cash benefits such as housing and drinking water, chairman of PM's economic advisory council BibekDebroy said
Addressing a programme here, the economist said the central government has also brought a new set of wage code replacing, among others, the Minimum Wage Act of 1948.
The plantation sector included tea, rubber and coffee industries and the Act stipulates them to comply with providing drinking water, housing, medical, education and toilet facilities to the workers besides wages.
The industry had been demanding that the obligation of the employers to provide welfare amenities to workers other than wages be either entirely taken over by the government or a reasonable value be assigned to the non-cash benefits and be treated as a part of the wages,Indian Tea Association (ITA) secretary-general ArijitRaha told.
The Bill under discussion has a clause saying "every employer of plantation shall be responsible to provide and maintain welfare facilities through his own resources relating to drinking water, housing, medical, education and toilet to the workers in the plantation or through schemes for such purpose sponsored by the Central or state government, municipality or panchayat for the locality in which the plantation is situated."

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::INTERNATIONAL::

India-Brazil expands cooperation with eleven agreements signed

India and Brazil exchanged eleven agreements following talks between Prime Minister NarendraModi and Brazil President JairBolsonaro in New Delhi today.
The agreements relate to several key areas including health, bio-energy cooperation, cultural exchange, geology and mineral resources.
Delivering his statement after the talks, Mr.Modi said this visit signifies growing ties between the two countries. He said, it is a matter of pride that President Bolsonaro is the chief guest of the Republic Day parade this year. The Prime Minister added that India and Brazil's strategic partnership is based on shared ideals.
He said, both nations work in tandem in several international fora and are partners in each other's developmental journey. He said, the focus is being made to increase defence industrial cooperation.
He said,that there is high potential for growth in bilateral trade, and as developing countries, India and Brazil share similar views on multi-lateral issues including terrorism.

U.S warns Pakistan on after effects of not meeting FATF obligations

The United States Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Alice Wells yesterday said that failing to meet the obligations of the Financial Action Task Force, FATF will have a devastating impact on Pakistan's economic reforms programme.
Wells was responding to a media question in Washington whether the funding by the International Monetary Fund could get affected if Pakistan does not meet the FATF regulations or the rules.
These comments came a day after Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah MahmoodQureshi said the country should be taken off the FATF's Grey list as it has made considerable progress on the requirements of the international terror financing watchdog.
The FATF, in October last year, decided to keep Pakistan on its Grey List for failure to curb funneling of funds to terror groups Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and others. If not removed off the list by April, Pakistan may move to a blacklist of countries that face severe economic sanctions, such as Iran.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Department of Science & technology holds international summit on STEM

On January 25, 2020, the Department of Biotechnology held an International Summit on Women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)on the following theme Theme: Visualizing the Future: New Skylines The summit aimed to increase the participation of women in STEM field.
The summit show cased the success of several women in the field of STEM. The summit also hosted different sessions on empowering women through networking, leadership building, interactive exercises with scientists.
The summit served as a platform for the students to interact with leaders in the field. This will help them widely in developing ideas and frame a future plan in their career.
The National Science Foundation predicts that around 80% of the jobs created in the next 10 years will be STEM oriented. However, India lags studentsin the field of problem-solving, innovation and creativity.
Also, women are under represented in the field. According to UNESCO, only 29% of STEM R&D are contributed by women. The hindrance in India’s growth in STEM is that the contribution of education system towards STEM is lagging.

::SPORTS::

Government plans to recruit 1500 vacancies of coaches soon

Sports Minister KirenRijiju today said the government has decided to recruit around 1500 coaches to fill up existing vacancies and ensured full support to the country's athletes.
On the sidelines of a programme celebrating 'National Girl Child Day' in New Delhi, Mr Rijiju said that government is not going to wait for 8 years period and will promote the assistant coaches to senior-level after few years on the basis of their service record so that there is no dearth of coaches.
He said reputed foreign coaches will be hired irrespective of their remuneration adding that there are some very good Indian trainers and coaches who will also be hired.
He said there will be no shortage of funds for the training of the Indian athletes. Mr Rijiju also said that his Ministry is trying to ensure that athletes get the required diet at all training centers.