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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 03 August 2020

::NATIONAL::

Centre seeks more time to bring in CAA rules

The Home Ministry has sought an extension of three months to frame the rules of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, a contentious legislation that was passed by Parliament more than six months ago.
The Ministry informed a parliamentary committee on subordinate legislation about the delay, after the former wrote to it seeking the status of the CAA rules. Without rules being notified, the CAA cannot be implemented or come into force. A senior government official confirmed that the Ministry has sought more time but did not specify the reasons for the delay.
The Hindu reported on July 20 that the Home Ministry had neither notified the CAA rules nor informed Parliament about the delay.
The CAA provides citizenship on the basis of religion to immigrants from six non-Muslim communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who entered India on or before December 31, 2014. It was passed by Parliament on December 11 last year, and the President gave his assent on December 12. A month later, the Home Ministry issued a notification that the provisions of the Act would come into force on January 10.
Around 70 people were killed in various incidents after the CAA was passed. The protests stopped in March with the country-wide lockdown in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As per the Manual on Parliamentary Work, “statutory rules, regulations and bylaws will be framed within a period of six months from the date on which the relevant statute came into force.”

SBM rural moves towards second phase-ODF plus

In the run up to 74th Independence day, we bring you a special story about Swachh Bharat. The Swachh Bharat mission has focused on rural and urban areas separately and played a crucial role in ensuring sanitation in the country.
Since the launch of the mission in 2014, more than 10 crore individual toilets have been constructed across the country and as a result, rural areas in all the States have declared themselves Open Defecation Free ODF on 2nd October, 2019.
AIR Correspondent reports, to ensure that the open defecation free behaviours are sustained, no one is left behind, and that solid and liquid waste management facilities are accessible, the Swachh Bharat Mission (Rural) has moved towards its second phase which is also called ODF-Plus.
This phase will continue till 2024-25. The Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) has also made remarkable progress in the area of both sanitation and solid waste management. Over 4,324 Urban Local Bodies have been declared ODF in the country so far.

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::ECONOMY::

Former RBI chairman says India not close to situation of debt monetisation

Former RBI Governor D Subbarao on Friday said India is not close to the situation where the central bank has to go for debt monetisation amid rising government spending and falling revenue collection due to the COVID-19 crisis. The case for direct financing is made on the argument that government borrowing this year has ballooned way beyond normal, Subbaro said.
Subbarao was speaking at a virtual event to release a book titled 'Quest for Restoring Financial Stability in India' by former RBI Deputy Governor Viral V Acharya.
Earlier this month, Economic Affairs Secretary Tarun Bajaj said that monetisation of debt is not on the government''s agenda at the moment as there are some positive signs on the revenue collection front.
According to Subbarao, both monetisation and OMOs involve expansion of money supply which can potentially stoke inflation.
"But the inflation risk they carry is different. OMOs are a monetary policy tool with the RBI in the driver's seat, deciding on how much liquidity to inject and when.
"In contrast, monetisation is and is seen, as a way of financing the fiscal deficit with the quantum and timing of money supply determined by the government's borrowing rather than the RBI's monetary policy," he said.
At the event, former RBI Governor Y V Reddy said issues relating to financial stability in India have become more complex and more challenging.
"In addition, the spread of virus has imparted more complications and greater urgency to address the problem of financial stability in the face of unprecedented fiscal challenges. In this background, the book is of special and urgent contemporary interest," Reddy said.

Government decides to fund start ups to promote agrifirms

The Central Government will spend nearly twelve crore rupees for funding 112 startups to promote agri firms in the current financial year.
Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar said the funds will be given to the start-ups selected by different knowledge partners and agribusiness incubators in the area of agro-processing, food technology and value addition.
He said, the funds will be provided under the Innovation and Agri-entrepreneurship Development Programme launched under the revamped RashtriyaKrishiVikasYojana. These start-ups were trained for two months at 29 agri-business incubation centres spread across the country.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Bangladesh to construct modern food storage systems with world bank support

Bangladesh will be constructing five more modern food storage systems in the country in addition to the three already under construction with financing support from the World Bank to enhance the storage capacity and improve the efficiency of grain storage.
The World Bank has approved a dollar 202 million additional financing for the modern food storage facilities project in Bangladesh. The financing will help increase the storage capacity of Bangladesh’s grain reserves by 5.35 lakh tons for 4.5 million households, said a World Bank Press release.
The project will support construction of eight modern grain storage steel silo complexes for rice and wheat in eight districts. It is in addition to the current construction work taking place in three districts of Bangladesh Ashuganj, Madhupur and Mymensingh.
The acting World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan Mohammad Anis said that this modern food storage system, combined with an effective distribution system, will help ensure food security after a natural disaster or during a crisis such as the current COVID-19 pandemic.
The funding is from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA). It provides concessional financing with a 30-year term, including a five-year grace period.

Iran claims arrest of U.S based terror group chief

Iran said on Saturday that it has arrested the head of a U.S.-based “terrorist group” accused of being behind a deadly 2008 bombing in the southern city of Shiraz and of other, abortive attacks.
The group’s “JamshidSharmahd, who was leading armed and sabotage operations inside Iran, is now in the powerful hands” of Iran’s security forces, state television said in a report citing a statement from the Intelligence Ministry.
The statement did not elaborate on where or when the leader of the opposition royalist group known as the Kingdom Assembly of Iran, or Tondar (Farsi for Thunder), was arrested. According to the statement, he had orchestrated the April 12, 2008 bombing in a packed mosque in Shiraz that killed 14 people and wounded 215.
Iran hanged three men convicted of the bombing in 2009, saying they had ties to the monarchist group. It said they had been taking orders from an Iranian U.S.-backed “CIA agent” to try to assassinate a high-ranking official in Iran.

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::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Space Scientists claim Indian rover intact on moon surface

Space enthusiast Shanmuga Subramanian, who found the debris of India's moonlanderVikram, said on Saturday that Chandrayaan-2's rover Pragyan seems to be intact on the moon's surface and had rolled out a few metres from the lander.
In a series of tweets along with the pictures of the moon surface, Subramanian said: "Chandrayaan-2's Pragyan "ROVER" intact on Moon's surface & has rolled out few metres from the skeleton Vikram lander whose payloads got disintegrated due to rough landing."
Tweeting a picture taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbital (LRO), Shanmugam said the white dot might be the skeleton lander devoid of other payloads and the black dot might be the rover.
According to him, the rover may be still intact on the moon's surface. Latest pictures from LRO (Jan 4, 2020) showed rover tracks on the moon from the lander.
He said the debris he had found earlier might be from one of the payloads. The debris found by NASA might be of other payloads, transmitting antenna and thrusters.
Vikram lost contact with ISRO following its launch from Chandrayaan-2 moon orbiter on September 6 last year when it tried to make softlanding near the moon's south pole.
It was on July 22, 2019, when the GSLV rocket, nicknamed 'Bahubali', blasted off from the second launch pad at India's rocket port in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh carrying Chandrayaan-2 OrbiterVikram (lander) and Pragyan (rover).

::SPORTS::

Indian athletes to receive gold medal after frontrunners failed dope test

J. Surendhar (110mH) and M.P. Jabir (400mH) were upgraded and are set to receive gold medals in the 13th South Asian Games held in Kathmandu (Nepal) in December 2019.
This, after gold medallists, Mohammed Naeem and Mehboob Ali of Pakistan tested positive for a banned substance and decided not to appeal their dope results.
Santosh Kumar of India, who had won bronze in men’s 400mH will now get silver. Similarly, India’s MaymonPoulose will get bronze in 110mH while silver will go to RoshanDhamika of Sri Lanka.

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