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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 10 August 2020

::NATIONAL::

Defence ministry to set import embargo on items to promote indigenous production

The Defence Ministry will “introduce import embargo on 101 items beyond given timeline to boost indigenisation of defence production”, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh announced through a series of tweets on Sunday.
Speaking at a function later in the day, he said the government intends to reach a turnover of $25 billion through indigenously manufactured defence products and also expects to export products worth $5 billion.
The policy change comes in the wake of Chinese transgressions and the build-up along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh. China has refused to pull back from several areas, where it has massed troops since May.
He added that the government will push the Swadeshi movement started by freedom fighters and Mahatma Gandhi during the Independence Movement.
The list of 101 embargoed items comprises of not just simple parts but also some high technology weapon systems like artillery guns, assault rifles, corvettes, sonar systems, transport aircrafts, LCHs, radars and many other items to fulfil the needs of the defence Services, Mr. Singh said.
The list also includes wheeled Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFVs) with indicative import embargo date of December 2021, of which the Army is expected to contract almost 200 at an approximate cost of over ₹5,000 crore.

President honours freedom fighters in 78th anniversary of quit India movement

President Ram NathKovind has honoured and felicitated 202 freedom fighters from across the country on the occasion of 78th anniversary of Quit India Day.
In a statement, RashtrapatiBhavan said, every year, the President hosts an At Home reception at RashtrapatiBhavan on the anniversary of the Quit India Movement to honour freedom fighters.
This year At Home reception could not be organised in view of Covid-19 pandemic. The President has requested State and Union Territories Governments to honour and felicitate freedom fighters with a shawl and angavastram by District Magistrate or Additional District Magistrate or Sub Divisional Magistrate at their homes on behalf of the President.

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::ECONOMY::

Commerce ministry asks more traders to join GeM platform

Commerce and Industry Minister PiyushGoyal has called upon more and more buyers and sellers to join the Government e Marketplace [GeM]. He was speaking at the inauguration of the Fourth edition of the National Public Procurement Conclave, organized by GeM in association with CII.
Lauding the success of GeM in becoming a game changer in Government procurement, Mr Goyal called upon more and more buyers and sellers to join the system.
Expressing the confidence that GeM will be able to unlock the value and save money for the nation’s development, he said that it has helped in transparent, seamless, easy, efficient and faster procurements.
Mr Goyal said that the Government's decision to ask the buyers to give interest for delayed payments in GeM is a significant step.
At the same time, he also cautioned the unscrupulous sellers from pushing poor quality goods or charging exorbitant prices, as they will not only be blacklisted from the GeM portal but from the entire Government ecosystem.

Survey finds pandemic worsening the child labour problem in India

The coronavirus pandemic is forcing India’s children out of school and into farms and factories to work, worsening a child-labour problem that was already one of the most dire in the world.
It’s difficult to quantify the number of children affected since the pandemic erupted, but civil society groups are rescuing more of them from forced labour and warn that many others are being compelled to work in cities because of the migrant labour shortage there.
Even before the outbreak, India was struggling to keep children in school. A 2018 study by DHL International GmBH estimated that more than 56 million children were out of school in India — more than double the combined number across Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. The cost to India’s economy, in terms of lost productivity, was projected at $6.79 billion, or 0.3% of gross domestic product.
Global child labour had been gradually declining in the past two decades, but the Covid-19 pandemic threatens to reverse that trend, according to the ILO. As many as 60 million people are expected to fall into poverty this year alone, and that inevitably drives families to send children out to work.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

India refuses Pak request for meeting on Indus water treaty

India has refused a request by Pakistan to hold a meeting on issues around the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) at the Attaricheckpost near the India-Pakistan border. In March India had suggested a virtual conference but Pakistan had insisted on a physical meeting, a senior official in the Ministry of Water Resources told.
The practice at the IWT meetings is that they are led by Indus Water Commissioners from both countries and a range of issues on construction of dams and hydropower projects concerning the Indus river system are discussed.
However the COVID-19 pandemic led to the meeting being cancelled and this was followed up by discussions between representatives of the two countries on how discussions could be conducted.
India has called for the appointment of a ‘neutral’ party while Pakistan favours a Court of Arbitration to agree upon a final resolution on the design parameters of this hydropower project.
The IWT has been in existence since 1960, and reached a flash point in the aftermath of the Uri attacks in 2016 with Prime Minister NarendraModi declaring that “blood and water couldn’t flow together” and India would utilise the full hydropower capacity of its share of the Indus systems.

ADB report finds Asia-Pacific to face remittance loss due to pandemic

Asia Pacific, which accounts for a third of the global migrant workforce, is likely to face remittance losses of USD 31.4-54.3 billion due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in a report.
Job losses stemming from COVID-19 are hurting households around the world, but for Asia and the Pacific's 91 million migrant workers — a third of the global migrant workforce — the impacts will be particularly severe, the ADB said in August 2020 brief on 'COVID-19 Impact on International Migration, Remittances, and Recipient Households in Developing Asia.
The countries likely to face more severe effects from the pandemic-induced decline in remittance inflows are the ones where remittance shares to gross domestic product (GDP) and per capita remittances are high.
A study based on microdata from selected economies in South Asia and Southeast Asia suggests that a 10 per cent increase in remittance inflows leads to a 3–4 per cent rise in real GDP per capita, it said.
Recommending policy actions to the host and source countries, ADB economists said governments of host countries of migrants need to ensure that migrant workers have access to social protection, including employment-related support and social assistance, as well as health services.

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::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Researchers develop specifically array of nanoparticles acting as metamaterials

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, India, and Imperial College London, UK, have developed a tailored ‘meta-grid’ of nanoparticles that could make light-emitting diodes (LEDs) brighter, energy-efficient and durable.
Meta-grid' or ‘metamaterial grid’ is a specifically patterned array (grid) of nanoparticles acting as metamaterials, capable of exhibiting extraordinary optical properties.
The theoretical models, developed by Dr.Sikdar and his collaborators, allow finding out the optimal conditions for the design of the nanoparticle ‘meta-grid’ layer.
Over the years, a significant research drive towards this objective is in exploring new materials for LED-chip encapsulation, mostly by deploying either higher refractive index glasses or epoxy materials incorporated with filler powders or nanoparticle-loaded-epoxy or engineered epoxy resins, etc.
However, these techniques either make the LED chips bulkier or their fabrication becomes more challenging and less economically viable for mass production.
Dr.Sikdar said, “With the continuous advancement in nanofabrication technology, it is now possible to fabricate metallic nanoparticles which are mostly monodisperse or having a very narrow spread. Still, there could always be some randomness in particle size and/or position, flatness of grid, and variation in refractive index due to fabrication error or material defects, which are unavoidable. Effects from most of these inaccuracies can be estimated from our tolerance study and it has shown the robustness of our scheme”.

::SPORTS::

Former Indian footballer Manitombi passes away

A pall of gloom descended on the football fraternity in Manipur as news spread of LaishramManitombi Singh’s untimely passing away. The former India player, who had a distinguished career with some top clubs in the country, took to coaching in his native State after hanging up his boots. Manitombi was battling an illness for some time and breathed his last on Sunday, at the age of 39.
Manitombi played as a sideback and represented the country in two significant tournaments in 2002. He was part of the team that won the LG Cup in Vietnam under the captaincy of BhaichungBhutia.

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