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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 27 September 2020

::NATIONAL::

Centre to bring in mother tongue as medium of instruction

The Union Ministry of Education has informed the Supreme Court that it is fully backing a push for “mother tongue” as medium of instruction in schools. The use of “home language” for learning will bridge the gap between the intelligentsia and the masses, it said.
The Ministry said an order was issued on September 10 to academic authorities, including the CBSE, the NCERT and the NCTE, to initiate the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP), which was approved by the Union Cabinet in July 2020, to promote “mutlingualism” and use of “home language” as a mode of instruction.
The Centre’s affidavit came in response to the Supreme Court’s inclination to examine whether imposing English on a multitude of schoolchildren, whose language of instruction is their mother tongue, will amount to depriving them of an effective education guaranteed to them under Article 21A (fundamental right to education) of the Constitution.
The case in question is an appeal filed by the Andhra Pradesh government against the State High Court decision to strike down its order to make English a compulsory medium of instruction.
A group of Telugu scholars and prominent personalities led by former Deputy Speaker of Andhra Pradesh, Mandali Buddha Prasad, represented by advocate Vipin Nair, have opposed the move by the Jagan Reddy government. They said the government move will see Telugu join the pantheon of 197 regional and ethnic languages which have become extinct.
According to the 2011 census, there are 1,369 rationalised ‘mother tongues’ spoken by more than 10,000 people. While there are 22 national languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, there are only six classical languages recognised in India.

Home ministry allows re-entry of Tibetans with return visas

The Union Home Ministry has allowed Tibetan migrants in foreign countries to return to India through any of the 107 immigration check posts.
The restriction by MHA, prohibiting international travel to and from the immigration check posts was issued on March 23 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The restrictions have been gradually relaxed.
The MHA, in the latest order, said: “It has been decided to permit Tibetan migrants who have their residence in India and holding certificate of Identity issued by the Ministry of External Affairs and Return Visa to enter India.”
The MHA order said the return is subject to the condition that such Tibetan migrants should have been registered with the Foreigners Regional Registration Office.

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::ECONOMY::

Finance ministry claims temporary retention of GST cess not diversion

Finance Ministry sources have countered CAG’s audit finding of Central government wrongly retaining ₹47,272 crore of GST compensation cess meant for States, saying temporary retention cannot be termed as a diversion.
Days after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) flagged that the Centre, in first two years of the GST implementation, wrongly retained GST compensation cess that was meant to be used specifically to compensate States for loss of revenue, Ministry sources said compensation due for the year 2017-18 and 2018-19 was fully paid to States.
Time taken in reconciliation of compensation receipts can’t be termed as diversion of GST cess fund when the dues to States were fully released by the Central government, they said.
Sources said that in 2017-18, ₹62,611 crore was collected, out of which the government released full compensation dues of ₹41,146 crore to the States and Union Territories.
In 2018-19, an amount of ₹95,081 crore was collected, out of which ₹69,275 crore was paid as full compensation. They said an amount of ₹47,271 crore collected in 2017-18 and 2018-19 had remained unutilised for reconciliation post full payment of GST compensation dues.
For 2019-20, the Central government released ₹1,65,302crore as GST compensation against a cess collection of ₹95,444 crore which it could do with the unutilised cess of ₹47,271 crore.

Centre claims COVID has not affected acreage of Kharif crops

Government today said that there is no impact of COVID-19 on progress of area coverage under kharif crops. The Agriculture Ministry said, over one thousand 116 lakh hectare areas have been sown during Kharif season as compared to around one thousand 66 lakh hectare area of corresponding period last year.
The timely prepositioning of inputs by Government like seeds, pesticides, fertilizers, machinery and credit has made it possible for large coverage during pandemic lockdown conditions. The Ministry said, credit goes to farmers for timely action and adoption of technologies and taking benefit of government schemes.
Sowing of Rice has been reported on over 407 lakh hectare compared to 385 lakh hectare during the corresponding period of last year.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

India pushed for reforms in United Nations

Prime Minister NarendraModi has said that reforms in the United Nations is the need of the hour. Addressing the 75th United Nations General Assembly session last evening MrModi said, India is proud of the fact that it is one of the Founding Members of the United Nations.
He said, people of India have been waiting for a long time for the UN reform process to get completed. He expressed Indian people's concern whether this reform-process will ever reach its logical conclusion.
Mr Modi asked where the United Nations is in the joint fight against the Corona virus pandemic. He sought to know where its effective response was. He said, there were several stellar achievements of UN over the last 75 years, but there were also several instances that point to the need for a serious introspection of the work of the United Nations.
Mr Modi said, India has lost the maximum number of soldiers in the course of maintaining peace. He said, every Indian aspires for India’s expanded role in the United Nations. He stressed that India has always worked for the interests of humankind and not been driven by its own interests.

India accords highest priority to Srilanka as part of neighbourhood first policy

Prime Minister NarendraModi announced a grant assistance of 15 million dollars to Sri Lanka for the promotion of Buddhist ties between India and Sri Lanka. Briefing the media this afternoon, Joint Secretary (Indian Ocean Region) in the External Affairs Ministry AmitNarang said the grant will assist in deepening people-to-people linkages between the two countries in the sphere of Buddhism.
Mr Modi and his Sri Lankan counterpart MahindaRajapaksa held the first-ever India-Sri Lanka Virtual Bilateral Summit today. They agreed that the Indian side would facilitate the visit of a delegation of Buddhist pilgrims from Sri Lanka in the first inaugural flight to Sacred City of Kushinagar.
Kushinagar Airport was designated as an international airport recently recognizing its importance as a Buddhist site. Both sides also agreed to explore opportunities in the areas of Ayurveda and Yoga.
Both leaders were unanimous that the ancient cultural links between India and Sri Lanka are special and must be nurtured further. Mr Rajapaksa made a special mention of the Jaffna Cultural Centre which is an iconic project built with Indian assistance. The centre is almost ready and the Sri Lankan Prime Minister extended an invitation to Prime Minister Modi to inaugurate the project.
Prime Minister Modi called upon the new government in Sri Lanka to work towards realizing the expectations of Tamils for equality, justice, peace and dignity within a united Sri Lanka by achieving reconciliation nurtured by implementation of the Constitutional provisions.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

New study adds five species of amphibians to Madhya Pradesh’s inventory

A study conducted by researchers from Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, on amphibians in the central Indian Panna Tiger Reserve has come up with a list of five species hitherto undocumented in this region.
The researchers, apart from compiling an entire amphibian inventory of this region, have recorded a call library of eleven species and also have obtained molecular confirmation (through DNA) of the cryptic species – a term used to refer to species that appear the same but show up a difference when their DNA is examined.
Of the five species that the group has added to the faunal list of Madhya Pradesh are the dwarf toad found in peninsular India; Odisha paddy frog, an inhabitant of eastern India; wrinkled cricket frog, earlier observed in Karnataka; Pierre’s cricket frog, seen in Nepal, Bhutan and Assam; and western burrowing frog, earlier seen in western India.
“We used to locate breeding aggregation of frogs following their ‘chorus’. Then we sit quietly at least 1 metre away from the frog with our call recording devices and make effort to record their complete call,” says Dr Das. Sometimes they had to repeat the measurements as the frogs were very tricky to identify.
Among the achievements of the group is recording the advertisement calls of the western burrowing frog for the first time. This frog was identified for the first time in 2017 from populations in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka. “We have recorded 30 calls from three males which becomes the first acoustic data for this species,” says Dr. Das.
Among the total of 15 species studied by the group, 12 are frogs and three are toads.

::SPORTS::

Australia beats New Zealand in women’s T20

World champion Australia beat New Zealand by 17 runs in Saturday’s opening Women’s T20 clash here.
With the visitors closing in on Australia's 138, Megan Schutt (4/23) claimed the vital wickets of Katey Martin and Suzie Bates in the 18th over to derail the chase.
Australia had earlier reached 138 for six, thanks to a superb 41-ball 61 by Ashleigh Gardner, who smashed six 4s and three 6s.

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