Comprehensive Current affairs 12 September 2020

 Making nature conservation a people’s movement.

V.P of India Venkaiah Naidu has called for making nature’s conservation a people’s movement and appealed to all citizens, especially the youth to actively take up this cause.

Speaking at a webinar on the occasion of Himalayan Day,Naidu called for rethinking on the development paradigm in such a way that human beings and nature co-exist and thrive together.

He said, the Himalayas are an invaluable treasure house and emphasized the need for their protection and preservation. He also called for a pan-Himalayan development strategy based on the region's natural resources, culture and traditional knowledge.

Drawing attention to the threat of degradation faced by the fragile Himalayan ecosystem, the Vice President stressed that development should not be at the cost of the environment. He said, frequent natural calamities are a result of our carelessness towards nature.

 On this occasion, the Vice President also virtually presented the copy of a book titled “Sansad Mein Himalaya” written by the Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.

Kerala Tops in Care for Children.

Young child outcomes report recently brought out by non-governmental organisation Mobile Creches.

Report:

• The index is part of the ‘State of the Young Child’ in India report released the 50-year-old NGO, which works in the field of early childhood care and development by ensuring creche services at construction sites and slum settlements across several cities.

• The index has been constructed for two time periods (2005–2006 and 2015–2016) to enable inter-State comparisons as well as provide an idea of change over time.

• Another index called the young child environment index by State of the Young Child’ in India to understand the Policy and Environment Enablers that influence a child’s well-being.

• According to the Environment index; Kerala, Goa, Sikkim, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh secured the top Five Positions.

• It uses five policy enablers that influence child well-being outcomes, including poverty alleviation, strengthening primary healthcare, improving education levels, safe water supply and Promotion of Gender Equity.

Highlights of the Report:

• The index measures health, nutrition and cognitive growth with the help of indicators such as infant Mortality rate, Stunting and net Attendance at the Primary School Level.

• Kerala, Goa, Tripura, Tamil Nadu and Mizoram are among the top five States for well-being of children.

 • It identifies eight States that have scores below the country’s average: Assam, Meghalaya,Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

• Towards child nutrition, healthcare, education and other necessary protection services,India spent ₹1723 per child in 2018–2019.

• The budgetary allocation for the Ministry of Women and Child Development has seen a year-on-year increase, all the additional funds have been allocated towards nutrition delivery under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).

Apex court's stay order on reservation for Maratha community.

A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday referred a group of petitions challenging the Maratha reservation law to a Constitution Bench.

The court said the Maratha quota, meanwhile, will not apply for admissions and appointments made in the State for 2020-21. However, the postgraduate admissions which have already been made will be left unaltered.

The appeals challenging the Maratha quota law contend that the statute provides 12 to 13% quota for the community in Maharashtra. This has breached the 50% cap declared by a nine-judge Bench of the apex court in 1992.

Lawyers had submitted that the court should take into consideration recent developments like the 10% quota for economically weaker sections introduced through the 103rd Constitutional Amendment.

Japan calls for increased cooperation in Indo-Pacific region.

Japanese Defence Minister Taro Kono has called for increased cooperation in the India-Pacific region to counter Chinese expansion.

Speaking at a webinar held by Washington-based Center for Strategic & International Studies in Tokyo, Kono pitched for a larger regional mechanism or global mechanism to counter China.

 Indo Pacific region is largely viewed as an area comprising the Indian Ocean and the western and central Pacific Ocean, including the South China Sea.

China's territorial claims in the South China Sea its efforts to advance into the Indian Ocean are seen to have challenged the established rules-based system.

Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counterclaims in the South China Sea.

In recent years, Japan has expressed increasing concern regarding Beijing's activities in the region especially concerning the situation with the disputed Senkaku islands, known in China as the Diaoyudao islands and claimed by Beijing to be Chinese territory.

India, France& Australia holds first trilateral dialogue.

The first India-France-Australia Trilateral Dialogue was held virtually today. The meeting was co-chaired by Foreign Secretary Harsh VardhanShringla, Secretary-General, French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs François Delattre, and Secretary, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Frances Adamson. The focus of the dialogue was on enhancing cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.

The outcome oriented meeting was held with the objective of building on the strong bilateral relations that the three countries share with each other. The three sides agreed to hold the dialogue on an annual basis.

During the dialogue, the three sides discussed economic and geostrategic challenges and cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and domestic responses to it.

Finance ministry launches PSB’s door step banking services.

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman today inaugurated Doorstep Banking Services by Public Sector Banks and participated in the awards ceremony to felicitate best performing banks on EASE Banking Reforms Index.

 As part of the EASE Reforms, Doorstep Banking Services is envisaged to provide convenience of banking services to the customers at their doorstep through the universal touch points of Call Centre, Web Portal or Mobile App. Customers can also track their service request through these channels. The services shall be rendered by the Doorstep Banking Agents deployed by the selected Service Providers at 100 centres across the country.

At present only non-financial services like pick up of negotiable instruments, new cheque book requisition slip, 15G / 15H forms, IT / GST challan, issue request for standing instructions, request for account statement are available to customers. Financial services shall be made available from next month.The services can be availed by customers of Public Sector Banks at nominal charges.

A common reform agenda for PSBs, EASE Agenda is aimed at institutionalizing clean and smart banking. It was launched in January 2018. PSBs have shown a healthy trajectory in their performance over four quarters since the launch of EASE 2.0 Reforms Agenda.

Government aims to add 5 crore additional jobs in MSME sector.

Minister for MSME NitinGadkari has said that Government aims to enhance MSME contribution to GDP from about 30 per cent to 50 per cent and in exports from 49 per cent to 60 per cent.

Speaking at a virtual meet organised to launch Aatmanirbhar Bharat ARISE Atal New India Challenges by NITI Aayog today, Mr Gadkari said, Government is aiming to create 5 crore additional jobs in the MSME sector which presently employs about 11 crore people.

He applauded the Aatmanirbhar Bharat ARISE Atal New India Challenge initiative of NitiAyog and called for using technology in finding solutions to the problems being faced in different areas ensuring value addition.

The Minister cited the issue of excess rice which can be utilised for producing ethanol thereby addressing the problem of storage on the one hand and providing green fuel to the country as import replacement on the other.

 UN releases report on trends in child mortality.

On September 9, 2020, the United Nations released “Levels and Trends in Child Mortality” report. The report says that child mortality rate of India has declined between 1990 and 2019. It was 126 in 1990 and has now declined to 34 in 2019.

Though, there is reduction in child mortality, India along with Nigeria accounts to almost one-third of under five deaths in 2019. India registered 4.5% annual rate of reduction between 1990 and 2019. The number of annual under-five deaths in India was 3.4 million in 1990 and it has now dropped to 824,000 in 2019.

According to the report, globally the child mortality deaths under five has dropped from 12.5 million in 1990 to 5.2 million in 2019.

The report says that the regions of Oceania, Central and Southern Asia saw a faster decline between 2010-19 as compared to that of 2000-2009.

France win over Croatia in nations league.

France earned a roller-coaster 4-2 home win over Croatia in a top-tier Nations League A Group 3 match on Tuesday with a carbon copy result of their memorable 2018 World Cup final clash.

While Ronaldo rattled home a superb first-half free kick to become only the second male player to score 100 international goals as Portugal outclassed Sweden 2-0.

Two Black Holes Merged Billions of Years Ago.

Billions of years ago, a collision between two black holes sent gravitational waves rippling through the universe. In 2019, signals from these waves were detected at the gravitational wave observatory LIGO (United States) and the detector Virgo (Italy).

Highlights:

• The signal detected at LIGO and Virgo resembled “about four short wiggles” and lasted less than one-tenth of a Second.

 • It was in 2015, the first gravitational wave was actually detected — by LIGO. Since then,there have been a Number of Subsequent Detections of Gravitational Waves. Where did it Come From?

• Analysis suggested that GW190521 had most likely been generated by a merger of two Black Holes.

• It was calculated to have come from Roughly 17 billion light years away, and from a time when the Universe was about Half its Age.

• One of the two merging black holes falls in an “intermediate mass” range, which misfit and cannot be Explained by Traditional Knowledge.

Why is it Unusual?

• In the merger leading to the GW190521 signal, the larger black hole was of 85 solar masses.

• It is the first “intermediate mass” black hole ever observed.

• Stars that could give birth to black holes are between 65 and 120 solar masses. Stars in this range blow themselves apart when they die, without collapsing into a black hole.

• The smaller black hole too is borderline, at 66 solar masses.

• Merger create a new black hole of about 142 solar masses. Energy equivalent to eight solar masses was released in the form of gravitational waves, leading to the strongest ever wave detected.

Gravitational Waves:

• Gravitational Waves are Invisible Ripples that Form when a star explodes in a supernova; when two big stars orbit each other; and when Two Black Holes Merge.

• Travelling at the Speed of light, Gravitational Waves squeeze and Stretch anything in their path.

• Gravitational Waves were proposed by Albert Einstein in his General Theory of Relativity over a century ago.

 • Massive Accelerating Objects would disrupt space-time in such a way that ‘waves’ of undulating space-time would propagate in all directions away from the source.

• These cosmic ripples would carry Information about their origins, as well as clues to the nature of Gravity itself.

• The strongest gravitational waves are produced by cataclysmic events such as colliding black holes, Supernovae and Colliding Neutron Stars.

Focus on Mains:

Forex Reserves.

While the overall situation on the economic front is gloomy, with India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Growth having contracted 23.9 per cent in the April-June quarter, and manufacturing activity and trade at standstill, the stock of forex reserves is one data point that India can cheer about amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.

• India’s Foreign Exchange (Forex) Reserves Surged by $3.883 billion to touch a lifetime high of $541.431 billion in the week ended August 28.

Forex Reserves:

• Forex reserves are external assets in the form of gold, SDRs (special drawing rights of the IMF) and foreign currency assets (capital inflows to the capital markets, FDI and external commercial borrowings) accumulated by India and controlled by the RBI.

• India's reserve position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is also considered by some a part of Forex Reserves.

Why are Forex Reserves Rising Despite the Slowdown in the Economy?

• The major reason for the rise in Forex Reserves is the rise in investment in foreign portfolio investors in Indian Stocks and Foreign direct investments (FDIs).

• Foreign investors have acquired stakes in several Indian companies over the past several months.

 • The Fall in Crude Oil Prices has brought down the oil Import Bill, saving precious foreign Exchange.

• Similarly, overseas Remittances and Foreign Travels have Fallen Steeply.

What’s the Significance of Rising Forex Reserves?

• The Rising Forex Reserves give comfort to the government and the RBI in managing India’s external and internal financial issues at a time of major contraction in economic growth and to cover the import bill of the Country for a Year.

• The Rising Reserves have also helped the rupee to Strengthen against the Dollar.

• The International Monetary Fund says official Foreign Exchange Reserves are held in support of a range of objectives like supporting and maintaining confidence in the policiesfor monetary and exchange rate management including the capacity to intervene in support of the national or union currency.

• It also limits external vulnerability by maintaining foreign currency liquidity to absorb shocks during times of crisis or when access to borrowing is curtailed.

What does the RBI do with the Forex Reserves at its Disposal?

• The Reserve Bank functions as the custodian and manager of forex reserves, and operates within the overall policy framework agreed upon with the government.

• The RBI allocates the dollars for specific purposes.

• For example, under the Liberalised Remittances Scheme, individuals are allowed to remit up to $250,000 every year.

• The RBI uses its forex kitty for the orderly movement of the rupee.

• It sells the dollar when the rupee weakens and buys the dollar when the rupee strengthens.

• When the RBI mops up dollars, it releases an equal amount in rupees.

 • This excess liquidity is sterilised through the issue of bonds and securities and Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) operations.

Where are India’s Forex Reserves kept?

• The RBI Act, 1934 provides the overarching legal framework for deployment of reserves in different foreign currency assets and gold.

• As much as 64 per cent of the foreign currency reserves are held in securities like Treasury bills of foreign countries, mainly the US; 28 per cent is deposited in foreign central banks; and 7.4 per cent is deposited in commercial banks abroad, according to RBI data.

• In value terms (USD), the share of gold in the total foreign exchange reserves increased from about 6.14 per cent as at end-September 2019 to about 6.40 per cent as at end-March 2020.

Is there a cost Involved in Maintaining Forex Reserves?

• The return on India’s forex reserves kept in foreign central banks and commercial banks is negligible — analysts say it could be around 1 per cent, or even less than that, considering the fall in interest rates in the US and Euro zone.

• There was a demand from some quarters that Forex Reserves should be used for infrastructure development in the country. However, the RBI had opposed the plan.

• Another issue is the high ratio of volatile flows (portfolio flows and short-term debt) to reserves which is around 80 per cent. This money can exit at a fast pace.