CURRENT AFFAIRS
01 JULY 2020
TOP HEADLINES:
A) Banned apps will get a chance to send in their clarifications.
After banning the most popular 59 Chinese apps by the Indian government, an official at the Information Technology Ministry revealed that these apps will get a chance to submit their clarifications. This is done according to the provisions led down in the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009. The Indian head of the companies Nikhil Gandhi said that they had not shared details of any Indian user with foreign governments.
B) Free Food grain scheme till November.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his address to the nation on July 1, announced that the free food grains scheme for poor families will be extended till November 2020. This was his sixth address to the nation since the outbreak of novel coronavirus. It comes on the heels of fresh guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs on June 29, further relaxing lockdown restrictions from July 1 as part of the ‘Unlock-2’ phase.
Highlights of PM’s speech:
- The Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Anna Rozgar Yojana, under which 80 crore people have been getting 5 kg rations and 1 kg of dal (cereal) per month free of cost, is being extended till the end of November. The scheme will cost ₹90,000 crore to the exchequer.
- Bringing in One Nation One Ration Card for the whole country, which will greatly benefit migrant workers and their families.
- As we enter Unlock-2 in the battle against novel coronavirus, we are also entering a season in which we will see a lot of rain and people will be more prone to diseases. So, he personally appealed to everyone to take all the necessary precautions.
- People not following safety rules in the context of the pandemic need to be stopped and educated. Nobody, not even the leader of the nation, is above the rules in India.
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Core industry output contracts for third month
According to data released by the Commerce Ministry on June 30, the output of the eight core sector industries shrank 23% in May 2020, which is the third straight month of contraction. Among the eight core sectors, only the fertilizer industry saw an actual growth in output in May, rising by 7.5% in comparison to May 2019. The rest sectors continued to contract. The steel sector performed the worst and recorded a 48.4% fall, while cement production dropped to 22%. The energy sectors also showed some negative growth, with coal production falling to 14% and crude oil by 7% and natural gas production by 16.8%. The greatest weight in the core sector index is carried by the Petroleum refinery production, which saw a contraction of 21%, while electricity generation dropped to 15.6%. According to the chief economist at India Ratings and Research, the Indian arm of the Fitch group, Mr. Devendra Kumar Pant, the picture is optically better in May as compared to April but the situation is still below the normal or pre covid19 levels. Moreover, he also said that due to good monsoon and kharif sowing season, the growth in the fertilizer sector is clearly seen.
B) Imminent flood threat in Bihar
With four rivers flowing above danger level, the threat of floods becomes greater in parts of north Bihar. The meteorological department of the State has predicted that heavy rains would continue till July 2. Rivers Kosi, Bagmati, Kamla Balan, and Mahananda were flowing above danger level at many places on June 29, which is a threat to inundate several parts of north Bihar districts such as Muzaffarpur, Katihar, Purnia, Jhanjharpur, and Sitamarhi. The water level in the Ganga is also increasing gradually. In view of the flood threat, the State government has deployed several teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) in these areas.
C) Human trials for Indian Covid-19 vaccine gets approval.
The Drug Controller General of India has granted approval to a pharmaceutical company in Hyderabad to conduct clinical human trials of a potential vaccine for Covid-19. The trials are being scheduled to start across the country in July. The vaccine named Covaxin, was developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research and the National Institute of Virology. It is an inactivated vaccine created from a strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Inactivated vaccines uses the killed version of the germ that causes the disease. It can help the immune system mount an antibody response against the virus.
D) 46 million girls went missing in India.
According to the report released by the UNFPA’s State of the World Population 2020 on June 30, one in three girls who are missing globally due to sex selection, both pre-natal and post-natal, is from India which is 46 million out of the total 142 million. As per the figures, the number of missing women has become more than double over the past 50 years, which was at 61 million in 1970. The report cites a 2014 study in order to state that India has the highest rate of excess female deaths at 13.5 per 1,000 female births or we can say one in nine deaths of females below the age of 5 due to postnatal sex selection. This study report also shows that in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan the excess female mortality of girls below 5 years of age was under 3%. According to the average estimates over a five year period (2013-17), annually at a global level, there were 1.2 million missing female births. India had about 4,60,000 girls missing at the time of their birth every year.
EDUCATIONAL NEWS
A) Center to focus on online education.
With the social inequity in online education coming forward due to the global pandemic of coronavirus, the Centre has proposed long-term measures to bridge the gap. This includes plans to distribute laptops or tablets to 40% of students of all colleges and universities over the next five years, and to equip all government schools with information and communication technology (ICT) as well. On June 29, in a presentation to the Finance Commission, the School Education Department also estimated it would need to spend approximately ₹1 lakh per school for sanitization and quarantine measures in preparation for the safe reopening of schools that have been shut due to covid19. The basic measures will include providing basic water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities, safe drinking water, availability of alcohol rub/sanitizer, disinfectant, cleaning material and equipment for temperature checking.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) Third round of Corps Commander-level talks underway.
On June 30,the talks between Corps Commanders of India and China began at Chushul in Ladakh in the morning. Their aim was to reduce the tensions along the border, as the earlier efforts at deescalation had failed on the ground. The talks between Lt. Gen. Harinder Singh, General Officer Commanding of the Leh-based 14 Corps and Maj. Gen. Liu Lin, Commander of the South Xinjiang Military District, began at the Border Meeting Point at Chushul on the Indian side. The earlier rounds of talks were held on the Chinese side of Chushul. On June 22, at the second round of talks, both the sides had come to a “mutual consensus” to disengage along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). However, there has been no tangible progress since. Even on both the sides, the further military build up is continued.
B) External debt rises $15.4 billion to $558.5 billion in March.
According to the data released by the RBI, the external debt of India stood at $558.5 billion in March, which shows that there is an increase of $15.4 billion as compared to the previous year. Commercial borrowings remained the largest component of the external debt with a total share of 39.4%, followed by non-resident deposits at 23.4% and short-term trade credit at 18.2%.
Valuation gains are shown in the data due to the appreciation of the U.S. dollar against the Indian rupee and other major currencies were at $16.6 billion. At the end of March, long-term debt, with original maturity of above one year, was placed at $451.7 billion, which shows a rise of $17 billion over the level recorded in March 2019. Short-term debt on a residual maturity basis constituted 42.4% of the total external debt and 49.5% of foreign exchange reserves at the end of March. As per the RBI, “ The U.S. dollar-denominated debt continued to be the largest component of India’s external debt, with a total share of 53.7% at the end of March 2020, which is followed by the Indian rupee (31.9%), yen (5.6%), SDR (4.5%) and the euro (3.5%).”
C) The World Bank okay funds for Namami Gange.
According to the Country Director of the World Bank, Mr. Junaid Ahmed, “The Namami Gange Programme of the government has revitalised India’s efforts in rejuvenating the Ganga.” The World Bank has approved a five-year loan to the Namami Gange project which is worth ₹3,000 crore in order to develop and improve infrastructure projects to reduce pollution in the river basin. This project has already received ₹4,535 crore ($600 million) from the World Bank until December 2021 as part of the first phase of the National Ganga River Basin project. So far, 313 projects worth ₹25,000 crore have been sanctioned under this mission. Some of the projects are to be undertaken under the second phase of the mission which includes spillover projects from the first phase of the mission as well as cleaning projects in tributaries such as the Yamuna and Kali. In the second phase, the loan would fund ₹1,134 crore for three new Hybrid Annuity Projects in Agra, Meerut and Saharanpur for the tributaries of the Ganga.
D) India, Sri Lanka hold talks over debt.
The authorities of India and Sri Lanka held talks over 2 days this week on rescheduling Colombo’s repayment of loans and the country’s $1.1 billion currency swap request to overcome the economic impact of the crisis of coronavirus. On May 23, this matter was raised and discussed at the leadership level during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s telephonic conversation with the President of Sri Lanka, Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa. During the talks, the Sri Lankan President requested the Indian government to provide $ 1.1 billion special SWAP facility to top up US $400 million under SAARC Facility. The Indian Prime Minister assured the Sri Lankan President that India would continue to provide all possible support to Sri Lanka for mitigating the effects of the pandemic. Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa also sought Indian help to revive key infrastructure projects in the Indian Ocean Island country, including hastening up the construction of the East Terminal of the Colombo Port.
