Daily Current Affairs 21 November 2019

Current Affairs Of Today are

1) Government sell off its entire stake in BPCL, 4 other PSUs

• The Union Cabinet approved the government’s proposal to sell its entire 53.29% stake in Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced.
• However,  BPCL’s 61.65% share in Numaligarh Refinery Limited will be transferred to a public sector company operating in the oil and gas space.
• The government will also sell its entire 63.75% stake in the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) and will give up management control. 
• Similarly, it will sell its 30.8% stake in the Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) and hand over management control. 
• The government will sell its entire 74.23% stake in THDCIL and its 100% stake in the North
• Eastern Electric Power Corporation to NTPC Ltd. and also give up control

Why there is a need to sell these PSUs?

• The resources unlocked by the strategic disinvestment of these CPSEs would be used to finance the social sector/developmental programs of the Government benefiting the public
• The unlocked resources would form part of the budget and the usage would come to the scrutiny of the public. It is expected that the strategic buyer/acquirer may bring in new management /technology /investment for the growth of these companies and may use innovative methods for their development

International Financial Services Centres Authority Bill, 2019

The Cabinet also approved the introduction of the International Financial Services Centres Authority Bill, 2019 in the Lok Sabha in the ongoing session of the Parliament. If passed, the Bill will see the merging of eight different sector regulators for the international financial services centers into a single entity.

The government has set a disinvestment target of ₹1.05 lakh crore for the current financial year. So far, it has managed to collect only ₹17,364.26 crore

2) Install AQI monitoring stations across India

• The National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed State Pollution Control Boards across the country to install assessed air quality monitoring stations within one year and submit quarterly progress reports to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)
• According to assessments carried out, 800 Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS) and 1,250 manual stations are required in addition to the already existing ones.
• All such stations should be connected to the CPCB server and data displayed at the national portal online on a real­time basis with AQI in the public domain. The CPCB may have its own stations at such critical locations as considered necessary. All the 12 notified parameters should be duly monitored by the CAAQMS
• In case of non­compliance of orders, defaulting pollution control boards will be liable to pay a compensation of ₹5 lakh per month starting January 1, 2021

Emergency Response System [ERS]

The States Disaster Management Authorities in coordination with the SPCBs and Pollution Control Committees and State units of Meteorological Departments may include emergency as part of disaster management and develop ERS accordingly which may be placed in public domain

3) The U.S. ready to sell naval guns to India

• The Trump administration has notified to the U.S. Congress its determination to sell $1 billion worth of naval guns to India for use against warships, anti­aircraft, and shore bombardment, in a move that would enhance the lethal capabilities of the Navy.
• The proposed foreign military sale of up to 13 MK­45 5inch/62 calibers (MOD 4) naval guns and related equipment is at an estimated cost of $1.0210 billion
• India has become one of the few countries that the U.S. decided to sell its latest version (Mod 4) of its naval guns. The other countries to have been sold with MOD 4 naval guns so far are Australia, Japan, and South Korea. The one given to Thailand is an upgraded MOD 4 version. 
• The U.S. has also determined to sell these to a few other allies and friends including Britain and Canada
• The MK­45 Gun System will provide the capability to conduct anti­surface warfare and anti­air defense missions while enhancing interoperability with the U.S. and other allied forces

4)  Industrial Relations Code Bill, 2019

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval for the introduction of the Industrial Relations Code, 2019 in Parliament.

Benefits

• Setting up of two-member tribunal (in place of one member) introducing a concept that some of the important cases will be adjudicated jointly and the rest by a single member resulting in speedier disposal of cases.
• To impart flexibility to the exit provisions (relating to retrenchment etc.), for which, the threshold for prior approval of appropriate Government has been kept unchanged at 100 employees, but added a provision for changing ‘such number of employees’ through notification.
• The re-skilling fund is to be utilized for crediting to workers in the manner to be prescribed.
• Definition of Fixed Term Employment and that it would not lead to any notice period and payment of compensation on retrenchment excluded.
• Vesting of powers with the government officers for adjudication of disputes involving penalty as fines thereby lessening the burden on the tribunal.

Background

The draft code on Industrial Relations has been prepared after amalgamating, simplifying and rationalizing the relevant provisions of following three Central Labour Acts:

• The Trade Unions Act, 1926
• The Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946
• The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947

5) Bayesian inversion 

• Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have used a novel mathematical technique and analyzed satellite images to estimate the strength of North Korea’s underground nuclear test of September 2017. Those tests are considered the most powerful thermonuclear devices to have been explored by the country.
• North Korea detonated a nuclear device in 2017 equivalent to about 250 kilotons of TNT, creating an explosion 16 times the size of the bomb the United States detonated over Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945

 Geophysical Journal International

The findings were published in the  Geophysical Journal International used images of the location after the explosion, sourced from the ALOS­-2, a Japanese satellite, and Sentinel 1B, a European. radar imaging satellite. 

About InSAR

• InSAR refers to the interferometric synthetic aperture radar and is a radar technique used to generate maps of how a place would look after an earthquake or a detonation. 
• While other groups have also used InSAR based approaches to estimate the impact from detonation, the ISRO group claims to have used a mathematical technique called Bayesian inversion that can correct for errors associated with InSAR data.
• The Bayesian modeling of the InSAR data reduced the uncertainties in the yield and depth by 25­ 85% and 40­-97%

6) Satellites to Assess Pollution Status

The Imager payload onboard ISRO’s INSAT-3D & 3DR satellites is used to monitor Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), which is an indicator of particles and smoke from biomass burning affecting visibility and increase of PM2.5 and PM10 concentration in the atmosphere. It is found that AOD, PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations are higher over Indo-Gangetic Plain covering parts of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar during October and November. The high concentration of these pollutants is seen originating from parts of Punjab and Haryana during stubble burning. 

A climatological study of satellite-based fire occurrences and associated pollutant parameters reveal that fire occurrences increased by 4% over Punjab and Haryana region during October- November between 2003 and 2017. The model-based analysis suggests that there is a high probability of transportation of smoke aerosols from Punjab & Haryana, towards down-wind regions of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

7) Mahinda Rajapaksa  to be Sri Lanka PM

• Sri Lanka’s Leader of the Opposition Mahinda Rajapaksa will be sworn in as Prime Minister on Thursday by his younger brother and newly elected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, following premier Ranil Wickremesinghe’s resignation.
• The move enables Mr. Gotabaya to appoint a caretaker government until general elections, which he may choose to call by dissolving Parliament in March when 4.5. years of its term is complete or when the legislature’s full term ends in August. 
• Alternatively, the House could be dissolved anytime with a favorable vote from two­-thirds of its members

8) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)  supersedes DHFL board

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to supersede the board of troubled mortgage financier Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd. (DHFL) and said bankruptcy proceedings would be initiated against the company.
• This is the first instance of RBI superseding the board of a non­banking financial company. The government had changed the law earlier this year to give such powers to the RBI.
• Also, DHFL could be the first financial services company to face insolvency proceedings at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) after the government, issued a notification specifying the categories of financial service providers that can be taken up for resolution under the generic framework of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code

Reason Of Bankruptcy

The mortgage lender, facing a cash crunch since last year after banks choked lending, has an overall debt of ₹80,000 crores. Banks have exposure of ₹40,000 crores to the company. While efforts were made by banks for  resolution,  the process hit a roadblock as markets regulator SEBI did not allow mutual funds having exposure to DHFL to be a part of the resolution plan