Daily Current Affairs of 9 November 2019

Current Affairs of Today

1) Indian Navy – Indonesian Navy Bilateral Maritime Exercise Samudra Shakti

INS Kamorta, an Anti-Submarine Warfare Corvette is jointly exercising with Indonesian Warship KRI Usman Harun, a multi-role Corvette in the Bay of Bengal as part of the ongoing  Indian Navy – Indonesian Navy Bilateral Exercise ‘Samudra Shakti’ from 06 Nov to 07 Nov 19. The joint exercises include maneuvers, Surface Warfare exercises, Air Defence exercises, Weapon firing drills, Helicopter Operations, and Boarding Operations.

2) Indian Railways successfully conducts a stage of recruitments, which is one of the largest such exercises in the World

The Ministry of Railways successfully conducted, what can be called as one of the world’s largest recruitment exercise, for filling up critical safety and operational posts and has reached its completion stage.

Unprecedented 47.45 Lakhs candidates appeared for over 64,000 posts of Assistant Loco Pilots & Technicians

About 1.17 Crores candidates appeared for over 63,000 posts in Level I (erstwhile Group D) posts

24.75 lakhs candidates appeared for over 13,500 posts for Junior Engineer (JE), Depot Material Superintendent (DMS) and Chemical Metallurgy Assistant (CMA)

Highest possible level of measures security and probity were ensured during the recruitment process

IT Enabled features were incorporated in the examination process; no two Question Papers were alike

3) ‘BIMSTEC Ports’ Conclave’ in Vishakhapatnam, AP

The first-ever BIMSTEC Conclave of Ports, being held at Vishakhapatnam on 7-8 November 2019

Aim of Conclave

The conclave aims at providing a platform to strengthen maritime interaction, port-led connectivity initiatives and sharing best practices among member countries. Providing Connectivity is one of the key priorities among BIMSTEC countries.

Significance of BIMSTEC

The BIMSTEC region brings together 167 billion people together 22% of the world population and a combined GDP of US $3.71 Trillion. 

India attaches great importance to the bay of Bengal initiatives for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) which links five countries from South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Nepal) and two from South East Asia (Myanmar & Thailand).

4)  India Justice Report 2019 by the Tata Trusts

 According to the India Justice Report 2019, released by the Tata Trusts in collaboration with Centre for Social Justice, Common Cause, and Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, among others.

Maharashtra has topped the list of 18 large­medium States in the overall first­ever ranking of Indian States on justice delivery, followed by Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Haryana

In the category of large-medium states, Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are at the bottom, while

among seven smaller States, Goa leads the group.

The report is based on publicly available data from different government entities on the four pillars of justice delivery police, judiciary, prisons, and legal aid.

The report looked at data indicators from the four pillars, covering themes like infrastructure, human resources, diversity (gender, Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe/Other Backward Class), budgets, workload and trends over the last five years

Problems shown in India Justice Report 2019 are

Prisons are over­occupied at 114%, where 68% are undertrials awaiting investigation, inquiry or trial. Regarding budgets, most States are not able to fully utilize the funds given to them by the Centre, while the increase in spending on the police, prisons, and judiciary does not keep pace with the overall increase in State expenditure.

The country has about 18,200 judges with about 23% sanctioned posts vacant, notes the report, adding that women are poorly represented in these pillars, constituting just 7% of the police.

Source The Hindu

5) India Internet 2019 report by the Internet And Mobile Association of India (IAMAI)

According to the report, titled India Internet 2019  by the Internet And Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).  Kerala is already halfway to its goal of 100% coverage Kerala Fibre Optic Network project, pegged at ₹1,548 crores, would provide Internet to every household in the State. “For 20 lakh BPL households it will be free 

The State’s Internet penetration rate is the second-highest in the country (54%), next only to Delhi NCR with 69% penetration.

What is the Internet Penetration Rate?

Internet penetration rate defined as the number of individuals aged above 12 per 100 population who accessed the Internet in the last month; survey period January­-March 2019

The lowest Internet Penetration Rate is in Odisha (25), Jharkhand (26) and Bihar (28).  

The report also notes that Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Delhi have the highest proportion of female Internet users.

The data also show that Kerala has about 70 Internet subscriptions per 100 population across service areas. While Bihar has the lowest number with 29 subscriptions per 100 population, Uttar Pradesh’s number stands at 34

It is to be noted that Kerala is among the States with a huge gap between the number of rural and urban Internet connections. This is also
the case in Delhi and Himachal Pradesh.

6) Iran resumes uranium enrichment

Iran resumed uranium enrichment at its underground Fordow plant south of Tehran in a new step back from its commitments under a landmark 2015 nuclear deal, raising alarm from Western powers. Engineers began feeding uranium hexafluoride gas into the plant’s mothballed enrichment centrifuges in

Uranium enrichment is the sensitive process that produces fuel for nuclear power plants but also, in highly extended form, the fissile core for a warhead. 

Iran is now enriching uranium to 4.5%, exceeding the 3.67% limit set by the 2015 deal but less than the 20% level it had previously operated to and far less than the 90% level required for a warhead. Iran has always denied any military dimension to its nuclear program.

The suspension of uranium enrichment at the long-secret plant was one of the restrictions on its nuclear program Iran had agreed to in return for the lifting of sanctions. Iran’s announcement that it would resume enrichment at the Fordow plant 

7) Cyclonic Storm ‘Bulbul’ 

The recent cyclone to emerge out of the Bay of Bengal has been named Bulbul Severe Cyclonic Storm with a maximum sustained wind speed of 110-120 Kmph gusting to 135 Kmph.

Before this, there were cyclones Fani and Maha

The first cyclone after the list was adopted was given the name in the first row of the first column Onil, proposed by Bangladesh. The next cyclone will have a name Pawan

Naming of cyclones

• Each Tropical Cyclone basin in the world has its own rotating list of names.
• For cyclones in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, the naming system was agreed by eight member countries of a group called WMO/ESCAP and took effect in 2004.
• These eight countries are – Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
• The first cyclone after the list was adopted was given the name in the first row of the first column — Onil, proposed by Bangladesh.
• Subsequent cyclones are being named sequentially, column-wise, with each cyclone given the name immediately below that of the previous cyclone.
• Once the bottom of the column is reached, the sequence moves to the top of the next column.
• So far, the first seven columns have been exhausted, and Fani (again proposed by Bangladesh) is the top name in the last column.
• The next cyclone will be named Vayu. When all the names on the list are exhausted, the eight countries will propose fresh lists of names.
• The lists for storms in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific basins are, however, rotated when the names in the list get exhausted. An exception is, however, made in certain cases — if a storm causes excessive death and destruction, its name is considered for retirement and is not repeated; it is replaced with another name.
  

Why naming of cyclones is done

• Appending names to cyclones makes it easier for the media to report on these cyclones, heightens interest in warnings, and increases community preparedness.
• Names are easier to remember than numbers and technical terms and hence can reach greater masses.
• If the public wants to suggest the name of a cyclone to be included in the list, the proposed name must meet some fundamental criteria. The name should be short and readily understood when broadcast. Further, the names must not be culturally sensitive and should not convey any unintended and potentially inflammatory meaning.

8) Moody’s change in outlook

• The government of India has noted that Moody’s Investors Service has changed the outlook on the Government of India’s ratings to negative from stable while keeping the foreign-currency and local-currency long-term issuer ratings unchanged at Baa2. 
• Moody's upgrades India's credit rating to Baa2 from Baa3, after a gap of 13 years
• However, India continues to be among the fastest-growing major economies in the world, India’s relative standing remains unaffected.IMF in its latest World Economic Outlook has stated that the Indian Economy is set to grow at 6.1% in 2019, picking up to 7 % in 2020. As India’s potential growth rate remains unchanged, assessment by IMF and other multilateral organizations continue to underline a positive outlook on India.

9) Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) of India has declined by 8 points

• Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) of India has declined by 8 points in one year as per the latest Special Bulletin on MMR released by the Registrar General of India. This decline is important as it translates to nearly 2000 additional pregnant women saved annually.
• MMR has declined from 130/ lakh live births in 2014-16 to 122/ lakh live births in 2015-17 (6.2% decline).
• India is on track to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target for reducing MMR by 2025
• 11 States who have achieved the ambitious target of MMR of 100/lakh Live Births by 2020 set under the National Health Policy 2017. These states are Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Telangana, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Karnataka, and Haryana. 
• A total of seven States, namely Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, West Bengal, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana have shown a decline in MMR that is greater than or equal to the national average of 6.2%.
• The four states namely Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan will have to intensify their efforts to accelerate the MMR decline to achieve the SDG target. 

How the MMR is Reduced?

New initiatives in the form of LaQshya, POSHAN Abhiyan and SUMAN (Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan Initiative) will help to ensure that all pregnant women receive quality maternal care with dignity and that no mother or newborn dies due to a preventable cause.

10)  27th Conference of Central and State Statistical Organizations (COCSSO) 

• Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) is organizing 27th Conference of Central and State Statistical Organizations (COCSSO) during 11-12thNovember 2019 at Kolkata
• The theme of this year’s Conference “Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”, has been chosen for intensive and focused discussions aimed at filling the data gaps and improvement of timelines/quality in SDG monitoring.
• MoSPI, which is responsible for monitoring the progress of SDGs, has developed the National Indicator Framework (NIF) for monitoring the country’s progress on SDGs, in consultations with Central Ministries and State/UT Governments. It has also released the NIF Baseline Report 2015-16 setting the benchmark for measuring SDGs progress up to 2030.
• The next important step on SDGs is a preparation of the State Indicator Framework (SIF) so that monitoring of progress in respect of SDGs can take place at the State and sub-State levels. In this backdrop, 27th COCSSO assumes greater Significance for proposing the way forward for evolving SIF through a wider consultation with State Governments/UTs and other stakeholders.