Daily Current Affairs 23 December 2019

Current Affairs Of Today Are

1) Nagpur Resolution: A Holistic approach for empowering citizens

The ‘Nagpur Resolution- A holistic approach for empowering citizens’ was adopted during the Valedictory session of the two-day Regional Conference on ‘Improving Public Service Delivery – Role of Governments’, in Nagpur, Maharashtra. The conference was organized by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Government of India, in collaboration with the Government of Maharashtra and the Maharashtra State Commission for Right to Public Services.

Nagpur Resolution: A Holistic approach for empowering citizens

The Conference unanimously adopted the ‘Nagpur Resolution: A Holistic Approach for Empowering Citizens’ outlined below after intensive deliberations during the sessions held over two days. The Conference resolved that Government of India, the Government of Maharashtra, the Maharashtra State Commission for Right to Public Services and the participating State Governments shall collaborate to:

• To empower the citizens by policy interventions for better service delivery through timely up-gradation of citizens charters, implementation of enactments and benchmarking standards for continuous improvement;
• To empower citizens by adopting a bottom-up approach to bring massive improvements in quality of grievance redressal and reduction in timelines of grievance redressal;
• To adopt a holistic approach of systemic public grievance reforms through improved mapping, formulation of monitoring matrix, data collection, and evaluation in quality of grievance redressal;
• To provide an enabling environment for States and Ministries/ Departments of the Government of India for creating web portals and to adopt a holistic approach for improved service delivery through digital platforms;
• To focus on dynamic policy-making and strategic decisions, monitoring of implementation, the appointment of key personnel, coordination and evaluation;
• To achieve a sense of common identity by the exchange of technical expertise in the areas of Improved Service Delivery between the paired States under the Ek Bharat – Shrestha Bharat Program;
• To work towards long-term engagements in the areas of Improved Service Delivery for Empowering Citizens through greater cooperation between the DARPG and the participating States and,
• To ensure timely publication of Good Governance Index to identify the quality of governance in 10 sectors especially those about welfare and infrastructure at the Union, State, and District levels.

2)  National Institute of Oceanography (NIO): ‘Assessment of macro and microplastics along the west coast of India

• Beaches in Maharashtra are more polluted with microplastics and macro plastics than those in Goa and Karnataka, according to a study conducted by a research institute. The study has blamed plastic industries located near the shore and increased tourism activities for pollution.
• Such a phenomenon of finding macro and microplastics in abundance on Maharashtra beaches suggests that the contaminants are land­based, like (coming from) nearshore plastic industries, port areas, petroleum industries, and high tourism activities
• The study, titled ‘Assessment of macro and microplastics along the west coast of India: abundance, distribution, polymer type, and toxicity’, was published in Netherlands-­based journal Chemosphere
• The researchers conducted the assessment of macro and microplastic contamination for two years on 10 beaches along the western coast of India and their toxic effects on marine
• organisms.
• The plastic contaminants on these beaches were found in various colors like white, pale yellow, dark brown, green, blue and red, said the study, led by NIO scientists

3)  Palle Pragati Programme: Flying squads will monitor

• Palle Pragati, a program aimed at the comprehensive development of rural areas, the Telangana government has focused its attention on ascertaining the quality of works by constituting flying squads. 
• The squads would undertake surprise checks of the projects launched from January 1 and submit reports from time to time.
• The squads would consist of IAS, IPS and IFS officers and each would be given the charge of inspecting works in 12 mandals randomly allotted to them. These checks would not only reveal the progress but also enable the government to elicit suggestions to improve works
• The inspections could be construed as a test of the performance of the officials and elected representatives. The government would not hesitate to initiate stringent action against officials as well as non­performing sarpanches if they were found wanting in the discharge of duties. 

Reason to Introduce Flying Squad

• Palle Pragati launched for enhancing green cover and clean villages. 
• While there was active participation of the people in improving their surroundings and creating infrastructure, the government got feedback that the elected representatives were not evincing much interest in the program.

4) Prakruthi Udyana Utpattidarula Sangham

• Two years ago, a few farmers joined hands to form the Prakruthi Udyana Utpattidarula Sangham, a farmer producer organization (FPO), in Agiripalli of Andhra Pradesh’s Krishna district. 
• The association, which has been exploring options available for export of horticultural products, is now eyeing curry leaf oil extraction.
• The FPO, with about 100 members now, came up with the idea after suffering losses owing to the recent heavy rainfall and poor sales during the slack season March to July when prices dip to as low as ₹3 to ₹5 a kg.

Oil From Curry Leaf

• The farmers associated with the organization are cultivating curry leaves on about 100 acres. As the production touched 20 tonnes per acre, they had to look for alternatives, apart from supplying dried leaves to companies that make herbal medicines they plan to convert leaf into oil
• The Department of Horticulture has come forward to provide financial assistance to the FPO to set up the infrastructure. The society members will be sent to the CFTRI for training. It is expected that three to five liters of oil can be extracted from a tonne of curry leaves.
• Essential oils like curry leaf oil are primarily used in cosmetics and toiletries, food items and beverages. There is a demand for the oil in European countries, the Middle East and Asian countries

5) Railway unveils new signaling system 

• The Railways will roll out its new signaling system from April 2020 onwards. It is expected to make train travel faster and safer
• The implementation will begin with four sections of about 640 route kilometers with an estimated cost of around ₹1,810 crore
• This is expected to be a pilot project for pan­India implementation of the nearly ₹78,000 crore project to modernize the signaling system, which was included in the works program of 2018-­19
• The four sections where the plan will be implemented first are the Renigunta-Yerraguntla section of the South Central Railways, the Vizianagaram-­Palasa section of East Coast Railway, the Jhansi-Bina on North Central Railway and the Nagpur-­Badnera on Central Railway. These four sections are some of the busiest routes on Railways, with heavy traffic. These will act as a pilot for signal modernization across the 70,000 km network of the Railways

Features of New Signaling System

• The modernization of the signaling system will include the implementation of technologies such as the automatic train protection system that helps in adhering to permissible speed limits
• without driver intervention and the 4G-­based mobile train radio communication system, which can be used for emergency communications. 
• The implementation of these new systems will improve safety, reduce congestion, increase line capacity and improve punctuality
• Besides a centralized traffic control system similar to the air traffic control system, a remote diagnostic and predictive maintenance system will be implemented.

6)  19th India-­Iran joint commission:  agree to accelerate Chabahar port development

External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif for a meeting of the 19th India­Iran joint commission

Background

India had stopped all oil imports from Iran by the United States Sanctions on Iran which affected  Chabahar port development plans

The US on Chabahar Port Development

• The U.S.  made it clear that it would continue its “narrow exemption” to India to develop the Chabahar port, recognizing its role as “as a lifeline to Afghanistan in terms of India to be able to export humanitarian supplies and potentially helping Afghanistan diversify its export opportunities.”
• Diplomats from India, Iran, and Afghanistan met in Delhi on Friday and discussed several new initiatives for the trilateral project at Chabahar

7) Financial Action Task Force puts 150 questions to Pakistan

• A global watchdog for terror financing has sought more  clarifications and data from Pakistan on actions taken by it against madrasas belonging to the banned outfits, weeks after Islamabad submitted a report to the Paris-based body detailing steps taken by the country to curb terrorism and money laundering
• The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which kept Pakistan on the Grey List for an extended period till February 2020, had warned in October that Islamabad would be put on the Black List if it did not comply with the remaining 22 points in a list of 27 questions. Pakistan submitted a report comprising answers to 22 questions to the FATF on December 6.
• In response to the report, the FATF’s Joint Group has sent 150 questions to Pakistan, seeking some clarifications, updates, and actions taken against the madrasas belonging to the proscribed outfits. 

About FATF:

What is it? The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 on the initiative of the G7.  It is a “policy-making body” which works to generate the necessary political will to bring about national legislative and regulatory reforms in various areas. The FATF Secretariat is housed at the OECD headquarters in Paris.

Objectives: The objectives of the FATF are to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.

Functions: The FATF monitors the progress of its members in implementing necessary measures, reviews money laundering and terrorist financing techniques and counter-measures and promotes the adoption and implementation of appropriate measures globally.  In collaboration with other international stakeholders, the FATF works to identify national-level vulnerabilities to protect the international financial system from misuse.

What are the blacklist and greylist?

FATF maintains two different lists of countries: those that have deficiencies in their AML/CTF regimes, but they commit to an action plan to address these loopholes and those that do not end up doing enough. The former is commonly known as a grey list and latter as a blacklist.

Once a country is blacklisted, FATF calls on other countries to apply enhanced due diligence and countermeasures, increasing the cost of doing business with the country and in some cases severing it all together. As of now, there are only two countries in the blacklist — Iran and North Korea — and seven on the grey list, including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Syria, and Yemen.

 8) Future Skills

• Wipro has partnered with NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies) to launch a skilling platform called ‘Future Skills’ for 10,000 students from over 20 engineering colleges in India.
• This is a part of Wipro’s Corporate Social Responsibility program, TalentNext.
• TalentNext aims to enhance the quality of engineering education by preparing faculty and academic leaders to train students.
• The program has now been extended to students directly through Future Skills

About Future Skills

It is a new age platform built to bridge the industry-academia skill gap and help students keep pace with the emerging technologies artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, cybersecurity and the internet of things (IoT)  to make them future-ready.

Objective

• The platform enables learning the skills required in emerging technologies. More importantly, it helps individuals develop an aptitude for learning.
• As a host of emerging technologies change the future of work, a massive disruption is facing the IT-ITES industry today. Of the 4.5 m people employed in the industry today, 1.5 -2 m are expected to require reskilling in the next 4-5 years. A decoupling of revenue and headcount growth is visible even today and employers and employees need to adapt themselves to the changing job environment of technological shifts and changing stakeholder expectations. The problem is too large to be handled alone. It needs a collaborative industry-level response. With NASSCOM as the enabler, IT-ITeS Industry has stepped up to the challenge with the FutureSkills Initiative – a truly industry-driven learning ecosystem.