Daily Current Affairs 28 December 2019

Current Affairs Of Today are

1) The wood­-silver casket of Goa’s patron saint 

• The wood and silver casket containing relics of Goa’s patron saint Francis Xavier will undergo restoration in 2020 at the hands of Aurangabadbased science branch of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and the work requires immense precision
• In 1622, the Catholic Church canonized Francis, and his body was placed in a silver casket and kept in the Chapel of St. Francis of Borgia at Bom Jesus Church in 1624. A new casket was made in 1637 by Goan silversmiths.
• The work is very delicate. The wooden part and the silver plates will have to be treated separately. Minute examination of the casket has to be carried out. The 32 plates which are nailed to the wooden casket needs to be removed very carefully
• It has to be checked if the casket has a termite problem
• The velvet cloth inside is also tattered.
• An ASI team of five to six persons will be part of the restoration work but more experts will be penciled in if required.
• St. Francis Xavier died on December 3, 1552, on the Chinese island of Shangchuan, at the age of 46. 

2) The MiG­-27 fighter jet de-­induction ceremony in Jodhpur

The ceremony of de-­induction of the last squadron of the aircraft with the Indian Air Force (IAF)

This also means that the IAF’s combat strength has now fallen to 28 fighter squadrons, way below the authorized strength of 42

At the ‘winding down’ ceremony, the aircraft from the No. 29 Squadron (SCORPIOS), the only unit in the IAF operating the MiG­27 Upgrades, flew for the last time, marking the end of the variable-sweep (Swing Wing) era of the IAF. 

To commemorate the historic occasion, the squadron flew in a five aircraft ‘Arrowhead’ formation, flanked by the Sukhoi 30 aircraft.

The No. 29 Squadron was raised on March 10, 1958, at the Air Force Station Halwara with‘Ouragan’ (Toofani) aircraft. 

Glory Of MiG-27

• The squadron is now slated to be number­plated on March 31, 2020, with December 27, 2019, being its last flying day, thereby making the swing-wing fleet a part of the IAFs glorious past
• MiG 27 swing­wing fighter aircraft has been the backbone of the ground attack fleet of the IAF for the past four decades
• The fleet earned its glory in the historic Kargil conflict when it delivered rockets and bombs with accuracy on enemy positions
• From 1985 onwards, the IAF has flown about 165MiG­27 fighters, licence­manufactured by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. 
• This marks the end of another Russian MiG series in the Indian inventory. All the other MiG­variants, such as MiG-­23 BN & MiG­-23 MF and the pure MiG-27 have already been retired from the IAF. 
• The upgraded MiG­-21 Bisons and MiG­29s now remain in service of which the MiG­-21s are scheduled to be phased out very soon. The IAF will continue to operate three squadrons of the upgraded MiG-29UPG for some time, while it is also negotiating for another squadron from Russia.  
• The Navy operates two squadrons of the MiG­29K/ KUB off its aircraft carriers

3) Compulsory renewal of OCI cards

• The Union Home Ministry has relaxed the provisions for Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) cardholders that made it compulsory for those aged above 50 and below 20 to renew their cards on renewal of their passports
• Several OCI cardholders were not able to travel to India due to this and many were stopped by airlines and immigration authorities at various airports due to the mismatch
• According to a recent Home Ministry order, an OCI cardholder is required to re-register each time a new passport is issued till 20 years of age and once after 50 years of age but re­issuance of OCI registration is not mandatory each time a new passport is issued between the ages of 21 and 50.

Reason

To facilitate OCI cardholders, this requirement has been relaxed till 30th June 2020 as per MHA instructions dated December 17. The OCI cardholder should carry existing OCI card along with Old and New passport

About OCI Card

• OCI cardholders are given benefits on a par with non-resident Indians in financial, economic and educational fields, except in the acquisition of agricultural or plantation properties.
• OCI cardholders are given free multiple entries and multi­purpose life­long visa to visit India and are also exempted from reporting to Police authorities for any length of stay in India.

4) British charity Christian Aid

• At least 15 natural disasters linked to climate change this year caused damage of over $1 billion each and seven of them cost at least $10 billion, British charity Christian Aid said
• This year is set to be the second hottest year in history and each of the disasters in the report has a link with climate change
• From Southern Africa to North America and from Australia and Asia to Europe, floods, storms, and fires brought chaos and destruction
• Disasters displaced millions and caused widespread deaths. These included the floods that ravaged north India, typhoon Lekima in China, Hurricane Dorian in the U.S., floods in China, floods in the Midwest and the southern U.S., typhoon Hagibis in Japan and the California wildfires, the costliest tragedy at $25 billion
• The majority of deaths were caused by just two events, in India and southern Africa

5)  Eat Right Mela

Recently, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare inaugurated the 2nd edition of Eat Right Mela in New Delhi

What is the ‘Eat Right India’ movement?

Launched by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

Aim to usher in a ‘new food culture’ by nudging businesses and consumers to adopt safe, healthy and sustainable food practices and habits.

As part of the Eat Right India movement, the ‘Eat Right Mela’ was conceived to engage, excite and enable citizens to eat right through an infotainment model. Eat Right Melas have been envisioned for massive outreach to build awareness on safe food and healthy diets through an interactive and informative model.

Measures in place

• FSSAI has put in place robust regulatory measures under three major pillars: Eat Safe, Eat Health and Eat Sustainably for the program.
• FSSAI has prescribed a limit for Total Polar Compounds (TPC) at 25% in cooking oil to avoid the harmful effects of reused cooking oil

Significance of the campaign

• The country needs a movement on preventive health for all in the backdrop of the increasing burden of non-communicable diseases including diabetes, hypertension and heart diseases, widespread deficiencies of vitamins and minerals and rampant food-borne illnesses.
• The Eat Right India movement acts as a crucial preventive healthcare measure to trigger social and behavioral change through a judicious mix of regulatory measures, combined with soft interventions for ensuring awareness and capacity building of food businesses and citizens alike.

6) Three Technology Development Projects Inaugurated

• Secretary, Department of Heavy Industry (DHI), Dr. A.R. Sihag inaugurated three Technology Development Projects at IIScBangalore and Central Manufacturing Technology Institute (CMTI) Bengaluru recently. He also inaugurated two Technology Development Projects at PSG College of Technology and Scientific and Industrial Testing and Research Centre(SiTARC), Coimbatore respectively.
• IIScBangalorehas developed a technology for metal additive printing machine with DHI support. This is a niche technology and the development is being done for the first time in India.
• An Industry 4.0 SAMARTH UDYOG Centre is also coming up at IIScBangalore to support Indian manufacturing to adopt and assimilate Industry 4.0 technology such as Data Analytics, 3 D Printing, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, robotics machine to Machine Communication, Smarting of the Legacy machine.
• A Sensor Technology Manufacturing / Fabrication facility is also coming up at CMTI, Bengaluru with the help of the DHI. Sensor Technology will help in making products and machines smart through the deployment of function-specific sensor specially designed for data extraction. Another Facility for Nanotechnology is also coming up in CMTI that will provide a better alternative route for precision manufacturing in strategic sectors.
• PSG College Coimbatorealong with Industry partners developed Welding Robots, special alloy electrodes, power supply with the support of DHI. Indigenous technology has been developed at SiTARC by a triad of Academia, Industry, and Government for the development of Smart Submersible Pumping Solutions for Industrial and Water Supply Applications.

7) Centers of Excellence for Technology Development Established by DHI

• Department of Heavy Industry in the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises had launched a pilot scheme in November 2014 for enhancement of competitiveness in the Indian capital goods sector. The scheme is focused on making the Indian capital goods sector globally competitive and give a boost to the Indian economy. The scheme addresses the issue of technological depth creation in the capital goods sector besides creating common industrial facility centers.
• The scheme consists of five components which are Advanced Centres of Excellence, Integrated Industrial Infrastructure Facilities (IIFC), Common Engineering Facility Centre (CEFC), Testing & Certification Centre (T&CC) and Technology Acquisition Fund Programme (TAFP).

Advanced Centres of Excellence (CoEs)

• Eight Centres of Excellence (CoEs) for Technology Development have been established at IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, IIT Kharagpur, IISc, CMTI, HEC/PSG College of Technology, etc. Technologies have been developed with industry partners in sectors like machine tools, textile machinery, earthmoving machinery, metallurgical machinery and welding, submersible pumps.
• CoEs at IIT Madras, IISc, Bengaluru, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, Sitarc, Coimbatore and HEC Ranchi have already been completed. Shuttleless rapier looms of 450 RPM developed by CMTI are under testing at the facility of the industry partner at Surat. Development of the rest of the Centres of Excellence at IIT Kharagpur and IIT Delhi is at an advanced stage.

Benefits

• A 500-acre world-class machine tool park has been established in Tumkuru, Karnataka in partnership with the Government of Karnataka. The Park is in the center of the machine tools cluster and will strengthen the output of the machine tools sector. 108 acres of land has already been allotted to 12 companies.
• R&D capabilities in Institutions of Eminence are being leveraged to develop cutting edge industrial technologies so that challenges of the manufacturing sector emerging from huge imports of high tech products can be dealt with. India also lags behind in manufacturing technologies. These challenges are being addressed through this scheme of DHI that will soon be scaled up and is specifically designed to tackle these challenges.
• The manufacturing sector is crucial for the development of the country’s economy as the Capital Goods industry contributes about 12% of the total manufacturing activity in India that is about 2% of the GDP. The Government of India has set a target of USD one-trillion manufacturing economy in the next five years and to achieve this the sector has to grow at double digits.

8) Now 125 crore residents of India have Aadhaar

• The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) announced a new milestone achieved by the Aadhaar project – the crossing of the 125 crore mark. This means that over 1.25 billion residents of India have a 12-digit unique identity.
• The achievement comes along with the rapidly increasing use of Aadhaar as the primary identity document by the Aadhaar holders. This is evident from the fact that Aadhaar-based authentication services have been used close to 37,000 crore times since inception. At present, UIDAI receives about 3 crore authentication requests every day.
• Also, residents are more inclined to keep their details in Aadhaar updated. UIDAI recorded close to 331 crore successful Aadhaar updates (biometric and demographic) to date. At present, UIDAI receives about 3-4 lakh Aadhaar updates request every day.

9) Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana

• Shri Hardeep S Puri, Minister of State(I/C) for Housing & Urban Affairs has informed that out of a validated demand of 1.12 Cr houses in urban areas, 1 Cr houses have already been sanctioned. Further, a total of 57 Lakh houses are in various stages of construction of which, nearly 30 Lakh houses have been completed. Compared to the earlier JnNURM scheme, PMAY (U) has achieved 10 times more in 4.5 years, whereas the earlier scheme had taken 10 years to achieve a significantly fewer number.  Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), [PMAY (U)], is one of the largest affordable housing programs in the world.
• Shri Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs has informed that the Mission has covered a range of social groups which comprises of around 5.8 Lakh senior citizens, 2 Lakh construction workers, 1.5 Lakh domestic workers, 1.5 Lakh artisans, 0.63 Lakh differently-abled (Divyang), 770 transgender and 500 leprosy patients as of now. Empowerment of women is an inbuilt design of the scheme where the ownership of the house is in the name of the female head of the household or in the joint name.
• The implementation of PMAY (U), has induced a remarkable investment in the housing sector, especially in the affordable housing segment. The houses sanctioned so far under the Mission involve an investment of about Rs. 5.70 Lakh Cr with Central Assistance of Rs. 1.6 Lakh Cr. The Central Government is contributing Rs.1.00 Lakh to Rs.2.67 Lakh for each house under different verticals of the scheme. As on date, nearly Rs. 60,000 Cr of Central Assistance has already been released. Presently, works of about. 3 Lakh Cr is ongoing and by the time Mission accomplishes its target of 1.12 Cr houses, the entire activity will trigger investment of more than Rs. 7 Lakh Cr.
• Approximately around 1.20 Cr employment has been generated through forward and backward linkages with about 250 auxiliary industries like steel, brick kilns, cement, paint, hardware, sanitary, etc.
•  Due to the investment being made in the scheme, around 568Lakh metric tonne of cement would be required for sanctioned houses; out of which, 178 Lakh Metric Ton of cement has already been consumed through completed houses. Around 130Lakh tonne of steel is required for the sanctioned houses; around 40LakhMetric Ton of steel has already been consumed in the completed houses. It also has an impact on livelihood, transport sector, skill development, horticulture, landscape development sector, etc.
• The Credit Linked Subsidy for the Middle Income Group (MIG) was introduced for the first time in the housing sector with effect from 1 January 2017. The MIG beneficiaries with annual income up to Rs. 18 Lakh are eligible for claiming interest subsidy on their housing loans. For the MIG, the Government has increased the area of house up to 200 sq. m. This, in turn, has a significant impact on the banking sector and in enhancing the investment in the housing sector. The government has developed a web-based real-time monitoring system called “CLSS Awas Portal (CLAP)” to ensure people’s participation and transparency leading to efficient delivery and minimizing grievances.