Daily Current Affairs 1 January 2020

Current Affairs of Today Are

1) Odisha tribals still suffering from hunger, malnutrition 

• Right to Food Campaign, a platform of social activists, said poor implementation of government welfare programs was marginalizing tribals further in backward pockets of Odisha.
• In the wake of malnutrition deaths of 20 infants of the Juanga tribe at Nagada village in Jajpur district in 2016, the RTF campaigners started visiting villages inhabited by particularly vulnerable tribal groups in different parts of the State.
• As per the findings shared by RTF members, Paudi Bhuyan tribes in four villages Kiri, Keta, Kundula and Kunu under Bonai subdivision of Sundargarh districts were suffering from hunger and malnutrition

Integrated Child Development Service program

Integrated Child Development Service program, one of the most important food security programs, was found non­existent in Paudi Bhuyan tribal villages. Anganwadi centers were nonfunctional. No ICDS authority has visited these villages in two decades. Children were never immunized. They were also not  getting cooked food

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act

Under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 21 tribals of these villages had worked in a road construction work in 2014, but they had not got their payments

Paudi Bhuyan Tribe

• Paudi Bhuyan, one of the most vulnerable and neglected tribes who reside on hilltops, should be mainstreamed and linked with government welfare programs immediately
• In Nagada village, which put Odisha to shame following reports of malnutrition deaths of children, the situation remained unchanged despite the State government promising to have given utmost attention for its development.

2) Forest Survey of India (FSI)

• About 21.40% of forest cover in India is prone to fires, with forests in the northeastern region and central India being the most vulnerable, the 2019 report by the Forest Survey of India (FSI)
• The finding has emerged from a study carried out by the FSI along with forest fire points identified across the country from 2004 to 2017.

The forest fire points (FFP)

• The forest fire points (FFP) identified during the 13 years add up to 2,77,758. They were analyzed using a moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) by overlaying the points coverage over the grid coverage of 5 km x 5 km. 
• The analysis showed that extremely fire-prone areas account for 3.89% of total forest cover, very highly fire-prone areas account for 6.01% and highly fire-prone areas for 11.50%. Together, the three categories come to 21.40 % of forest cover.
• The total number of alerts issued for each state based on MODIS data from November 2018 to June 2019 was 29,547 and interestingly, Mizoram, a small State, recorded the highest number of fire alerts (2,795). The seven States of the north­eastern region accounted for 10,210 fire alerts, which make up about one­third of alerts in the country

Reasons For Forest Fire in North-East

• One of the major reasons for forest fires in the north­east is slash­and­burn cultivation, commonly called jhoom or jhum cultivation.
• Most forest fires in Mizoram are because of jhum cultivation. The fires happen between January and March. The north­east has tropical evergreen forests and, unlike the dry deciduous forests of central India, these are not likely to catch fire easily

Green cover

While the overall green cover has increased in the country, the forest cover in the north­east particularly in Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, and Nagaland, has decreased. On being asked if there was a link between forest cover reduction and fire

The Central Indian States

The Central Indian States also recorded a high number of forest fire alerts, with Madhya Pradesh accounting for 2,723 alerts; Maharashtra 2,516; Odisha 2,213 and Chattisgarh 1,008 alerts between November 2018 to June 2019.

Reasons For Forest Fire in Central India

• The reasons for fires here are manmade, particularly in cases where people visit forests and leave burning bidis, cigarette stubs or other inflammable materials.
• In cases of natural reasons, the scientist pointed to thunderstorms as the most likely cause

3) Supreme Court of India bats against the transfer of community resources

• The Government has no right to transfer “invaluable” community resources like village water ponds to a few powerful people and industrialists for commercialization of the property, when many areas of the country perennially face water crisis and access to drinking water is woefully inadequate, the Supreme Court has held.
• The protection of such village commons is essential to safeguard the fundamental right guaranteed by Article 21 of our Constitution. These common areas are the lifeline of village communities, and often sustain various chores and provide resources necessary for life
• Article 21 gives the right to life, personal liberty and the right to die with dignity (passive euthanasia).
• The court said the State cannot divest villagers of their existing source of water even if it promises to provide them an alternative site where the water body can be replicated. Such an attitude  would display a mechanical application of environmental protection
• There is no guarantee that the adverse effect of destroying the existing water body would be offset and people would be compelled to travel miles to access the alternative site
• The judgment came on a plea by activist­lawyer Jitendra Singh against the transfer of village ponds’ sites of Saini Village in the National Capital Region to some private industrialists by the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority.
• The National Green Tribunal had refused to intervene on Mr. Singh’s plea that excavators and other heavy machinery were attempting to take over a common pond used by the villagers for a century.
• Setting aside the Tribunal’s order, the apex court ordered the authorities and the industrialists to remove all obstructions and restore the water bodies within three months.

4)  ₹102 lakh crore infra projects:  National Infrastructure Pipeline

• Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman outlined plans to invest more than ₹102 lakh crore in infrastructure projects by 2024-­25, with the Centre, the States and the private sector sharing the capital expenditure in a 39:39:22 formula.
• This will be a significant increase over the last six years when the Centre and the States together spent ₹51 lakh crore on infrastructure.
• On Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced plans to invest ₹100 lakh crore in modern infrastructure. This is the expenditure needed to achieve a $5 trillion economy by 2024­-25
• ₹102 lakh crore is worth of projects in 18 States as part of a National Infrastructure Pipeline. 
• The large States yet to provide adequate data are Gujarat, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Bihar
• The investment is phased over a six­year period, including the current financial year
• The funds would come from budgetary and extrabudgetary resources, as well as those raised from the market and the internal accruals of the relevant state­owned companies
• The plan calls for a ₹13.6 lakh crore investment in 2019-­20, a big task considering that the 2018­-19 investment in infrastructure by the Centre, the States, and the private sector was only ₹10 lakh crore, a slight drop from the previous year’s investment of ₹10.2 lakh crore.

5) Visit Nepal 2020

• India sent Minister of State for Tourism Prahlad Patel for the inauguration of Visit Nepal 2020, the largest economic diplomacy initiative of Kathmandu. The initiative is important as it will open Nepal’s tourism economy which has emerged as an arena of the interface between India and China.
• The aims are to utilize this initiative to generate investment for infrastructure development and also develop the tourism sector that is crucial for Nepal’s economy
• The inauguration is expected to be attended by Ministers and diplomats from at least 40 countries that will include high­level delegations from India and China. As part of the initiative, India, Nepal, and China will hold the firs-t­ever trilateral tourism expo in February
• Nepal’s tourism sector suffered a major setback with widespread destruction of infrastructure in the Himalayan region during the April 2015 earthquake which destroyed many bridges and roads in the mountainous districts.

Political Diplomacy

• The tourism sector of Nepal has come into focus of regional diplomacy as both India and China have repeatedly highlighted plans to develop the sector while advancing respective national diplomatic goals. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his 2014 visit had emphasized the link between the Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu and the Vishwanath temple in Varanasi announcing the plans to connect both countries through the Hindu tourism circuit. In the same way, President Xi Jinping during his October 11 visit announced plans to build road links and infrastructure with Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha. The Visit Nepal 2020 triggered a controversy after it appointed Chinese actor Xu Qing as the goodwill ambassador. 
• The country is uniquely positioned on the global tourism map as the home of several key Hindu and Buddhist places of worship and the tallest peaks of the Himalayan range.

6) Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana- National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM)

• Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana- National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) organized a consultative meeting here yesterday with the States/UTs and other stakeholders viz. Flipkart, Sector Skills Councils and State Skill Development Missions (SSDMs) concerning the celebration of Shehri Samrddhi Utsav (SSU) 2020. The workshop focused on learnings from the first edition of the SSU 2019 and chalking out the strategy and roadmap for the SSU 2020, scheduled from March 28 to April 12, 2020. 
• The planned activities for SSU 2020 include onboarding of SHG products on e-commerce portals, skill development in the plumbing sector, a saturation of top 100 cities with Smart ID cards and certificates of vending to Street Vendors; national competition on implementation of Street Vendors Act and Swachhata Excellence Awards.

MoU Signed

• An MoU was signed between DAY-NULM and Flipkart for onboarding of high-quality products made by Self Help Groups (SHGs) on the Flipkart portal. The initiative looks to build capacities of the women entrepreneurs in the skills of branding, digital marketing, and financial management in addition to providing access to a wider customer base to locally made products of SHGs.
• Another MoU was signed between DAY-NULM and Indian Plumbing Skills Council to give a boost to skill development in the plumbing sector. The initiative seeks to train 30,000 candidates in different job roles of the plumbing sector by March 2020 as part of SSU.

Shehri Samriddhi Utsav

• Good performing States in the implementation of DAY-NULM in 18-19 were felicitated. These included Andhra Pradesh- Winner, Kerala – Ist Runner up & Gujarat – 2nd Runner Up. Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh were felicitated as the winner and Ist Runner up respectively amongst the Himalayan and North Eastern States. 
• Aiming at the protection of interests of urban street vendors, a detailed session on Street Vendors’ Act and its effective implementation was also undertaken.
• Shehri Samriddhi Utsav is a platform of making a more significant, out of the ordinary impact in the lives of the most vulnerable and the poorest of the poor urban natives.

About DAY-NULM

Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) is one of the flagship schemes of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs that works towards alleviating urban poverty through strong community institutions, skill training, access to affordable credit for self-employment, support for street vendors and provision of permanent shelters for the urban homeless.

7) Taiwan passes anti­-infiltration Bill

• Taiwan passed a controversial bill on Tuesday aimed at countering China’s influence on the self­ruled island, less than two weeks before it goes to the polls to elect a new President. 
• The “anti­-infiltration Bill” pushed by President Tsai Ing­wen’s Beijing­sceptic ruling party became law despite strong objection from the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party.
• It bans “hostile” foreign forces from activities such as campaigning, lobbying, making political donations, disrupting social order or spreading disinformation related to elections. Violators face a maximum five-­year prison term and a fine of up to around $3,32,000
• The Bill has been a hot topic in the run­up to the elections as relations with China have dominated the campaign. Ms. Tsai, who has described the vote as a fight for Taiwan’s freedom and democracy, is seeking a second term against the KMT’s Han Kuo­yu, a city Mayor who favors warmer relations with Beijing

8) India’s current account deficit (CAD) 

• India’s current account deficit (CAD) narrowed to 0.9% of GDP, or $6.3 billion, in the September 2019 quarter, on account of lower trade deficit. It had stood at 2.9% of the gross domestic product (GDP), or $19 billion, in the corresponding quarter of 2018­-19.
• On a sequential basis, CAD had printed 2% of GDP, or $14.2 billion, in the June 2019 quarter. The contraction in the CAD was primarily on account of a lower trade deficit at $38.1 billion as compared with $50 billion a year ago, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said
• During the first half of the current financial year, CAD narrowed to 1.5% of the GDP from 2.6% in the corresponding period in 2018­-19, on the back of a reduction in the trade deficit, which shrank to $84.3 billion as compared with $95.8 billion a year ago. The balance of payments stood at $5.12 billion in the second quarter and $19.1 billion during the first half of this fiscal.
• Net services receipts increased 0.9% in July­September on a year­on­year basis, on the back of a rise in net earnings from computer, travel and financial services, the RBI said. In the second quarter of 2019­20, private transfer receipts, mainly representing remittances by
• Indians employed overseas, rose to $21.9 billion, a rise of 5.2% compared to a year ago. The net inflow on account of external commercial borrowings (ECB) was $3.2 billion in the second quarter as compared with $2 billion a year earlier.

9) China, the U.S. will sign ‘Phase One’ trade deal 

• U.S. President Donald Trump said that ‘Phase One’ of the trade deal with China would be signed on January 15 at the White House, though considerable confusion remains about the details of the agreement.
• The President wrote in a tweet that he would sign the deal with “high-level representatives of China” and that he would later travel to Beijing to begin talks on the next phase.
• Mr. Trump said he and Chinese President Xi Jinping would host a signing ceremony to ink the deal.
• The deal, struck earlier this month, is expected to reduce tariffs and boost Chinese purchases of American farm, energy and manufactured goods while addressing some disputes over intellectual property.
• However, no version of the text has been made public, and Chinese officials have yet to publicly commit to key planks, such as increased imports of American goods and services by $200 billion over the next two years.