Daily Current Affairs 15 April 2020 | UPSC Current Affairs 2020

Current Affairs Of Today Are

1) 2 missile deals with India

• The U.S. State Department has approved two potential missile deals with India, for an estimated $92 million and $63 million. 
• The first deal, for which Boeing is the contractor, is for 10 AGM­84L Harpoon Block II air­launched missiles and related equipment. These missiles can be fitted onto Boeing’s P­8I (Poseidon­Eight India) maritime patrol aircraft and are intended to enhance India’s capability in anti­surface warfare while defending its
• sea lanes.  
• The second deal, for $63 million and principally contracted with Raytheon Integrated Defense System, is for 16 MK 54 All Up Round Lightweight Torpedoes (LWT); three MK 54 Exercise Torpedoes (MK 54 LWT Kit procurement required); and related equipment. Also included are MK 54 spare parts, torpedo containers, two Recoverable Exercise Torpedoes (REXTORP) with containers and related equipment and support from the U.S. government and contractors.
• The torpedoes are expected to enhance India’s anti­submarine warfare capability and can be used with the P­8I.  
• There are no known offset agreements for both deals, the State Department said, and any offset agreement will be defined in negotiations between India and the contractors.
• The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification to the U.S. Congress, notifying it of the possible sale. Under the U.S.’ Arms Export Control Act, Congress has 30 days to raise objections to the sale in the case of India. 
• The Indian Navy operates eight P­8I long­range maritime patrol aircraft procured under a $2.2 billion deal in 2009. In 2016, the Navy exercised an optional clause for four more aircraft in a deal worth over $1 billion. The first of the four aircraft were to be delivered in May and the deal completed by January 2022. However, the initial delivery is expected to be delayed by a couple of months due to the COVID-­19 pandemic

Source: The Hindu

2) International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) World Economic Outlook (WEO)

• The COVID­19 pandemic is having a ‘severe’ effect on the world economy which is expected to contract by  3% in 2020, “much worse” than the 2008­-09 financial crises, as per the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) World Economic Outlook (WEO). 
• India’s growth is expected to dip to 1.9% in 2020 and rebound to 7.4% in 2021, as per the WEO released by the IMF. India’s growth projection for 2020 is 3.9% less than what was projected in the January update to the WEO while its rebound in 2021 is 0.9 % higher than the January projection (for India, forecasts are on a fiscal year basis). World growth rates have been revised downwards by more than six percentage points since the January WEO update.
• The cumulative loss to global GDP over 2020 and 2021 from the pandemic crisis could be around $9 trillion, greater than the economies of Japan and Germany, combined
• Assuming the pandemic fades in the second half of this year, with containment efforts gradually easing up, the world economy is projected to grow at 5.8% in 2021 as economic activity normalizes, aided by policy, the IMF said. 
• The economic impact of the disease depends on several factors and their unpredictable interaction, including the pandemic’s pathway, the intensity and effectiveness of containment efforts, significant tightening of global financial market conditions and so forth
• Necessary measures to reduce contagion and protect lives will take a short-term toll on economic activity but should also be seen as an important investment in the long-­term human and economic health
• Emerging Asia is projected to be the only region that grows in 2020, at a rate of 1% — still more than 5 percentage points below the previous decade’s average. In China, where the coronavirus’s impacts were first recorded this year, the first-quarter economic activity could have contracted by 8% year-­on-­year. China is projected to grow at 1.2% in 2020 and 9.2% in 2021.

Source: The Hindu

3) Floor Test is Governor’s Discretion: SC

Recently, the Supreme Court of India has held that a Governor can call for a floor test any time he/she objectively feels a government in power has lost the confidence of the House and is on shaky ground.

Key Highlights

• S.C. held that a Governor can call for a trust vote (confidence motion) if he/she has arrived at a prima facie opinion, based on objective material, that the incumbent State government has lost its majority in the Assembly.
• However, while directing a trust vote, the Governor should not favor a particular political party.
• Timing of a trust vote may tilt the balance towards the party possessing a majority at the time the trust vote is directed.
• Governor’s power to call for a floor test is not restricted only before the inception of a State government immediately after elections but continues throughout its term.
• The SC has clarified that the Governor’s power of trust vote does not hamper any disqualification proceedings pending before the Speaker.
• A Governor need not wait for the Speaker’s decision on the resignation of rebel Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) before calling for a trust vote.

Trust Vote

• A confidence motion or a vote of confidence or a trust vote is sought by the government in power on the floor of the House.
• It enables the elected representatives to determine if the Council of Ministers commanded the confidence of the House.
• The idea underlying the trust vote is to uphold the political accountability of the elected government to the State legislature.
• No-confidence motion:
• A no-confidence motion, or vote of no-confidence, or a no-trust vote, can be sought by any House member to express that they no longer have confidence in the government.

Floor Test

• It is a term used for the test of the majority. If there are doubts against the Chief Minister (CM) of a State, he/she can be asked to prove the majority in the House.
• In the case of a coalition government, the CM may be asked to move a vote of confidence and win a majority.
• In the absence of a clear majority, when there is more than one individual staking claim to form the government, the Governor may call for a special session to see who has the majority to form the government.
• Some legislators may be absent or choose not to vote. The numbers are then considered based only on those MLAs who were present to vote.

Constitutional Provisions Related to Governor

• Article 163: It talks about the discretionary power of the governor.
• Article 256: The executive power of the Union shall extend to the giving of such directions to a State as may appear to the Government of India to be necessary for that purpose.
• Article 257: The executive power of the Union shall also extend to the giving of directions to a State as to the construction and maintenance of means of communication declared in the direction to be of national or military importance:
• Article 355: It entrusts the duty upon the Union to protect the states against “external aggression” and “internal disturbance” to ensure that the government of every State is carried on by the provisions of the Constitution.
• Article 356: If a state government is unable to function according to constitutional provisions, the Central government can take direct control of the state machinery. The state's governor issues the proclamation, after obtaining the consent of the President of India.
• Article 357: It deals with Exercise of legislative powers under Proclamation issued under Article 356 by the central government.

Source: The Hindu

4) India Child Protection Fund (ICPF)

The India Child Protection Fund (ICPF) said that millions of pedophiles had migrated online, making the Internet extremely unsafe for children.

• The ICPF was set up in January 2020 and aims to support NGOs with funding resources for curbing the exploitation of children. 

Concerns:

• Online child pornography traffic after the lockdown in the country has gone up by 95% with online data monitoring websites showing an increase in demand for searches for child pornographic content.
• Traffic from India increased by 95% as compared to average traffic before the lockdown.
• The spike in consumption indicates millions of pedophiles, child rapists, and child pornography addicts have migrated online, making the Internet extremely unsafe for children. 
• Without stringent action, this could result in a drastic rise in sexual crimes against children.
• Also, as children spend more time online during the lockdown, international agencies like Europol, the United Nations and ECPAT (End Child Prostitution and Trafficking) have reported that pedophiles and child pornography addicts have increased activity to target children online to ‘groom’ them — befriending them on social media, building an emotional connection and luring them to perform sexual activities through photos and videos.

Way forward:

• Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) has several provisions to safeguard and protect children from sexual predators.
• Under Section 15 of the POCSO Act, a person who stores child porn for commercial purposes shall face imprisonment for up to 3 years or will have to pay a fine or face both the punishments. 
• ICPF demands an urgent crackdown on child pornography through a pan-India tracker through the use of artificial intelligence which can monitor hosting, sharing, viewing and downloading of child sexual abuse material and provide the information to the government agencies.

The POCSO (Amendment) Act, 2019

The amendment act has several provisions to safeguard children from offenses of sexual assault and sexual harassment.

• The act aims at making offenses against children gender-neutral.
• The definition of ‘Sexual Assault’ has been extended to incorporate the administration of hormones or chemical substances to children to attain early sexual maturity for the purpose of penetrative sexual assault.
• The Act is critical because it clearly defines child pornography and makes it punishable.
• The Act defines child pornography as any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a child including photographs, video, digital or computer-generated images indistinguishable from an actual child. 
• The amendments also penalize the transmitting of pornographic material to children and propose to synchronize it with the Information Technology Act. 
• The Act seeks to enhance punishment for sexual offenses against children, with a provision of the death penalty.
• According to the amendment act, those committing penetrative sexual assaults on a child below 16 years of age would be punished with imprisonment for up to 20 years, which might extend to life imprisonment as well as fine.
• In case of aggravated penetrative sexual assault, the act increases the minimum punishment from ten years to 20 years, and the maximum punishment to the death penalty.
• To curb child pornography, the Act provides that those who use a child for pornographic purposes should be punished with imprisonment for up to five years and fine.
• However, in the event of a second or subsequent conviction, the punishment would be up to seven years and fine.

The government has also sanctioned over one thousand fast track courts for speedy disposal of pending cases under POCSO.

In a bid to crack down heavily on child pornography, the Ministry of Women and Child Development has laid down a clear definition of what constitutes the offense and has included sexually explicit digital content involving children under its purview as per an amendment to the existing Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act which is soon to be tabled before the Lok Sabha.

Details:

• The new act defines child pornography as: “any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a child which includes a photograph, video, digital or computer-generated image (that is) indistinguishable from an actual child.”
• Additionally, “an image created, adapted, modified” to depict a child would also be treated as child pornography. This would also include cartoons, animated pictures, etc.
• The Cabinet has also enhanced the fine for possessing child porn but not deleting or reporting it to 5,000 from the earlier proposal of Rs. 1,000. If a person stores such content for distributing it further, except for when presenting it in court as evidence, he could face a punishment of upto three years.
• Henceforth, there will be zero tolerance for child pornography. 
• Some of these provisions were also contained in the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Amendment Act, 2019, but lapsed

Significance:

• So far, there had been no definition of child pornography in Indian law.
• It was a big lacuna which could be used to evade the law. 
• Neither Section 67 of the IT Act nor Section 293 of the Indian Penal Code defines child pornography. 
• Its definition derived from what constitutes pornography, which is defined as “any material which is lascivious or appeals to the prurient interests or if its effect is such as to tend to deprave or corrupt the minds of those who are likely to see, read and hear the same.” 
• “Child porn” has now been redefined to ensure that the punishment can be implemented properly. 
• The amended law will also apply to pornographic content were adults or young adults pretending to be children.

Source: The Hindu

5) World Chagas Disease Day

• On April 14, 2020, World Chagas Disease Day is being observed for the first time. The day is observed to spread awareness about this “silent and silenced disease”. The 72nd World Health Assembly approved the designation of Chagas Disease Day on May 24, 2019. 

Why it is called the “silent and silenced disease”?

• The Chagas disease is called silent because it progresses slowly, and silenced because it mainly affects the poor people who often lack political voice and proper health care.

About the disease:

• The disease got its name from Dr. Carlos Ribeiro Justiniano Chagas, who diagnosed the first patient with the disease in Brazil on April 14, 1909.
• It is classified as a neglected tropical disease (NTD), meaning it affects the low-income populations in developing countries across the globe.
• Also called the American trypanosomiasis, this vector-borne disease hits the most poverty-stricken communities, especially in Latin America.

How is it transmitted?

• A parasitic protozoan called Trypanosoma cruzi that causes this vector-borne disease is usually transmitted by feces and urine of triatomine bugs or kissing bugs, which belongs to the family of assassin bugs.
• The disease can also be transmitted by contaminated food, organ transplantations, blood or blood products transfusion, and infected mothers to newborn.
• Lack of awareness and neglecting the symptoms, especially among poor households, results in many severe symptoms and even death.

The symptoms of the disease come in two phases:

• Symptoms include fever, muscle pain, headache, difficulty in breathing, abdominal or chest pain and enlarged lymph glands.

Source: PIB

6) Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme

The government of India, in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India, has decided to issue Sovereign Gold Bonds.

About The Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme:

• The sovereign gold bond was introduced by the Government in 2015.
• The government introduced these bonds to help reduce India’s over-dependence on gold imports.
• The move was also aimed at changing the habits of Indians from saving in the physical form of gold to a paper form with Sovereign backing.

Key facts:

• Eligibility: The bonds will be restricted for sale to resident Indian entities, including individuals, HUFs, trusts, universities and charitable institutions.
• Denomination and tenor: The bonds will be denominated in multiples of gram(s) of gold with a basic unit of 1 gram. The tenor will be for 8 years with an exit option from the 5th year to be exercised on the interest payment dates.
• Minimum and Maximum limit: The minimum permissible investment limit will be 1 gram of gold, while the maximum limit will be 4 kg for individual, 4 Kg for HUF and 20 kg for trusts and similar entities per fiscal (April-March) notified by the government from time to time.
• Joint Holder: In case of joint holding, the investment limit of 4 kg will be applied to the first applicant only.
• Collateral: Bonds can be used as collateral for loans. The loan-to-value (LTV) ratio is to be set equal to ordinary gold loan mandated by the Reserve Bank from time to time.

Source: PIB

7) Business Correspondents

• SHG women working as Business Correspondents for banks (BC Sakhis) and Bank Sakhis playing a vital role in the disbursement of the first tranch of ex-gratia of Rs.500/- to women PMJDY accounts amidst COVID-19 Lockdown.

Who are Business Correspondents?

• Business Correspondents are retail agents engaged by banks for providing banking services at locations other than a bank branch/ATM.
• Banks are required to take full responsibility for the acts of omission and commission of the BCs that they engage and have, therefore, to ensure thorough due diligence and additional safeguards for minimizing the agency risk.

What they can do?

• BCs are permitted to perform a variety of activities which include identification of borrowers, collection and preliminary processing of loan applications including verification of primary information/data, creating awareness about savings and other products, education and advice on managing money and debt counseling, processing and submission of applications to banks, promoting, nurturing and monitoring of Self Help Groups/ Joint Liability Groups, post-sanction monitoring, follow-up of recovery.
• They can also attend to the collection of small value deposit, disbursal of small value credit, recovery of principal/collection of interest, sale of micro insurance/ mutual fund products/ pension products/ other third party products and receipt and delivery of small value remittances/ other payment instruments.

Who can be engaged as BCs?- The banks may engage the following individuals/entities as BC:

• Individuals like retired bank employees, retired teachers, retired government employees, and ex-servicemen, individual owners of Kirana / medical /Fair Price shops, individual Public Call Office (PCO) operators, Agents of Small Savings schemes of Government of India/Insurance Companies, individuals who own Petrol Pumps, authorized functionaries of well-run Self Help Groups (SHGs) which are linked to banks, any other individual including those operating Common Service Centres (CSCs).
• NGOs/ MFIs set up under Societies/ Trust Acts and Section 25 Companies.
• Cooperative Societies registered under Mutually Aided Cooperative Societies Acts/ Cooperative Societies Acts of States/Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act.
• Post Offices.
• Companies registered under the Indian Companies Act, 1956 with large and widespread retail outlets, excluding Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs).

Source: PIB

8) Science of COVID-19 Spread

The novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has already left a large footprint and is still spreading itself. Fighting this pandemic needs an understanding of how it works and spreads and preventive measures to stop it.

Key Points

• Basic Reproductive Ratio (R0)
• It tells the average number of people who will catch the disease from one contagious person.
• It is pronounced as R-nought.
• The larger this number, the more contagious is the disease caused by the virus and the faster it will spread in the community.
• R-nought can be viewed as the product of three numbers:
• The number of days an infected person remains infectious (that is, can infect others).
• The number of susceptible persons available to infect.
• The chance that a susceptible person gets infected.
• The easiest way to keep R-nought low is by observing social-distancing.
• However, maintaining distance from those who show symptoms of infection is not sufficient.
• It is suggested to keep a distance from every other person as many apparently normal persons may actually be infected without showing symptoms of infection.
• Therefore, just as R-nought influences the spread of COVID-19, human behavior also influences R-nought.
• How R-naught works?
• A person infected with SARS-CoV-2 can remain infective for 10-14 days.
• During the initial phases of spread, there is a large number of uninfected persons to infect.
• For SARS-CoV-2, R-nought has been estimated to be between 2 and 3. For example:
• Assuming R-nought to be 2 and the infective period to be 10 days, the first person will infect two others, each of whom will infect two others (22), each of these four persons will infect two others (23) and so on. In 10 days, one infected person will have infected 2,046 persons.
• As herd immunity increases in the community, many infected persons stop infecting others. Then, R-nought becomes less than one, on average.
• Consequently, there are few new cases arising and existing cases either recover or die, slowing down the disease spread.
• Herd Immunity
• It happens when so many people in a community become immune to an infectious disease that it stops the disease from spreading.
• A person who is infected or has recovered cannot be infected again. At least, not in the next several months or even years.
• An infection activates the immune system which learns to recognize the virus and remembers it. The next time the virus tries to infect a person, her/his immune defenses can recognize and protect against further infection.
• Therefore, with the spread of the infection, there is less and less number of uninfected persons to infect. An increasing number of persons in the community gain immunity from having been infected earlier.
• However, if there was a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, it would have helped achieve herd immunity without a large number of persons being infected.
• A vaccine stimulates the effect of an infection and builds immune resistance to the virus.
• India has eradicated polio by using vaccines against it.
• Series Interval
• During an outbreak, people in the community get symptomatically infected one after another. The length of time between the appearance of two successive persons with symptoms of infection is called the Series Interval.
• This interval informs about the spreadability of the virus.
• The shorter this interval, the greater the speed of spread through the community.
• For SARS-CoV-2, the Series Interval is between 5 and 7 days.
• For normal influenza, this interval is 1.3 days.
• However, COVID-19 is spreading through the community slowly and herd immunity will, therefore, arise slowly which implies a longer duration of the pandemic.
• Herd Community Threshold and Lockdown
• The proportion of individuals in the country who are immune to the disease is called the herd immunity threshold.
• It is calculated as 1-(1/R0).
• For SARS-CoV-2, R0 is 2 or 3.
• An R0 of 2 would mean a herd immunity threshold of 1-(1/2) or 50%.
• An R0 of 3 would mean a herd immunity threshold of 1-(1/3) or 67%.
• Lockdown can be safely lifted if about two-thirds of the population attain immunity to the virus. Then the chances of an infected person finding another person to infect are sufficiently low and the virus stops spreading.
• However, estimating the number of those who have gained immunity is a tough task. It can be done by testing the citizens randomly and in large numbers through surveillance testing in communities.

Preventive Measures

• Contract tracing reduces the likelihood of the infection thereby reducing R-naught in the region.
• Contact tracing:
• It is the identification and listing of persons in close contact with an infected person, testing to identify infected persons among contacts and isolating them or, if testing of all contacts is infeasible, isolating all contacts and following them up for signs of infection.
• Identification of most affected geographical regions and extending lockdowns there, intensifying surveillance-testing, more strict monitoring of cases and isolation of infected people is required.
• There will be an overall reduction of infection in the country if the spread of the infection from these high-intensity regions can be arrested.
• All large gatherings, including religious and political gatherings, must continue to be banned.
• The government needs to provide food and basic amenities to the people whose life has come to a halt due to the lockdown.
• The lockdown needs to be to soften and daily wage earners should be allowed to work.
• A policy should be framed on allowing a minority of citizens to work. However, it should only be done if social distancing is maintained and the net of symptom-monitoring and community-testing is cast more widely.
• Surveillance-testing and deep monitoring should continue at all levels throughout the country to identify new pockets of high-intensity.

Source: The Hindu

9) Centre may raise a loan to pay GST dues to States

The Union government is exploring raising a loan to pay the shortfall of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation amount to the States as the latter have had to ramp up spending to combat the outbreak of COVID-19.

Details:

• The idea has been circulated and since the GST Act prohibits withdrawal of funds from the Consolidated Fund, raising loans is being seen as a way out.
• A discussion was held earlier on how to address if there was a revenue shortfall. There were concerns over what if cess accruals were not adequate to pay the shortfall. 
• The government of India was adamant in resisting suggestions to pay the shortfall from the Consolidated Fund of India, and at that point, the option of raising a loan on the cess account was discussed and agreed as an option, and the loan accrued would be paid from cess accruals in the future. 

GST Compensation:

• An essential component of the GST implementation was the compensation by the Centre to States when the latter undergoes revenue shortfalls due to the implementation of GST.
• The main purpose of the compensation clause was to incentivize states to accept and implement the GST. 
• States have had to give up the control over their major tax revenues, including the state sales tax that is merged under GST. Effectively, states had given up their power to impose and collect taxes on goods. Hence, assuring no revenue loss after the implementation of GST became important.
• The compensation payable to a State is provisionally calculated and released at the end of every two months during the transition period of 5 years (till July 2022).
• To avail the revenues for GST compensation, the center has imposed a cess on specific products, especially, those considered to be ‘sin’ or luxury goods. So, there is a GST compensation cess on these items.
• GST cess applies to a variety of goods or services that are traded either intrastate or interstate trade. Entities that fall under the composition scheme need not pay the cess.

Note:

• For December 2019 and January 2020, the Central government owes around ₹30,000-35,000 crore as compensation and around ₹30,000 crores for February and March. 
• The government has recently released ₹14,103 crores to States as the second tranche of compensation for October and November 2019. 
• It paid ₹19,950 crores in February for these two months.

Source: The Hindu

10) Ministry of Tourism launches its "DekhoApnaDesh" webinar series

• COVID-19 has had a major impact on all human life and not just in India but globally. Tourism as a sector is naturally hugely impacted with no movement happening either domestically or from across the border. But owing to technology, it is possible to visit places and destinations virtually and plan our travels for a later date. In these unprecedented times, technology is coming handy to maintain human contact and also keep faith that times will be good to be able to travel again soon.
• Keeping this in view, the Ministry of Tourism has launched its "DekhoApnaDesh" webinar series to provide information on the many destinations and the sheer depth and expanse of the culture and heritage of our Incredible India. The first webinar, which was part of a series that shall unfold, touched upon the long history of Delhi as it has unfolded as 8 cities, each one unique in its character and leaving behind traces which makes Delhi the magnificent city that it is today. The webinar was titled " City of Cities- Delhi's Personal Diary'.
• The core of the session-based itself on tourism awareness and social history. Laced with interesting anecdotes the session which was conducted by the India city walks for Ministry of Tourism, had enthusiastic participation with 5546 persons registering and many interesting questions were raised which depict the interest of the participants. The webinar shall be available in the public domain soon. It will be available on the Ministry’s social media handles- IncredibleIndia on Instagram and Facebook.
• The next webinar is on the 16th of April from 11 am to 12 noon and shall take visitors to the amazing City of Kolkata.

Source: PIB