Daily Current Affairs 21 April 2020 | UPSC Current Affairs 2020

Current Affairs Of Today Are

1) Daporijo bridge over Subansiri river

Even though there is a nationwide lockdown Daporijo bridge over the Subansiri river has been constructed by Border Roads Organisation (BRO), keeping in mind the utmost precautions against COVID-19 to connect this strategic Line of Communication in Arunachal Pradesh.
Bridge on the Daporijo River is a strategic link towards the LAC between India and China. All supplies, rations, constructional material and medicines pass over this bridge. Old Bridge developed cracks which could lead to a major catastrophe like on 26 Jul 1992 when a passenger bus fell off the bridge leaving no survivors. With the intervention of DGBR and CE Arunank, expeditious sanctions were obtained from the MoD and Arunachal Government. The difficult and dangerous launch was completed in record time adhering to all COVID-19 precautions.
Work had started for the construction of the bridge on March 17, 2020, by 23 BRTF. Finally, after 27 days on April 14, 2020, the bridge was jacked down successfully and safely on the supports. It has been successfully upgraded from class 24 tons to class 40 tons thereby allowing heavier vehicles to pass catering for not only Army requirements but the future Infrastructure development requirements of Upper Subansiri district.
Safe and early execution of the bridge represents the seamless coordination and cooperation between the BRO, MoD and Arunachal Government.

Source: PIB

2) World Health Organization (WHO)

The World Health Organization (WHO) is facing criticism over its initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic and funding cut from the United States.
Shashi Tharoor, a former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, in an interview, has analyzed the situation.

Challenges faced by WHO:

Even though the WHO’s response to the pandemic has been less than satisfactory, it would not be right to blame the WHO alone given the challenges faced by the organization.

Lack of autonomy:

One of the institutional challenges for a UN body like WHO is that it tends to be obliged to its most powerful member states due to the following reasons:
The head of the organization of most UN agencies is elected with the support of powerful member states. As a result, he/she does not enjoy independence and autonomy.
The present Director-General of WHO is a former Ethiopian health minister. Generally, the WHO Director-General used to be someone from the medical community, but this time around, a politician helped by Chinese support has been selected to the top post of the WHO.
The powerful member states contribute a major share of the organization’s budget.
The powerful member states expect UN agencies to be bound to their interests for the most part. This leads to a lack of enough independence and autonomy for these agencies and thus impacts their functionality and effectiveness.

Dependant on member nations:

WHO, like many other UN agencies, is mainly dependent on member nation contributions for its budgetary expenses. The WHO has a wide mandate and responsibilities, and the lack of sufficient resources and budget limits its operations.
WHO and most UN agencies are reliant on the information they receive from member states as the organization itself cannot afford to set up a parallel base in the countries.
Even in the case of the current COVID-19, the principal fault maybe with China and not the WHO for the lack of appropriate and timely information on the pandemic.

Concerns:

Funding cut:

The U.S. contributes a substantial amount to the WHO budget. The recent decision to withhold funding would severely limit the WHO’s ability to act in these critical times.

Fall of multilateralism:

There has been an increasing trend of countries turning inward. There are definite signs of a resurgence of national sovereignty over multilateralism.
This will impede collaboration and throw up more barriers in the global efforts and subsequently limit the effectiveness of such efforts.

Way forward:

WHO is part of the United Nations framework and is one of its specialized agencies. Given the important role played by it, it needs to be strengthened further.
Recognition of the limitations:
The pandemic has brought about an awareness of the limitations of global institutions.
The WHO has limitations. There is a need to recognize that these are limitations that governments have imposed upon it given that it is still dependent on member states.

Reforms:

Increased autonomy:

The world needs institutions of greater independence for everyone’s collective interest. There is a need to reform the existing institutions, to give them that independence.
The policy to have a single, non-renewable term for maybe six or seven years, rather than two terms of five which is the normal practice, might give the elected leaders of these organizations the authority to take certain independent actions.

Increased transparency:

There is a need for increased transparency in its functioning.
There should be better information flow between the WHO and its member nations. All members should have access to authentic and timely information.

Increased funding:

Given the inadequate budgetary support, there is a need for increased funding. This can come through compulsory state support or could come through private sector funding. International institutions, like the World Bank, need to support WHO through sufficient budgets.

Involving experts:

The specialized agencies of the UN like WHO should have a higher representation of the medical community. They should also involve scientists and experts across disciplines to work together.

India’s role:

India must play a role in defying the current impulse of inward-looking and drawing away from multilateralism. India should play a leading role in reviving and reforming the international organization.
India’s call for strengthening the WHO in the recently held virtual G-20 summit is a move in this direction.

Conclusion:

The world needs to be more ready next time around to face such pandemics. A multilateral organization would play a pivotal role in leading the fight against global issues like a pandemic.
Multilateralism should strengthen and not fall at this crucial juncture.

About WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that looks into matters regarding public health. Established on April 7th, 1948, it’s headquarters is located in Geneva, Switzerland.
At the 1945 United Nations Conference on International Organization, Szeming Sze, a delegate from the Republic of China (modern-day Taiwan), proposed the creation of an international health organization under the auspices of the new United Nations. Alger Hiss, the Secretary-General of the conference, recommended using a declaration to establish such an organization.
Sze and other delegates lobbied and a declaration passed calling for an international conference on health. The use of the word “world”, rather than “international”, emphasized the truly global nature of what the organization was seeking to achieve.
The constitution of the World Health Organization was signed by all 51 countries of the United Nations, its affiliates and by 10 other countries, on 22 July 1946. It thus became the first specialized agency of the United Nations to which every member subscribed.

Source: The Hindu

3) Fish gills used to develop efficient low-cost electro-catalysts for rechargeable metal-air battery

Scientists at the Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST), Mohali, an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, have recently come up with an efficient, low-cost electro-catalyst from fish gills that can help develop environmentally friendly energy conversion devices.
This bio-inspired carbon nanostructure can help overcome the bottleneck in the realization of several renewable energy conversion and storage technologies such as fuel cell, biofuel cell, and metal−air battery.
The present strategy enriches a route to synthesize low-cost, highly efficient bioinspired electrocatalyst that is better than commercial Platinum on carbon (Pt/C) catalyst and could be utilized as next-generation nonprecious carbon-based electrocatalyst for energy conversion and storage applications.
Scientists explored a highly active Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR) electrocatalyst based on binary transition metals Iron (Fe), and Manganese (Mn) and N-doped porous carbon (Fe, Mn, N-FGC), derived from fish gills (FG) acquired as animal waste, which has a unique porous structure and could provide conductive carbon networks after heat treatment and could be an efficient electrode material. The catalyst was able to show active oxygen reduction reaction in a wide range of pH (pH < 1, 7, and >13) and outperformed the commercial Pt/C catalyst.
They fabricated a homemade rechargeable Zn−air battery (ZAB) with the catalyst as an air cathode, which showed almost stable charge−discharge voltage plateaus after rigorous cycling for a long duration. It surpassed the commercial Pt/C based ZAB performance. The scientists found that the reason behind the outstanding performance of this catalyst is the presence of Fe−Mn based binary moiety, which is actually beneficial for the Oxygen (O2) binding and boosting Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR) catalytic performances in alkaline medium by weakening the Oxygen-Oxygen bonds.
The researchers have suggested that the careful selection of transition metals and heteroatoms together with engineering the synthesis protocol can pave a new way for exploring highly active low-cost electrocatalyst for efficient and environmentally friendly energy conversion devices.

Source: PIB

4) China says Indian trade curbs are against WTO principles

India’s recent policy to curb opportunistic takeovers of domestic companies goes against the World Trade Organisation (WTO) principles, the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy
The additional barriers set by the Indian side for investors from specific countries violate the WTO’s principle of nondiscrimination and go against the general trend of liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment. More importantly, they do not conform to the consensus of the G20 leaders and Trade Ministers to realize a free, fair, nondiscriminatory, transparent, predictable and stable trade and investment environment, and to keep our markets open,” said Counsellor Ji Rong, spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy.
China's overall investment as of December 2019 was above $ 8 billion and it had driven key sectors like telecom, infrastructure, automobile and household goods in India. The revision was meant for sectors and enterprises other than defense, space, atomic energy and sectors and activities “prohibited for foreign investment”.

World Trade Organization

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that is concerned with the regulation of international trade between nations. The WTO officially commenced on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, signed by 123 nations on 15 April 1994, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which commenced in 1948. It is the largest international economic organization in the world.
The WTO deals with regulation of trade in goods, services, and intellectual property between participating countries by providing a framework for negotiating trade agreements and a dispute resolution process aimed at enforcing participants' adherence to WTO agreements, which are signed by representatives of member governments:fol.9–10 and ratified by their parliaments. The WTO prohibits discrimination between trading partners but provides exceptions for environmental protection, national security, and other important goals. Trade-related disputes are resolved by independent judges at the WTO through a dispute resolution process.
The WTO's current Director-General is Roberto Azevêdo, who leads a staff of over 600 people in Geneva, Switzerland. A trade facilitation agreement, part of the Bali Package of decisions, was agreed by all members on 7 December 2013, the first comprehensive agreement in the organization's history. On 23 January 2017, the amendment to the WTO Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement marks the first time since the organization opened in 1995 that WTO accords have been amended, and this change should secure for developing countries a legal pathway to access affordable remedies under WTO rules.
Studies show that the WTO boosted trade and that barriers to trade would be higher in the absence of the WTO. The WTO has highly influenced the text of trade agreements, as "nearly all recent [preferential trade agreements (PTAs)] reference the WTO explicitly, often dozens of times across multiple chapters... in many of these same PTAs we find that substantial portions of treaty language—sometimes the majority of a chapter—is copied verbatim from a WTO agreement.

Principles of the trading system

The WTO establishes a framework for trade policies; it does not define or specify outcomes. That is, it is concerned with setting the rules of the trade policy games. Five principles are of particular importance in understanding both the pre-1994 GATT and the WTO:

Non-discrimination. It has two major components: the most favored nation (MFN) rule, and the national treatment policy. Both are embedded in the main WTO rules on goods, services, and intellectual property, but their precise scope and nature differ across these areas. The MFN rule requires that a WTO member must apply the same conditions on all trade with other WTO members, i.e. a WTO member has to grant the most favorable conditions under which it allows trade in a certain product type to all other WTO members. "Grant someone a special favor and you have to do the same for all other WTO members." National treatment means that imported goods should be treated no less favorably than domestically produced goods (at least after the foreign goods have entered the market) and was introduced to tackle non-tariff barriers to trade (e.g. technical standards, security standards et al. discriminating against imported goods).
Reciprocity. It reflects both a desire to limit the scope of free-riding that may arise because of the MFN rule and a desire to obtain better access to foreign markets. A related point is that for a nation to negotiate, it is necessary that the gain from doing so be greater than the gain available from unilateral liberalization; reciprocal concessions intend to ensure that such gains will materialize.
Binding and enforceable commitments. The tariff commitments made by WTO members in multilateral trade negotiations and on accession are enumerated in a schedule (list) of concessions. These schedules establish "ceiling bindings": a country can change its bindings, but only after negotiating with its trading partners, which could mean compensating them for loss of trade. If satisfaction is not obtained, the complaining country may invoke the WTO dispute settlement procedures.
Transparency. The WTO members are required to publish their trade regulations, to maintain institutions allowing for the review of administrative decisions affecting trade, to respond to requests for information by other members, and to notify changes in trade policies to the WTO. These internal transparency requirements are supplemented and facilitated by periodic country-specific reports (trade policy reviews) through the Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM). The WTO system tries also to improve predictability and stability, discouraging the use of quotas and other measures used to set limits on quantities of imports.
Safety values. In specific circumstances, governments can restrict trade. The WTO's agreements permit members to take measures to protect not only the environment but also public health, animal health, and plant health

Source: The Hindu

5) The new model to predict ionospheric electron density can help communication/navigation

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG), Navi Mumbai, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India, have developed a global model to predict the ionospheric electron density with larger data coverage—a crucial need for communication and navigation.
a new Artificial Neural Networks based global Ionospheric Model (ANNIM) using long-term ionospheric observations to predict the ionospheric electron density and the peak parameters.
ANNs replicate the processes in the human brain (or biological neurons) to solve problems such as pattern recognition, classification, clustering, generalization, linear and nonlinear data fitting, and time series prediction, and very few attempts have been made to model the global ionosphere variability using ANNs.
Tracking the variability of the Ionosphere is important for communication and navigation. The ionospheric variability is greatly influenced by both solar originated processes and the neutral atmosphere origin, therefore, difficult to model. Scientists have tried to model the ionosphere using theoretical and empirical techniques; however, the accurate prediction of electron density is still a challenging task.
In recent years, Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are showing the potential to handle more complex and non-linear problems. Keeping these aspects in mind, a novel machine learning approach was implemented by the IIG team in the ionospheric model development using global ionospheric observations.
The researchers developed a neural network-based global ionospheric model by using an extensive database consisting of nearly two decades of global Digisonde (an instrument that measures real-time on-site electron density of the ionosphere by sending the radiofrequency pulses), Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) radio occultation and topside sounders observations. These datasets were processed with various quality control measures to eliminate spurious data points (outliers) and prepared for the training. Day number, Universal Time, latitude, longitude, F10.7 index (responsible for Photo-ionization), Kp (represents the disturbed space weather conditions), magnetic declination, inclination, dip latitude, zonal and meridional neutral winds were taken as inputs in the study. The target (output) of ANNs is the electron density as a function of altitude for any given location and time. The data was trained with the ANNs using a high-performance computer at IIG to develop the ANNIM.
The ANNIM predictions done by the IIG team matched with the incoherent scatter radar and the satellite in situ electron density observations. Further, the ANNIM successfully reproduced large scale anomalies of the ionosphere. The ANNIM also captured the general morphological features of the ionosphere during the disturbed space weather periods, such as geomagnetic storms which occurs when the magnetic cloud originated from Sun (known as Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)) interacts with the Earth’s magnetosphere
The model developed by IIG researchers may be utilized as a reference model in the ionospheric predictions and has potential applications in calculating the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning errors

The architecture of the neural network used in ANNIM development

The ionospheric electron density as a function of altitude over Indian longitude during March equinox at 12:00 Hrs. as simulated by ANNIM.

Source: PIB

6) Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)

The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, Government of India is taking several measures to facilitate the farmers and farming activities at field level during the lockdown period. The updated status is given below:

Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Scheme during the lockdown period from 24.3.2020 till date, about 8.89 crore farmer families have been benefitted and an amount of Rs. 17,793 crore has been released so far.
To provide food security during the prevailing situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government has decided to distribute pulses to the eligible households under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PM-GKY). About 107,077.85 MT pulses have so far been issued to the States/UTs.
Under PMGKY, the States/UTs namely A&N, Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Daman & Diu, Goa, Gujarat have commenced the distribution of pulses to the beneficiaries. The other states like Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi have received the partial stock and will commence the distribution to the beneficiaries in a phased manner as per their plan.
The distribution of pulses under PMGKY is to benefit around 19.50 crore households spread across 36 States and Union territories.

Pradhan Mantri KISAN Samman Nidhi

The Government to augment the income of the farm families is implementing a Central Sector Scheme, namely, "Pradhan Mantri KIsan SAmman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)". The Scheme is in effect from 01.12.2018.

Objective

To provide income support to all landholding eligible farmer families, the Government has launched PM-KISAN. The scheme aims to supplement the financial needs of the farmers in procuring various inputs to ensure proper crop health and appropriate yields, commensurate with the anticipated farm income.

Benefits and Eligibility conditions

All land holding eligible farmer families (subject to the prevalent exclusion criteria) are to avail of the benefits under this scheme, as per the recent cabinet decision taken during May 2019. The revised Scheme is expected to cover around 2 crores more farmers, increasing the coverage of PM-KISAN to around 14.5 crore beneficiaries, with an estimated expenditure by the Central Government of Rs. 87,217.50 crores for the year 2019-20.
Earlier, under the scheme, the financial benefit has been provided to all Small and Marginal landholder farmer families with total cultivable holding upto 2 hectares with a benefit of Rs.6000 per annum per family payable in three equal installments, every four months.

Exclusion Categories

The following categories of beneficiaries of higher economic status shall not be eligible for benefit under the scheme:

All Institutional Landholders.
Farmer families in which one or more of its members belong to the following categories

Former and present holders of constitutional posts
Former and present Ministers/ State Ministers and former/present Members of LokSabha/ RajyaSabha/ State Legislative Assemblies/ State Legislative Councils, former and present Mayors of Municipal Corporations, former and present Chairpersons of District Panchayats.
All serving or retired officers and employees of Central/ State Government Ministries /Offices/Departments and its field units Central or State PSEs and Attached offices /Autonomous Institutions under Government as well as regular employees of the Local Bodies (Excluding Multi Tasking Staff /Class IV/Group D employees)
All superannuated/retired pensioners whose monthly pension is Rs.10,000/-or more (Excluding Multi Tasking Staff / Class IV/Group D employees) of above category
All Persons who paid Income Tax in the last assessment year
Professionals like Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Chartered Accountants, and Architects registered with Professional bodies and carrying out profession by undertaking practices.

Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana

Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, 2016 (PMGKY) (English, Prime Minister's Poor welfare scheme) is an amnesty scheme launched by the Narendra Modi led Government of India in December 2016 on the lines of the Income declaration scheme, 2016 (IDS) launched earlier in the year. A part of the Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Act, 2016, the scheme provides an opportunity to declare unaccounted wealth and black money confidentially and avoid prosecution after paying a fine of 50% on the undisclosed income. An additional 25% of the undisclosed income is invested in the scheme which can be refunded after four years, without any interest.
Valid from December 16, 2016, to March 31, 2017, the scheme can only be availed to declare income in the form of cash or bank deposits in Indian bank accounts and not in the form of jewelry, stock, immovable property, or deposits in overseas accounts.
Not declaring undisclosed income under the PMGKY will attract a fine of 77.25% if the income is shown in tax returns. In case the income is not shown in tax returns, it will attract a further 10% penalty followed by prosecution

2020 coronavirus pandemic

During the 2020 coronavirus pandemic in India, Finance Minister announced a ₹1.70 Lakh Crore($24 billion) relief package under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana for the poor.[6]

₹500 each to 19.86 crore women Jan Dhan account holders
LPG cylinders to be provided to 8 crore poor families for the next three months free of cost.
₹1,000 for senior citizens to tide over difficulties during the next three months.

As of 11 April, ₹28,256 crores($4 billion) were disbursed through PMGKY to nearly 32 crore beneficiaries

Source: PIB

7) World Bank report on the impact of COVID-19 in the South Asia region.

South Asia as a region has done comparatively better in terms of containing the health impact of the novel coronavirus. The World Bank has endorsed India’s strict 40-day lockdown, which other South Asian countries have followed in varying degrees.
However, the World Bank report predicts a ‘dire’ situation for South Asia due to the economic impact of the measures to counter the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The restrictions on movement and lockdown measures have led to sharp declines in exports, and have disrupted global value chains. There has been a sharp decline in domestic tourism and hospitality services.
Given the global nature of the crisis, the pandemic has also deteriorated investment sentiment and caused the reversal of capital flows from the developing economies. There has also been a trend of reduced remittances.

Economic impact:

The eight SAARC countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Maldives, and Sri Lanka) would experience their worst economic performance in 40 years, with at least half of them falling into a deep recession.
The forecast for the South Asian economy in the WB report is in the range of 1.8% – 2.8%. The upper and lower bounds are based on two scenarios, one with a two-month lockdown of advanced economies, the other with a four-month lockdown of the economies. This would mark a significant drop from the present growth rate of 6.3%.
The impact could be even bigger given the uncertainty over the lifting of the lockdown measures and the reviving of economic activities. A prolonged lockdown of South Asian economies with an extended lockdown for three months and a more partial lockdown in subsequent quarters may cause negative growth for the region, with a contraction of about 1%.

Major Challenges:

Food security:

Disruptions in the supply chain and panic buying can lead to price spikes.
The lockdown deprives the most vulnerable people of their income. The loss of income of many informal workers due to lockdown can limit their ability to buy food. This can lead to food shortages for the most vulnerable.
Most of the countries have resorted to the banning of food exports from their domestic territories. This could exacerbate the crisis by disrupting the food supply chains of the world.

Vulnerable sections:

Containment of the pandemic is especially challenging among slum dwellers, domestic migrant workers, and refugees. These sections bear a higher burden of the economic impact of lockdowns.

Migrant crisis:

The pandemic will cause a global recession. This, along with the sharp drop in oil prices, will lead to high layoffs in the West Asian region. It is likely that migrant workers, especially in the Gulf countries, will return home after the lockdown restrictions are released.
The inbound reverse migrants will need to find work at home and will indeed compete with domestic migrant workers.
This will change the labor market and add to the domestic migrant labor crisis in India.

Decreased remittances:

Most South Asian nations depend on migrant remittances. This plays a substantial role in the development of nations. India receives the largest amount of remittances in the world and other economies in South Asia like Bangladesh and Pakistan are also dependant on migrant remittances.
The global recession and layoffs would impact the inward remittances.

Loss of jobs:

The WB report identifies the service sector as the worst hit. Tourism and hospitality sectors have come to a complete standstill and have resulted in substantial pay cuts and job losses.