Daily Current Affairs 29 April 2020 | UPSC Current Affairs 2020

Current Affairs Of Today Are

1) The new list of names of tropical cyclones over North Indian Ocean

Worldwide there are six regional specialized meteorological centers (RSMCs) and five regional tropical Cyclone Warning Centres (TCWCs) mandated for issuing advisories and naming of tropical cyclones. India Meteorological Department is one of the six RSMCs to provide tropical cyclone and storm surge advisories to 13 member countries under WMO/ESCAP Panel including Bangladesh, India, Iran, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.RSMC, New Delhi is also mandated to name the Tropical Cyclones developing over the north Indian Ocean (NIO) including the Bay of Bengal (BoB) and the Arabian Sea (AS).
The naming of Tropical Cyclones helps the scientific community, disaster managers, media and general masses to

identify each individual cyclone.
create awareness of its development.
remove confusion in case of simultaneous occurrence of TCs over a region
remember a TC easily
rapidly and effectively disseminate warnings to a much wider audience

Therefore, the tropical cyclones forming over different Ocean basins are named by the concerned RSMCs & TCWCs. For the north Indian Ocean including the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, the RSMC, New Delhi assigns the name to tropical cyclones following a standard procedure. The WMO/ESCAP Panel on Tropical Cyclones (PTC) at its twenty-seventh Session held in 2000 in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman agreed in principle to assign names to the tropical cyclones in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. After long deliberations among the member countries, the naming of the tropical cyclones over the north Indian Ocean commenced from September 2004. This list contained names proposed by the eight-member countries of WMO/ESCAP PTC, viz., Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. Almost all names except the last name (Amphan) from this list have been utilized to date.
During WMO/ESCAP PTC 45th Session held at Muscat, Oman in September 2018 it was decided to prepare a fresh list of names of tropical cyclones including representation from five new member countries, viz., Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen (Total 13 member countries).

Following criteria were adopted for the selection of names by the PTC member countries:

The proposed name should be neutral to (a) politics and political figures (b) religious believes, (c) cultures and (d) gender
The name should be chosen in such a way that it does not hurt the sentiments of any group of the population over the globe
It should not be very rude and cruel in nature
It should be short, easy to pronounce and should not be offensive to any member
The maximum length of the name will be eight letters
The proposed name should be provided along with its pronunciation and voice over
The Panel reserves the right to reject any name if any of the criteria above are not satisfied.
The finalized names may also be reviewed over time of implementation with the approval of PTC in its annual session, in case any reasonable objection is raised by any member
The names of tropical cyclones over the north Indian Ocean will not be repeated. Once used, it will cease to be used again. Thus, the name should be new. It should not be there in the already existing list of any of the RSMCs worldwide including RSMC, New Delhi.

Following criteria have been adopted for the implementation of the list of names:

RSMC, New Delhi will be responsible to name tropical cyclones forming over the North Indian Ocean including Bay of Bengal & the Arabian Sea when they have been diagnosed with a maximum sustained surface wind speed of 34 knots (62 kmph) or more as per Section 2.2.2.6.1 of Global Data Processing and Forecasting System (GDPFS) Manual 2017 edition (WMO No. 485).
The name of a TC from the South China Sea which crosses Thailand and emerges into the Bay of Bengal as a tropical cyclone will not be changed.
Panel Members’ names will be listed alphabetically country-wise.
The names will be used sequentially, column-wise.
The first name will start from the first row of column 1 and will continue sequentially to the last row in column 13

Note:

Panel Members name are listed alphabetically country wise
The names will be used sequentially column-wise
The first name will start from the first row of column one and continue sequentially to the last row in column thirteen
The table will be used only once

Source: PIB

2) India signs $1.5 billion loans with ADB to support India’s COVID-19 immediate response

The Government of India and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) today signed a $1.5 billion loan that will support the government’s response to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, focusing on immediate priorities such as disease containment and prevention, as well as social protection for the poor and economically vulnerable sections of the society, especially women and disadvantaged groups.
Building on the CARES Programme, ADB is also in dialogue with the government for further possible support for stimulating the economy, support strong growth recovery, and to build resilience to future shocks. This includes the support for the affected industries and entrepreneurs particularly micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) by facilitating their access to finance through credit guarantee schemes, MSME integration into global and national value chains through enterprise development centers, and a credit enhancement facility for infrastructure projects. Strengthening of public service delivery will be another important agenda, including the extension of comprehensive primary health services in urban areas, and of secondary and tertiary health care systems through PPP modalities.
India has taken several decisive measures to contain the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, including a $2 billion health sector spending program to expand hospital facilities, ramp up test-track-treatment capacity and launched a $23 billion pro-poor package to provide direct cash transfer, provide basic consumption goods and free cooking gas cylinders to the poor, particularly to women, old and socially disadvantaged groups. It has also extended insurance coverage to frontline health workers engaged in COVID 19 responses. The Central bank, Reserve Bank of India, has slashed policy rates, eased asset quality norms, provided loan moratoriums, taken measures to support exporters, and allowed states to borrow more to meet their financing requirements. It has also pumped in massive liquidity to support banks, non-banking financial companies, mutual funds as well as take measures to push the flow of funds to the MSMEs and the corporate sector.

Source: PIB

2) Ozone Layer Hole Over Arctic Closed

Recently, the European Union’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) announced that a hole in the Arctic ozone layer, believed to be the biggest reported over the Arctic, has closed.

The ozone hole’s closing was because of a phenomenon called the polar vortex, and not because of reduced pollution levels due to Covid-19 lockdowns around the world.
CAMS is one of six services that form Copernicus, the European Union's Earth observation program.

It provides consistent and quality-controlled information related to air pollution and health, solar energy, greenhouse gases, and climate forcing, everywhere in the world.

Key Points

Ozone Hole:

It refers to a region in the stratosphere where the concentration of ozone becomes extremely low in certain months.
Ozone (chemically, a molecule of three oxygen atoms) is found mainly in the upper atmosphere, an area called the stratosphere, between 10 and 50 km from the earth’s surface.
Ozone absorbs the harmful UltraViolet (UV) radiation from the sun eliminating a big threat to life forms on earth. UV rays can cause skin cancer and other diseases and deformities in plants and animals.

Reasons Behind the Biggest Ozone Hole over the Arctic:

In 2020, the ozone depletion over the Arctic was much larger. Before this year, the last sizable Arctic ozone hole was reported in 2011.
The hole in the North Pole's ozone layer was first detected in February 2020 had reached a maximum extension of around 1 million sq km.
Scientists believe that unusual atmospheric conditions, including freezing temperatures in the stratosphere, were responsible.
As per a European Space Agency report, cold temperatures (below -80°C), sunlight, wind fields, and substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were responsible for the degradation of the Arctic ozone layer.
Although Arctic temperatures do not usually fall as low as in Antarctica, this year, powerful winds flowing around the North Pole trapped cold air within what is known as the polar vortex— a circling whirlpool of stratospheric winds.
However, the size of the hole was still small compared to that usually observed in the southern hemisphere.

Closing of the hole and Ozone recovery:

Scientists believe that the closing of the hole is because of the same polar vortex and not because of the lower pollution levels during the Covid-19 lockdown.
As per the Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion data of 2018:
The ozone layer in parts of the stratosphere has recovered at a rate of 1-3% per decade since 2000.
At these projected rates, the Northern Hemisphere and mid-latitude ozone is predicted to recover by around 2030, followed by the Southern Hemisphere around 2050, and polar regions by 2060.

Ozone holes over Antarctica

The ozone holes most commonly refer to the depletion over Antarctica, forming each year in September, October, and November, due to a set of special meteorological and chemical conditions that arise at the South Pole, and can reach sizes of around 20 to 25 million sq km.
Formation:

Polar vortex leads to the most depletion of stratospheric ozone. As winter arrives, a vortex of winds develops around the pole and isolates the polar stratosphere.
When temperatures drop below -78°C (-109°F), thin clouds form ice, nitric acid, and sulphuric acid mixtures.
Chemical reactions on the surfaces of ice crystals in the clouds release active forms of CFCs and ozone depletion begins.
In spring, temperatures begin to rise, the ice evaporates, and the ozone layer starts to recover.
Such holes are much smaller in size in the North Pole due to the warmer temperatures than the South Pole.

Polar vortex

A polar vortex is a large area of low pressure and cold air that surrounds both of Earth's poles.
Polar vortexes always exist, but they typically weaken during the summer and strengthen in the winter.
The polar vortex in the Arctic is typically weaker due to the presence of nearby land as well as mountain ranges that disturb the weather more so than its counterpart to the south.

Source: Indian Express

3) PRACRITI: IIT Delhi

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi have developed a web-based dashboard PRACRITI for predicting the spread of Covid-19 in India.
PRACRITI is the acronym for the PRediction and Assessment of CoRona Infections and Transmission in India.

Key Points

Prediction of Covid-19 Cases

The dashboard gives detailed State-wise and district-wise predictions of Covid-19 cases in India for three weeks.
The data is updated weekly to accommodate various effects due to administrative interventions, the severity of the viral strain, change of weather patterns.
It also accounts for the effect of different lockdown scenarios such as the effect of locking down district boundaries and implementing different levels of lockdown within a district.
It also includes the effect of movement of population across district/state borders in the wake of Covid-19.

Provides R0 Value

PRACRITI provides the R0 values of each district and State based on data available from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), and the World Health Organization (WHO). The reduction of R0 is key in controlling and mitigating Covid-19 in India.
Reproduction Number (R0):

Reproduction Number (R0), pronounced ‘R naught’ refers to the number of people to whom the disease spreads from a single infected person.
For instance, if an active Covid-19 patient infects two uninfected persons, the R0 value is two.

Working:

Predictions are based on a recent mathematical model, namely, Adaptive, Interacting, Cluster-based, Susceptible, Exposed, Infected, Removed (AICSEIR) model.
This is a modified form of the traditional SEIR model and it caters to the interactions that occur between sub-populations such as districts or states. The model divides the population into the following four classes:

Susceptible refers to people who have not been exposed to the coronavirus.
Exposed refers to those who have been exposed to the virus from an infected person.
Infected refers to those who are actively infected with Covid-19.
Removed refers to those who are no longer a carrier of the virus.

Benefits

Such a platform will be highly useful for healthcare organizations as well as local and central authorities to efficiently plan for different future scenarios and resource allocation.
These predictions can help the districts and states having higher R0 to take rigorous measures to control the spread of Covid-19, while for those with low R0 they need to sustain measures and remain very vigilant.

Source: The Hindu

4) RBI’s Liquidity Offer for Mutual Funds

Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced a special liquidity window of Rs 50,000 crore to bail out mutual funds hit by the turmoil in the debt fund segment.

Key Points

Repo Operations: Under the special liquidity facility for mutual funds (SLF-MF), the RBI will conduct repo (repurchase agreement) operations of 90 days tenor at a fixed rate for banks.

A repurchase agreement, or 'repo', is a short-term agreement to sell securities to buy them back at a slightly higher price.
The one selling the repo (banks) is effectively borrowing and the other party (the RBI) is lending.

Providing Liquidity to Mutual Funds

Funds availed under the SLF-MF will be used by banks exclusively for meeting the liquidity requirements of mutual funds.
Under the SLF-MF, banks can extend loans to mutual funds and undertake the outright purchase of and repos against the collateral of investment-grade corporate bonds, commercial papers (CPs), debentures and certificates of Deposit (CDs) held by mutual funds.

Features of the offer

The RBI said liquidity support availed of under the SLF-MF would be eligible to be classified as Held-To-Maturity (HTM).
The face value of securities acquired under the SLF-MF and kept in the HTM category would not be reckoned for computation of Adjusted Non-food Bank Credit (ANBC) for determining priority-sector targets/sub-targets.
Support extended to MFs under the SLF-MF shall be exempted from banks’ capital market exposure limits.
Exposure under this facility would not be reckoned under the Large Exposure Framework (LEF).

This is the third time the RBI is opening the liquidity window for the financial sector players in the last 15 years.

The RBI had opened a special liquidity repo window for mutual funds in 2008 at the time of the global financial crisis.
In July 2013 again RBI opened a special liquidity repo window when returns on debt mutual funds dropped sharply after the rupee fell significantly against the dollar.

Background

Volatility in capital markets has intensified the stress on mutual funds due to the redemption pressures related to the closure of six debt schemes of Franklin Templeton and potential contagious effects.
The stress is, however, confined to the high-risk debt funds segment at this stage while the larger industry remains liquid.

Outcome

The RBI move on pumping liquidity will boost investor confidence in the mutual fund industry.
The RBI’s liquidity offer is expected to bring some degree of comfort in the debt market which is under huge redemption (paying back) pressure, especially in the credit risk fund category.

Key Terms

Mutual Fund: A mutual fund collects money from investors and invests the money, on their behalf, insecurities (debt, equity, or both). It charges a small fee for managing the money.
Debt funds aim to generate returns for investors by investing their money in avenues like bonds and other fixed-income securities.
Credit-risk funds are debt funds that have at least 65% of their investments in less than AA-rated (i.e. in lower-rated) papers.
Held-to-maturity securities are purchased to be owned until maturity. E.g bonds.
Adjusted non-food Bank Credit includes non-food bank credit and total non-statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) investments of banks in commercial papers, shares, and bonds/debentures.
Capital Market exposure refers to the percentage of a portfolio, invested in a particular type of security, market sector or industry

It is also known as the exposure amount an investor can lose from the risks unique to a particular investment.

Large Exposures Framework: The large exposures framework sets prudent limits to large exposures of banks, which may result in a concentration of its assets to a single counterparty or a group of connected counterparties.

To address this concentration risk, RBI has fixed limits on bank exposures.
As per current guidelines of RBI, a bank’s exposure to a single borrower is restricted to 15% and to a borrower group 40% of capital funds.

Source: Indian Express

5) Perils of Chakmas and Hajongs

The Rights and Risks Analysis Group has sought the Indian Prime Minister’s intervention in ensuring food for the Chakma and Hajong communities in Arunachal Pradesh.

Key Points

Chakmas and Hajongs have allegedly not been included in the Covid-19 Economic Relief Package announced by the central government in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Under the Relief Package, as part of the PM Gareeb Kalyan Ann Yojana: Each person who is covered under the National Food Security Act gets an additional five kg wheat or rice for free, in addition to the 5 kg of subsidized foodgrain already provided through the Public Distribution System (PDS).
One kg of pulse per household is also provided for free, according to regional preferences.

Their ration cards were illegally and arbitrarily seized by the state government in October 1991. As a result, they are forced to buy food items at normal or hiked prices while other vulnerable sections are paying ₹5 per kg as per the economic package.
Since the members of the communities have become legal citizens of India, denial of food violates the Right to Life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.

Chakmas and Hajongs

These are ethnic people who lived in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, most of which are located in Bangladesh.

Chakmas are predominantly Buddhists, while Hajongs are Hindus.
They are found in northeast India, West Bengal, Bangladesh, and Myanmar.

They fled erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in 1964-65 and came to India and settled in Arunachal Pradesh. Reasons:

Chakmas lost their land to the development of the Kaptai Dam on the Karnaphuli River, Bangladesh.
Hajongs faced religious persecution as they were non-Muslims and did not speak Bengali.

In 2015, the Supreme Court directed the Centre to grant citizenship to Chakma and Hajongs who had migrated from Bangladesh in 1964-69.

The order was passed while hearing a plea by the Committee for Citizenship Rights of the Chakmas.
They did not directly come into the ambit of the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA) because Arunachal Pradesh is among the states exempted from the CAA since it has an inner line permit to regulate the entry of outsiders.

Currently, Chakmas and Hajongs are citizens by birth as per Section 3(1) of the Citizenship Act and the eligible portion of their population exercise the right to vote as citizens of India (they were given voting rights in 2004).

However, 4,637 pleas of the survivors of migration during 1964-1969 are still pending with the Centre even as some of the applicants have died.

Source: The Hindu

6) Animal poaching registers a sharp increase during the lockdown

The instances of poaching of wild animals and birds, including the endangered chinkara or Indian gazelle, have registered a sharp increase across Rajasthan during the COVID-19 lockdown, with the hunters taking advantage of slack monitoring and sparse public movement in the remote areas.
Armed poachers have been moving inside the national parks and wildlife sanctuaries since the lockdown was enforced. Besides killing chinkaras and blackbucks, the poachers have targeted peacocks, grey francolins and other birds covered under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, as endangered species
The chinkaras are usually poached in Rajasthan, allegedly by the Bawaria community, whose traditional occupation is hunting

Wildlife Protection Act, 1972

The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted for the protection of plants and animal species. Before 1972, India had only five designated national parks. Among other reforms, the Act established schedules of protected plant and animal species; hunting or harvesting these species was largely outlawed. The Act provides for the protection of wild animals, birds, and plants; and for matters connected therewith or ancillary or incidental thereto. It extends to the whole of India. It has six schedules that give varying degrees of protection. Schedule I and part II of Schedule II provide absolute protection - offenses under these are prescribed the highest penalties. Species listed in Schedule III and Schedule IV are also protected, but the penalties are much lower. Schedule V includes the animals which may be hunted. The specified endemic plants in Schedule VI are prohibited from cultivation and planting. The hunting to the Enforcement authorities has the power to compound offenses under this Schedule (i.e. they impose fines on the offenders). Up to April 2010, there have been 16 convictions under this act relating to the death of tigers.

Salient Features of the Wild Life Protection Act:

It defines wildlife-related terminology.
It provides for the appointment of wildlife advisory Board, Wildlife Warden, their powers, duties, etc.
It helped in becoming a party to the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES, 1976).
It supported launching a "national component of UNESCO's “Man and Biosphere Programme' (1971).
The Act made a comprehensive list of endangered wildlife species for the first time and prohibition of hunting of the endangered species
was mentioned.
It also provides for the protection of some endangered plants.
It provides for setting up of National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries, etc.
It provides for the constitution of the Central Zoo Authority.
It provides for trade and commerce in some wildlife species with a license for sale, possession, transfer, etc.
It imposes a ban on the trade or commerce in scheduled animals.
It provides for legal powers to officers and punishment to offenders.
Very mild penalty and punishment are provided for an offender under the Act.
The Act contains 66 Sections divided into seven chapters and six schedules.

Objectives of the Wild Life Protection Act:

To prohibit hunting of wild animals; birds, etc. and impose punishment for violating the same. The schedules give absolute protection to
certain species and these cannot be infringed on any account
To provide security to animals that are not in danger of becoming extinct.
To delineate animals that can be hunted like ducks and deer. For this purpose, the hunter has to apply for a license to the District Forest
The officer who will allow a hunter to shoot during a specific season and restricted area. Any infringement can lead to the cancellation of the
hunting license.
To help cultivation and plant life and gives teeth to setting up more protected animal parks.
To give sweeping powers to law enforcement authorities to punish anybody guilty under the Act.
To empower the Central Govt. and State Govt. to declare certain areas as Sanctuaries or National Parks.

Source: The Hindu

7) The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report 2020

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has downgraded India to the lowest ranking, “countries of particular concern” (CPC) in its 2020 report. The report, released in Washington by the federal government commission that functions as an advisory body, placed India alongside countries, including China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. India was categorized as a “Tier 2 country” in last year’s listing. This is the first time since 2004 that India has been placed in this category
India took a sharp downward turn in 2019,” the commission noted in its report, which included specific concerns about the Citizenship Amendment Act, the proposed National Register for Citizens, anticonversion laws and the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. “The national government used its strengthened parliamentary majority to institute nationallevel policies violating religious freedom across India, especially for Muslims.” The panel said that the CPC designation was also recommended because “national and various State governments also allowed nationwide campaigns of harassment and violence against religious minorities to continue with impunity, and engaged in and tolerated hate speech and incitement to violence against them”.

The Indian Government Takes on it

The Centre reacted sharply to the USCIRF report on, terming it “biased and tendentious” and rejected its observations.
“We reject the observations on India in the USCIRF Annual Report,” official spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said. “Its biased and tendentious comments against India are not new. But on this occasion, its misrepresentation has reached new levels. It has not been able to carry its own Commissioners in its endeavor. We regard it as an organization of particular concern and will treat it accordingly,” Mr. Srivastava added.

International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).

The commission also recommended that the U.S. government take stringent action against India under the “International Religious Freedom Act” (IRFA). It called on the administration to “impose targeted sanctions on Indian government agencies and officials responsible for severe violations of religious freedom by freezing those individuals’ assets and/or barring their entry into the United States under human rightsrelated financial and visa authorities, citing specific religious freedom violations”. In 2005, Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was at the time the Chief Minister of Gujarat was censured by the USCIRF. The commission had recommended sanctions against Mr. Modi for the 2002 riots and the U.S. government had subsequently canceled his visa.

United States Commission on International Religious Freedom

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is a U.S. federal government commission created by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the leadership of both political parties in the Senate and the House of Representatives. USCIRF's principal responsibilities are to review the facts and circumstances of violations of religious freedom internationally and to make policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress. It has been criticized by some journalists due to current chairman Tony Perkins' connection to the Family Research Council and the perceived right-wing bias of its members.

Duties and responsibilities

USCIRF researches and monitors international religious freedom issues. The Commission is authorized to travel on fact-finding missions to other countries and hold public hearings.
The Commission on International Religious Freedom issues an annual report that includes policy recommendations to the U.S. government based on the report's evaluation of the facts and circumstances of religious freedom violations worldwide.

Source: The Hindu

8) 2019 Global Terrorism Index:

Deaths from terrorism halved in the last four years, but the number of countries affected by terrorism is growing
Deaths from terrorism have decreased by 15.2 percent in 2018 to 15,952 globally. This is the fourth consecutive year of improvement.
The Taliban has overtaken ISIL to become the deadliest terrorist group in the world, recording a 71 percent increase in terrorism deaths. The group was responsible for 38 percent of all terrorist deaths globally in 2018.
98 countries improved this year, with 40 deteriorating — the highest number of countries to improve year-on-year since 2004.
Terrorism still remains a global security threat with 71 countries recording at least one death in 2018 — the second-highest number of countries since 2002 and four more than in 2017.
Deaths in Europe fell by 70 percent, with Western Europe recording its lowest number of incidents since 2012.
There has been an increase in far-right terrorism for the third consecutive year in Western Europe, North America, and Oceania, with the number of deaths increasing by 52 percent in 2018. This trend has continued into 2019, with 77 deaths to the end of September 2019. The global economic impact of terrorism was US$33 billion in 2018, a decrease of 38 percent from the previous year.
The fall in terrorism has also been accompanied by a reduction in the global economic impact of terrorism, decreasing by 38 percent to US$33 billion in 2018. Compared to other forms of violence such as homicide, armed conflict, and military expenditure, terrorism is a small percentage of the total global cost of violence, which was equal to US$14.1 trillion in 2018. However, the true economic impact of terrorism is likely to be much higher as these figures do not account for the indirect impacts on business, investment, and the costs associated with security agencies in countering terrorism.
The number of countries recording a death from terrorism increased from 67 countries to 71 in 2018.
Afghanistan had the largest increase in deaths from terrorism, up by 59 percent from the prior year, and is now at the bottom of the index.
For the first time since 2003, Iraq was not the country most impacted by terrorism.
Other than Afghanistan only three other countries — Nigeria, Mali, and Mozambique — recorded a substantial increase in deaths from terrorism in 2018. Each of these countries recorded more than 100 additional deaths.
South Asia has had the highest impact from terrorism since 2002, while Central America and the Caribbean region has had the lowest impact.

NITI Aayog slams India’s terror ranking

A report compiled by the NITI Aayog has questioned the methodology adopted by an Australianbased institute to rank India as the seventh-worst terrorism affected country ahead of conflict-ridden countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Palestine, and Lebanon.
The report also questions the opaque funding of the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). Emailed queries by the government think tank, seeking a list of its donors, remained unanswered. India has moved to the seventh position from the previous year’s eighth in the annual Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2019. The countries ahead of it are Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Syria, Pakistan, and Somalia.
In March, the Cabinet Secretariat asked NITI Aayog to track 32 such global indices to see how they could help drive reforms and growth.
An official said the positioning in the global indices impacted investments and other opportunities.
“The purpose was to see which of the indices can be used to drive reforms or which of these would require some amount of engagement with the publishing agency to make the indices more relevant,” a NITI Aayog official said.
“Emailed queries sent to the IEP requesting a list of its donors have also remained unanswered. The IEP’s 2019 annual report shows that the organization has only 12 fulltime staff, 12 fulltime equivalent staff, and 6 volunteers,” the report said.

Global Terrorism Index

The Global Terrorism Index (GTI) is a report published annually by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) and was developed by IT entrepreneur and IEP's founder Steve Killelea.
The index provides a comprehensive summary of the key global trends and patterns in terrorism since 2000. It produces a composite score to provide an ordinal ranking of countries on the impact of terrorism.
It is an attempt to systematically rank the nations of the world according to terrorist activity. The index combines several factors associated with terrorist attacks to build an explicit picture of the impact of terrorism, illustrating trends, and providing a data series for analysis by researchers and policymakers.
The GTI is based on data from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) which is collected and collated by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland. The GTD has codified over 190,000 cases of terrorism.
The GTI covers 163 countries, covering 99.7% of the world's population.
The aim of the report is to examine trends and to help inform a positive and practical debate about the future of terrorism and the required policy responses.
The GTI was developed in consultation with the Global Peace Index expert panel.

Source: The Hindu

9) BRO Opens Rohtang Pass

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has opened the Rohtang Pass, three weeks in advance, for transporting essential supplies and relief materials to Lahaul and Spiti districts of Himachal Pradesh amid the lockdown due to Covid-19.

Key Points

The pass is at 13,058 feet on the eastern Pir Panjal Range of the Himalayas.
The Pass connects Leh and Manali. The road serves as the only mode of connectivity between the tribal population of Lahaul Valley in Himachal Pradesh and the rest of the country.
It is also a crucial lifeline for the Army troops deployed on the eastern border in the Ladakh region.
The pass remains snowbound for almost six months, from mid-November to mid-May, isolating Lahaul and Spiti districts from the rest of the country.
The valley depends on air traffic for external logistics and supplies during winters.
Atal tunnel under Rohtang Pass:
It is an 8.8-kilometer-long tunnel and will be the world's longest tunnel above an altitude of 3,000 meters.
It will reduce the distance between Manali and Leh by 46 kilometers and saves transport costs.
It will provide all-weather connectivity to remote border areas of Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh which otherwise remained cut off from the rest of the country for about six months during winters.

Border Roads Organisation

BRO was conceived and raised in 1960 by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru for coordinating the speedy development of a network of roads in the North and the North-Eastern border regions of the country.
It works under the administrative control of the Ministry of Defence.
It has diversified into a large spectrum of construction and development works comprising airfields, building projects, defense works, and tunneling and has endeared itself to the people.

Source: The Hindu

10) Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988

In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court has held that bribery and corruption in a deemed university can be tried under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Individuals, authorities, or officials connected to a deemed university, whatever be their role or designation, come under the definition of a ‘public servant’. They can be tried and punished under the anticorruption law, the court said. Deemed universities come within the ambit of the term ‘university’ in Section 2(c)(xi) of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, 1988.
A deemed institution under the University Grants Commission Act of 1956 has the same common public duty as a university to confer academic degrees, which are recognized in the society

Supreme Court On PC Act

The object of the PC Act was not only to prevent the social evil of bribery and corruption but also to make the same applies to individuals who might conventionally not be considered public servants. The purpose under the PC Act was to shift focus from those who are traditionally called public officials, to those individuals who perform public duties. Keeping the same in mind, it cannot be stated that a deemed university and the officials therein, perform any less or any different a public duty

Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988

The Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (No. 49 of 1988) is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted to combat corruption in government agencies and public sector businesses in India

.Section 2(c)(xi) of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, 1988

Definitions. — In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, —

(xi) any person who is a Vice-Chancellor or member of any governing body, professor, reader, lecturer or any other teacher or employee, by whatever designation, called, of any University and any the person whose services have been availed of by a University or any other public authority in connection with holding or conducting examinations;