Daily Current Affairs 29 May 2020 | UPSC Current Affairs 2020

Current Affairs Of Today Are

1) PAN through Aadhaar based e-KYC

In line with the announcement made in the Union Budget, Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman formally launched the facility for instant allotment of PAN (on near to real-time basis) here today. This facility is now available for those PAN applicants who possess a valid Aadhaar number and have a mobile number registered with Aadhaar. The allotment process is paperless and an electronic PAN (e-PAN) is issued to the applicants free of cost.
The facility of instant PAN through Aadhaar based e-KYC has been launched formally today, however, its ‘Beta version’ on a trial basis was started on 12th Feb 2020 on the e-filing website of Income Tax Department. Since then onwards, 6,77,680 instant PANs have been allotted with a turnaround time of about 10 minutes, till 25th May 2020.
It may also be noted that as on 25.05.2020, a total of 50.52 crore PANs have been allotted to the taxpayers, out of which, around 49.39 crores are allotted to the individuals and more than 32.17crore are seeded with Aadhaar so far.
The process of applying for instant PAN is very simple. The instant PAN applicant is required to access the e-filing website of the Income Tax Department to provide her/his valid Aadhaar number and then submit the OTP received on her/his Aadhaar registered mobile number. On successful completion of this process, a 15-digit acknowledgment number is generated. If required, the applicant can check the status of the request anytime by providing her/his valid Aadhaar number and on the successful allotment, can download the e-PAN. The e-PAN is also sent to the applicant on her/his email id if it is registered with Aadhaar.
The launch of the Instant PAN facility is yet another step by the Income Tax Department towards Digital India, thereby creating further ease of compliance to the taxpayers.

Source: PIB

2) ADB, India sign $177 million loans for state road improvements in Maharashtra

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of India signed a $177 million loan to upgrade 450 kilometers (km) of state highways and major district roads in the state of Maharashtra.
Overall the project will upgrade 2 major district roads and 11 state highways, with a combined length of 450 km, to 2-lane standard across seven districts of Maharashtra, and improve connectivity to national highways, interstate roads, seaports, airports, rail hubs, district headquarters, industrial areas, enterprise clusters, and agricultural areas.
The project will also focus on training the Maharashtra Public Works Department project staff to build their capacity in climate change adaptation and disaster-resilient features in road design, road maintenance planning, and road safety.
ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.

About ABD

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966, which is headquartered in the Ortigas Center located in the city of Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines. The company also maintains 31 field offices around the world to promote social and economic development in Asia. The bank admits the members of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP, formerly the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East or ECAFE) and non-regional developed countries. From 31 members at its establishment, ADB now has 68 members.
The ADB was modeled closely on the World Bank and has a similar weighted voting system where votes are distributed in proportion with members' capital subscriptions. ADB releases an annual report that summarizes its operations, budget, and other materials for review by the public. The ADB-Japan Scholarship Program (ADB-JSP) enrolls about 300 students annually in academic institutions located in 10 countries within the Region. Upon completion of their study programs, scholars are expected to contribute to the economic and social development of their home countries. ADB is an official United Nations Observer.
As of 31 December 2016, Japan holds the largest proportion of shares at 15.677%, closely followed by the United States with 15.567% capital share. China holds 6.473%, India holds 6.359%, and Australia holds 5.812%.

Source: PIB

3) Veer Savarkar

The invitation extended by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for the inauguration of the Yelahanka flyover sparked off a political controversy with the initial intimation indicating that it would be named after Hindutva ideologue V.D. Savarkar.

Who is Veer Savarkar?

Born on May 28, 1883, in Bhagur, a city in Maharashtra’s Nashik.

Nationalism and social reforms:

In his teenage, Savarkar formed a youth organization. Known as Mitra Mela, this organization was put into place to bring in national and revolutionary ideas.
He was against foreign goods and propagated the idea of Swadeshi. In 1905, he burnt all the foreign goods in a bonfire on Dussehra.
He championed atheism and rationality and also disapproved of orthodox Hindu belief. In fact, he even dismissed cow worship as superstitious.
He also Worked on the abolishment of untouchability in Ratnagiri. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar also compared his work to Lord Buddha.
Vinayak Savarkar was a president of Hindu Mahasabha from 1937 to 1943. When congress ministries offered resignation on 22nd Oct 1939, Hindu Mahasabha under his leadership cooperated with Muslim league to form government in provinces like Sindh, Bengal, and NWFP.
In Pune, Savarkar founded the “Abhinav Bharat Society”.
He was also involved in the Swadeshi movement and later joined Tilak’s Swaraj Party. His instigating patriotic speeches and activities incensed the British Government. As a result, the British Government withdrew his B.A. degree.
He founded the Free India Society. The Society celebrated important dates on the Indian calendar including festivals, freedom movement landmarks, and was dedicated to furthering discussion about Indian freedom.
He believed and advocated the use of arms to free India from the British and created a network of Indians in England, equipped with weapons.

Important works:

In his book, The History of the War of Indian Independence, Savarkar wrote about the guerilla warfare tricks used in 1857 Sepoy Mutiny.
The book was banned by Britishers, but Madam Bhikaji Cama published the book in Netherlands, Germany, and France, which eventually reached many Indian revolutionaries.
He was arrested in 1909 on charges of plotting an armed revolt against the Morle-Minto reform.
He founded the two-nation theory in his book ‘Hindutva’ calling Hindus and Muslims two separate nations. In 1937, Hindu Mahasabha passed it as a resolution.
In 2002, Port Blair airport at Andaman and Nicobar’s Island was renamed after Veer Savarkar International Airport.

His call for a modern society:

Savarkar was a modernist, a rationalist, and a strong supporter of social reform.
According to Savarkar, our movies should focus on the positives of the country, keep aside the negatives, and have pride in its victories. Our youth should be inspired by movies that focus on the positive side of things.
In his presidential address to the annual session of the Hindu Mahasabha held in Calcutta in 1939, Savarkar spoke about how Hindus and Muslims could bury their historical differences in a common Hindustani constitutional state.
Savarkar often called on his supporters to welcome the age of the modern machine.
In an essay published in the magazine Kirloskar, and republished in a book of his essays on the scientific approach, he argued that India would continue to lag behind Europe as long as its leaders believed in superstition rather than science.
He argued that any social reformer who seeks to root out harmful social practices or preach new truths has first of all to compromise his popularity. E.g.: Jesus was killed. Buddha had to face a murderous attack. Mohammad had to flee, was injured in battle, was condemned as a traitor.

Conclusion:

His name evokes controversy. While some consider him as one of the greatest revolutionaries in the Indian freedom struggle, others consider him a communalist and right-wing leader. His controversial position on Hindutva also continues to inform current political debates. It is time that a wider set of scholars began to engage with Savarkar’s ideas—including controversial ones.

Source: The Hindu

4) The U.S. strips Hong Kong of special trading status

The United States has declared that it no longer considers Hong Kong autonomous from China, a move that could result in loss of Hong Kong’s special trading status with the US and threaten its standing as an international financing hub.

What’s the issue?

Until now the US has given Hong Kong – a global financial and trading hub – special status under US law. The provision dates from when the territory was a British colony and gives it favorable trading terms. However, with the US State Department certifying Hong Kong as no longer autonomous from China, the US Congress, under the last year’s Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, can revoke Hong Kong’s special trading status which means the former British colony will be treated the same as mainland China for trade and other purposes.

What would losing it mean for Hong Kong?

An estimated $38 billion in trade between Hong Kong and the U.S. could be jeopardized. Longer-term, people might have a second thought about raising money or doing business in Hong Kong.

Implications:

Any sanctions or move to rescind the special status would further strain the relationship between the U.S. and China, already under pressure from the coronavirus pandemic, the Hong Kong protests, an ongoing trade war, and other issues.
In addition to the annual review of Hong Kong’s trading status, the new law requires the president to freeze U.S.-based assets of, and deny entry to the U.S. by, any individuals found responsible for abducting and torturing human rights activists in Hong Kong. Such sanctions could come sooner than a suspension of the trading status, and would obviously complicate things further.

Source: The Hindu

5) Locust threat is bigger this year, warns monitor

The threat of locusts, which have invaded vast swathes of land in Rajasthan and entered neighboring Madhya Pradesh, is bigger this year in comparison with the damage caused to standing crops in a limited area in 2019.
The tropical grasshoppers have been crossing over to India via Pakistan’s Sindh province since April 2020.

In Pakistan, locusts have destroyed crops in the cotton-producing belt of Sindh.
Since Pakistan’s anti-locust spraying in the deserts of Thar and Cholistan proved to be ineffective, huge swarms, aided by high-speed winds, have flown into the Indian side of the Thar desert.

Locust Swarms:

Locust is an omnivorous and migratory pest and can fly hundreds of kilometers collectively.
It is a trans-border pest and attacks the crop in large swarms.
Found in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, they inhabit some 60 countries and can cover one-fifth of the Earth’s land surface.
Desert locust plagues may threaten the economic livelihood of one-tenth of the world’s human population.
Swarms of locusts in the desert come to India from Africa/Gulf/South West Asia during the summer monsoon season and go back towards Iran, Gulf & African countries for spring breeding.
In India, more than 2 lakh square kilometers of the area comes under the Scheduled Desert Area.
Pink immature adults fly high and cover long distances during day hours from one place to another along with the westerly winds coming from the Pakistan side.
Most of these pink immature adults settle on the trees at night and mostly fly during the day.
The immature locust is very active and their mobility makes it difficult to control the swarm at one location and it takes 4 to 5 days of control at different locations to control a particular locust swarm.

Locust Warning Organisation (LWO):

The Union Agriculture Ministry’s Locust Warning Organisation (LWO) is headquartered in Jodhpur.
LWO said that the locusts that came in 2019, after a gap of 26 years, were mature and had affected 12 districts of the State.

Challenges:

As per FAO’s Locust Status Update, the current situation remains extremely alarming in East Africa where it is an unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods.
New swarms will migrate to the summer breeding areas along both sides of the Indo-Pakistan border as well as to Sudan and West Africa.
Good rains are predicted along the Indo-Pakistan border that would allow egg-laying to occur.
This year, the locusts are immature and have crossed the India-Pakistan border soon after their birth.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation has warned of more attacks of locusts along both sides of the India-Pakistan border.
A bigger challenge is likely to emerge when the swarms flying over 20 districts in Rajasthan start breeding.
The locusts will start laying eggs after the onset of monsoon and continue breeding for two more months, with new insects being born during the growth phase of the Kharif crops.

Steps were taken:

Locust Circle Offices (LCO) are conducting survey & control operations in close coordination with the District Administration and agriculture field machinery of the affected States.
Advisories have been issued to the States of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, and Punjab regarding the locust attack and necessary measures to be taken for effective control, and pesticides that are to be used for effective locust control in the cropped area.
Currently, Locust Control Offices have 21 Micronair and 26 Ulvamast (47 spray equipment) which are being utilized for locust control.
e-Tender has been invited for the impaneling agencies to provide services of drones for aerial spraying of insecticides for effective control over tall trees and inaccessible areas.

Source: The Hindu

6) ‘risk-free’ tag

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is likely to allow banks to assign zero risk weight for loans that will be extended to the micro, medium and small enterprises (MSMEs) under the ₹20 lakh crore economic package announced by the government.

Details:

As part of the package, a ₹3 lakh crore loan for the MSME sector was announced.
This will be guaranteed by the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Limited (NCGTC) in the form of a Guaranteed Emergency Credit Line (GECL) facility.
However, such loans would attract a risk weight of a minimum of 20% since these don’t come with a direct government guarantee.
The Finance Ministry had requested the central bank to make these loans risk free, following an interaction with banks.
This facility is similar to the loans that are guaranteed by the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE).
After banks highlighted the issue with the government, the Finance Ministry asked the RBI to waive the requirement of assigning a risk weight to the loans.
The RBI is likely to waive the requirement of risk weight.
The Finance Ministry is expected to issue detailed guidelines on this credit guarantee loan issue.
Sources said that the government had factored in less than 15% non-performing assets from this ₹3 lakh crore of loans.
Though primarily meant for the MSME sector, other small borrowers including non-banking financial companies can also avail themselves of the scheme.
The scheme will be applicable till October 31, 2020, or till an amount of ₹3 lakh crore is sanctioned, whichever is earlier.
Zero risks would mean that banks will not have to set aside additional capital for these loans. The move is aimed at encouraging lenders to extend credit, as banks have turned risk-averse and have been reluctant to lend.
The banks had been asked to extend loans automatically to eligible borrowers without fear of the ‘3Cs’ — CBI, CVC, and CAG.
The tenure of the loan under this scheme will be four years, with a moratorium period of one year on the principal amount. The NCGTC will not charge any guarantee fee.
The interest rate under the scheme is 9.25% if the loan is extended by banks and financial institutions, and 14% if by NBFCs.

Source: The Hindu

7) Fungal powder to boost immunity

Bodoland University, one of Assam’s youngest universities, says it has developed a fungal powder to help people boost immunity during the time of a global pandemic.
The powder is from a parasitic but rare “super mushroom” called Cordyceps militaris.
The outcome was a potent pinch of C. militaris, powdered through lyophilization or freezedrying at –80°C.
The earth has more than 400 species of Cordyceps, a fungus parasitic on insects as well as other fungi. Often referred to as a super mushroom, Cordyceps known for its antiageing, antiviral, energy, and immunityboosting effect.
Natural Cordyceps is hard to get and if dried, costs at least ₹8 lakh per kg.
Each capsule containing
the powdered super mushroom would cost ₹120 if produced commercially.
But the university wants to make it affordable for the common man.

Source: The Hindu

8) New Development Bank

Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman attended the Special Board of Governors meeting of the New Development Bank (NDB) through video-conference.

The agenda included the election of next President of NDB, appointment of Vice-President and Chief Risk Officer, and membership expansion.

About the New Development Bank:

It is a multilateral development bank operated by the BRICS states (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa).
The New Development Bank was agreed to by BRICS leaders at the 5th BRICS summit held in Durban, South Africa in 2013.
It was established in 2014, at the 6th BRICS Summit at Fortaleza, Brazil.
The bank is set up to foster greater financial and development cooperation among the five emerging markets.
In the Fortaleza Declaration, the leaders stressed that the NDB will strengthen cooperation among BRICS and will supplement the efforts of multilateral and regional financial institutions for global development.

The bank will be headquartered in Shanghai, China.

Voting:

Unlike the World Bank, which assigns votes based on capital share, in the New Development Bank, each participant country will be assigned one vote, and none of the countries will have veto power.

Roles and functions:

The New Development Bank will mobilize resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other emerging economies and developing countries, to supplement existing efforts of multilateral and regional financial institutions for global growth and development.

Source: PIB

9) National Highways Authority of India

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has directed its Regional Officers (ROs) and Project Directors (PDs) to undertake maintenance of the National Highways ahead of the monsoon season.

NHAI will be monitoring the progress through its Project Management Software – Data Lake where pictures of before and after repair works would be uploaded, apart from other repair-related information.

Key Points

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was set up under the NHAI Act, 1988. It is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
It has been entrusted with the National Highways Development Project, along with other minor projects for development, maintenance, and management.

National Highways Development Project (NHDP) is a project to upgrade, rehabilitate, and widen major highways in India to a higher standard. The project was started in 1998.

NHAI maintains the National Highways network to global standards and cost-effective manner and promotes economic well being and quality of life of the people.
It has completed the construction of 3,979 km of national highways in the financial Year 2019-20.
NHAI has mandated the development of about 27,500 km of national highways under Bharatmala Pariyojna Phase-I.

Bharatmala Pariyojana is an umbrella program for the highways sector that focuses on optimizing the efficiency of freight and passenger movement across the country by bridging critical infrastructure gaps through effective interventions.
The effective interventions include the development of Economic Corridors, Inter Corridors and Feeder Routes, National Corridor Efficiency Improvement, Border and International connectivity roads, Coastal and Port connectivity roads, and Green-field expressways.

National Highways

National Highways (NH) are the arterial roads of the country for inter-state movement of passengers and goods.
They traverse the length and width of the country connecting the National and State capitals, major ports and rail junctions, and link up with border roads and foreign highways.
The NHs including Expressways constitute only about 1.7% of the length of all roads, they carry about 40% of the road traffic.

Source: PIB

10) Antitrust Case Against Google

Recently, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has started looking into allegations against the Alphabet Inc’s Google.

According to the allegations, Google is abusing its market position to unfairly promote its mobile payments app (Google Play) in the country.

Key Points

The complaint alleges the USA tech giant more prominently showcases its Google Pay app inside its Android app store in India, giving it an unfair advantage over apps of competitors.

Google Pay allows users to do digital transactions, inter-bank fund transfers, and bill payments.
It competes with Softbank-backed Paytm and Walmart’s PhonePe, both of which are prominently used in India.
Facebook’s WhatsApp is also planning a similar service shortly.

Google has not responded to the allegations yet and is expected to respond in due course.
The CCI can direct its investigations unit to conduct a wider probe into the allegations or dismiss the case if it finds no merit in it. Google will appear before the CCI, which will then decide on the way forward.
This is Google’s third major antitrust challenge in India.

In 2018, the CCI fined Google $21 million for ‘search bias’.

It was alleged that Google was indulging in abuse of a dominant position in the market for online search through practices leading to search bias and search manipulation, among others.

In 2019, the CCI started probing Google for allegedly misusing its dominant position to reduce the ability of smartphone manufacturers to opt for alternate versions of its Android mobile operating system.

Antitrust Law

Antitrust law, also referred to as Competition law, aims to protect trade and commerce from unfair restraints, monopolies, and price-fixing.
It ensures that fair competition exists in an open-market economy.
The Competition Act, 2002 is India’s antitrust law. It repealed and replaced the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969 (MRTP Act) on the recommendations of the Raghavan committee.

The Competition Act, 2002

It was passed in 2002 and was amended by the Competition (Amendment) Act, 2007. It follows the philosophy of modern competition laws.
The Act prohibits anti-competitive agreements, abuse of dominant position by enterprises, and regulates combinations, which causes or likely to cause an appreciable adverse effect on competition within India.
By the provisions of the Amendment Act, the Competition Commission of India and the Competition Appellate Tribunal (COMPAT) were established.
The government replaced COMPAT with the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) in 2017.

Competition Commission of India

It is a statutory body responsible for enforcing the objectives of the Competition Act, 2002.
Composition: A Chairperson and 6 Members appointed by the Central Government.
Objectives:

To eliminate practices having adverse effects on competition.
Promote and sustain competition.
Protect the interests of consumers.
Ensure freedom of trade in the markets of India.

The Commission is also required to give an opinion on competition issues on a reference received from a statutory authority established under any law and to undertake competition advocacy, create public awareness and impart training on competition issues.

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