Daily Current Affairs 2 July 2020 | UPSC Current Affairs 2020

Current Affairs Of Today Are

1) PM GARIB KALYAN ANNA YOJANA EXTENDED 

India enters into the Unlock 2 phase from 1st July. 

Important Announcements  

• Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Anna Yojana to be extended till the end of November 
• Over 80 cr people to get free food grain till Diwali and  Chhath pooja. 
• Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, 20 crore accounts have received 31000 crores in their Jan Dhan Accounts. 
• PM urged for Vocal for Local 
• One Nation One Ration Card will be implemented for the whole country. 

Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana 

• Announced as part of the first relief package during the COVID-19  pandemic. 
• Was announced for 3 months and was to end on June 30. 
• The scheme covers 80 crore ration cardholders. 
• Each household is provided 5 kg of foodgrains (rice or wheat) and 1 kg of pulses (only channa ) free of cost. 

Objective 

• No poor shall suffer from non-availability of food grains 
• 80 crore individuals, i.e, roughly two-thirds of India's population would be covered under this scheme. 

Source: The Hindu

2) Food Processing Ministry to extend Operation Greens from TOP  (Tomato-Onion-Potato) crops to all Perishable Fruits & Vegetables  (TOP to Total) 

• Operation Greens Scheme to go TOP to Total
• Implemented by - Ministry of Food Processing Industries 
• Has been extended from tomato, onion, and potato (TOP) crops to all Perishable Fruits & Vegetables 

Objective

• To protect the growers of fruits and vegetables from making distress sale due to lockdown and reduce the post-harvest losses. 

Benefits offered - 

• Ministry will provide subsidy @ 50 % of the cost for two components - 
• Transportation of crops from surplus production cluster to consumption center; and/or 
• The hiring of appropriate storage facilities for eligible crops. 

What is Operation Green?

• Operation Greens is a project approved by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries
• Target -To stabilize the supply of tomato, onion, and potato crops TOP crops in India, as well as to ensure their availability around the country, year-round without price volatility.  
• It was first introduced in the 2018-2019 Union the budget of India. 

Source: MOFPI

3) Helicopter Service for Locust control flagged off

• Bell 206-B3 Helicopter was flagged off with spray equipment or Air Force Station in Rajasthan's Barmer from the helipad facility in Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddh Nagar. 
• Flagged off by- Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar 
• The Helicopter will be deployed for locust control in the desert areas of Rajasthan. 
• Capacity to carry 250 liters of pesticide. 

Why Helicopter Operation was launched? 

• United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization FAO has warned last week that the Desert Locusts may breed in the semi-arid/desert regions of Rajasthan as the monsoon rains will make it suitable for them to breed. 

Source: Financial Express

4) World's Largest Plasma Therapy Trial under Project 'Platina' launched by Maharashtra 

• The world's largest Convalescent Plasma Therapy Trial project was launch on 29th June 2020 by the Maharashtra State Government. 
• Name of the project - Platina. 
• Launched by - CM of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray. 
• Indian Council of Medical Research has given the approval to conduct plasma therapy in COVID-19 positive patients admitted in the 21 COVID-19 hospitals of the Maharashtra State Government. 
• Plasma Therapy has shown encouraging results in patients across the world. 

Source: The Hindu

5) Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs Launches Web portal for Street Vendors loan scheme 'PMSVANidhi' 

• Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs Launches Web portal for Street Vendors loan scheme 'PMSVANidhi' 
• Web portal - pmsyanidhi.mohua,gov.in/ 
• Developed by - SIDBI (Small Industries Development Bank of India) 
• Aim - To provide end-to-end solutions for scheme management. 
• The portal will start accepting applications for loan receipt from street vendors from July 2,2020 

About PMSVANidhi scheme 

• A loan scheme to provide a working capital loan of up to Rs. 10,000 to street vendors to be repaid within one year. 

Source: The Hindu

6) Dharmendra Pradhan Inaugurates Asia's First Continuous Rebar Production Facility in Punjab  

• Asia's first Continuous Rebar Production Facility was launched, 
• Location - Gobindgarh, Punjab 
• The facility Will produce the new Continuously Galvanized Rebar (CGR). 
• The annual capacity is over 30,000 tonnes. 
• Under the brand "JYOTI", The facility will manufacture ZNCOAT  TEMPCORE TMT bars. 
• Jyoti is the first of its kind in Asia to apply CGR technology with enhanced life and low maintenance cost. 

What is Continuously Galvanized Rebar (CGR)? 

• A Continuously Galvanized Rebar are value-added steel bars with standard quality of zinc coating to extend the life expectancy of the steel while reducing the overall maintenance cost.

 Source: AIR

7) Government declares entire Nagaland 'disturbed  area' for 6 more months 

• The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act gives the armed forces sweeping powers to search and arrest, and to open fire if they deem it necessary for "the maintenance of public order" 
• The Centre on Tuesday declared the entire Nagaland as "disturbed area" for a further period of six months till December-end. 
• In a notification, the Home Ministry said the central government thinks that the area comprising the whole Nagaland is in such a disturbed and dangerous condition that the use of armed forces in aid of the civil power is necessary. 
• Now, therefore, in the exercise of the powers conferred by  Section 3 of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act,  1958 (No.28 of 1958). 
• The central government hereby declares that whole of the said State to be a 'disturbed area' for six months with effect from 30th June 2020 for the purpose of that Act. 
• Nagaland has been under the coverage of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) for almost six decades and it was not withdrawn even after a framework agreement was signed on August 3, 2015, by Naga insurgent group National Socialist Council of Nagaland. 

Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) 

• Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), 1958 is an act of the Parliament of India that grant special powers to the Indian Armed Forces the power to maintain public order in "disturbed areas". 
• According to The Disturbed Areas (Special Courts) Act, 1976 once declared 'disturbed', the area has to maintain the status quo for a minimum of 3 months. 
• One such Act passed on Il September 1958 applied to the Naga Hills, then part of Assam. 
• In the following decades it spread, one by one, to the other Seven Sister States in India's northeast (at present, it is in force in the States of Assam, Nagaland, Manipur (excluding Imphal Municipal Council Area), Changlang, Longding and Tirap districts of Arunachal Pradesh, and areas falling within the jurisdiction of the eight police stations of districts in Arunachal Pradesh bordering the State of Assam). 
• Another one passed in 1983 and applicable to Punjab Chandigarh was withdrawn in 1997, roughly 14 years and after it came to force. 
• An Act passed in 1990 was applied to Jammu and Kashmir and has been in force since. 

Source: The Hindu

8) What is the Balochistan Liberation Army, the group being blamed for the attack on Karachi Stock Exchange

• The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) has reportedly claimed responsibility for Monday's audacious suicide attack on the Karachi Stock Exchange that killed at least seven people. 
• According to a message on Twitter purportedly posted by the BLA, the group claimed that the four men Tasleem Baloch, Salman Hammal, Shehzad Baloch, and Siraj Kungur — who carried out the attack were part of the so-called "Majeed brigade". 

Baloch militant organisation 

• The BLA is a Baloch militant organization which seeks greater autonomy or independence for Balochistan and has been fighting against the Pakistani government to achieve its goals. It was formed in 2000 and aims to create a state of 'Greater Balochistan'. 
• The group grew out of a larger nationalist Balochistan movement that dates back to the time just after the formation of Pakistan in 1947. 

Background

• Over the decades, the Pakistani army has ruthlessly crushed the aspirations of the people of this mineral-rich province and committed massive human rights violations, including forced disappearance, targeted killings, and implemented a policy of ethnic domination by the Punjabi culture and language in the area. 
• Some Pakistani officials and ministers have — without any basis, of course — pointed a finger at "Indian agencies" for the attack, conveniently forgetting that it is Pakistan and its notorious ISI that have been sheltering, training, and sponsoring terrorism for several decades in South Asia and beyond. 
• In May, the BLA had killed six Pakistan troops, including an officer, Major Nadeem Abbas Bhatti, in a landmine blast in Balochistan.
• Major Bhatti was targeted for being "directly involved in the formation and leading of so-called death squads of criminal gangs operated by the army", according to a BLA spokesperson. 
• The US classified the BLA as "Specially Designated Global Terrorists" a year ago. The militant group has also been accused of carrying out an attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi in November 2018, a suicide attack on Chinese engineers in August 2018, and an attack on a hotel in Gwadar in May 2019. 

Source: The Hindu

9) India Manufacturing PMI Jumps In June 

• A gauge of India's manufacturing sector jumped in June, as economic activity resumed after the nation eased curbs introduced to slow the spread of the Covid-19 virus. 
• The India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index, compiled by IHS Markit, stood at 47.2 in June compared with 30.8 in May on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to a media statement.  
• Also, new business dropped further during the month. 
• Demand from international markets, too, continued to fall, though the pace of contraction was the slowest since the implementation of the nationwide lockdown in March. Producers recorded a reduction in employment as demand remained weak. "Despite easing from May's survey record, the rate of workforce contraction remained among the quickest since data collection began in March 2005," the statement said. 

What is PMI?

• The Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) is an index of the prevailing direction of economic trends in the manufacturing and service sectors. 
• It consists of a diffusion index that summarizes whether market conditions, as viewed by purchasing managers, are expanding, staying the same, or contracting. 
• The purpose of the PMI is to provide information about current and future business conditions to company decision-makers, analysts, and investors.  
• A figure above 50 denotes expansion in business activity. 
• Anything below 50 denotes contraction. 
• Higher the difference from this mid-point greater the expansion or contraction. 
• The rate of expansion can also be judged by comparing the PMI with that of the previous month's data. 
• If the figure is higher than the previous month's then the economy is expanding at a faster rate. 
• If it is lower than the previous month then it is growing at a lower rate. 
• The PMI is usually released at the start of the month, much before most of the official data on industrial output, manufacturing and GDP growth becomes available. 
• It is, therefore, considered a good leading indicator of economic activity. 
• Economists consider the manufacturing growth measured by the PMI as a good indicator of industrial output, for which official statistics are released later. 
• Central banks of many countries also use the index to help make decisions on interest rates. 
• The PMI also gives an indication of corporate earnings and is closely watched by investors as well as the bond markets. A good reading enhances the attractiveness of an economy vis-a-vis another competing economy 

Source: Mint

10) Railways begin the process to invite Pvt players in passenger train operations 

• The Railways on Wednesday formally kick-started its plans to allow private entities to operate passenger trains on its network by inviting requests for qualifications (RFQ) for participation on 109 pairs of routes through 151 modern trains, the national transporter said. 
• The project would entail a private sector investment of about Rs 30,000 crore, the national transporter said. 
• This is the first initiative for private investment for running passenger trains on the Indian Railways network. 
• It began last year with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) introducing the Lucknow- Delhi Tejas Express." The objective of this initiative is to introduce modern technology rolling stock with reduced maintenance, reduced transit time, boost job creation, provide enhanced safety, provide world-class travel experience to passengers," the Railways said. 
• The 109 origin-destination routes have been formed into 12 clusters across the Indian Railway network. Each train shall have a minimum of 16 coaches, it said. 
• The Railways also said that majority of these modern trains are to be manufactured in India as? Make in India' and the private entity shall be responsible for financing, procuring, operating, and maintaining the trains. 

Indian Railways: Transformative recommendations of  Bibek Debroy Committee report 

• The Bibek Debroy Committee in its interim report on the Indian Railways recommends sweeping changes in the way the ailing organization runs. 
• The Railway Board had constituted a  Committee for the restructuring of Railway  Ministry and Railway Board under the Chair of Mr. Bibek Debroy. The committee  submitted its report in June 2015 
• From encouraging private players to run trains to eliminating the Railway Budget altogether, the report dwells on all that ails Indian Railways and recommends steps to decentralize its operations for effective management. 
• The report recommends Refinements in the way Indian Railways prepares and maintains accounts and costs its businesses, activities, and services. 
• The financial statements of Indian Railways need to be redrawn, consistent with principles and norms nationally and internationally accepted. 
• Debroy feels that a lot of tasks carried out by the Indian Railways are not at the core of the prime business of rail transportation. 
• These activities include running hospitals and schools, catering, real estate development, including housing, construction, and maintenance of infrastructure. 
• Manufacturing locomotives, coaches, wagons, and their parts, etc. According to Debroy, wagons are already produced by the private sector. Coaches and locomotives could follow. 
• Encouraging private entry: Private entry into running both freight and passenger trains in competition with Indian railways should be allowed and private participation in various Railway infrastructure services and non-core activities like production and construction, should be encouraged by the Ministry of Railways. 

Source: The Hindu

11) Asteroid's moon gets a name before NASA's DART mission crashes into it in 2022  

• The American space agency NASA is planning to demonstrate its ability to deflect an asteroid — a strategy to ensure that Earth has the technological capability to defend itself from a potentially deadly asteroid collision in the uncertain future. 
• The target of the mission will be the moon orbiting the near-Earth asteroid Didymos, which was recently given the name 'Dimorphos'. 
• The mission will be both, the first full-scale demonstration of planetary defense technology, and a first of its kind mission for NASA. 
• Dimorphos is a near-Earth object — a class of asteroids and comets whose orbits place them within 30 million miles of Earth. This is an important classification of space rocks, and help the US government determine which asteroid threats to take seriously. 

NASA's DART will crash into Dimorphos 

• In the second half of 2022, the near-Earth asteroid Didymos and its moon Dimorphos will be relatively close (within 1.1 crore km) of Earth. 
• NASA has chosen this range to fire up its DART mission. DART will deliberately collide with Dimorphos to change the asteroid's motion in space, according to NASA. 
• The advantage of hitting a target while it is still very, very far away is that even the slightest deflection from its original path will take the asteroid far enough away from Earth as it closes in distance. 
• A companion CubeSat called LICIACube, provided by the Italian Space Agency, will accompany DART and record the collision. 
• "Astronomers will be able to compare observations from Earth-based telescopes before and after DART's kinetic impact to determine how much the orbital period of Dimorphos changed," Tom Statler, program scientist of the DART mission at NASA, said in a statement. 

Source: FirstPost

12) Deforestation, ecosystem destruction increases the risk of pandemics 

• Environmental degradation, including deforestation, land-use change, and agricultural intensification, may make pandemics more likely and less manageable, according to a study. 
• The study, published in the journal Environmental Science and Policy, presents the hypothesis that disease risks are "ultimately interlinked" with biodiversity and natural processes such as the water cycle. 
• The researchers at the University of the West of England and the University of Exeter in the UK used a framework designed to analyze and communicate complex relationships between society and the environment. 
• They conclude that maintaining intact and fully functioning ecosystems and their associated environmental and health benefits is key to preventing the emergence of new pandemics. 
• The loss of these benefits through ecosystem degradation -- including deforestation, land-use change, and agricultural intensification -- further compounds the problem, according to the researchers. 
• This happens by undermining water and other resources essential for reducing disease transmission and mitigating the impact of emerging infectious diseases, they said. 
• Ecosystems naturally restrain the transfer of diseases from animals to humans, but this service declines as ecosystems become degraded. 
• At the same time, ecosystem degradation undermines water security, limiting the availability of adequate water for good hand hygiene, sanitation, and disease treatment. 
• The disease risk cannot be dissociated from ecosystem conservation and natural resource security. 

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation-REDD 

• REDD was first proposed by the Coalition for Rainforest Nations (CfRN) at the 11th Conference of Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC at Montreal in 2005. It was then termed as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries. At the 13th COP at Bali in 2007, the Bali Action Plan was adopted which included the REDD+ initiative. 
• Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+) was first negotiated under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2005, with the objective of mitigating climate change through reducing net emissions of greenhouse gases through enhanced forest management in developing countries. 
• Most of the key REDD+ decisions were completed by 2013, with the final pieces of the rulebook finished in 2015. the inclusion of reducing emissions from land-use change is considered essential to achieve the objectives of the UNFCCC. 
• Coalition for Rainforest Nations (CfRN) created REDD+ mechanisms that encouraged positive incentives for the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases stemming from tropical deforestation and forest degradation as a climate change mitigation measure.  

Coalition for Rainforest Nations-CfRN 

• The Coalition for Rainforest Nations (CfRN) is an intergovernmental organization established by forested tropical countries to collaboratively reconcile forest stewardship with economic development. 
• The Rainforest Coalition aims to bring together both developing and industrialized nations for the purpose of creating community-driven, environmentally sustainable growth. CfRN 
• The primary strategy of the Coalition is to bring about the reform of international frameworks, both legal and economic, to correct market failures that result in unsustainable outcomes, and to create economic incentives for the preservation of areas of high biodiversity d endemism worldwide. 
• The Coalition has been instrumental in the establishment's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility of the World Bank and the United Nations ' UN-REDD program. 

Source: Hindustan Times