Daily Current Affairs 11 January 2022

 Current Affairs Of Today Are

1) Second round of the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES)

• Nine sectors that account for about 85% of total employment in establishments with 10 or more workers hired two lakh more people in July­September 2021 compared to April-­June 2021, according to the second round of the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) released by the Union Labour and Employment Ministry
• The estimated total employment in the nine selected sectors from the second round of QES ( July­September, 2021) came out as 3.10 crore approximately, which is 2 lakh higher than the estimated employment (3.08 crore) from the first round of QES (April 1, 2021)
• The report, released by Union Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav, covers manufacturing, construction, trade, transport, education, health, accommodation and restaurants, IT/BPOs, and financial services sectors.
• The other three surveys launched by the Ministry last year were progressing well.  The report of the survey on migrant labor should be out by July or August.
• The survey on domestic workers was in progress and quarterly reports under the area­based employment\ survey would be released soon
• The QES showed that employment had increased even during the pandemic.
• Meanwhile, the second QES report that covered 11,503 establishments said nearly 90% of the establishments had less than 100 workers, while 30% of the IT/BPO establishments had at least 100 workers.
• The overall percentage of female workers stood at 32.1%, higher than 29.3% reported during the first round of QES. 
• Regular workers constitute 87% of the estimated workforce in the nine selected sectors, with only 2% being casual workers. 
• However, in the construction sector, 20% of the workers were contractual and 6.4% were casual workers
• It also said 5.6% of the total establishments had reported vacancies, a total of 4.3 lakh. While most of the vacancies (65.8%) were for unspecified reasons, 23% were due to resignation, and 11.7% were due to the retirement of employees.

Source: The Hindu

2) Braille maps

• Visually challenged students from all over the country will have access soon to Braille Maps designed and developed using Digital Embossing Technology, enabling them for ease of use, user-friendly, better feeling, and durable in terms of quality.
• Digital embossing technology is a technology that eliminates the need for printing plates, molds, chemicals, and solvents, emitting no pollutants or waste and reducing overall energy usage. This innovative technology has been introduced, designed, and implemented first time in India by National Atlas & Thematic Mapping Organisation (NATMO) functioning as the Attached Office of the Department of Science & Technology.
• The maps produced using this technology are not only useful for high-speed production of the maps but can also produce Braille Maps that can be used by more people for years together. It has been experienced that the maps produced with earlier technology have lost their readability and feeling experience within a very short period. In this regard, it is also to mention that feedback from experts and students of the Braille community has encouraged and motivated us to prepare the low-cost state-of-art product in terms of reduction of volume of the atlas, enhancement of the readability features, ease of carrying the maps and atlas, etc.
• NATMO started the journey in the year 1997, however, it has become popularized with the publication of Braille Atlas for Visually Impaired (India), edition 2017 in English Braille Script which received a huge response from the visually impaired community. It was developed with an indigenous manual embossing method.
• Primarily thematic maps are prepared on digital platforms using GIS technology. The hard copy products are then laminated with soft sheets. The soft laminated maps are placed onto the embossing digital devices with perfect registration for spot UV coating. Soft copy maps are masked in the area of interest for embossing. AI technology is used for 3D embossing to get the final Braille Maps. Complete map sets are bound spirally for the easy use of visually impaired students.

Source: PIB

3) 25th National Youth Festival

• Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 25th National Youth Festival on 12th January 2022 in Puducherry The day, being the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, is observed as National Youth Day.
• The Festival aims to shape the minds of India's youth and transform them into a united force for nation-building. It is one of the biggest exercises in social cohesion and intellectual & cultural integration. It aims to bring diverse cultures of India and integrate them into a united thread of 'Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat'.
• This year, given the emerging Covid situation, the Festival has been scheduled to be held virtually from 12 - 13 January 2022. The inauguration will be followed by the National Youth Summit wherein there will be panel discussions on four identified themes. In line with the youth-led development and motivating youngsters to solve the emerging issues and challenges, the themes will include environment, climate, and SDG-led growth; tech, entrepreneurship, and innovation; indigenous and ancient wisdom; and national character, nation-building, and homegrown.  Recorded video capsules of Puducherry, Auroville, Immersive City Experience, indigenous sports games & folk dances, etc. will be shown to the participants during the Festival. There will also be open discussions with Olympians & Paralympians followed by live performances in the evening. A virtual Yoga session will be organized in the morning.
• Prime Minister will also inaugurate a Technology Centre of the MSME Ministry, established at Puducherry with an investment of about Rs. 122 crore. With a focus on the Electronic System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM) Sector, this Technology Centre will be equipped with the latest technology. It will contribute towards skilling youth and will be able to train around 6400 trainees per year.

Source: PIB

4) Jallikattu

• Despite the surge in COVID­19 cases, the Tamil Nadu government earlier with a steep rise in the daily cases of COVID-19, the district administration in Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Ranipet, and Tirupattur, have banned the conduct of Jallikattu events, ahead of Pongal festival, as part of safety measures.

What is Jallikattu?

• The bull-taming sport is popular in Madurai, Tiruchirappalli, Theni, Pudukkottai, and Dindigul districts known as the Jallikattu belt.
• Jallikattu is celebrated in the second week of January, during the Tamil harvest festival, Pongal.
• A tradition over 2,000 years old, Jallikattu is a competitive sport as well as an event to honor bull owners who rear them for mating.
• It is a violent sport in which contestants try to tame a bull for a prize; if they fail, the bull owner wins the prize.

Why is Jallikattu important in Tamil culture?

• Jallikattu is considered a traditional way for the peasant community to preserve their pure-breed native bulls.
• At a time when cattle breeding is often an artificial process, conservationists and peasants argue that Jallikattu is a way to protect these male animals which are otherwise used only for meat if not for plowing.

Why has Jallikattu been the subject of legal battles?

• Jallikattu first came under legal scrutiny in 2007 when the Animal Welfare Board of India and the animal rights group PETA moved petitions in the Supreme Court against Jallikattu as well as bullock cart races.
• The Tamil Nadu government, however, worked its way out of the ban by passing a law in 2009, which was signed by the Governor.
• In 2011, the UPA regime at the Centre added bulls to the list of animals whose training and exhibition are prohibited.
• In May 2014, days before the BJP was elected to power, the Supreme Court banned the bull-taming sport, ruling on a petition that cited the 2011 notification.

So, is it legal or banned now?

• In January 2017, massive protests erupted across Tamil Nadu against the ban, with Chennai city witnessing a 15-day-long Jallikattu uprising.
• The same year, the Tamil Nadu government released an ordinance amending the central Act and allowing Jallikattu in the state; this was later ratified by the President.
• The amendment was subsequently approved by the President of India, effectively overturning the Supreme Court ban and allowing the sport to be played without any legal hurdle.
• PETA challenged the state move, arguing it was unconstitutional (Article 29(1)).
• In 2018, the Supreme Court referred the Jallikattu case to a Constitution Bench, where it is pending now.

Source: The Hindu

5) Citizenship (Amendment) Act Rules

• The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has once again missed the deadline to notify the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 rules, the third extended deadline after the Act was passed.
• January 9 was the last day of an extension it sought from the two parliamentary committees in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha to frame the rules.
• Without rules, the Act cannot be implemented.
• The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) was passed by Parliament on December 11, 2019 and the Act was notified within 24 hours on December 12. In January 2020, the Ministry notified that the Act will come into force from January 10, 2020.
• It seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955.
• The Citizenship Act,1955 provides various ways in which citizenship may be acquired.
• It provides for citizenship by birth, descent, registration, naturalisation and by incorporation of the territory into India.
• The objective of the CAA is to grant Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities — Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian — from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
• Those from these communities who had come to India till December 31, 2014, facing religious persecution in their respective countries, will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship.
• The Act provides that the central government may cancel the registration of OCIs on certain grounds.
• The Act does not apply to tribal areas of Tripura, Mizoram, Assam and Meghalaya because of being included in the 6th Schedule of the Constitution.
• Also areas that fall under the Inner Limit notified under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873, will also be outside the Act’s purview.
• It violates the basic tenets of the Constitution. Illegal immigrants are distinguished on the basis of religion.
• It is perceived to be a demographic threat to indigenous communities.
• It makes illegal migrants eligible for citizenship on the basis of religion. This may violate Article 14 of the Constitution which guarantees the right to equality.
• It attempts to naturalise the citizenship of illegal immigrants in the region.
• It allows cancellation of OCI registration for violation of any law. This is a wide ground that may cover a range of violations, including minor offences.

Source: The Hindu

6) Mekedatu issue

• Tamil Nadu grabs every opportunity to make its position clear on the Mekedatu dam issue. The state government has been opposing the project to be constructed near its border with neighbouring Karnataka and has even knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court to guard their rights over the Cauvery waters.
• Karnataka, however, continues to dig in its heels claiming that the project will help them to solve Bengaluru’s water woes.
• The Opposition Congress party in Karnataka too is building up momentum to drum up support for the construction of the reservoir Mekedatu in Ramanagara district by embarking on a 90-km-long padayatra.
• Tamil Nadu has protested against Karnataka’s move to build a reservoir on river Cauvery at Mekedatu. It is “not acceptable” to the state that Karnataka wants to utilise 4.75 tmc as drinking water from a reservoir with a storage capacity of 67tmc ft.
• However, the Karnataka Government has asserted that there is no “compromise” on the Mekedatu project and the state wants to undertake the project.
• Karnataka is supposed to release Cauvery water from three sources:
• One being the water flowing in the areas downstream River Kabini, catchment areas of Krishnarajasagar reservoir, the sub-basins of Shimsha, Arkavathi, and Suvarnavathi rivers, and the water from minor rivers.
• Secondly, water is released from Kabini dam.
• The third source is water that is released from Krishnarajasagar dam.
• In the case of the second and third sources, which are under the control of Karnataka, water is released to TN only after storing sufficient water for their use.
• Since there is no dam in the first source, water from these areas have been freely flowing into TN without a hitch.
• But now, TN state government felt that Karnataka was “conspiring” to block this source as well through the Mekedatu dam.
• Mekedatu zone represented the last free point from where Cauvery water flowed unrestricted into the downstream state of TN from the upstream Karnataka.
• The Centre has said the project required the approval of the Cauvery Water Management Authority’s (CWMA).
• The Detail Project Report (DPR) sent by Karnataka was tabled in the CWMA several times for approval, but the discussion on this issue could not take place due to a lack of consensus among party states Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
• Also, as per the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal‘s final award, which was modified by the Supreme Court, acceptance of CWMA would be a prerequisite for consideration of the DPR by the Jal Shakti Ministry.
• Since the project was proposed across an inter-state river, it required approval of lower riparian state(s) as per the interstate water dispute act.

About the Project:

• Mekedatu is a multipurpose (drinking and power) project.
• It involves building a balancing reservoir, near Kanakapura in Ramanagara district in Karnataka.
• The project once completed is aimed at ensuring drinking water to Bengaluru and neighboring areas (4.75 TMC) and also can generate 400 MW power.
• The estimated cost of the project is Rs 9,000 crore.

Why Tamil Nadu is against this project?

• It says, the CWDT and the SC have found that the existing storage facilities available in the Cauvery basin were adequate for storing and distributing water so Karnataka’s proposal is ex-facie (on the face of it) untenable and should be rejected outright.
• It has also held that the reservoir is not just for drinking water alone, but to increase the extent of irrigation, which is in clear violation of the Cauvery Water Disputes Award.

Award by the tribunal and the Supreme Court:

• The tribunal was set up in 1990 and made its final award in 2007, granting 419 tmcft of water to Tamil Nadu, 270 tmcft to Karnataka, 30 tmcft to Kerala and 7 tmcft to Puducherry. The tribunal ordered that in rain-scarcity years, the allocation for all would stand reduced.
• However, both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka expressed unhappiness over the allocation and there were protests and violence in both states over water-sharing. That saw the Supreme Court take up the matter and, in a 2018 judgment, it apportioned 14.75 tmcft from Tamil Nadu’s earlier share to Karnataka.
• The new allocation thus stood at 404.25 tmcft for Tamil Nadu while Karnataka’s share went up to 284.75 tmcft. The share for Kerala and Puducherry remained unchanged.

Source: The Hindu

7) SKOCH Award

• The project named Mission Parvarish to combat malnourishment among children aged six months to five years has earned the SKOCH Award for southern Assam’s Cachar district.
• The programme was launched during the “nutrition month” in 2020.
• The programme entailed a coordinated socio-economic approach for malnourished children of families below the poverty line.
• Government agencies, local civic bodies, NGOs and businessmen had come together to provide nutritional support to such children.
• Instituted in 2003, SKOCH Award recognises people, projects and institutions that go the extra mile to make India a better nation.
• The Award is presented by the ‘Skoch Group’ for best efforts in digital, financial and social inclusion.
• It is given in the areas of digital, financial and social inclusion; governance; inclusive growth; excellence in technology and applications; change management; corporate leadership; corporate governance; citizen service delivery; capacity building; empowerment and other such softer issues.

8) Reciprocal Access Agreement

• Recently, Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) was signed between Australia and Japan to bolster security ties against the backdrop of rising Chinese military and economic might.
• The Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA), Japan’s first with any country, will allow the Australian and Japanese militaries to work seamlessly with each other on defence and humanitarian operations.