Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

What is in news : The Karnataka High Court directed the state government to constitute the Civil Services Board (CSB) within two months as per the directions of the Supreme Court in the T S R Subramanian case in 2013.

What is TSR Subramanian case: In this case Bureaucrats challenged the process of vocal orders of government, and power of transfer of officials by government

What did court say : Directed the centre and state governments to set up independent Civil Servants Boards (CSBs) within the next three months to deal with the transfers and promotion of and enquiries or disciplinary actions against bureaucrats.

What is in news : Recently, central legislature meet for the monsoon session

Sessions of Parliament

• Who summons the meet - President ( On advice of Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs)
• Which article gives President the power to summon - Article 85
• Time gap between sessions- not more than 6 months
• Sessions in India
  • India does not have a fixed parliamentary calendar. By convention (i.e. not provided by the Constitution), Parliament meets for three sessions in a year.
  • The longest, Budget Session (1st session), starts towards the end of January, and concludes by the end of April or first week of May. The session has a recess so that Parliamentary Committees can discuss the budgetary proposals.
  • The second session is the three-week Monsoon Session, which usually begins in July and finishes in August.
  • Winter Session (3rd session), is held from November to December.

Other related terms :

• Adjournment: Adjournment terminates the sitting of the House which meets again at the time appointed for the next sitting. The postponement may be for a specified time such as hours, days or weeks. If the meeting is terminated without any definite time/ date fixed for the next meeting, it is called Adjournment sine die.
• Prorogation: Prorogation is the end of a session. A prorogation puts an end to a session. The time between the Prorogation and reassembly is called Recess. Prorogation is the end of session and not the dissolution of the house (in case of Lok Sabha, as Rajya Sabha does not dissolve).
• Quorum: Quorum refers to the minimum number of the members required to be present for conducting a meeting of the house. The Constitution has fixed one-tenth strength as quorum for both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Thus, to conduct a sitting of Lok Sabha, there should be at least 55 members present while to conduct a sitting of Rajya Sabha, there should be at least 25 members present.

What : Guarantees freedom to form association or unions or cooperative societies subject to certain restrictions

Info : This article was inserted through 97th constitutional amendment 2011

What is in news : The Supreme Court  upheld a 2013 judgment of the Gujarat High Court which struck down the provisions of the Constitution(97th Amendment) Act 2011 to the extent it introduced Part IX B in the Constitution to deal with cooperative societies.

What did high court say :

• Part IXB introduced several conditions restricting the scope of state legislatures on aspects related to cooperative societies.
• Parliament cannot enact laws or issue notification with regard to cooperative societies as it is a state subject.

Additional info :

• Article 43 B says that States shall endeavour to promote voluntary formation, autonomous functioning, democratic control and professional management of cooperative societies.
• The Part IX B of the Constitution inserted by the 97th amendment deals with incorporation, terms of members of the board and its office bearers and effective management of cooperative societies.

SOCIAL ISSUES

What is in news : Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways undertook third party evaluation of the schemes / funded proejcts which included the pillar of Coastal Community Development projects under Saagarmala scheme.

About SAAGARMALA

• Implemented by : Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways
• Aim : Develop a string of ports around India’s coast
• Objective : Port-led development along India’s 7500 km long coastline
• Implementation :
  • State governments would set up State Sagarmala committees, headed by the chief minister or the minister in charge of ports
  • At the central level, a Sagarmala Development Company (SDC) will be setup to provide equity support to assist various special purpose vehicles (SPVs) setup for various projects.
• Pillars of development :
  • Appropriate policy and institutional interventions and providing for an institutional framework for ensuring inter-agency and ministries/departments/states’ collaboration for integrated development.
  • Port Infrastructure Enhancement, including modernization and setting up of new ports.
  • Efficient Evacuation to and from hinterland.

Issues :

• No clarity on or a timeline for  resumption of Schools
• Lack of connectivity as well as a lack of access to e-devices for online classes.Children of the poor, studying in government schools, have been  disadvantaged
• Percentage of teachers in the country capable of handling digital platforms for pedagogic purposes is very small.

Some reports on Learning losses :

• Large multi-State study in the United States records that the pandemic “has also prompted some students to leave the public school system altogether”.
• According to a study by the Azim Premji Foundation, in January 2021, covering more than 16,000 children in the age group six to 11 years, and across five States, 92% of children on average have lost at least one specific language ability from the previous year across all classes; the figure is 82% when it comes to mathematical ability

Way forward from international experiences:

• Kenya - Repeat the entire academic year
• Philippines - Extended time for classes on resumption, both in duration of school hours and more calendar days of interaction
• Ontario - Reduce and synthesize the curriculum so that students are able to focus on a few subjects and learn them well
• United Kingdom - National Tutoring Programme, which aims for one on one tutoring
• Accelerated education programmes or “bridge courses”, which condense several months (or even years of schooling) into a few weeks or months

What India needs :

• National rejuvenation programme for elementary education
• Vast body of volunteers engaging in small groups with children from the most disadvantaged sections, working in tandem with schools, which will need to focus on safety measures and average performance

ECONOMY

What is in news : Government of India has brought to the notice of Parliament a bad bank has been set up with regulations

What is a bad bank : A bad bank is technically an asset reconstruction company that buys bad loans(NPAs) from the commercial banks at a discount and tries to recover the money from the defaulter by providing a systematic solution over a period of time.

What is a need for a bad bank :

• Absorb NPA & ease the provisioning requirement by the banks as per basel norms
• Allows the segregation of a bank’s good assets from its bad assets.
• Allows investors to assess its financial health with greater clarity
• Assets having future demand-supply issues face liquidation under the IBC, which is resolved by a bad bank

What may be the challenges :

• Mobilising Capital in a pandemic hit economy
• Adequate governance reforms
• The price at which bad assets are transferred from commercial banks to the bad bank will not be market-determined and price discovery will not happen.
• Banks may continue reckless lending practices, without any commitment to reduce NPAs

What is in news : A global collaborative investigative project has discovered Israeli spyware Pegasus was used to target thousands of people across the world.

What is Pegasus :

• Malicious software or malware classified as a spyware
• Designed to gain access to devices, without the knowledge of users, and gather personal information and relay it back to whoever it is that is using the software to spy.
• Earliest version was captured by researchers in 2016, infected phones through what is called spear-phishing – text messages or emails that trick a target into clicking on a malicious link.

MAHITI FOR MAINS

Steps taken by India to improve Cyber Security

• Cyber Surakshit Bharat Initiative: It was launched in 2018 with an aim to spread awareness about cybercrime and building capacity for safety measures for Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and frontline IT staff across all government departments.
• National Cyber security Coordination Centre (NCCC): In 2017, the NCCC was developed to scan internet traffic and communication metadata (which are little snippets of information hidden inside each communication) coming into the country to detect real-time cyber threats.
• Cyber Swachhta Kendra: In 2017, this platform was introduced for internet users to clean their computers and devices by wiping out viruses and malware.
• Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C): I4C was recently inaugurated by the government.
• National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal has also been launched pan India.
• Computer Emergency Response Team - India (CERT-IN): It is the nodal agency which deals with cybersecurity threats like hacking and phishing.
• Legislation:
  • Information Technology Act, 2000.
  • Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019

REPORTS & INDICES

By : Oxafam

Highlights :

• Sharp inequalities exist across different caste, religious, class and gender categories on various health indicators
• Women’s literacy has improved across social groups over the years, SC and ST women lag behind the general category by 18.6% and 27.9% respectively.
• There exists a gap of 55.1% between the top and bottom 20% of the population in 2015-16. Though the female literacy rate among Muslims (64.3%) is lower than all religious groups, inequality has reduced over time.
• As far as sanitation is concerned, 65.7% households have access to improved, non-shared sanitation facilities in the general category while SC households are 28.5% behind them and ST are 39.8% behind them.
• An examination of health interventions too shows disparities.
• The share of institutional deliveries in India has increased from 38.7% in 2005-06 to 78.9% in 2015-16, but inequalities persist, with ST households 15% below the general category, Muslims 12% behind Hindus and a 35% gap between the poorest and richest 20% of the population.

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

What : OPEC countries and its allies

OPEC plus countries include Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, South Sudan and Sudan.

What is in news : OPEC+ has decided to increase overall production by 4,00,000 barrels per day every month till the remaining portion of the group's 10 million barrel per day production cut, announced in April 2020, is completely phased out. The decision also ends a standoff between the UAE and other OPEC+ countries on tying an extension of the supply agreement to increases in production.

Why was the stand-off:

• The initial proposal by OPEC+ countries had tied the gradual increase in production to a six-month extension of the production agreement which was set to expire in April 2022.
• The UAE did not agree to the proposal stating that the reference production levels used to calculate supply quotas for OPEC+ countries did not represent the actual supply capacity of the UAE and that an increase in supply should not be tied to the proposed extension without a revision in reference production levels.

Impact on India :

• The announcement of an increase in production levels coupled with fears of increased mobility restrictions following an increase in Covid-19 cases has led to a pause in the relentless rise of crude oil prices.
• India has already seen a 21.7 percent increase in the price of petrol and diesel since the beginning of the year.

OPEC

• Permanent, intergovernmental organization
• Created at the Baghdad Conference in 1960
• OPEC countries - Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela
• Aims to manage the supply of oil in an effort to set the price of oil in the world market, in order to avoid fluctuations that might affect the economies of both producing and purchasing countries.
• Membership is open to any country that is a substantial exporter of oil and which shares the ideals of the organization.

• Near-Earth Asteroid Scout, or NEA Scout, is a small spacecraft, about the size of a big shoebox. Its main mission is to fly by and collect data from a near-Earth asteroid. It will also be America’s first interplanetary mission using a special solar sail propulsion.It is being launched by NASA
• China has reported the first human infection case with Monkey B virus (BV).The virus, initially isolated in 1932, is an alphaherpesvirus enzootic in macaques of the genus Macaca. B virus is the only identified old-world-monkey herpesvirus that displays severe pathogenicity in humans.
• With a view to turn the spotlight on the logistics sector, the Government of India announced the launch of National Logistics Excellence Awards. The awards will highlight best practices including consolidation, process standardisation, technological upgrade, digital transformations, and sustainable practices.
• The government has decided to set up the ‘Indian Institute of Heritage’ at Noida. Deemed to be University by integrating Institute of Archaeology (Pt. Deendayal Upadhyaya Institute of Archaeology).World-class university that would focus on the conservation and research in India’s rich tangible heritage, while offering research, development and dissemination of knowledge, excellence in the education of its students and activities associated with heritage that contribute to the cultural, scientific and economic life of India.

• According to New Vintage vehicle policy, any vehicle, four- or two-wheeler, which is more than 50 years old from the date of first registration after first sale, including any vehicle imported into India, are termed Vintage vehicles.
• As per new policy, such vehicles cannot be used for commercial purposes or put to regular use.

• Regular swaying in the moon’s orbit
• First documented way back in 1728
• Takes over an 18.6-year period to complete, and continues in a cyclic fashion
• Impacts the gravitational pull of the moon, and therefore, indirectly influences the ebb and flow of tides here on the Earth.