Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

Daily Current Affair - UPSC/KAS Exams - 24th July 2021

What is in news : Recently, the government introduced the Essential Defence Services Bill, 2021 in Lok Sabha.

What are Essential Defence Services :

• Any service in any establishment or undertaking dealing with production of goods or equipment required for defence
• Any establishment of the armed forces or connected with them or defence
• Includes services that, if ceased, would affect the safety of the establishment engaged in such services or its employees
• Government may declare any service as an essential defence service if its cessation would affect the:
  • Production of defence equipment or goods.
  • Operation or maintenance of industrial establishments or units engaged in such production.
  • Repair or maintenance of products connected with defence.

THE BILL:

• Replaces the ordinance issued in June 2021 and prohibits any agitation and strike by anyone engaged in the essential defence services.
• Defines cessation as
  • Mass casual leave.
  • Coordinated refusal of any number of persons to continue to work or accept employment.
  • Refusal to work overtime, where such work is necessary for maintenance of essential defence services.
  • Any other conduct which results in, or is likely to result in, disruption of work in essential defence services.
• May prohibit strikes, lock-outs, and lay-offs in units engaged in essential defence services.
• Employers violating the prohibition order through illegal lock-outs or lay-offs will be punished with up to one year imprisonment or Rs 10,000 fine, or both.

Right to Strikes : Article 19(1) the Constitution of India guarantees the protection of certain freedoms as fundamental rights such as:

• Freedom of speech and expression.
• Assemble peaceably and without arms.
• Form associations or unions.
• Move freely throughout the territory of India.
• Reside and settle in any part of the territory of India.
• Practise any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business.

What is in news : The Reserve Bank of India is likely to soon kick off pilot projects to assess the viability of using digital currency to make wholesale and retail payments to help calibrate its strategy for introducing a full-scale central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Details:

• An official digital currency would reduce the cost of currency management while enabling real-time payments without any inter-bank settlement.
• India’s fairly high currency-to-GDP ratio holds out another benefit of CBDC — to the extent large cash usage can be replaced by CBDC, the cost of printing, transporting and storing paper currency can be substantially reduced.
• The need for inter-bank settlement would disappear as it would be a central bank liability handed over from one person to another.

What is digital currency :

• Payment method which exists only in electronic form and is not tangible
• Can be transferred between entities or users with the help of technology like computers, smartphones and the internet
• E.g. Cryptocurrency

What is it :

• One of the most prominent mangroves species found in all mangrove formations in India.
• Salt-secreting and extraordinarily salt-tolerant mangrove species that grows optimally in 75% seawater and tolerates >250% seawater.
• Among the rare plant species, which can excrete 40% of the salt through the salt glands in the leaves, besides its extraordinary capacity to exclude salt entry to the roots.
• Is also referred to as grey mangrove or white mangrove.

What is in news : Scientists of Department of Biotechnology (DBT)-Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar for the first time have decoded the reference-grade whole genome sequence of a highly salt-tolerant and salt-secreting mangrove species, Avicennia marina.

MAHITI FOR PRELIMS

Mangroves in India

• According to the State of Forest Report 2019, mangrove cover in the country is 4,975 sq km, which is 0.15% of the country’s total geographical area.
• Mangrove cover in the country has increased by 54 sq km (1.10%) as compared to the previous assessment (2017).
• The deltas of the Ganges, Mahanadi, Krishna, Godavari, and the Cauvery rivers contain mangrove forests.
• The backwaters in Kerala have a high density of mangrove forest.
• The Sundarbans in West Bengal is the largest mangrove region in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• It spans from the Hooghly River in West Bengal to the Baleswar River in Bangladesh.
• The Bhitarkanika mangrove system in Odisha is India’s second largest mangrove forest.
• Pichavaram in Tamil Nadu has a vast expanse of water covered with mangrove forests. It is home to many aquatic bird species.
• West Bengal has 42.45% of India’s mangrove cover, followed by Gujarat 23.66% and A&N Islands 12.39%.

What is in news : G20 environment and energy ministers meet recently concluded. India recently upheld its priority for climate protection at the  meet.

Aim :

• Focussed on three main themes
• Promoting circular economies, particularly in the textile and fashion sectors;
• Biodiversity and protection of oceans;
• Promote sustainable development by realigning the financial system.
• Place the ecological transition at the very centre of the political agenda, to reconcile environmental protection with progress and human well-being and promoting science based coordinated global response to pandemics.

President : Italy

G20 MEETS: Annual meeting of leaders from the countries with the largest and fastest-growing economies. Its members account for 85% of the world’s GDP, and two-thirds of its population.

By : United Nation’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific’s (UNESCAP)

Details:

• Conducted every two years
• Includes an assessment of 58 trade facilitation measures which has been covered by the Trade Facilitation Agreement of WTO
• Finds out whether or not the trade facilitation measures have the desired impact and also helps in drawing comparison amongst the countries
• Evaluated 143 economies
• Performance of India:
  • India’s significant score improvement on all 5 key indicators.
  • Transparency is 100% in 2021 (It was 93.33% in 2019)
  • Formalities has been recorded at 95.83% in 2021 (It was 87.5% in 2019)
  • Institutional Arrangement and Cooperation is 88.89% in 2021 (It was 66.67% in 2019)
  • In 2021 Paperless Trade is 96.3% (It was 81.48% in 2019)
  • Cross-Border Paperless Trade in 2021 is 66.67% (In 2019 it was 55.56%)
  • Comparing to the South and South West Asia region (63.12%) and Asia Pacific region (65.85%) India has performed the best.
  • This survey has found that the overall score of India is greater than many OECD countries which include UK, France, Norway, Canada and Finland etc.
  • The survey shows that India’s overall score is better than the European Union’s average score.
  • For the Transparency index India has achieved a 100% score
  • In the Women in trade component India has achieved 66%

• Recently, a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court awarded two policemen life sentences for the custodial death of a murder accused on the basis of the ‘Dying Declaration’ made by the victim prior to his death. Section-32(1) of Indian Evidence Act, 1872, defines dying declaration as a statement written or verbal of relevant facts made by a person, who is dead. It is the statement of a person who had died explaining the circumstances of his death.
• Details of any child orphaned due to COVID-19 can be shared with the government via a web portal and the child will have a claim to benefits under the PM CARES scheme. www.pmcaresforchildren.in is the website through which details can be uploaded.

“Gatekeeper Model” is a system in prison where selected inmates, trained to identify prisoners at risk of suicide, would refer them to treatment or supportive services.