Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

Daily Current Affair - UPSC/KAS Exams - 29th July 2021

What is in news : Study by Department of Water Resources (DOWR), Government of India has shown groundwater is overexploited in Bengaluru Urban district

Details :

• In 36% of the district, coming under city limits, water quality issues abound owing to pollution, apart from poor recharge.
• In the remaining 56%, the overexploitation is owing to the complete dependency on groundwater and unmindful drilling of borewells.
• Apart from the demand and supply gap, urbanisation hindering recharge of ground water, the other issues were leakage of pipes and mining/theft/ pollution of groundwater
• In peripheral areas, the problems were pertaining to the increase and deepening of borewells and drying up of the Arkavathy, the Kumudvathi, and the Hesaraghatta reservoir.

Recommendations to tackle the issue :

• Dual piping for potable and non-potable water
• Reuse of grey water
• Adopting scientific augmentation of groundwater recharge
• Reduction of unaccounted for water to less than 20%, and other measures in line with order of the National Green Tribunal to prevent pollution of waterbodies
• Extending the Cauvery water supply to peripheral areas
• Using grey water for irrigation
• Involving citizens’ groups and local communities in rejuvenation of rivers and waterbodies

What has been done :

• Safeguarding waterbodies and restoring the original drain network by clearing encroachments
• Preventing sewage and effluents from entering the drains and water bodies
• Filling up tanks and lakes with treated water

Way forward :

• Apart from regulating permissions for drilling borewells, the authority should also ensure the borewells are metered
• Every borewell must have a recharge structure

What is in news :  Bengaluru is among the cities that was awarded the title, ‘India’s top 11 cycling pioneers’, by the Centre as part of the India Cycles4Change Challenge.

Recognition : The selected cities will receive ₹1 crore each to scale up their cycling initiatives.

About :

• Launched in June 2020
• Under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
• Aim: To inspire Indian cities to implement quick cycling-friendly interventions in the wake of Covid-19 with the support of their citizens and assistance from experts.
• The Challenge is open to all cities under the Smart Cities Mission, capital cities of States/UTs, and all cities with a population of more than 5 lakh population.
• The India Programme of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) will be the knowledge partner

POLITY & GOVERNANCE

By : Government of Telangana

Details :

• Envisioned as a welfare scheme for empowering Dalit families
• Enable entrepreneurship among dalit families through a direct benefit transfer of Rs 10 lakh per family.
• Once implemented on the ground, going to be the biggest cash transfer scheme in the country.
• Government has decided to start a system of reservation for Dalits in sectors where the government issues licences.
• Beneficiary can choose from a wide range of choices
• Government plans to create a corpus called the Dalit Security Fund permanently to support the beneficiary in the event of any adversities.

SOCIAL ISSUES

Japan ranks among the top in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) which evaluates students on their prowess in core academic subjects. The elements can be incorporated to Indian school system

Points to be noted :

NON-COGNITIVE ELEMENTS

• Emphasis on non-cognitive elements.
• ‘Chi-Toku-Tai’ is the defining features of Japanese schooling.
• Chi, which translates to ‘know’ lay an emphasis on building strong academic abilities.
• Toku, translates to ‘virtue’ and refers to mindfulness, self-discipline, and cooperative abilities.
• Tai, translates to ‘body, and refers to physical and mental well-being.
• Elementary school curriculum was later supplemented with subjects, namely moral education, integrated studies and special activities.
• Together, seen as a ‘zest for life’ approach, this philosophy focuses on holistic ability extending beyond academic prowess to include ‘kansei’ which roughly translates to ‘sensitivity’.
• This approach aims at developing a knowledgeable mind which can appreciate beauty and nature, hold a sense of justice, and respect life and labour.

SHAPING SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

• Moral education includes norms that define socially responsible and considerate behaviour towards everyone including nature. For example, as a summer project, students venture out in nature observing beetles, cicadas, crickets and sketching or noting their characteristics in their ‘insect diary’. Students as young as first graders take turns to clean their classrooms, washrooms, serve school lunches, and water the plants at school.
• As students do various chores, it builds respect for labour and humility at a young age. It trains them to undertake routine jobs in an efficient manner and encourages responsible and mindful behaviour towards the community.

FINDING SOLUTIONS

• Integrated studies encompasses experiential learning and independent thinking where students identify problems in their local communities and think of solutions. For example, children may create a disaster preparedness map based on their own research.
• Seniors from the community are invited to share insights about the community’s history. Activities such as these integrate schools with the community.
• The special activities hour encourages students to consider the school as a “society”. These include activities such as organising events, maintaining the library, etc. After task completion, students are made to reflect on the problems they experienced in the process such as wastage, conflict, etc. and the ways to resolve them. This inculcates the practise of ‘kaizen’ — the Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement.
• Finally, another notable aspect that defines Japanese society and education system is ‘collectivism’.

ECONOMY

What is in news : The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill, 2021, passed by Lok Sabha on Wednesday has proposed ‘pre-packs’ as an insolvency resolution mechanism for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

What are Pre Packs :

• A resolution of the debt of a distressed company through a direct agreement between secured creditors and the existing owners or outside investors, instead of a public bidding process.
• Popular mechanism for insolvency resolution in the United Kingdom and Europe over the past decade

How does it work:

• Financial creditors will agree to terms with the promoters or a potential investor, and seek approval of the resolution plan from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
• The approval of at least 66 per cent of financial creditors that are unrelated to the corporate debtor would be required before a resolution plan is submitted to the NCLT.
• The NCLTs will be required to either accept or reject an application for a pre-pack insolvency proceeding before considering a petition for a CIRP.
• Why is it introduced in India : Providing MSMEs with an opportunity to restructure their liabilities and start with a clean slate while still providing adequate protections so that the system is not misused by firms to avoid making payments to creditors.

Drawback :

• Allow for a ‘Swiss challenge’ to any resolution plan that provides less than full recovery of dues for operational creditors.
• Under the Swiss challenge mechanism, any third party would be permitted to submit a resolution plan for the distressed company, and the original applicant would have to either match the improved resolution plan or forego the investment.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

What is in news : World’s first affordable as well as effective new drug for hepatitis C has been registered by Malaysia.

HEPATITIS - C

• Has very few early symptoms – difficulty in early diagnosis
• Caused by hepatitis C virus
• Can be transferred from needles that have been infected, at the time of birth (i.e. transmitted from infected mother to child), through body fluids of an infected person, having sex with multiple partners specifically with HIV-infected persons
• Does not spread through food or water
• LIVER is the infected organ

DEFENCE

What : Innovations for Defence Excellence

What is in news : The Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence has approved a central sector scheme viz. Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX)

Details :

• To avail the grants under the grant mechanism of iDEX i.e. Support for Prototype and Research Kickstart (SPARK), the eligibility is as follows:
• Startups, as defined and recognized by Department of Industrial Policy Promotion (DIPP), now DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India.
• Any Indian company incorporated under the Companies Act 1956/2013, primarily a Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) as defined in the MSME Act, 2006.
• Individual innovators are also encouraged to apply (research & academic institutions can use this category to apply).

About IDEX

• Launched in April 2018
• Is aimed at providing financial support to nearly 300 start-ups, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), individual innovators and 20 partner incubators under the DIO framework.
• Will empower a culture of technology co-creation and co-innovation in the sector and boost innovation among the start-ups and encourage them to be a part of the ecosystem.

• A centralised operation control centre will soon come up at the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) here to facilitate quick decision-making in the face of disasters like floods and landslides.The centre will act as a single-point response centre by bridging communication between multiple agencies on the ground, district centre authorities and the decision-making authorities in Bengaluru.
• Basavaraj Bommai, who was sworn in  as the the 30th Chief Minister of Karnataka, sought to project a welfare-orientated vision by kick-starting his tenure by announcing a scholarship scheme for farmers’ children and hiking pensions for senior citizens, widows, and the disabled.
• Nandu Natekar, one of the superstars in Indian badminton history, passed away in Pune due to prolonged illness
• DRDO has developed anti-drone system to neutralize enemy drone attack. The Indigenous Drone Technology is capable of counter attacks including detection, Soft Kill (for jamming the communication links of Drone) and Hard Kill (Laser based hard kill to destroy the Drone) of enemy Drones.  The System is already demonstrated to Armed Services and other internal security agencies.
• On its 15th Foundation Day the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) launched Earth System Science Data Portal (ESSDP). It is an integrated digital web portal of the MoES institutes. This web portal will make the data regarding the various themes of earth system science available for public usage.
• On July 27th the International Monetary Fund has cut India’s GDP growth forecast to 9.5% for the fiscal year 2021-22. Previously, IMF has forecasted 12.5% GDP growth.
• The Government of India has announced plans to set up a National Farmers Database. This database will consist of the country’s digitized land records and will aid in online single sign-on facilities for universal access and will also provide services to the farmers like weather advisories, direct benefit transfer, information on neighbouring logistic facilities and insurance facilities etc.
• Geological Survey of India (GSI), under the government’s energy security plans, has imitated seven lithium exploration projects in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Jammu & Kashmir.