Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

Daily Current Affair - UPSC/KAS Exams - 28th August 2021

What is in news : The State government has decided to establish a Spices Park at Ambale in Chikkamagaluru district

SPICES IN KARNATAKA

• Every region in the state is known for certain unique agricultural produce.
• Black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, clove and nutmeg are extensively cultivated in Chikkamagaluru and Uttara Kannada districts
• Karnataka is the largest producer of black pepper
• 40% of India’s spices is exported and Karnataka is one of the big spice producing states in the country

SOCIAL ISSUES

What is in news : The NITI Aayog and US-based tech giant, Cisco launched the next phase of the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP)

Details :

• Titled as ‘WEPNxt’
• Will leverage technology from Cisco and experience working with India’s start-up ecosystem in order to enable more women-owned businesses in India

Benefit

• Will catalyse women entrepreneur movement
• Technology platform will soon become a personalised guide for every woman entrepreneur in India and help them to realise her dreams.
• Will be driven by evidence-based decision making on the basis of focused study of Indian women entrepreneurs and their urgent needs across following factors:
  • Community and networking,
  • Skilling and mentorship,
  • Incubation and acceleration programs,
  • Financial, compliance, and marketing assistance.

About Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP)

WEP is a first of its kind unified access portal. It brings women from different parts of India together and help them to realise their entrepreneurial aspirations. Platform was launched by the NITI Aayog in 2017. It brings together women from diverse backgrounds and provides them access to multiple resources, support, and learning.

What : Fourth edition of Public Sector Bank (PSB) Reforms Agenda

Proposed Reforms :

• Smart lending backed by analytics
• 24×7 banking with resilient technology & cloud-based IT systems
• data enabled agriculture financing and
• Collaboration with the financial ecosystem.

Best performers under Ease 3.0

• SBI, Bank of Baroda (BoB), and Union Bank of India (UBI) won the awards for best performing banks on the basis of EASE index.
• Indian Bank won the award for best improvement from baseline performance.
• SBI, BoB, UBI, Punjab National Bank and Canara Bank also won the top awards across different themes of PSB Reforms Agenda EASE 3.0.

How PSB will enable smart lending:

PSBs -

• Required to design and improve performance of loan initiation processes by simplifying it on the basis of standard operating procedures and time-bound actions
• Required to introduce end-to-end digitised loans for new customers. 
• Will have to broaden customer base and increase credit off-take by means of analytics and technology-driven credit offers.

ENVIRONMENT & GEOGRAPHY

What is in news : Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change notified the eco-sensitive zone of Deepar Beel Wildlife Sanctuary

Details :

• The notification specified an area “to an extent varying from 294 metres to 16.32 km” as the eco-sensitive zone with the total area being 148.9767 sq. km.
• Threats :
  • Railway track — set to be doubled and electrified
  • Garbage dumpand
  • Encroachment for human habitation Commercial units

MAHITI FOR PRELIMS

DEEPER BEEL

• Located to the south-west of Guwahati city, in Kamrup district of Assam, India.
• Permanent freshwater lake, in a former channel of the Brahmaputra River, to the south of the main river.
• Wetland under the Ramsar Convention which has listed since November 2002, for undertaking conservation measures on the basis of its biological and environmental importance.
• Considered as one of the largest beels in the Brahmaputra valley of Lower Assam, it is categorised as a representative of the wetland type under the Burma monsoon forest biogeographic region.
• Important bird sanctuary habituating many migrant species.
• Freshwater fish is a vital protein and source of income for these communities; the health of these people is stated to be directly dependent on the health of this wetland ecosystem.

What is in news : NITI Aayog and World Resources Institute (WRI) of India together launched the ‘Forum for Decarbonizing Transport’ in India

Details:

• Launched virtually as part of NDC-Transport Initiative for Asia (NDC-TIA) project
• Aim
  • Decrease the peak level of Greenhouse Gas emissions (transport sector) in Asia which is rising because of problems like air pollution and congestion
  • Launched in line with below 2-degree pathway
• How EVs can be streamlined in India:
• Need is to create a favourable ecosystem for stakeholders
• These stakeholders should coordinate with each other to enable investment, ensure fair adoption in industry and encourage adoption.
• Thus, this forum was launched for NITI aayog & WRI to work in close coordination with the stakeholders in order to formulate strategies and develop appropriate business models to boost electric mobility across India

Additional Info:

CO2 emission in India

• India
  • Comprises of a massive and diverse transport sector
  • Also the third most CO2 emitting sector.
• According to data of IEA 2020 and Ministry of Environment Forest & Climate Change 2018, within the transport sector, road transport contributes more than 90% of the total CO2 emissions.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

What :

• Partnership was established in the year 2000 in a bid to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) as a public health problem
• Comprises of 1500 partner organizations including international organizations, nongovernmental & governmental organizations as well as patient groups
• Secratariat : Geneva, Switzerland
• Hosted by : World Health Organization
• Administered by : UNOPS (since 2015)
• Was established after the meeting of the First Session of Ad Hoc Committee on Tuberculosis Epidemic. It was held in London in March 1998
• Note : Stop TB Partnership came up with the Amsterdam Declaration in March 2000 in order to Stop TB. The declaration called for action from ministerial delegations of 20 countries, having the highest burden of TB. In 2000 itself, World Health Assembly endorsed for the establishment of a Global Partnership to Stop TB.

What is in news : Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Shri Mansukh Mandaviya, took charge as the Chairperson of Stop TB Partnership Board

HISTORY-ART-CULTURE

What is in news : Prime Minister  inaugurated the newly renovated Jallianwala Bagh complex and museum in Amritsar

HUNTER COMMISSION

About :

• Set up - October 14, 1919
• With approval of the Secretary of State for India, Edwin Montagu
• Known as - Disorders Inquiry Committee
• Lord William Hunter, a former Solicitor General of Scotland was the president
• Seven members
• Held its first meeting in Delhi on October 29, 1919
• Heard evidence of witnesses on eight days in Delhi, 29 days in Lahore, six days in Ahmedabad and three days at Bombay.
• Report was presented on March 8, 1920
• Was in the form of a majority report and a minority report
• Majority report was signed by the president of the committee and four members, Justice Rankin, Maj Gen Barrow, WF Rice and Thomas Smith.
• The minority report was signed by Sir C H Setalvad, Pandit Jagat Narayan and Sahibzada Sultan Ahmad Khan.

What did the majority report say :

• Delved into the incidents which had taken place in Amritsar prior to April 13, 1919 which included violence at several places in the city
• Military reinforcements were summoned to the city and these included troops from Brig Gen Dyer’s Brigade in Jalandhar and Indian and British Troops from Lahore
• On the morning of April 13, Dyer issued a proclamation which prohibited gathering of four or more men at one place.
• The report noted that Dyer entered Jallianwala Bagh with 25 Gorkha soldiers and 25 Baluchis armed with rifles, 40 Gorkhas armed with only Khukris and two armoured cars.
• A crowd of around 10 to 12,000 was gathered there at the time.
• Without giving the crowd any warning to disperse, which he considered unnecessary as they were in breach of his proclamation, he ordered his troops to fire and the firing continued for about ten minutes
• It noted that no one in the crowd was carrying firearms though some may have been carrying sticks.

What statements did Brig Gen Dyer give before the committee:

• The minority report of the committee brought out the evidence given by Dyer in great detail.
• He testified that his mind had already been made up to order the firing when he reached the Bagh.

How was the report received by the British government:

While broadly agreeing that disproportionate force had been used by Brig Gen Dyer at Jallianwala Bagh, the then Secretary of State for India, Edwin Montagu, was of the opinion that, “Brig Gen Dyer displayed honesty of purpose and unflinching adherence to his conception of his duty cannot for a moment be questioned”.

• Ministry of Textile and National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) launched an India size survey, in order to do away with the confusion of size.  It has been titled as INDIAsize.This initiative was launched with the aim of introducing a new standardised size chart in ready-to-wear clothing sector in India.
• Government of Cuba announced to recognize and regulate cryptocurrencies for payment in the Island nation.
• Militaries of China, Mongolia, Thailand and Pakistan are set to take part in a multinational peacekeeping exercise called “Shared Destiny-2021”.