Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

Daily Current Affair - UPSC/KAS Exams - 30th August 2021

What is in news :  NITI Aayog has recommended various measures to boost monetization

Recommendations :

• Income Tax breaks to attract retail investors into instruments such as Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs)
• Bringing such trusts within the ambit of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) to provide greater comfort to investors
• Bringing in policy and regulatory changes to scale up monetisation instruments such as InvITs and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and expand their investor base
• InvIT and REIT route to monetise public assets such as highways, gas pipelines, railway tracks and power transmission lines

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REIT

• A REIT is roughly like a mutual fund that invests in real estate although the similarity doesn’t go much further.
• The basic deal on REITs is that you own a share of property, and so an appropriate share of the income from it will come to you, after deducting an appropriate share of expenses.
• Essentially, it’s like a group of people pooling their money together and buying real estate except that it’s on a large scale and is regulated.

INVIT

• It is like a mutual fund, which enables direct investment of small amounts of money from possible individual/institutional investors in infrastructure to earn a small portion of the income as return.
• InvITs can be treated as the modified version of REITs designed to suit the specific circumstances of the infrastructure sector.
• They are similar to REIT but invest in infrastructure projects such as roads or highways which take some time to generate steady cash flows.

PRADHAN MANTRI JAN DHAN YOJANA (PMJDY)

What is in news :

According to finance ministry, Under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), number of bank accounts have increased to 43 crores with total deposits of Rs 1.46 lakh crore

About PMJDY

Announced on 15th August 2014, PMJDY is National Mission for Financial Inclusion to ensure access to financial services, namely, Banking/ Savings & Deposit Accounts, Remittance, Credit, Insurance, Pension in an affordable manner.

Objectives:

• To ensure access of financial products & services at an affordable cost.
• Use of technology to lower cost & widen reach.

Basic tenets of the scheme:

• Banking the unbanked – Opening of basic savings bank deposit (BSBD) account with minimal paperwork, relaxed KYC, e-KYC, account opening in camp mode, zero balance & zero charges.
• Securing the unsecured – Issuance of Indigenous Debit cards for cash withdrawals & payments at merchant locations, with free accident insurance coverage of Rs. 2 lakhs.
• Funding the unfunded – Other financial products like micro-insurance, overdraft for consumption, micro-pension & micro-credit.

The scheme is Based upon the following 6 pillars:

• Universal access to banking services – Branch and Banking Correspondents.
• Basic savings bank accounts with overdraft facility (OD) of Rs. 10,000/- to every household.
• Financial Literacy Program– Promoting savings, use of ATMs, getting ready for credit, availing insurance and pensions, using basic mobile phones for banking.
• Creation of Credit Guarantee Fund – To provide banks some guarantee against defaults.
• Insurance – Accident cover up to Rs. 1,00,000 and life cover of 30,000 on account opened between 15 Aug 2014 to 31 January 2015.
• Pension scheme for Unorganized sector

What is in news : The Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has announced the operationalization of the BRICS Agricultural Research Platform.

Details :

• The platform was established at the 11th meeting of BRICS Agriculture Ministers under the theme BRICS Partnership for Strengthening Agrobiodiversity for Food Security and Nutrition
• It is a global platform that has been set up for strengthening the cooperation in the field of agricultural research & innovations amongst the BRICS member States.
• Mission: To promote sustainable agricultural development and poverty alleviation through strategic cooperation in agriculture to provide food security in the BRICS member countries.
• Nature of Cooperation: The Cooperation will focus on agricultural research, technology, policy, innovations, extension and technology transfer training and capacity building and information sharing.
• Focal Point: The BRICS Nations have appointed their focal points for BRICS-ARP to interact virtually through the platform and identify the common problems and develop joint projects for finding the solutions.
• Indian Council of Agricultural Research(ICAR) is the focal organization from India.
• Location: The coordinating centre is housed at NASC Complex, Pusa (New Delhi) under the governance of Department of Agricultural Research & Education/ICAR, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare.

ENVIRONMENT & GEOGRAPHY

What is in news : Hurricane Ida struck the coast of Louisiana, South USA as a powerful Category 4 storm

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Hurricane

• A hurricane is a large rotating storm with high speeds of wind that gust at least 74 mph that forms over warm waters in tropical areas.
• Hurricanes begin as tropical disturbances in warm ocean waters with surface temperatures of at least 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26.5 degrees Celsius). Those low-pressure systems are fed by energy from warm seas.
• A storm with wind speeds of 38 miles (61 km) an hour or less is classified as a tropical depression. It becomes a tropical storm—and is given a name, according to conventions determined by the World Meteorological Organization—when its sustained wind speeds top 39 miles (63 km) an hour.
• Hurricanes are enormous heat engines that deliver energy on a staggering scale. They draw heat from warm, moist ocean air and release it through condensation of water vapor in thunderstorms.
• Hurricanes spin around a low-pressure center known as the eye. Sinking air makes this 20- to 40-mile-wide (32- to 64-kilometer-wide) area notoriously calm. But the eye is surrounded by a circular “eye wall” that contains the storm’s strongest winds and rain.
• Measurement
  • The size of Hurricane is mainly measured by the Saffir-Simpson scale – other scales are used in Asia Pacific and Australia.
  • The system divides storms into five categories:
  • Category 1: Winds 74 to 95 mph (Minor damage)
  • Category 2: Winds 96 to 110 mph (Extensive damage — Can uproot trees and break windows)
  • Category 3: Winds 111 to 129 mph (Devastating — Can break windows and doors)
  • Category 4: Winds 130 to 156 mph (Catastrophic damage — Can tear off roofs)
  • Category 5: Winds 157 mph or higher (The absolute worst and can level houses and destroy buildings)
• Naming
  • Hurricanes are given names by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) so that they can be distinguished.
  • Each year, tropical storms are named in alphabetical order according to a list produced by the WMO.
  • That name stays with the storm if it develops into a hurricane.
  • The names can only be repeated after six years.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

What is in news : Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has launched the India’s first ‘Quantum Computer Simulator (QSim) Toolkit’.

Details :

• QSim is the first-of-its-kind toolkit, indigenously developed in India.
• It meant to be a vital tool of learning and understanding the practical aspects of programming with the help of Quantum Computers. It will thus bring about a new era of Quantum Computing research in India.
• This toolkit has been developed jointly by scientists of IIT Roorkee, C-DAC and IISc Bangalore.
• It was developed with the support and funding of MeitY.

About the toolkit

• This toolkit was launched in order to enable researchers and students to do research in Quantum Computing in a cost-effective manner.
• It allows researchers and students to write and debug Quantum Code which is essential to develop Quantum Algorithms.
• It can serve as the essential educational and research tool to provide an excellent way to attract students and researchers towards the Quantum Technology.
• QSim creates a platform which will helps students and users to acquire skills of programming and designing real Quantum Hardware.

Key features of the QSim

• Most unique feature of QSim is its Intuitive User Interface. This interface offers a robust Quantum Computer Simulator along with a Graphical User Interface based Workbench in an integrated manner in order to create Quantum programs and visualize instant circuit generation simulated outputs.

Quantum Computing: Quantum Computing perform a variety of tasks in a faster manner and efficiently than present-day computers by utilizing the power of Quantum Mechanics. It is used in the fields of cryptography, machine learning, and computational chemistry.

BH SERIES

What is in news :  Government of India has introduced a new registration mark under the Bharat Series (BH-Series) for new vehicles

Details :

• This citizen-centric, IT-based solution for vehicle registration was launched for facilitating mobility.
• By - Ministry of Road Transport and Highways
• Vehicle with this registration mark will not require assignment of any new registration mark when owner of the vehicle shifts from one state to other.
• Vehicle registration facility under this series will be available on voluntary basis to Defense personnel, employees of Central or State Government, Central or State Public Sector Undertakings and private sector companies or organizations, having their offices across four or more States or Union territories.
• Motor vehicle tax will be levied for two years or in multiple of two. After completing fourteenth year, this tax will be levied annually and it will be half the amount that was charged earlier for that vehicle.

• Table tennis star Bhavina Patel and high jumper Nishad Kumar won silver medals while discus thrower Vinod Kumar claimed a bronze at the Paralympics
• Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh dedicated to the Nation, indigenously built Coast Guard Ship ‘Vigraha’ in Chennai
• First ever G20 Ministerial Conference on Women’s Empowerment was held at Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy
• Navies of India and Germany conducted a joint exercise in Gulf of Aden recently.Frigate ‘Trikand’ from Indian Navy exercised with German frigate called ‘Bayern’.