Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

Daily Current Affair - UPSC/KAS Exams - 6th September 2021

What is in news : Union Finance Minister laid the foundation stone for the office building of the Income Tax Department in Bengaluru.

Details :

• The new building
  • Will have an exclusive public relations office to address public grievances
  • Aaykar Seva Kendra for providing taxpayer services
  • Cnstructed by the Bangalore Project Circle, CPWD

MAHITI FOR PRELIMS

Aaykar Seva Kendra

• Tha Aaykar Seva Kendra represents a single window system for registration of all taxpayer application/return.
• Application could be filed in person as well as through a drop box facility.
• System generated unique acknowledgement number issued on the spot.
• Used for monitoring the status of application and returns.
• Information regarding resolution of requested services could be obtained from the ASK

What : Scholarship scheme

Beneficiaries : Children of Farmers who discontinued their studies due to financial difficulties

Details :

• Students will recieve scholarship according to courses
• This was the first scheme launched by CM Bommai after he assumed office
• Male students of PUC, ITI, Diploma will recieve 2500 and females would get 3000
• BA, BSC - Male ( 5000 ), Female ( 5500 )
• LLB & other paramedical courses - Male ( 7500 )  Female (8000)
• BE, MEDICAL - Male ( 10000 ), Female ( 11000)

ENVIRONMENT & GEOGRAPHY

What is in news : India has become the first Asian Country to launch a Plastics pact

Details :

• Developed by World-Wide Fund for Nature-India (WWF India) in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
• Promote a circular system for plastics.
• Launched by British High Commissioner to India, Alexander Ellis.
• Will bring together prominent enterprises on a national level in order to make pledges for the creation of a circular plastics system.
• Aim of the pact : Keeping plastic packaging in the economy and out of natural environment.
• Time-bound targets of reducing, innovating and re-imagining plastic packaging.
• Define a list of unnecessary or problematic plastic packaging & items and take measures to address these problems with the help of redesign and innovation, by 2030.
• 100 per cent of plastic packaging will be made reusable or recyclable, 50 per cent of plastic packaging will be effectively recycled and 25 per cent average recycled content will be made across all plastic packaging.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

What is in news : Amazon India announced the launch of Kisan Store.

What : Online platform

Why : Enable farmers of India to get access of more than 8,000 agriculture inputs like farm tools & accessories, seeds, plant protection, nutrition etc.

Details

• Listed by small and medium businesses (SMBs).
• Products will be available at competitive prices on Amazon India and will be delivered at the doorstep of farmers.
• These stores comprise of thousands of products listed from over 20 brands.
• Will be available in languages like Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, and Malayalam.
• Farmers can buy products listed on store using digital payments.

Other services launched :

• Amazon Easy store: Amazon also opened up its network of more than 5,000 Amazon Easy stores for farmers to shop with the help of the store owners. Store owners will help the farmers to browse through the store and identify product they like. They will also help then in creating their Amazon accounts, place orders, and checkout to buy.
• Agronomy Services: Amazon also launched its agronomy services for farmers. It will provide farmers with timely advice and enable them to make accurate decisions regarding the actions required for their crops.

What is in news : Kerala reports mortality due to Nipah.

Details :

• Nipah virus (NiV) is a zoonotic virus (it is transmitted from animals to humans).
• The infection is generally transmitted from animals to human beings, mainly from bats and pigs.
• Human-to-human transmission is also possible, and so is transmission from contaminated food.
• The natural host of the virus are fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family and Pteropus genus, widely found in South and South East Asia.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) says the infection has been found to be fatal in 40% to 75% of the infected patients.
• There is no treatment, nor any vaccine is available as of now, either for humans or animals.
• Nipah virus was first recognized in 1999 during an outbreak among pig farmers in, Malaysia.
• In India, the first outbreak was in 2001 in Siliguri. Another outbreak happened in 2007 in Nadia of West Bengal.

What is in news : The centre signed a tripartite agreement- "Karbi Anglong Agreement"  with representatives of Karbi outfits

Who are Karbis: Karbis is a major ethnic community of Assam, which is presently splintered into various groups and factions. Originally, they are one of Northeast India’s tribal groups, largely inhabiting the Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao (formerly North Cachar) hills districts.

Why is Karbi Anglong Agreement important?

• The Karbi Anglong Agreement is important as an insurgency by Karbi has had a long history in Assam, which has been marked by killings, ethnic violence, abductions and taxation since the late 1980s. The agreement hopes to bring an end to this violence and establish peace in the state.
• Around 1000 Karbi militants had surrendered before the Assam government in February 2021. Around 150 of those Karbi militants reached North Block where the Karbi Anglong Agreement was being signed and about 15 of them were present in the meeting.

What is in the pact :

Under the Karbi Anglong Agreement, the Assam state government has agreed to:

• Provide financial compensation of Rs 5 lakh to each of the next of kin of persons who lost their lives in agitations related to autonomous state demand and have not yet been compensated in any manner.
• Consider favourably the proposal of KAAC to notify Karbi as the official language of KAAC. However English, Hindi & Assamese will continue to be used for official purposes.
• Allocate Rs 500 cr (Rs 100 cr per annum) for development of infrastructure in KAAC area.  Additionally, the state will contribute Rs 500 cr for development of the area.
• In return, all signatory armed groups shall abjure the path of violence, surrender their weapons and disband their organisations within one month of signing of the Agreement. All camps occupied by these groups will also be vacated forthwith

HISTORY – ART -CULTURE

What is in news : The Prime Minister has remembered freedom fighter V. O. Chidambaram Pillai on his Jayanti.

About :

• Full name - Valliappan Olaganathan Chidambaram Pillai
• Famously called : VOC
• Birth : 5 September 1872
• Place : Tirunelveli in modern Tamil Nadu.
• Entry into politics
  • Happened in 1905
  • Joined the Congress Party after the Bengal partition
  • Follower of Bal Gangadhar Tilak. He was also a great believer in the Swadeshi movement.
• Establishment of navigation company : In 1906, V.O.C decided to establish an Indian shipping company called the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company. The company was founded on 16 October 1906, largely due to the efforts of V.O.C with support from his merchant-friends. This was a hit for the British company which began to take reactive steps.
• Along with a fiery speaker Subramania Siva, V.O.C started the ‘Swadeshi Sangam’.
• A turning point in V.O.C’s life came with the Tuticorin Coral Mills strike in 1908. The workers at the British-owned mill were unfairly treated. 59% of the workers were aged 14 – 16. They had to work from 5:00 am to 7:00 pm. In February 1908, they decided to go on a strike demanding better pay and a reduction in the number of working hours.
• Was subject to hard labour in prison and his health suffered a great deal. For instance, he was put in place of an ox and made to draw an oil press in the hot sun. His sentence was reduced and he was released in December 1912.
• Spent a lot of his energies in setting up labour unions in the state of Madras.
• Books – Meyyaram, Meyyarivu, Autobiography, commentary on the Thirukkural, compiled works of Tolkappiyam, etc.
• Died in the Tuticorin office of the Congress Party on 18 November 1936. He was 64.
• Referred as ‘Kappalottiya Tamilan’ (The Tamil Helmsman).
• Tuticorn port is named after him

REPORTS & INDICES

By : International Labour Organisation (ILO)

Highlights :

• As per report, more than half of the world population are not getting any form of social protection. This trend of no social protection is there even after expansion of social protections amidst the global outbreak of COVID-19.
• Only 47 per cent of the global population had effective access to one social protection benefit, in 2020 while 53 per cent (4.1 billion people) had no protection at all.
• People in Europe and Central Asia are among the best covered population. 84 per cent of populations in Europe and Central Asia are having access to at least one benefit.
• In America, the rate of social protection is 64.3 per cent.
• In Asia, the Pacific and the Arab States, lesser than half of people are covered under protection.
• In Africa, only 17.4 per cent of the people are getting at least one social protection.
• Most children across the globe had no social protection.
• Just one in four children in the world get a social protection benefit.
• 45 per cent of women with new-borns receive cash maternity benefit.
• One in three people with severe disabilities receive disability benefits.
• One in five people worldwide are covered in case they lose their job.
• This report examined the impact COVID-19 pandemic on social protection. It found, an additional spending required to ensure minimum social protection for all and reduce the financing gap has increased by 30 per cent since the start of the pandemic. On an average, countries spend approximately 13 per cent of GDP on social protection. However, high-income countries spend 16.4 per cent of GDP on social protection. On the other hand, low-income countries spend just 1.1 percent

• Former Union Health Secretary Keshav Desiraju passed away in Chennai. He is grandson of former vice president S.Radhakrishna
• The 8th National Level Exhibition and Project Competition (NLEPC) for the INSPIRE Awards – MANAK (Million Minds Augmenting National Aspiration and Knowledge), which commenced today, showcased the innovative ideas from 581 students representing various States and UT’s of the country
• The 28th edition of Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise (SIMBEX) was conducted from 02 to 04 Sep 21.
• Prime Minister, addressed the session of Eastern Economic Forum (EEF).EEF is an international forum organised each year in Vladivostok, Russia. It is held in a bid to encourage foreign investment in Russian Far East region. It was first held in September 2015, at Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok. This forum is sponsored by the organizing committee appointed by Roscongress.

Social Protection : Social protection comprises of access to healthcare and income security in cases of unemployment, old age, inability to work, and for families with children.