Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

Daily Current Affair - UPSC/KAS Exams - 13th Oct 2021

What is in news : Mahiti Kanaja, a web portal providing government information, now has 160 services and 50 departments in its fold.

About :

• Launched in 2020
• Single window unified web portal
• Empowers citizens to know how public funds are being spent for the overall development of the State and its people
• Web disclosure portal that enables the Government of Karnataka to comply with the Right to Information Act
• Enables each and every citizen the right to know details of how Government Departments are utilizing public funds and discloses details of beneficiaries and expenditure
• The Government believes that once citizens are vigilant and aware about public spending, they will ensure that decisions regarding the use of public funds at the Village, Block, District and State level are more efficient and appropriate.

What is in news : 28th anniversary of NHRC recently celebrated

About :

NHRC

• Statutory body
• Established - 12th October, 1993
• Under the Protection of Human Rights Act (PHRA), 1993
• It is the watchdog of human rights in the country, i.e. the rights related to life, liberty, equality and dignity of the individual guaranteed by Indian Constitution or embodied in the international covenants and enforceable by courts in India.
• Act also provides for the creation of the State Human Rights Commission as well.
• Composition:
• The chairperson is a retired chief justice of India or a judge of the Supreme Court.
• They are appointed by the President on the recommendations of a six-member committee consisting of:
  • Prime Minister (head)
  • Speaker of the Lok Sabha
  • Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha
  • Leaders of the Opposition in both the Houses of Parliament
  • Union Home Minister.
• Term and removal:
  • Three years or until age of 70 years, whichever is earlier.
  • The President can remove them from the office under specific circumstances.

The Indian tourism and hospitality sector were adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and saw substantial job loss.

IMPACT OF COVID 19

• Media reports suggest Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTA) in India have come down by about 67 per cent annually, while for domestic tourists, the figure is lower by nearly 40 per cent.
• Information technology, banking/financial services and pharmaceuticals have no doubt felt the sting of the virus, but they are not as dependent on the physical mobility of people, and their comfort with the idea of travel, both of which have been casualties of the current crisis.
• States relying heavily on income from tourism, such as Kerala and Himachal Pradesh, would feel the effects more.

STEPS TAKEN BY INDIA

• The Government of India recently announced financial support for more than 11,000 registered tourist guides/travel and tourism stakeholders.
• Once international travel resumes, the first five lakh tourists will be issued visas free of charge.
• In the pre-pandemic period too, many initiatives were adopted to promote the tourism sector, such as providing e-visas under various categories for people from particular countries, Global Media Campaigns, the Heritage Trail and the Paryatan Parv celebration.

BENEFITS OF TOURISM SECTOR

LESS INVESTMENTS

As per the estimates of the erstwhile Planning Commission, an investment of ₹1 million generates 78 jobs in the tourism sector. In the manufacturing sector, it results in just 18 jobs and in the agriculture sector, 45. The tourism sector, unlike many other sectors, can grow with smaller capital investments and that too without any industrial gestation period.

MULTIPLIER EFFECT OF TRAINING

• There is need to train the workforce in India, so that workers can develop the skills to perform jobs in the travel and tourism sector. The growth in this sector has multiplier effects on income generation as it is employment-intensive with less capital investment.
• The India Skill Report, 2019, estimates the Indian workforce to increase to about 600 million by 2022 from the current 473 million in view of the fourth industrial revolution. The tourism sector will have a major role to play in providing employment opportunities.

WAY FORWARD

• International arrivals have remained comparatively low, at around 9 to 10 million. Thus, there is a need to highlight the significance of public-private partnership to improve infrastructure and tackle the problem of end connectivity, which negatively affect the experiences of international travellers.
• The travel and tourism industry in India is also fragmented, hindering the ability of the sector to achieve its potential. This area needs to be nudged to embrace the digital revolution, so as to promote public-private initiatives, medium and small and sized enterprises’ growth while ensuring that India follows best practices from across the world.

BLOCKCHAIN IN TOURISM

Blockchain

• System of recording information in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to change, hack, or cheat the system.
• Essentially a digital ledger of transactions that is duplicated and distributed across the entire network of computer systems on the blockchain.

• There are examples worldwide on blockchain-based money solutions to kick-start local tourism industries, for instance.
• Blockchain enables the tracking of items through complex supply chains.
• Blockchain ledger coupled with IOT devices for healthcare could have a positive impact on medical tourism

What is in news : Retail inflation falls to 4.35% in September

About

Retail inflation

• Is the general rise in the retail prices of goods and services
• Measured by Consumer price index (CPI)

MAHITI FOR PRELIMS

CONSUMER PRICE INDEX 

• Index measuring retail inflation in the economy b
• By collecting the change in prices of most common goods and services used by consumers.
• In India, there are four consumer price index numbers, which are calculated, and these are as follows:
  • CPI for Industrial Workers (IW)
  • CPI for Agricultural Labourers (AL)
  • CPI for Rural Labourers (RL) and
  • CPI for Urban Non-Manual Employees (UNME).
• While the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation collects CPI (UNME) data and compiles it, the remaining three are collected by the Labour Bureau in the Ministry of Labour.
• CPI = (Cost of basket divided by Cost of basket in the base year) multiplied by 100.
• The base year for CPI is 2012.

What is in news : Govt. of India accorded ‘Maharatna’ status to the state-owned Power Finance Corporation Ltd (PFC), thus giving PFC greater operational and financial autonomy.

PFC - Power Finance Corporation

• Is an financial institution.
• Wholly owned by the Government of India.
• Essentially a state-run non-banking financial company that focuses on power infrastructure

What is MAHARATNA STATUS:

• Miniratna, Navratna and Maharatna Status are given to PSUs depending on their success.
• Department of Public Enterprises under Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises grants these status.
• The “Maharatna” category for CPSEs was introduced in 2009 with objective to empower mega CPSEs to expand their operations and emerge as global giants or become Indian Multinational Companies (MNCs).
• At present, there are Eight Maharatna companies:
  • Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL),
  • Coal India (CIL),
  • GAIL (India),
  • Indian Oil Corporation Limited,
  • NTPC,
  • Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC)
  • Steel Authority of India (SAIL)
  • Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited
• Maharatna and Navaratna state-owned units operate in strategic fields such as coal, petroleum, steel, heavy engineering, telecommunications, power supply and transportation services.
• Criteria for Maharatna status
  • Having Navratna status.
  • Average annual turnover of more than Rs. 25,000 crore, during last 3 years.
  • Average annual net worth of more than Rs. 15,000 crore, during last 3 years.
  • Average annual net profit after tax of more than Rs. 5,000 crore, during last 3 years.
  • Should have significant global presence and international operations.
  • Listed on Indian stock exchange with minimum prescribed public shareholding limit under SEBI regulations.

What :

Geo-heritage

• Refers to the geological features
• Inherently or culturally significant
• Offers  insight to earth’s evolution or history to earth science or that can be utilized for education.

IN INDIA

• The geological features and landscapes that evolved over billions of years through numerous cycles of tectonic and climate upheavals are recorded in India’s rock formations and terrains, and are part of the country’s heritage.
• FAMOUS SPOTS - the Kutch region in Gujarat has dinosaur fossils and is our version of a Jurassic Park. The Tiruchirappalli region of Tamil Nadu, originally a Mesozoic Ocean, is a store house of Cretaceous (60 million years ago) marine fossils.

BENEFITS

• Educational spaces where people acquire geological literacy
• As the climate of the future is uncertain, decision-making is difficult. Learning from the geological past, like the warmer intervals during the Miocene Epoch (23 to 5 million years ago), whose climate can be reconstructed using proxies and simulations, may serve as an analogue for future climate.
• The awareness accrued through educational activities in geo-heritage parks will help  appreciate the adaptive measures to be followed for survival.

DIGNE RESOLUTION

• The importance of the shared geological heritage of our planet was first recognised in 1991 at an UNESCO-sponsored event, where Digne declaration was accepted foresaw the establishment of geo-parks as sites that commemorate unique geological features and landscapes within their assigned territories; and as spaces that educate the public on geological importance. These sites thus promote geo-tourism that generates revenue and employment.
• In the late 1990s, in what may be considered as a continuation of the Digne resolution, UNESCO facilitated efforts to create a formal programme promoting a global network of geoheritage sites. These were intended to complement the World Heritage Convention and the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere programme.
• UNESCO provided guidelines for developing national geo-parks so that they become part of the Global Geoparks Network. Today, there are 169 Global Geoparks across 44 countries.
• Countries like Vietnam and Thailand have also implemented laws to conserve their geological and natural heritage.

CONSERVATION STATUS IN INDIA

• Though the Geological Survey of India (GSI) has identified 32 sites as National Geological Monuments, there is not a single geo-park in India which is recognised by the UNESCO. This is despite the fact that India is a signatory to the establishment of UNESCO Global Geoparks. The GSI had submitted a draft legislation for geo-heritage conservation to the Ministry of Mines in 2014.
• Despite international progress in this field, the concept of geo-conservation has not found much traction in India. Many fossil-bearing sites have been destroyed in the name of development. For example, the high concentration of iridium in the geological section at Anjar, Kutch district, provides evidence for a massive meteoritic impact that caused the extinction of dinosaurs about 65 million years ago. This site was destroyed due to the laying of a new rail track in the area. Similarly, a national geological monument exhibiting a unique rock called Nepheline Syenite in Ajmer district of Rajasthan was destroyed in a road-widening project.
• The Lonar impact crater in Buldhana district of Maharashtra is an important geo-heritage site of international significance. It is under threat of destruction, although conservation work is now in progress under the High Court’s supervision.
• Unregulated stone mining activities have also contributed to this destruction. This situation calls for immediate implementation of sustainable conservation measures such as those formulated for protecting biodiversity.
• The protection of geo-heritage sites requires legislation. The Biological Diversity Act was implemented in 2002 and now there are 18 notified biosphere reserves in India. Geo-conservation should be a major guiding factor in land-use planning. A progressive legal framework is needed to support such strategies.
• In 2009, there was a half-hearted attempt to constitute a National Commission for Heritage Sites through a bill introduced in the Rajya Sabha. Though it was eventually referred to the Standing Committee, for some unstated reasons the government backtracked and the bill was withdrawn. In 2019, a group of geologists under the auspices of the Society of Earth Scientists petitioned the Prime Minister and the Ministries concerned about the need for a national conservation policy under the direct supervision of a national body committed to the protection of geo-heritage sites.

What is in news : French President unveiled a five-year, €30 billion ($35 billion) investment plan for developing innovative technology and industrial activity, including building small nuclear reactors, electric cars and greener airplanes.

DETAILS

• Aim -  Boost France’s economic growth over the next decade amid growing global competition with China
• The plan includes €8 billion to develop energy technology that would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• Funding would finance the building of small, modular nuclear reactors in France, which relies on nuclear power for 70% of its electricity.
• EU leaders have agreed that nuclear energy could be part of the 27-nation bloc’s commitment to making its economy carbon-neutral by 2050, giving member countries the option of using it in their national energy mixes. This plan would make France  “the leader of green hydrogen” power, a form of energy which does not emit carbon dioxide and can be used in industries such as steel and chemical manufacturing that currently rely on fossil fuels.
• Calls for €4 billion to be used to develop about 2 million electric and hybrid cars by the end of the decade.
• Will “massively invest” in building its first “low-carbon plane” by 2030. The plan also provides money to develop by 2026 a reusable launch system to propel spacecrafts.

SNIPPETS

• China has pledged to inject $233 million into a new fund to protect biodiversity in developing countries , despite disagreements among major donors on the initiative.
• Prime Minister of India participated virtually in the G20 Extraordinary Summit on Afghanistan.The Meeting was convened by Italy, which currently holds the G20 Presidency
• The Prime Minister has expressed grief over the passing away of Chairman IFFCO, Sardar Balvinder Singh Nakai Ji.