Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

NEWS

BBMP has drawn out a Index to highlight the roads that need repair.

ABOUT

• Indication of how bad the roads
• Colour-coding based on the extent of damage and present condition
• 168.21-km roads that are not motorable fall under the 'Red' category and require immediate repairs
• The yellow and green roads are in motorable condition with the immediate requirement of bitumen mix coat due to worn-out surface like potholes
• Over 50 per cent of the roads in various parts of the city are not maintained by the BBMP as they are either undergoing development or the works have been recently completed and they are maintained by the contractor as per the Defect Liability Period (DLP) clause

MAHITI FOR PRELIMS

The city roads which are meant for through traffic usually on a continuous route are called ARTERIAL STREETS.

The city roads which provided lower level of travel mobility than arterial streets, are called SUB-ARTERIAL STREETS.

The DEFECTS LIABILITY PERIOD (or 'DLP') is a fixed period of time, starting from the date of practical completion, during which the contractor has an express contractual right to return to the site to rectify defects.

E-SAHAMATHI APP

NEWS

The Karnataka Government will soon roll out mobile app, e-Sahamathi

DETAILS

• A tool to empower citizens to own, control, and share their data with various private and public companies to get jobs, seek admissions in universities or colleges
• Developed by the e-Governance Department of the Government with the support of the National Informatics Centre
• Enable citizens to share their personal data with companies and universities.
• Would eliminate physical verification of certificates/documents and avoid delay and corruption, said Rajiv Chawla, Additional Chief Secretary, E-governance
• Provides only the necessary data with accuracy and ensures lawfulness, fairness, and transparency
• 63 private and government universities in Karnataka have registered with the platform
• Among the big educational institutions, only IIIT, Dharwad, and IIM-B have not joined the platform and talks are on with them
• Provide certificates of Class X (SSLC) candidates since 2003 and Class XII (PUC) since 2008
• Provide documents of degrees and other courses of the last 10 years
• Would be helpful for companies during the recruitment process
• A fee of ₹50,000 is fixed for registration
• Consent manager is responsible for collecting, updating, and revoking consent based on citizen’s request

SOCIAL ISSUES

NEWS

The Union Cabinet has cleared 21 years as the minimum marriage age for women, from 18 earlier .It is based on the recommendation of a panel led by Jaya Jaitly.

ABOUT

What is the minimum age of marriage?

• Section 5(iii) of The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, sets a minimum age of 18 for the bride and 21 for the groom.
• Same for Christians under the Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872 and the Special Marriage Act.
• For Muslims, the criteria is attaining puberty, which is assumed when the bride or groom turns 15.

Why is there a minimum age?

• Essentially to outlaw child marriage.
• Done through special legislation such as the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.
• Under the Child Marriage Prevention Act, any marriage below the prescribed age is illegal and the perpetrators of a forced child marriage can be punished.

What happens to such marriages once detected?

• Child marriages are illegal but not void
• Voidable at the option of the minor party
• Marriage can be declared void by a court only if the minor party petitions the court
• Flexibility is kept to ensure that the rights of the minor, especially the girl, is not taken away in marital homes later on.
• If a court finds a minor was coerced into marriage by parents or guardians, the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act come into effect to keep the custody of the minor until he or she attains majority and can make a decision on the marriage.

What laws will have to be changed to raise the minimum age of marriage?

First, the age limit in the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act will have to be changed. The government had indicated this will be followed by necessary changes in personal law. The Hindu Marriage Act, the Indian Christian Marriage Act and the Special Marriage Act will also have to be change consequently. However, changes in the Muslim law could raise significant legal issues.

ECONOMY

WHAT IS MINIMUM SUPPORT PRICE (MSP)

Minimum price set by the government for certain agricultural products, at which the products would directly be bought from the farmers if the open market prices are less than the cost incurred.

CONTEXT

• The demand of farmers to provide a legal guarantee for the minimum support price (MSP) for their produce has triggered a nationwide debate. Some believe it would be “fiscally ruinous” to procure all the 23 crops for which MSP is announced annually. Others contend that procuring these crops would be a logistical nightmare.
• Question arises Can India provide a legal guarantee for MSP without violating its international law obligations enshrined in the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) of the World Trade Organization (WTO)

ABOUT AGREEMENT ON AGRICULTURE(AOA)

• One of the central objectives is to cut trade-distorting domestic support that WTO member countries provide to agriculture.
• Domestic subsidies are divided into three categories: ‘green box’, ‘blue box’ and ‘amber box’ measures.
• Subsidies that fall under the ‘green box’ (like income support to farmers de-coupled from production) and ‘blue box’ (like direct payments under production limiting programmes subject to certain conditions) are considered non-trade distorting. Countries can provide unlimited subsidies under these two categories.
• Price support provided in the form of procurement of crops at MSP is classified as a trade-distorting subsidy and falls under the ‘amber box’ measures, which are subject to certain limits.

HOW MSP VIOLATES AOA

• To measure ‘amber box’ support, WTO member countries are required to compute Aggregate Measurement of Support (AMS). AMS is the total of product-specific support (price support to a particular crop) and non-product-specific support (fertilizer subsidy).
• Under Article 6.4(b) of the AoA, developing countries such as India are allowed to provide a de minimis level of product and non-product domestic subsidy. This de minimis limit is capped at 10% of the total value of production of the product, in case of a product-specific subsidy; and at 10% of the total value of a country’s agricultural production, in case of non-product subsidy. Subsidies breaching the de minimis cap are trade-distorting. Consequently, they have to be accounted for in the AMS.
• The procurement at MSP, after comparing it with the fixed external reference price (ERP) — an average price based on the base years 1986-88 — has to be included in AMS. Since the fixed ERP has not been revised in the last several decades at the WTO, the difference between the MSP and fixed ERP has widened enormously due to inflation.
• Even if the Government does not procure directly but mandates private parties to acquire at a price determined by the Government, as it happens in the case of sugarcane, the de minimis limit of 10% applies.
• Very recently, a WTO panel in the case, India – Measures Concerning Sugar and Sugarcane, concluded that India breached the de minimis limit in the case of sugarcane by offering guaranteed prices paid by sugar mills to sugarcane farmers.

PEACE CLAUSE

• Although a permanent solution is nowhere in sight, the countries have agreed to a peace clause.
• The peace clause
  • Forbids bringing legal challenges against price support-based procurement for food security purposes even if it breaches the limit on domestic support
  • Subject to several conditions
  • For example, it can be availed by developing countries for the support provided to traditional staple food crops to pursue public stockholding programmes for food security (procuring food to provide free ration through the Public Distribution System).
  • Applicable only for programmes that were existing as of the date of the decision and are consistent with other requirements

India’s procurement for rice and wheat, even if it violates the de minimis limit, will enjoy legal immunity. However, India will not be able to employ the peace clause to defend procuring those crops that are not part of the food security programme (such as cotton, groundnut, sunflower seed).

Even if the AoA is amended to exclude MSP-backed procurement for food security purposes from the AMS, procurement for other crops at prices higher than the fixed ERP would be considered trade-distorting and thus subject to the de minimis limit. Therefore, India needs to recalibrate its agricultural support programmes to make use of the flexibilities available in the AoA.

SOME ALTERNATIVES

• Arguably, India can move away from price-based support in the form of MSP to income-based support, which will not be trade-distorting under the AoA provided the income support is not linked to production.
• Alternatively, one can supplement price-based support (keeping the de minimis limit in mind) with an income-based support policy. However, it will be arduous especially given the climate of high misgiving prevailing between the farmers and the political establishment.
• The recent fiasco with the three repealed farm laws demonstrates that reforms in agriculture, no matter how sagacious, cannot be shoved down the throats of the farmers. The Government needs to engage with the farmers and create an affable environment to convince them of other effective policy interventions, beyond MSP, that are fiscally prudent and WTO compatible.

NEWS

Super Typhoon Rai hammers Philippines

DETAILS

What is Typhoon

• Local name for Tropical storm in the Western Pacific and the South China Sea
• Other Names
  • Cyclones in the Indian Ocean
  • Hurricanes in the Atlantic
  • Willy-willies in Western Australia
• CLASSES

Conditions favourable for the formation and intensification

• Large sea surface with temperature higher than 27° C.
• Presence of the Coriolis force to create a cyclonic vortex (hence they do not form at Equator because Coriolis force is zero)
• Small variations in the vertical wind speed.
• A pre-existing weak low- pressure area or low-level-cyclonic circulation.
• Upper divergence above the sea level system.

Characteristics

• A roughly circular area of comparatively light winds and fair weather found at the centre of a severe tropical cyclone is known as Eye of the cyclone. The eye is the region of lowest surface pressure and warmest temperatures as air descends at the centre. The eye is surrounded by the “eye wall”, the roughly circular ring of deep convection, where winds blow the fastest.
• Tropical cyclones have a compact size, ranging from 80 km to 2000 km in diameter.
• The latent heat of evaporation released by the condensation of moist rising air over oceans is the driving engine for tropical cyclones.
• These cyclones cannot sustain over land because the latent heat of evaporation is not available. Therefore, they dissipate after they make landfall.
• Tropical cyclonic systems move in a parabolic path towards west. Then they get deflected by the Coriolis force

NEWS

IMD has predicted a cold wave in Northwest India

ABOUT

WHAT IS A COLD WAVE?

• IMD defines a cold wave qualitatively as “a condition of air temperature which becomes fatal to the human body when exposed.”
• The IMD also has an ‘impact matrix’ for cold waves – when cold wave conditions persist in isolated areas for more than two days, the impact matrix indicates that the cold is tolerable but “a mild health concern for vulnerable people (infants, pregnant women, elderly, people with chronic diseases etc.”
• In ‘severe’ cold wave conditions, where the minimum temperature is less than or equal to 10 degree Celsius, and departs from the normal by 6.5 degrees or more, or if cold wave conditions persist for four days or more, the IMD’s impact matrix indicates an increased likelihood of illnesses like flu, due to prolonged exposure to the cold.

RECORD

• Minimum temperature is likely to fall by 2 to 4 degree Celsius in these places over the next few days, going by the forecast.
• IMD records a cold wave when
  • Minimum temperature is equal to or less than 10 degree Celsius at a weather station in the plains, and is 4.5 degrees to 6.4 degrees below the normal temperature for that period.
  • At a station in the plains when the minimum temperature is less than or equal to 4 degree Celsius.
  • For hilly regions, a cold wave is declared when the minimum temperature is less than or equal to 0 degree Celsius and the minimum temperature is 4.5 degrees to 6.4 degrees below the normal. The ‘normal’ temperature is calculated for every five days by taking the average temperature for these days over the past 30 years.

WHY DO COLD WAVES OCCUR?

• Occur from mid-December to the end of February. Sometimes, a cold wave may set in before mid-December
• Depend on weather systems and wind patterns from the middle latitudes, that is from Europe or West Asia, since the winds from these regions bring cold weather.
• According to the IMD, the factors that bring cold waves to India include the movement of cold air masses brought about by upper-level winds.
• They can be triggered by strong westerly winds approaching northwest India and transporting cold air towards the southeast direction.
• Build up of an extended area of relatively high pressure over northwest Asia can also bring cold waves.

NEWS

The centre has given “in-principle’’ approval for setting up of six nuclear power reactors at Jaitapur in Maharashtra

DETAILS

• Largest nuclear power generating site in India
• In technical cooperation with France, agreement was signed in 2008
• World’s most powerful nuclear power plant.
• Will have six state-of-the-art EPR reactors with an installed capacity of 9.6 GWe that will produce low carbon electricity.
• Provide electricity to seven crore households.
• Operational nuclear power plants in India

SNIPPETS

• Karnataka, unveiled the e-sahamathi platform, a consent-driven system that authorities say will give citizens complete control on sharing their personal data with private companies. Private or public companies and nonprofits willing to use the e-sahamathi platform to access citizen data will have to pay a one-time registration fee of Rs 50,000.
• Prize money for gallantry awardees hiked fivefold in Karnataka. Prize money for Paramveer Chakra awardees that was earlier Rs 25 lakh has been increased to Rs 1.50 crore
• The Sir Arthur Cotton Atreyapuram Pootharekula Manufacturers Welfare Association, which operates from East Godavari in Andhra Pradesh, has filed an application seeking geographical indication (GI) tag for the famous Atreyapuram Pootharekulu, also known as paper sweet.
• The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed Maharashtra to hold the traditional bullock cart racing event, saying there was no reason to disallow it in the state when similar sports were going on in other places across the country.
• The Jharkhand government launched the Safe and Responsible Migration Initiative (SRMI) on Thursday to enable systemic registration of migrant workers for monitoring and analysis in the source as well as the destination districts. To begin with, the government will have two help desks—which will be known as ‘labour consulates’—in Ladakh Union Territory as well as in Kerala.
• With an aim to strengthen the cyber security ecosystem in Government organizations in the country, the National e-Governance Division under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is conducting a deep dive training program for Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs)
• To create awareness and emphasize such strategies of natural farming, the Government of Gujarat is organizing the National Conclave on Natural Farming