National Current Affairs – UPSC/KAS Exams – 4th & 5th November 2018

Competition Commission of India

Topic: Indian Economy

                                      

IN NEWS:‘National Conference on Public Procurement & Competition Law’ is being organised by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) with a view to scale up Competition Advocacy and reach out to important stakeholders in public procurement ecosystem.

About Competition commission of India:

• Competition Commission of India is a statutory body of the Government of India responsible for enforcing The Competition Act, 2002 throughout India and to prevent activities that have an appreciable adverse effect on competition in India. It was established on 14 October 2003.

About The Competition Act, 2002

• The idea of Competition Commission was conceived and introduced in the form of The Competition Act, 2002 as a need was felt to promote competition and private enterprise especially in the light of 1991 Indian economic liberalisation.
• The Competition Act, 2002, as amended by the Competition (Amendment) Act, 2007, follows the philosophy of modern competition laws.
• The Act prohibits anti-competitive agreements, abuse of dominant position by enterprises and regulates combinations (acquisition, acquiring of control and Merger and acquisition), which causes or likely to cause an appreciable adverse effect on competition within India.

Objectives

• Make the markets work for the benefit and welfare of consumers.
• Ensure fair and healthy competition in economic activities in the country for faster and inclusive growth and development of economy.
• Implement competition policies with an aim to effectuate the most efficient utilisation of economic resources.
• Develop and nurture effective relations and interactions with sectoral regulators to ensure smooth alignment of sectoral regulatory laws in tandem with the competition law.
• Effectively carry out competition advocacy and spread the information on benefits of competition among all stakeholders to establish and nurture competition culture in Indian economy.

Source: PIB

Advanced Motor Fuels Technology Collaboration Programme (AMF TCP)

Topic: Organisations in News

IN NEWS:Recently a flock of five greater flamingoes were spotted on the Coast of Hope Island in East Godavari River Estuarine Eco (EGREE) System after a long gap of 25 years.

About Greater Flamingoes:

• The Greater Flamingo birds are the most widely found species among the Flamingo.
• These are long-legged and long-necked birds which are the filter feeders and get their characteristic pink colour from their diet of brine shrimps and algae available in the coastal wetlands.
• Flamingoes are the indicators of healthy coastal environment.The species inhabits shallow eutrophic water bodies such as saline lagoons, saltpans and large saline or alkaline lakes.
• The species nests in large dense colonies on mudflats or islands of large water bodies.
• Flamingoes suffers from low reproductive success if exposed to disturbance at breeding colonies (e.g. from tourists, low-flying aircraft) or if water-levels surrounding nest-sites lower resulting in increased access to predation from ground predators such as foxes and feral dogs.
• IUCN Status: Least Concern (LC)

Significance:

• Hope Island is a small tadpole shaped Island situated off the coast of Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, in Bay of Bengal.
• It is formed from the sediment outflow carried by the waters of the Koringa River, a distributary of the Godavari.
• It acts as natural barrier for storm surges and possible tsunami events and provides tranquillity to the ships anchored in Kakinada Bay which makes Kakinada Port one of the safest natural ports in the Eastern Coast of India.
• The sandy beaches of Hope island, along with the adjacent Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary are a nesting ground of the Vulnerable Olive Ridley turtle.

Source:The Hindu

Saura Jalnidhi scheme

Topic: Government Policies

In news: Odisha Government has launched Saura Jalnidhi scheme to encourage use of solar energy in irrigation by farmers.

About the Sheme:

• Soura Jalanidhi’, is a dug well based solar pump irrigation system in convergence mode. Under the scheme, 5,000 solar pumps will be given to Odisha farmers at a subsidy of 90 percent to irrigate 2,500 acres of land.
• The scheme will generate 1.52 lakh human day employments annually and provided livelihood to around 5,000 families and also reduce carbon footprints.
• Under this scheme, farmers will be provided with a well-equipped solar pump irrigation system in convergence mode. It will help to reduce burden of input cost on farmers and also increase agricultural income. It will promote the use of green energy and reduce pollution.

Source: PIB

POCSO Act

Topic: Polity and Governance

In news: A Special court for POCSO cases at Andhra Pradesh sets example by awarding convictions  in an appreciable time frame.

More on the Topic:

• The child-friendly court, a special court for the trial of offences under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, set up in April this year, awarded convictions in 18 POCSO cases.

POCSO Act:

• The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 deals with sexual offences against persons below 18 years of age, who are deemed as children.
• The Act for the first time, defines “penetrative sexual assault”, “sexual assault” and “sexual harassment”.
• The offence is considered graver if it is committed by a police officer, public servant, any member of the staff at a remand home, protection or observation home, jail, hospital or educational institution, or by a member of the armed or security forces.
• The Act has come into force on the 14th of November, 2012, along with the rules framed there under.

Objective of the act:

• The Act is a comprehensive law to provide for the protection of children from the offences of sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography, while safeguarding the interests of the child at every stage of the judicial process by incorporating child-friendly mechanisms for reporting, recording of evidence, investigation and speedy trial of offences through appointment of Special Public Prosecutors and designated Special Courts.
• The Act incorporates child friendly procedures for reporting, recording, investigation and trial offences.
• The Act provides for stringent punishments which have been graded as per the gravity of offence.

Source:The Hindu

Bridging safe water gap

Topic: Governance

In news: With 82 crore people who still do not have access to piped water and 70% of water in the country contaminated by pollutants, the government is increasingly starting to accept small water enterprises such as water ATMs and community purification plants as an alternative solution to the safe drinking water challenge.

Statistics:

• A recent report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) pointed out that only 18% of the rural population has access to potable piped water, failing to meet the 2017 target of 50%.
• India is ranked at 120 out of 122 countries on the Water Quality Index.

Way Forward:

• A new report by Safe Water Network (SWN) says the government needs to spend ₹44,000 crore on 2.2 lakh small water enterprises to provide safe drinking water to about 37 crore people, mostly in urban slums where piped water infrastructure is difficult to build, and in rural areas with contaminated water sources.
• While such enterprises cost only a fraction of piped water infrastructure, policy changes and at least a doubling of tariffs are needed to help them bridge the safe water gap.
• Community water purification plants have grown from less than 12,000 in 2014 to almost 50,000 in 2018, according to the SWN, as they have been incorporated into government planning.
• To reach the government’s Har Ghar Jal target of 100% piped water by 2030, almost ₹5 lakh crore of infrastructure investment will be required, says government data. SWN estimates that if the government is willing to spend less than 10% of that amount on small water enterprises, it could provide safe drinking water at a fraction of the cost.

About Safe Water Network:

• Safe Water Network is a non-profit organization. The organization was founded to help address the evidence gap in off-grid water systems as to what was working, what wasn’t and why.
• Today Safe Water Network works with the private and public sector to overcome the obstacles to local sustainability and scale. They empower communities, work with national, regional and local government authorities in India and Ghana, as well as partner with NGOs and private sector foundations and companies.
• With offices in Accra, New Delhi and New York, Safe Water Network oversees field initiatives to develop and refine models that can be taken to scale.

Source:The Hindu

Enforcement of unconstitutional laws in India

Topic: Governance

In news: In 2015, the Supreme Court struck down Section 66A of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, as unconstitutional. However, even after the judgement, the Muzaffarnagar police in Uttar Pradesh arrested and detained a person for allegedly committing a crime under Section 66A for posting some comments on Facebook last year.

More On the Topic

• Media reports on the continued application of Section 66A lend themselves to a narrative that the police are abusing their power in hamlets to commit the most obvious wrongs.
• But the facts show that this is far from the truth.From police stations, to trial courts, and all the way up to the High Courts, we found Section 66A was still in vogue throughout the legal system.
• Also, the Supreme Court in Mithu vs. State of Punjab struck down Section 303 of the Indian Penal Code as unconstitutional.
• Section 303 provided for a mandatory death sentence for offenders serving a life sentence.In 2012, years after Section 303 had been struck down, the Rajasthan High Court intervened to save a person from being hanged for being convicted under that offence.

What should be done?

• The lack of authority to enforce its own decisions made the judiciary to be labelled as the least dangerous branch.
• There is a need to avoid human error in enforcing judicial decisions to the greatest possible extent.
• The urgency cannot be overstated since enforcing unconstitutional laws is sheer wastage of public money.
• It will also make certain persons remain exposed to denial of their right to life and personal liberty in the worst possible way imaginable.
• They will suffer the indignity of lawless arrest and detention, for no reason other their poverty and ignorance, and inability to demand their rights.
• Thus there is a pressing need to move from a system where communication about judicial decisions is at the mercy of initiatives by scrupulous officers.

IEDs pose biggest risk in Manipur

Topic: Internal Security

In news: While the intensity of Manipur’s decades-old insurgency has been contained, with security forces ensuring there are no insurgent camps left in the State, militants continue to take advantage of the hilly terrain and porous border with Myanmar to carry out attacks with IEDs and sophisticated weapons.

More On the Topic

• With the forces conducting intelligence based operations that have limited the militants’ operational ability, Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and ambushes have become the insurgents’ mainstay and pose the biggest challenges for the Army and the Assam Rifles.
• This adds to the responsibility of the armed forces to ensure security along the highway to enable free movement.
• With the threat of IEDs and ambushes, the Army is already forced to conduct operations employing Road Opening Parties (ROP) to comb every inch of the 1,630 km of roads to ensure military movement.
• It takes up to three hours to sanitise a 10-km road stretch depending on the topography and needs more than 100 personnel.
• Manipur and Myanmar have a 16-km Free Movement Regime along the border which allows local residents to move freely.
• The four northeast Indian states share 1,643-km border with Myanmar – Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur.

GSAT-11

Topic: Science and Technology

In news: GSAT-11, the heaviest Indian communication satellite built to date, for faster Internet connectivity, is back once again at the Guiana Space Centre for an early December launch.

 More On the Topic

• GSAT-11 is a large planned Indian geostationary communications satellite. The satellite was planned to be launched in May 2018, but was delayed after ISRO recalled it back to India from the launch site in French Guiana for additional checks weeks after ISRO lost communication to another communication satellite, the GSAT-6A, soon after its launch in March 2018.
• GSAT-11 will be launched from the European spaceport in French Guiana as ISRO’s own Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk III) rocket can only lift a satellite weighing not more than four tonnes to Geostationary transfer orbit.

About Geostationary and Geo synchronous Orbit

• At any inclination, a geosynchronous orbit synchronizes with the rotation of the Earth. More specifically, the time it takes for the Earth to rotate on its axis is 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.09 seconds, which is the same as a satellite in a geosynchronous orbit.
• If you are an observer on the ground, you would see the satellite as if it’s in a fixed position without movement.
• This makes geosynchronous satellites particularly useful for telecommunications and other remote sensing applications.
• While geosynchronous satellites can have any inclination, the key difference to geostationary orbit is the fact that they lie on the same plane as the equator.
• Geostationary orbits fall in the same category as geosynchronous orbits, but it’s parked over the equator. This one special quality makes it unique from geosynchronous orbits.
• Weather monitoring satellites like GOES are in geostationary orbits because they have a constant view of the same area. In a high Earth orbit, it’s also useful for search and rescue beacons.

Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) norms

Topic: Indian Economy

In news: In India there is a public debate regarding relaxation of the Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) norms imposed on 11 public sector banks (PSBs).

What is PCA

• The PCA is triggered when banks breach certain regulatory requirements like minimum capital, return on asset and quantum of non-performing assets.
• To ensure that banks don’t go bust, RBI has put in place some trigger points to assess, monitor, control and take corrective actions on banks which are weak and troubled.
• The process or mechanism under which such actions are taken is known as Prompt Corrective Action, or PCA.

What is the significance of RBI’s PCA?

• RBI has set trigger points on the basis of CRAR (a metric to measure balance sheet strength), NPA and ROA.
• Based on each trigger point, the banks have to follow a mandatory action plan.
• Apart from this, the RBI has discretionary action plans too, the rationale for classifying the rule-based action points into “mandatory“ and “discretionary“ is that some of the actions are essential to restore the financial health of banks while other actions will be taken at the discretion of RBI depending upon the profile of each bank.
• Banks are not allowed to re new or access costly deposits or take steps to increase their fee-based income.
• Banks will also have to launch a special drive to reduce the stock of NPAs and contain generation of fresh NPAs.
• They will also not be allowed to enter into new lines of business, RBI will also impose restrictions on the bank on borrowings from interbank market.