National Current Affairs – UPSC/KAS Exams- 24th December 2018
India needs to open up dredging market: NITI
Topic: Indian Economy
IN NEWS: NITI Ayog has recommended that India needs to open up its dredging market to boost trade by its major ports, which currently cannot handle very large vessels in the absence of proper draft depth.
More on the Topic:
- At present, the Dredging Corporation of India and a limited set of private vendors serve the Indian dredging market, limiting competition. “The government needs to open up the dredging market to attract more players, particularly international players, in dredging activities to increase and maintain draft depth at ports to attract large vessels and enable them to become hub ports.
- Foreign players will be attracted to the market if the government takes measures such as consolidating dredging contracts across cohorts of ports and withdrawing, at least temporarily, the right to first refusal given to Indian vendors
- More competition, mainly from global players, in dredging activities would help increase and maintain draft depth at ports and attract large vessels, enabling them to become hub ports.
- To enable major ports to handle large vessels, the government has already made an action plan to increase the draft depth of ports.
- Most major ports have already achieved a draft depth of 14 metres or more except Kolkata Port, where deeper draft has not been feasible.
Dredging Corporation of India:
- Dredging Corporation of India Limited, or DCI, is a Miniratna Indian public sector unit engaged in the business of dredging. DCI does dredging for Indian seaports exclusively. It occasionally dredges at foreign seaports in countries such as Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Dubai. It is mainly involved in maintenance dredging.
Source: The Hindu
Digital public credit registry (PCR)
Topic: Indian Economy
IN NEWS: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has shortlisted six major IT companies, including TCS, Wipro and IBM India, to set up a digital public credit registry (PCR) for capturing details of all borrowers and wilful defaulters.
More on the Topic:
- The proposed PCR will also include data from entities such as markets regulator SEBI, the Corporate Affairs Ministry, Goods and Service Tax Network (GSTN) and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), to enable banks and financial institutions to get a 360-degree profile of existing as well as prospective borrowers on a real-time basis.
About PCR
- The RBI had announced the setting up of a PCR to address information asymmetry, foster access to credit and strengthen the credit culture in the economy. The PCR would be the single point of mandatory reporting for all material events for each loan.
Source:The Hindu
Anak Krakatoa Volcano
Topic: Geography
In news: The volcano that triggered a deadly tsunami in Indonesia emerged from the sea around the legendary Krakatoa 90 years ago and has been on a high-level eruption watch-list for the past decade.
More on the Topic:
- Anak Krakatoa (the “Child of Krakatoa”) has been particularly active since June, occasionally sending massive plumes of ash high into the sky.
- Anak Krakatoa emerged around 1928 in the caldera of Krakatoa, a volcanic island that violently erupted in 1883.
- With subsequent lava flows it grew from a submarine setting to become a small volcanic island, with the cone now standing at an altitude of around 300 metres (1,000 feet) above sea level.
- Since its birth, Anak Krakatoa has been in a “state of semi-continuous eruptive activity”, growing bigger as it experiences eruptions every two to three years.
- The latest event appeared to be “a relatively small explosive eruption” but could then have triggered or coincided with a submarine event like a landslide or earthquake, causing the deadly tsunami.
- The island is part of the Ujung Kulon National Park.
Source: The Hindu
PM to open Buddhist site museum at Lalitgiri in Odisha
Topic: Art and Culture
In news: One of the earliest Buddhist settlements in Odisha, Lalitgiri, where excavations have yielded ancient seals and inscriptions, has been converted into a museum.
More on the Topic:
- Located in Cuttack district, it will be the third site museum of the Bhubaneswar circle of the Archaeological Survey of India after Ratnagiri and Konrak.
- Excavations at Lalitgiri have yielded the remains of four monasteries, showing cultural continuity from the post-Mauryan period till the 13th century CE.
- The centre of attraction is a relic casket containing corporal remains found inside the
- Huge sculptures of Buddha, architectural fragments of Viharas and Chaityas are arranged period-wise. . The central gallery is designed after a Buddha Mandala with a colossal Buddha image at the centre and six Bodhisattva images surrounding it.
Source: The Hindu
No rise in working women despite high literacy levels: ICRIER study
Topic: Women related issues
In news: According to a new research, a rise in literacy levels among women has failed to translate into an increase in the number of working women due to a combination of socio-economic factors such as the importance of education for improving marital prospects as well as higher prestige attached to households which keep women out of labour force.
More on the Topic:
- A study published by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) has cited the Labour Bureau’s employment figures to show that there is a rise in the percentage of women out of labour force between 2011-2012 and 2015-2016 across all levels of education and age-cohorts.
- This has happened even though there is gender parity in attainment of education. The gross enrolment ratio shows that there are equal numbers of boys and girls at secondary level and women remain in education longer.
Factors behind the trend:
- The research paper attributes the trend to four major factors: the role education plays in marriage markets, social norms, poor condition for educated women and quality of education.
- For many the incentive behind ensuring better education for their daughters is not so much the lure of a better paying job but the promise of a better marriage prospect.
- Social norms also ensure that higher prestige or social status is associated with families which keep their women out of the workforce.
- At the same time, the growth in formal sector jobs has not kept pace with the supply of educated women, which may have led to “crowding out of females” from the workforce.
Way Forward:
- The research study recommends that government policies should focus on behavioural changes that make female employment more acceptable in the society, communication programmes on gender equality in secondary education to help students imbibe equitable gender norms as well as programmes that acknowledge child care as the responsibility of both parents.
Source: The Hindu
Sardar Patel Award for National Integration
Topic: Awards and Honours
In news: Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi announced annual Sardar Patel Award for National Integration at the DGPs/IGPs Conference. This award would be given for outstanding efforts to further national integration.
More on the Topic:
- Sardar Patel devoted his life towards unifying India. The Sardar Patel Award for National Integration would be a fitting tribute to him and will inspire more people to work towards furthering India’s unity and national integration
Source: The Hindu
Centre of Excellence for Genetic Blood Disorders
Topic: Science and Technology
In news:The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, inaugurated the Centre of Excellence for Sickle Cell Anaemia, Thalassemia and Other Genetic Blood Disorders at the Prathima Institute of Medical Sciences in Karimnagar, Telangana.
More on the Topic:
- Genetic Blood Disorders genetic blood disorders are transmitted from parents to their children. Certain blood disorders are caused by the reduced production of red blood cells. Red blood cells in our body do not last forever and are needed to be produced after some time, when the production of these red blood cells stops it causes blood disorders in the body of the human beings and may result insome serious disease.
- There are several related abnormal hemoglobin diseases, such as sickle cell anemia and thalassemia.
- Such diseases can be transmitted from parents to children by genes on chromosomes.
Source: The Hindu
