National Current Affairs – UPSC/IAS Exams- 28th June 2019

by Mentors4ias · June 28, 2019

National mission on natural language translation

Topic: Government Initiatives

In News: The Ministry of Electronics and IT will soon place before the Union Cabinet a ₹450 crore proposal for Natural Language Translation — one of the key missions identified by the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC).

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The national mission on natural language translation aims to make science and technology accessible to all by facilitating access to teaching and researching material bilingually in English and in one’s native Indian language. To achieve this, the government plans to leverage a combination of machine translation and human translation.
The proposal is part of the 100-day action plan charted out by MeitY.
To overcome the language barrier, the government planned to set up an ecosystem which involved the Central and State agencies and start-ups.
Translation activities can also help generate employment for educated unemployed. The mission would help not just students but also teachers, authors, publishers, translation software developers and general readers.

Implementation Agency:

The IT ministry is the lead agency for implentation of the mission along with the Ministry of Human Resource Development and Department of Science and Technology.

About PM-STIAC:

The PM-STIAC is an overarching body that identifies challenges in certain areas of science and technology. It then creates a road map to deal with these challenges and presents the recommendations to the Prime Minister.
Besides natural language translation, other missions identified by the body includes Quantum Frontier, Artificial Intelligence, National Bio-diversity mission, electric vehicles, BioScience for Human Health and deep ocean exploration.

Source: The Hindu

Maharaja Ranjit Singh

Topic: Modern Indian History

In News: On the 180th death anniversary of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the legendary ruler of Punjab, a statue was unveiled at the Lahore Fort.

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Ranjit Singh was born on November 13, 1780 in Gujranwala, now in Pakistan.
At that time, Punjab was ruled by powerful chieftains who had divided the territory into Misls.
Ranjit Singh overthrew the warring Misls and established a unified Sikh empire after he conquered Lahore in 1799.
He was given the title Lion of Punjab (Sher-e-Punjab) because he stemmed the tide of Afghan invaders in Lahore, which remained his capital until his death.
His general Hari Singh Nalwa built the Fort of Jamrud at the mouth of the Khyber Pass, the route the foreign rulers took to invade India.
At the time of his death, he was the only sovereign leader left in India, all others having come under the control of the East India Company in some way or the other.

Ranjit Singh’s Empire:

Ranjit Singh’s trans-regional empire spread over several states. His empire included the former Mughal provinces of Lahore and Multan besides part of Kabul and the entire Peshawar.
The boundaries of his state went up to Ladakh and in to the northeast.
His empire extended till Khyber pass in the northwest, and up to Panjnad in the south where the five rivers of Punjab fell into the Indus.
During his regime, Punjab was a land of six rivers, the sixth being the Indus.
The maharaja was known for his just and secular rule; both Hindus and Muslims were given powerful positions in his Darbar.
The Sikhs take pride in him for he turned Harimandir Sahib at Amritsar into the Golden Temple by covering it with gold.
Right at the doorstep of the sanctum sanctorum of the temple is a plaque that details how in 1830 AD, the maharaja did sewa over 10 years.
He is also credited with funding Hazoor Sahib gurudwara at the final resting place of Guru Gobind Singh in Nanded, Maharashtra.

Source: The Hindu

BIMSTEC

Topic: India and Neighborhood Relations

In News: There is a shift of focus from other regional initiatives such as SAARC to BIMSTEC in the past five years. It can be attributed to the inability of SAARC to foster regional cooperation and make progress.

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Regional cooperation under SAARC saw no progress, as indicated by the fact that the group has not met since 2014.
Further, the summit stood cancelled in 2016 because it was boycotted by India, along with three other member states, owing to terror attacks in India allegedly sponsored by Pakistan-linked operatives.
This prompted the Indian government to shift its focus to BIMSTEC to enhance regional cooperation, as manifested by the BIMSTEC state heads being invited to the oath-taking ceremony of the incumbent Modi government.

Why BIMSTEC is a viable option:

Regional initiatives in Asia, like SAARC, have been defined along the tangents of strategy and security more than they have been along economic, cultural and social lines.
This can be attributed to contemporary geopolitical concerns and the mistrust that exists among the countries that are party to these organisations.
Nevertheless, it is likely that looking towards BIMSTEC for regional economic, cultural and social cooperation may prove fruitful.
This is because it does not include Pakistan, which has been an impediment to SAARC’s success and has kept the group’s relational dynamic focused on security and strategy.
Further, China’s absence in BIMSTEC could mean that there may be fewer obstacles hindering the achievement of the organisation’s mandate. This is because bilateral and contentious issues will be excluded from the group’s deliberations, especially given that India and China have conflicting world views and sometimes clash on regional goals.
As the renegotiation of SAARC remains unattainable, BIMSTEC might be a viable option for India to maintain its foreign policy discourse. However, New Delhi will have to take into account the fact that in Asia, economics and politics have historically been deeply integrated, and not fall into the acquiescence trap.

Source: The Hindu

Indian Ties with Japan

Topic: International Relations

In News: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that ties between India and Japan had become stronger from the time the two countries cooperated to make a car to coming together to manufacture a bullet train.

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The Japan-India Association was set up in 1903, and is one of the oldest international friendship bodies in Japan.
The two countries having signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in 2011 to facilitate growth in bilateral trade. This was described as the most comprehensive of all such agreements concluded by India covering trade in goods and services, movement of persons, investments, intellectual property rights, Customs procedures and other trade related issues.
The CEPA envisages abolition of tariffs on over 94% of items traded between India and Japan over a period of 10 years.
While Japan has been one of the biggest sources of investment flows into India, accounting for $28.16 billion in FDI between April 2000 and June 2018, trade engagements have been below potential.

Japan’s Investment in India:

Japan has been extending bilateral loan and grant assistance to India since 1958, and is its largest bilateral donor.
In the last five years, $90 billion has gone into the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, which will see new towns, industrial parks, ports and airports alongside the 1,483-km high-speed rail and road line being developed between two of India’s top cities.
Japan is also backing the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (bullet train) service, Approximately 81% of the cost of the project is to be funded through a soft loan from Japan’s government.
Discussions have also taken place on the Dedicated Freight Corridor, a project of close to Rs 50,000 crore of which Japanese assistance has been of about Rs 38,000 crore.
The first section of 190 km, from New Ateli to New Phulera stations, has been opened on the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor while the next segment of 492 km between Rewari and Marwar is likely to open soon. Final completion is targeted for March 2020.
Progress on some of the Metro projects being funded by the Japanese across Indian cities was taken stock of, including the Delhi Mass Rapid Transit System and Chennai Metro.

Model Mains Question: Comment on the importance of India Japan relations in terms of their shared interests.

Source: The Hindu

Reserve Bank of India Financial Stability Report

Topic: Indian Economy

In News: Gross non-performing assets in the banking system have declined for the second consecutive half year, while credit growth is picking up, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in the half yearly Financial Stability report.

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Gross NPA ratio declined to 9.3% as on March 2019. It was 10.8% in September 2018 and 11.5% in March 2018.
Gross NPAs could further decline to 9% by March 2020, the macro stress tests indicated.
Following capital infusion by the government in public sector banks, the overall capital adequacy ratio of commercial banks improved.
Highlighting the need for governance reforms, RBI Governor said that the proof of the pudding lay in the public sector banks’ ability to attract private capital through market discipline, rather than being overly dependent on the government for capital.

About Capital Adequacy Ratio:

The capital adequacy ratio (CAR) is a measurement of a bank’s available capital expressed as a percentage of a bank’s risk-weighted credit exposures.
The capital adequacy ratio, also known as capital-to-risk weighted assets ratio (CRAR), is used to protect depositors and promote the stability and efficiency of financial systems around the world.
Two types of capital are measured: tier-1 capital, which can absorb losses without a bank being required to cease trading, and tier-2 capital, which can absorb losses in the event of a winding-up and so provides a lesser degree of protection to depositors.

Source: The Hindu

Desert-dwelling carnivorous dinosaur

Topic: Environment and Ecology

In News: A desert-based carnivorous dinosaur that used claws to capture small prey 90 million years ago has been unearthed in southern Brazil.

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The Vespersaurus was a theropod, a group of two-footed, meat-eating dinosaurs that included the better known Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor.
Footprints now believed to belong to this new species of dinosaur were discovered in Cruzeiro do Oeste in the 1970s.

Source: The Hindu

High Methane Levels on Mars

Topic: Science and Technology

In News: High amounts of Methane in the air on Mars was rediscovered by Curiosity.This lead to excitement whether this was an indication of life on the Red Planet.

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On Earth, methane (CH4) is a naturally occurring gas.Most of the methane on Earth is produced in biological processes.
However, methane can also be produced by abiotic processes as chemical reactions, found in rocks, springs and aquifers.
Since many living organisms in Earth releases methane, the presence of methane in Mars is considered a potential indicator of life.
Curiosity has an instrument called the Sample Analysis at Mars which is a laser spectrometercapable of measuring atmospheric composition.But it cannot definitively say whether the source of the methane is biological or geological.
In most previous observations on Mars, the concentration of methane in the Martian air has been low (7 parts per billion).
Last week’s initial readings were an unprecedented 21 parts per billion. But the second reading had fallen back to less than 1 part per billion.
So this suggests that last week’s methane detection was a transient methane plume. However scientists haven’t been able to determine how long the spikes last or why they differ.