Daily Current Affairs: 18th September 2019: Hindu+PIB

Daily Current Affairs: 18th September 2019: Hindu+PIB

The following compilation has been made keeping in mind the need of the UPSC IAS exam. Each and every topic which has been included in this compilation is taken from very authentic and relevant source including The Hindu, The Indian Express, Business Standard, Press Information Bureau, etc.

As per the evolving pattern of the UPSC IAS prelims and mains exam each and every topic has been handpicked keeping in mind the syllabus of the exam.

 ASTRA

Context: Air-to-Air missile, ASTRA, has been successfully flight tested on 16 September 2019 off the coast of Odisha from Su-30 MKI as a part of User trials.

Key point about missile

• It is an all weather beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile which is developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, India.

• It is also the first air-to-air missile which is developed by India.

• Astra is designed in a way that enables it to engage targets at varying range and altitudes allowing for engagement of both short-range targets at a distance of 20 km and long-range targets up to a distance of 80 km.

• Astra has been integrated with IAF's Sukhoi Su-30MKI and is further planned to be integrated with Dassault Mirage 2000 and Mikoyan MiG-29 in the future. 

 

Two new plant species discovered

Context: A team of researchers have reported the discovery of two new plant species from the shola forests of the Western Ghats.

About the species

• The two species so discovered belong to the family Asclepiadaceae or milkweed family. The general characteristics of the family includes the latex in plant parts and pappus seeds.

• Tylophora balakrishnanii, is a straggling vine, which has been discovered from the Thollayiram shola in Wayanad, which is a biodiversity hotspot in the Nilgiri biosphere reserve. It species has been named after V. Balakrishnan, member-secretary, Kerala State Biodiversity Board, and former director of the MSSRF, Wayanad, in recognition of his contributions to biodiversity.

• The flowers of the plant are reddish pink in color and the species is similar to the coastal plant Tylophora flexuosa.  However, it is different in terms of its floral parts arrangement and morphology.

• Tylophora neglecta has been discovered from the shola forest on the Thooval Mala hill under the Achencoil forest division in Kollam.

• The flowers of the new species are white with a violet tinge with leaves being thick and bristly in nature.

NGT seeks report on steps for gharial conservation Context: The NGT has directed the Madhya Pradesh government to submit separate progress report regarding the steps taken to conserve gharial habitat along the Son river within 3 weeks.

 

According to the IUCN, their population has declined by 96-98% since 1946, despite the Centre declaring it a protected species under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.About Gharial

• Also known as gavial, and fish-eating crocodile.

• It is native to sandy freshwater river banks in the plains of the northern part of the Indian subcontinent.

• The gharial population is estimated to have declined from 5,000-10,000 individuals in 1946 to less than 250 individuals alive in 2006, which is a drastic decline of 96–98% within three generations.

• The gharial is listed on CITES Appendix I. In India, it is protected under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. It is also listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.

• Apart from above protection, The Indian Crocodile Conservation Project was set up in 1975 under the auspices of the Government of India, initially in Odisha's Satkosia Gorge Sanctuary.

• The project was implemented with financial aid of the United Nations Development Fund and Food and Agriculture Organization. 

• A gharial breeding center was built in Nandankanan Zoological Park.

Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorized Occupants) Amendment Act, 2019 Context: The Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorized Occupants) Amendment Bill, 2019 which was passed by the Parliament during the last Budget Session has came into effect.KEY HIGHLIGHTS OF THE ACT

• The Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Amendment Bill, 2019 was introduced by the Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs on July 8, 2019. 

• The Bill amends the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971.  The Act provides for the eviction of unauthorised occupants from public premises in certain cases. 

Residential accommodation 

• ‘Residential accommodation occupation’ is defined as the occupation of public premises by a person on the grant of a license for such occupation.  The license must be given for a fixed tenure, or for the period the person holds office.  

• Also, the occupation must be allowed under the rules made by the central, state or union territory government, or a statutory authority (such as Parliament Secretariat, or a central government company, or premises belonging to a state government). 

Notice for eviction 

• The Bill has a provision laying down the procedure for eviction from residential accommodation.  It requires an estate officer (an officer of the central government) to issue a written notice to a person if he is in unauthorised occupation of a residential accommodation.

• The notice will require the person to show cause of why an eviction order should not be made against him, within 3 working days. The written notice must be fixed to a conspicuous part of the accommodation, in a prescribed manner. 

Order of eviction

• The estate officer will make an order for eviction, after considering the cause shown, and making any other inquiries.

• If the person fails to comply with the order, the estate officer may evict such person from the residential accommodation, and take possession of it.  

• For this purpose, the estate officer may also use such force as necessary.

Payment of damagesIf the person in unauthorised occupation of the residential accommodation challenges the eviction order passed by the estate officer in court, he will be required to pay damages for every month of such occupation. ARPIT 2019 : Annual Refresher Programme in Teaching

 

Context: The programme has been launched by the Union HRD Minister under the Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching (PMMMNMTT) in New Delhi.

What is it?ARPIT (Annual Refresher Programme in Teaching) is a major and unique initiative of online professional development of 1.5 million higher education facility using the MOOC's platform SWAYAM.How it will be implemented?In order to implement ARPIT, discipline-specific National Research Centers (NRCs) are identified which are tasked to prepare online training material with focus on latest developments in the discipline, new and emerging trends, pedagogical improvements and methodologies for the transaction of revised curriculum.Which institutions are involved in this?A list of institutions has been notified as NRCs by the Ministry under the program. These includes Centers under the Ministry's Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching (PMMMNMTT) located in Central Universities, IISc, IUCAA, IITs, IISERs, NITs, State Universitites; UGC's HRDCs, IIITs, etc. JAMMU & KASHMIR PUBLIC SAFETY ACT (PSA) Context: In line with the provisions of J&K PSA, National Conference leader and former J&K CM Farooq Abdullah has been detained.

This was not the first case under the J&K PSA, earlier also, former IAS officer Shah Faesal was stopped at the New Delhi airport and was sent back to Kashmir, where he was detained under the Act.What is J&K Public Safety Act?Originally, The Act was introduced by the government of Sheikh Abdullah as a tough law in order to prevent the smuggling of timber and to keep the smugglers out of circulation. The Act received the J&K Governor's assent in 1978.The salient features of the Act includes:

• It allowed the government to detain any person who is above the age of 16 without trial for a period of 2 years "in case the person is acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of the State."

• It was in August 2018, that the Act was amended to allow individuals to be detained under the PSA outside the state as well.

• The detention orders under the Act can be issued by Divisional Commissioners or the District Magistrates. Also, the detaining authorities need not disclose any facts about the detention "which it considers to be against the public interest to disclose."

• The Act provides protection from prosecution or any other legal proceedings for any action taken "in good faith" under the Act.

What does the critics say?The law has been referred to as the 'draconian' law, right from its initial days. The law was widely misused and was repeatedly employed against the political opponents by the consecutive governments until 1990. Later, after the emergence of militancy, the J&K govt. frequently invoked the PSA to crack down on the separatists. Report by Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU)

 

Context: FOLU recently conduced a global study which has quantified the damage caused by the modern food industry to human health, development and the environmental costs involved.

The report has been named as "Growing Better: Ten Critical Transitions to Transform Food and Land Use."Key Highlights of the studyThe study highlights the "hidden cost" which is the damage that the modern food industry has done to human health, development and environment and is came out to be $12 trillion (approximately equal to the China's GDP) in a single year to the world.The population is highly vulnerable to crop failures due to the global over-dependence on a relatively small number of staple foods with climate change further adding strain to the situation.According to the study, India has 4% of the global freshwater resources to support 19% of the world's population. Somewhere around 80% of water in India is consumed by agriculture, primarily from groundwater sources, which is unsustainable.The government policies like the Eat Right Movement of FSSAI in 2017, the NFSA of 2013 and the Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) in Andhra Pradesh- which are already in existence has in a long term addressed the critical transitions that the new study recommends.Further, the report proposes a series of solutions, which varies from encouraging more diverse diets to improve health and reduce dependency on specific crops, to giving larger support to the types of farming that can restore forest, which acts as a key tool in fighting the climate change. QUICK FEEDS

KEMPEGOWDA BRONZE STATUE

A plan for the construction of a 101-foot-tall Kempegowda bronze statue at the Bengaluru Airport at cost of Rs 100 crore is proposed by the CM Yediyurappa.

Nadaprabhu Hiriya Kempe Gowda (1510-1569), also know as the KEMPEGOWDA, was an Indian ruler under the Vijayanagara Empire. He is basically a political icon for the dominant Vokkaliga community which is an agricultural community in south Karnataka.The city of Bengaluru, was founded by him in 1537. He is also remembered for his societal reforms and contributions to building temples and water reservoirs in Bengaluru. He was a successful planner and built the Bengaluru Fort and Bengaluru Pete, which is the foundation of Bengaluru.One of his key societal reform was to prohibit the custom of amputating the last two fingers of the left hand of the unmarried women during 'BANDI DEVARU' which is an important custom of Morasu Vokkaligas.It is interesting to know that Bengaluru's airport is known as the Kempegowda International Airport, the main bus stand is the Kempegowda Bus Stand, and a main arterial road in the old city is the K G Road or the Kempegowda Road.Dr. Kalam Smriti International Excellence Award 2019The Award has been given to Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina for her vision of a peaceful and prosperous South Asia and her contribution to fostering cooperation between India and Bangladesh.

The Award has been instituted in the memory of former President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and is given every year to honour statesmen or leaders who have shown excellence in their field to achieve best for their countries.Since its introduction in 2015, the award has been given to the President of Maldives, President of Ghana and the President of Mauritius.Dale View, an NGO registered under the Charitable Societies Act, presents the award every year. The NGO has is roots from Kerala where it was established in 1978 to bring about socio-economic development to rural areas through education.New Term defined by BiologistsThe biologists and the biomedical engineers are proposing to define a new term, "YANK", for changes in force over time, so that scientists would be able to study the muscle behaviour in a better way. The major objective of such a proposal is to quantify something that our muscles and nerves can feel and respond to.It would be helpful in understanding Spasticity, a common muscle impairment in multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, stroke and cerebral palsy. READ MORE

17th September 2019 Current Affairs

16th September 2019 Current Affairs