Comprehensive News Analysis - 03 May 2017

Table of Contents:

A. GS1 Related:
B. GS2 Related:

POLITY

1. New IT rules to beef up Aadhaar

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. Modi expresses concern at Australia visa policy

C. GS3 Related:

ECONOMICS

1. Excess liquidity prompts banks to cut deposit rates

2. M.P. shifts fiscal year

3. Govt. quizzed on insurance for farmers

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

1. Inefficient use of power,water in paddy cultivation in Haryana

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

1. Institute to tap gut microbes for drugs

INTERNAL SECURITY

1. Army successfully test-fires Brahmos land-attack missile

2. India to unveil new IIP series

MISCELLANEOUS

1. Centre mulls aerotropolis in Assam

D. GS4 Related:
E. Concepts-in-News: Related Concepts to Revise/Learn
F. Bills/Acts/Schemes/Orgs in News
G. Practice Questions for UPSC Prelims Exam
H. Archives

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Useful News Articles for UPSC Current Affairs

A. GS1 Related

Nothing here for Today!!!

 

B. GS2 Related

Category:POLITY

1. New IT rules to beef up Aadhaar

What’s in news?

  • To address privacy and security concerns over Aadhaar, the Centre is in the process of educating government agencies that sensitive data must not be made public, and is drafting amendments to the Information Technology (IT) Act to strengthen provisions for data protection and security.

Area of focus: the new IT law will quell security concerns related to digital payments as well as privacy issues.

Data Leakages:

  • According to a report by the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS)- close to 135 million Aadhaar numbers and 100 million bank account numbers could have leaked from official portals dealing with government programmes of pensions and rural employment
  • With Aadhaar being used to authenticate and authorise transactions, the financial risks presented by the disclosure of such data are greatly exacerbated
  • As per the CIS report, the data in question has not been treated as confidential at all in several cases and the government agencies in question have, in fact, taken pains to publish them. “ These are wilful and intentional instances of treating Aadhaar numbers and other personally identifiable information (PII) as publicly shareable data by the custodians of the data,” the CIS report noted.

Category: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. Modi expresses concern at Australia visa policy

What’s in news?

  • Australia’s newly introduced visa restrictions (scrapping of “457” visa policy) are likely to impact India.
  • The issue of the visas came up when Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called up Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Changes made in 457 policy:

  • The tenure of the visas was to be reduced from four to two years.
  • Increase in visa fees.

 

C. GS3 Related

Category: ECONOMICS

1. Excess liquidity prompts banks to cut deposit rates

What’s in news?

  • Public sector lenders like State Bank of India (SBI) and Bank of Baroda have reduced interest on fixed deposits on various maturities from the end of April as the banking system is flush with liquidity.
  • SBI, the country’s largest lender, reduced the retail term deposit rate (for up to ₹1 crore) by 25-50 basis points (bps) on various maturities. (100 bps = 1 percentage point).
  • According to Reserve Bank of India, the surplus liquidity in the banking system was ₹8 lakh crore in March, though it has come down from its peak of ₹8 lakh crore in January.
  • In early January, banks had reduced the benchmark lending rate — the marginal cost of funds based lending rate — sharply, by about 90 bps.
  • The move followed demonetisation which resulted in significantly high mobilisation of low-cost deposits.
  • Banks had not reduced deposit rates at that time and now they have not cut their lending rates.

2. M.P. shifts fiscal year

What’s in news?

  • Madhya Pradesh will be the first State to switch to the January-December financial year from the present April-March cycle.
  • The change will mean the financial year will coincide with the calendar year.
  • It is believed that such a switch could have a significant impact on the economy.

3. Govt. quizzed on insurance for farmers

What’s in news?

  • The Supreme Court while looking into farmers’ suicides, the various reasons behind the tragedy, including bad debts and vagaries of nature has questioned the government policy on the fate of insurance schemes provided to farmers.

Question:

  • Whether the entire claim money would be forfeited, with the farmers getting nothing, in case he is unable to pay an instalment.

Why did the question arose:

  • The query came after Additional Solicitor General P.S. Narasimha submitted that the insurance provided to farmers has seen a “sea change” at the ground level.
  • Mr. Narasimha also said that the budgetary allocation devoted to protect the farmer is like “never before”.

Category: ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

1. Inefficient use of power,water in paddy cultivation in Haryana

What’s in news?

  • A study was conducted by the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID):
  • Study was conducted on the subject ‘Optimisation of Agriculture Power Subsidy and Irrigation Water Intensity in Haryana’,
  • Main objective: Assessing efficiency in water utilisation for source wise irrigation and assess implications of source wise irrigation for sustainable growth in agriculture and power sector. Subsidised and unmetered power supply to the farm sector in Haryana is leading to “inefficient” utilisation of groundwater and electricity on paddy cultivation.

Highlights

  • An estimated amount of Rs 844 crore is being spent as power subsidy on excess consumption of electricity on the paddy crop in the state.
  • An estimated 7.23 million acre feet (MAF) of underground water was extracted to meet excess irrigation for paddy crop, which suggested that water was being utilised in an inefficient manner through electric tube wells
  • Major findings: average number of times of actual irrigations was significantly higher than optimum number of times of irrigations required in most of kharif crops particularly in case of irrigation through electric tube wells.
  • During field surveys, the deterioration of quality of soil was also observed, mainly on account of continuous excess use of chemical fertiliser pesticides and ground water for irrigations.
  • Solution: Unmetered power supply promotes inefficiency in electricity consumption as well as utilisation of ground water. There is urgent need to ensure metered supply at consumer ends
  • Subsidised power supply should be targeted to marginal and small farmers and policy of direct benefit transfer may be explored in power subsidy which will require proper metering at consumer ends.

Category: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

1. Institute to tap gut microbes for drugs

What’s in news?

  • CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh (IMTech), is working on a programme to tap its vast collection of microbial samples and develop therapeutic products or drugs.
  • The global probiotics (or beneficial bacteria) industry has already started using certain species of bacteria as healing or curative agents. Mother Dairy, Amul, Danone Yakult, and Nestle India are among the leading producers of probiotic functional foods and beverages in India.
  • Their foods use lactobacilli and bifidobacteria to make yoghurt, curd, and several dietary supplements.
  • Evidence suggests that atherosclerosis, obesity, intestinal problems, and many psychological disorders lead to distinct changes in the composition of bacteria in the gut. Restoring balance or teasing out how the by-products of these organisms lead to chemical changes that cause disease, is at the heart of research. 

Key Fact:

  • The human body is estimated to have about 35 trillion cells, and about two to three times as many microbial organisms.
  • Most of them live in the gastrointestinal tract, which is home to around 3,000-4,000 species of bacteria, not including viruses and other life forms.
  • Some are harmful and many not.

Category: INTERNAL SECURITY

1. Army successfully test-fires Brahmos land-attack missile

What’s in news?

  • The Indian Army successfully test fired an advanced version of the Brahmos land-attack cruise missile in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, revalidating the weapon’s strike capability.
  • The land-to-land configuration of Brahmos missile was launched from a mobile autonomous launcher
  • The test firing of the block-III version of the missile demonstrated the weapon’s unmatched lethality of hitting the centre of a designated target with “bull’s eye” precision.

2. India to unveil new IIP series

What’s in news?

  • India will unveil a new series of Index of Industrial Production with a base year 2011-12 on May 9

Main Aim:

  • To map economic activities more accurately.
  • Currently, the IIP is calculated on base year of 2004-05.

Index of Industrial Production:

  • The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is an index for India which details out the growth of various sectors in an economy such as mining, electricity and manufacturing.
  • The all India IIP is a composite indicator that measures the short-term changes in the volume of production of a basket of industrial products during a given period with respect to that in a chosen base period.
  • It is compiled and published monthly by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) six weeks after the reference month ends.
  • The Eight Core Industries comprise nearly 38 % of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). These are Electricity, steel, refinery products, crude oil, coal, cement, natural gas and fertilisers.

Category: MISCELLANEOUS

1. Centre mulls aerotropolis in Assam

  • The Centre is planning to build an aerotropolis in Assam and has sought 2,000 acres from the state for the purpose.
  • Centre proposed to build an aerotropolis in the state which would bring huge benefits to the region in terms of civil aviation and air connectivity.
  • Centre has requested state government to allot 2,000 acres an hour’s journey away from Guwahati city near Brahmaputra river.

Basic Information:aerotropolis

  • An aerotropolis is a metropolitan subregion where the layout, infrastructure, and economy are centered on an airport which serves as a multimodal “airport city” commercial core.
  • It is similar in form to a traditional metropolis, which contains a central city commercial core and commuter-linked suburbs.
  • The engine of the aerotropolis is the airport and its air routes which offer firms speedy connectivity to their distant suppliers, customers, and enterprise partners worldwide.
  • The aerotropolis encompasses aviation-dependent businesses and the commercial facilities that support them and the multitude of air travelers who pass through the airport annually.
  • Airport-linked businesses include, among others, time-sensitive manufacturing, logistics, and e-commerce fulfillment; high-value perishables and biomeds; retail, sports, and entertainment complexes; hotels; conference, trade, and exhibition centers; and offices for business people who travel frequently by air or engage in global commerce.

 

D. GS4 Related

Nothing here for Today

 

   PIB Articles                  Editorials Roundup

 

E. Concepts-in-News: Related Concepts to Revise/Learn

 

F. Bills/Acts/Schemes/Orgs in News
BILLS/ACTS/SCHEMES/ORGANISATIONS IN NEWS About the Article
G. Practice Questions for UPSC Prelims Exam
Question 1: The famous biennial Thakurani Jatra festival was recently held in 
  1. Odisha
  2. Telangana
  3. Assam
  4. Meghalaya
See
Answer


(a)

Topic: Culture
Level: Moderate

Explanation: The famous biennial Thakurani Jatra festival was recently held in Berhampur (Odisha)

Question 2: Consider the following statements:
  1. An aerotropolis is a metropolitan subregion where the layout, infrastructure, and economy are centered on an airport.
  2. Recently the Centre decided to build an aerotropolis in Assam

Choose the correct answers.

  1. Only 1
  2. Only 2
  3. Both 1 and 2
  4. Neither 1 nor 2
See
Answer


(c)

Topic: Current Affairs
Level: Moderate

Explanation:

  • The Centre is planning to build an aerotropolis in Assam and has sought 2,000 acres from the state for the purpose.
  • An aerotropolis is a metropolitan subregion where the layout, infrastructure, and economy are centered on an airport which serves as a multimodal “airport city” commercial core.
Question 3: Which one of the following industry doesn’t fall into the category 
of core industries identified by IIP?
  1. Coal
  2. Cement
  3. Natural Gas
  4. Mining
See
Answer


(d)

Topic: Current Affairs
Level: Moderate

Explanation:

The Eight Core Industries comprise nearly 38 % of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). These are Electricity , steel, refinery products, crude oil, coal, cement, natural gas and fertilisers.

Question 4: Consider the following statements:
  1. IIP data is compiled by National sample survey office
  2. 2004-05 is the present base year for compiling IIP data

Choose the correct answers.

  1. Only 1
  2. Only 2
  3. Both 1 and 2
  4. Neither 1 nor 2
See
Answer


(b)

Topic: Economy
Level: Moderate

Explanation:

  • Currently, the IIP is calculated on base year of 2004-05.
  • IIP is compiled and published monthly by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) six weeks after the reference month ends.
Question 5: Probiotics are _______.
  1. Bacterial products having healing or curative power
  2. Fungal products having healing or curative power
  3. Archaea products having curing or healing power
  4. None of the above
See
Answer

(c)

Type: Science
Level: Easy

Explanation:

The global probiotics (or beneficial bacteria) industry has already started using certain species of bacteria as healing or curative agents. Mother Dairy, Amul, Danone Yakult, and Nestle India are among the leading producers of probiotic functional foods and beverages in India.

 

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