Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 01 May 2017

:: National ::

South Asia satellite to be launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre

• The ‘South Asia Satellite,’ which India has built for use by countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) will be launched on May 5.

• This was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Mann Ki Baat radio address.

• He said the capacities of the satellite and the facilities it offered “will go a long way in addressing South Asia’s economic and developmental priorities.”

• Natural resources mapping, telemedicine, education, deeper IT connectivity or fostering people-to-people contact — this satellite will prove to be a boon in the progress of the entire region.

• Mr. Modi announced the satellite project at the 2014 SAARC summit in Nepal, and all SAARC countries, except Pakistan, have joined it.

• The total cost of launching the satellite is put at Rs. 235 crore, and it will be met by the Government of India, Minister of State for Atomic Energy and Space Jitendra Singh had said in Parliament.

• The GSAT-09 offers a full range of applications and services in telecommunication and broadcasting: Television, Direct-to-Home (DTH), Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs), Tele-education, Telemedicine and Disaster Management Support.

• The 2,230-kg satellite was built by the Indian Space Research Organisation and has 12 Ku-band transponders. It is cuboid in shape and built around a central cylinder. It has a mission life of over 12 years.

• It will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota on the Geostationary Launch Vehicle Mk-II. The GSLV-F09 is about 50 metre tall and is the 11th flight of the GSLV.

Election Commission is actively considering revision of its recount rules

• The Election Commission is actively considering revision of its recount rules so that slips generated by the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) devices can be matched with the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) count.

• Election Commission (EC) told that the office of the Chief Election Commissioner had received thousands of representations suggesting that changes be made to the recount rules to allow tallying with VVPAT slips.

• Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had demanded that the Election Commission randomly count VVPAT-generated slips and tally them with EVM results.

• The Election Commission functionary said that after the Centre approved the purchase of VVPAT machines, there was little point in looking at why the Commission had to send several reminders to the Government to sanction funds.

U.S. to decide on its continuation in the Paris climate agreement

• The U.S. will decide on its continuation in the Paris climate agreement in the next two weeks, President Donald Trump said, naming China, Russia and India for allegedly contributing nothing under the treaty.

• During the campaign, Mr. Trump had promised to withdraw from the treaty, but senior officials of his administration are divided over the issue. A decision is expected before the G-7 summit on May 26-27.

• “Our government rushed to join international agreements where the U.S. bears the costs and the burden while other countries get the benefit and pay nothing and this includes deals like the Paris Climate Accord...,” he said.

Crop failure, absence of assured water resources etc are reasons for farmers suicides

• A study conducted across 13 States by the Union Agriculture Ministry throws up the all-too-familiar reasons that drive farmers to suicide.

• The Ministry’s agricultural economic research unit, investigated farmers’ suicides in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

• The story behind each death points to frequent crop failure, vagaries of the monsoon, absence of assured water resources, attacks of pests and diseases, debts, farming and social causes.

• Nothing has changed on the ground for the farmer in the past two years, as is clear from the Union Home Ministry’s National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), which disseminates and compiles information on “suicides.

• NCRB reports up to 2015 reveal identical causes of suicides among farmers — bankruptcy, farming-related issues, family problems, illness, drug abuse or alcoholism.

• The court expanded the ambit of the petition to farmers’ suicides across the country and had asked the Centre on March 27 to provide an action plan to end the human tragedy.

• The affidavit suggests crop insurance, crop and enterprise diversification, government intervention through MSP covering cost of production plus a reasonable profit margin, establishing farmers’ welfare cells as support groups and regulating informal credit market as remedies.

• Besides, the Reserve Bank of India has allowed State and district level banks to take a lenient view on rescheduling of loans if crop loss is 33% or more.

• The government has highlighted the Kisan Credit Card scheme and the e-National Agricultural Market Scheme launched on April 14, 2016 to “create a single unified market for the State and ultimately for the nation for agricultural commodities.”

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:: Business and Economy ::

Railway Ministry’s plans to allow private companies to run freight trains

• The Railway Ministry’s plans to allow private companies to run freight trains from their own private terminals may lead to faster evacuation of cargo, but the proposed move faces multiple challenges.

• As per plan, firms and manufacturers that transport bulk of their produce through the railway network would be allowed to set up their own private terminals from where their own trains would ply to delivery centres.

• The trains will run on Indian Railways’ tracks and the operation of the trains will remain with the railways. This is per the provisions of the Special Freight Train Operations Scheme of the Ministry of Railways.

• However, the problems being faced by Indian Railways such as creaky signalling infrastructure and tracks needing maintenance will largely remain the same.

• The problem is compounded on congested routes such as between Delhi and Mumbai, which already face pressure from both passenger and freight trains.

• The impact may not be immediate since it would require more time to build up infrastructure. The Railways, under Minister Suresh Prabhu, may be undergoing transformation, but scepticism persists.

• Besides, the precedence given to passenger trains is expected to cause uncertainties in running freight trains in a scheduled manner. This may defeat the very purpose behind the partial opening up of the freight transport arm of the railways.

• Apart from the convenience of transporting cargo through own trains, the economic viability of any such operation would remain a major question for private operators.

• Analysts said the main cause of unprofitable operations may be attributed to the charges by Railways and ad-hoc changes in tariffs for some of the profitable cargo (heavy cargo and long distance haulage).

• Also lack of guarantee of timely delivery of the consignment has repulsed the EXIM cargo, they added. For example, the railways command less than one third of total container volumes at JNPT, the largest container port in India located in Mumbai.

• Another concern that bogs potential private operators is the lack of clarity on whether they would be allowed to run their rakes on the proposed Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs) being set up in the country.

• In addition, there is lack of clarity on the approval process for rakes and the design specifications.

• As per existing rules, the approval from the Research Designs & Standards Organisation (RDSO) of the Railways is required for running any non-standard rake.

• It is feared that the approval process could take a long time and bureaucratic hassles would jeopardise the genuine intent, said industry sources.

• The absence of a credible dispute resolution mechanism has also been red flagged by analysts. The Railways, being both the operator and regulator, meant that the dispute resolution system in place may not be adequately effective.

• However, it is expected that the proposed Rail Development Authority may address the issues of effective and efficient regulation as well as dispute resolution.

• Finally, although the intent to allow private operators to run their own rakes is laudable, ambitious and bold, it has to be backed by proper implementation mechanism, according to consultants.

India and the U.S. to held talks in sectors such as infrastructure, digital technologies

• India and the U.S. are slated to hold trade talks in May to identify opportunities in sectors such as infrastructure, digital technologies and smart cities even as commercial ties have soured by the recent visa and intellectual property (IP) issues.

• The discussions apart from food processing and supply chain logistics will focus on financial services, virtual currencies, clean energy, healthcare and manufacturing from a technology partnership perspective.

• During the mega trade expo called ‘Glorious India’ in New Jersey on May 27-28, the focus of the talks will shift to garments, gems and jewellery, travel & tourism and real estate.

• About 400 companies from India will take part in ‘Glorious India’ backed by the Indian Commerce and Industry Ministry (leading the ‘Make in India programme’) and Tourism Ministry (spearheading the ‘Incredible India’ initiative).

• India-US trade in goods and services had risen to around $115 billion in 2016 from $109 billion in 2015, according to U.S. government data, and the aim is to raise this to $500 billion soon.

• This indication of visa curbs came close on the heels of the U.S. government on March 3 “temporarily suspending premium processing for all H-1B petitions, including cap-exempt petitions, for up to six months.”

• During that discussion on the sidelines of the ‘India Integrated Transport & Logistics Summit 2017’, the USIBC will unveil a task force on supply chain standards.

• On May 9, there will be talks on legal and policy issues relating to the use of digital technologies like the IoT and cloud computing.

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