Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 02 January 2023

::NATIONAL::

Remote Electronic Voting Machines

• The Election Commission of India (ECI) said on December 28 that it was ready to pilot remote voting for domestic migrants through newly devised remote electronic voting machines (RVMs) so that the voter does not have to travel to their home State or district to cast their vote. 

How significant is the migrant vote?

• EC has admitted that the absence of a central database for migrants poses a problem on the issue of remote voting. 
• However, the EC recognises that “migration-based disenfranchisement is indeed not an option in the age of technological advancement.”
• As per the 2011 census, 45.36 crore Indians (37% of the population) were internal migrants, settled in a place different from that of their registered residence. 
• Expressing concerns about a stagnating electoral participation, the EC says that while 67.4% of the eligible 91.2 crore Indians voted in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, about one-third or close to 30 crore voters did not cast their vote. 

About remote voting:

• The RVMs will have the same security system and voting experience as the EVM, with the modification of an electronic ballot display with candidates and symbols instead of a fixed ballot paper sheet.
• When the voter scans his/her constituency card in the presence of the Presiding Officer at the station, their respective constituency and candidate list will appear on the RVM display.
• As for counting the votes, the electronic system will also count and store the votes for each candidate in a constituency.

What is the EC’s proposal for RVMs?

• In its 2015 order on a plea seeking voting opportunities for domestic migrants, the Supreme Court directed the EC to explore remote voting options. 
• A committee of the poll panel had considered remote voting options such as proxy voting, postal ballots, Internet voting, and early voting but did not recommend any of these methods citing various reasons. 
• The EC has now come up with a prototype for a Multi-Constituency Remote Electronic Voting Machine (RVM) for migrant voting, a modified version of the existing EVM model.

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Vibrant Village Programme

• Union Home Minister said that borders can be permanently secured only when border villages are populated by patriotic citizens who are concerned for the country.

About:

• Vibrant Villages Programme (VVP) has been announced in the Finance Minister’s Budget Speech 2022.
• VVP is aiming at enhancing infrastructure in villages along India's border with China, in states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Arunachal Pradesh.
• Activities under the VVP include building infrastructure such as housing, tourist centres, road connectivity, providing decentralised renewable energy, direct-to-home access for Doordarshan and educational channels, and support for livelihood generation.
• The programme envisages coverage of border villages on Northern border having sparse population, limited connectivity and infrastructure, which often get left out from the development gains.
• Convergence of existing schemes is proposed under VVP. The villages on the Northern border to be covered under VVP are being finalised.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty

• India and Saudi Arabia are in talks to sign a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) to obtain formal assistance from each other in investigations related to criminal cases.

About:

• Saudi Arabia is only among a dozen other countries that does not have either an MLAT or any other bilateral agreement with India to facilitate such investigations. 
• India has so far signed MLATs with 45 countries, and is also in talks to finalise MLATs with Italy and Germany.
• According to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), an MLAT is “a mechanism whereby countries cooperate with one another in order to provide and obtain formal assistance in prevention, suppression, investigation and prosecution of crime to ensure that the criminals do not escape or sabotage the due process of law for want of evidence available in different countries.”

Significance:

• The signing of the treaty would help in getting a conviction for an accused in a court of law, based on evidence gathered through the mutual agreement. 
• MLATs are used to send a formal request for investigation in foreign countries for collection of evidence, examination of witness and execution of orders of attachment and confiscation of assets.
• According to the MHA, in countries which are not covered by any bilateral or multilateral treaty or agreement or international convention, the summons, notices and judicial processes are served on the basis of an “assurance of reciprocity.”

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King Penguins

• A 2018 study found that global warming was on track to wipe out 70% of the world's king penguins by the end of the century.

About:

• They are the 2nd largest penguin species.
• They live on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands. Major colonies are found on Crozet, Prince Edward Island, Kerguelen Island, Heard Island, South Georgia and Macquarie Island.
• King penguins don't make a nest and they carry their egg around with them at all times on top of their feet by taking turns.
• According to IUCN it is under the category of Least Concern.
• Threats: Climate change, habitat shifting and southward shifting of the Antarctic Polar Front.

::Economy::

Financial Stability Report

• Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released its biannual Financial Stability Report.
• As per the report, asset quality of the banking system has improved with Gross Non-Performing Assets (GNPA) ratio declining to the lowest in 7 years.

About:

• FSR is a bi-annual report that reflects risks to financial stability and the resilience of Indianfinancial system (Global FSR is released by IMF).
• With inputs from all financial sector regulators, it reflects overall evaluation of Sub Committeeof Financial Stability and Development Council.

Key highlights

• Gross non-performing asset (GNPA) ratio of scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) fell to aseven-year low of 5.0% and net NPA have dropped to ten-year low of 1.3% in September 2022.
• Buoyant demand for bank credit and early signs of a revival in investment cycle.

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Significance:

• Reading the FSR tells us how robust or vulnerable our financial system — especially our banking system — is to the changes in the economy.
• As a corollary, it also tells us whether and to what extent will our banks and other lending institutions (such as Non-Banking Finance Companies and Housing Finances Companies) be able to support future growth.
• For instance, if the FSR reveals that the percentage of NPAs or bad loans in the banking system is high and also shows that the government fiscal deficit is also high then it means that not only will the banks struggle to function effectively (and fund future growth) but also that if banks were to falter then the government may find it tough to bail them out.

::SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY::

Satyendra Nath Bose

• •    The 129th birth anniversary of Satyendra Nath Bose has been celebrated recently.

About:

• •    Born on January 1, 1894, he grew up and studied in Kolkata, where he solidified his position as an exemplary academician. 
• •    His father, an accountant in the Executive Engineering Department of the East Indian Railways, gave him an arithmetic problem to solve every day before going to work, encouraging Bose’s interest in mathematics.
• •    By the age of 15, he began pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree at the Presidency College, and later finished his MSc in Mixed Mathematics in 1915. 
• •    He topped his class for both degrees and at 22, he was appointed as a lecturer at Calcutta University, along with astrophysicist MeghnadSaha.
• •    He was awarded Padma Vibhushan, one of the highest civilian awards in the country, by the Indian government in 1954 and five years later, was appointed as National Professor.

Research and findings: 

• •    While teaching Planck’s formula for the distribution of energy from black body radiation, Bose began questioning the way particles were counted — his basic argument was that one photon of light is not distinguishable from another of the same colour — and came up with his own derivation, instead of relying on classical electrodynamics like his predecessors.
• •    Bose first sent his findings, recorded in a paper titled Planck’s Law and the Hypothesis of Light Quanta, to a famous science journal called The Philosophical Magazine. However, the paper was rejected. Bose didn’t lose hope and made the bold decision of sending his research to Einstein.
• •    The publication of the paper completely changed the Indian physicist’s life and career. He was soon granted study leave from his university for two years and allowed to visit Europe. 
• •    During his trip, Bose got an opportunity to meet other famous scientists of that era, such as Paul Langevin and Madame Curie. 
• •    He also joined the laboratory of Maurice de Broglie where he learnt techniques of X-ray spectroscopy and crystallography, the branch of science that deals with the arrangement of atoms in crystalline solids.

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