DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS FOR UPSC CIVIL SERVICES EXAM
Topics Covered
- H-1 B visas
- Human Space Flight Centre
- Index of Industrial Production
- PSLV DL
- Renuka Dam
1 . H-1 B Visas
Context : US President Donald Trump said that he is planning changes to H-1B visas, which are issued temporarily to highly educated immigrants so they can work in specialty occupations, that would create simplicity, certainty and a possibility that the workers could become US citizens.
What is an H-1B visa
- H-1B visas are a category of temporary visas issued by the US government to corporations that hire foreign workers for so-called specialized roles and skills.
- Critics of the H-1B programme have long argued it discriminates against American workers, while proponents argue it is essential to preserve a culture of innovation, as it allows companies to hire talent they say is not available in the country.
How are H-1B visas issued?
- First, the company chooses workers they want to hire and then submits petitions on their behalf. Over the past decade or two, the number of applications have far exceeded the number of visas available and the threshold for the number of applications has been breached within the first five days of the application process.
- So, a lottery system has been put in place by the official immigration agency in the US to randomly choose petitions for processing.
Have companies ever misused the H-1B programme in the past?
- Critics of the H-1B programme have long argued that companies have deliberately hired more foreign workers at far lower salaries than what they would have had to pay out to local American workers, adding that the programme has contributed to an exponential increase in outsourcing from the US. American corporations have argued that the H-1B programme only looks to address the talent shortage in the US.
How do the latest changes affect Indian IT firms?
- If the H-1B programme is scrapped, it would disrupt the traditional business model of Indian software services exporters and increase their cost of doing business in the US. If the H-4 visa programme for spouses is scrapped, it would also dissuade current H-1B visa holders and future H-1B applicants from seeking long-term employment in the US.
2 . Human Space Flight Centre
Context : The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Friday said work on ‘Gaganyaan’, the project to send a manned mission to space by 2022, would start soon at the newly created Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC)
About Human Space Flight Centre
- The Human Space Flight Centre [based in Bengaluru] will carry out all activities related to the human programme. Under it will function the Gaganyaan Project
- Dr. Sivan also announced the appointment of Unnikrishnan Nair — who led ISRO’s Advanced Space Transportation Programme at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and has already worked in the area as the director of the Human Space Flight Project — as the director of the new centre.
- The facility would be staffed by a dedicated team, with ISRO planning to deploy 800 to 900 people over time on the project.
About Gaganyaan – Covered under Daily Current Affairs
3 . Index of Industrial Production
Context : Industrial output growth dropped to a 17-month low of 0.5% in November on account of contraction in manufacturing sector, particularly consumer and capital goods.
About IIP
- Index of Industrial Production (IIP) measures the quantum of changes in the industrial production in an economy and captures the general level of industrial activity in the country.
- It is a composite indicator expressed in terms of an index number which measures the short term changes in the volume of production of a basket of industrial products during a given period with respect to the base period.
- The base year is always given a value of 100. The current base year for the IIP series in India is 2011-12. So, if the current IIP reads as 116 it means that there has been 16% growth compared to the base year.
- IIP is a short term indicator of industrial growth till the results from Annual Survey of Industries and National Accounts Statistics are available.
- However, IIP is considered to be one of the lead indicators for short-term economic analysis because of its strong relationship with economic fluctuations in the rest of economy. Most of services, like transport, storage, communication, real estate, insurance and banking are industry dependent and are considerably influenced by industrial performance.
- Index of Industrial Production is compiled and published every month by Central Statistics Office (CSO) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation with a time lag of six weeks from the reference month. i.e., at the time of release of IIP data, quick estimates for the relevant month along with revised and final indices of previous two months respectively, (on the basis of updated production data) are released.
- T
- he general scope of IIP, as recommended by United Nations Statistics Division includes Mining & Quarrying, Manufacturing, Electricity, Gas steam, Air conditioning supply, Water supply, Sewerage, Waste management and Remediation activities. But, in India, due to constraints of data availability and other resources, the index is compiled using figures of mining, manufacturing and electricity sectors only.
Categorization of IIP
i) Sectoral classification
- Industrial production for the purpose of IIP is divided into three sectors, i.e, Mining, Manufacturing and Electricity. In ‘Sectoral’ classification, relative weights of Manufacturing, Mining and Electricity are 75.5%, 14.2% and 10.3% respectively.
ii) Use-based classification
- In addition to the industry wise indices/growth rates, the users also require the indices in respect of different use-based categories, i.e., basic goods, capital goods, intermediate goods, consumer durables and consumer nondurables. Recognizing the above requirements, compilation of use- based indices was started in the 1980-81 base series of IIP from the year 1990-91 onwards. In “Use Base” classification, relative weights of Basic Goods, Capital Goods, intermediate goods and Consumer Goods are 45.68%, 8.83%, 15.68 and 29.81% respectively.
4 . PSLV DL
Context : Set for lift-off this month with the Microsat-R payload, the upcoming PSLV-C44 mission will see a new variant of the PSLV in use. This variant, tagged PSLV-DL, will be the first to sport two strap-on boosters for providing added thrust.
About PSLV DL
- In PSLV DL Its final and fourth stage — PS4 — will be equipped with lithium-ion batteries, but no solar panels. An in-house technology, the lithium-ion cells are critical to keep the spent stage in orbit.
- Solar panels will be added, in all likelihood, in the next mission
Benefits of the New feature
- ISRO had hit upon the idea of transforming the expendable fourth stage into a makeshift satellite to reduce space debris.
- In a normal scenario, the initial stages of the rocket, once they detach, drop back into the sea. However, stage four, after releasing the payload, wanders around in space as junk.
- If the plan is successful, the spent stage will be automatically ‘recycled’ into a valuable platform for space-based experiments.
5 . Renuka Dam
Context : The Centre has signed an agreement with Chief Ministers of five States — Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh — to restart construction of the Renuka multipurpose dam project in the Upper Yamuna Basin.
About the Project
- The Renuka dam project has been conceived as a storage project on the Giri river (a tributary of the Yamuna) in Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh. The project envisages making a 148-metre-high dam for supplying water to Delhi and other basin States. It will also generate 40 MW of power.
- Plans to construct the Renuka dam started in 1976 but were aborted
- After the construction of the dam, the flow of the Giri river will increase by about 110%, which will help meet the drinking water needs of Delhi and other basin States.
- Water from the Renuka dam will be used by U.P., Haryana and National Capital Territory of Delhi from Hathnikund barrage, by the NCT of Delhi from Wazirabad barrage and by U.P., Haryana and Rajasthan from the Okhla barrage