Daily Current Affairs : 10th April

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

1. World Economic Outlook Report
2. Press Council guidelines to media on poll reporting
   
3. Permanent Residents Certificate
4. Data Localisation
5. Facts for Prelims – MCLR, World Gold Council, International Finance Corporation

1 . World Economic Outlook Report

Context : The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected that global growth will be 3.3% in 2019, down from 3.6% in 2018 and 4% in 2017, IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath told the press at the release of the World Economic Outlook 2019 April report, at the start of the World Bank IMF Spring Meetings

About World Economic Outlook

• The World Economic Outlook (WEO) is a survey conducted and published by the International Monetary Fund.
• It is published biannually and partly updated two times a year.
• It portrays the world economy in the near and medium context, with projections for up to four years into the future.
• WEO forecasts include key macroeconomic indicators, such as GDP, inflation, current account and fiscal balance of more than 180 countries around the globe. It also deals with major economic policy issues.

Details of the Report

• International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected that global growth will be 3.3% in 2019, down from 3.6% in 2018 and 4% in 2017
• India’s growth is projected to pick up (from 7.1% in 2018) to 7.3% in 2019 and 7.5% in 2020, “supported by the continued recovery of investment and robust consumption amid a more expansionary stance of monetary policy and some expected impetus from fiscal policy

2 . Press Council of India

Context : The Press Council of India on Tuesday asked the media to give objective reports about the election and cautioned it against the phenomenon of paid news.

Background of Press Council of India

• The Press Council of India was first constituted on 4th July, 1966 as an autonomous, statutory, quasi-judicial body, with Shri Justice J R Mudholkar, then a Judge of the Supreme Court, as Chairman.

Current Press Council of India 

• A fresh legislation providing for the establishment of the Council was enacted in 1978 through Press Council Act of 1978 and the institution came to be reviewed in the year 1979 with the very same object of preserving the freedom of the press and of maintaining and improving the standards of Press in India.

Composition of Press Council of India

• The present Council is a body corporate having perpetual succession. It consists of a Chairman and 28 other members.
• Of the 28 members, 13 represent the working journalists. 6 are to be from among persons who own or carry on the business of management of newspapers. One is to be from among the persons who manage news agencies.
• Three are to be persons having special knowledge or practical experience in respect of education and science, law and literature and culture. One member each is nominated by the University Grants Commission, the Bar Council of India and the Sahitya Academy
• The remaining five are to Members of Parliament : three from Lok Sabha, and two from Rajya Sabha.
• The new Act provides for selection of the Chairman by a Committee consisting of the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, the Speaker of Lok Sabha and a person elected by the members of the Council from among themselves. By Convention the Chairman is been a retire judge of Supreme Court
• The term of the Chairman and the members of the Council is three years. A retiring member is eligible for renomination for not more than one term

Functions of the Press Council of India

• to help newspapers to maintain their independence;
• to build up a code of conduct for newspapers and journalists in accordance with high professional standards;
• to ensure on the part of newspapers and journalists the maintenance of high standards of public taste and foster a due sense of both the rights and responsibilities of citizenship;
• to encourage the growth of a sense of responsibility and public service among all those engaged in the profession of journalism;
• to keep under review any development likely to restrict the supply and dissemination of news of public interest and importance;
• to keep under review such cases of assistance received by any newspaper or news agency in India from foreign sources, as are referred to it by the Central Government.

Powers of the Council

• Power to Censure News paper / agency / editors / journalist if they offended against the standards of journalistic ethics or public taste or that an editor or a working journalist has committed any professional misconduct
• Summoning and enforcing the attendance of persons and examining them on oath
• requiring the discovery and inspection of documents
• receiving evidence on affidavits
• requisitioning any public record or copies thereof from any court or office
• issuing commissions for the examination of witnesses or documents

About the Guidelines

• It will be the duty of the press to give objective reports about the election and the candidates
• While reporting on the actual campaign, a newspaper may not leave out any important point raised by a candidate and make an attack on his or her opponent
• The print media watchdog also cautioned the press to eschew reports which tend to promote feelings or enmity or hatred between people on the grounds of region, religion, race, caste, community or language.
• The press should refrain from publishing false or critical statements in regard to the personal character and conduct of any candidate or in relation to the candidature or withdrawal of any candidate or candidature, to prejudice the prospects of that candidate in the elections
• The PCI also cautioned against publishing unverified allegations against any candidate or party.
• The council said whenever the newspapers publish pre-poll surveys, they should take care to preface them conspicuously by indicating the institutions which have carried on such surveys, the individuals and organisations which have commissioned them, the size and nature of sample selected and the method of selection of the sample for the findings.
• The PCI asked the media to guard against paid news which it defined as “any news or analysis appearing in any media (print & electronic) for a price in cash or kind as consideration”.
• It also urged authorities that rules and orders regulating entry of the media persons to places of election should be notified and the cut-off date for applying for passes should be given due and advance publicity.

3 . Permanent Residents Certificate

About PRC

• The State Government of Arunachal Pradesh issues the domicile certificate otherwise called as Permanent Residence Certificate (PRC) to the residents of the state who stayed therein over a period.

Purpose of the Certificate

• Permanent Residence Certificate is a legal document that serves as an evidence of residence and thus must be submitted wherever a residence proof is required.
• Permanent Residence Certificate should be produced in many situations such as admission in educational organisations, job reservation under specific quotas especially for government jobs, etc. to get local preferences.
• To apply for ration card permanent residence certificate is a vital and mandate document.
• To avail the provisions of various schemes of the state or to claim scholarships of the State, permanent residence certificate is essential.

4 . Data Localisation

Context : India has recently promulgated a number of data localisation requirements that would serve as significant barriers to digital trade between the US and India,” the US Trade Representative’s 2019 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers said.

What is Data Localisation

• Data localisation is a concept that the personal data of a country’s residents should be processed and stored in that country

Background

• In early April, the RBI issued a circular mandating that payment data be stored only in India by October 15. This covered everyone from Mastercard and Visa to WhatsApp Payments and PayTM.
• In late July, a data protection draft law by a committee headed by retired Justice B N Srikrishna recommended that all personal data of Indians have at least one copy in India. A subset of that data, labelled critical personal data, must be stored and processed only in India.
• E-commerce policy recommended localisation for “community data [and] data generated by users in India from various sources including e-commerce platforms, social media, search engines”. It also discussed strategies to “incentivise domestic data storage in India” through facilitating data infrastructure

Concerns raised by US

• India has recently promulgated a number of data localisation requirements that would serve as significant barriers to digital trade between the US and India
• These requirements raise costs for suppliers of data-intensive services by forcing the construction of unnecessary, redundant data centres and prevent local firms from taking advantage of the best global services available.
• Proposals of India’s draft national e-commerce policy such as data localisation requirements and restrictions on cross-border data flows are “discriminatory in nature”.
• Indian government published a draft Personal Data Protection Bill. If passed into law, the Bill would impose onerous burdens on firms, especially foreign firms, that process personal information

5 . Facts for Prelims

Marginal Cost of Lending Rate

• The marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR) refers to the minimum interest rate of a bank below which it cannot lend, except in some cases allowed by the RBI.
• It is an internal benchmark or reference rate for the bank. MCLR actually describes the method by which the minimum interest rate for loans is determined by a bank – on the basis of marginal cost or the additional or incremental cost of arranging one more rupee to the prospective borrower.
• The MCLR methodology for fixing interest rates for advances was introduced by the Reserve Bank of India with effect from April 1, 2016. This new methodology replaces the base rate system.

World Gold Council

• The World Gold Council is the market development organisation for the gold industry.
• Purpose of the council is to stimulate and sustain demand for gold, provide industry leadership, and be the global authority on the gold market.
• It is headquartered in the UK
• Members comprise the world’s leading gold mining companies. It helps to support its members to mine in a responsible way and developed the Conflict Free Gold Standard.

International Finance Corporation

• IFC is a sister organization of the World Bank and member of the World Bank Group
• It is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector in developing countries.
• The Bank Group has set two goals for the world to achieve by 2030: end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity in every country.