Daily Current Affairs : 27th and 28th November 2020

by

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

  1. Simultaneous Election
  2. Roshni Act
  3. Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC)
  4. Comparison of Pardoning Powers of President of India and United States
  5. Second Quarter GDP data
  6. Dry Swab RT PCR Test
  7. Anti Defection Law
  8. Sea Sparkle
  9. Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) Observatory & Milestone’ facility
  10. Fiscal Deficit
  11. Index of core Industries
  12. Facts for Prelims

1 . One Nation One Election

Context : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday again raised the pitch for “One Nation, One Election” and a single voter list for all polls in order to prevent the impact of the model code of conduct on development works every few months due to frequent spread-out polls.

Background of Simultaneous elections in India

  • First election after enforcement of constitution in 1952 was conducted simultaneously, and later the elections of 1952, 1957 and 1962 were also the same.
  • The liquidation of fourth Lok Sabha brought an end to the process.

Advantages

  • Saving time and energy: A lot of money and time is being spent on elections. The money could be put to better use. The focus of respective parties is on winning elections in different parts of the country rather than on actual governance. Violence, hate speeches and surcharged atmosphere can disturb the law and order situation.
  • Less promotion of individualism over nationalism: Parties, in order to win hearts near the time of elections, declare individualistic policies to lure the voters and not the nationalistic policies. The spirit of policy making gets hampered. Simultaneous elections would stop this.
  • Smaller role of corruption, casteism: Party funding would not be required again and again, which would reduce manipulative practices of the parties to raise money. Caste politics won’t be ignited every time elections are round the corner.
  • Model code of conduct (MCC): Political parties wouldn’t make unnecessary measures to win elections in the wake of MCC. Frequent imposition of MCC results in standstill of the government machinery, thus hindering development and policy implementation.
  • Increase in voting percentage: It has turned out in many researches that voters’ participation is motivated with simultaneous elections. Voting percentage is a serious concern.

Disadvantages

  • Advantage to national parties: Regional parties gather their state machinery for the state legislative elections, whereas national parties will gain more momentum with their power in every state.
  • National issues over regional ones: National issues may overpower the regional ones which are equally important to be looked upon. Submerging of regional stories with national issues may create havoc.
  • Federal structure would be disturbed: The party in power at the Centre may exercise such powers which may hamper the working of parties in power at state levels.
  • Shortage of staff and security: One election in all levels at a time would require large deployment of forces and resources together for secure and smooth functioning, which would be a big challenge. The ignited election mode would require high security. More than 24 lakh EVMs and VVPAT would be required to conduct elections together.
  • Disturbance in system of checks and balances: In a federal structure, the state governments and the central governments, especially when from opposite parties, check each other’s work and evaluate it. This competitive spirit may be curtailed and a lethargic attitude may crawl into working of these governments.

Recommendations of Reports and Committees

  • The idea of ‘One Nation, One Election’ was suggested by the Election Commission in 1983. The main reason for such a suggestion was heavy expenditure on elections, deployment of forces affecting their normal course of duties, slowing down of administrative machinery throughout the country etc.
  • In 1999, Law Commission in its 170th report suggested that India go back to the concept of simultaneous elections.
  • Report of the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC) in 2002 highlighted that amendments with respect to simultaneous elections could be done without disturbing the basic structure of the constitution.
  • The 255th Law Commission report discussed amendment to Anti-Defection Law, which is an important subject with respect to simultaneous elections.
  • The 79th report presented by Rajya Sabha in December 2015, after consulting various political parties, organisations, individuals and experts, suggested various reforms and conducts. It held that the term of legislatures could not be extended, except during emergency, but elections of Lok Sabha/State Legislative Assemblies could be conducted six months earlier under Section 14 and 15 of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951. It also suggested conducting of elections in two phases where some state legislative elections are conducted for a shorter term to end their tenure with the tenure of Lok Sabha.
  • Recently, the Law Commission headed by B.S. Chouhan released a draft report on simultaneous election :
    • Conduct of simultaneous elections: The Commission noted that simultaneous elections cannot be held within the existing framework of the Constitution.  Simultaneous elections may be conducted to Lok Sabha and state Legislative Assemblies through appropriate amendments to the Constitution, the Representation of the People Act 1951, and the Rules of Procedure of Lok Sabha and state Assemblies.  The Commission also suggested that at least 50% of the states should ratify the constitutional amendments. 
    • The Commission noted that holding simultaneous elections will: (i) save public money, (ii) reduce burden on the administrative setup and security forces, (iii) ensure timely implementation of government policies, and (iv) ensure that the administrative machinery is engaged in development activities rather than electioneering.
    • Commission recommended three alternatives to synchronise elections in India :
      • Advancing or Postponing elections in certain states so that elections are only conducted twice in near feature and can move to one election by 2024
      • If simultaneous elections cannot be conducted, then the Commission recommended that all elections falling due in a calendar year should be conducted together.

2 . Roshni Act

Context : As the J&K administration continues to make the names of the beneficiaries of the now-nullified Roshni Act public, a petition has been filed before the Supreme Court by the beneficiaries claiming they “were not even heard by the J&K High Court as it passed the directions.”

The original Act

  • The Roshni Act envisaged the transfer of ownership rights of state land to its occupants, subject to the payment of a cost, as determined by the government.
  • It set 1990 as the cutoff for encroachment on state land. The government’s target was to earn Rs 25,000 crore by transferring 20 lakh kanals of state land to existing occupants against payment at market rates.
  • As per the plan said the revenue generated would be spent on commissioning hydroelectric power projects, hence the name

Subsequent amendments

  • In 2005, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s PDP-Congress government relaxed the cutoff year to 2004. During the tenure of Ghulam Nabi Azad, who replaced Sayeed as Chief Minister under a three-year rotation agreement, the cutoff was relaxed further to 2007.
  • The government also gave ownership rights of agricultural land to farmers occupying it for free, charging them only Rs 100 per kanal as documentation fee.

Issues with the Act and repealing of the Act

  • The investigations into land transfers found that the land in Gulmarg, the hill station in the north of Kashmir, has been allotted to ineligible beneficiaries. An FIR was lodged in 2009 by the State Vigilance Organisation against government officials for alleged criminal conspiracy.
  • A 2014 Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report revealed that not more than Rs 76 crore were generated as revenue from the transfer of land between 2007 and 2013, as against the target of Rs 25,000 crore.
  • In 2015, the Vigilance Organisation indicted over 20 officials, including three former deputy commissioners, for their involvement in misusing the provisions in the scheme.
  • In November 2018, the J&K High Court restrained beneficiaries of the scheme from carrying out any transaction. In the same year, J&K governor Satyapal Malik repealed the Roshni Act and ordered a CBI probe into the scam.
  • On October 9 this year, the High Court held the Roshni Act as ‘unconstitutional’. The court also directed the Union Territory government to make public names of those who grabbed the land under the scheme. On November 1, the J&K government issued an order cancelling all land transfers that took place under the Roshni Act.

3 . Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC)

Context : The Navy’s Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC), the nodal agency for maritime data fusion set up after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, will soon become a National Maritime Domain Awareness (NDMA) centre, with all stakeholders having their presence there, two defence officials said on Thursday.

About Information Management and Analysis Centre

  • The IMAC collates, fuses and disseminates intelligence and information about ‘unusual or suspicious movements and activities at sea’.
  • The IMAC also receives vital operational data about ‘white shipping’ (merchant shipping including fishing vessels over 300 tons) from a number of sources such as the Automatic Identification System (AIS) and the long-range identification and tracking (LRIT), a satellite-based, real-time reporting mechanism for position of ships. This information is further supplemented by shore based electro-optical systems and high definition radars
  •  IMAC is the single point centre on Indian Navy, linking all the coastal radar chains to generate a seamless real-time picture of the nearly 7,500km coastline.
  • It was approved by the Defence Acquisition Council in 2012, to provide coastal security and to avert tragic incidents like the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai
  • IMAC became operational in 2014 at a cost of ₹450 crore and is located in Gurugram.
  • IMAC is the nodal centre of the National Command Control Communications and Intelligence Network (NC3I Network), and is a joint initiative of Indian Navy, Coast Guard and Bharat Electronics Ltd to improve coastal surveillance. 
  • In 2018, the Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean region (IFC-IOR) was set up within the premises of the IMAC to coordinate with regional countries on maritime country and act as a regional repository of maritime data. It presently has linkages with 21 partner countries and 22 multi-national agencies across the globe.

Challenges

  • Early 60 per cent of India’s nearly 3 lakh fishing boats are smaller than 20 meters, and most of them are yet to have transponders that can help the authorities track them
  • In 2009, the Centre had mandated that all fishing vessels over 20 metres long should have AIS transponders. However, this left out the smaller boats — the 26/11 attackers had used inflatable motor boats to reach Mumbai’s shores.
  • Transponders on sea-faring vessels help national and international authorities track their movement, and also to check all relevant information including routes, ports, ownership, nationality and history. In the absence of transponders, or Automatic Identification System (AIS), the vessels are tracked either through specific intelligence inputs, or through satellite monitoring.
  • Any commercial ship with gross tonnage (GRT) of over 300 is mandated to have AIS internationally. Some large ships too “do not transmit on AIS” and are called dark ships, these gaps are exploited by the subversive elements.

4 . Comparison of Pardoning Powers of President of India and United States

Context : With less than two months of his tenure remaining, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday exercised his powers under the Constitution to pardon Michael Flynn, his former National Security Advisor, who had twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

How US President pardons

  • The President of the US has the constitutional right to pardon or commute sentences related to federal crimes. The US Supreme Court has held that this power is “granted without limit” and cannot be restricted by Congress.
  • Clemency is a broad executive power, and is discretionary — meaning the President is not answerable for his pardons, and does not have to provide a reason for issuing one. But there are a few limitations.
  • For instance, Article II, Section 2 of the US Constitution says all Presidents “shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment”.
  • Further, the power only applies to federal crimes and not state crimes — those pardoned by the President can still be tried under the laws of individual states.

How Indian President pardons

  • Unlike the US President, whose powers to grant pardons are almost unfettered, the President of India has to act on the advice of the Cabinet.
  • Under Article 72 of the Constitution, “the President shall have the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence where the sentence is a sentence of death”. Under Article 161, the Governor too has pardoning powers, but these do not extend to death sentences.
  • The President cannot exercise his power of pardon independent of the government. Rashtrapati Bhawan forwards the mercy plea to the Home Ministry, seeking the Cabinet’s advice. The Ministry in turn forwards this to the concerned state government; based on the reply, it formulates its advice on behalf of the Council of Ministers.
  • In several cases, the SC has ruled that the President has to act on the advice of the Council of Ministers while deciding mercy pleas. These include Maru Ram vs Union of India in 1980, and Dhananjoy Chatterjee vs State of West Bengal in 1994.
  • Although the President is bound by the Cabinet’s advice, Article 74(1) empowers him to return it for reconsideration once. If the Council of Ministers decides against any change, the President has no option but to accept it

5 . Second Quarter GDP

Context : India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted 7.5% in the second quarter of 2020-21, following the record 23.9% decline recorded in the first quarter, as per estimates released by the National Statistical Office on Friday. The country has now entered a technical recession with two successive quarters of negative growth. 

Sector wise Performance

  • Agriculture, which was the only sector to record growth between April and June this year, grew at the same pace of 3.4% in the second quarter, while manufacturing gross value-added (GVA) staged a sharp recovery to record 0.6% growth between July and September after collapsing 39.3% in the first quarter. 
  • Electricity, gas, water supply and other utility services also recorded 4.4% growth in the second quarter, recovering from a 7% contraction in Q1.
  • It remained a bleak quarter for several sectors, including mining, services such as retail trade and hotels, construction and financial services. 
  • Construction sector, which had contracted 50.3% in the first quarter at the peak of the lockdown against COVID-19, saw some improvement with contraction narrowing to 8.6% in the second quarter.
  • Trade, hotels, transport and services remained deeply affected, shrinking 15.6% between July and September after a 47% dip in Q1. The services sector is expected to be more vulnerable in the second half, particularly contract-based services. 
  • “Till the pandemic doesn’t go away, some of the sectors affected by social distancing such as services like travel and tourism will continue to experience demand slump. And services accounts for a good part of India’s GDP 

Govt. spending 

  • The loss of momentum in government spending in the second quarter led to a 22% contraction in government final consumption expenditure. As a result, this component turned into the worst performer on the expenditure side from being the best performer with a 16.4% expansion in the first quarter
  • Consumption contracted by 11.32% in the second quarter, compared to a 27% decline in the first. Investment demand as measured by Gross Fixed Capital Formation improved from -47% in the first quarter to -7.4% in Q2. 
  • Financial, real estate and professional services recorded a 8.1% contraction in GVA from a 5.3% dip in Q1, while the GVA from public administration, defence and other services contracted 12.2% from a 10.3% shrinkage in the first quarter. 

6 . Dry Swab RT PCR Test

Context : CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) finally got the permission of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to commercially use the ‘game changing technology’ of dry swab RNA-extraction free testing method for the COVID-19 virus

About dry swab RNA-extraction

  • The dry swab method is developed by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CSIR-CCMB) under the Ministry of Science and Technology
  • The new method, as the name suggests, will eliminate the need to store swab samples in a viral transport medium (VTM); instead, the samples can be readied in a dry form for the RT-PCR test.
  • Method involves addition of a chemical and enzyme buffer to dry nasal swabs, their incubation for 30 minutes at room temperature, and then heat inactivation at 98 degrees Celsius for 6 minutes.
  • With this method VTM’ can be totally avoided and dry swab technique also does not require RNA extraction process, and can be directly used for RT-PCR testing with sensitivity and specificity similar to the current gold standard. This can be used in settings where automated RNA extraction is not available.

Current Method

  • In the conventional testing method, nasopharygeal — nose or oropharyngeal — throat swab samples are collected by sample collection centres from the suspected coronavirus patients. These are transported to testing centres, sometimes even hundreds of kilometres away.
  • The swab samples are generally placed in a liquid called Viral Transport Medium (VTM) and to avoid leakage, the samples are packed heavily that adds on to sample processing times at both the sample collection and testing centres. Yet, there could be leakages from samples, which render those batches untestable and unsafe in handling

Benefits of the new method

  • “RNA extraction, even with automation, takes four hours for roughly 500 samples. VTM and RNA extraction both add a significant burden on money and time required for mass testing for coronavirus. New method has the potential of bringing the costs and time of testing by 40-50%.
  • COVID-19 screening can also be enhanced several fold with immediate effect while, at the same time, making the whole process safer. It also give results in a double quick time.
  • CSIR Director-General Shekhar C. Mande said the dry-swab direct RT-PCR method is easy to implement with no requirement of new kits and existing manpower can perform this with no additional training and hence could make a significant contribution to ramping up the testing capacity in the country quickly.

7 . Anti Defection Law

Context : Lalduhoma, a retired IPS officer was disqualified as an MLA in Mizoram

About the issue

  • Mizoram Assembly Speaker Lalrinliana Sailo debarred Lalduhoma, a retired IPS officer.
  • The disqualification was on the ground that Mr. Lalduhoma had declared himself as a representative of the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) despite being elected as an independent candidate from the Serchhip Assembly constituency as he lost the character of an independent legislator because of the declaration he was debarred.
  • He is also India’s first Member of Parliament to have been disqualified from the Lok Sabha. Now he has also been disqualified as an MLA in Mizoram.
  • In 1988, he was disqualified under the Anti-Defection Law for giving up membership of the Congress (I). He was elected to the Lok Sabha uncontested in 1984 as the Congress candidate but fell out with the party leadership.

Key Provisions of Anti Defection Law regarding disqualification

  • If an MP/MLA who belongs to a political party voluntarily resigns from his party or, disobeys the party “whip” (a direction given by the party to all MPs/ MLAs to vote in a certain manner), he is disqualified.   The party may however condone the MP/ MLA within 15 days.
  • An independent MP/ MLA cannot join a political party after the election.
  • An MP/ MLA who is nominated (to the Rajya Sabha or upper houses in state legislatures) can only join a party within 6 months of his election. 4.  Mergers of well-defined groups of individuals or political parties are exempted from disqualification if certain conditions are met.
  • The decision to disqualify is taken by the Speaker/ Chairman of the House.

8 . Sea Sparkle

Context : A bloom of Noctiluca Scintillans has deprived food for the planktivorous fish around Karnataka coast

About Noctiluca Scintillans

  • Noctiluca scintillans, commonly known as the sea sparkle is a free-living, marine-dwelling species of dinoflagellate that exhibits bioluminescence when disturbed
  • The bloom of Noctiluca Scintillans that the Karnataka coast has been witnessing since about a month, has displaced microscopic algae called diatoms, which form the basis of the marine food chain
  • The bioluminescent Noctiluca Scintillans also brightened the sea water during night.  Its bioluminescence is produced throughout the cytoplasm of this single-celled protist, by a luciferin-luciferase reaction in thousands of spherically shaped organelles, called scintillons
  • The toxic blooms of N. Scintillans were linked to massive fish and marine invertebrate kills. The species does not produce a toxin, it was found to accumulate toxic levels of ammonia, which is then excreted into the surrounding waters, possibly acting as the killing agent in blooms.
  • The ammonia makes N. Scintillans unpalatable for most creatures. Only jellyfish and salps were known to prey on it. 
  • N. Scintillans grazes on other micro-organisms such as larvae, fish eggs, and diatoms. The unicellular phytoplankton that live inside it can photosynthesise, turning sunlight into energy. They help their host cell survive even when food was scarce. Thus, N. Scintillans acts as both a plant and an animal

Plankton bloom

  • Plankton bloom was reported when the density of plankton would be more than 1,00,000 cells per m3.
  • Bioluminescence was the production and emission of light by a living organism and occurs due to a chemical reaction, involving a light-emitting molecule and an enzyme, called luciferin and luciferase.

9 . Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) Observatory & Milestone’ facility

Context : The Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) has been selected as a ‘Milestone’ facility by the U.S.-based Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), which is the world’s largest technical professional organisation dedicated to advancing technology in all areas related to electrical and electronics engineering.

About Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) Observatory

  • The Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) Observatory, located near Pune, Junnar, Narayangaon in India, is an array of thirty fully steerable parabolic radio telescopes of 45 metre diameter, observing at metre wavelengths.
  • It is operated by the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA), a part of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. It was conceived and built during 1984 to 1996.
  •  At the time it was built, it was the world’s largest interferometric array offering a baseline of up to 25 kilometres (16 mi).
  • One of the aims for the telescope during its development was to search for the highly redshifted 21-cm line radiation from primordial neutral hydrogen clouds in order to determine the epoch of galaxy formation in the universe
  • In August 2018, the most distant galaxy ever known, located at a distance of 12 billion light years, was discovered by GMRT.
  • The GMRT has produced important discoveries in domains such as pulsars, supernovae, galaxies, quasars, and cosmology, greatly enhancing our understanding of the Universe.”
  • In February 2020, it helped in the observation of the biggest explosion in the history of the universe, the Ophiuchus Supercluster explosion.

IEEE Milestone Programme

  • The IEEE Milestones programme honours significant technical achievements which have global or regional impact.
  • This is only the third such IEEE ‘Milestone’ recognition for an Indian contribution.
  • The previous two Indian IEEE Milestones were for the pioneering work done by Sir J.C. Bose to demonstrate the generation and reception of radio waves in 1895 (recognised in 2012), and for the Nobel Prize-winning (in 1930) ‘scattering of light’ phenomenon observed by Sir C.V. Raman in 1928.
  • Considering the global impact of GMRT with users from over 40 countries and the fact that it was designed and built entirely in India, the IEEE’s India office and its Pune branch had initiated the proposal to nominate GMRT for this recognition.

10 . Fiscal Deficit

Context : The Union Government’s fiscal deficit further widened to ₹9.53 lakh crore, or close to 120% of the annual budget estimate, at the end of October of the current fiscal, according to official data released on Friday. The deficit widened mainly due to poor revenue realisation.

Fiscal Deficit definition

  • Fiscal Deficit is the difference between the total income of the government (total taxes and non-debt capital receipts) and its total expenditure.
  • A fiscal deficit situation occurs when the government’s expenditure exceeds its income.
  • This difference is calculated both in absolute terms and also as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country.
  • A recurring high fiscal deficit means that the government has been spending beyond its means.

What do you mean by Fiscal Deficit?

  • The government describes fiscal deficit of India as “the excess of total disbursements from the Consolidated Fund of India, excluding repayment of the debt, over total receipts into the Fund (excluding the debt receipts) during a financial year”.

What constitutes the government’s total income or receipts?

It has two components revenue receipts and non-tax revenues.

  • Revenue receipts of the government
    • Corporation Tax
    • Income Tax
    • Custom Duties
    • Union Excise Duties
    • GST and taxes of Union territories. (GST or Goods and Services Tax which is collected by the Centre includes CGST (Central Goods and Services Tax), IGST (Integrated Goods and Services Tax) & GST Compensation Cess)
  • Non-tax revenues
    • Interest Receipts
    • Dividends and Profits
    • External Grants
    • Other non-tax revenues
    • Receipts of union territories

Expenditures of the government:

  • Revenue Expenditure
  • Capital Expenditure
  • Interest Payments
  • Grants-in-aid for creation of capital assets

Fiscal Deficit formula: How is Fiscal Deficit calculated?

  • Fiscal Deficit = Total expenditure of the government (capital and revenue expenditure) – Total income of the government (Revenue receipts + recovery of loans + other receipts)
  • If the total expenditure of the government exceeds its total revenue and non-revenue receipts in a financial year, then that gap is the fiscal deficit for the financial year. The fiscal deficit is usually mentioned as a percentage of GDP. For example, if the gap between the Centre’s expenditure and total income is Rs 5 lakh crore and the country’s GDP is Rs 200 lakh crore, the fiscal deficit is 2.5% of the GDP.

What causes Fiscal Deficit?

  • Sometimes, the governments spend on handouts and other assistance to the weak and vulnerable sections of the society such as the farmers and the poor.
  • A high fiscal deficit can also be good for the economy if the money spent goes into the creation of productive assets like highways, roads, ports and airports that boost economic growth and result in job creation.

How is Fiscal Deficit met?

  • The government meets fiscal deficit by borrowing money. In a way, the total borrowing requirements of the government in a financial year is equal to the fiscal deficit in that year.

11 . Index of Core Industries

About Index of core Industries

  • Index of core industries is an index of the eight most fundamental industrial sectors of the Indian economy and it maps the volume of production in these industries.
  • Following table gives the details of these eight sectors — namely Coal, Natural Gas, Crude Oil, Refinery Products (such as Petrol and Diesel), Fertilisers, Steel, Cement and Electricity. 

Calculation

  • The index gives different weights to each of these sectors to arrive at a final figure. Following table provides the growth rates for each sector along with the weights assigned to each sector. 
  • As can be seen from this Table, Refinery Products have the largest weight while Cement has the lowest weight. Steel and Electricity are the other heavyweights.

Importance

  • Since these eight industries are the essential “basic” and/or “intermediate” ingredient in the functioning of the broader economy, mapping their health provides a fundamental understanding of the state of the economy.
  • In other words, if these eight industries are not growing fast enough, the rest of the economy is unlikely to either.

12 . Facts for Prelims

FC Kohli

  • FC Kohli is the first chief executive officer of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and he popularly known as the ‘Father of the Indian information technology Industry

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