Daily Current Affairs : 14th and 15th October

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

1. ‘Foreign’ plastic invades Great Nicobar Island
2. South Asia Economic Focus 
3. Project Beehive
4. Economics Nobel Prize
5. India- China Informal Summit at Mahabalipuram
6. Strength of Lok Sabha
7. Mariam Thresia, Full court reference, Couples who secured nobel, C-40 World Mayors Summit

1 . Foreign plastic invades Great Nicobar Island

Context : The pristine beaches of the Great Nicobar Island, India’s southernmost territory, are under threat from plastic. A survey of five beaches in the islands recorded the presence of plastic bottles.

Key Findings

• “Major portion of the litter (40.5%) was of Malaysian origin. It was followed by Indonesia (23.9%) and Thailand (16.3%).
• The litter of Indian origin only amounted to 2.2%
• About 10 countries including India contributed to the plastic litter in the island. They were Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, India, Myanmar, China and Japan.
• The overwhelming contribution from Indonesia and Thailand was likely due to its proximity to the island; the plastic is likely to have made its way to the island because of water currents via the Malacca Strait, which is a major shipping route.
• The huge quantities of marine debris observed on this island might be due to improper handling of the solid waste from fishing/mariculture activity and ship traffic
• However, the researchers also point out that litter of Indian origin on beaches and mangroves of the Andaman Islands is continuously increasing. This is probably due to lack of proper guidelines and inadequate staff to monitor these islands, they said.

2 . South Asia Economic Focus 

Context : After a broad-based deceleration in the initial quarters of this fiscal year, India’s growth rate is projected to fall to 6%

About the Report

• South Asia Economic focus is World Bank’s twice-a-year regional economic update.

Details of the Report

• In 2018-19, the growth rate of the country stood at 6.9%. However, the bank in its latest edition of the South Asia Economic Focus said the country was expected to gradually recover to 6.9% in 2021 and 7.2% in 2022 as it assumed that the monetary stance would remain accommodative, given benign price dynamics.
• Industrial output growth increased to 6.9% due to a pick-up in manufacturing and construction activities, the growth in agriculture and the services sector moderated to 2.9% and 7.5%, respectively.
• In the first quarter of 2019-20, the economy experienced a significant and broad-based growth deceleration with a sharp decline in private consumption on the demand side and the weakening of growth in both industry and services on the supply side, the report said.
• According to the World Bank, poverty has continued to decline, albeit possibly at a slower pace than earlier. Between 2011-12 and 2015-16, the poverty rate declined from 21.6% to 13.4% ($1.90 PPP/day).

Way Forward

• The main policy challenge for India is to address the sources of softening private consumption and the structural factors behind weak investment, the bank said.
• “This will require restoring the health of the financial sector through reforms of public sector banks’ governance and a gradual strengthening of the regulatory framework for NBFCs, while ensuring that solvent NBFCs retain access to adequate liquidity.”
• “It will also require efforts to contain fiscal slippages, as higher-than-expected public borrowings could put upward pressure on interest rates and potentially crowd-out the private sector,” it said.
• According to the bank, the main sources of risk included external shocks that result in tighter global financing conditions, and new NBFC defaults triggering a fresh round of financial sector stress.
• To mitigate these risks, the authorities would need to ensure that there was adequate liquidity in the financial system while strengthening the regulatory framework for the NBFCs, the bank added.

3 . Project Beehive

Context : From rifles to tanks, the Army is looking at setting up a real-time database on the condition and status of each of its approximately 30 lakh pieces of equipment.

About Project Beehive

• Launched by the Army’s Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME) Project Beehive seeks to achieve greater automation of the Corps and connect all its workshops to an integrated smart network with real-time data analytics capabilities, is expected to be up and running by October next year.
• Automated program will provide real time information to it about the life and present conditions of its tanks, vehicles, guns and air assets and their upcoming problems.
• The EME is tasked with carrying out repair, refurbishing and overhaul of the army’s equipment, ranging from tanks, infantry combat vehicles, artillery guns including the new M777 Ultra Light Howitzers, small arms, radars and aviation assets. Each workshop has a two-year old automated program called ‘wasp’, which compiles all data such as equipment under repair, how many to be repaired and their future life. The wasps will be integrated with the Beehive and thereby provide every data to it.

4 . Economics Nobel Prize

Context : The 2019 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel has been awarded jointly to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer “for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”. The award carries a purse of 9 million Swedish krona (about Rs 6.5 crore) to be shared among the three winners.

Why have Banerjee, Duflo, and Kremer won the Nobel Prize?

• The research conducted by this year’s Laureates has considerably improved theability to fight global poverty. Their new experiment-based approach has transformed development economics.
• Banerjee, Duflo and Kremer, breaks down a problem, study its different aspects, conduct various experiments and, based on such “evidence”, decide what needs to be done.
• They look at the various dimensions of poverty — poor health, inadequate education, etc. They then drill down further on each of these components. Within poor health, for instance, they look at nutrition, provisioning of medicines, and vaccination, etc. Within vaccinations, they try to ascertain “what works” and “why”.

How does this approach work in practice?

• Breaking down the poverty problem and focussing on the smaller issues such as “how best to fix diarrhoea or dengue” yielded some very surprising results.
• For instance, it is often believed that many poor countries (like India) do not have the resources to adequately provide education, and that this resource crunch is the reason why school-going children do not learn more. But their field experiments showed that lack of resources is not the primary problem.
• In fact, studies showed that neither providing more textbooks nor free school meals improved learning outcomes. Instead, as was brought out in schools in Mumbai and Vadodara, the biggest problem is that teaching is not sufficiently adapted to the pupils’ needs. In other words, providing teaching assistants to the weakest students was a far more effective way of improving education in the short to medium term.
• Similarly, on tackling teacher absenteeism, what worked better was to employ them on short-term contracts (which could be extended if they showed good results) instead of having fewer students per “permanent” teacher, in order to reduce the burden on teachers and incentivise them to teach.

New experiment-based approach

• The “new, powerful tool” employed by the Laureates is the use of Randomised Control Trials (or RCTs). So if one wanted to understand whether providing a mobile vaccination van and/or a sack of grains would incentivise villagers to vaccinate their kids, then under an RCT, village households would be divided into four groups.
• Group A would be provided with a mobile vaccination van facility, Group B would be given a sack of foodgrains, Group C would get both, and Group D would get neither. Households would be chosen at random to ensure there was no bias, and that any difference in vaccination levels was essentially because of the “intervention”.
• Group D is called the “control” group while others are called “treatment” groups. Such an experiment would not only show whether a policy initiative works, but would also provide a measure of the difference it brings about.
• It would also show what happens when more than one initiatives are combined. This would help policymakers to have the evidence before they choose a policy.

Criticism against RCT Approach

• Randomisation does not equalise two groups. While randomly assigning people or households makes it likely that the groups are equivalent, randomisation “cannot guarantee” it. That’s because one group may perform differently from the other, not because of the “treatment” that it has been given, but because it has more women or more educated people in it.
• RCTs do not guarantee if something that worked in Kerala will work in Bihar, or if something that worked for a small group will also work at scale.

5 . India- China Informal Summit at Mahabalipuram

Context : Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in the ancient coastal town of Mamallapuram or Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu for a second Informal Summit.

About Informal Summit

• Informal Summits act as supplementary exchanges to annual Summits and other formal exchanges such as the G20 Summit, EU-India Summit and the BRICS Summit among others, and allow for “direct, free and candid exchange of views” between countries, something that may not be possible to do through formal bilateral and multilateral meetings that are agenda driven, where specific issues are discussed, and outcomes are more concretely defined.
• Informal Summits may not take place on a fixed annual or biennial schedule; they are impromptu in the sense that they take place when a need for them is perceived by the concerned nations.
• Since Informal Summits allow discussion on wide-ranging issues, they are not particularly purpose-specific, and are sometimes considered to play bigger roles in diplomatic dialogue than formal exchanges — the reason is that they tend to be more in-depth, and relatively flexible in intent and the scope of discussion.

India China Informal Summits

• The two countries convened their first Informal Summit in central China’s Wuhan in 2018, where they exchanged views on issues of global and bilateral significance.
• Second Informal Summit happened recently in Mamallapuram

Key Takeaways from Mamallapuram Summit

• Trade : One of the main issues between India and China is trade. During this summit, Modi and Xi reinforced their commitment to improve trade relations. The leaders agreed to a new set up new mechanisms to achieve this goal.The High-Level Economic and Trade Dialogue mechanism will look into achieving enhanced trade and commercial relations. It will also seek to address the trade deficit and issues related to investment. It seeks to build a ‘manufacturing partnership’ between India and China.
• International Issues : They agreed that there must be reforms that reflects the new realities of the 21st century. They also agreed that rules-based multilateral trading systems must be supported and strengthened. The nations also reinforced their commitment to work together for open and inclusive trade arrangements that will benefit all countries. They also made a commitment to address global developmental challenges, including climate change and meet the Sustainable Development Goals.
• People to People Contact : To celebrate the 70th year of diplomatic relations between the two nations, the year 2020 will be designated as Year of India-China Cultural and People to People Exchanges, the MEA said. To mark the occasion, many events will be planned, it added. To celebrate the civilisational ties between the nations, the MEA said that the two leaders have decided to form a ‘Sister-state relationship’ between Tamil Nadu and Fujian Province. There is also a proposal to set up an academy to study these links.
• Jammu & Kashmir : The lack of Kashmir in the talks also shows that both nations are willing to look beyond, at least at the leadership level.

6 . Strength of Lok Sabha

Context : Former Union Minister and Congress leader Jitin Prasada said the number of Lok Sabha seats should be rationalised on the basis of population. The composition of the Lower House has remained more or less the same for four decades

Article 81

• Article 81 of the Constitution defines the composition of the House of the People or Lok Sabha.
• It states that the House shall not consist of more than 550 elected members of whom not more than 20 will represent Union Territories.
• Under Article 331, the President can nominate up to two Anglo-Indians if he/she feels the community is inadequately represented in the House.
• At present, the strength of the Lok Sabha is 543, of which 530 have been allocated to the states and the rest to the Union Territories.
• Article 81 also mandates that the number of Lok Sabha seats allotted to a state would be such that the ratio between that number and the population of the state is, as far as possible, the same for all states. This is to ensure that every state is equally represented. However, this logic does not apply to small states whose population is not more than 60 lakh. So, at least one seat is allocated to every state even if it means that its population-to-seat-ratio is not enough to qualify it for that seat.
• As per Clause 3 of Article 81, population, for the purpose of allocation of seats, means “population as ascertained at the last preceding census of which the relevant figures have been published”. In other words, the last published Census. But, by an amendment to this Clause in 2003, the population now means population as per the 1971 Census, until the first Census taken after 2026.

When it was changed

• Originally, Article 81 provided that the Lok Sabha shall not have more than 500 members. The first House constituted in 1952 had 497.
• Since the Constitution provides for population as the basis of determining allocation of seats, the lower House’s composition (total seats as well as readjustment of seats allocated to different states) has also changed with each Census up to 1971.
• A temporary freeze was imposed in 1976 on ‘Delimitation’ until 2001. Delimitation is the process of redrawing boundaries of Lok Sabha and state Assembly seats to represent changes in the population. However, the composition of the House did not change only with delimitation exercises in 1952, 1963, 1973 and 2002.
• The first major change took place after the overall reorganisation of states in 1956, which divided the country into 14 states and six Union Territories. This meant subsequent changes in the boundaries of existing states and hence, a change in the allocation of seats to the states and Union Territories. So with reorganisation, the government also amended the Constitution by which the maximum number of seats allocated to the states remained 500, but an additional 20 seats (also maximum limit) were added to represent the six Union Territories.
• Second Lok Sabha elected in 1957 had 503 members. Further down the years, the lower House’s composition also changed when the state of Haryana was carved out of Punjab in 1966 and when Goa and Daman and Diu were liberated in 1961 and merged with the Indian Union subsequently.

When it was Frozen

• The population-to-seat ratio, as mandated under Article 81, should be the same for all states. Although unintended, this implied that states that took little interest in population control could end up with a greater number of seats in Parliament. The southern states that promoted family planning faced the possibility of having their seats reduced. To allay these fears, the Constitution was amended during Indira Gandhi’s Emergency rule in 1976 to suspend delimitation until 2001.
• Despite the embargo, there have been a few occasions which have called for readjustment in the number of Parliament and Assembly seats allocated to a state. These include statehood attained by Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram in 1986, the creation of a Legislative Assembly for the National Capital Territory of Delhi, and creation of new states such as Uttarakhand.
• Although the freeze on the number of seats in Lok Sabha and Assemblies should have been lifted after the Census of 2001, another amendment postponed this until 2026. This was justified on the ground that a uniform population growth rate would be achieved throughout the country by 2026. So, the last delimitation exercise – started in July 2002 and finished on May 31, 2008 – was conducted on the basis of the 2001 Census and only readjusted boundaries of existing Lok Sabha and Assembly seats and reworked the number of seats reserved for SCs and STs.

7 . Facts for Prelims

Couples who secured nobel

• Marie & Pierre Curie – Nobel Prize in Physics, 1903
• Irène Joliot-Curie & Frédéric Joliot – Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1935
• Gerty & Carl Cori – Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1947
• Gunnar Myrdal, Alva Myrdal – Prize in Economic Sciences, 1974, Nobel Peace Prize, 1982
• May-Britt & Edvard Moser – Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2014

C-40 World Mayors Summit

• C40 is a network of the world’s megacities committed to addressing climate change. C40 supports cities to collaborate effectively, share knowledge and drive meaningful, measurable and sustainable action on climate change.
• The C40 World Mayors Summit is C40’s milestone event, serving as a unique forum for member cities to present the innovative actions they have taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve climate resilience; influence decision makers – from fellow mayors to CEOs and national leaders – to take the bold and urgent action needed to keep global temperature rise to below 1.5 °C; and inspire participants and citizens to take climate action in their own lives. 
• Through C-40 Clean air cities Declaration, mayors commit to using their power and influence to reduce air pollution and work towards meeting the World Health Organization’s Air Quality Guidelines.

Mariam Thresia

• Sister Mariam Thresia, founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family, was declared a saint by Pope Francis at a grand ceremony at the Vatican City
• The nun, who hailed from Puthenchira in Thrissur district, was canonised along with English Cardinal John Henry Newman, Swiss laywoman Marguerite Bays, Brazilian nun Dulce Lopes, and Italian nun Giuseppina Vannini.

Full court reference

• A full court reference is held for departed senior lawyers and judges of the apex court as a mark of respect and remembrance for their service to the court and the legal profession.