Daily Current Affairs : 17th May

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

1. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
2. Skimming
3. Seshachalam Hills and Biosphere Reserve
4. Chang e 4
5. Sasakawa Award
6. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana
7. Risk Officer

1 . Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar

About Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar

• Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (1820-1891) was as one of the pillars of Bengal renaissance who managed to continue the social reforms movement that was started by Raja Rammohan Roy in the early 1800s.
• Vidyasagar was a well-known writer, intellectual and above all a staunch supporter of humanity.
• He had an imposing personality and was revered even by the British authorities of his time.
• He brought about a revolution in the Bengali education system and refined the way Bengali language was written and taught.
• He received the title “Vidyasagar“ from the Calcutta Sanskrit College(where he graduated), due to his excellent performance in Sanskrit studies and philosophy.

Educational Reforms

• He opened 35 schools for women throughout Bengal and was successful in enrolling 1300 students.
• He even initiated Nari Siksha Bhandar, a fund to lend support for the cause.
• He maintained his support to John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune to establish the first permanent girls’ school in India, the Bethune School, on May 7, 1849.
• Introduced English and Bengali as the medium of learning, besides Sanskrit in Sanskrit College when he came back as a Professor
• He introduced courses of European History, Philosophy and Science alongside of Vedic scriptures.
• He wrote two books ‘Upakramonika’ and ‘Byakaran Koumudi’, interpreting complex notions of Sanskrit grammar in easy legible Bengali language.
• He introduced the concepts of Admission fee and tuition fee for the first time in Calcutta.
• He set up the Normal School for training teachers enabling uniformity in teaching methods.
• He wrote ‘Borno Porichoy’, an elementary level book for learning Bengali alphabets, where he reconstructed Bengali alphabets and reformed it into typography of 12 vowels and 40 consonants.

Social Reforms

• Vidyasagar launched a powerful attack on the practice of marrying off girls aged 10 or even younger, pointing to social, ethical, and hygiene issues, and rejecting the validity of the Dharma Shastras that advocated it.
• In 1855, he wrote his two famous tracts on the Marriage of Hindu Widows, grounding his argument in reason and logic, showing that there was no prohibition on widows remarrying in the entire body of ‘Smriti’ literature (the Sutras and the Sastras).
• He took his arguments to the British Authorities and his pleas were heard when the Hindu Widows’ Remarriage Act, 1856 or Act XV, 1856, was decreed on July 26, 1856. 
• He was also instrumental in passing of the Special Marriages Act of 1872.
• The other social reform Vidyasagar attempted was the abolition of polygamy among kulin Brahmins. In this, he was part of a larger movement and though the movement did not result in legislation, its social impact was considerable.

2 . Skimming

Context : Last week, Delhi police found that Rs 19 lakh had been fraudulently withdrawn from 87 accounts in three ATMs in the space of seven days. This was done by skimming, a procedure in which criminals clone ATM cards with stolen data. 

How Skimming is done

• A skimmer is a device designed to look like and replace the card insertion slot at an ATM.
• The skimmers, which cannot be usually spotted by an untrained eye, have circuitry that read and store the data on the magnetic strip of an ATM card even as the ATM processes the same data.
• Typically, fraudsters also install pinhole cameras in inconspicuous places like the top of the cash dispenser, the deposit slot or just above the keyboard. This steals the PIN for the card. In some cases, criminals have also used a fraudulent PIN pad fitted with a skimming device and placed atop the original pin pad.
• Days after installation, criminals recover the skimming machines and cameras and collect the stolen data, and decode the PIN for a card.
• In one case data were collected remotely in wireless mode from the skimmer and camera, police said.
• Using stolen data, the criminals clone ATM cards and use these in different cities; at other times, they transfer the data to associates, or sell the data to other gangs.

3 . Seshachalam Hills and Biosphere Reserve

Context : With the summer heat touching 45 degree Celsius, the wild animals in the Seshachalam biosphere, which is spread over Chittoor and Kadapa districts, are facing a torrid time.

About the News

• The intensity of heat this year is said to be the highest in the biosphere. As a result, even shy and critically endangered species such as the pangolin and the slender loris (devanga pilli) are venturing out of their habitat.
• The pangolin is another species that has fallen on hard times in the biosphere, hit by paucity of food and water sources. The oppressive heat has not only led to vanishing of water in the ditches, ponds and streams but also suppressed the moisture content in the soil. Pangolin is the most smuggled one from India for its scales, which are believed to be in great demand in Vietnam and several South-East Asian nations.
• The anteater is finding it difficult to gather food, mostly worms, insects, flies, bees and ants. Failure of rains for over three years led to the earth developing clods in several parts of the biosphere. These conditions would generally prevent the small creatures from coming out of the earth surface.

About Seshachalam Hills and Biosphere Reserve

• The Seshachalam Hills are hilly ranges part of the Eastern Ghats in southern Andhra Pradesh state, in southeastern India.
• Tirupati, a major pilgrimage town is located in the hills. 
• The hills contain seven peaks namely, Anjanadri, Garudadri, Narayanadri, Neeladri, Seshadri, Venkatadri and Vrishabhadri, the highest at about 600 m (2,000 ft) above sea level.
• The Srivenkateshwara National Park is also located in these ranges.
• The famous Natural Arch, Tirumala Hills is also a part of Seshachalam Hills, which dates back to the period in between Middle and Upper Proterozoic Eon. 
• In 2010 it was designated as a Biosphere Reserve.
• It has large reserves of Red Sandal woodwhich is used in medicines, soaps ,spiritual rituals.

4 . Chang e 4

Context : Scientists have said they could be a step closer to solving the riddle behind the Moon’s formation, unveiling the most detailed survey yet of the far side of Earth’s satellite.

About the Findings

• Chinese spacecraft Chang’e-4 — named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology — became the first ever craft to touch down on the far side of the lunar surface.
• The moon is believed to have gone through a phase during its formation when it was partially or entirely composed of molten rock.
• As it cooled, denser minerals sank to the bottom of the magma-ocean, while lighter materials gathered near the surface to form its mantle.
• The team landed its probe in the Von Karmen Crater in the Aitken Basin at the Moon’s south pole — home to one of the largest impact craters known in the solar system.
• They detected materials such as olivine and low-calcium pyroxene that are rare elsewhere on the surface
• Results support the lunar magma ocean theory, and demonstrate that the magma ocean hypothesis can be used to describe the early evolution history of the moon
• Magma Ocean Hypothesis : According to the giant impact hypothesis, a large amount of energy was liberated in the formation of moon due to which a huge portion of the body was once completely molten, forming a lunar magma ocean.     

About Chang e 4

5 . Sasakawa Award

Context : The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) on May 16, 2019 honoured Dr Pramod Kumar Mishra, Additional Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi & Bijal Brahmbhatt, Director of the Mahila Housing SEWA Trust of India with the ‘Sasakawa Award 2019 for Disaster Risk Reduction  

About Sasakawa Award

• The United Nations Sasakawa Award for Disaster Reduction is awarded to an individual or institutions that have taken active efforts in reducing disaster risk in their communities and advocates for disaster risk reduction.
• UNISDR is the administrator of the UN Sasakawa Award for Disaster Reduction.
• The theme of the Sasakawa Award 2019 was ‘Building Inclusive and Resilient Societies

6 . Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana 

Context : Out of Rs. 1,400 crore earmarked annually for the north-eastern States under the Centre’s flagship Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, only Rs. 8 crore — or just over half a per cent — was actually spent last year, according to senior Agriculture Ministry officials. Four north-eastern States — Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram — are not covered under the scheme at all.

Issues with the Scheme in North Eastern Region

• Some large States like Bihar and West Bengal have withdrawn from PMFBY to set up their own State-level schemes and Punjab has never participated in the scheme, while UTs like Delhi and Chandigarh are largely urban spaces. 
• States in the Northeast, as well as the Union Territory of Daman and Diu, face challenges such as the lack of interest by insurance companies and the lack of State budgetary resources to pay their share of the premium
• While Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland have never been covered under the scheme, which was launched with much fanfare in 2016, the scheme was implemented in Mizoram and Manipur only in the initial season
• Lack of forecasting infrastructure has also hampered the penetration of the weather-based insurance scheme in these states.
• North-eastern States have only 2.5% of the country’s cultivable area, 10% of the budget for PMFBY and RWBCIS [Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme] is earmarked for them. But all the funds are lapsed

Why Insurance companies doesn’t bid for North Eastern states

• Insurance companies have been reluctant to bid for these States, as the administrative costs are high.
• There are no proper land records.
• Historic yield data is not available for these States, particularly at the gram panchayat and block level.
• It is difficult to conduct CCEs [crop-cutting experiments] needed for many of the horticulture crops.
• Insurance companies are also not interested because the coverage is so limited.
• There are low number of loanee farmers in the Northeast, except in Assam

About PMFBY

• Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) aims at supporting sustainable production in agriculture sector by way of –
  • Providing financial support to farmers suffering crop loss/damage arising out of unforeseen events
  • Stabilizing the income of farmers to ensure their continuance in farming
  • Encouraging farmers to adopt innovative and modern agricultural practices
  • Ensuring flow of credit to the agriculture sector; which will contribute to food security, crop diversification and enhancing growth and competitiveness of agriculture sector besides protecting farmers from production risks.

Premium

• Kharif – All foodgrain and Oilseeds crops(all Cereals, Millets, Pulses and Oilseeds crops) – 2.0% of SI or Actuarial rate, whichever is less
• Rabi – All foodgrain and Oilseeds crops(all Cereals, Millets, Pulses and Oilseeds crops) – 1.5% of SI or Actuarial rate, whichever is less
• Kharif and Rabi – Annual Commercial / Annual Horticultural crops – 5% of SI or Actuarial rate, whichever is less

What types of Risks are excluded

• War & kindred perils, nuclear risks, riots, malicious damage, theft, act of enmity, grazed and/or destroyed by domestic and/or wild animals, In case of Post–Harvest losses the harvested crop bundled and heaped at a place before threshing, other preventable risks.

7 . Risk Officer

Context : Indian shadow banks with more than 50 billion rupees ($714 million) in assets must appoint a chief risk officer, the central bank said on Thursday, as it tightens regulations after a series of defaults by a single lender last year.

About the News

• The RBI has asked all shadow banks with a size of over Rs. 5,000 crore to appoint chief risk officers (CROs) with clearly specified roles and responsibilities.
• The CRO shall be a senior official in the hierarchy of an NBFC [non-banking finance company] and shall possess adequate professional qualification/ experience in the area of risk management
• NBFCs must now appoint an independently functioning chief risk officer with clearly specified responsibilities for a fixed tenure, and who cannot be removed without board approval
• Shadow banking sector raises short-term funds through commercial paper and lends for long-term purposes such as housing loans