Daily Current Affairs : 19/1/2019

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

1. Young Scientist Programme
2. Cassini Mission
3. Great Indian Bustard
4. Nagaland and Citizenship bill
5. Gilgit-Baltistan
6. PMAY (G)
7. Facts for Prelims

1 . Young Scientist Programme

Context : ISRO is planning to spread its wings in new areas, Dr. Sivan announced a Young Scientist Programme (YSP) and termed it their most important project to reach out to students.

What is Young Scientist Programme

• Under the YSP, three students, 8th standard pass, would be selected from each of the 29 States and seven Union Territories and will spend one month at ISRO during which they will be given lectures, get access to research and development and will be given experience to build a satellite.
• If the satellite is good, ISRO will launch it
• This programme is similar to U.S. space agency NASA’s student outreach,

2 . Cassini Mission

Context : Saturn’s rings are one of our solar system’s magnificent sights, but may be a relatively recent addition, according to data obtained from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft before the robotic explorer’s 2017 death plunge into the giant gas planet.

About Cassini-Huygens mission

• The Cassini–Huygens mission was a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to send a probe to study the planet Saturn and its system, including its rings and natural satellites.
• The robotic spacecraft comprised both NASA’s Cassini probe, and ESA’s Huygens lander which landed on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.
• Cassini was the fourth space probe to visit Saturn and the first to enter its orbit. The craft were named after astronomers Giovanni Cassini and Christiaan Huygens.
• The voyage to Saturn included flybys of Venus (April 1998 and July 1999), Earth (August 1999), the asteroid 2685 Masursky, and Jupiter (December 2000).
• Its mission ended on September 15, 2017, when Cassini’s trajectory took it into Saturn’s upper atmosphere and it burned up in order to prevent any risk of contaminating Saturn’s moons, which might have offered habitable environments to stowaway terrestrial microbes on the spacecraft

Result of the Mission

3 . Great Indian Bustard

Context : Almost two years after the Rajasthan government proposed setting up of captive breeding centres for the Great Indian Bustards to boost their wild population, the wildlife activists here have called for enforcement of recovery plan for the country’s most critically endangered bird. The GIB’s last remnant wild population of about 50 in Jaisalmer district accounts for 95% of its total world population.

About Great Indian Bustard

• The Great Indian Bustard or Indian bustard is a bustard found on the Indian subcontinent.
• It is Listed in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection)Act, 1972, in the CMS Convention and in Appendix I of CITES,
• Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List and the National Wildlife Action Plan (2002-2016).
• It has also been identified as one of the species for the recovery programme under the Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.
• It is the State Animal of Rajasthan

4 . Nagaland and Citizenship bill

Context : The Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP), a coalition partner of the BJP in Nagaland, said the State had the constitutional provision to reject the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016.

Constitutional Provisions

• Article 371 (A) – Article begins with the words “notwithstanding anything in this Constitution, no Act of Parliament in respect of…”, which itself means that despite what is in the Constitution, no Act of Parliament shall apply to the State of Nagaland unless the Legislative Assembly of Nagaland by a resolution so decides.”
• Nagaland is also protected by the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation of 1873, whereby an Inner Line Permit is issued to outsiders for safeguarding the citizenship, rights and privileges of the Nagas

5 . Gilgit – Baltistan

Context : India on Friday summoned a Pakistani diplomat and protested against a recent order of the Supreme Court of Pakistan that brought the region of Gilgit-Baltistan within its ambit.

BackgroudT

• After the Second World War, the British, unable to sustain pressure from India’s freedom struggle, decided to partition the country into India and Pakistan.
• It gave the princely states the right to merge with either of the two provided their territory had geographical continuity with the nation they wished to accede to.
• The British also returned the Gilgit Agency to the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, 15 days after India attained independence. Gilgit again came under the direct rule of the Maharaja as a legal part of his state.
• After independence, both India and Pakistan went for territorial consolidation. The Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir decided not to accede to either India or Pakistan. But, the situation soon changed as Pakistan invaded the princely state in October 1947.

HOW GILGIT FELL TO PAKISTAN

• Pakistan captured a part of Kashmir by means of invasion and the entire Gilgit region – generally called Gilgit-Baltistan – by the treachery of British military officer of the Maharaja.
• Under lease, Gilgit-Baltistan was protected by a British-controlled force called the Gilgit Scouts. After the British terminated the lease, they loaned two of their officers – Major W A Brown and Captain A S Mathieson – to the Maharaja for the purpose of looking after the defence of Gilgit-Baltistan till an alternative arrangement was found.
• But as Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession on October 31 in 1947, Major Brown revolted and captured King’s governor Brigadier Ghansara Singh. Major Brown then informed this former British boss stationed at Peshawar about his decision to accede to Pakistan.
• The British decision was influenced by their understanding of the reactions of the Arab nations with regard to formation of Pakistan. The British did not want to antagonise the oil-rich nations by apparently taking an anti-Muslim stand at a time when the fears of Soviet communism dominated the West.
• Major Brown defected on November 1 and the Pakistani forces occupied Gilgit-Baltistan on November 4. Since then, Gilgit-Baltistan has been under Pakistan’s administrative control.

Current Status of Gilgit – Baltistan

• After gaining control of the region, Pakistan renamed the Gilgit Wazarat and Gilgit Agency as The Northern Areas of Pakistan. It is directly administered by the federal government of Pakistan.
• Gilgit-Baltistan has an elected Assembly with limited powers to frame laws. The area is governed by a council headed by the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
• Gilgit-Baltistan has been treated as a separate geographical entity by successive Pakistani governments. Gilgit-Baltistan does not find any mention in Pakistan’s Constitution.
• The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has further changed the dynamics. Pakistan has already gifted a portion (about 5,000-8,000 sq km) of Gilgit-Baltistan in 1963, a year after the Indo-China war.
• Pakistan, on the other hand, has been trying to change the demography of Gilgit-Baltistan for decades. In 1970s, former Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had abrogated the State Subject Rule to allow Sunni Muslims to settle down in the Shia-dominated Gilgit-Baltistan. This has worked in Pakistan’s favour.
• Recently, a committee headed by Sartaj Aziz, Foreign Affairs Advisor to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, recommended that Gilgit-Baltistan be officially recognised as the fifth province of Pakistan in addition to Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

6 . Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana (Grameen)

Context : With two and a half months to go for the end of this financial year, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Grameen) scheme to provide housing for the rural poor has achieved only 66% of its target to complete one crore houses.

About PMAY (Grameen)

• In pursuance to the goal – Housing for all by 2022, the rural housing scheme Indira Awas Yojana has been revamped to Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana – Gramin
• Under the scheme, financial assistance is provided for construction of pucca house to all houseless and households living in dilapidated houses.
• It is proposed that one crore households would be provided assistance for construction of pucca house under the project during the period from 2016-17 to 2018-19.
• The scheme would be implemented in rural areas throughout India except Delhi and Chandigarh.
• Under PMAY, the cost of unit assistance is to be shared between Central and State Governments in the ratio 60:40 in plain areas and 90:10 for North Eastern and hilly states.
• The beneficiary is entitled to 90 days of unskilled labour from MGNREGA.
• The beneficiary would be facilitated to avail loan of up to Rs.70,000/- for construction of the house which is optional.
• Identification of beneficiaries eligible for assistance and their prioritisation to be done using information from Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) ensuring total transparency and objectivity. The list will be presented to Gram Sabha to identify beneficiaries who have been assisted before or who have become ineligible due to other reason

Current Status

• The scheme has been successful in reducing the average time of construction from 314 days to 114 days
• About 15 lakh homes have reached the late stages of construction with roofs ready to be added. Another 11 lakh homes have reached the lintel level, and may be completed in the next few months even if they do not meet the March 31 deadline.
• However, there has been little headway made with regard to one bloc of beneficiaries: the landless, who do not possess the land on which to construct the PMAY homes they are entitled to.

7 . Facts for Prelims

Chowmahalla Palace

• Chowmahalla Palace is a palace of the Nizams of Hyderabad state.
• It was the seat of the Asaf Jahi dynasty and was the official residence of the Nizams of Hyderabad while they ruled their state.
• The palace was built by Nizam Salabat Jung.
• The UNESCO Asia Pacific Merit award for cultural heritage conservation was presented to Chowmahalla Palace on 15 March 2010

Map Marking – (Gilgit Baltistan)

• Geographically, Gilgit-Baltistan is situated in the trans-Himalayan region on the northwestern corner of the Kashmir Valley, a part of which has been illegally occupied by Pakistan since it invaded the region after the partition of India.
• Gilgit-Baltistan was part of the formerly princely state of Jammu and Kashmir (then identified as the state of Kashmir and Jammu). Under the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, the princely state consisted of five regions.
• The five regions were: Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit Wazarat, and Gilgit Agency. With changing equations in the early 20th century after the formation of the USSR in 1917, the British took Gilgit Agency on a 60-year-lease from the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir in 1935.