Daily Current Affairs : 22nd May

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

1. Regulatory cadre of RBI
2. UN World Economic Situation and Prospects
3. Concentration of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere
4. Hot Pursuit
5. Profit Booking

1 . Regulatory Cadre of RBI

Context : The Reserve Bank of India’s Central Board has decided to create a specialised supervisory and regulatory cadre.

Objectives of Regulatory Cadre

• The cadre is being created with a view to strengthening the supervision and regulation of commercial banks, urban cooperative banks and non-banking financial companies

Need of Regulatory Cadre

• The RBI’s decision to create a specialised supervisory and regulatory cadre is pertinent in light of increasing complexity of the regulated entities such as banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs).
• Cases of recent large frauds at banks and defaults by NBFCs, which roiled the financial markets over the past year, require specialized supervision to ensure that the financial sector remains in good health.

2 . UN World Economic Situation and Prospects

Context : The United Nations (UN) has lowered its forecast for India’s GDP growth in 2019-20 to 7.1% from its estimate in January of 7.5%, citing an overall slowdown in global growth.

About UN Economic Situation and Prospect

• The World Economic Situation and Prospects 2019 is a joint product of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN/DESA), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the five United Nations regional commissions (Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).
• The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), and staff from the International Labour Organization (ILO) also contributed to the report

Details of the Report

• As per the report the global economy is experiencing a broad-based growth slowdown led by slowing industrial production coupled with the weakening of international trade activity due in large part to the unresolved trade disputes between the U.S. and China.
• Across both developed and developing countries, growth projections for 2019 have been downgraded

Findings on Indian Economy

• The Indian economy, which generates two-thirds of the regional output, expanded by 7.2% in 2018,” the report added. “Strong domestic consumption and investment will continue to support growth, which is projected at 7% in 2019 and 7.1% in 2020.”
• Slowdown in European Union has meant exports from nations such as Bangladesh have also slowed as the EU is one of its major export destinations, India is on a stronger footing because of the nature of its export destinations.
• India’s exports remain more robust, as around half of exports are destined for faster-growing Asian markets

3 . Concentration of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere

Context :

Background

• Carbon dioxide concentration remained constant around 270-280 ppm, before the industrial revolution began to slowly push it up. When direct measurements began at the Mouna Loa observatory in 1958, concentrations were around 315 ppm.
• It took nearly 50 years for it to reach 380 ppm, a mark first breached in 2004, but thereafter the growth has been rapid.
• The first full-day average of more than 400 ppm was achieved on May 9, 2013; two years later, in 2015, even the annual average exceeded 400 ppm.
• Currently, the carbon dioxide concentration is growing at more than 2 ppm per year, and scientists say the growth rate is likely to reach 3 ppm a year from this year.

Reasons for increase in atmospheric concentration

• The rapid rise in the atmospheric concentrations is due to the fact that carbon dioxide has a very long lifespan in the atmosphere, between 100 and 300 years. So, even if the emissions were to miraculously reduce to zero all of a sudden, it would have no impact on the atmospheric concentrations in the near term.
• About half of emitted carbon dioxide is absorbed by plants and oceans, leaving the other half to go into the atmosphere. An addition of about 7.5 billion tonnes carbon dioxide to the atmosphere leads to a 1 ppm rise in its atmospheric concentration.
• The absorption of carbon dioxide by plants follows a predictable seasonal variability. Plants absorb more carbon dioxide during the summer, with the result that a lower amount of carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere in the summer months of the northern hemisphere, which has considerably more vegetation than southern hemisphere.

Relationship Between increase in Carbon dioxide and Global Warming

• Higher the concentration of carbon dioxide, the greater the greenhouse gas effect that causes the Earth’s atmosphere to heat up.

Challenges

• The stated effort of the global community is to keep the rise in average surface temperatures below 2ºC higher than during pre-industrial times, and if possible below 1.5°C. The carbon dioxide concentration level corresponding to a 2ºC rise in global temperatures is generally understood to be 450 ppm. At current rates of growth, that level would be reached in less than 12 years, that is by 2030. 
• A special report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last year said the world needed to achieve net zero emissions of all greenhouse gases, not just carbon dioxide, by 2050 to keep alive any realistic chances of restraining the temperature rise to within 1.5ºC. The net zero needs to be achieved by 2075 to attain the 2ºC target.
• Net zero is achieved when the total emissions is neutralised by absorption of carbon dioxide through natural sinks like forests, or removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through technological interventions.

• 4 . Hot Pursuit

Context : Pakistani fishing vessel caught after hot pursuit, 200 kg heroin seized

What is Hot Pursuit

• The doctrine of hot pursuit owes its origin to the law of the seas, and emerged as an exception to the fundamental principle of freedom of the high seas — the rights of vessels of all nations to navigate freely on the high seas.
• At a time when smuggling and piracy were rampant, this customary doctrine emerged to empower a coastal state to pursue on to the high seas a vessel that had violated its laws within its waters.
• This denied the intruding vessel the opportunity to escape punishment by claiming protection under the right of free navigation on the high seas, which had been designed to protect innocent vessels.
• Importantly, this customary doctrine did not extend to the territorial waters of a foreign state.
• Decades later, this customary doctrine was codified in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of High Seas.

Hot Pursuit as per UNCLOS

• The doctrine of maritime hot pursuit, codified in art 111 of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) recognises that a vessel, if it has committed a violation of the laws of a foreign state while in that state’s sovereign or territorial waters, may be pursued onto the high seas and seized

5 . Profit Booking

Context : Pakistani fishing vessel caught after hot pursuit, 200 kg heroin seized

About Profit Booking

• A buys a stock X with an anticipation of of appreciation in less than 6 months.
• Later few more entities enter into the same stock and which results into the increase in prices of the stock.
• As a result, the stock moves up and now X might think that he had enough profits.
• As a result X might now plan to book profits and take exit.
• When entities start booking their gains, the stock prices will fall and this is called profit booking.