Daily Current Affairs : 23rd and 24th April

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

1. Significant Reduction Exceptions
2. Global Deal for Nature
3. Bridge Course
4. Tik tok issue
5. Emergency Provisions in Sri Lankan Constitution
6. Facts for Prelims – Principles of Natural Justice, Strait of Hormuz

1 . Significant Reduction Exceptions

Context : United States will not issue any additional Significant Reduction Exceptions [SREs] to existing importers of Iranian oil

About Significant Reduction Exception

• U.S. secondary sanctions were re-imposed against the purchase and carriage of Iranian crude oil, petroleum products, liquified gases and petrochemicals in November 2018, eight countries – China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Turkey – were granted waivers from the U.S. so that they may continue to be permitted to import limited amounts of Iranian crude oil these waivers are called Significant Reduction Exception
• The exemptions were granted last November for a 180-day period for India and seven other countries, and are due to expire on May 2

Challenges before India

• Iran was the fourth largest supplier of oil to India in 2018-19, and other suppliers may not provide the same benefits in the form of price and credit facilities.
• The big concern is that the substitute crude suppliers — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Nigeria and the US — do not offer the attractive options that Iran does, including 60-day credit, and free insurance and shipping. The challenge is to secure an alternative supplier at competitive terms in an already tightening global situation.

Potential impact

• Current account deficit: Higher crude oil prices will widen the trade deficit and current account deficit, given that the value of imports goes up with crude oil, and that the quantity imported tends to be sticky in general. According to CARE, a permanent increase in crude oil prices by 10% under ceteris paribus conditions could translate into the current account deficit increasing by 0.4-0.5% of GDP. Given that each dollar increase in the price of oil raises India’s annual import bill by over Rs 10,500 crore, any spike in global crude prices could have a bigger impact on India’s deficit numbers in the absence of the Iranian cushion.
• Rupee: The currency could be impacted if the trade and current account deficits were to widen. An increase in the import bill will tend to put pressure on the rupee.
• Inflation: There could be significant impact on inflation, given how crude oil prices move and the extent to which the government allows the pass-through to the consumer. The crude oil price could be an important consideration when the Monetary Policy Committee meets for its bi-monthly meeting in June.
• Fiscal impact: There could be a two pronged impact on government finances — both on the revenue side and on the expenditure side. On the revenue side, higher oil prices mean more revenue for the states as tax is ad valorem; for the Centre, though, it may not materially impact the fiscal math as the duty rates are fixed. The expenditure impact would primarily be on account of fuel subsidy outlays.

2 . Global Deal for Nature

Context : Saving the diversity and abundance of life on the earth may cost $100 billion a year, say scientists who have proposed a policy to prevent another mass extinction event on the planet.

About Global Deal for Nature

• The Global Deal for Nature is a time-bound, science-based plan to save the diversity and abundance of life on Earth. The policy’s mission is to save the diversity and abundance of life on the earth — for the price tag of $100 billion a year.
• The study, published in Science Advances , outlines the guiding principles, milestones and targets needed to avoid the extinction threats of a two degrees Celsius warming forecast.
• The three overarching goals of the GDN are to protect biodiversity by conserving at least 30% of the earth’s surface by 2030; mitigate climate change by conserving the earth’s natural carbon storehouses; and reduce major threats. The essence of implementing the plan is to set up protected areas of land as natural ecosystems.

3 . Bridge Course

Context : The allopathic practitioners are up in arms over the NITI Aayog’s proposal to bring in a bridge course between the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) and the MBBS allowing dentists to practise family medicine with the Indian Medical Association (IMA) threatening nationwide agitation, in case the proposal is taken forward.

Need to Bridge Allopathy with Dentistry

• Plug the shortage of doctors using the fact that the dental courses follow the same training and curriculum as the MBBS courses for the first three years.
• The NITI Aayog had earlier proposed a bridge course for Ayush (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) doctors in the National Medical Commission Bill meant to replace the Indian Medical Council Act. Following pressure from the IMA, the course was rejected.

Arguments against the bridge course

• Unemployment among medical graduates is a cause for concern as the government is not able to generate jobs even for medical graduates. Hence bridge course will increase the unemployment crisis

4 . Tik tok issue

Context : The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Madras High Court to hear and decide on April 24 a plea to lift its prohibition on short-form TikTok mobile video application.

Background

• Madras High Court directed the country’s central government to ban TiKTok, the popular video creation app from Chinese giant Bytedance

Reasons for Banning the app

• The court order says TikTok enables “cultural degradation and pornography” and also cites concerns that young users on the platform were putting their privacy at risk. The order also extends the ruling to media outlets, banning them from using Tiktok footage in their reporting.

Latest development

• The Madurai bench of the Madras high court on Wednesday vacated its interim order prohibiting downloading of TikTok app. The court allowed downloading the app following submissions made by the Chinese company that it has mechanisms in place to regulate content and it is only an intermediary platform which do not upload content.

5 . Emergency in Sri Lanka

Context : A state of emergency was to go into force in Sri Lanka at midnight on Monday. 

About the Emergency Provisions in Srilankan Constitution

• Under the Public Security Ordinance (PSO) of 1947, the President can proclaim an emergency for all or parts of Sri Lanka, if “he is of the opinion that it is expedient to do so in the interests of public security and the preservation of public order or for the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community”.
• Article 155(2) under Chapter XVIII (Public Security) of Sri Lanka’s 1978 Constitution says that “the power to make Emergency Regulations under the Public Security Ordinance… shall include the power to make regulations having the legal effect of over-riding, amending or suspending the operation of the provisions of any law, except the provisions of the Constitution”.
• Only the President can declare an emergency, and his decision is not subject to judicial review. However, he must summon Parliament immediately to inform it of his decision. Parliament must approve of the proclamation within 14 days, failing which the proclamation expires at the end of one month.
• Under the PSO, Emergency Regulations allow for detentions of individuals; entering, searching, and takeovers of private property; and for “amending any law, for suspending the operation of any law and for applying any law with or without modification”. The Ordinance also grants “Special Powers” to the President to “call out all or any of the members of all or any of the armed forces for the maintenance of public order”, and to put restrictions on people’s movement.
• The Sri Lankan Constitution also permits restrictions on fundamental rights through the Emergency Regulations. Fundamental rights that can be restricted in the interest of national security and public order are: “the presumption of innocence, the burden of proof, and retroactive penal sanctions; equality before the law and non-discrimination; the ordinary procedure for arrests and judicial sanction for detention; and the fundamental rights to freedom of expression, assembly, association, movement, occupation, religion, culture and language

6 . Facts for Prelims

Strait of Hormuz

• It is a strait between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. It provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean and is one of the world’s most strategically important choke points
• On the north coast lies Iran, and on the south coast the United Arab Emirates and Musandam, an exclave of Oman. Part of it is in Oman’s territorial waters
• After the US said it would prevent five of Iran’s biggest customers — including India — from buying its oil, Tehran threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, a the lane through which a third of the world’s seaborne oil passes every day.

Principles of Natural Justice

Two core points in the concept of principles of natural justice

• Nemo in propria causa judex, esse debet – No one should be made a judge in his own case, or the rule against bias.
• Audi alteram partem – Hear the other party, or the rule of fair hearing, or the rule that no one should be condemned unheard.

Volodymyr Zelensky

• Volodymyr Zelensky is a Ukrainian politician, screenwriter, actor, comedian, and director who is President-elect of Ukraine, following the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election.