02 March 2019 Current Affairs
1.At OIC meet, India flays terror funding
Context :
● External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj attended the inaugural plenary of the foreign ministers' conclave of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) as the guest of honour.
● It is for the first time that India has been invited to a meeting of the OIC, which is an influential grouping of 57 Islamic countries.
● India was invited to attend the OIC meeting in 1969 but Pakistan prevailed upon and got the invite withdrawn.
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC ) :
● The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is the second largest inter-governmental organization after the United Nations with a membership of 57 states spread over four continents.
● The Organization is the collective voice of the Muslim world. It endeavors to safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony among various people of the world.
● The Organization was established upon a decision of the historical summit which took place in Rabat, Kingdom of Morocco on 12th Rajab 1389 Hijra (September 25, 1969).
● In 1970, the first-ever meeting of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Minister (ICFM) was held in Jeddah, which decided to establish a permanent secretariat.
● The secretariat comprises a secretary-general who is the Chief Administrative Officer of the organisation.
● The first OIC charter was adopted by the 3rd ICFM session held in 1972, which laid down the objectives and principles of the organization and fundamental purposes to strengthen the solidarity and cooperation among the member states.
● Over the last 40 years, the membership has grown from its founding members of 30 to 57 states.
● The charter was amended to keep pace with the developments that have unraveled across the world. The present charter of the OIC was adopted by the 11th Islamic Summit held in Dakar in March 2008.
● The member states of the OIC face many challenges in the 21st century and to address those challenges, the third session of the Islamic Summit held in Makkah in December 2005, laid down the blueprint called the Ten-Year Program of Action.
● It successfully concluded with the close of 2015. A successor programme for the next decade (2016-2025) has since then been adopted.
● The new programme OIC-2025 focuses on 18 priority areas with 107 goals. The priority areas include issues of
○ Peace and Security
○ Palestine and Al-Quds (Jerusalem)
○ Poverty Alleviation
○ Counter-terrorism
○ Investment and Finance
○ Food Security
○ Science and Technology
○ Climate Change and Sustainability
○ Moderation
○ Culture and Interfaith Harmony
○ Empowerment of Women
○ Joint Islamic Humanitarian Action
○ Human Rights and Good Governance
Source :- The Hindu
2.Order on surveillance meant to protect privacy, govt. tells SC
Context :
● The Centre to a PIL filed by advocate M.L. Sharma, challenging the December 20 notification allowing 10 central agencies to snoop on people- as a violation of the fundamental right to privacy, The Government told the Supreme Court that its December 20, 2018 notification is in fact a measure to protect citizens’ privacy.
Background :
● The government in December 20, 2018 notification has authorised 10 police and intelligence agencies to "intercept, monitor and decrypt" all information on any computer device in the country.
○ This has been issued under sub-section 1 of section 69 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Government Response :
● The order was intended to prevent unauthorised interception and protect privacy of citizens
● Snooping will be done only as a last resort if other options aren’t available, the government claimed, at the instance of the head of the authorised security agency or law enforcement agency.
● The very purpose of the December 20 order is to ensure that surveillance is done as per due process of law
Surveillance by Authorised Agencies :
● Any interception, monitoring, decryption of computer resource is done only by authorised agencies and with approval of competent authority; to prevent unauthorised use of these powers by any agency, individual or intermediary so that the right to privacy of citizen is not violated
Interest of Sovereignty and Integrity of India :
● Surveillance is done only in the defence of India, to maintain public order, etc.
● The government also claimed that the order was issued to ensure that all safeguards were followed in interception and every case must be placed before a high-level review committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary at the Centre and the chief secretary in the states.
Review Panel :
● The review committee will review every such authorisation order within 60 days and order destruction of the copies of the intercepted messages if it doesn’t fulfil the procedural safeguards. The affidavit filed by the Home Ministry claimed that the order narrowed, not widened, the scope of surveillance.
● The order only restricted the exercise of such powers removing a possible vagueness and specifying the agencies which would have the power to do it. It streamlines and restricts use of Section 69 of the IT Act, 2000, to cases of “legitimate state interest”.
3.The 7th (RCEP) Intersessional Ministerial Meeting
Context :
● 7th RCEP Intersessional Ministerial Meeting held in Cambodia .
RCEP :
● The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a so-called mega-regional economic agreement being negotiated since 2012 between the 10 ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) governments and their six FTA partners: Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.
Importance :
● The RCEP, when realized will become the largest trade bloc in terms of population with nearly 3.5 billion people.
● It will also have an estimated 40% of world’s GDP and dominating 30% of global trade.
● A unique importance of the ambitious RCEP formation is that it contains the three biggest economies of Asia – China, India and Japan. The trade arrangement has big future potential as it holds the two of the fastest growing largest economies – China and India.
Objective :
● Objective of RCEP negotiations is to “achieve a modern, comprehensive, high-quality and mutually beneficial economic partnership agreement among the ASEAN Member States and ASEAN’s FTA Partners.
● RCEP will cover trade in goods, trade in services, investment, economic and technical cooperation, intellectual property, competition, dispute settlement and other issues.” (from the Guiding Principles and Objectives for Negotiating the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership).
India’s Concern :
● Greater access to Chinese goods may have impact on the Indian manufacturing sector. India has got massive trade deficit with China. Under these circumstances, India proposed differential market access strategy for China.
● There are demands by other RCEP countries for lowering customs duties on a number of products and greater access to the market than India has been willing to provide.
4.Deendayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme
Context :
● A National Conference on “Deendayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme (DDRS)” was recently inaugurated at New Delhi.
More about the conference :
● The Conference was organised by theDepartment of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
● The objective of the conference was to sensitize the stakeholders of the scheme i.e. Programme Implementing Agencies (PIAs), District level officers & State Government officers.
Deendayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme (DDRS) :
● The umbrella Central Sector Scheme – called “Scheme to Promote Voluntary Action for Persons with Disabilities” was revised and was renamed as the “Deendayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme (DDRS)” in 2003.
Objective :
● To create an enabling environment to ensure equal opportunities, equity, social justice and empowerment of persons with disabilities.
● To encourage voluntary action for ensuring effective implementation of the People with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities and Protection of Rights) Act of 1995.
Approach and Strategy :
● The approach of this Scheme is to provide financial assistance to voluntary organizations to make available the whole range of services necessary for rehabilitation of persons with disabilities including early intervention, development of daily living skills, education, skill-development oriented towards employability, training and awareness generation.
● With a view to inclusion of persons with disabilities in the mainstream of society and actualizing their potential, the thrust would be on education and training programmes.
5.Government to celebrate ‘Poshan Pakhwada’
Context :
● The Minister for Women and Child Development announced that the Government will celebrate the first anniversary of POSHAN Abhiyaan on 8th March, 2019 by organising Poshan Pakhwada across the Country.
● WCD Minister said that Poshan Pakhwada will be celebrated as part of Jan Andolan under POSHAN Abhiyaan
POSHAN Abhiyan :
● POSHAN Abhiyaan is a multi-ministerial convergence mission with the vision to ensure attainment of malnutrition free India by 2022.
● The objective of POSHAN Abhiyaan to reduce stunting in identified Districts of India with the highest malnutrition burden by improving utilization of key Anganwadi Services and improving the quality of Anganwadi Services delivery.
● It aims to ensure holistic development and adequate nutrition for pregnant women, mothers and children.
● There are a number of schemes directly/indirectly affecting the nutritional status of children (0-6 year’s age) and pregnant women and lactating mothers. In spite of these, level of malnutrition and related problems in the country is high. There is no dearth of schemes but lack of creating synergy and linking the schemes with each other to achieve common goal. POSHAN Abhiyaan through robust convergence mechanism and other components would strive to create the synergy.
Targets under the Scheme :
● It targets to reduce level of under-nutrition and other related problems by ensuring convergence of various nutrition related schemes.
● It also targets stunting, under-nutrition, anaemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls) and low birth rate.
● It will monitor and review implementation of all such schemes and utilize existing structural arrangements of line ministries wherever available.
● Its large component involves gradual scaling-up of interventions supported by on-going World Bank assisted Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Systems Strengthening and Nutrition Improvement Project (ISSNIP) to all districts in the country by 2022.
6. Scam-hit Punjab National Bank tops among PSBs in implementing banking reforms
Context :
● Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs Shri Arun Jaitley released the first report on EASE Reforms Index that independently measures progress on the Public Sector Banks (PSB) Reforms Agenda
EASE Reform Index :
● EASE index is prepared by the Indian Banking Association (IBA) and Boston Consulting Group.
● It is commissioned by the Finance Ministry.
● It is a framework that was adopted last year to strengthen public sector banks, and rank them on metrics such as responsible banking, financial inclusion, credit offtake and digitisation.
● The Index measures performance of each PSB on 140 objective metrics across 6 themes and provides all PSBs a comparative evaluation showing where banks stand vis-à-vis benchmarks and peers on the Reforms Agenda.
● The Index follows a fully transparent scoring methodology, which enables banks to identify precisely their strengths as well as areas for improvement.
Key Findings of the Report :
● Punjab National Bank has topped the list. It is followed by Bank of Baroda, State Bank of India (SBI), and Oriental Bank of Commerce.
● The EASE Index report also noted PSU banks’ strengthening of the bad-loan recovery process, pointing to the success of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) in fast-tracking the resolution process.
Significance of Report :
● The index and report unveiled provides insights into how public sector banks are effectively addressing NPA problem.
● The report shows visible progress made on each of 4 elements of Government’s 4R’s strategy including recognition, recovery, recapitalisation and reforms.
Context :
● External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj attended the inaugural plenary of the foreign ministers' conclave of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) as the guest of honour.
● It is for the first time that India has been invited to a meeting of the OIC, which is an influential grouping of 57 Islamic countries.
● India was invited to attend the OIC meeting in 1969 but Pakistan prevailed upon and got the invite withdrawn.
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC ) :
● The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is the second largest inter-governmental organization after the United Nations with a membership of 57 states spread over four continents.
● The Organization is the collective voice of the Muslim world. It endeavors to safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony among various people of the world.
● The Organization was established upon a decision of the historical summit which took place in Rabat, Kingdom of Morocco on 12th Rajab 1389 Hijra (September 25, 1969).
● In 1970, the first-ever meeting of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Minister (ICFM) was held in Jeddah, which decided to establish a permanent secretariat.
● The secretariat comprises a secretary-general who is the Chief Administrative Officer of the organisation.
● The first OIC charter was adopted by the 3rd ICFM session held in 1972, which laid down the objectives and principles of the organization and fundamental purposes to strengthen the solidarity and cooperation among the member states.
● Over the last 40 years, the membership has grown from its founding members of 30 to 57 states.
● The charter was amended to keep pace with the developments that have unraveled across the world. The present charter of the OIC was adopted by the 11th Islamic Summit held in Dakar in March 2008.
● The member states of the OIC face many challenges in the 21st century and to address those challenges, the third session of the Islamic Summit held in Makkah in December 2005, laid down the blueprint called the Ten-Year Program of Action.
● It successfully concluded with the close of 2015. A successor programme for the next decade (2016-2025) has since then been adopted.
● The new programme OIC-2025 focuses on 18 priority areas with 107 goals. The priority areas include issues of
○ Peace and Security
○ Palestine and Al-Quds (Jerusalem)
○ Poverty Alleviation
○ Counter-terrorism
○ Investment and Finance
○ Food Security
○ Science and Technology
○ Climate Change and Sustainability
○ Moderation
○ Culture and Interfaith Harmony
○ Empowerment of Women
○ Joint Islamic Humanitarian Action
○ Human Rights and Good Governance
Source :- The Hindu
2.Order on surveillance meant to protect privacy, govt. tells SC
Context :
● The Centre to a PIL filed by advocate M.L. Sharma, challenging the December 20 notification allowing 10 central agencies to snoop on people- as a violation of the fundamental right to privacy, The Government told the Supreme Court that its December 20, 2018 notification is in fact a measure to protect citizens’ privacy.
Background :
● The government in December 20, 2018 notification has authorised 10 police and intelligence agencies to "intercept, monitor and decrypt" all information on any computer device in the country.
○ This has been issued under sub-section 1 of section 69 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Government Response :
● The order was intended to prevent unauthorised interception and protect privacy of citizens
● Snooping will be done only as a last resort if other options aren’t available, the government claimed, at the instance of the head of the authorised security agency or law enforcement agency.
● The very purpose of the December 20 order is to ensure that surveillance is done as per due process of law
Surveillance by Authorised Agencies :
● Any interception, monitoring, decryption of computer resource is done only by authorised agencies and with approval of competent authority; to prevent unauthorised use of these powers by any agency, individual or intermediary so that the right to privacy of citizen is not violated
Interest of Sovereignty and Integrity of India :
● Surveillance is done only in the defence of India, to maintain public order, etc.
● The government also claimed that the order was issued to ensure that all safeguards were followed in interception and every case must be placed before a high-level review committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary at the Centre and the chief secretary in the states.
Review Panel :
● The review committee will review every such authorisation order within 60 days and order destruction of the copies of the intercepted messages if it doesn’t fulfil the procedural safeguards. The affidavit filed by the Home Ministry claimed that the order narrowed, not widened, the scope of surveillance.
● The order only restricted the exercise of such powers removing a possible vagueness and specifying the agencies which would have the power to do it. It streamlines and restricts use of Section 69 of the IT Act, 2000, to cases of “legitimate state interest”.
3.The 7th (RCEP) Intersessional Ministerial Meeting
Context :
● 7th RCEP Intersessional Ministerial Meeting held in Cambodia .
RCEP :
● The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a so-called mega-regional economic agreement being negotiated since 2012 between the 10 ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) governments and their six FTA partners: Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.
Importance :
● The RCEP, when realized will become the largest trade bloc in terms of population with nearly 3.5 billion people.
● It will also have an estimated 40% of world’s GDP and dominating 30% of global trade.
● A unique importance of the ambitious RCEP formation is that it contains the three biggest economies of Asia – China, India and Japan. The trade arrangement has big future potential as it holds the two of the fastest growing largest economies – China and India.
Objective :
● Objective of RCEP negotiations is to “achieve a modern, comprehensive, high-quality and mutually beneficial economic partnership agreement among the ASEAN Member States and ASEAN’s FTA Partners.
● RCEP will cover trade in goods, trade in services, investment, economic and technical cooperation, intellectual property, competition, dispute settlement and other issues.” (from the Guiding Principles and Objectives for Negotiating the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership).
India’s Concern :
● Greater access to Chinese goods may have impact on the Indian manufacturing sector. India has got massive trade deficit with China. Under these circumstances, India proposed differential market access strategy for China.
● There are demands by other RCEP countries for lowering customs duties on a number of products and greater access to the market than India has been willing to provide.
4.Deendayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme
Context :
● A National Conference on “Deendayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme (DDRS)” was recently inaugurated at New Delhi.
More about the conference :
● The Conference was organised by theDepartment of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
● The objective of the conference was to sensitize the stakeholders of the scheme i.e. Programme Implementing Agencies (PIAs), District level officers & State Government officers.
Deendayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme (DDRS) :
● The umbrella Central Sector Scheme – called “Scheme to Promote Voluntary Action for Persons with Disabilities” was revised and was renamed as the “Deendayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme (DDRS)” in 2003.
Objective :
● To create an enabling environment to ensure equal opportunities, equity, social justice and empowerment of persons with disabilities.
● To encourage voluntary action for ensuring effective implementation of the People with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities and Protection of Rights) Act of 1995.
Approach and Strategy :
● The approach of this Scheme is to provide financial assistance to voluntary organizations to make available the whole range of services necessary for rehabilitation of persons with disabilities including early intervention, development of daily living skills, education, skill-development oriented towards employability, training and awareness generation.
● With a view to inclusion of persons with disabilities in the mainstream of society and actualizing their potential, the thrust would be on education and training programmes.
5.Government to celebrate ‘Poshan Pakhwada’
Context :
● The Minister for Women and Child Development announced that the Government will celebrate the first anniversary of POSHAN Abhiyaan on 8th March, 2019 by organising Poshan Pakhwada across the Country.
● WCD Minister said that Poshan Pakhwada will be celebrated as part of Jan Andolan under POSHAN Abhiyaan
POSHAN Abhiyan :
● POSHAN Abhiyaan is a multi-ministerial convergence mission with the vision to ensure attainment of malnutrition free India by 2022.
● The objective of POSHAN Abhiyaan to reduce stunting in identified Districts of India with the highest malnutrition burden by improving utilization of key Anganwadi Services and improving the quality of Anganwadi Services delivery.
● It aims to ensure holistic development and adequate nutrition for pregnant women, mothers and children.
● There are a number of schemes directly/indirectly affecting the nutritional status of children (0-6 year’s age) and pregnant women and lactating mothers. In spite of these, level of malnutrition and related problems in the country is high. There is no dearth of schemes but lack of creating synergy and linking the schemes with each other to achieve common goal. POSHAN Abhiyaan through robust convergence mechanism and other components would strive to create the synergy.
Targets under the Scheme :
● It targets to reduce level of under-nutrition and other related problems by ensuring convergence of various nutrition related schemes.
● It also targets stunting, under-nutrition, anaemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls) and low birth rate.
● It will monitor and review implementation of all such schemes and utilize existing structural arrangements of line ministries wherever available.
● Its large component involves gradual scaling-up of interventions supported by on-going World Bank assisted Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Systems Strengthening and Nutrition Improvement Project (ISSNIP) to all districts in the country by 2022.
6. Scam-hit Punjab National Bank tops among PSBs in implementing banking reforms
Context :
● Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs Shri Arun Jaitley released the first report on EASE Reforms Index that independently measures progress on the Public Sector Banks (PSB) Reforms Agenda
EASE Reform Index :
● EASE index is prepared by the Indian Banking Association (IBA) and Boston Consulting Group.
● It is commissioned by the Finance Ministry.
● It is a framework that was adopted last year to strengthen public sector banks, and rank them on metrics such as responsible banking, financial inclusion, credit offtake and digitisation.
● The Index measures performance of each PSB on 140 objective metrics across 6 themes and provides all PSBs a comparative evaluation showing where banks stand vis-à-vis benchmarks and peers on the Reforms Agenda.
● The Index follows a fully transparent scoring methodology, which enables banks to identify precisely their strengths as well as areas for improvement.
Key Findings of the Report :
● Punjab National Bank has topped the list. It is followed by Bank of Baroda, State Bank of India (SBI), and Oriental Bank of Commerce.
● The EASE Index report also noted PSU banks’ strengthening of the bad-loan recovery process, pointing to the success of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) in fast-tracking the resolution process.
Significance of Report :
● The index and report unveiled provides insights into how public sector banks are effectively addressing NPA problem.
● The report shows visible progress made on each of 4 elements of Government’s 4R’s strategy including recognition, recovery, recapitalisation and reforms.
Comments
Post a Comment