21^st FEBRURAY 2019 DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

Tejas, world’s lightest fighter, is ‘battle ready’

GS PAPER - 03 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY - of technology and developing new technology.

Context:

✱ India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas has received the final operational clearance (FOC) from military aviation regulator for induction into the Indian Air Force (IAF) as a weaponised fighter jet.

LCA Tejas:

✱ The LCA Tejas is an Indian single-seat, single-jet engine, multi-role light fighter developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

✱ Its design is highly manoeuvrable, with a tailless, compound delta wing configuration.

✱ It came from the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) programme, which began in the 1980s to replace India’s ageing MiG-21 fighters.

✱ Later, the LCA was officially named “Tejas”, meaning “Radiant” by the then Prime Minister.

✱ In 1969, the Indian government accepted the recommendation by its Aeronautics Committee that Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) should design and develop a fighter aircraft around a proven engine.

Source :- The hindu

Where are the green crackers: SC

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context:

✱ Four months after banning polluting firecrackers, Supreme Court found that government agencies are yet to decide what is a “green cracker”, leading the court to consider a balance between the need to check pollution and protect jobs of the workforce in the business.

More about the news:

✱ The Supreme Court has expressed displeasure over inabilities of various agencies to find out formulae for green crackers.

✱ This comes in the backdrop 974 cracker factories being closed down in Tamil Nadu and about four lakh workers rendered jobless.

✱ SC has refused to accept submissions of PESO and CSIR-NEERI that finalisation of formula would take more three months.

Green Crackers:

✱ Green crackers are so named because they do not contain harmful chemicals that would cause air pollution.

✱ In green crackers the commonly used polluting chemicals like aluminium, barium, potassium nitrate and carbon have either been removed or sharply reduced to slow down the emissions by 15 to 30%.

✱ Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) scientists has developed less polluting green firecrackers named as Safe Water Releaser (SWAS) , Safe Thermite Cracker (STAR) and Safe Minimal Aluminium (SAFAL).

✱ Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation(PESO)is the apex department to control and administermanufacture, storage, transport and handling of explosives, petroleum, compressed gases and other hazardous substances in India.

Source:- The Hindu

Centre clears Rs 48,239 cr. recapitalisation package for PSBs

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context:

✱ The government on Wednesday announced to pump in an additional Rs 48,239 crore in 12 public sector banks (PSBs) in this fiscal to help them maintain regulatory capital requirements and finance growth plans.

✱ It takes the total infusion into government banks to nearly Rs1 lakh crore so far this fiscal year.

✱ The capital was allocated keeping in mind the thresholds set by the Reserve Bank of India in the prompt corrective action (PCA) framework, under which restrictions in terms of lending, among other curbs, were imposed on loss-making banks.

4 Fold Objective of Capital Infusion:

✱ bringing the better-performing banks currently in the Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) category out of it,

✱ Helping those that have recently come out of PCA to stay out of it,

✱ Equipping non-PCA banks to meet regulatory requirements, and

✱ Helping the remaining PCA banks to meet their requirements as well.

Prompt Corrective Action Framework (PCA) :

✱ PCA norms allow the regulator to place certain restrictions such as halting branch expansion and stopping dividend payment. It can even cap a bank’s lending limit to one entity or sector. Other corrective action that can be imposed on banks include special audit, restructuring operations and activation of recovery plan. Banks’ promoters can be asked to bring in new management, too. The RBI can also supersede the bank’s board, under PCA.

When PCA invoked ?

✱ The PCA is invoked when certain risk thresholds are breached.

There are three risk thresholds which are based on certain levels of asset quality, profitability, capital and the like.

✱ The third such threshold, which is maximum tolerance limit, sets net NPA at over 12% and negative return on assets for four consecutive years.

Source :- The Hindu

Second edition of States’ ranking on Startup initiatives

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Development processes and the development industry the role of NGOs, SHGs, various groups and associations, donors, charities, institutional and other stakeholders.

Context:

✱ Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) released second edition of Startup Ranking for 2019.

Startup Ranking framework :

✱ It aims to rank the States/UTs for establishing a robust ecosystem for supporting Startups.

✱ The framework also encourages States and UTs to identify, learn and replicate good practices from each other.

Ranking Framework 2019 :

✱ It Comprises of 7 pillars and 30 action points.

✱ The pillars will assess States’/UTs efforts across institutional support, simplifying regulations, easing public procurement, incubation support, seed funding support, venture funding support and awareness and outreach related activities.

✱ The ranking exercise aims to evaluate measures taken by States/UTs during the assessment period from May 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019.

✱ DPIIT also proposes to recognise States and UTs for their exemplary performance in seven pillars of the ranking framework.

✱ As part of the Ranking 2019 exercise, DPIIT will recognize innovative Startup programs and initiatives from State/UT Governments.

✱ The Startup Ranking 2019 is expected to take forward the Startup ecosystem in the country and give impetus to the vision of India becoming a Startup Nation.

Source :- PIB

Operation Digital Board

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - e-governance- applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential

Context:

✱ The Minister of Human Resource Development, launched Operation Digital Board to leverage technology in order to boost quality education in the country.

Operation Digital Board :

✱ ODB aims at converting a class room into a digital class room and in addition to availability of e-resources at any time and at any place to students.

✱ The digital board will be introduced all over the country in government and government aided schools from class 9th onwards as well as in higher education institutions.

✱ The Operation Digital Board (ODB) will be implemented in the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

Significance:

✱ Operation Digital Board is a revolutionary step which will make the learning as well as the teaching process interactive and popularize flipped learning as a pedagogical approach.

✱ It will also help in provisioning of personalised adaptive learning as well as Intelligent Tutoring by exploiting emerging technologies like Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence & Data Analytics.

✱ Technology enabled learning can also inspire teachers across the country to raise their own standards of teaching.

Need for Such Initiatives:

✱ The biggest challenge facing education sector in the country is maintaining acceptable quality standards across the country.

✱ Although we have good number of premier institutions, which compete with the best in the world, a large number of higher education institutions and schools needs improvements in quality teaching-learning, as the students coming out of these institutions find themselves unsuitable for the requirements of the society and market.

✱ The spread of educational technology and connectivity has given an opportunity to resolve this issue and aim at equity in educational standards.

Various initiatives :

✱ e-Pathshala,

✱ DIKSHA,

✱ NROER,

✱ NPTEL,

✱ e-pgpathshala SWAYAM and

✱ SWAYAM-Prabha DTH Channels etc.

Source :- PIB

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UPSC 2020 DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

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21st FEBRURAY 2019 DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

Tejas, world’s lightest fighter, is ‘battle ready’

GS PAPER - 03 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY - of technology and developing new technology.

Context:

✱ India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas has received the final operational clearance (FOC) from military aviation regulator for induction into the Indian Air Force (IAF) as a weaponised fighter jet.

LCA Tejas:

✱ The LCA Tejas is an Indian single-seat, single-jet engine, multi-role light fighter developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

✱ Its design is highly manoeuvrable, with a tailless, compound delta wing configuration.

✱ It came from the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) programme, which began in the 1980s to replace India’s ageing MiG-21 fighters.

✱ Later, the LCA was officially named “Tejas”, meaning “Radiant” by the then Prime Minister.

✱ In 1969, the Indian government accepted the recommendation by its Aeronautics Committee that Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) should design and develop a fighter aircraft around a proven engine.

✱ In 1969, the Indian government accepted the recommendation by its Aeronautics Committee that Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) should design and develop a fighter aircraft around a proven engine.

Source :- The hindu

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context:

✱ Four months after banning polluting firecrackers, Supreme Court found that government agencies are yet to decide what is a “green cracker”, leading the court to consider a balance between the need to check pollution and protect jobs of the workforce in the business.

More about the news:

✱ The Supreme Court has expressed displeasure over inabilities of various agencies to find out formulae for green crackers.

✱ This comes in the backdrop 974 cracker factories being closed down in Tamil Nadu and about four lakh workers rendered jobless.

✱ SC has refused to accept submissions of PESO and CSIR-NEERI that finalisation of formula would take more three months.

Green Crackers:

✱ Green crackers are so named because they do not contain harmful chemicals that would cause air pollution.

✱ In green crackers the commonly used polluting chemicals like aluminium, barium, potassium nitrate and carbon have either been removed or sharply reduced to slow down the emissions by 15 to 30%.

✱ Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) scientists has developed less polluting green firecrackers named as Safe Water Releaser (SWAS) , Safe Thermite Cracker (STAR) and Safe Minimal Aluminium (SAFAL).

✱ Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation(PESO)is the apex department to control and administermanufacture, storage, transport and handling of explosives, petroleum, compressed gases and other hazardous substances in India.

Source:- The Hindu

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context:

✱ The government on Wednesday announced to pump in an additional Rs 48,239 crore in 12 public sector banks (PSBs) in this fiscal to help them maintain regulatory capital requirements and finance growth plans.

✱ It takes the total infusion into government banks to nearly Rs1 lakh crore so far this fiscal year.

✱ The capital was allocated keeping in mind the thresholds set by the Reserve Bank of India in the prompt corrective action (PCA) framework, under which restrictions in terms of lending, among other curbs, were imposed on loss-making banks.

4 Fold Objective of Capital Infusion:

✱ bringing the better-performing banks currently in the Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) category out of it,

✱ Helping those that have recently come out of PCA to stay out of it,

✱ Equipping non-PCA banks to meet regulatory requirements, and

✱ Helping the remaining PCA banks to meet their requirements as well.

Prompt Corrective Action Framework (PCA) :

When PCA invoked ?

✱ The PCA is invoked when certain risk thresholds are breached.

There are three risk thresholds which are based on certain levels of asset quality, profitability, capital and the like.

✱ The third such threshold, which is maximum tolerance limit, sets net NPA at over 12% and negative return on assets for four consecutive years.

Source :- The Hindu

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Development processes and the development industry the role of NGOs, SHGs, various groups and associations, donors, charities, institutional and other stakeholders.

Context:

✱ Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) released second edition of Startup Ranking for 2019.

Startup Ranking framework :

✱ It aims to rank the States/UTs for establishing a robust ecosystem for supporting Startups.

✱ The framework also encourages States and UTs to identify, learn and replicate good practices from each other.

Ranking Framework 2019 :

✱ It Comprises of 7 pillars and 30 action points.

✱ The pillars will assess States’/UTs efforts across institutional support, simplifying regulations, easing public procurement, incubation support, seed funding support, venture funding support and awareness and outreach related activities.

✱ The ranking exercise aims to evaluate measures taken by States/UTs during the assessment period from May 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019.

✱ DPIIT also proposes to recognise States and UTs for their exemplary performance in seven pillars of the ranking framework.

✱ As part of the Ranking 2019 exercise, DPIIT will recognize innovative Startup programs and initiatives from State/UT Governments.

✱ The Startup Ranking 2019 is expected to take forward the Startup ecosystem in the country and give impetus to the vision of India becoming a Startup Nation.

Source :- PIB

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - e-governance- applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential

Context:

✱ The Minister of Human Resource Development, launched Operation Digital Board to leverage technology in order to boost quality education in the country.

Operation Digital Board :

✱ ODB aims at converting a class room into a digital class room and in addition to availability of e-resources at any time and at any place to students.

✱ The digital board will be introduced all over the country in government and government aided schools from class 9th onwards as well as in higher education institutions.

✱ The Operation Digital Board (ODB) will be implemented in the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

Significance:

✱ Operation Digital Board is a revolutionary step which will make the learning as well as the teaching process interactive and popularize flipped learning as a pedagogical approach.

✱ It will also help in provisioning of personalised adaptive learning as well as Intelligent Tutoring by exploiting emerging technologies like Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence & Data Analytics.

✱ Technology enabled learning can also inspire teachers across the country to raise their own standards of teaching.

Need for Such Initiatives:

✱ The biggest challenge facing education sector in the country is maintaining acceptable quality standards across the country.

✱ The spread of educational technology and connectivity has given an opportunity to resolve this issue and aim at equity in educational standards.

Various initiatives :

✱ e-Pathshala,

✱ DIKSHA,

✱ NROER,

✱ NPTEL,

✱ e-pgpathshala SWAYAM and

✱ SWAYAM-Prabha DTH Channels etc.

Source :- PIB

UPSC CLASS PPT

UPSC 2020 DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

21^st FEBRURAY 2019 DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS