North Korea :Japan draws in India
- Displaying strategic convergence, India and Japan on Thursday asked North Korea to shut down its nuclear and missile programmes.
- Both sides also hinted at Pakistan’s past involvement with North Korean nuclear and missile programmes and sought accountability of “all parties”
- “Japan and India will take firm steps against the challenges that have emanated from North Korea.
- We will force North Korea to roll back its recent aggressive moves. This is a message that I send out along with Prime Minister
- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, elaborating on the country’s concerns over the recent test of a hydrogen bomb by Pyongyang, which also fired a long-range missile over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido on August 29.
NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL
Context:
1. A decade-old diesel vehicles will now have to go off the roads with the National Green Tribunal on Thursday declining to lift its ban on them in Delhi-NCR, noting that emissions from diesel vehicles were carcinogenic.
❖ NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL (NGT):
1. National Green Tribunal is a statutory body established under the National Green Tribunal Act of 2010.2. It has replaced National Environment Appellate Authority.
3. It has jurisdiction over all civil cases where a significant question relating to environment is involved and would deal with all environmental laws on air and water pollution.
4. It solved cases within 6 month on appeals & don’t follow code of procedure 1908
It follow Natural justice for environment
2. It has Branches @ Bhopal, Pune, Kolkata, Chennai
3. It is created for effective & speedy disposal of cases relating to Environmental protection, conservation of forests and for the case seeking compensation for damages caused to people or property due to violation of environmental laws.
❖ Composition:
1. Chairman:Administrative head / serving or retired Chief Justice of India/ serving or retired Chief Justice of high court/ judge of supreme court
2. Members: 40 (20 Administration+ 20 Judiciary)
1. At least 10 and maximum 20 Full time Judicial members and
2. At least 10 and maximum 20 Full time Expert Members.
YAMUNA RIVER
Context:1. Villagers watch the rescue operation in the Yamuna after a boat capsized near
Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday.
2. Nineteen persons drowned when the boat, overcrowded with labourers, sank
early in the morning.
❖ Yamuna River:
1. Yamuna is the longest and the second largest tributary river of the Ganges
(Ganga) in northern India.
2. Originating from the Yamunotri Glacier at a height of 6,387 metres on the south
western slopes of Banderpooch peaks in the uppermost region of the Lower
Himalaya in Uttarakhand.Before merging with the Ganges at Triveni Sangam, Allahabad, the site for the Kumbha Mela every twelve years.
2. It is the longest river in India which does not directly flow to the sea.
3. It crosses several states, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, passing by Uttarakhand and later Delhi, and meets its tributaries on the way, including Tons, its largest tributary in Uttarakhand, Chambal, its longest tributary which has its own large basin, followed by Sindh, the Betwa, and Ken.
COURT SUGGEST AUDIT OF NULM FUNDS
Context:1. Supreme Court has questioned whether the money meant to build shelter
homes for the urban homeless and poor across the country is was actually lying
unspent or had been diverted for other purposes.
2. A Bench, led by Justice Madan B. Lokur, suggested an audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General of the funds disbursed under the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) scheme.
3. It said such an audit was necessary as the apex court-appointed committee,which is headed by former Delhi High Court judge Justice Kailash Gambhir and was set up to verify the availability of such shelters, would not look into this aspect.
4. ‘States not spending money allotted’
Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the Centre, submitted that the amount not spent by the States for the previous year was ₹412 crore, while ₹228 crore had been released by the Centre for 2017-18.
2. “One thing is that you [Centre] give money and the States do not spend it. For 2017-2018, you have given ₹228 crore.
3. Why should you give them more money?” the Bench said.
National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MHUPA), Government of India in 23rd September, 2013 by replacing the existing Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana(SJSRY).
2. The NULM will focus on organizing urban poor in their strong grassroots level
institutions, creating opportunities for skill development leading to market-based employment and helping them to set up self-employment venture by ensuring easy access to credit.
3. The Mission is aimed at providing shelter equipped with essential services to the urban homeless in a phased manner.
4. In addition, the Mission would also address livelihood concerns of the urban street vendors.
U.S. TO EXTEND SANCTIONS RELIEF TO IRAN
Context:1. The U.S. on Thursday was to extend wide sanctions relief for Iran under the 2015 nuclear deal, sources familiar with the matter said, but no decision on whether to preserve the deal itself has yet been made.
2. At the same time, the U.S. Treasury announced new cyber-related sanctions on about a dozen Iranian individuals or entities.
3. Under the law, these sanctions can be waived for a maximum of 120 days, forcing the U.S. government to revisit the issue every four months. Sources familiar with the matter stressed that the wider U.S. policy toward Iran has yet to be decided.
CENTRE SEEKS ADVISERS FOR AI DISINVESTMENT
Context:
1. The Union government on Thursday floated an expression of interest (EOI) to appoint two financial advisers and one legal adviser for strategic disinvestment of Air India, taking forward the process to shed a stake in the ailing national carrier.
2. “The Government of India has in-principle decided to consider the disinvestment of the AI Group as a whole or its constituents fully or part thereof throughstrategic sale with transfer of management control,” the notice by the Ministry of Finance’s Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) said.
3. The Union Cabinet on June 28 gave an in-principle nod to go for strategic disinvestment of Air India and its subsidiaries and formed a Group of Minister (GoM) led by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to draw the roadmap.
4. The decision to appoint advisers to steer forward the disinvestment process was taken by the GoM.
RBI is not comfortable with Bitcoins,says sen
Context:1. The RBI has been repeatedly cautioning everyone about the usage of cryptocurrencies, flagging a slew of concerns.
2. It had stated that Bitcoins posed potential risks.
3. According to some media reports, there has been a growing number of investors in such currencies over the last few years, especially with the huge spurt in the value of a few of them since the Trump administration came in U.S.
❖ What are cryptocurrencies?
1. Crypto-currency that is planned to be brought under the regulatory regime is a digital currency which allows transacting parties to remain anonymous while confirming that the transaction is a valid one.
2. It is not owned or controlled by any institution – governments or private.
3. There are multiple such currencies — bitcoin, ethereum, ripple are some of the popular ones. Currently, they are neither illegal nor legal in India.
Need for regulation::
1. Cryptocurrencies have gained popularity in the last few years.
2. Currently, they are neither illegal nor legal in many countries including India.
3. The market cap for all crypto-currencies has just crossed $100 billion, with most of the increase coming in the past few months.
4. On April 1, 2017, the total market cap was just over $25 billion, representing a 300% rise in just over 60 days.
5. One bitcoin today is worth as much as 60 grams of gold.
Mouse deer released in Amrabad Reserve for the first time
Context:1. In a novel and unique initiative attempted anywhere in the country, the Telangana State Forest Department has re-introduced the endangered ‘mouse deer’ into the forests of Nallamalla in Amrabad Tiger Reserve.
❖ Facts:
1. The release of these mouse deer into the protected enclosure of 2.4 hectares is aimed at improving the biodiversity.
2. The Amrabad Tiger Reserve was chosen because these animals were earlier wandering in this area.
3. The deer will gradually be weaned-off externally supplied food.
4. Afterwards if they get a clearing by the field biologists, they will be released from their enclosure into the wild.
Also called ‘spotted Chevrotain’, it is one of the endangered species usually found in deciduous and evergreen forests of the country. It has its own family called Tragulidae.
2. These animals are nocturnal in habitat and because of their small size they are called ‘smallest ungulates’ too.
3. Also called “Jarini Pandi” in Telugu, their number has been decreasing at an alarming rate in recent years because of destruction of habitat and poaching.
Context:
1. The home ministry will set up an expert group to look into the problems people living in villages along the Line of Control (LoC) face.
2. The study group will look at ways to improve lives of cross-border ceasefire violation victims.
3. The study group is expected to come up with suggestions to not only increase the safety and security of the border residents but also to look at ways of making funding in Border Are a Development Programmes effective.
Context:
The Global Human Capital Index for the year 2017 has been released by WEF.
❖ Global Human Capital Index:
1. Human capital on a scale from 0 (worst) to 100 (best) across four thematic dimensions and five distinct age groups to capture the full human capital potential profile of a country.
2. It aims to be used as a tool to assess progress within countries and point to opportunities for cross-country learning and exchange.
3. The list compiled by Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF) takes into account “the knowledge and skills people possess that enable them to create value in the global economic system” to measure the ‘human capital’ rank of a country.
4. The report measures 130 countries against four key areas of human capital development; Capacity (determined by past investment in formal education), Deployment (accumulation of skills through work), Development (continued upskilling and reskilling of existing workers) and Know-how (specialised skills-use at work).
Performance of India::
1. India has been placed at a low 103 rank, the lowest among BRICS economies.India also ranks “among the lowest in the world” when it comes to the employment gender gap, but has fared well when it comes to development of skills needed for the future with a rank of 65 out of total 130 countries surveyed.
2. Among the South Asian countries also, India was ranked lower than Sri Lanka and Nepal, although higher than neighbouring Bangladesh and Pakistan.
3. India is held back by a number of factors, including low educational attainment (primary education attainment among 25 -54 year olds is 110th for example) and low deployment of its human capital, meaning the skills available are not getting put to good use.
4. Other countries in the top 10 include, the United States (4th), Denmark (5th),Germany (6th), New Zealand (7th), Sweden (8th), Slovenia (9th) and Austria(10th).
PIB
- The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind presented the Rajbhasha Awards on the occasion of Hindi Diwas at a function held in New Delhi today (September 14, 2017).
- He also launched the ‘LILA Mobile App’ in the presence of Shri Rajnath Singh, Union Minister of Home Affairs and Shri Hansraj Gagaram Ahir and Shri Kiran Rijiju, Ministers of State
- for Home Affairs.
OPERATION INSANIYAT
- A humanitarian crisis arose in Bangladesh due to heavy influx of refugees from neighbouring Myanmar.
- The government of India has decided to assist Bangladesh in this crisis by sending relief material.
- The Indian Air Force was tasked to airlift the relief material from India to Bangladesh.
- One C-17 Globemaster strategic heavy lift cargo aircraft was positioned at short notice at Delhi on 13 Sep 17 to airlift 55 Tons of relief material to Chittagong, Bangladesh.
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