Current Affairs Apr 7

Meeting of BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors

Why in News?

• India hosted a first Meeting of BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors.
• As 2021 BRICS Chair, India’s approach is focused on strengthening intra-BRICS cooperation based on Continuity, Consolidation and Consensus.
• This was the first meeting of the BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors under India Chairship in 2021.
• BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors discussed financial cooperation agenda set by India for 2021 – Global Economic Outlook and Response to COVID-19 pandemic, New Development Bank (NDB) Activities, Social Infrastructure Financing and Use of Digital Technologies, Cooperation on Customs related issues, IMF reforms, Fintech for SMEs and Financial Inclusion, BRICS Rapid Information Security channel and BRICS Bond Fund.

PIB

Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana – Gramin

Why in News?

• Under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana – Gramin (PMAY-G), a flagship programme of the Government of India, 92% target of completion has been achieved in the 1st phase of the scheme i.e. from 2016-17 to 2018-19.
• A target of 1 crore houses was set for completion in the 1st phase of the scheme i.e. from 2016-17 to 2018-19, against which 92% target of completion has been achieved.

 Budget Allocation

• In the FY 20-21, a total allocation of Rs 19,269 cr was made available as budgetary support, in addition, extra-budgetary support of Rs 20,000 cr has been provided, the overall release of Rs 39,269 cr is so far the highest in any year since the launch of PMAY-G.
• The expenditure incurred by states including state share has also seen an unprecedented increase in the current FY amounting to Rs 46,661 cr, which is the highest since the launch of the scheme.
• A survey named “Awaas+” was conducted by all the States/UTs with the help of field functionaries for identification of those households who though eligible but have not been included in the Permanent Wait List of PMAY-G.

About PMAY-G

• The Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana – Gramin (PMAY-G) is one of the flagship programmes of the Government of India which is driven by the noble objective of providing “Housing for All” by the year 2022.
• It is a social welfare program through which the Government provides financial assistance to houseless beneficiaries identified using SECC 2011 data to help them construct a house of respectable quality for their personal living.
• The Scheme envisaged constructing 2.95 crore PMAY-G houses with all basic amenities by the year 2021-22.
• The scheme envisioned providing other facilities to make it an aspirational home for the beneficiaries through convergence with other schemes like Swachh Bharat Mission, PM Ujjwala Yojana for providing LPG connection and unskilled wage component of 90-95 days under MGNREGS.
• Significant progress has been made in this direction since the launch of the scheme by the Prime Minister in November 2016.

PIB

India emerging a leader in supercomputing

• India is fast emerging a leader in high power computing with the National Super Computing Mission (NSM) boosting it to meet the increasing computational demands of academia, researchers, MSMEs, and startups in areas like oil exploration, flood prediction as well as genomics and drug discovery.
• Completion in of Phase II of NSM in September 2021 will take the country’s computing power to 16 Petaflops (PF).
• MoUs have been signed with a total of 14 premier institutions of India for establishing Supercomputing Infrastructure with Assembly and Manufacturing in India.
• These include IITs, NITs, National Labs, and IISERs.
• Phase III, initiated this year, will take the computing speed to around 45 Petaflops. This will include three systems of 3 PF each and one system of 20PF as a national facility.

The National Supercomputing Mission

• It was launched to enhance the research capacities and capabilities in the country by connecting them to form a Supercomputing grid, with National Knowledge Network (NKN) as the backbone.
• The NSM is setting up a grid of supercomputing facilities in academic and research institutions across the country.
• Part of this is being imported from abroad and part built indigenously.
• The Mission is being jointly steered by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and implemented by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune, and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.
• PARAM Shivay, the first supercomputer assembled indigenously, was installed in IIT (BHU), followed by PARAM Shakti, PARAM Brahma, PARAM Yukti, PARAM Sanganak at IIT-Kharagpur IISER, Pune, JNCASR, Bengaluru and IIT Kanpur respectively.
• PARAM Siddhi – AI, the high-performance computing-artificial intelligence (HPC-AI) supercomputer, has achieved global ranking of 62 in TOP 500 most powerful supercomputer systems in the world, released on 16th November 2020.

PIB

Supernova explosion

Why in News?

• Indian astronomers have tracked a rare supernova explosion and traced it to one of the hottest kind of stars called Wolf–Rayet stars or WR stars.
• The rare Wolf–Rayet stars are highly luminous objects a thousand times that of the Sun and have intrigued astronomers for long.
• They are massive stars and strip their outer hydrogen envelope which is associated with the fusion of Helium and other elements in the massive core.
• Tracking of certain types of massive luminous supernovae explosion can help probe these stars that remain an enigma for scientists.

 Observations

• A team of astronomers from Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) with international collaborators have conducted the optical monitoring of one such stripped-envelope supernova called SN 2015dj hosted in the galaxy NGC 7371 which was spotted in 2015.
• They calculated the mass of the star that collapsed to form the supernovae as well as the geometry of its ejection.
• The scientists also found that the original star was a combination of two stars – one of them is a massive WR star and another is a star much less in mass than the Sun.
• Supernovae (SNe) are highly energetic explosions in the Universe releasing an enormous amount of energy.
• Long-term monitoring of these transients opens the door to understand the nature of the exploding star as well as the explosion properties.
• It can also help enumerate the number of massive stars.

PIB

Expected growth of 12.5% for India

Why in News?

• After an estimated contraction of 8% in the fiscal year that ended March 31, India is projected to grow at 12.5 % during the current year, settling down to 6.9% growth year (FY22/23), according to the World Economic Outlook (WEO): Managing Divergent Recoveries, released by the IMF.
• The growth outlook for India however comes with significant downside risks because of the current pandemic wave the country is experiencing.
• After an estimated contraction of 3.3% in 2020 (calendar year), the global economy is expected to grow 6% this year and 4.4% next year, although there are significant divergences within and between countries.
• Projections for 2021 are slightly higher than they were in October 2020 due to fiscal support in some large economies and vaccine-supported recovery.
• The U.S.’s 1.3 percentage point forecast upgrade, especially, contributed to this, resulting in U.S. growth projections of 6.4% and 3.5% this calendar year and next.
• The Euro Area is projected to grow at 4.4% and 3.8% over these time periods; China, at 8.4% and 5.6%.
• The average annual loss in per capita GDP over the 2020-24 period relative to pre-pandemic forecasts is expected to be 5.7% in low-income countries and 4.7% in emerging markets, For advanced economies, this number is a lower: 2.3%.
• Pandemic pushed another 95 million into extreme poverty in 2020.

THE HINDU

Climate change shrinks marine life richness near equator

Why in News?

• While Cuba’s marine life has suffered from overfishing and pollution, there is mounting evidence that the warming of waters due to climate change may be taking a large toll as well — both off the island’s coast and globally.
• Research finds that the total number of open-water species declined by about half in the 40 years up to 2010 in tropical marine zones worldwide. During that time, sea surface temperatures in the tropics rose nearly 0.2℃.
• Climate change is already impacting marine species diversity distribution,” with changes being more dramatic in the Northern Hemisphere where waters have warmed faster.
• While numerous factors like overfishing have impacted tropical species, the study found a strong correlation between species decline and rising temperature. Fish species diversity tended to either plateau or decline at or above 20℃.
• While past studies have shown that ocean warming is driving some species to migrate to cooler waters, the new study attempts to gauge that impact more broadly.
• The number of species attached to the seafloor remained somewhat stable in the tropics between the 1970s and 2010.
• Some were also found beyond the tropics, suggesting they had expanded their ranges.

THE HINDU

Robots made from stem cells of frogs

• Researchers at Tufts University have developed robots from stem cells of frogs.
• These robots are named Xenobots and they can self-heal after damage, record memories and work together in groups.
• These biological robots can record information about their surroundings and move using cilia — minute hairlike particles present on their surface.
• Researchers say the soft-body living machines can have several applications in biomedicine and the environment.

THE HINDU

1 in 3 Covid-19 survivors face neuro or mental health issues

• One in three Covid-19 survivors received a neurological or psychiatric diagnosis within six months of infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
• A previous observational study reported that Covid-19 survivors are at increased risk of mood and anxiety disorders in the first three months after infection.
• The most common diagnoses after Covid-19 were anxiety disorders (occurring in 17% of patients), mood disorders (14%), substance misuse disorders (7%), and insomnia (5%). The incidence of neurological outcomes was lower, including 0.6% for brain haemorrhage, 2.1% for ischaemic stroke, and 0.7% for dementia.
• Risks of a neurological or psychiatric diagnosis were greatest in, but not limited to, patients who had severe Covid-19.
• Compared to the overall 34% incidence, a neurological or psychiatric diagnosis occurred in 38% of those who had been admitted to hospital, 46% of those in intensive care, and 62% in those who had delirium (encephalopathy) during their Covid-19 infection.

IE

EVM transport and campaign bans

Why in News?

• Recently in Assembly elections in Assam — saw the Election Commission at the centre of two controversies.
• In the first, an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) was found in a private vehicle belonging to a BJP candidate’s spouse.
• The second controversy involved the EC’s decision to relax its decision to ban BJP minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for 48 hours from campaigning.

What is the EC’s protocol for the transportation of EVMs?

• The Commission’s transport protocol for polled and reserve EVMs dictates that the voting machines, under no circumstances, should be taken in private custody or a private place.
• And also, that all EVMs, after voting is complete, should be under cover of armed police at all times.

Ban from Campaining

• The decision is definitely rare. The only other time the EC lifted a ban was seven years ago, during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
• Back then, the EC lifted its ban on BJP leader Amit Shah’s electioneering in Uttar Pradesh after he assured the poll panel that he would not “make any utterances violative” of the conduct code.
• This was the first time the EC had used its extraordinary powers under Article 324 to prohibit someone from campaigning.
• The ban had been imposed on Shah and Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan. While Shah apologised, Khan remained defiant and so the relaxation was done only in the former’s case.

IE

 This season’s forest fires in Uttarakhand worrisome

Why in News?

• In just five days of April, Uttarakhand has recorded 361 incidents of forest fire that have damaged 567 hectares, including 380 hectares of reserve forest areas.

Why is the current situation worrisome?

• Every year forest fires begin in Uttarakhand in mid-February, which is the onset of spring when the trees shed dry leaves and the soil loses moisture due to a rise in temperature.
• This ‘forest fire season’ continues usually till mid-June in the summer. In hilly areas, the surface gets drier faster than plains due to lower accumulation of rainwater.
• According to experts, three factors cause spread of forest fire — fuel load, oxygen and temperature. Dry leaves are fuel for forest fires and its quantity this time is more than past years.
• According to an official, due to lockdown there was very less human movement and field activity in the forest fire season like every year when inflammable leaves and woods are collected in forest areas near human habitats.
• Dry leaves shed from trees in spring remained at the ground and the fuel load increased due to the same natural phenomenon in the year.
• Following less rain in monsoon and almost nil rain in winters dried the soil and earth surface lost the moisture early this time.
• Atmospheric temperature in March and April is also soaring in comparison to previous year. Strong wind velocity is spreading fire very fast in jungles.

IE

Insolvency resolution option for MSMEs

Why in News?

• The central government has promulgated an ordinance allowing the use of pre-packs as an insolvency resolution mechanism for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) with defaults up to Rs 1 crore, under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.
• The government had last year also increased the minimum default threshold for insolvency proceedings from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1 crore.

What are pre-packs?

• A pre-pack is the resolution of the debt of a distressed company through an agreement between secured creditors and investors instead of a public bidding process.
• This system of insolvency proceedings has become an increasingly popular mechanism for insolvency resolution in the UK and Europe over the past decade.
• Under the pre-pack system, financial creditors will agree to terms with a potential investor and seek approval of the resolution plan from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
• The approval of a minimum of 66 per cent of financial creditors that are unrelated to the corporate debtor would be required before a resolution plan is submitted to the NCLT.
• Further NCLTs are also required to either accept or reject any application for a pre-pack insolvency proceeding before considering a petition for a CIRP.

What are the benefits of pre-packs over the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP)?

• One of the key criticisms of the CIRP has been the time taken for resolution.
• At the end of December 2020, over 86 per cent of the 1717 ongoing insolvency resolution proceedings had crossed the 270-day threshold.
• One of the key reasons behind delays in the CIRPs are prolonged litigations by erstwhile promoters and potential bidders.
• The pre-pack in contrast is limited to a maximum of 120 days with only 90 days available to the stakeholders to bring the resolution plan to the NCLT.
• Another key difference between pre-packs and CIRP is that the existing management retains control in the case of pre-packs while a resolution professional takes control of the debtor as a representative of financial creditors in the case of CIRP.

IE

FDA approves first new ADHD drug

Why in News?

• S. regulators have approved the first new drug in over a decade for children with ADHD, (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) which causes inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity.
• The Food and Drug Administration approved Qelbree (KELL’-bree for treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children ages 6 to 17.
• Unlike nearly all other ADHD medicines, Qelbree is not a stimulant or a controlled substance, making it harder to abuse than older drugs.
• That’s been a problem with earlier ADHD treatments like Ritalin, nearly all of which contain the stimulants amphetamine or methylphenidate.

THE HINDU

Private firms allowed to partner up with DRDO

Why in News?

• DRDO has allowed private sector firms to partner up with it in development and production of missile systems indigenously.
• One of the first missile programmes opened for the private sector under the DCPP project includes the Vertical Launched Short Range Surface to Air Missile system (VL-SRSAM).
• The aim of the programme is to help the private sector industry and enable them to produce world-class defence hardware systems.
• Designed and developed by DRDO for Indian Navy, the VL-SRSAM is capable of neutralising various aerial threats at close ranges including sea skimming targets.
• The VL-SRSAM with weapon control system was deployed during the trials.

INDIA TODAY