Current Affairs 27 August 2020 – IAS Current Affairs

Current Affairs 27 August 2020 focuses on Prelims-Mains perspective. Major events are : 

1. CCI Role in Acquiring Shares
2. 7 new circles for Archaeological Survey
3. UMANG app via CSCs MoU signed
4. Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan Performance
5. Export Preparedness Index 2020 by NITI Aayog
6. Amend law for delimit NE states
7. India China in Russian Exercise : Kavkaz 2020

CCI Role in Acquiring Shares

Why in News ?

Recently CCI approves the acquisition of shares by of JB Chemical by Tau Investment and acquisition of Lightstone Fund S.A. of some companies. 

About Competition Commission of India

• Competition Commission of India is a statutory body of the Government of India
• It is responsible for enforcing The Competition Act, 2002 to ensure fair advertisement there by promoting consumer interest. 
• CCI aims to create and sustain fair competition in the economy to the producers and make the markets work for the welfare of the consumers.
• The Act prohibits anti competitive agreements, abuse of dominant position by enterprises and regulates combinations which causes or likely to cause an appreciable adverse effect on competition within India.
• Members of the body
  • CCI consists of a Chairperson and 6 Members appointed by the Central Government.
  • Commission also undertake competition advocacy, create public awareness and impart training on competition issues.

Importance and regulations by CCI in India

• Competition Commission of India (CCI) has ordered penalties totalling about Rs 14,000 crore for ufair marketing tactics.
• A foreign company seeking entry into India through an acquisition or merger will have to abide by the country’s competition laws.
• Action against unfair activity :
  • Rs. 10 million fine upon Google in 2014 for failure to comply with the directions given by the Director General seeking information and documents.
  • Recently initiate a probe against e-commerce firms, including Amazon and Flipkart for giving deep discounts on online sales of smartphones and other gadgets.
• Section 2(a) of the Act specifically defines acquisition to mean  directly or indirectly acquiring or agreeing to acquire
  • shares, voting rights or assets of any enterprises; or
  • control over management or control over assets of any enterprises.
• According to the Section 5 of the Act any acquisition of one or more enterprises by one or more persons, or merger or amalgamation of enterprises, shall be a ‘combination’ of such enterprises and person or enterprises if the threshold prescribed under the Section are met.

Source : PIB

Topic 

GS II : Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies.

7 circles for Archaeological Survey

Why in News ? 

The Ministry of Culture has announced 7 new circles of Archaeological Survey of India. 

Aim Behind

To facilitate and strengthen the process of preservation and registration of archaeological monuments along with registration of artefacts with self declaration.

7 circles for Archaeological Survey

• 7 new circles of ASI are 
  • Trichy :- It has been made a new circle along with the circle of Chennai.
  • Raiganj :- To educe geographical inconvenience it has been made a new circle along with Kolkata.
  • Rajkot :- In Gujarat made as a new circle along with Vadodara.
  • Jabalpur :- It has been announced a new circle along with Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh icluding monuments of Jabalpur, Rewa, Shahdol and Sagar
  • Jhansi :- in Bundelkhand Uttar Pradesh
  • Meerut :- in western Uttar Pradesh
  • Hampi Mini Circle : – Hampi city in Karnataka is a place of international repute)

Archaeological Survey of India

• Organization for archaeological researches and protection of the cultural heritage of the nation.
• Aim
  • Maintenance of ancient monuments and archaeological sites and remains of national importance
  • Regulates all archaeological activities in the country as per the provisions of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958.
  • Regulates Antiquities and Art Treasure Act, 1972.
• For the maintenance entire country is divided into 36 circles and three mini-circles at Delhi, Leh and Hampi.

Source : PIB

Topic

Prelims : Archaeological Survey of India, New Seven Sites

UMANG app via CSCs MoU signed

Why in News ?

MOU signed between NeGD and CSC E-Governance Services India Limited making services on UMANG app via CSCs available to citizens through the network of 3.75 lakh Common Service Centres (CSC).

About MoU

• With this Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in place, the services on UMANG app will be available to citizens through the network of 3.75 lakh CSCs.
• Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) will enable citizens to avail e-governance services of 140 departments through the UMANG App. 
• The move will benefit
  • Those who do not have access to smartphones.
  • For those who are not comfortable accessing app based e-services on their own.
• UMANG services are being enabled on CSCs without any additional cost and NeGD is making all services available to CSCs at zero cost. 
• Alliance of UMANG and CSCs will empower lakhs of citizens in our country, especially during these unprecedented times, ensuring ease, convenience, and security

UMANG App

• UMANG (Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance) app provides a single platform to access pan India e-governance services ranging from central to local government bodies and other citizen centric services.
• It offers ease of access to major government services for citizens from a single mobile app.
• It has more than 3.12 crore downloads, with 2.05 crore registered users.
• This e-governance app was developed by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and National e-Governance Division.
• It has 12 regional language : Hindi, Assamese, Gujarati, Bengali, Kannada, Odia, Punjabi, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Telegu, and Urdu.

Common Service Centres (CSC)

• It was a part of government’s vision of socially, financially and digitally inclusive society.
• CSCs are the access points for delivery of
  • Essential public utility services
  • Social welfare schemes
  • Healthcare support
  • Financial, education and agriculture services
• It is a pan India network. 

Source : PIB

Topic

GS II : Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance- applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential; citizens charters, transparency & accountability and institutional and other measures

Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan Performance

Why in News ?

Over 85000 water conservation structures and more than 2.63 lakh rural houses among the structures created so far under the Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan.

Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan

• Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan (GKRA) has been launched to boost employment and livelihood opportunities for migrant workers returning to villages and similarly affected citizens in rural areas in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak.
• The Ministry of Rural Development is the nodal Ministry for this campaign.
• An amount of Rs 50,000 Crores would be spent for building durable rural infrastructure under the Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan.
• The laying of fibre cable and provision of internet are also made a part of the Abhiyan.
• Focused implementation of 25 categories of works/activities in 116 districts
• Each with a large concentration of returnee migrant workers in 6 states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha.
• Abhiyaan is a convergent effort between 12 different Ministries/Departments

Performance of the Scheme

• The Abhiyaan is now empowering villagers with livelihood opportunities in 116 districts of these states.
• A total of about 24 crore mandays employment has been provided and Rs.18,862 crore has been spent so far.
• Candidates have been provided skill training through Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) during the Abhiyaan.

COVID Effect on Employment

• Loss of employment is the immediate ipact of COVID 19
• 80 per cent jobs were affected in urban economy, most of which were self-employed.
• 54 per cent jobs were affected in rural economy, most of which were casual employment.
• A good number of migrated workers were affected.
• Large number of overseas employees returned as a result of job loss.

Source : PIB

Topic 

Prelims : Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan

GS II : Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections

Export Preparedness Index 2020 by NITI Aayog

Why in News ?

NITI Aayog in partnership with the Institute of Competitiveness released the Export Preparedness Index (EPI) 2020.

Aim and Structure

To examine export preparedness and performance of Indian states,

• EPI intends to identify challenges and opportunities;
• Enhance the effectiveness of government policies;
• Encourage a facilitative regulatory framework.

The structure of the EPI includes 4 pillars and 11 sub pillar

• • Policy
  • Business Ecosystem
  • Export Ecosystem
  • Export Performance
• 11 sub pillars Includes : 1. Export Promotion Policy 2. Institutional Framework 3. Business Environment 4. Infrastructure 5. Transport Connectivity 6. Access to Finance 7. Export Infrastructure 8. Trade Support 9. R&D Infrastructure 10. Export Diversification 11. Growth Orientation.

Export Preparedness Index 2020

• Coastal States are the best performers among them Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu occupy the top three ranks.
• Six of eight coastal states feature in the top ten rankings.
• Among the landlocked states Rajasthan is the best performer followed by Telangana and Haryana. 
• Himalayan states, Uttarakhand is the highest, followed by Tripura and Himachal Pradesh.
• Union Territories, Delhi has performed the best, followed by Goa and Chandigarh.
• Two landlocked states Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand initiated several measures to promote exports.
• Three fundamental challenges
  • Intra- and inter-regional disparities in export infrastructure.
  • Poor trade support and growth orientation among states.
  • Poor R&D infrastructure to promote complex and unique exports.

How to tackle the challenges ?

Emphasize on key strategies to address these challenges

• A joint development of export infrastructure
• Strengthening industry-academia linkages
• Creating state-level engagements for economic diplomacy.

Revamped designs and standards for local products. Thus harnessing the innovating tendencies to provide new use cases for such products, with adequate support from the Centre.

For tackling the post COVID19 challenges it is important to increase exports from all the states and union territories. EPI can be used for evaluating the weak areas. Improving the weakness and increase the export. 

Source :  PIB

Topic

Prelims : EPI aim and structure

GS III : Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment

Amend law for delimit NE states

Why in News ?

UNION government has moved a proposal to amend the Representation of the People (RP) Act 1950 to give legality to its March 6 order setting up a Delimitation Commission for Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Assam and Nagaland. Amend law for delimit NE states. 

What is the proposal ?

• The Law Ministry had notified the Delimitation Commission for the four northeast states and Jammu and Kashmir on March 6.
• For the purpose a panel with Former Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai is its chairperson, and Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra is the EC’s representative on the panel.

Why delimitation required Amendment of RP Act ?

Concern over the delimitation

• The last delimitation exercise, that started in 2002 and ended in 2008, had kept out Arunachal, Assam, Manipur and Nagal and as the use of the 2001 Census for it had been challenged by several organisations before the Gauhati High Court, on the ground that it was riddled with defects.
• From Assam a delegation met then Home Minister Shivraj Patil pleading that delimitation be called off because the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was yet to be updated.
• The Delimitation Act of 2002 was amended on January 14, 2008,to empower the President to postpone the exercise in these states.
• But in February government planned to resume the process by cancelling the order of February 8, 2008. 

Impact of delimitation

• There is a freeze until 2026 on the number of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in any state.
• No increase or decrease of number of seats. 
• Delimitation will only redraw the boundaries of seats in each state.
• It can rework the number of reserved seats for SCs and STs.

Source : Indian Express 

Topic 

GS III : Salient features of the Representation of People’s Act

India China in Russian Exercise : Kavkaz 2020

Why in News ?

Indian and Chinese troops will participate in an international exercise in Russia next month after the tensions began along the LAC in Ladakh. 

About Exercise :- Kavkaz 2020

• India will send a tri-services contingent to participate in Exercise Kavkaz, to be held in southern Russia between September 15 and 27.
• Pakistan is also likely to send troops for exercise.
• 13,000 troops will participate in the exercise. 
• The aim of the exercise is to
  • Provide real-time training to counter international terrorism in the Northern and Caucasus region
  • Will involve both offensive and defensive operations against international terror.
• Participants : India, China, Pakistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Syria, Iran, Egypt, Belarus, Turkey, Armenia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.
• Kavkaz is derived as a modern variant of Caucasus or Caucasia, a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. 

Russian Military Execricises

• Vostok (East), Zapad (West), Tsentr (Center), and Kavkaz (South), which correlate to Russia’s military districts.
• It was conducted in Zapad 2017, Vostok 2018, Tsentr 2019, and now Kavkaz 2020.

Source : Indian Express

Topic

Prelims : Name of the Exercise, Participating members

GS II : Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

Current Affairs 27 August 2020 : Our major Sources for the Current Affairs are The Hindu, Indian Express, PIB. For more queries and mentor-ship please contact us.