Current Affairs 25 September 2020 – IAS Current Affairs
Current Affairs 25 September 2020 focuses on Prelims-Mains perspective. Major events are :
- Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2020
- India-Pak In SAARC CICA Meet
- Scrub Typhus outbreak
Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2020
Why in News ?
The bill amends the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act 2010, which regulates the use and acceptance of foreign contribution by individuals and organizations. The Parliament passed the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2020.
What are the Amendments ?
- The amendments to the Bill, no public servant henceforth can receive foreign contributions.
- Mandatory Aadhaar provision is included to all officials belonging to the recipient organisation.
- Foreign contributions are to be used by their original recipient and can’t be transferred to any other entity or person.
- Though foreign contributions can be spent for administrative purposes, their limit has been reduced to 20 per cent from the earlier 50 per cent.
- There won’t be an automatic renewal of permissions granted for receiving such funds
- Authorities can now probe the functioning and purpose of the recipient organisation.
- The bill also proposes to enable the Centre to allow an NGO or association to surrender its FCRA certificate.
In favour of The Bill
- Necessary to curtail the attempt to convert someone to one’s own religious faith as some religious institutions were beneficiaries of the earlier FCRA regime.
- Opposition by NGOs to critical projects in sectors such as mining, power generation and infrastructure.
- Misguided environmental concerns and agenda-based activism have put brakes.
- Many such NGOs involved in these protest movements are recipients of foreign funding.
- Kudankulam nuclear power and Sterlite Copper’s Thoothukudi plant cited as example.
- New provisions will arguably put the financial angle of these anti-development protests under greater scrutiny.
- The Bill is important from the national security perspective to tackle terrorism support etc.
Against the Bill
- Many NGOs at the forefront of helping marginalised communities and the amendment will affect the work.
- Harming the grass root projects in everything from education and health to gender justice and social empowerment.
- International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) The legislation fails to comply with India’s international legal obligations and constitutional provisions to respect and protect the rights to freedom of association, expression, and freedom of assembly.
- The provisions of the Bill will impose “arbitrary and extraordinary obstacles” on the capacity of human rights groups.
- Also affect the members of civil society to carry out their work.
International Commission of Jurists
- ICJ has performed a unique and prominent role as a nongovernmental organization (NGO) defending human rights and the rule of law worldwide.
- It is a standing group of 60 eminent jurists including senior judges, attorneys and academics.
- Headquarters : Geneva, Switzerland
- ICJ has national sections and affiliates in over 70 countries.
- Every few years, the ICJ convenes a World Congress. Congress held in India
- 1959 – New Delhi, India for The Rule of Law in a Free Society
- 1995 – Bangalore, India for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Role of Lawyers
- 2015 there are 21 autonomous National Sections of the ICJ. (India: Karnataka State Commission of Jurists)
Source : The Hindu
Topic
GS II : Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation
India-Pak In SAARC CICA Meet
Why in News ?
India-Pak In SAARC CICA Meet. India and Pakistan crossed swords over terrorism and Jammu and Kashmir at the Foreign Minister’s meetings of the
- 8-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)
- The 27-nation Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA).
About the Meet
- The need to brings together Asian nations ranging from Russia and Central Asia to the Gulf and South-East Asia.
- India advised Pakistan to cease its sponsorship and overt and covert support to terrorism against India.
- Most countries agreed it is not the better time to convene the summit as proposed by Pakistan, given the COVID-19 situation.
- SAARC nations built a common stand on the need to cooperate in battling the coronavirus pandemic.
- Measures taken by India in the past few months including the
- COVID-19 Information Exchange Platform (COINEX)
- SAARC Food Bank mechanism
- SAARC COVID-19 Emergency Fund, to which India has contributed $10 million, making essential drugs, COVID protection and testing kits, amounting to $ 2.3 million available to countries in the SAARC region.
About SAARC
- South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was established with the signing of the SAARC Charter in Dhaka on 8 December 1985.
- SAARC comprises of eight Member States: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
- The Secretariat of the Association was set up in Kathmandu on 17 January 1987.
- Aims to promote the welfare of the peoples of South Asia, improve their quality of life, to accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development.
Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA)
- CICA) is a multi-national forum for enhancing cooperation towards promoting peace, security and stability in Asia.
- The idea of convening the CICA was first proposed by the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan at the 47th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
- The Secretariat comprises of Executive Director nominated by the Chairing country and Deputy Executive Director and Professional Personnel seconded by the Member States.
- It has 27 Member states Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Egypt, India
Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Russia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam
Source : The Hindu
Topic
GS II : Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests
Scrub Typhus outbreak
Why in News ?
An outbreak of scrub typhus, a bacterial disease, has claimed the lives of five people in Nagaland’s Noklak district bordering Myanmar.
- More than 600 others tested positive for the disease but recovered after treatment.
Scrub typhus Outbreak
- It is also known as bush typhus, spreads to people through bites of larval mites. The symptoms include fever, headache and bodyache.Disease caused by a bacteria called Orientia tsutsugamushi.
- People recover if treated in time.
- Five people died probably because they were ignorant about the disease.
- Scrub typhus has been the latest in a string of viral and bacterial fatalities in the Northeast.
About Scrub Typhus
- It is a disease caused by a bacteria called Orientia tsutsugamushi.
- Symptoms of scrub typhus usually begin within 10 days of being bitten. Signs and symptoms may include:
- Fever and chills
- Headache
- Body aches and muscle pain
- A dark, scab-like region at the site of the chigger bite
- Mental changes, ranging from confusion to coma
- Enlarged lymph nodes
- Rash
- Scrub typhus should be treated with the antibiotic and most effective if given soon after symptoms begin.
- No vaccine is available to prevent scrub typhus.
Source : The Hindu
Topic
Prelims : About Scrub Typhus
GS II : Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
Current Affairs 25 September 2020 : Our major Sources for the Current Affairs are The Hindu, Indian Express, PIB, Down To Earth etc. For more queries and mentor-ship please contact us.