CURRENT AFFAIRS :  13-11-2020

Table of Content :

1. Sarna religion

2. Finance minister announces measures on aatmanirbhar bharat 3.0

3. Kalvari-class submarines

4. Contempt of court

5. Aatmanirbhar bharat rozgar yojana

6. Spacex’s crew dragon spacecraft

7. Recession

8. Salim ali

1.  SARNA RELIGION

The Jharkhand government passed a resolution to send the Centre a letter to recognise Sarna religion and include it as a separate code in the Census of 2021.

About:

• The followers of Sarna faith believe pray to nature. The holy grail of the faith is “Jal, Jungle, Zameen” and its followers pray to the trees and hills while believing in protecting the forest areas.
• It is believed that 50 lakhs tribal in the entire country put their religion as ‘Sarna’ in the 2011 census, although it was not a code.

Facts to remember :

• Jharkhand has 32 tribal groups of which eight are from Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups.
• While many follow Hindu religion, some have converted to Christianity — this has become one of the planks of demanding a separate code “to save religious identity”— as various tribal organisations put it.

Source : Indian Express

2. FINANCE MINISTER ANNOUNCES MEASURES ON AATMANIRBHAR BHARAT 3.0

Union Minister for Finance announced various measures, as part of Government of India’s stimulus to the economy, under AatmaNirbhar Bharat 3.0.

About:

• Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme for MSMEs, businesses, MUDRA borrowers and individuals (loans for business purposes), has been extended till March 31, 2021.
• 10 more Champion Sectors will be covered under the Production Linked Incentives Scheme to help boost competitiveness of domestic manufacturing.
• A sum of Rs 18000 crore is being provided for PM Awaas Yojana - Urban over and above Rs. 8000 Crore already allocated this year.
• Support for Construction & Infrastructure – Relaxation of Earnest Deposit Money & Performance Security on Government Tenders
• To provide ease of doing business and relief to contractors whose money otherwise remains locked up, performance security on contracts has been reduced from 5-10% to 3%.It will also extend to ongoing contracts and Public Sector Enterprises.
• Differential between circle rate and agreement value in real estate income tax under Section 43 CA of IT Act has been increased from 10% to 20%.
• Government will make ₹6,000 Crore equity investment in debt platform of National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), which will help NIIF provide a debt of ₹ 1.1 Lakh Crore for infrastructure projects by 2025.
• Additional outlay of ₹10,000 Crore is being provided for PM Garib Kalyan Rozgar Yojana to provide rural employment. This will help accelerate rural economy.
• Around ₹3,000 Crore boost is being provided to EXIM Bank for promoting project exports under Indian Development and Economic Assistance Scheme (IDEAS Scheme).
• R&D grant for COVID Vaccine: ₹900 Crore is being provided to Department of Biotechnology for Research and Development of Indian COVID Vaccine.

Source : Business Standard

3. KALVARI-CLASS SUBMARINES

Indian Navy’s fifth Kalvari-class Diesel Electric attack submarine INS Vagir was launched at Mazgaon Dock in Mumbai.

Kalvari-class background:

• Indian Naval Ship (INS) Vagir is the fifth among the six Kalvari-class submarines being constructed by the public sector shipbuilder Mazagon Dock Ltd (MDL) in Mumbai.
• The other vessels in the class are INS Kalvari, INS Khanderi, INS Karanj, INS Vela and INS Vagsheer.
• Status: Of these Kalvari and Khanderi have been commissioned in 2017 and 2019, Vela and Karanj and undergoing sea trials, Vagir has now been launched and Vagsheer is under construction.
• Names: Like Kalvari – which means Tiger Shark, Vagir has been named after a Sand Fish, a predatory marine species. Khanderi has been named after an Island Fort built by Chhatrapati Shivaji, which played a key role in his Navy. Karanj has also been named after an Island located South of Mumbai.

Technical details

• The design of Kalvari class of submarines is based on Scorpene class of submarines designed and developed by French defence major Naval Group formerly DCNS and Spanish state owned entity Navantia.
• This class of submarines have Diesel Electric transmission systems and these are primarily attack submarines or ‘hunter-killer’ type which means they are designed to target and sink adversary naval vessels.
• These submarines are around 220 feet long and have a height of 40 feet. It can reach the highest speeds of 11 knots when surfaced and 20 knots when submerged.
• The modern variants of the Scorpence class of submarines have what is called the Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) which enables non-nuclear submarines to operate for a long time without access to surface oxygen.

Source : Indian Express

4. CONTEMPT OF COURT

Kunal Kamra, a stand-up comedian, will face contempt of court charges for his tweets following the Supreme Court's decision to grant interim bail to television anchor Arnab Goswami.

About:

• According to the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, contempt of court can either be civil contempt or criminal contempt.
• Civil contempt means wilful disobedience of any judgment, decree, direction, order, writ or other process of a court, or wilful breach of an undertaking given to a court.
• Criminal contempt, on the other hand, is attracted by the publication (whether by words, spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representations, or otherwise) of any matter or the doing of any other act whatsoever which:
• scandalises or tends to scandalise, or lowers or tends to lower the authority of, any court; or
• prejudices, or interferes or tends to interfere with, the due course of any judicial proceeding; or
• interferes or tends to interfere with, or obstructs or tends to obstruct, the administration of justice in any other manner.
• In 2006, the government brought in an amendment, which now provides “truth” as defence provided it is bona fide and in public interest.
• A-G’s consent to initiate contempt of court proceedings: In the case of a criminal contempt the court may take action on its own motion or on a motion made by (a) the Advocate-General, or (b) any other person, with the consent in writing of the Advocate-General of India.

Source : Indian Express

5. AATMANIRBHAR BHARAT ROZGAR YOJANA

Union Minister for Finance announced a new scheme to incentivize job creation during COVID-19 recovery has been launched.

About:

• If EPFO-registered establishments take in new employees without EPFO registration or those who lost jobs earlier, the Yojana will benefit these employees.

Beneficiaries / New Employees under the scheme would be:

• any new employee joining employment in EPFO registered establishments on monthly wages less than Rs.15,000
• EPF members drawing monthly wage of less than Rs.15,000 who made exit from employment during COVID Pandemic from 01.03.2020 to 30.09.2020 and is employed on or after 01.10.2020.
• Central Govt. will provide subsidy for two years in respect of new eligible employees engaged on or after 01.10.2020 at following scale:
• Establishments employing up to 1000 employees: Employee’s contributions (12% of Wages) & Employer’s contributions (12% of wages) totalling 24% of wages
• Establishments employing more than 1000 employees: Only Employee’s EPF contributions (12% of EPF wages)
• The scheme will be effective from October 1, 2020 and operational till 30th June 2021. Certain other eligibility criteria would have to be met, and Central Government will provide subsidy for two years in respect of new eligible employees.

Source : The Hindu

6. SPACEX’s CREW DRAGON SPACECRAFT

On November 14, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft will lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying a crew of four people to the International Space Station (ISS) on a six-month-long mission.

Crew-1 mission:

• The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, whose objective is to make access to space easier in terms of its cost, so that cargo and crew can be easily transported to and from the ISS, enabling greater scientific research.
• At the ISS, the Crew-1 team will join members of Expedition 64 and conduct microgravity studies and deliver new science hardware and experiments that they will carry with them to space aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft.
• Significantly, Crew-1 will be the first operational flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket to the ISS and is the first of the three scheduled flights scheduled over the course of 2020-2021.

Facts to remember:

• Just ahead of the mission, NASA certified SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule and the Falcon 9 rocket, making it the first spacecraft certification provided by the space agency. This means SpaceX can now operate regular flights to the space station.
• Earlier in May, NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 test flight lifted off for the ISS, becoming the first crewed flight to launch from American soil since the conclusion of the space shuttle era in 2011.

Source : Indian Express

7. RECESSION

In its latest monthly bulletin — for November — the Reserve Bank of India has dedicated a chapter on the “State of the economy”. As part of the exercise, the RBI has started “nowcasting” or “the prediction of the present or the very near future of the state of the economy”.

About:

• And the very first “nowcast” predicts that India’s economy will contract by 8.6% in the second quarter (July, August, September) of the current financial year.
• While this pace of contraction is considerably slower than the 23.9% decline in the real gross domestic product (GDP) during the first quarter, the contraction of Q2 is crucial because it implies India that has entered a “technical recession” in the first half of 2020-21— for the first time in its history.

Terminologies:

1. Recessionary phase:

• A recessionary phase is the counterpart of an expansionary phase. i.e. When the overall output of goods and services — typically measured by the GDP — increases from one quarter (or month) to another, the economy is said to be in an expansionary phase.
• And when the GDP contracts from one quarter to another, the economy is said to be in a recessionary phase.

2. Recession:

• When a recessionary phase sustains for long enough, it is called a recession. In other words, when the GDP contracts for a long enough period, the economy is said to be in a recession.
• During a recession, a significant decline in economic activity spreads across the economy and can last from a few months to more than a year.
• Technical recession: To get around these empirical technicalities, commentators often consider a recession to be in progress when real GDP has declined for at least two consecutive quarters.

Source : Indian Express

8. SALIM ALI

Birth Anniversary of renowned ornithologist Salim Ali was observed on November 12, 2020.

About:

• Born in Mumbai on 12th November in 1896, Sálim Moizuddin Abdul Ali was not only a bird lover but also a naturalist. He is often referred to as the 'Birdman of India'.
• He was the first Indian to conduct systematic bird surveys across India and wrote several books that popularized ornithology in India. His research work is considered highly influential in the development of ornithology.
• He played a pivotal role in establishment of Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary (Keoladeo National Park) and prevented the destruction of what is now the Silent Valley National Park.
• Along with Sidney Dillon Ripley, he wrote the landmark ten-volume Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan, a second edition of which was completed after his death.
• He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1958 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1976.
• He received the Gold Medal of the British Ornithologists’ Union in 1967. He was the first non-British citizen to receive the honour.

Source : All India Radio

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