Daily Currentaffairs: 14 Oct 2020

Tables of contents

1.NRI quota in professional courses is not sacrosanct

2. Dominance of Big Tech Companies 

3. Australia-China ties have gone down under

4.World Food Programme-Nobel Peace Prize 2020

5.First 'Har Ghar Jal' State in India

6.Khardungla Pass

1.NRI quota in professional courses is not sacrosanct

Recently, the Supreme Court held that Non-Resident Indian (NRI) quota in PG Medical and Dental courses is not “sacrosanct" in any given academic year.

Key Highlights of the Judgement

• The apex court held that the private colleges and institutions that offer professional and technical courses have a complete discretion to do away with their Non-Resident Indian (NRI) quota of seats after giving reasonable prior notice.

• The candidates under the NRI quota cannot assert their right to be admitted in the professional courses.

• The bench observed that the private colleges and institutions, which offer professional and technical courses, can decide whether, and to what extent, they wish to offer NRI or management quotas.

• The Supreme Court upheld the decision of the division bench of Rajasthan High Court which had ruled that private colleges are not obligated to earmark NRI quota upto the extent of 15 per cent of total seats.

Arguments from stakeholders

• The students had argued that having held out to all NRI candidates about the availability of seats for that quota as well as the sequence of filling up those seats, at the penultimate hour, the board could not have decided unilaterally or even permitted colleges unilaterally to withdraw the NRI quota seats altogether.

• The counsel appearing for the private colleges urged that the decision not to offer an NRI quota in medical colleges in the state of Rajasthan was voluntarily and consciously taken, given the extraordinary and unusual situation created by the pandemic.

• The colleges argued that in their assessment, NRI quota seats might not have been filled up to the normal expected levels and in the circumstances, it was more appropriate to merge the seats earmarked for NRI candidates with the management seats.

Source: The Hindu

2. Dominance of Big Tech Companies

Recently, a US House of Representatives panel submitted the report of a bipartisan investigation into the working of Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook.

• The report called for the big technology companies to be broken up and for a presumptive prohibition against future mergers and acquisitions by the dominant platform.

Why was the House of Representatives probing big tech companies?

• The big companies have been on the government radar in many countries for being big spenders and trying to steamroll competition by either buying out their rivals or pushing vendors to avoid working with their competitors.

• The US Congress wanted to know from Apple if it had, in order to promote an app that allows parents to limit screen time for children, thrown out a rival app on the pretence that it was not safe.

Key findings of the Panel

• The panel observed that the answers by CEOs of the big tech companies were often “evasive and non-responsive”.

• The panel raised fresh questions on the powers assumed by these big tech companies and whether they considered themselves beyond the reach of democratic oversight.

• The panel observed that each of the big tech companies was now acting as a “gatekeeper” over a key channel of distribution, which meant that they had full control over what went on in their respective domains.

• The big tech companies not only wield tremendous power, but they also abuse it by charging exorbitant fees, imposing oppressive contract terms and extracting valuable data from the people and businesses that rely on them.

Recommendation of the Panel

• The panel recommended to push for “structural separations” of the big tech companies.

  • It implies that the panel wants these companies to be broken into smaller companies to ensure that they would not be able to have as much influence as they have currently over the digital marketplace.

• The panel also recommended that these companies should be prohibited from operating in an “adjacent line of business”.

• The panel recommended that there should be a “presumptive prohibition” against big tech companies going for mergers and acquisitions.

Influence of big tech in India

• The role of the of big tech companies in stifling competition in India finds mention in the US panel’s report.

• The panel refers to the various antitrust probes going on against Google in India and also Google has had run-ins with regulators, especially the Competition Commission of India (CCI).

  • The CCI has raised issues with Google’s commercial flight search option, its dominant position in the search marketplace and the abuse of its dominant position in the Android phone and smart television market.

• In 2019, India’s antitrust body had held Google guilty of misuse of its dominant position in the mobile Android market and said the company had imposed “unfair conditions” on device manufacturers to prevent them from using other operating systems.

  • The CCI had held that requiring mobile phone makers to pre-install the entire Google mobile services pack was unfair.

• As India plans to regulate the use of personal and non-personal data, these tech companies could face scrutiny over how they manage and use the data they collect from users in India.

Source: The Hindu

3. Australia-China ties have gone down under

Recently, the Canberra’s appeal for an independent global inquiry into the origins and initial response of Covid-19 has really riled up Beijing and the Australia-China ties have been soured in 2020 over several point of friction.

Points of friction between Australia and China

Australia’s Covid-19 inquiry

• In April 2020, Australia’s Minister of Home Affairs suggested the start of an inquiry into the origins and the initial handling of the coronavirus.

• It was supported by the Australian Foreign Minister who called the suggestion "entirely sensible and reasonable" and asserted that the world ought to know everything about a virus.

• The first reaction came from the Chinese Ambassador to Australia, who alleged that Australia was teaming up with the US to spread “anti-China propaganda”.

• China further called for boycotting Australia as a tourist and higher education destination and banning Australian products like wine and beef.

• In May 2020, Chinese authorities announced imposing an 80 per cent tariff on barley imports coming from Australia.

• China also began a trade probe into Australian wine and suspended import permits for four large beef processing plants.

Tension over journalists

• The second diplomatic spat began with the detention of an Australian news anchor based in Beijing by the Chinese authorities after she was suspected of “criminal activities” that endangered China’s national security.

• Two more Australian journalists working in China were questioned and declared persons of interest in the Cheng Lee detention case.

• China’s state news agency Xinhua released a report that claimed the Australian intelligence had raided an unspecified number of Chinese journalists stationed in Australia.

Ideological issues

• The two countries have also been at loggerheads on other ideological issues previously too.

• After reports of China keeping Uighur Muslims in state-run detention camps surfaced, Australia was swift to respond and expressed “deep concern” over the “human rights situation".

• After China imposed the National Security Law in Hong Kong, Australia suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and said the law undermines Hong Kong’s autonomy and suppresses opposition to Mainland China.

• Australia also decided to extend visas for Hong Kong residents.

Canberra searching for like-minded allies

• Canberra has started looking for way to wean itself away from this excessive Chinese dependence and is keen to strengthen its ties with more ideologically compatible allies like India, Japan and the United States.

• At the Quadrilateral Initiative or the “Quad” with counterparts from India, United States and Japan, the Australian Foreign Minister highlighted the need for an “open, resilient and inclusive Indo-Pacific region that is governed by rules and not power".

• Australia also focussed on vital sectors of its economy like minerals, for which it is heavily depends on its trade with China.

Source: The Indian Express

4.World Food Programme-Nobel Peace Prize 2020

Recently, the Norwegian Nobel Committee had announced the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize to the United Nations (UN) agency World Food Programme (WFP).

About World Food Programme

• It was established in 1961 on the recommendation of the then US President Dwight Eisenhower had suggested the idea of providing food aid through the UN system.

• It is the world’s largest humanitarian organisation (certified as the largest by the Guinness World Records in 2002) committed towards its global goal of ending hunger by the year 2030.

• It launched its first development programme in 1963 for Nubians in Sudan and its first school meals project in Togo was approved.

• The WFP is headquartered in Rome, Italy and it is governed by an Executive Board, which consists of 36 member states.

  • It is headed by an Executive Director, who is appointed jointly by the UN Secretary-General and the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

  • The Executive Director is appointed for fixed five-year terms.

• The WFP is the 28th organisation awarded the Nobel Peace Prize since its inception in 1901.

• The organisation estimates hunger by the prevalence of undernourishment and the UN defines undernourished or food-deprived people as those individuals whose food intake falls below the minimum level of dietary energy requirements.

Scale of work of World Food Programme

• In 2019, it delivered about 4.4 million tonnes of food, purchased $1.7 billion worth of food from 91 countries, and $762 million worth of goods and services from 156 countries.

• The WFP distribute more than 15 billion rations at an estimated average cost per ration of US$ 0.61.

World Food Programme’s role in India

• The WFP has been working in India since 1963, two years after its establishment.

• It focuses on reforms in the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), provides policy inputs, advocacy and technical assistance for improving access to food.

• The WFP has proposed some unique initiatives like Automatic Grain Dispensing Machine (Annapurti) and Mobile Storage Units for the effective implementation of TPDS.

  • Annapurti allows beneficiaries to withdraw their foodgrain quota accurately and at a time of their choice.

Source: The Indian Express

5.First 'Har Ghar Jal' State in India

Recently, Goa has earned itself the unique distinction of becoming first 'Har Ghar Jal' State in the country.

Key Highlights

• Goa is successfully providing 100% Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCs) in the rural areas covering 2.30 lakh rural households.

• The state government of Goa has utilised the immense benefits of the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM).

• The two districts of Goa i.e. North Goa with 1.65 lakh rural households and South Goa with 98,000 rural households in 191 Gram Panchayats are fully saturated with assured piped water supply through tap connections.

• The State is in process of getting 14 water quality testing laboratories NABL accredited in order to strengthen the water testing facilities.

Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM)

 

The Government of India has restructured and subsumed the ongoing National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) into Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM).

 

JJM aims to provide Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) to every rural household i.e. Har Ghar Nal Se Jal (HGNSJ) by 2024.

 

Its objective is to supply 55 litres of water per person per day to every rural household through Functional Household Tap Connections by 2024.

 

Under this mission, the creation of local infrastructure for source sustainability measures as mandatory elements, like rainwater harvesting, groundwater recharge and management of household wastewater for reuse, would be undertaken.

 

Jal Jeevan Mission is based on a community approach and includes extensive Information, Education and Communication as a key component.

 

The fund sharing pattern between the Centre and states is 90:10 for Himalayan and North-Eastern States, 50:50 for other states, and 100% for Union Territories.

 

For the implementation of JJM, following institutional arrangement has been proposed:

 

National Jal Jeevan Mission at the Central level;

 

State Water and Sanitation Mission (SWSM) at State level;

 

District Water and Sanitation Mission (DWSM) at the district level; and

 

Gram Panchayat and/ or its sub-committees i.e. Village Water Sanitation Committee (VWSC)/ Paani Samiti at village Level.

 

Source: All India Radio

6.Khardungla Pass

Recently, the Indian Air Force (IAF) celebrated its 88th Anniversary on 8th Oct and in order to commemorate this event, the IAF achieved a new record of the highest Skydive Landing at Khardungla Pass.

About Khardungla Pass

• It is known as the gateway to the Nubra and Shyok Valleys in the union territory of Ladakh.

• It is the highest motorable pass in the world.

• Khardung La Pass is positioned on the Ladakh range, which is 40 km from Leh, at an altitude of 18,379 ft (5602 m).

• The tourists are required to carry the Inner Line Permit (ILP) to pass through Khardung La.

• The roads at Khardungla Pass are maintained by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO).

• It is historically important as it lies on the major caravan route from Leh to Kashgar in Central Asia.

• It is located on western side of the Aksai Chin.

Source: PIB

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