CURRENT AFFAIRS 20-08-2020

PPP AIRPORTS

What is in news?

The Union Cabinet has approved the proposal for leasing out three airports namely Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram airports of Airports Authority of India (AAI) through Public Private Partnership (PPP).

About:

• These three AAI airports for Operation, Management and Development have been leased to M/s Adani Enterprises Ltd for a period of fifty years.

• These projects will bring efficiency in service delivery, expertise, enterprise and professionalism apart from harnessing the needed investments in the public sector.

Facts to remember :

• Government had leased out the Airports Authority of India's airports at Delhi and Mumbai on Public Private Partnership for Operation, Management and Development about a decade ago.

• The PPP airports in India are consistently ranked among the top 5 in their respective categories by the Airports Council International (ACI) in terms of Airport Service Quality (ASQ).

KUDGI STPP

What is in news?

NTPC Ltd, a central PSU under Ministry of Power would be able to reduce the transportation cost of coal to fuel to its NTPC Kudgi Super thermal power station in Karnataka with a newly constructed bridge by South Western railway.

About:

• Kudgi Super Thermal Power Station (STPP) is a power station located at Kudgi village in Bijapur district, Karnataka.

• This is one of the coal based thermal power plants of NTPC Limited.

• The water source is from reservoir of Almatti Dam which is constructed on Krishna River.

GURU GRANTH SAHIB

What is in news?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted people on the Prakash Purab Utsav of the holy book Guru Granth Sahib.

About:

• The first Prakash Purab Utsav marked the installation of Guru Granth Sahib in Harmandir Sahib, also known as the Golden temple, in 1604.

• Guru Granth Sahib is the central religious scripture of Sikhs. It is regarded by Sikhs as the final, sovereign and eternal living Guru following the lineage of the ten human gurus of the religion.

• The Adi Granth, its first rendition, was compiled by the fifth Guru, Guru Arjan (1563–1606).

• Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru, did not add any of his own hymns; however, he added all 115 hymns of Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Sikh Guru, to the Adi Granth and affirmed the text as his successor. This second rendition became known as Guru Granth Sahib and is sometimes also referred to as Adi Granth.

• The Guru Granth Sahib is written in the Gurmukhi script, in various languages, including Lahnda, Braj Bhasha, Kauravi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, and Persian.

FIFTH WORLD CONFERENCE OF SPEAKERS OF PARLIAMENT (5WCSP)

What is in news?

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla today attended the inaugural ceremony of the Fifth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament (5WCSP).

About:

• The two day Conference is being organized jointly by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Geneva and the Parliament of Austria with the support of the United Nations (UN).

• This is the first time that an international Parliamentary Conference of such a magnitude is being organised in Virtual mode.

• The theme of the Conference is Parliamentary leadership for more effective multilateralism that delivers peace and sustainable development for the people and planet.

MoU TO PROVIDE CERTIFIED GOOD QUALITY SEEDS TO JUTE FARMERS

What is in news?

A MoU to provide certified good quality seeds to jute farmers in the year 2021-22 was signed between Jute Corporation of India and National Seeds Corporation.

About:

• As an outcome of the MoU, Jute Corporation of India will distribute 10 thousand Quintals of certified jute seeds of JRO-204 variety in the 2021-22 crop year.

• Certified seeds from National Seeds Corporation will be purchased by Jute Corporation of India for this first ever commercial distribution operation.

• Five to six lakh farm families will be benefited and the spurious seed market will be reduced drastically.

• The increase in productivity will enhance the income of the farmers and will go a long way in reaching the target of doubling the farmers’ income by 2022.

INCUBATION CENTRE TO PROMOTE AEROSPACE ENGINEERING START-UPS

What is in news?

National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Aerospace Laboratories (CSIR-NAL) have joined hands to establish an Innovation-cum-Incubation Centre with external private funding to promote start-ups in the field of Aerospace technologies.

About:

• Under this program start-ups in the area of Aerospace engineering would be incubated, mentored and supported for product and prototype development and their validation.

• National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), is India's first largest aerospace firm. It was established by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) at Delhi in 1959 and its headquarters was later moved to Bangalore in 1960.

• National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) was established in 1953 by the Government of India to promote the technologies from various national R&D institutions and is presently working under the administrative control of the Dept. of Scientific & Industrial Research (DSIR), Ministry of Science & Technology.

19th AMENDMENT (SRI LANKA)

What is in news?

Sri Lankan government has granted approval to abolish the 19th amendment to the constitution and replace it with the 20th amendment.

About:

• President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapksa had made the abolition of 19th amendment as the main election plank during the presidential and parliamentary elections.

• The amendment brought by previous government had put a two-term limit on Presidency and curtailed the executive powers of President and transferred it to parliament and independent commissions.

• The Rajapaksa family had alleged that the amendment was brought specifically to target the family.

• Mahinda Rajapaksa could not contest the last November Presidential elections because of term limit and his younger brother Gotabaya became the candidate.

• The Rajapaksas secured a two-third majority in parliament during general elections held this month, thus paving way for constitutional amendments.

DOMICILE-BASED JOB QUOTA

What is in news?

The Madhya Pradesh government’s recent decision to reserve all government jobs for “children of the state” raises questions relating to the fundamental right to equality.

What does the Constitution say?

• Article 16 of the Constitution, which guarantees equal treatment under law in matters of public employment, prohibits the state from discriminating on grounds of place of birth or residence.

• Article 16(2) states that “no citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them, be ineligible for, or discriminated against in respect or, any employment or office under the State”.

• However, Article 16(3) of the Constitution provides an exception by saying that Parliament may make a law “prescribing” a requirement of residence for jobs in a particular state. This power vests solely in the Parliament, not state legislatures.

What has the Supreme Court said on reserving jobs for locals?

• The Supreme Court has ruled against reservation based on place of birth or residence.

• In 1984, ruling in Dr Pradeep Jain v Union of India, the court expressed an opinion that such policies would be unconstitutional but did not expressly rule on it as the case was on different aspects of the right to equality.

• In a subsequent ruling in Sunanda Reddy v State of Andhra Pradesh (1995), the Supreme Court affirmed the observation in Pradeep Jain to strike down a state government policy that gave 5% extra weightage to candidates who had studied with Telugu as the medium of instruction.

How do some states then have laws that reserve jobs for locals?

• Constitutionally, some states also have special protections under Article 371. Andhra Pradesh under Section 371(d) has powers to have “direct recruitment of local cadre” in specified areas.

• Some states have gone around the mandate of Article 16(2) by using language. States that conduct official business in their regional languages prescribe knowledge of the language as a criterion.

NATIONAL RECRUITMENT AGENCY (NRA)

What is in news?

The Union Cabinet has given its approval for creation of National Recruitment Agency (NRA), paving the way for a reform in the recruitment process for central government jobs.

About:

• A multi-agency body called the National Recruitment Agency (NRA) will conduct a Common Eligibility Test (CET) to screen/shortlist candidates for the Group B and C (non-technical) posts.

• NRA will have representatives of Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Finance/Department of Financial Services, the SSC, RRB & IBPS.

• NRA shall conduct a separate CET each for the three levels of graduate, higher secondary (12th pass) and the matriculate (10th pass) candidates for those non-technical posts to which recruitment is presently carried out by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), the Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) and by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS).

• The Government has sanctioned a sum of Rs. 1517.57 crore for the National Recruitment Agency (NRA). The expenditure will be undertaken over a period of three years.