CURRENT AFFAIRS 27-07-2020

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS (FDI):

What is in news?

About 200 investment proposals from China are awaiting security clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) after new rules were notified making prior government approval mandatory for foreign direct investments (FDI) from countries which share a land border with India.

About:

• As FDI is allowed in noncritical sectors through the automatic route, earlier these proposals would have been cleared without the MHA’s nod.

• Prior government approval or security clearance from MHA was required for investments in critical sectors such as defence, media, telecommunication, satellites, private security agencies, civil aviation and mining and any investments from Pakistan and Bangladesh.

• The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) notified the new FDI policy which said, an entity of a country, which shares land border with India or where the beneficial owner of an investment into India is situated in or is a citizen of any such country, can invest only under the Government route.”

It aimed at “curbing opportunistic takeovers/acquisitions of Indian companies due to the current COVID19 pandemic.”

Foreign Direct Investment

• FDI is an investment from a party in one country into a business or corporation in another country with the intention of establishing a lasting interest.

• Lasting interest differentiates FDI from foreign portfolio investments, where investors passively hold securities from a foreign country.

• Foreign direct investment can be made by expanding one’s business into a foreign country or by becoming the owner of a company in another country.

Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT):

• After Internal Trade was added to the mandate of DIPP, the department was renamed as the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). Administered by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, it is a nodal Government agency with a responsibility to formulate and implement growth strategies for the Industrial Sector along with other Socio-Economic objectives and national priorities.

Role and Functions of DPIIT

• Established in 1995, DIPP was basically mandated with the overall industrial policy formulation and execution, whereas the individual ministries take care of the specific industries’ production, distribution, development and planning aspects.

• From regulation and administration of the industrial sector, the role of the Department has been transformed into facilitating investment and technology flows and monitoring industrial development in the liberalised environment.

Industrial Policies

• Formulating and implementing Industrial Policy in India introduced by the Government. Formulating and implementing strategies necessary for developing industries in compliance with development and National objectives.

• Monitoring the industrial growth, in general, and performance of industries specifically assigned to it, in particular, including advice on all industrial and technical matters.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

• Formulating, promoting and facilitating policies of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

• Encouraging collaborators at an enterprise level and formulating policy parameters for Foreign Technology.

Intellectual Property Rights

Formulating policies are related to the following fields:

• Industrial Designs

• Patents and Trademarks

Geographical Indications of Goods

• Administrating the rules and regulations made under the Administration of Industries Act of 1951.

• Promoting industrial development of industrially backward areas and the North Eastern Region including International Co-operation for industrial partnerships and

• Promotion of productivity, quality and technical cooperation.

REMEMBERING LOKMANYA TILAK:

What is in news?

Mr. Modi urged people to look up the life of freedom fighter Lokmanya Tilak as this year marked 100 years of his passing.

About Bal Gangadhar Tilak :

• Bal Gangadhar Tilak, commonly known as Lokamanya Tilak was a leader of the Indian independence movement and belonged to the extremist faction. He was also called the ‘Father of Indian Unrest’.

• He was one of the founders of the Fergusson College in Pune.

• He died in 1920 aged 64.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s Political Life

• Tilak joined the Congress in 1890.

• He was opposed to moderate ways and views and had a more radical and aggressive stance against British rule.

• He was one of the first advocates of Swaraj or self-rule. He gave the slogan, “Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it.” He believed that no progress was possible without self-rule.

• He was part of the extremist faction of the INC and was a proponent of boycott and Swadeshi movements.

• He published two papers – Kesari in Marathi and Mahratta in English. He was fearless in his criticism of the government in these papers.

• He was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment on charges of “incitement to murder”. He had written that killers of oppressors could not be blamed, quoting the Bhagavad Gita. After this, two British officials were killed by two Indians in retaliation to the ‘tyrannical’ measures taken by the government during the bubonic plague episode in Bombay.

• Along with Bipin Chandra Pal and Lala Lajpat Rai, he was called the ‘Lal-Bal-Pal’ trio of extremist leaders.

• He was tried for sedition several times. He spent 6 years in Mandalay prison from 1908 to 1914 for writing articles defending Prafulla Chaki and Khudiram Bose. They were revolutionaries who had killed two English women, throwing bomb into the carriage carrying the women. Chaki and Bose had mistakenly assumed that Magistrate Douglas Kingsford was in it.

• Tilak re-joined the INC in 1916, after having split earlier.

• He was one of the founders of the All India Home Rule League, along with Annie Besant and G S Khaparde.

• For his political ideals, Tilak drew heavily from the ancient Hindu scriptures.

• He called for people to be proud of their heritage. He was against the blatant westernisation of society.

• He transformed the simple Ganesh Puja performed at home into a social and public Ganesh festival.

• He used the Ganesh Chaturthi and Shiv Jayanti (birth anniversary of Shivaji) festivals to create unity and a national spirit among the people. Unfortunately, this move alienated non-Hindus from him.

• The Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav as popularised by him since 1894 is still one of the biggest festivals of Maharashtra.

Books Written By Bal Gangadhar Tilak:

• Gita Rahasya

• Arctic Home of the Vedas

POSEIDON UNDERWATER NUCLEAR DRONE AND TSIRKON (ZIRCON) HYPERSONIC CRUISE MISSILE :

What is in news?

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Russian Navy would be armed with hypersonic nuclear strike weapons and underwater nuclear drones.

About:

• The weapons, some of which have yet to be deployed, include the Poseidon underwater nuclear drone, designed to be carried by submarines, and the Tsirkon (Zircon) hypersonic cruise missile, which can be deployed on surface ships.

• The combination of speed, manoeuvrability and altitude of hypersonic missiles, capable of travelling at more than five times the speed of sound, makes them difficult to track and intercept.

What is Zircon ?

• Zircon is believed to be a maneuvering, winged hypersonic cruise missile with a lift-generating center body. A booster stage with solid-fuel engines accelerates it to supersonic speeds, after which a scramjet motor with liquid-fuel (Decilin [ru]) in the second stage accelerates it to hypersonic speeds.

• The missile's range is estimated to be 135 to 270 nautical miles (155 to 311 mi; 250 to 500 km) at low level, and up to 400 nmi (460 mi; 740 km) in a semi-ballistic trajectory; average range is around 400–450 km (250–280 mi; 220–240 nmi)

• Manufacture - NPO Mashinostroyeniya

• Launch platform - Submarine, Surface ship.

What is Poseidon?

• The Poseidon is a family of drones rather than a single type, with some Poseidons designed only for destroying coastal cities and thus relying on "stealth" capabilities rather than on high speed,and other ones primarily designed to attack carrier battle groups, where the later ones may use the supercavitation, like the VA-111 Shkval torpedo, to be able to gain extremely high speed in attack mode (more than 200 km/h (120 mph))

• The development includes also use of stealth technology, to elude acoustic tracking devices. Poseidon uses a silent running strategy like other submarines. Its main stealth feature is its very low speed before it reaches the target area. Its high-speed mode activates upon reaching a short finish range (2-3 kilometers), when the probability of detection of the drone is considerably higher. It could travel for weeks toward enemy port cities, reaching high-speed only in the final stage.

INLAND WATER TRANSPORT

What is in news?

Ministry of Shipping has decided to waive waterway usage charges with immediate effect to promote inland waterways.

About:

• The charges are waived initially for three years. Water usage charge was applicable on use of all the national waterways by vessels.

• Currently only 2% of total cargo traffic moves through waterways. Decision of waiving waterway charges will attract the industries to use the national waterways for their logistical needs.

• The decision is estimated to increase the inland waterway traffic movement to 110MMT in 2022-23 from 72MMTin 2019-20.

SMALL SAVINGS SCHEMES

What is in news?

Department of Posts has extended all small savings schemes upto the branch post office level.

About:

• The new order has allowed Branch Post Offices to offer facilities of Public Provident Fund, Monthly Income Scheme, National Savings Certificate, Kisan Vikas Patra and Senior Citizen Savings Schemes.

• People will now be able to deposit their savings into these popular schemes through the post office in their village itself. There are 1,31,113 Branch Post Offices functioning in the rural areas.

• The decision aims to empower rural India by bringing all Post Office Savings schemes to the doorstep of the people living in rural areas.

WORLD’S FIRST ELECTRIFIED RAIL TUNNEL FOR RUNNING DOUBLE-STACK CONTAINERS

What is in news?

The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation (DFCC) completed construction of the world's first electrified rail tunnel that is fit to run double stack containers through Aravalis in Sohna.

About:

• The one-km tunnel is located on the Rewari-Dadri section of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC). The tunnel connects Mewat and Gurgaon district of Haryana.

• The tunnel has provision for double line electrified track for double stacks train movement.

• Geologically this tunnel is safe and stable as it is caved through 250 to 500 million year old proterozoic rocks which have high bearing capacity.

• The Western DFC and most parts of the Eastern DFC are slated for completion in June 2022, which will make the movement of freight trains seamless.

ROSALIND FRANKLIN

What is in news?

100th birth anniversary of Rosalind Franklin, a leading virologist of her time was observed recently.

About:

• Rosalind Franklin (1920 – 1958) was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite.

• She is best known for her work on the X-ray diffraction images of DNA, particularly Photo 51, which led to the discovery of the DNA double helix for which James Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962.

• She would have ideally been awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, but the Nobel Committee generally did not make posthumous nominations.

Photo 51?

• Photo 51 is an X-ray diffraction image of a paracristalline gel composed of DNA fiber taken by Raymond Gosling, working under the supervision of Rosalind Franklin in May 1952.

• The image was tagged "photo 51" because it was the 51st diffraction photograph that Franklin and Gosling had taken. It was critical evidence in identifying the structure of DNA.

LARGEST SOLAR POWER PLANT OF NAVY COMMISSIONED

What is in news?

Southern Naval Command commissioned a 3 MW Solar Power Plant at Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala on 22 July 2020.

About:

• The solar plant is the largest in the Indian Navy and has an estimated life of 25 years. The project has been executed by Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation Ltd (KELTRON).

• The Solar Power Plant project will help Naval Station Ezhimala in reducing the carbon foot print.

• This is in line with the Govt of India initiative of ‘National Solar Mission’ to achieve 100GW of solar power by 2022.

SPIKE PROTEIN

What is in news?

Researchers have found that the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 changes its form after it attaches itself to a human cell, folding in on itself and assuming a rigid hairpin shape. The researchers believe the knowledge can help in vaccine development.

About:

• It is a protein that protrudes from the surface of a coronavirus, like the spikes of a crown or corona — hence the name ‘coronavirus’.

• In the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, it is the spike protein that initiates the process of infection in a human cell.

• It attaches itself to a human enzyme, called the ACE2 receptor, before going on to enter the cell and make multiple copies of itself.

DRONES

What is in news?

In a significant development, the Trump administration has relaxed standards for exporting drones to friendly countries.

About:

• Under the new policy, drones that fly at speeds below 800 km per hour are no longer subject to the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR).

• The move will increase the US' national security by improving capabilities of its partners and increase economic security by opening the expanding drones market to the US industry.

Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR)?

• The Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) is an informal political understanding among states that seek to limit the proliferation of missiles and missile technology.

• The regime was formed in 1987 by the G-7 industrialized countries.

• There are currently 35 countries that are members (Partners) of the MTCR. India became its member in 2016.

• While there is no formal linkage, the activities of the MTCR are consistent with the UN’s non-proliferation and export control efforts.

• The MTCR is not a treaty and does not impose any legally binding obligations on Partners (members). Rather, it is an informal political understanding.

• The MTCR has no formal secretariat. France serves as the Regime’s Point of Contact (POC) which receives and distributes all Regime documents.