30 NOVEMBER 2021 DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS | UPSC CDS CAPF AFCAT NDA SSB

1. PARAG AGRAWAL

Indian-origin technology executive Parag Agrawal was appointed the new chief executive officer of Twitter after the social media giant’s co-founder Jack Dorsey stepped down.

About:

Parag, aged 45, is an alumnus of IIT Mumbai. He did his bachelors in engineering (BS) from here. Then he moved to the US for further studies, with his doctorate coming from Stanford University.
Parag Agrawal joined Twitter in 2011 and has served as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) since October 2017.
Parag, who until now was Twitter's CTO, is assuming the role as the company CEO immediately.

Source: The Hindu

2. ADVERSE EVENTS DUE TO VACCINATION

The Government has told the Supreme Court that COVID-19 vaccination is voluntary and serious or severe effects of inoculation, including death, account for less than 0.01%.

About:

The percentage of such effect having serious/severe [including deaths] in case of both Covaxin and Covishield is less than 0.01%. This again is in the caveat that any such severe/serious effect including death cannot be attributed to vaccination.
The Health Ministry said 2,116 serious and severe AEFI cases have been reported from 1,19,38,44,741 doses administered till November 24.
The very proof that the vaccination is not mandatory is evident from the fact that no benefits or services are attached to it.
The Centre said any death or hospitalisation following vaccination cannot be automatically assumed to be due to vaccination.

Source: The Hindu

3. OUT-OF-POCKET EXPENDITURE (OOPE)

Out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) as a share of total health expenditure and foreign aid for health has both come down as per the findings of the National Health Accounts (NHA) estimates for India for 2017-18 released by Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan.

About:

As a share of total health expenditure, the OOPE has come down to 48.8% in 2017-18 from 64.2% in 2013-14. Even in the case of per capita OOPE, there has been a decline from ₹2,336 to ₹2,097 between 2013-14 and 2017-18.
One of the factors attributing to this decline is the increase in utilisation and reduction in cost of services in Government health facilities. If we compare NHA 2014-15 and 2017-18, there has been a decline in OOPE for Government hospitals to the tune of 50%.

Govt. support

The NHA estimates for 2017-18 clearly showed that there had been an increase in the share of Government health expenditure in the total GDP of the country.
It has increased from 1.15% in 2013-14 to 1.35% in 2017-18. Additionally, the share of Government Health Expenditure in total health expenditure has also increased over time.
In 2017-18, the share of Government expenditure was 40.8%, which is much higher than 28.6% in 2013-14.
The report further indicates that in per capita terms, the Government health expenditure has increased from ₹1,042 to ₹1,753 between 2013-14 to 2017-18.

Important Info :

This is the fifth consecutive NHA report produced by National Health Systems Resource Centre, designated as National Health Accounts Technical Secretariat in 2014 by the Health Ministry.
The NHA estimates are prepared by using an accounting framework based on internationally accepted System of Health Accounts 2011, provided by the World Health Organization.

Source: The Hindu

4. INDIAN BIO-JET FUEL TECHNOLOGY

Indian Bio-Jet Fuel Technology Receives Formal Military Certification.

About:

CSIR-IIP Dehradun’s home-grown technology to produce bio-jet fuel has been formally approved for use on military aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF).
This certification represents India’s growing confidence in aviation biofuel sector.
The technology, developed by the Indian Institute of Petroleum (CSIR-IIP), a constituent laboratory of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, has undergone evaluation tests and trials over the last three years.
Earlier on 26 January 2019, an AN-32 aircraft, filled with blended bio-jet fuel, had flown over Raj Path at New Delhi during the Republic Day celebrations.
The fuel was also used on a civil, commercial demonstration flight operated by SpiceJet on 27 Aug 2018 from Dehradun to Delhi.

Source: PIB

5. ONLINE DISPUTE RESOLUTION

NITI Aayog released the report ‘Designing the Future of Dispute Resolution: The ODR Policy Plan for India’, to scale dispute avoidance, containment and resolution online.

About:

The roll out of the stated recommendations in the report can help make India a world leader in using technology and innovation through Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) for effective access to justice for every individual.
The report is a culmination of the action plan made by a committee constituted at the peak of the Covid crisis by NITI Aayog on ODR in 2020 and chaired by Supreme Court Justice (Retd) AK Sikri.

What is ODR?

ODR is the resolution of disputes, particularly small- and medium-value cases, using digital technology and techniques of ADR, such as arbitration, conciliation and mediation.
It refers to the process of using technology for dispute avoidance, containment and resolution outside the traditional court system.
As a dispute resolution avenue it can be provided both as an extension of the public court system and outside of it.
World over, the potential of dispute resolution mechanisms, especially through technology, is being recognized. Increasingly, ODR has received impetus across Government, businesses and even the judicial processes to tide over the constraints due to Covid-19.

Source: PIB

6. FARM LAWS REPEAL BILL, 2021

The Lok Sabha Monday passed the Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021 without any discussion. The Bill was introduced in the house by the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar.

About:

The Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021 is aimed at repealing the three farm laws – Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 – and amending the Essential Commodities Act, 1955.
The Bill was necessitated after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the government’s intention to repeal the three laws in view of ongoing farmers’ protests against these laws on November 19.
The six-page Bill contains only three sections.
The first section defines the title of the Act – the Farm Laws Repeal Act, 2021, the second section has provisions to repeal three farm laws, and the third section relates to omitting sub-section (1A) from section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955.
The government had inserted sub-section (1A) in the section 3 of the Essential Commodity Act, 1955 that empowers the government to control production, supply, distribution, etc., of essential commodities.

Source: Indian Express

7. SUSPENSION OF MPs

In the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Prahlad Joshi sought the approval of the House for suspending 12 Rajya Sabha MPs for the remainder of the session

About:

The reason for their suspension was “their unprecedented acts of misconduct, contemptuous, unruly and violent behaviour and intentional attacks on security personnel” on the last day of the Monsoon Session.
MPs are required to adhere to certain rules of parliamentary etiquette.
The presiding officer of each House can direct an MP to withdraw from the legislative chamber for grossly disorderly conduct. The MP then has to remain absent from the proceedings of the House for the remainder of the day.
The presiding officers can also “name” an MP for “persistently and wilfully obstructing the business” of the House. In such a case, usually, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister moves a motion for suspending the offending MP from the service of the House. The suspension can last until the end of the session.
In 2001, the Lok Sabha rule was amended to give the Speaker one additional power. A new rule, 374A, empowers the Speaker to automatically suspend an MP for a maximum of five days for disrupting the business of the House.
In 2015, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan used this rule for suspending 25 Congress MPs.

Source: Indian Express

8. DIVISION OF ASSETS BETWEEN UP, UTTARAKHAND

Months ahead of Assembly elections in their states, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his Uttarakhand counterpart Pushkar Singh Dhami recently reached an agreement on the division of assets and liabilities, a subject the two states have debated ever since Uttarakhand was carved out of UP 21 years ago.

History of the dispute:

Uttarakhand was formed on November 9, 2000, following the Uttarakhand movement in undivided UP. This was soon followed by disputes over assets and liabilities, mainly of the irrigation, transport, housing, forest, food & civil supplies and tourism departments.
Uttarakhand leaders would cite the Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2000, under which any property should be owned by the state where it is situated, and would allege that UP had not handed over control of even 41 canals which flowed from and back into Uttarakhand.
They cited the examples of Tehri Dam, Nanak Sagar Dam, Baigul Dam, Tumaria Dam (out of six dams located in Uttarakhand and controlled by UP) and Haridwar’s Alaknanda Guest House (controlled by UP Tourism, and now being handed over to Uttarakhand).

The newest agreement

The irrigation Department officials of the two states would meet within 15 days to conduct a joint survey of 5,700 hectares of land and 1,700 buildings in Uttarakhand that are under the control of the UP Irrigation Department.
UP has granted permission to Uttarakhand conduct tourism and water sports activities in the Dhaura, Baigul and Nanak Sagar water bodies in Udham Singh Nagar district and the Upper Ganga canal at Roorkee. The UP irrigation department will soon release an order on this.

Source : Indian Express

9. CONTRACEPTION

Less than one in 10 men use condoms in India, while nearly four in 10 women undergo sterilisation to avoid pregnancy, according to the latest National Family Health Survey-5 (2019-21), which also shows that female sterilisation continues to be on the rise.

About:

Only 9.5% of men used condoms but 37.9% of women underwent sterilisation, according to the NFHS.
Though condom use in urban India is better than rural parts, the overall trend is vastly similar — 7.6% men in rural India and 13.6% men in urban India use condoms, while 38.7% women in rural India and 36.3% in urban India underwent sterilisation.
Female sterilisation has gone up for the entire country from 36% in NFHS-4 (2015-16) to 37.9% in NFHS-5.
The States with the highest increase in female sterilisation were Bihar (14.1% points to 34.8%), Goa (13.6% points to 29.9%) and Madhya Pradesh (9.7% points to 51.9%) .
The State with the highest condom use was Uttarakhand (25.6%) and the Union Territory Chandigarh (31.1%). The silver lining, however, is that use of condoms has gone up between the two surveys — from 5.6% to 9.5%.
Female sterilisation is also the preferred choice of contraception over methods such as pills (5.1%), injectables (0.6%) and intra-uterine devices (IUD) and post-partum intra-uterine devices (2.1%).

Source : The Hindu

10. DOORSTEP DELIVERY OF RATION

The Delhi Government defended before the Delhi High Court its scheme for doorstep delivery of ration, saying that it was optional and beneficiaries could opt out any time.

About:

The notion that fair price shops (FPS) would cease to exist on its implementation was a “complete misconception”, it told the court.
It argued that States like Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka’s Bengaluru have identical doorstep delivery schemes. With the march of technology, doorstep delivery becomes the norm, and this is something that needs applause and not criticism.
During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, representing the Centre, said the court should not allow any State to interfere with the structure of National Food Security Act (NFSA) and destroy its architecture.
The Centre has been opposing the Delhi Government’s ration delivery scheme on the ground that the State cannot mitigate the architecture of the NFSA while implementing it.

Source : The Hindu

30 NOVEMBER 2021 DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS | UPSC CDS CAPF AFCAT NDA SSB

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