Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 16 December 2020

::NATIONAL::

Cabinet approves next round of spectrum auction, announces sugar export subsidy

Union minister Prakash Javadekar said the Cabinet will provide subsidy on 60 lakh tonne sugar which will benefit five crore farmers and five lakh workers.
The money will directly be credited to the bank accounts of the farmers. “For the last two and three years, there have been a surplus in production and therefore the price has gone down.
The food ministry had proposed Rs 3,600 crore subsidy for exports of 60 lakh tonnes of sugar in the marketing year 2020-21 (October-September).
Cabinet approves Auction of spectrum in 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz frequency bands, for validity period of 20 yrs. A total of 2251.25 MHz is being offered with total valuation of Rs 3, 92,332.70 crores,” the minister said.
The last Cabinet meeting was held on December 9, where the cabinet gave a mod for Aatmanirbhat Bharat Rojgar Yojana (ABRY) to boost the employment in the formal sector and incentive the creation of new employment opportunities during COVID-19 recovery phase under Aatmanirbhar Bharat Package 3.0.

NitiAayog proposes ‘surveillance information platform’ to boost public health

Niti Aayog proposed setting up a surveillance information platform to strengthen India’s public health surveillance system.
According to a report titled ‘Vision 2035: Public Health Surveillance in India: A White Paper’, which is jointly prepared by Niti Aayog and University of Manitoba.
India’s public health surveillance will be a predictive, responsive, integrated and tiered system of disease and health surveillance.
According to the Aayog, this is used in every clinical, laboratory, or pharmacy visit and for vertical disease control programmes.
The periodic surveys are positioned as additional complementary methods to reassess the incidence and prevalence of diseases or risk factors, to adjust and refine standard case definitions periodically, to define epidemic thresholds, and to refine response levels and measures, it said.
The Aayog also pitched for establishing mechanisms to streamline data sharing, capture, analysis and dissemination to include the use of situation-aware real-time signals from social media, mobile sensor networks and participatory surveillance systems for event based epidemic intelligence.
The Niti Aayog noted that, A Surveillance Information Platform will store, analyse, and auto-generate relevant reports for action.As well, this remains a repository for further analysis and research which will complement the available surveillance information.
It also suggested setting up an interdependent federated system of governance architecture between the Centre and states.
The Aayog also suggested allowing enhanced use of new data analytics, data science, artificial intelligence and machine learning to bridge gap areas in India’s Public Health Surveillance.

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::International::

High Commission of India launches essay competition in Bangladesh

The High Commission of India in Bangladesh launched a writing competition on the topic ‘What Liberation Means to Me?’ for Bangladeshi youth between 18-35 years of age on the eve of the Victory Day celebrations marking liberation of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971.
The writing competition has been organised in association with ‘Youth Opportunities’ which works among the young people as a youth development platform.
The winner of the essay competition will be awarded a laptop as a prize.
Top 10 will get a smartphone, crest, book and certificate.The essay competition was launched on Tuesday by the High Commissioner of India in Bangladesh Vikram Doraiswami during a discussion programme ‘‘Liberation War & Its Values – Across the Ages’ in Dhaka.
Addressing the youth and some eminent members of civil society, High Commissioner Vikram Doraiswami said that the ideals and values of Liberation War of 1971 are the foundation upon which the bilateral ties between India and Bangladesh are flourishing.

He said that India is looking forward to the joint commemoration of 50 years of Liberation War and 50 years of establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Bangladesh.

::Economy::

EPFO settles 52 lakh COVID-19 claims, disburses Rs 13,300 cr: Gangwar

Retirement fund body EPFO has settled 52 lakh COVID-19 non-refundable advance claims, and disbursed Rs 13,300 crore so far, Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar said on Wednesday.
In March, the government had allowed over 6 crore subscribes of EPFO to withdraw an amount not exceeding their three months basic pay and dearness allowance from their EPF account in view of the lockdown to fight the pandemic.
Speaking at Assocham Foundation Week programme, Gangwar said EPFO has settled 52 lakh COVID-19 withdrawal claims and disbursed Rs 13,300 crore to subscribers during the pandemic.
He noted that the country has faced the pandemic with brave face.
The Centre had launched the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) on March 26 to help the economically weaker sections cope with the pandemic.
A provision for withdrawal from the EPF Scheme was announced by the government and an urgent notification issued, providing for non-refundable withdrawal to the extent of basic wages and DA for three months or up to 75 per cent of the amount standing to member's credit in the EPF account, whichever is less.
The labour code on wage was passed by Parliament in 2019. The rules on that have already firmed up.
The government intends to implement all the four codes in one go from April 1, 2021.

::Science and Technology::

Disturbance from North Atlantic that derails Indian monsoons needs to be factored to improve predictability

A planetary wave from the North Atlantic is capable of derailing the Indian monsoon on which the Indian economy is heavily dependent, suggests a study published in the journal Science.
The findings suggest that modelling efforts ought to focus on including the influence of midlatitudes, in addition to the Pacific and Indian oceans, for getting a better handle on predictability of the monsoon, its variability as well as droughts.
A team from the Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (CAOS), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), who carried out the research, supported in part by DST under their climate change programme, showed that, in the past century, Indian monsoon droughts that occurred in non-El Niño years were sub-seasonal, as against El Niño droughts, where the deficit persists throughout the season.
The research team analysed daily rainfall during the two categories of droughts from 1900 to 2015 and noticed dramatic differences in the evolution of rainfall deficit. Rainfall deficit in El Niño droughts sets in early around mid-June and becomes progressively worse. By mid-August, the deficit is very high and spread across the country, with no sign of recovery.
During non-El Niño droughts there is a moderate decrease in June rainfall, followed by signs of recovery during mid-July to mid-August ‒ the peak of the season. However, in late August, there is an abrupt and steep fall in rainfall, resulting in drought conditions.
“We tried to trace this late August break to a forcing agent or system that influences the behaviour over India. We looked at the winds that were prevalent in these non-El Niño drought years,” said Jai Sukhatme, Associate Professor at CAOS, and one of the senior authors, in an IISc. Statement.
The atmospheric tele-connection studied in this paper whose first author was a PhD student Pritam Borah with DST inspire fellowship, offers an avenue for improved predictability of droughts, especially in the absence of tell-tale signatures in the Pacific.

::Sports::

India will look to close the gap with table-toppers Australia in the ICC World Test Championship points table

India is in third place in ICC Men's Test Team Rankings with 114 rating points, whilst Australia top the rankings with 116.46 rating points.
New Zealand follow closely in second with 116.37 rating points. New Zealand are very close to reaching the ICC World Test Championship final in 2021 after securing back-to-back innings victories against the West Indies.
India will feel the pressure as the race to the World Test Championship final heats up.
Australia and India will fight it out in a four-Test series as the hosts look to build on their narrow lead at the top of the table. If New Zealand overcome Pakistan 2-0 in the two-Test series which starts on 26 December, they will finish on 420 points from five series.