Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 01 May 2017
:: National ::
South Asia satellite to be launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre
The ‘South Asia Satellite,’ which India has built for use by countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) will be launched on May 5.
This was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Mann Ki Baat radio address.
He said the capacities of the satellite and the facilities it offered “will go a long way in addressing South Asia’s economic and developmental priorities.”
Natural resources mapping, telemedicine, education, deeper IT connectivity or fostering people-to-people contact — this satellite will prove to be a boon in the progress of the entire region.
Mr. Modi announced the satellite project at the 2014 SAARC summit in Nepal, and all SAARC countries, except Pakistan, have joined it.
The total cost of launching the satellite is put at Rs. 235 crore, and it will be met by the Government of India, Minister of State for Atomic Energy and Space Jitendra Singh had said in Parliament.
The GSAT-09 offers a full range of applications and services in telecommunication and broadcasting: Television, Direct-to-Home (DTH), Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs), Tele-education, Telemedicine and Disaster Management Support.
The 2,230-kg satellite was built by the Indian Space Research Organisation and has 12 Ku-band transponders. It is cuboid in shape and built around a central cylinder. It has a mission life of over 12 years.
It will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota on the Geostationary Launch Vehicle Mk-II. The GSLV-F09 is about 50 metre tall and is the 11th flight of the GSLV.
Election Commission is actively considering revision of its recount rules
The Election Commission is actively considering revision of its recount rules so that slips generated by the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) devices can be matched with the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) count.
Election Commission (EC) told that the office of the Chief Election Commissioner had received thousands of representations suggesting that changes be made to the recount rules to allow tallying with VVPAT slips.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had demanded that the Election Commission randomly count VVPAT-generated slips and tally them with EVM results.
The Election Commission functionary said that after the Centre approved the purchase of VVPAT machines, there was little point in looking at why the Commission had to send several reminders to the Government to sanction funds.
U.S. to decide on its continuation in the Paris climate agreement
The U.S. will decide on its continuation in the Paris climate agreement in the next two weeks, President Donald Trump said, naming China, Russia and India for allegedly contributing nothing under the treaty.
During the campaign, Mr. Trump had promised to withdraw from the treaty, but senior officials of his administration are divided over the issue. A decision is expected before the G-7 summit on May 26-27.
“Our government rushed to join international agreements where the U.S. bears the costs and the burden while other countries get the benefit and pay nothing and this includes deals like the Paris Climate Accord...,” he said.
Crop failure, absence of assured water resources etc are reasons for farmers suicides
A study conducted across 13 States by the Union Agriculture Ministry throws up the all-too-familiar reasons that drive farmers to suicide.
The Ministry’s agricultural economic research unit, investigated farmers’ suicides in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
The story behind each death points to frequent crop failure, vagaries of the monsoon, absence of assured water resources, attacks of pests and diseases, debts, farming and social causes.
Nothing has changed on the ground for the farmer in the past two years, as is clear from the Union Home Ministry’s National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), which disseminates and compiles information on “suicides.
NCRB reports up to 2015 reveal identical causes of suicides among farmers — bankruptcy, farming-related issues, family problems, illness, drug abuse or alcoholism.
The court expanded the ambit of the petition to farmers’ suicides across the country and had asked the Centre on March 27 to provide an action plan to end the human tragedy.
The affidavit suggests crop insurance, crop and enterprise diversification, government intervention through MSP covering cost of production plus a reasonable profit margin, establishing farmers’ welfare cells as support groups and regulating informal credit market as remedies.
Besides, the Reserve Bank of India has allowed State and district level banks to take a lenient view on rescheduling of loans if crop loss is 33% or more.
The government has highlighted the Kisan Credit Card scheme and the e-National Agricultural Market Scheme launched on April 14, 2016 to “create a single unified market for the State and ultimately for the nation for agricultural commodities.”