Current Affairs 2nd August 2019
Important Current Affairs
Current Affairs 2nd August 2019
One nation-one ration card
Context: Government has launched One Nation-One Ration Card scheme on pilot basis in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharastra and Gujarat.
Families who have food security cards can buy subsidized rice and wheat from any ration shop in these states but their ration cards should be linked with Aadhar Number to avail this service.
About the scheme:
One Nation One Ration Card (RC) will ensure all beneficiaries especially migrants can access PDS across the nation from any PDS shop of their own choice.
Benefits: no poor person is deprived of getting subsidised foodgrains under the food security scheme when they shift from one place to another. It also aims to remove the chance of anyone holding more than one ration card to avail benefits from different states.
Significance: This will provide freedom to the beneficiaries as they will not be tied to any one PDS shop and reduce their dependence on shop owners and curtail instances of corruption.
Challenges:
Prone to corruption: Every state has its own rules for Public Distribution System (PDS). If ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ is implemented, it will further boost corruption in an already corrupted Public Distribution System.
The scheme will increase the woes of the common man and, the middlemen and corrupt PDS shop owners will exploit them.
Tamil Nadu has opposed the proposal of the Centre, saying it would result in undesirable consequences and is against federalism.
India to become Open Defecation Free, thanks to Swachh Bharat Mission
Upon the successful implementation of Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), rural India is to become Open Defecation Free (ODF) by 2 October, 2019.
Swachh Bharat Mission :
The Swachh Bharat Mission is pan India campaign plan to clean India by streets, roads, cities, towns. The mission aimed to clean during a period of 2014-2019.
Swachh Bharat mission is one of the largest cleanliness drives in the world. It is an attempt introduced by the NDA-led government to initiate behavioural change.
Implementation of the Mission:
Centre is to expand the Swachh Bharat mission to undertake sustainable solid waste management in every village, harnessing the latest technology.
Under SBM, 9.6 crore toilets have been constructed since October 2, 2014. Nearly, 5.6 lakh villages have become open defecation free.
Under the mission, the 99.2% of rural India has been covered since 2014. 564,658 villages have been declared open-defecation free (ODF). As on 14 June 2019, 30 States and Union Territories are 100 per cent covered with an individual household latrine (IHHL). The SBM has significantly improved health outcomes
Benefits: The SB mission has also helped reduce diarrhea and malaria among children below five years, stillbirth and low birth weight (newborn with weight less than 2.5 kgs).
Samarth:
What is it? It is an initiative launched by Flipkart to bring Indian artisans, weavers, and makers of handicrafts to its platform.
It will support artisans, weavers and handicraft maker by on-boarding them and helping them in process of selling on internet.
RS passed the Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill
Rajya Sabha passed the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2019 with 108 votes in favour and 13 against it. The amendment aims toimprove road safety, enhance the penalty for traffic violations, facilitate citizens in dealing with transport departments and curb corruption. The Bill was passed in Lok Sabha on 23 July.
The Bill was introduced in the upper house by Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari. The move comes as an initiative to stop millions of deaths due to road accidents.
Provisions of the Amendment:
♦ The amendment proposed to increase the minimum penalty for a general violation from Rs.100 to Rs.500.
♦ Driving without a licence will lead to a a fine of Rs.5,000. Earlier, it was Rs.500
♦ Driving despite disqualification will cause a penalty of Rs.10,000 from the current Rs.500.
♦ For drunken driving, the monetary punishment has been increased to Rs.10,000 from Rs.2,000.
♦ It also includes a provision for cashless treatment of road accident victims during the golden hour.
♦ In case of any defect in the vehicle that can cause damage to the environment, driver or other road users the Bill facilitates the Centre to order the recall of motor vehicles.
♦ It provides a computerised driving test to eliminate acquisition of fake driving licences.
Nigeria becomes the fourth African nation to join global coalition to protect pollinators
Morocco became a member of this group. Ethiopia is the first African nation to be part of this global coalition in 2017. Burundi is the second African country to join this global group.
The non-African nations such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Dominican Republic, Ireland, and Mexico had joined the global group last year,
Nigeria - Market
The coalition has 28 signatories including 17 European countries. The five from Latin America and the Caribbean and four from Africa. The organization was formed three years ago to follow up on the findings of IPBES Assessment on Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production. Nigeria will also focus on research to conserve pollinators and share its experiences on the same. The annual market value of the five to eight percent of production that is directly linked with pollination services is estimated at $235 billion-$577 billion worldwide. Pollinator-Dependent crops have higher prices than non- pollinator-dependent crops. Nigeria’s exports of food crops depend significantly on pollinators. At least nine crops depend on pollination service. The availability of pollinators and their pollination services not only affects crop production in terms of their quantity. There is a well-documented decline in some species of wild pollinators data on the status of most wild species is lacking.
There are no global red list assessments conducted specifically for insect pollinators. There is a lack of long-term population data or benchmark data to compare the present status of wild pollinator populations makes it difficult to show any trend. According to the Nigeria becomes fourth African nation to join global coalition to protect pollinators managed by the United Nations Development Programme, the IPBES assessment on pollinators, pollination, and food production drew most of its conclusions from the majority of studies based in Europe and North America. This signifies important gaps in data in other regions of the world including Africa.
There is a lack of wild pollinator data (species identity, distribution, and abundance) for Latin America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. The protecting pollinators will be important for addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) too. The goals relevant to pollinators are SDG 2 (zero hunger), SDG 15 (life on land), SDG 3 (good health and well-being) through access to sufficient nutritious food (highly dependent on pollinators) and SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth) too as 1.4 billion people work in agriculture. The 2030 agenda for sustainable development, a lack of data on pollinators is a challenge that needs to be addressed by Nigeria along with other African nations and the world.