Current Affairs ONLY(EG Classes)

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1 THE HINDU Notes DAILY Current Affairs Analysis 6 th -April, 2018 Topics An ONLINE Educational Portal for all Competitive Exams BISHNOIS HAPPY WITH VERDICT (GS 3 ENVIRONMENT)... 1 SOCIETY MUST TAKE A VIEW ON GM MUSTARD: SCIENTIST (GS 3 S&T)... 2 GOVT. FORMS COMMITTEE TO REGULATE NEWS PORTALS (GS2 GOVERNANCE)... 3 RBI BARS BANKS FROM DEALING WITH VIRTUAL CURRENCIES (GS 3 BANKING)... 3 RBI SWITCHES BACK TO GDP SCALE TO MEASURE ECONOMY (GS 3 ECONOMY)... 4 BISHNOIS HAPPY WITH VERDICT (GS 3 ENVIRONMENT) A local court yesterday sentenced actor Salman Khan on Thursday to five years in jail for having poached two blackbucks in a case from 19 years ago. And it was movement of success for the Bishnois community who had doggedly pursued the poaching case of actor Salman Khan and co until they got justice. About the Bishnois Tribe Bishnoi are tribe from Western Rajasthan famous for their commitment towards environment. Over the centuries, they are committed to the conservation of forests, trees and wild animals in and around their villages. Bishnois do not cut trees for fuel and timber; they remove only the dead trunks and twigs.

2 Jambaji or Guru Jambheshwar (b. 1451) had founded Bishnoi sect after a drought in the Marwar region of Rajasthan. He made a community having 29 principles to follow, which included worship of lord Vishnu and ban on Killing animals and the felling of trees. The first recorded movement to save the forests goes back to 1730, when in Khejadli village of Jodhpur, 363 Bishnois, led by a local village leader, Amrita Devi, gave up their lives to save the trees. Conspicuously it was this movement that later provided inspiration to the Chipko movement in Uttarkhand. The love of Bishnois for nature has proven to ecologists that sometimes human presence and intervention especially that of communities traditionally associated with protection of environment can benefit conservation of nature. SOCIETY MUST TAKE A VIEW ON GM MUSTARD: SCIENTIST (GS 3 S&T) According to the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) Of India the much controversial commercial release of genetically modified mustard wasn t just a scientific issue but a socio-political one that required the understanding of a wide section of society. He maintained that in the case of GM, it s important that society take a view since science can only bring evidence and the policy decision is a more complex process. There s the scientific view that it s safe and useful and another a very small number but more vocal with a contrary view. But what is needed is that India s science academies needed to speak more and play a greater role especially in its advice to government on matters of science and for the dissemination of right information in the society. What is GM mustard and the issues? Genetically modified crops are plants used in agriculture, the DNA of which has been modified using genetic engineering techniques. DMH (Dhara Mustard Hybrid)-11 is genetically modified variety of mustard developed by Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants at Delhi University. It was Government sponsored project. And it is claimed, gives 25-30% more yield than the best varieties such as 'Varuna' currently grown in the country. But apart from its various advantages GM Mustard run into controversy over several factors like;- Many scientist claim that at a time when sustainable farming and low-input agriculture are becoming the buzzwords, it is surprising that agricultural scientists continue to recommend crop varieties that will end up doing more harm to the environment and crop fields. Environmentalists are raising biosafety concern with GM crops as their introduction may adversely affect environment, human and animal health. As DMH-11 has external gene that makes the plant resistant to herbicide. Thus it will force farmers to use only select brands of agro-chemicals. Conclusion In a current environment where climatic change would have negative effects on yield of many major crops which could seriously undermine food security, GM crops are the way forward. However at the same time to

3 convince the opponents of GM crops to allow commercialization of GM crops we need a strong regulatory framework GOVT. FORMS COMMITTEE TO REGULATE NEWS PORTALS (GS2 GOVERNANCE) Days after the government withdrew its controversial order that said journalists may lose accreditation if found to have created or circulated 'fake news', the I&B ministry has decided to constitute a committee to frame rules to regulate news portals and media websites. The 10-member committee, formed on Wednesday, will include secretaries of the departments of Home, Legal Affairs, Electronics and Information and Technology, and Industrial Policy and Promotion. The committee will also have members form the Press Council of India, News Broadcasters Association and Indian Broadcasters Federation to represent the interest of the media. The committee, broadly, will look at three things. One is to bring online information dissemination under regulation. Second is to propose a policy for foreign direct investment in this media. Third is to look at international best practices on such existing regulatory mechanism. Why a committee is needed? The committee a been constituted since there are no norms or guidelines to regulate the online media websites and news portals unlike the print and television media which has Press Council of India s (PCI) norms and Programme and Advertisement Codes respectively. And so in accordance with its Terms of the reference (TOR) the committee will delineate the sphere of online information dissemination which needs to be brought under regulation, on the lines applicable to print and electronic media. The committee will also analyse the international scenario on the existing of regulatory mechanism with a view to incorporate the best practices. RBI BARS BANKS FROM DEALING WITH VIRTUAL CURRENCIES (GS 3 BANKING) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday barred banks and financial institutions from dealing with virtual currencies including Bitcoins It is in view of the associated risks that RBI decided to bar entities Regulated by it from dealing with VCs (virtual currencies) and also Asked any regulated entities which already are dealing in VCs to exit the Relationship within a period of three month.

4 Through the move the central bank wants to ring-fence the RBI regulated entities from the risk of dealing with entities associated with virtual currencies. However, while denouncing VCs RBI recognized that the blockchain technology or distributed ledger technology that lies beneath the virtual currencies has a potential benefit for financial inclusion and also said it would explore introducing digital currency. About VCs Crypto-currency or Virtual Currency is a digital currency that allows transacting parties to remain anonymous while confirming the transaction is valid. These digital payment systems are based on cryptographic proof of the chain of transactions, deriving their name, Crypto currency. It uses a technology known as blockchain, an electronic ledger to maintain record of all the transactions from the time the first unit of the crypto currency the seed was mined. It is not owned or controlled by any institution governments or private. There are multiple such currencies Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple are some of the popular ones. RBI SWITCHES BACK TO GDP SCALE TO MEASURE ECONOMY (GS 3 ECONOMY) the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reverted to its earlier system of using the GDP method to measure the economy instead of gross value added (GVA) to conform to international standards. "Globally, this is the approach followed by of most economies, multilateral institutions, international analysts and investors to gauge the economic performance. They all stick to this norms because it facilitates easy crosscountry comparisons. From January 2015, the government had started using the GVA method to analyse growth. But even the Central Statistical Office (CSO) has started using GDP as the main measure of economic activities since January 15 this year. It had also changed the base year for calculations to 2018 this January. GDP V/S GVA GVA is a measure of total output and income in the economy. It provides the rupee value for the amount of goods and services produced in an economy after deducting the cost of inputs and raw materials that have gone into the production of those goods and services GDP is the sum of private consumption, gross investment in the economy, government investment, government spending and net foreign trade GVA gives a picture of the state of economic activity from the producers' side or the supply side. GDP gives the picture from the consumers' side or the demand perspective.

5 Utility; A sector-wise breakdown provided by the GVA measure helps policymakers decide which sectors need incentives or stimulus and accordingly formulate sector specific policies. But GDP is a key measure when it comes to making cross-country analysis and comparing the incomes of different economies. For regular updates click on the ICONS below: -