Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 11 June 2020

::NATIONAL::

Centre asks cities to make markets pedestrian friendly

• The Union Housing and Urban Affairs (HUA) Ministry on Wednesday said it had issued an advisory to all cities to make select markets pedestrian-friendly by November.
• The advisory issued by HUA Secretary DurgaShanker Mishra said cities would have to identify markets — at least three each in cities with population of 1 million or more and one each in those with less than 1 million population  by June 30. 
• The advisory said municipalities would have to conduct consultations with the stakeholders, including vendors, traffic police, shop-owners and consumers, in order to come up with a holistic pedestrianisation plan.
• After finalising the plan, the implementation should be split into two phases - short and long term. The short-term measures include rearranging the market with temporary features like barricades etc.
• Parking on the streets and carriageway lanes could be repurposed to give more waiting space.

CPCB to classify railway stations based on waste water output

• The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) will classify railway stations under the red, orange and green categories based on the quantity of waste water generated.
• After the National Green Tribunal directed the Indian Railways to get a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the CPCB under the provisions of the Water Act & Air Act, a clarification was sought since railway stations did not figure in the classified list of industries requiring permission to operate.
• While railway stations generating waste water equal to or more than 100 Kilo Litres per Day (KLD) would be categorised as red, those greater than 10 KLD but less than 100 KLD would come under the orange category. Railway stations with less than 10 KLD waste water generation would be branded green.
• In a note to all Zonal Railways, the Railway Board said it had become imminent to reduce the waste water generation at railway stations and urged the need to identify quantity of sewage/non-sewage waste water separately to plan installation of water recycling plants accordingly.

::ECONOMY::

NITI Aayog members moot border adjustment tax to help domestic industries

• NITI Aayog member V.K. Saraswat on Wednesday favoured imposing a border adjustment tax (BAT) on imports to provide a level-playing field to domestic industries.
• BAT is a duty that is proposed to be imposed on imported goods in addition to the customs levy that gets charged at the port of entry.
• Mr.Saraswat said various taxes such as electricity duty, mandi tax, clean energy cess and royalty lead to escalation of price. “Such taxes imposed on domestic goods, give them (imported goods) a price advantage in India.” 
• Indian industry has been complaining to the government about such domestic taxes that get charged on domestically produced goods as these duties get embedded into the product.
• But many imported goods do not get loaded with such levies in their respective country of origin and this gives such products a price advantage in India. On the Atmanirbhar Bharat vision, Mr.Saraswat said advocating self-reliance should not imply that India will embrace isolationist policies.

Report finds MGNREGA wages lower than agricultural wages in some states

• Economists at SBI on Wednesday pitched for covering employment guarantee workers under provisions of the Minimum Wages Act, pointing out that MGNREGA payments are lower than the basic agricultural wages in some states.
• In a note that comes after the government upped spends on the Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) by Rs 40,000 crore to limit the impact of the lockdown, they also suggested better strategies for making use of the migrant labour which has returned to their villages.
• The economists said a comprehensive database of migrants needs to be built up and advocated the use of call data records (CDRs) which will establish their movements back to native lands from the cities to finish this task.
• Lakhs of migrant workers have made arduous journeys back home on foot, bicycles, and crowded trucks, while the more luckier ones have been transported by special train services amid the coronavirus lockdown.
• Additionally, most workers who are denied work are also unable to secure any unemployment allowance, it said. The economists, however, did not give the impact on the government coffers if such moves were to be implemented.

::INTERNATIONAL::

India and China reach consensus over LAC spat

• China said on Wednesday it had “reached agreement” with India on the ongoing tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), a day after India announced troops from both sides had begun a “partial disengagement” from some of the stand-off points.
• The Chinese Foreign Ministry said both sides had agreed to handle the situation “properly” and “in line with the agreement” to ease the situation, but did not provide specific details on some of the stand-off points, such as Pangong Lake, where Chinese troops are still present on India’s side of the LAC.
• Government officials said a partial disengagement had happened at some points in the Galwan area and at Hot Springs, but there was no change at Pangong Lake.
• The Global Times, a Communist Party-run newspaper, reported on Tuesday that the ongoing dispute “will not escalate into a conflict” but added “due to the complexity of the situation, the military stand-off could continue for a little longer”.
• The Indian delegation at Wednesday’s military-level talks was led by the General Officer Commanding, 3 Corps based in Karu.
• Last Saturday, the two sides held talks at the level of Corps Commanders on the Chinese side at Moldo opposite Chushul, where the two sides agreed to partial pullout of troops and equipment from some of the stand-off areas in Galwan.

EU blames China,Russia for spreading misleading informations on COVID

• China and Russia were blamed for spewing out false and misleading online information about Covid-19 in a European Union report that seeks to stem the “unprecedented” spread of fake news amid the pandemic.
• The two nations are among “foreign actors” that sought to “undermine democratic debate” and enhance their own image through “targeted influence operations and disinformation campaigns around Covid-19 in the EU,” the bloc’s executive authority said in the report published on Wednesday.
• The EU’s findings on China and Russia are based on a separate study by the commission’s foreign and diplomatic wing, which said it had evidence of a “coordinated push” by official Chinese sources to deflect blame for the coronavirus pandemic and promote its response to the virus. EU foreign-policy chief JosepBorrell, who heads the service, has worked with Jourova over the last few weeks on the latest plans.
• The report comes as Hungary -- an EU member state -- faces criticism for preparing a national survey that includes a question on a coronavirus crisis proposal by investor George Soros that “experts say will force nations into debt slavery.”

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

MoeFCC releases new guidelines for import of exotic species

• The Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) has issued an advisory saying people importing “exotic live species” will have to make a voluntary disclosure.
• The advisory issued earlier this month defines “exotic live species” as animal or plant species moved from their original range (location) to a new one. Several exotic species of birds, reptiles, small mammals, fishes and even some plants are imported.
• The Ministry has said “exotic live species” shall be construed to mean only “the animals named under the Appendices I, II and III of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) of Wild Fauna and Flora”.
• Species covered by the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972 cannot be traded.Experts have welcomed the move and said it will create a process where all imports will be screened. As of now, the imports are being made through the Director General of Foreign Trade and State Forest departments are not kept in the loop.
• For new “exotic live species”, the importer should obtain a no-objection certificate from the Chief Wildlife Warden ( CWLW) of the State. For existing species, stocks “shall be declared by the owner/ holder (stock, as on 1 January 2020) to the Chief Wildlife Warden (CWLW) of the concerned State or UT”.

::SPORTS::

Weightlifter SanjitaChanu exonerated of doping charges

• Two-time Commonwealth Games gold medal-winning weightlifter SanjitaChanu was exonerated of doping charges on Wednesday after more than two-and-a-half years.
• The IWF provisionally suspended her on May 15, 2018, before lifting the suspension on Jan. 22, 2019. It took nearly a year and five months more to exonerate Sanjita.