Current Affairs for UPSC Exams | 17 July 2019

Centre along with Assam seek for re verification of sample NRC:

The Centre and the State of Assam on Tuesday made an urgent mention before the Chief Justice of India for an extension of the deadline for final publication of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) for the State from July 31, 2019 to a “future date”.
In identical but separate applications, the Centre and Assam urged the court for more time to conduct a “sample re-verification process” in relation to names included in the draft NRC published on July 30, 2018.
They said a 20% sample re-verification of names included in the draft NRC of July 30 should be conducted in districts bordering Bangladesh and a 10% sample re-verification should be held in the remaining districts of Assam.
Both the Centre and the State said the re-verification exercise should be conducted by Class 1 officers of the State government from other districts who have knowledge and experience of handling the process of enquiry/investigation.
The applications further sought an order that the sample re-verification should be undertaken at a place different from where the NRC exercise happened. The Assam government agreed that this would cut out the possibility of local influences, bias/threat, etc.
The draft NRC list, published on July 30, 2018, had included 2,89,83,677 persons as Indian citizens but found 40,70,707 persons ineligible. The Centre said re-verification should be done for both inclusions and exclusions.

CEA urges for demographic changes & banking infrastructure to help savings grow :

The demographic change India is going through, coupled with the banking infrastructure being put in place, stands to greatly increase savings in the country, Chief Economic Adviser Krishnamurthy Subramanian said on Tuesday.
Mr. Subramanian also said India needs to move out of the mindset of being apologetic for profit, as long as they are legally obtained.
As life expectancy increases, people realise that they must begin saving by at least 40 years because they will live for much longer now.
“And, as people have fewer children, they will realise they need to save because their children might not be able to take care of them,” Mr. Subramanian added. This shift will be enabled by the Jan Dhan Yojana, which is creating the necessary banking infrastructure, especially in rural India.
The CEA also spoke about the importance of digitisation in the banking space and how it stands to greatly increase the reach of savings and credit instruments. However, he added that this digitisation needs to be accompanied by greater digital literacy.
“I don’t know why people are apologetic about profits,” Mr. Subramanian said. “If you are working within the law and are helping the economy grow, then profits are good!”

NGT asks CPCB to close down polluting industries :

Stating that economic development cannot take place at the cost of public health, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to shut down all polluting industries in “critically polluted” and “severely polluted” areas within three months.
A Bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel directed the apex pollution control board to assess the quantum of compensation to be recovered from polluting units for the period of last five years, in coordination with the respective State pollution control boards.
The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change was directed to take requisite steps for the enforcement of the action plans.
The directions came after the NGT took cognisance of a media report which stated that the CPCB was ranking 88 industrial clusters across the country based on their pollution levels.
The NGT, however, clarified that non-polluting industries will not be affected by this order.

India bags gold at ISSF Junior world cup :

India bagged two Gold and one Silver medal in the Women's 10-metre Air Rifle event at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany.
In the Individual section of the category, Elavenil Valarivan claimed the top honours with a total score of 251.6, while another Indian Mehuli Ghosh settled for a Silver with 250.2 points.
India also clinched a Gold in the team section by creating a junior world record.

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