DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

By admin: Dec. 24, 2021

24th December: National Consumer Day

Tags: Important Days

• National Consumer Day or Consumer Rights Day is observed every year on 24^th December because it was on December 24, 1986,  the Consumer Protection Act 1986 came into force.
• Theme for National Consumer Day 2021 is “Consumer – Know your Rights ”.
• National Consumer Day is being celebrated since the year 2000.

President Unveils the statute of P.N. Panicker

Tags: National News

President of India Mr Ram Nath Kovind unveiled the  statue of late Mr.P.N. Panicker at Poojappura, Thiruvananthapuram Kerala .

• Puthuvayil Narayana Panicker  is also known as the Father of the Library Movement in India.
• He started   Granthashala Sangam  with about 50 small libraries in 1945  in Kerala which grew into a large network of thousands of libraries.
• Today in the remotest corner of Kerala there is a library.One of the main reasons for the success of the Kerala government’s  “Sakshara Keralam” to make Kerala fully literate was the availability of library in the remotest corner of Kerala .
•  To honour and acknowledge P.N.Panicker ,Kerala Government declared June 19, his death anniversary, as Vayanadinam (Reading Day) in  1996
• In  2017,   Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared June 19 his death anniversary  as National Reading Day in India. The following month is also observed as National Reading Month in India.

Tagging of Olive Ridley turtle resumed in Rushikulya ,Odisha

Tags: National News

• Scientists of the Zoological Survey of India in association with the Odisha Forest and Environment Department started tagging of the olive ridley turtle in Rushikulya nesting place on Odisha coast.
• The tagging of the Olive Ridley turtle started in January 2021 after a gap of 25 years
• The tagging exercise is being carried out at  the three nesting places of the Olive Ridley at  Gahirmatha, Devi River mouth and Rushikulya in Odisha .
• The coast of Odisha is the largest nesting place of Olive Ridley in the world .
• The main aim of the tagging exercise is to identify the migration path and places visited by the marine reptiles after congregation and nesting.
• The metal tags affixed to turtles are non-corrosive and they do not harm their body. It can be removed later. The tags are uniquely numbered containing details such as the name of the organisation, country-code and email address. 
• The scientists  intend to tag 30,000 turtles over a period of 10 years

 Headquarters of Zoological Survey of India : Kolkata 

Maharashtra Assembly passes Shakti Bill

Tags: State News

• The Maharashtra Assembly has  unanimously cleared the Shakti Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020, on crimes against women and children.
• The Shakti Bill amends the  Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC), the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC), and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO Act) in their application to Maharashtra.  It amends these laws for offences committed against women and children to curb sexual crimes committed against them.
• The legislation recommends capital punishment in rape cases, a time limit of 30 days to complete the probe from the day of registering the complaint, and places the onus on social media platforms and Internet data providing companies to share data for the police investigation.

NOTE 

• Criminal law, including matters covered by the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC) falls under the Concurrent List of the Constitution.  It means both the center and the state make law  on criminal law 

Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly passes a bill to recover property damage from protesters

Tags: State News

• The Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly passed the Madhya Pradesh Damage to Public and Private Property Recovery Bill, 2021.
• The bill provides for the recovery of losses from people and organizations responsible for damaging public and private properties during protests.
• Madhya Pradesh is the 3rd state to pass such a bill after Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
• Abetment of the offense will carry the same penalty as the main offense.
• The bill provides for setting up a tribunal composed of a retired judge and an IAS officer which would look into the claims of property damage during riots or public protests.
• Application for compensation needs to be made within 30 days of vandalism and the tribunal will have to take a decision within 3 months of the application.
• Tribunal order can only be challenged before the high court within a period of 90 days after the claim order is passed.

CM of Tamil Nadu unveils ‘Meendum Manjappai” campaign against plastic use

Tags: State News

• The campaign known as 'Meendum Manjapai Vizhipunarvu Iyakkam' (Back to Yellow Cloth Bag Awareness Campaign) was launched by the CM of Tamil Nadu M K Stalin.
• Brainchild of Environment and Foreign Secretary Supriya Sahu, the campaign aims at encouraging people to dump plastic bags and revert to using the traditional yellow cloth bag.

US President Joe Biden bans import of goods from China's Xinjiang province to prevent use of forced labour

Tags: International News

• United States (US) President Joe Biden has  signed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act that bans import of goods from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China into the US made with forced labour. 

What is the law 

• The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act,  bans all imports from China’s Xinjiang region into the United States unless companies can show the U.S. government “clear and convincing evidence” their supply chains have not used the labor of ethnic Muslims enslaved in Chinese camps.

What is the issue 

• United States accuses China of genocide against the  Muslim Uyghur who are kept in a concentration  camp by Chinese authorities violating their basic human rights and are forced to work without any labour rights .
• The Chinese government describes the camps as "re-education" facilities aimed at combating terrorism.  The Chinese government accuses many Ughyer of being a part of radical Islmaic movement which threaten China .
• An East Turkestan Independence Movement led by the East Turkestan Liberation Organisation  seeks to establish an Independent country for the Ugyhers in the Xinjiang region of China. To crush the separatist movement China has kept a large number of Uygher who it feels are sympathetic to the East Turkestan Movement  in special camps denying them basic human rights . 
• To put pressure on China on its human right issues the United States  and its allies Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom have announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022. 
• The players of these countries will participate in the Beijing Olympics but these governments will not send their  official  delegation to China to protest China's poor human rights record  and its handling of minorities like Ugyer muslims and Tibetaines.

 What is the Economic and Environmental cost to the US 

• However many American companies are against the act as more than  than 40% of the world’s polysilicon supply comes from Xinjiang. Polysilicon is  used as a raw material by the solar photovoltaic and electronics industry. If it is banned from China then the prices of these products will rise in the United States leading to  costly goods for the American consumer .
• It will also hamper US commitment to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels as the solar energy cost will rise. It will have an adverse effect on the US commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas emission.

Hong Kong’s Tiananmen Square Statue removed

Tags: International News

• A famous statue which showed the piled-up corpses at the University of Hong Kong marking the Tiananmen Square massacre was removed on 23rd December.
• The Pillar of Shame was created by Danish artist Jens Galschiot as a tribute to the victims of China’s crackdown in Tiananmen Square in June 1989.

DRDO successfully test Abhyas

Tags: Defence

• Defence Research and Development Organisation(DRDO) has successfully conducted the flight test of Indigenously developed High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT) Abhyas on 23 December from  the Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur off the coast, Odisha.
• Abhyas is an unmanned aerial vehicle which is used by the armed forces  for target practice . 

Foreign Loans to India

Tags: Economics/Business

KfW to provide USD 169.5 million loan to REC 

• German Development bank KfW  will provide an ODA loan of USD 169.5 million(Rs 1275 Crore ) to Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) to  finance Power Sector and Renewable Energy Projects. 
• This loan  is being provided under the Indo-German Bilateral Partnership.
• The ODA loan will be deployed in part-financing power generation projects that are based on innovative solar photovoltaic technology, 

ODA : Overseas Development Assistance

  It is the government aid/loan  given by the developed countries to developing countries for its economic development and welfare . The aid or loans cannot be used for military purposes or for commercial purposes like export promotions . The loan is given at a very low interest rate. And has a very long repayment period..

Record fund raising by companies through IPO in 2021

Tags: Economics/Business

• In 2021 63 companies raised Rs 1.19 lakh crores through Initial Public Offerings (IPO).
• This is 4.5 times more than the fund raised in 2020 by the companies .
• In 2020 15 companies raised Rs 26,613 crore from the market through IPO.
•  The largest IPO ever in India was that of   One 97 Communication ,the parent company of Paytm  of Rs 18,300 crore.

IPO  (Initial Public Offerings ) When an unlisted company sells its equity shares to the public to raise capital.

Here unlisted company means a company whose equity shares are not listed on any stock exchange like NSE,BSE etc in India. 

RBI fines Payment Operators

Tags: Economics/Business

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has  imposed a penalty of ₹1 crore each on payment system operators One Mobikwik Systems Private Ltd. and Spice Money Ltd. for deficiencies in regulatory compliance.
•  These  two entities had not complied with the directions issued by the Reserve Bank on net-worth requirements for Bharat Bill Payment Operating Units (BBPOUs).
• According to RBI the minimum net worth of a  Bharat Bill Payment Operating Units (BBPOUs) shall be Rs 100 crore ,which has to be maintained all time.
• Under The payment and settlement act 2007 ,RBI is the regulator of the Payment operators and has the power to fine them if they do not follow the rules and regulation of RBI 

NOTE 

• The Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) is an interoperable platform for repetitive bill payments, and currently covers five segments -- direct-to-home (DTH), electricity, gas, telecom, and water bills.
• Banks or NBFC (Non Banking Finance Company) who have received licence from RBI  can offer these services through the BBPS and they are called as BBPOUs or Payment operators .

KfW will provide loans to Madhya Pradesh for its energy reform programme

Tags: Economics/Business

• It will provide Euro 140 million reduced interest loan and Euro 2 million grant for Energy Reform Programme, Madhya Pradesh.
• The project comprises 2 components namely, implementation of smart meters & Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI); and separation of agriculture & non-agriculture feeders.

European Investment Bank will provide loan for Agra Metro Project

Tags: Economics/Business

• The European Investment Bank (EIB)  had approved a total loan of Euro 450 million to fund the Agra Metro Rail Project. 
• It has signed an agreement with the Government of India to provide 250 million euro as first tranche of the loan .
• Headquarters of European Investment Bank :  Luxembourg

Indians Shine in Asian Junior Chess Championship 2021

Tags: Sports News

• India's V S Raahul (18) won the boys titles in the Asian Junior chess championship 2021.
• He also earned his first GM-­norm.
• Savitha Shri B won the girls title.
• The Asian Junior Chess Championship 2021 was held in Sri Lanka