Daily Current Affairs 17th March 2020

Daily Current Affairs 17th March 2020 Today’s Important Topic’s For UPSC Preparation 1. INDIA STILL IN SECOND TRANSMISSION STAGE : COVID-19.

2. RAHUL HURT BY SPEAKER’S DECISION.

3. LOK SABHA PASSES APPROPRIATION BILL.

4. SHEIKH MUJIBUR RAHMAN.

5. FUKUSHIMA BECAME A DUMPING GROUND FOR RADIOACTIVE WASTE.

INDIA STILL IN SECOND TRANSMISSION STAGE: COVID-19 India currently is showing no evidence of any community transmission and that enough tests were being done to pick up any early indication of third stage transmission.

India started proactive action from January 17, whereas first case came in the end of January.

The country had put in early measures to ensure that transmission stays localised and any indications otherwise are picked up.

ICMR was doing random testing to understand and gain any indication of community transmission.

The ICMR has also noted that it has intensified random sample testing of people who show flulike symptoms but don’t have a travel history to any coronavirus-hit nation.

Weather Condition Impact On Corona: Since the virus hasn’t seen many seasons, we cannot say conclusively that the virus will slow down with higher temperature.

Covid-19

RAHUL HURT BY SPEAKER’S DECISION what happens in parliament

Question Hour: The first hour of every sitting of Parliament is generally reserved for the asking and answering of questions.

The first hour of a sitting of Lok Sabha is devoted to Questions and that hour is called the Question Hour.

Asking of questions is an inherent and unfettered parliamentary right of members.

It is during the Question Hour that the members can ask questions on every aspect of administration and Governmental activity.

Types of Questions: Starred Question: A Starred Question is one to which a member desires an oral answer in the House and which is distinguished by an asterisk mark(*).

When a question is answered orally, supplementary questions can be asked thereon. Only 20 questions can be listed for oral answer on a day.

Supplementary Question: Supplementary questions are the follow-up oral questions that may be asked, without prior notice, during ministerial question sessions in both Houses.

After a government minister has given a prepared answer to a question that they have been given notice of in advance, there is normally an opportunity for one or more further questions to be asked on the same topic.

Un-starred Question: An Un-starred Question is one which is not called for oral answer in the House and on which no supplementary questions can consequently be asked.

To such a question, a written answer is deemed to have been laid on the Table after the Question Hour by the Minister to whom it is addressed.

It is printed in the official report of the sitting of the House for which it is put down.

Only 230 questions can be listed for written answer on a day.

In addition to this, 25 more questions can also be included in the Un-starred List relating to the States under Presidential Rule and the total number of questions in the list of Un-starred Questions for a day may not exceed 255 in relaxation of normal limit of 230 questions.

Short Notice Question: A Short Notice Question is one which relates to a matter of urgent public importance and can be asked with shorter notice than the period of notice prescribed for an ordinary question.

Like a starred question, it is answered orally followed by supplementary questions.

Question to a Private Member: The Question to a Private Member is addressed to the Member himself/herself and it is asked when the subject matter of it pertains to any Bill, Resolution or any matter relating to the Business of the House for which that Member is responsible.

For such Questions, the same procedure is followed as in the case of Questions addressed to a Minister with such variations as the Speaker may consider necessary or convenient.

The Zero Hour: Apart from the Question Hour, Parliament allocates additional time slot for the members to discuss issues.

Although it’s not recognized in our parliamentary procedure, ‘Zero Hour’ has now become a norm in both the houses of Parliament.

As the 9th Lok Sabha Speaker, Rabi Ray introduced certain changes in the proceedings of the House to create more opportunities for the members to raise matters of urgent public importance.

He proposed a mechanism to regulate the proceedings during the ‘Zero Hour’, raise matters in a more orderly manner and optimize the time of the House.

Zero Hour – Rules & Regulations: Members wishing to raise matters during the “Zero Hour” need to give notice to the Speaker prior to the start of the daily session.

The notice should clearly state the subjects they want to raise.

The Speaker is the final authority who can either reject or accept such request.

In Lok Sabha, only 20 matters are allowed to be raised during the Zero Hour.

Again, it is the Speaker who decides which subjects are to be discussed in the first phase (after Question Hour) and which other issues could be taken up during the second phase (after 6 pm/ at the end of the regular business).

In Rajya Sabha, total number of requests is not allowed to exceed seven on a single day.

The total time allocated for Zero Hour is 30 minutes wherein a member gets three minutes to raise the issue. The session should be completed before 1 pm. Moreover, a member is allowed to make only one Zero Hour request during a week.

It is not mandatory to have a Zero Hour every day during the session.

Difference between Zero Hour and Question Hour:

Question Hour Zero Hour The Procedure of the question hour is mentioned in the Rules of Parliament The procedure of the Zero hour is neither mentioned in Constitution nor in Rules of Parliament The subjects of question are mostly related to Acts, Regulations, executive orders of the government and important public matter.

Most of the questions are related to the Public matter which requires urgent remarks of the government.

It provides a formal way of asking the question on the floor of the house It provides an informal way to ask questions A 15-day prior notice is required to ask the question. questions.

No prior notice is required to ask

Types of questions asked are divided into three types Starred, Un-starred and Short Notice.

All the questions are treated the same way.

The answer can be given either in written or in oral form. oral form.

Answers are always given in the

In the case of the oral answer, the member can also ask supplementary questions provision for the supplementary question is present.

The unsatisfactory answer can also lead to a discussion after the 5 pm himself regardless of facts of the answers

No

Member has to satisfy

The question hour is conducted from the beginning since the constitution is implemented.

The zero-hours was started in the year 1962.

Why in News?

Rahul Gandhi said he was “hurt” at Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s decision to deny him an opportunity to pose a second supplementary to his question during Question Hour, wherein he had sought details of bad loans of banks and the names of 50 wilful defaulters.

LOK SABHA PASSES APPROPRIATION BILL APPROPRIATION BILL: Definition: Appropriation Bill gives power to the government to withdraw funds from the Consolidated Fund of India for meeting the expenditure during the financial year.

It is a Money Bill.

“Article 114” of the constitution of India, no amount can be withdrawn from the consolidated fund of India without authorisation from the parliament of India or legislature of the states.

Due to this, the parliament as well as state assemblies need to pass appropriation bills as a part of budget exercise to be able to withdraw money from consolidated fund of union or state to spend it on various public expenditure programmes and to run day to day affairs of government.

Procedure followed: The government introduces the Appropriation Bill in the lower house of Parliament after discussions on Budget proposals and Voting on Demand for Grants.

The Appropriation Bill is first passed by the Lok Sabha and then sent to the Rajya Sabha.

The Rajya Sabha has the power to recommend any amendments in this Bill. However, it is the prerogative of the Lok Sabha to either accept or reject the recommendations made by the upper house of Parliament.

The unique feature of the Appropriation Bill is its automatic repeal clause, whereby the Act gets repealed by itself after it meets its statutory purpose.

Why in News?

Lok Sabha passed the Appropriation Bill 2020-21 that empowers the government to draw over ₹110 lakh crore from the Consolidated Fund of India for its working, as well as for the implementation of its programmes and schemes.

The Appropriation Bill, passed by by a voice vote, envisages spending of ₹110.4 lakh crore during

the Financial Year 2020-21.

Speaker Om Birla applied “guillotine” — the Parliamentary tool to club all other pending subjects for discussion — after the discussion on the demand for grants to the Ministry of Tourism was completed.

Guillotine: It means passing the ‘demands for grants’ without discussions in the Lok Sabha.

It refers to the exercise by which the Speaker of the House, on the very last day of the period allotted for discussions on the Demands for Grants, puts to vote all outstanding Demands for Grantsat a time specified in advance.

It ensures timely passage of the Finance Bill and the conclusion of debates and discussions on the year’s Budget.

Parliament

SHEIKH MUJIBUR RAHMAN March 17 is the birth anniversary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (1920-1975), the founding leader of Bangladesh and the country’s first Prime Minister.

He is referred to as Sheikh Mujib or simply Mujib, the title ‘Bangabandhu’ meaning ‘friend of Bengal’.

Despite this year being his birth centenary, all celebrations in Bangladesh have been postponeddue to the global coronavirus Prime Minister Narendra Modi was expected to attend the celebrations.

In 1949, he joined the Awami League, a political party which advocated greater autonomy for East Pakistan.

Role: A popular leader in East Pakistan, Rahman played an important role in the six-point movement and the Anti-Ayub In 1970, his party secured an absolute majority in the Pakistani general elections, the country’s first, winning more seats than all parties in West Pakistan, including Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party.

The election results were not honoured, leading to a bloody civil war, and Sheikh Mujib declared Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan on March 26, 1971.

The declaration coincided with a ruthless show of strength by the Pakistani military, in which tanks rolled out on the streets of Dhaka and several students and intellectuals were killed.

Between 300,000 and 3,000,000 people were killed and around 200,000 to 400,000 women were raped.

India under then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi provided full support to Rahman and Bangladesh’s independence movement, resulting in the creation of a sovereign government at Dhaka in January 1971.

SHEIKH MUJIBUR RAHMAN

President VV Giri receiving Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Prime Minister of Bangladesh when the latter called on him at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on May 14, 1974.

On 15 August 1975, Rahman was killed in a military coup along with his wife and three sons, including 10-year-old Sheikh Russel.

His daughters, the current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana, survived as they were abroad at the time.

In 2010, Bangladesh hanged five ex-Army officers convicted of assassinating Rahman, almost 35 years after he was killed.

SHEIKH MUJIBUR RAHMAN

FUKUSHIMA BECAME A DUMPING GROUND FOR RADIOACTIVE WASTE Fukushima Nuclear disaster: In March 2011, Fukushima Nuclear disaster, an energy accident had occurred in Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant located in northeastern Japan. It was triggered by a powerful earthquake and followed by tsunami.

It is the largest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 and the second disaster (along with Chernobyl) to measure Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.

It had displaced more than 100,000 people due to radioactive contamination. The disaster had spurred a national and international debate over safety issue related nuclear power.

After this catastrophic nuclear disaster, Japan had closed all its nuclear power plants over the safety issue.

The accident was rated 7 on the INES scale, due to high radioactive releases over days 4 to 6, eventually a total of some 940 PBq (I-131 eq).

The facility, operated by the Tokyo Electric and Power Company (TEPCO), was made up of six boiling-water reactors constructed between 1971 and 1979. At the time of the accident, only reactors 1–3 were operational, and reactor 4 served as temporary storage for spent fuel rods.

TEPCO officials reported that tsunami waves generated by the main shock of the Japan earthquake on March 11, 2011, damaged the backup generators at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Fukushima

Why in News?

The nuclear disaster at Fukushima sent an unprecedented amount of radiation into the Pacific.

Almost 1.2 million liters (320,000 gallons) of radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant is to be released into the ocean.

The contaminated water has since been used to cool the destroyed reactor blocks to prevent further nuclear meltdowns.

It is currently being stored in large tanks, but those are expected to be full by 2022.

Radiation levels in the sea off Fukushima were millions of times higher than the government’s limit of 100 becquerels. still today, radioactive substances can be detected off the coast of Japan and in other parts of the Pacific.

They’ve even been measured in very small quantities off the US west coast in concentrations “well below the harmful levels set by the World Health Organization.

A single becquerel that gets into our body is enough to damage a cell that will eventually become a cancer cell.

Radioactive pollution in the ocean has been increasing globally — and not just since the disaster at Fukushima.

Fukushima

WORD OF THE DAY Consolidated Fund:

This fund was constituted under Article 266 (1) of the Constitution of India. All revenues received by the government by way of direct taxes and indirect taxes, money borrowed and receipts from loans given by the government flow into the Consolidated Fund of India.