Current Affairs is the most important area in all competitive exams. But the difficulty level is very high. That’s why; many aspirants get confused, how to select Current Affairs for Preparation of Competitive Examination? In this Post, Daily Current Affairs 6 August 2021, we have tried to cover each and every point and also included all important facts from National/ International news that are useful for upcoming competitive examinations such as UPSC, SSC, Railway, State Govt. etc.
Daily Current Affairs 6 August 2021
Union Cabinet approved continuation of 1,023 Fast Track Special Courts
The Union Cabinet approved the continuation of 1023 Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs) including 389 exclusive POCSO Courts as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for two years.
Central Share is to be funded from Nirbhaya Fund. The Scheme was launched on 02.10.2019.
To bring more stringent provisions and expeditious trial and disposal of such cases, the Central Government enacted “The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018” and made provision of stringent punishment including death penalty for perpetrators of rape. This led to the establishment of the Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs).
Fast Track Special Courts are dedicated courts expected to ensure swift dispensation of justice. They have a better clearance rate as compared to the regular courts and hold speedy trials.
Besides providing quick justice to the hapless victims, it strengthens the deterrence framework for sexual offenders.
Germany signed International Solar Alliance Framework Agreement
Germany became the 5th country to sign International Solar Alliance Framework Agreement after amendments to it entered into force on 8th January 2021.
Membership to the ISA was earlier limited to 121 countries, which were partially or entirely located within the tropics.
This didn’t allow major solar energy economies such as Germany to join the alliance that is being increasingly seen as a foreign policy tool.
The initiative was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the India Africa Summit, and a meeting of member countries ahead of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in November 2015.
The framework agreement of the International Solar Alliance opened for signatures in Marrakech, Morocco in November 2016.
Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India Bill 2021
Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (Amendment) Bill, 2021 got approval of both houses of Parliament.
It seeks to amend the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India Act, 2008. The 2008 Act established the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA).
AERA regulates tariffs and other charges (such as airport development fees) for aeronautical services rendered at major airports in India.
The 2008 Act designates an airport as a major airport if it has an annual passenger traffic of at least 35 lakh.
The central government may also designate any airport as a major airport by a notification. The Bill adds that the central government may group airports and notify the group as a major airport.
Indigenous Aircraft Carrier ‘Vikrant’ proceeds for maiden sea trial
Central government of India launched the sea trials of indigenous aircraft carrier ‘Vikrant’, India’s most complex warship to have been indigenously built by Cochin Shipyard for the Indian Navy.
With a planned induction of Vikrant in less than a year, India is set to join a select group of countries having the capability to indigenously design and build an aircraft carrier.
Vikrant is named after the Majestic-class aircraft carrier which was operated by the Indian Navy from 1961 to 1997.
IAC-1 has been designed by the Indian Navy’s Directorate of Naval Design (DND), and is being built at Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL), a public sector shipyard under the Ministry of Shipping.
This is the first aircraft carrier designed and built in India. An aircraft carrier is one of the most potent marine assets for a nation, which enhances a Navy’s capability to travel far from its home shores to carry out air domination operations.
Lovlina Borgohain won Bronze Medal at Tokyo Olympics
Prime Minister of India has congratulated boxer Lovlina Borgohain on winning a bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics, and said her tenacity and determination are admirable.
Lovlina Borgohain (born 1997) is an Indian boxer and an Olympic medal winner from the Golaghat district of Assam.
She won a bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics (Tokyo) in the Women’s welterweight event.
In 2020, she became the sixth person from Assam to receive Arjuna Award.
India to be 22,480 MW Nuclear power by 2031
Union Minister for Science & Technology informed Lok Sabha that India will be 22,480 MW Nuclear power by 2031.
More nuclear power plants are also planned in future and the nuclear power capacity is expected to reach 22480 MW by the year 2031 from the current 6780 MW.
There are presently 22 reactors with a total capacity of 6780 MW in operation and one reactor, KAPP-3 (700 MW) has been connected to the grid on January 10, 2021.
Ten (10) nuclear power reactors with 8000 MW capacity (including 500 MW PFBR being implemented by Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited {BHAVINI}) are under construction.
Additionally, the Government has accorded administrative approval and financial sanction of ten (10) indigenous Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) of 700 MW each to be set up in fleet mode.
Limited Liability Partnership (Amendment) Bill 2021
Limited Liability Partnership (Amendment) Bill 2021, that was introduced in Rajya Sabha got the approval from union cabinet on 28 July 2021.
The Amendment Bill seeks to facilitate greater ease of living to law-abiding corporates and to decriminalise certain provisions of the Act.
The Bill seeks to amend the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008 and provides for the following:
- To introduce the concept of “small limited liability partnership” in line with the concept of “small company” under the Companies Act, 2013;
- To amend certain sections of the Act so as to convert offences into civil defaults and to convert the nature of punishment provided in the said sections from fines to monetary penalties;
- To insert a new section 34A so as to empower the Central Government to prescribe the “Accounting Standards” or “Auditing Standards” for a class or classes of limited liability partnerships;
- To amend section 39 of the Act relating to “compounding of offences” so as to authorise the Regional Director to compound any offence under this Act which is punishable with fine only;
- To insert a new section 67A empowering the Central Government to establish or designate as many “Special Courts” as may be necessary for the purpose of providing speedy trial of offences under the Act;
- To amend section 72 of the Act so as to provide more clarity in the provisions when any person aggrieved by an order of “Tribunal” prefers an appeal to the “Appellate Tribunal”;
- To insert a new section 76A so as to provide that the Central Government may appoint as many officers as Adjudicating Officers as it thinks necessary for the purpose of adjudicating penalties under the Act.
50% funds allotted for ongoing MPLADS projects lapse
Virtually half of the belated ₹2,200 crore allotted for completing the ongoing MPLADS projects in 2020-21 simply lapsed, as the Finance Ministry granted “barely a week” to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) to release the funds.
Spending under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) had already halved before the government suspended the scheme for two years in April last year and diverted the funds for managing the COVID-19 pandemic.
From ₹5,012 crore spent during 2018-19, an expenditure of just ₹2,491.45 crore was taken up under the scheme in 2019-20.
Each MP is granted ₹5 crore under the scheme, adding up to ₹3,950 crore a year for 790 MPs, to undertake development projects in their respective constituencies.
After the scheme’s suspension, several MPs and parliamentary committees, including the Standing Committee on Finance (SCF), had asked the government to release MPLADS funds due from previous years for projects already sanctioned.
The Finance Ministry also asked the Statistics Ministry to further tighten the scheme’s guidelines by September this year, so that “if a work sanctioned by an MP is not used for five years, it will automatically lapse even if there is a committed liability for the work to be completed”.
Currently, funds released to district authorities under MPLADS is not lapsable, while funds not released by the government in a particular year are carried forward.
Cabinet approved continuation of Samagra Shiksha Scheme
Union Cabinet approved continuation of Samagra Shiksha Scheme for School Education till 31st March, 2026.
The Centre plans to pay students their Right to Education (RTE) entitlements in the form of cash transfers as part of a revamp.
The Samagra Shiksha scheme is an integrated scheme for school education covering the entire gamut from pre-school to class XII. The scheme covers 11.6 lakh government and aided schools with over 15 crore students and 57 lakh teachers.
It involves a 60:40 split in funding between the Centre and most States.
The major interventions proposed under the scheme are: (i) Universal Access including Infrastructure Development and Retention; (ii) Foundational Literacy and Numeracy, (iii) Digital initiatives; (iv) Vocational Education; (v) Sports and Physical Education; (vi) Strengthening of Teacher Education and Training etc.
The Scheme is implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme through a single State Implementation Society (SIS) at the State level.
At the National level, there is a Governing Council/Body headed by the Minister of Education and a Project Approval Board (PAB) headed by Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy.
Hiroshima Day 2021
Hiroshima Day is observed on 6 August each year in Japan to promote peace politics. It has been seventy-six years since thousands of lives lost their breath by a single atomic bomb.
Hiroshima Day 2021 is mark the 76th anniversary of the nuclear explosion. The day is celebrated by holding a peace ceremony in Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park.
The survivors and citizens gather to pay homage to the innocent people who were killed during the bombing.
Galway Alliance Against War also organizes an annual event in Eyre Square to remember Hiroshima Day.
The city of Hiroshima, which was abandoned immediately then, has made a powerful recovery as a world-renowned peace city and transformed into a significant urban center and industrial hub.
Beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana in Madhya Pradesh
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently interacted with the beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) in Madhya Pradesh
Under PMGKAY, 4.83 crore beneficiaries in Madhya Pradesh are getting free ration from over 25 thousand fair price shops.
Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana is a food security welfare scheme announced by the Government of India in March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in India.
The program is operated by the Department of Food and Public Distribution under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
The scheme aims to feed the poorest citizens of India by providing grain through the Public Distribution System, to all the priority households.
PMGKAY provides 5 kg of rice or wheat per person and 1 kg of dal to each family holding a ration card. The scale of this welfare scheme makes it the largest food security program in the world.
Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas Bill, 2021
Parliament has passed the Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Bill, 2021.
The Bill provides for the constitution of a Commission for better co-ordination, research, identification, and resolution of problems related to air quality in the NCR and adjoining areas.
Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh have been defined as adjoining areas where any source of pollution may cause adverse impact on air quality in the NCR.
Contravention of provisions of the Bill will be punishable with imprisonment of up to five years, or fine of up to one crore rupees, or both.
Thailand bans coral-damaging sunscreens in marine parks
Thailand has banned sunscreens containing chemicals that damage coral from all of its marine national parks.
Concerns are growing that lotions tourists use for sun protection are harming slow-growing corals.
The Thai Department of Conservation said four ingredients commonly found in sun creams were shown to destroy coral larvae, obstruct coral reproduction and cause reef bleaching.
Anyone flouting the ban can be fined up to 100,000 baht. owever, officials have not said how they plan to enforce the new rule.
The banned lotions are those containing oxybenzone, octinoxate, 4-methylbenzylidene camphor or butylparaben.
Similar bans have been introduced by the Pacific island of Palau and the US state of Hawaii. This is the latest attempt by the Thai government to protect its coral from the tourism industry.
Afghan forces prevent Taliban’s attack on India-Built Salma Dam
Afghan forces recently prevent the Taliban’s attack on India-Built Salma Dam in Herat Province.
Salma dam in Herat’s Cheshte Sharif district is one of the largest dams in Afghanistan and provides irrigation water and electricity to thousands of families in the province.
Afghan-India Friendship Dam, formerly Salma Dam, is a hydroelectric and irrigation dam project located on the Hari River in Chishti Sharif District of Herat Province in western Afghanistan.
Since this project is funded and constructed by the Government of India as a part of the Indian aid project, the Afghan cabinet renamed the Salma Dam to the Afghan-India Friendship Dam in a gesture of gratitude to strengthen relations between the two countries.
Salma Dam has a water storage capacity of 640 million cubic meters and an irrigation capacity of 2,00,000 acres of farmland from the Chishti Sharif District of Herat to the Zulfiqar area on the Iran Border.
