Daily Current Affairs for State Exams: 2nd July 2021

By Mayank Yadav|Updated : July 2nd, 2021

Current Affairs forms one of the most important sections of the syllabus of almost every government examination be it, state PCS or other subordinate exams. Hence, Catching up on current affairs on a daily basis is an invaluable part of your preparation. Here we will be sharing you with all the relevant current affairs which are highly important for your examination. Check the important highlights of the day!

 Daily Current Affairs 

World Bank approves USD 500 million loan to support India’s informal working class

Why in the News?

  • The World Bank has approved a USD 500 million loan programme to support India’s informal working class to overcome the current pandemic distress.
  • The loan will create greater flexibility for states to cope with the ongoing pandemic, future climate and disaster shocks.

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Key Points

  • Of the USD 500 million commitment, USD 112.50 million will be financed by its concessionary lending arm International Development Association (IDA) and USD 387.50 million will be a loan from International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).
  • The loan has a maturity period of 18.5 years including a grace period of five years.
  • The funds will be utilised in social protection programmes for urban informal workers, gig-workers, and migrants.
  • A National Digital Urban Mission will create a shared digital infrastructure for people living in urban areas through investments at the municipal level to help scale up urban safety nets and social insurance for informal workers.
  • It will also include gender-disaggregated information on women workers and female-headed households.
  • Street vendors are an integral part of India’s urban informal economy.
  • The programme will give street vendors access to affordable working capital loans of up to Rs 10,000.

Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) will identify them through an IT-based platform.

Some five million urban street vendors could benefit from the new credit programme.

About Informal Sector Worker:

  • The informal sector is the part of any country’s economy that is neither taxed nor monitored by any form of government.
  • The workers who indulge in the informal sector are informal sector workers or informal workers.
  • India's estimated 450 million informal workers comprise 90 percent of its total workforce, with 5-10 million workers added annually.
  • Nearly 40 percent of these are employed with MSMEs.

Some Initiatives by the Government:

  • Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana
  • Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-dhan Yojana
  • Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission
  • PM SVANidhi

About World Bank:

  • The World Bank was created at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference.
  • It comprises two institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), and the International Development Association (IDA).

Membership:

  • 189 countries (IBRD)
  • 173 countries (IDA)

Source: Indian Express 

Comprehensive study on not-for-profit hospital model in the country

Why in the News?

  • NITI Aayog released a comprehensive study on the not-for-profit hospital model in the country, in a step towards closing the information gap on such institutions and facilitating robust policymaking in this area. 

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Key Points

Findings of the Report:

  • There has been relatively low investment in the expansion of the health sector in the private domain.
  • The not-for-profit hospital provides not only curative but also preventive healthcare services.
  • Most of the not-for-profit hospitals in the country charge lower than the for profit hospitals.
  • It links healthcare with social reform, community engagement, and education. It uses government resources and grants to provide cost-effective healthcare to people without being concerned about profits.
  • For-profit hospitals account for 55.3% of in-patients, while not-for-profit hospitals account for only 2.7% of in-patients in the country.
  • To promote these hospitals, the government should increase the tax exemption for donations and membership fees of these hospitals.

Challenges:

  • Recruitment, Reimbursements, Funding, Compliance burden
  • Some of the hospitals, especially those in remote areas, reported challenges because of the high compliance burden of staffing requirements of the Regulations for running a blood bank 1999, Clinical Establishments Act 2010, Pre-Conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques 1994, and Quality standards.

Suggestions:

  • The report proposes short- and long-term policy interventions—such as developing criteria to identify these hospitals, ranking them through a performance index, and promoting top hospitals for practising philanthropy, among others.

Recent Initiatives in Health Sector:

  • Prime Minister Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Scheme
  • Increased Allocation for Health in Budget 2021
  • National Digital Health Mission
  • National Medical Commission Act, 2019
  • Ayushman Bharat
  • Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana

Facts about NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog:

  • Formed:      1 January 2015
  • Headquarters:      New Delhi
  • Chairperson:         Narendra Modi
  • Vice Chairperson:           Rajiv Kumar
  • CEO:              Amitabh Kant

Source: PIB 

“Enforcing Contracts Portal”

Why in the News?

  • The Department of Justice, New Delhi launched “Enforcing Contracts Portal”.
  • The Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, as the nodal department, has been monitoring an array of legislative and policy reforms to strengthen the “Enforcing Contracts” regime for Ease of Doing Business in India.

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Key Points

  • The portal aims to promote ease of doing business and improve the ‘Contract Enforcement Regime’ in the country.
  • The portal provides easy access to latest information on commercial cases in Dedicated Commercial Courts of Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata.

Need:

  • The Doing Business Repot of World Bank Group benchmarks business regulations across 191 economies of the world.
  • Within this, the Ease of Doing Business index is a ranking system which is an indication of an economy’s position relative to that of other economies across 11 areas of business regulation.
  • Currently, only the cities of Delhi and Mumbai are under the purview of the Ease of Doing Business survey by World Bank.
  • Kolkata and Bengaluru are likely to be included in the DoingBusiness Report in future.
  • Note: India ranked 63rd out of 190 countries in Ease of Doing Business 2020: World Bank Report.

Source: PIB 

Exercise Sea Breeze 2021

Why in the News?

  • Ukraine and the United States launched the joint naval exercise ‘Sea Breeze 2021’ in the Black Sea in a show of Western cooperation with Ukraine.
  • The exercise comes days after Russia-U.K. row over warships in disputed waters.

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Key Points

  • The Sea Breeze Exercises, which have taken place 21 times since 1997, will involve some 5,000 military personnel from more than 30 countries.
  • The exercises will last two weeks and involve around 30 ships, including the missile destroyer USS Ross.

Significance of Black Sea for Russia:

  • The unique geography of the Black Sea region confers various geopolitical advantages to Russia.
  • Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and claims the waters around the peninsula as part of its territory.

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About Black Sea:

  • The Black Sea is a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia.
  • The bordering countries of Black Sea are: Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria.

Source: The Hindu 

Praveen Sinha appointed as Special Director of CBI

Why in the News?

  • The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has appointed CBI Additional Director Praveen Sinha as the Special Director of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

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Key Points

  • Sinha, a Gujarat-cadre IPS officer of the 1988 batch, has served as the agency's acting Director after Rishi Kumar Shukla had retired.
  • The post of Special Director is the second senior-most position in the CBI after the Director. The post was vacant for the last three years.

Facts about Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI):

  • Headquarters: New Delhi
  • Founded: 1 April 1963
  • Director: Subodh Kumar Jaiswal
  • Parent organization: Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions

Source: The Hindu

Sainath awarded 2021 Japan’s Fukuoka Grand Prize

Why in the News?

  • Noted journalist P. Sainath has been selected as one of the three recipients of the Fukuoka Prize for 2021.
  • Sainath received the ‘Grand Prize’ of the Fukuoka Prize while Prof. Mio Kishimoto and Thai writer and filmmaker Prabda Yoon received the Academic Prize and the Arts and Culture Prize respectively.

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Key Points

  • Sainath dedicated the prize to his fellow journalists who are reporting from rural India and to PARI (People's Archive of Rural India), the news website he founded in 2014.
  • Sainath has been the recipient of many awards, including the Amnesty International Global Human Rights Journalism Prize and the Ramon Magsaysay Award.

About Fukuoka Prize:

  • The Fukuoka Prize is an award established by the city of Fukuoka and the Fukuoka City International Foundation to honor the outstanding work of individuals or organizations in preserving or creating Asian culture.
  • There are three prize categories: Grand Prize, Academic Prize, and Arts and Culture Prize.

Source: The Hindu 

Deepika Kumari reclaims world no.1 ranking after hat-trick of gold medals

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  • Star Indian archer Deepika Kumari regained the number one position in the global rankings following her hat-trick of gold medals at the Archery World Cup Stage 3 in Paris.
  • Gold in all 3 recurve events: Women’s individual, team and mixed pair events.
  • She has 9 gold, 12 silver and 7 bronze medals in the World Cup.

Source: Indian Express

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